You can get them at http://www.headlesshollow.com/freebies_games.html#at43

Enjoy!

Should Rackham hire him like he says? Can a social media campaign really push AT-43 into the next level? Who knows. I sure got a kick out of reading this though.

Judging from the search stats on the site Oni is shaping up to be a massive release for AT-43. in the last month all people want is more ONI and so do I.

Bring on the mutant zombies.

Box Contents

• C-Naps Hero box
• 4 Warmongers
• 3 Sharpshooters
• 1 Prowler
• 1 Vandal

This comes out to exactly 2000 points when all models are used and puts together a decently competitive force. The C-Naps are a great choice for heroes as they are a combination of all of the other hero types. You get a medic, summoner and company commander, all of which are useful.

Warmongers and sharpshooters are the staple type 1 and 2 units of the Cogs so there are no surprises here. This lets you make a choice of which attachment box to get for both units later in order to round out a max size unit. A great choice if you ask me because new players won’t know what play style they prefer until they get a few games under their belt.

The Prowler is a great type 1 AFV and you will want to pick up another one of these guys if you plan on doing any summoning. They’re great and really start to shine when playing a T-Regulator force with deflector shields.

Finally we have the Vandal, the heavy hitting monster of the cogs. This type III AFV has the nastiest mortar in the game and its Quantum Cannon is deadly as well. I’m not totally crazy about using type III’s in a 2000 point game, but this is how all the army boxes are shaping up.

My general strategy when playing with the starter set exclusively is to add the G09 and G36 to the sharpshooters creating a long range heavy hitter while adding the G45 to the warmongers. This is because I wouldn’t want my company commander in a unit without a medic and I want them to be as far away from the action as possible to avoid taking early hits. All in all its a great starter package and provides multiple ways of branching out into different lists. The units I would get along side this box to round out a force would be.

• Warmonger jammer attachment
• Sharpshooter sniper attachment
• 1 Prowler
• T-Regulator Hero box

This gives a couple of list options without the Vandal at 2k points and gets you up to 3k points for some lists. I’m just getting my feet wet with cogs but there should be some army lists coming shortly.

The C-Naps come in the Cogs army box which is the most economical way of starting an AT-43 Cogs army. Every player will likely have this line of heroes and it is a great choice to put in the box as it gives you a taste of all 3 of the other hero lines.

C-Naps gives you a strong leader in the G09 form. This is your company commander and will give you 9 LP to assign your troops. Their armament is meager but this unit will spend most of its time hiding from view.

The next step down gives you the G36 from the A-Volution line, able to bring AFVs onto the battlefield at a cost of 4 LP. it also packs a rocket launcher and 2 quantum rifles for some extra kick.

Finally you have the G45 from the G-Nocrat line. With its medic ability you will be able to stay in the fight longer. It also packs a rocket launcher and 2 quantum blades for those close in encounters.

This line gives you well balanced hero options. combine the G45 and G36 in a unit to gain some great abilities and some long range rocket firepower.

Since all heroes get the medic ability their main difference comes in their weapons loadout. The G45 is the lowest ranking clone and comes equipped with a rocket launcher and two quantum blades. The launcher fires 3 shots with rerolls with 11 strength but only causes 1 damage. Since the weapon is so accurate you are likely to hit with all three shots. This puts it on par with the red blok weapons even though it causes less damage due to its accuracy.

The G27 trades one blade for a rifle. It also provides higher LP but it is not enough to use as your primary commander.

The G09 is the commander on the table. Providing 9 LP this guy will likely be in command of the company. This guy does not have a rocket launcher and he shouldn’t need it as he will spend most of the game hunkered down hiding from enemy snipers. Losing him means losing your LP pool, something that will cripple any Cogs army.

An interesting strategy is to combine all three of these models with a type 3 infantry unit such as the hunters. This gives you 3 hero medics making the unit extremely difficult to kill. An interesting side effect of having more heroes than regular troops is that your unit essentially becomes ungroundable as the non hero units soak up all of the impacts leaving the heroes un touched and standing.

Is this cheese? Well it is a bit beardy and you may have a few players throw a chair at you until they realize it can easily be defeated with snipers or a good old fashioned running over.

Starting with the G45 you get a missile launcher with homing missiles. These aren’t the same garden variety missile launchers of the UNA though. With 2 shots that hit on a 4+ you might think they are worse, but factor in the re roll and you are hitting 75% of the time. Each missile is strength 13 and causes 2 damage as well.

The G27 is a step up in terms of command and control giving 4 LP and packs a very useful piece of equipment called the deflector shield. This lets any shots that are fired at your afv be redirected to hit a different location chosen by you. This means you can maximize damage to all your AFVs making them able to sustain 100% more damage before being destroyed. The G27 weapons are simple quantum pistols as his ability is so powerful.

The G09 provides your army with the LP pool it desperately needs. it provides 9 LP and should be kept out of harms way for the duration of the battle. Losing your LP as cogs can mean losing the battle as you cannot activate your AFVs and your infantry become extremely vulnerable.

T-Regulators are great additions to a cogs army and provide all sorts of interesting tactical options. I would take the g27 in any AFV focused army as his ability is invaluable.

The AI-Beacon gives the A-Volution heroes the summoning ability. For 4 LP they can bring in a type I afv from any access zone owned or controlled by the player.

For weapons all of the A-Volution heroes pack rocket launchers in addition to the following: g18 2 quantum blades, g36 2 quantum rifles, g45 quantum mg.

The weapon loadouts follow the usual cogs standard of the better heroes stat wise having less useful weapons. This is a good thing since your g09 heroes are less likely to be visible to your opposing armies at all

As for all heroes watch out for snipers their sole job is to bag a nice juicy hero. You also need to be aware of LP draining as a cogs army may not have heroes with AFV units. Each of these units will cost LP to activate. The more summoned AFVs on the table the greater the LP cost to activate them all.

If you thought the cannon was scary you’re going to love the mortar. It gets 2 shots with a radius of 10 and comes with the amazing accuracy of 6. at range less than 4 you’re pretty much guaranteed double damage which hits at strength 6. This is the weapon you’ll want to use on swarm type troops. Sharpshooters need no longer worry about being rushed by a couple groups of max krasnye as one shot from this bad boy will vaporize them.

The vandal does have slightly lower armour at 16 and as such is more vulnerable to weapons like laser guns and at-gauss. This problem is easily mitigated though by having a T-regulator g27 on the board. This gives your AFVs the ability to use a deflector shield that lets you choose the damage location of every hit. This means that as long as the g27 is alive your vandal will take 16 damage to destroy entirely.

Did I mention this guy auto repairs and has a presence detector too? Well it does so you had better be pouring a ton of fire into it.

In order to stop this guy your first priority is taking out the g27 if it is on the board. The vandal can soak up damage like nobody’s business when that pesky hero is around. After that fire everything you’ve got with a strength 14 and above at it.

Like all Cogs infantry they can have up to 3 heroes added to their unit to increase its firepower and its survivability. This can turn a decent unit into a monster that could take many hits to take down.

Snipers and anti afv weapons work well against these guys as they can have 3 medic heroes added to their unit. Even then infantry will think long and hard before moving into their line of fire.

The hunter is equipped with a rocket launcher that has high accuracy. They come in units of 2 much like the karman type 3 infantry with one exception. Like all cogs units you are able to add heroes to any of your units. This means that your unit of 2 hunters could add an additional 3 heroes into the mix.

The nuances of heroes is covered in the Cogs Heroes article but suffice to say adding them to a type 3 unit packs some serious oomph.

Counter these guys with snipers if you can. They are also groundable but there are some strategies using 3 heroes with the medic ability in their unit that essentially makes them ungroundable and very difficult to kill. Running them over with an AFV is also a very viable tactic.

The Prowler is armed with a Light Quantum Cannon and a Light Quantum MG. The cannon packs some serious anti AFV punch  putting out 2  str 14 shots with an accuracy of 9. This weapon is pretty much guaranteed to hit as it has 2 re rolls so you’ll want to be sure you have some form of cover. Combine this with a very quick movement speed and you have a great tactical unit as it can get into an ideal firing position quickly.

The MG has 4 shots and is pretty much on par with other MGs in the game strength wise, but it does have an extra shot over most other factions and has great range at 6.

Lets not forget about the auto repair ability which gives them the ability to repair 1 damage a turn for free. Luckily these guys have only 2 frame points and are extremely easy to destroy. 2 damage weapons are the way to deal with the Cogs type 1′s so fire missiles and rockets their way.

Armed with 2 Quantum rifles that pump out 2 shots each with a re roll these guys are your long range anti infantry specialists. Accuracy 7 ensures they can get that first turn shot on any opponent that positions themselves poorly with little fear of retaliation.

They have a normal unit size of 3 which gives them 6 shots these guys in a minimum configuration are fully capable of harassing even type 3s. Their mobility lets them get into the perfect spot to get a shot and their guns can inflict wounds having a strength of 5.

When bumped up to their max size of 6, you get access to 2 special weapon bearers equipped with a sniper rifle of a quantum jammer. The sniper gives a lot of tactical options and pairs nicely with the long range of the other weapons. Send a unit of these after type 3 infantry or go officer hunting and you’ll more than make up for their point cost.  even some lightly armoured afv’s will be wary of the sniper shots.

The jammers give them an anti afv role, but you can grab more jammers in a full unit of warmongers so I find the sniper option to be a more versatile one.

The warmongers are vulnerable to rushing AFVs when they are not equipped with jammers so be wary of that. They are also vulnerable to swarming infantry as they do not have a huge rate of fire. Watch out for Star Troopers with MGs or Flamers that advance under cover.

Armed with Quantum pistols and blades the Warmongers standard troops operate best when close to the enemy. They still have a very high accuracy of 3 with a reroll giving them a decent effective range. The regular troopers in a unit have one purpose. Fight off any enemy melee / close range fighters like Krasnye keeping the all important special weapons bearers alive.

On the Special weapons side they can be armed with Quantum jammers that fire 2 re rolled shots with an insane accuracy of 6. This gives them the ability to reach out and destroy almost any AFV threat from significant range. Picking the right opportunity to reveal your troops is key with this unit as they are unlikely to survive the following barrage aimed in their direction after unleashing 6 jammer shots.

The Warmongers may also be equipped with Quantum MG’s in order to fill an anti infantry / point holding role. This give 4 shots each with accuracy 5 and a re roll. No enemy infantry would want to dare go near these guys as they can very quickly reduce a unit to nothing.

The counter to Warmongers is to simply hit them with indirect fire. You’ll need to see them first though as any smart player will keep them out of line of sight as long as possible. They live and die by for their special weapons.

I want some new scenarios for at-43! How about some that take advantage of the newly released army boxes? That would go a long way to getting new players that pick up an army box into the true feel of the game and would have been a far better use of time than the CHO in its current form.

I know, Rackham is busy, Rackham doesn’t have time blah blah blah. The reality is they missed a great opportunity to set the hook for new players with this release and they missed it.

The choice boils down to how you want to use your snipers. If you want to have a unit you want to be firing every turn with their sniper ability picking a full unit of snipers with medics is quite beneficial. The snipers will be far more survivable and able to take out more enemies before going down. This offsets the point cost of having 300+ points sitting at the rear of the board.

On the other hand if you want to have your snipers lay in wait for an enemy to make a mistake, pop up and take out an officer or hero, then a sniper team is going to be the way to go. In this situation you will be looking for a last turn activation to move into position followed by a first turn activation to get the sniper shot off. Since you’ve only spent a small number of points on this unit having it wiped out isn’t going to cause too much grief, especially if you’ve bagged one of your opponents heroes.

I personally prefer the special weapons team approach that I don’t need to activate at all on turns where no target is in sight. They lie in wait for my opponent to slip up. for 75-125 points the psychological effect they have on your opponent can be entirely worth it.

When you have a full unit your unit needs to be engaged every turn if it is going to earn its keep, it will also be more likely to attract indirect fire. How you play your snipers is really a matter of personal preference as I’ve seen both methods be very effective.

To say that it has been a hectic few days is a bit of an understatement.

The situation in regards to the site this evening is a radically different one than existed when I got up this morning and its been a quite positive evening.

There has been a lot of response to the site being offered for sale and there has been a lot of offers of help and hosting that I have been very grateful for. I’m also quite thankful for all the kinds words people have been sending via email or through TGN Talk.

There have been several offers from members of the hobby industry to host TGN as part of own web hosting and I suspect that by the end of the week I will have that finalized and that TGN will be up and running with a more secure hosting situation. You should expect to see TGN running within a week.

My own participation in the site will be contingent on the development of a few job offers I have had in the last few days. I have been quite surprised by the industry response to the site and the rather unexpected generosity on the part of some people in the hobby. I don’t have any full details but suffice it to say that I should have enough work coming soon to help keep TGN running and the news posted for some time.

I don’t have the words to really adequately describe what an insane roller-coaster this has been but it looks as if there is actually a happy ending to this entire mess.

More news as details come in.

You can read his long winded complaint / gripe / excuse letter on the front page where he blames his ISP and then refuses to accept offers of hosting / help from the community to keep it going. Looks like the only way we’ll get to keep TGN is if someone signs Zac a big check.

The letter is copied below.

It appears that the server that TGN currently resides on is suffering from a rather heavy load. This load isn’t due to the traffic on TGN which is normal for the month and my ISP appears to be uninterested in helping to solve the problem. Sadly I don’t have the tools or access to the tools that would allow me to solve the issue and despite my efforts over the last day or so I have been unable to rectify the issue.

The only solutions to this are to upgrade to a more expensive hosting package (which I am not willing to do) or move to a new ISP. Sadly I’m not really interested in doing that either.

Over the last year I have had less and less time to devote to the site and it has begun to require more of my time not only to keep it running and up-to-date but also in terms of the news gathering and posting.

It has long been a dream of mine to make the site profitable enough to support me and over the last four years despite the strides the site has made in terms of reach and traffic this hasn’t really been the case. I am of the opinion that given enough time and resources this site could in fact generate a fairly good income but sadly I just don’t have the time to pursue any additional revenue streams for the site.

On most evenings I usually have to choose between painting and posting news and it has been about a year since I was able to dedicate anything more than a few hours a day to the site.

Sadly I have decided to put the site up for sale. Anyone interested in purchasing the site should email me zac at tabletopgamingnews.com. Information regarding the site, traffic and revenue levels can be provided to any serious bidders.

I will be winding down the site and removing pages right away. The TGN Talk message board will stay open for the time being.

Update: Thanks to everyone that have offered hosting but that is not the problem and not a solution that I am looking for.

Update 2: If you have a subscription to the site for ads or for site support please take a moment to go into your Paypal account and cancel it. If there is a way for me to do it via Paypal I have been unable to find it yet.

Update 3: If anyone is looking for, or knows someone who is looking for, a web developer or marketing/PR person with experience in the gaming industry please drop me a line.

I believe that the game shouldn’t come down to “I blew up your Type III first, I win” and fortunately Red Blok has a way to deal with this problem. Red Blok are arguably the weakest faction at dealing with a type 3 without their own on the table due to their lack of jammers, but the GenCol advantage gives them the tools they need to survive such a setback. Remember, Red Blok is all about staying power, so pick the unit you want to “stay” (the Dotch Yaga) and build your list around that.

This list is tooled to do two things. Keep the Dotch Yaga in the game with repairs, and in the event that the DY goes down to enemy fire, still be able to deal with type 3′s effectively.  In order to do this we forgo the Red Blok staple of a sierp. The Dotch Yaga has the 10cm mortar which is more than up to the task of taking out entrenched enemies. Make sure you’re targeting units that will undermine your opponents strategy first.

The Dual Urods are great backup for the Yaga as they are able to deal with type 3′s, and can also repair. You have Vrachov and his krasnye for holding a point and you have snipers to deal with specific infantry threats.

Platoon 1
- 3 Dragonov Groupa S
- 9 Dragonov Kommandos (Sergeant, 3 Sniper Gun)
- 12 Krasnye Soldaty (+ Captain P. Vrachov, 3 Grenade Launcher)
- Dotch Yaga
- Urod (+ Colonels Odin & Manon)
Platoon 2
- 9 Dragonov Kommandos (Sergeant, 3 AT Gauss Gun)
- Urod (+ Colonels Odin & Manon)

This list is a bit weak to an infantry heavy army, but when you play to its strengths it is still able to deal with that sort of opponent easily. Use the snipers to force your opponent to use more LP, especially if they are using a special weapons team heavy list.

Even if you lose your type 3 the game is far from over. Like most things you just have to plan for that scenario happening.

Feedback is always appreciated.

The bulk of the work is done now so you can expect more frequent AT-43 related posts in the coming days.

This list is tuned for 3k points and follows the basic Red Blok troop pattern.

Platoon 1
- 12 Krasnye Soldaty (+ Captain P. Vrachov, 3 Grenade Launcher)
- 8 Krasnye Soldaty (1 Grenade Launcher)
- 9 Dragonov Kommandos (Sergeant, 3 Sniper Gun)
- Urod (+ Colonels Odin & Manon)
- Dotch Yaga (Lieutenant)
Platoon 2
- 12 RPG Soldaty (+ Sergeant A. Tymofiyeva, 3 Rocket Launcher)
- 2 Sierp (Sergeant)
- 1 MedTec

In addition to the starter set you would need the following boxes.

• RPG Soldaty + attachment
• Sgt Timofiyeva
• 2 Sierps
• Captain Vrachov
• Dragonov kommando attachment

This rounds out the force at 3000 points, gives you a great base of models to build on and gives you the essential Sierps. You also gain almost unlimited staying power when combining Captain vrachov’s Krasyne with the  medtec unit. This guy becomes your point holder. No one will be able to kill that unit when it has 6 medics and a field hospital.

Sgt Timofiyeva also adds some disruption and the ability to mess with your opponents activation order. This is a nice basic list with a few great tricks up its sleeve.

Red Blok

• 1 unit of 12 Krasnye Soldaty: regular infantry containing three grenade launchers, two medics and an officer
• 1 unit of 8 Krasnye Soldaty: regular infantry containing one grenade launcher, two mechanics and an officer
• 6 Dragonov Kommandos: elite infantry with one sniper rifle, an electronic warfare specialist, a medic and an officer
• Odin O-1 and Manon O-2: the Red Blok’s two greatest heroes
• 1 Urod: Odin O-1’s and Manon O-2’s combat strider
• 1 Dotch Yaga: the most heavily armored combat strider to ever grace the battlefield
• 6 low walls
• 1 container
• Introductory Rules
• 1 Red Blok revolutionary forces tactical manual
• 1 game poster
• 12 dice
• 1“Red Blok” ruler
• 1 explosion template
• 26 game cards

Cogs

• 1 unit of 4 Warmongers: basic super-soldiers
• 1 unit of 4 Sharpshooters: elite super-soldiers
• 1 Prowler: basic combat strider
• 1 Vandal: the most powerful Cog combat strider
• 3 heroes from the C-Naps line: C-Naps G09, C-Naps G36 and C-Naps G45
• 3 high walls
• 1 container
• Introductory Rules
• 1 Cog tactical manual
• 1 game poster
• 12 dice
• 1 “Cog” ruler
• 1 explosion template
• 8 game cards

This is going to draw an enormous number of players into the game I think. Rackham Entertainment has just made the best move ever.

Platoon 1 Cyphers
- Babylon Zero (+ Omicron Nina Zero)
- Poltergeist Golgoth (Alpha)
- 3 Bane Goliaths
- 7 Assault Medusas (3 Nucleus Gun)
- 6 Grim Golems (Omega, 1 Flamer)

The first thing you might be asking when looking at this list is why is there an Omega in a min sized grim golem squad? The answer is to make your company commander someone other than Babs, and put them in a unit of protected Infantry. Remember the company commander can use their routines on other units, but can only use those routines once. The Omega as your company commander in a Cypher list gives you an extra repair that you can use, This is crucial as Babs will be taking a lot of fire.

The Omega is also placed in the grim golem unit to keep him safe. reduce what can kill him and the longer you’ll have access to your LP pool. This is especially important if babylon zero goes down. Without this Omega company commander, you would be hurting badly for LP.

Strategy is simple with this list. Indirect fire weapons are not going to hurt you much so take out the anti armour weapons first. Babs can snipe to her hearts desire, the poltergeist can be rushed towards the enemy infantry to mow down any lasers or rockets, and the banes can be used in their standard way, brought in from reserves to deliver a knockout punch.

Once the anti AFV firepower is disabled, its simply mop up time. Your poltergeist will reign supreme here in addition to the hekats you will be summoning throughout the game.

Defeating this list revolves around eliminating babylon zero first, then taking out the infantry. With a neutered LP pool there isn’t much this list can do.

Platoon 1
- 3 Dragonov Groupa S
- Urod (+ Colonels Odin & Manon)
- 12 Krasnye Soldaty (+ Captain P. Vrachov, 3 Grenade Launcher)
- 3 Dragomirov Kolossus (Sergeant)
- Urod (+ Colonels Odin & Manon)

This list is a defensive powerhouse. First off you have the Dual Urods. These guys move together and can repair each other each turn. This behaves just like the the UNA Mind list as your opponent will have to destroy one Urod outright, otherwise they’ll both be back at full strength.

You get sniper support to deal with nasty battle suits and pesky heroes from the Dragonov Groupa S and you get the close in fire support of the Dragomirov kolossus. The kolossus should remain hidden and only expose themselves when you are sure you can inflict maximum damage.

Captain Vrachov’s Krasnye unit will be virtually unkillable once it hunkers down on an objective, and the grenade launchers can be used to ground enemies and slow their advance.

The goal of this list is to out last the enemy and gencol gives you all the tools to do it. If you want to stop this list you need jammers, lots of them, or indirect fire weapons that can take out Vrachov’s unit. Even then it will be a very tough battle as the list still has tremendous staying power.

Flux List

- 2 K-Fighters (Mentor) Karmic Warrior
- 4 Wendigos
- 1 Easy Trike  Karmic Warrior
- Jindo-Un (+ Saint Anuman) Karmic Warrior
- King Buggy

The idea behind this list is to quickly grab enough RPs (RP blitz) to bring your reinforcements in for the beginning of turn 2. You will want to deploy  your K-fighters on the board first turn as taking over an enemy AFV first turn will be crucial.

Second turn will see the Wendigos rush on with the easy trike. the easy trike’s target will be a type 1 AFV. If you don’t take it over outright, use your karmic warrior for a second chance at the die rolls. You can save this easy trike until you have perfect positioning to ensure a no cover shot on an enemy AFV as well, but the goal is to take a type 1 the turn it enters the board. This is a risk move for sure but can pay off in strides. Capturing 500 points worth of enemy armour by the second turn will make your opponent think twice.

Save Jindo’s karmic warrior for the lucky roll your opponent gets that manages to immobilize him or destroy him. Since you have no repairs in your list you need to acquire enemy AFVs to replace the ones that get destroyed or immobilized.

You don’t have a lot of minis on the table to its important to use karmic warrior to minimize losses or to ensure you capture and enemy vehicle, don’t use it for anything else. This list either works really well or fails stupendously, but thats half the fun of playing it. Its weaknesses are infantry based anti AFV lists that can afford to lose their AFVs and not have it impact them too heavily.

This list is tooled for a mission where you will be holding locations to gather victory points. In AT-43 you get to choose your force after picking the mission so part of the strategy is tooling your army to suit the mission appropriately.

M.Ind List

Platoon 1
- Copperhead (+ Colonel G. Stark)
- 2 Fire Toad
- 3 Death Dealer TacArms (Sergeant)
- 12 Star Troopers (Sergeant, 2 Flamer)
- 6 Steel Troopers (+ Sergeant A. Borz, 1 Laser Gun)
Platoon 2
- 1 Lancelot
- 2 Steel Missile Team
- 2 Wing Sniper Team

Ok, this list is just nasty. First off you have the Star troopers with their extra bodies able to sit on an objective. The idea is to back them up with the Death Dealers, making any enemy wary of sending infantry anywhere near that location. Use the star troopers to screen for the death dealers, so they can have a model designate when there are no infantry coming close to you.

If any opponent wants to send their AFVs at your point holding group, the Death Dealers simply lase the target. Within moments you’ll have missiles raining down. The Firetoads are for mobile support they can move where needed to provide some extra anti AFV firepower.

The lone Lancelot is there to ground small threats, hit Bane Goliaths or an enemy’s repair squad to really mess with them. For larger infantry units you’ve got Col Stark there to bring his mortar of fiery death down on anyone that tries to make an assault.

No list is complete without some sort of sniper unit. The wing snipers are there to take out stealthed threats such as Guru Lucius or Atis and to take out sergeants and special weapons.

Keep your AFVs together to take advantage of M.Ind. Smaller groups let you get more frequent repairs which can mean the difference between a dead Firetoad and a slightly crippled one.

Finally you have sgt borz and his small repair squad. These guys move with the armour and provide another laser targeter. This is important since your opponent might try and keep out of line of sight of the death dealers, unlucky for them borz can light up a target from the other side of the map.

Defeating this list involves indirect fire and snipers. you need to force the laser targeting units to make the decision to face sniper fire or lase a target. If you can prevent high priority targets from being lased and keep the missile team from being able to fire while hidden you’ve got a good chance of taking them down. Defeating mind is all about positioning and concentrated fire.

The AT43 Cogs Prowler is looking to be an anti infantry AFV. Armed with a pistol and a minigun it will put out a large volume of fire in a short amount of time. The models look really good too. I can’t wait to see some specs on these guys as they will likely be summonable during battle.

Unfortunately the tiles are a bit hard to come by right now so if you don’t have them and you find them somewhere, scoop them up.

The hunters are going to force commanders to be more wary with their type * AFVs. As with most battlesuits, the solution is snipers. A str 8 sniper rifle will kill these guys on a 5+, but I would also want to throw some AT fire their way. Heck why not nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Even their normal pistol weapons have great accuracy at 3 and with 3 shots they will be able to put a lot of firepower on target at range. I shudder to think what their long range units will be capable of.

Charge these guys towards the enemy, using their combat engineer to blow cover so they can move more quickly, firing at afv’s the whole way. Once in close watch out as their pistols and blades will make short work of infantry.

This is shaping up to be one hell of a unit. I can’t wait to get my hands on one. (I’ll put a picture up of them when I can get one I’m allowed to use)

These guys are best used from reserves or brought in through a drop point. They don’t have the speed to be able to move easily from cover to cover but they are very difficult to kill. Some strategies employ KK5 to medic them as they move towards the enemy, some like to use med tec units to keep bringing them back into the game. You must keep them in cover at all times with “take cover” since as soon as they are vulnerable to fire, you can be sure every AT weapon in your opponents arsenal will come bearing down on them.

When adding Lt Dragomira to the squad they gain fire at will, increasing the effective range of their weapons and making them very hard to kill when combined with Med Tec. Lt Dragomira has a combat double and she can only be killed if an attack causes more than one wound to her giving you an extra hit for free if she is the only one left in the unit.

The best way to deal with these guys is with long range anti tank fire, and grounding. Dont think of sending your type 1 AFV’s after them as they will surely be turned into scrap metal.

Mixed VP – RP

This is the most common approach, send your point holding unit towards a VP location while your smaller support units take some RP locations and give covering fire from there. This is not a bad strategy at all and requires you to design your reinforcements in such a way that you can bring one unit on in the second turn and then the rest the following turn. In this strategy you get a slow build up of forces over time to make up for the firepower of troops that have been killed or grounded in their turns.

RP Blitz

By focusing more on RP points you can have all your reinforcements come onto the board on turn 2. This type of strategy lends itself to a massive turn 2 assault on the enemy positions taking advantage of your newly reinforced firepower. An opponent that does not recognize this and hasn’t dug in properly will be in for a world of hurt as all those extra guns come blazing down on them turn 2.

You could potentially be behind in the VP count if your opponent managed to take some VP locations early. For this reason it is a good idea to put any of your grounding forces on the table turn 1 in order to try and stop this from happening.

VP Blitz

If you see your opponent is light on grounding weapons the VP blitz can often pay off. The idea is to go straight for the VP points on the map and hold onto them for dear life. The idea is to get a point lead and hold onto it, even if it means you suffer heavy losses. You will still want to be generating some RP but only with one long ranged unit. Red Blok’s Frontline list excels at this sort of strat as they can park a sierp on a RP location and still be able to bring in reinforcements. The rest of their army rushes forward to pick up VP locations and fight off the advancing enemy. Having a good point holding unit is key for this strat to work.

You will generate a first turn VP lead and force the enemy to come to you. If they want to win they must take points from you (flamers anyone?), being behind in VP means you have to go on the offensive.

There are two variants of trike armour, one granting 3 frame points and the other only 2. This is the only faction so far that has a variance in their type 1 AFV frame points so its worth mentioning that you will have a weaker or stronger trike depending on which one you take.

Easy Trike

The Easy Trike is equipped with jammers and each one can put down 4 shots each. This gives a unit of 2 of them a great chance at taking out an enemy afv in a single salvo. Combine this with Jindo’s ability to take control of AFVs destroyed by jammer fire and you’ve got a very potent unit.

Dirt Trike

The Dirt Trike comes in the weaker armour with only 2 frame points. It is armed with dual drum guns which makes it very adept at taking out hordes of infantry. Due to its speed it can easily rush up on an opponents position, negate their cover and unload a large volley of fire right into their face. This is how the dirt trike is best used, the quick assault with guns and BBQ attack.

Jungle Trike

The long range anti tank trike varient the jungle trike comes with ZZ Guns. They are able to put 4 shots on target each and a unit of these guys is able to rip most afvs and battlesuits into tiny pieces. It is also one of the weaker armoured trikes at only 2 frame points so be careful with these guys, or rush them in from reserves and annhiliate an entire unit of battlesuits at point blank range. They work just as well in both capacities.

Thunder Trike

The Thunder trike is a blend between the dirt and jungle trike sporting one drum gun and one zz gun. This makes the unit more flexible, able to engage a wider variety of targets. They also have 3 frame points which will let them survive a direct hit from a missile.

The key to fighting trikes is to put lots of fire on them early. They are very fragile and will drop like flies to concentrated fire. If left on the board for more than a turn they will cause a large ammount of damage, so they should become a high priority for any commander that wants to survive.

The second, and far more tactical use is that it lets you go from being completely hidden to all guns blazing, without triggering overwatch. I’ll let that point sink in for a second, blowing up your terrain does not trigger overwatch. This gives way to the following tactic:

From full hidden cover when the enemy is overwatching your position blow up your cover. Shoot at the enemy with all your guns. Move back into full cover, hidden from the enemy. Without the combat engineer this sequence is impossible as revealing even one model leaves you open to overwatch fire.

Using this tactic you increase the number of units bringing all their weapons to bear on the enemy while ensuring that the unit with combat engineers is protected 100%. Having a unit that can fire every turn without the fear of return fire is very attractive, but you need to have sufficient terrain density in order for this tactic to work. AT-43 is a game meant to be played with lots of terrain if you aren’t using a lot, you’re removing most of the tactical fun from the game entirely. Combat engineers are available to Red Blok RPG Soldaty, Red Blok Spetsnatz Kommandos  and UNA Star Troopers.

Tiamat is right at home charging towards the enemy, summoning hekats as she goes. Her opponents have a difficult decision to make. Do they take out the hekats she summons or do they focus their fire on her? If they focus on her and she is destroyed she can simply reappear, replacing one of her other units afresh ready to press the assault some more. For this reason many armies with tiamat will take a small unit for her to transfer into when she does get destroyed. If they don’t manage to destroy her, she and her 2-3 summoned friends will shred all the units in their path.

It is often more beneficial to target the summoned Hekats while Tiamat is still moving to engage. If you let the Therian commander swarm you with melee AFVs you are in big trouble. She can swarm very quickly too, by dashing she covers 50cm a turn, more than enough to engage most enemies turn 2. If you haven’t been focusing on the summons she’ll have 2 hekats in tow when she reaches you. Not a pleasant thought.

In addition to being a monster on the battlefield she also provides the largest number of LP when she is commanding the therian army. This gives them more than enough points to spend on Hekats, rerolling damage, and lowly combat drills.

Tiamat is a great company commander choice for a therian strategy that  rushes towards the enemy and she is perfectly complemented by Grim Golems.  If sitting back and shooting is more your style you should check out Babylon Zero.

Darius may only join Anakonga squads, this is odd seeing as he does not have a jet pack and is armed like a kaptar, but it has been confirmed by rackham that this is correct. The Anakongas may still use their jetpacks but Darius must walk on foot, this means that the Anakongas can still fly over an obstacle but Darius must walk around. Squad coherency must be maintained as well. This reminds me of the other useless Karman hero, Mentor Freezer. Guess what, he can join Anakongas but doesn’t have a jet pack either.

This guy really should have been a Kaptar it just doesn’t make any sense to put him with Anakongas. Seriously I would house rule this one because it borders on ridiculous. Below is the card that comes with him.

UPDATE: Rackham has errata released that lets guide darius join any type 1 infantry unit. This is a well welcome change. Thanks Arpad for the heads up on this one.

Wendigos

The Wendigos strength comes from their indirect fire. They all have access to maser strike which trades strength and attack rate for the ability to fire indirectly. This strength is further accentuated by the grenade launchers available as special weapons. This creates the ideal point holding unit for the Karmans giving them the ability to fire from cover with a large amount of indirect fire.  This is where you want to be with karmans as every casualty is exceedingly costly.

Yetis

The Yetis are very costly point wise compared to the Wendigos. They are equipped with jet packs which lets them move towards the enemy rapidly. To use this unit effectively they need to stay in cover for as long as possible advancing towards the enemy. When they are in position they reveal themselves and with a hail of fire leave smoldering wreckage in their wake. They have access to rocket launchers which are the only karman weapons to cause more than 1 damage, and flamers which give them powerful anti infantry tools. Due to their specialist nature and high cost they really shine in larger point value armies as a flanking unit.

Conclusions

While the wendigos are useful in great many situations, the Yetis in the right situation have a much larger damage potential due to their rocket launchers. Given the focus on point holding in at-43 the wendigos are the better choice to fill a single type ** slot. When playing at larger point values where the yetis high cost doesn’t eat into a large portion of the total army value, they are extremely deadly.

The sierp is arguably the best anti-infantry afv in the game. With a cost of only 200 points, high armour, and a 4cm blast radius, these guys are able to take out even the most entrenched enemy. Since they get 2 dice to throw the chances of hitting go up compared to the Cobra snake dramatically, especially with more than 1 Sierp in a unit.These are the ideal tool for taking out a point holding unit and should be used to control infantry movement on the board.

When multiple Sierps are involved, they only need 3 hits to push into double damage as their blast radius is 12cm, greater than 10. This pretty much guarantees they will not only ground, but kill the unit they are firing on.

If you are facing Sierps they should become your number one priority as they will very quickly shred your infantry, making it hard for you to capture victory points. Read the errata on indirect fire and overwatch as there have been some changes on how it these both work with blast weapons.

The Sierp is a fantastic unit and if there is any AFV you get for Red Blok the sierp should be it.

Krasnye Soldaty

The Krasnye Soldaty are the longer ranged of the two infantry types. Their standard special weapon is the grenade launcher which lets them attack from cover without exposing themselves, or hit the enemy in cover while pressing the charge. Their standard weapons have poor range but gain a reroll which increases their effective range by 20cm.

The Kransye have access to mechanic specialists which let them repair AFVs. They are the only infantry type that can do this so if you are looking for some vehicle support, the Krasnye are it.

The Krasnye can also be led by Captain Vrachov who is himself a medic. This increases the total number of medics available to the Krasnye to 3. A full unit of these guys with grenade launchers and Captain Vrachov sitting in cover is extremely difficult to dislodge. This makes them the Red Blok’s point holding unit.

RPG Soldaty

The RPG soldaty are built for close quarters combat.

Their weapons have a range of 0 but get two shots each. They also have access to the very tactical combat engineer. Their standard special weapon is the SM Gauss which can put down an extreme volume of strength 7 fire. For an additional cost they can be upgraded to carry Rocket launchers.

The combat engineer lets the RPG soldaty destroy terrain elements which when used at the right time, can expose the enemy unit or spring an ambush. This lets the RPGs also reveal all of their soldiers without triggering overwatch. They may destroy their cover, shoot with all their members, then move to another area of cover.

The RPG Soldaty can be led by Sgt Tymofiyeva who can give them fire at will to increase the effective range of their weapons.

Conclusion

Both units are great choices in a Red Blok army. The Krasnye grenade launchers are capable of hitting units in cover and attacking from cover while the RPG soldaty are able to advance on the enemy firing the whole way. RPGS can fire with their entire unit without having to worry about return fire if they can use their combat engineer properly. Its a matter of play style as to which infantry you prefer. Want to hunker down on an objective or keep your type 2 AFVs running in top shape? The Krasnye are the ones for the job. Want to flank the enemy and eliminate them with a colossal amount of firepower, the RPG’s are up for the task.

Kaptars

The Kaptars are the multipurpose type 1 infantry. They have zz rifles which with a strength of 6 are able to inflict damage on targets up to armour 11. This means that even some lightly armoured AFV’s have to be careful of this unit. They have a high rate of fire at 4 shots each and can be equipped with sniper rifles or ZZ guns as special weapons.

Anakongas

The Anakongas are the highly mobile shock troop of the karman army. They are equipped with jetpacks which lets them fly over terrain without penalty. They are also armed with drum pistols which have a very short range but an extremely high rate of fire. Unfortunately the weapon strength is only 5 so it it is less effective vs battlesuits and AFV’s. This makes them well suited for battles with other infantry at close range. Their special weapon options reinforce this role as they get flamers. If you need to clear an entrenched enemy position, or take and hold a contested point the anakongas are a decent choice.

Comparison

Of the two, the Kaptars are more versatile unit. Their decent range, access to snipers and anti-AFV ZZ Guns makes them a better all around choice. The anakongas can be used in specal weapons teams though, and a 2 model flamer team can wreak havoc on enemy lines. If you have a specific strategy in mind like capturing a drop point, rushing the enemy position with flamers and a hail of bullets the anakongas are the tool for the job, but for a unit that can adapt to most any situation, attack up close and from far with access to snipers or anti afv firepower, then the Kaptars are the better choice.

Fire Toad

armed with 2 laser guns the Fire Toad is the jack of all trades. It can take out everything from afv’s to infantry. This is the most common variant of toad used in many lists because of this fact.

Light Prince

A hybrid between the Iron Rain and the Fire Toad, the light prince packs a MG and a laser gun. It is able to throw 3 mg shots and 1 lasergun shot at its target. It still retains the ability to engage AFVs while being able to put out enough fire to have a hope of killing infantry that are in cover.

Iron Rain

This guy is a battlesuit killing machine. A full unit of Iron Rain’s put out 18 MG shots a turn. When shooting at a type *** infantry unit in full cover you’re bound to score a few wounds due to the sheer number of dice. The Lancelot is better suited to killing more lightly armoured units and grounding those suits that don’t have stability (Red Blok and Therians). if you’re taking these guys, its to neutralize your opponents ungroundable battlesuits. Otherwise you’re better off with Lancelots.

Lancelot

The Lancelot is an infantry killing monster. with 2 grenade launchers it puts out a lot of indirect fire. Note that the card is a misprint and each grenade launcher only gets 1 shot instead of the printed 3. Even still, a unit of 2 of these guys can get the all important double damage template. This weapon grounds units and ignores cover so it is a better choice if you are facing Red Blok or Therians as their type *** infantry can still be grounded.

Grant said.

The following would help rejuvenate the game for me:

• Updated website that is actually kept up to date
• A steady flow of new releases (the Cog previews have been around how long?)
• Consistent paint schemes, i.e., no new camo schemes on reprints
• Regular CHO in PDF format
• More sensible packaging of the unit and attachment boxes (this is happening, albeit slowly)
• Frostbite rules available separately from the campaign box
• Some sort of organised play

neorage said

• Keep the products available. Every time a customer can not buy his intended product should be considered as permanently lost revenue
• Keep the paint schemes. In a prepainted game the models coloring must keep the same look and feel over time.
• Quickly add some “bombs” to the product line. If some of the very cool looking tanks were introduced, this might turn the flood.

PanzerKraken

I think part of the problem is that they seem to be taking approach that they can do all the communication of the game to the public through the CHO, when it’s just newsletter those subscribe to will get. It doesn’t really get out the information to the public unless someone specifically takes the info out to show to the public as TGN sometimes does. Basically they are too bottled up. Like I mentioned above, will Rackham even be showing up to Gencon? Tournaments? Organized play?

veritas

Rackham needs to change their packaging. I refuse to order anything else until the packaging becomes sensibly sized. I live in Japan so a LOT of my minis come from overseas orders. Even a SMALL order of AT-43 or C:AoR minis comes in a box that looks like I’m buying an office chair.

a_thousand_hats

I think, as others have mentioned, Rackham need to be more proactive on the Press Release and public relations side of the business.

gavroche

I would buy more AT-43 miniatures if:

they were a bit cheaper
there were more releases
it was available at my local shop

doc_savage

I think they need to do a few things.
1 – regular releases on time.
2 – Support smaller army games – Tactics is not enough; I want to be able to play with about 20-30 figures per side and not have to jump through hoops to field an army. If I buy a unit box I should be able to field those guys.
3 – Vehicles.

Lots of good feedback and the takeaway is really that rackham needs to better communicate with their player base. Even if it is a blog update every couple of days so that people see that there is someone home. CHO is good, but it cannot be the only line of communication. People have to sign up to get it and new people aren’t really going to be able to do that, especially if the signup link looks like it could just be a page that was put up accidentally.

Is there anything you think Rackham can do better that isn’t covered? If so what is it?

I would be lying if I said these problems aren’t still real, but they are temporary. We have seen great improvement with the latest CHO release. The monthly format had most everything that a gamer could want. Fluff, previews, new rules and a release plan. We also now have release dates for the new Cog army. Given that Rackham changed to Rackham Entertainment and they ended their distribution deal with Fantasy Flight Games, their release plan is very aggressive. I haven’t seen any reason yet why I should worry about the future releases as  I was able to get my Hussar and Fire Crawler without a problem from the most recent wave.

Many people worry about the speed of releases but remember that much of the waves being currently released were planned out before Rackham became Rackham Entertainment. Who knows what problems rackham was facing before this change, and the changes we’ve seen since have been nothing but positive. We’re seeing models coming out to address some of the oversights of the previous releases, granted they’re in Resin but getting Grim Golem overseers and Yeti / Wendigo Medics shows that Rackham Entertainment IS listening and is addressing the known issues.

If I were writing this piece 4 months ago it would have taken a more worried tone, but today all of the current indicators are pointing in the right direction. The only thing I wish Rackham was doing better right now is communicating with the player base. The great community that surrounds at-43 will fill in until they get that sorted out as well (the new CHO showed promise of this happening), we’ve got your back Rackham.

Armed with 2 Nucleus Guns each, a unit is capable of putting 6 accurate shots on target each turn. On top of this, as every Therian commander knows, failing to wound isn’t such a big deal. For 2 LP they simply use Hyper Nanonucleus and re roll all their failed damage tests.

The Bane Goliath has one downfall though. It is easily grounded and you should expect them to become grounded the turn after they come onto the board. For this reason they are best used from reserves, coupled with a double activation. This will ensure that whatever you are shooting at willl be a smouldering pile of wreckage. Using the board terrain is important because these guys die easily to direct fire without “take cover”.

If you can manage to eliminate the enemy’s area of effect weapons, the banes will become a wrecking ball of fury, slicing anything with armor into little bits.

For extra added smashing power, try adding Nina Zero to the unit as the leader. This gives you access to overseer routines (you don’t have to rely on the Company Commander for Hyper Nanonucleus for example) and Nina has those ever deadly move and fire sniper shots.

The Banes are one of the Therian’s most useful units and there are very few lists where forgoing them is a good idea. They simply melt face.

He also makes reference sheets for every game ever made so they’re worth checking out too.

platoon 1 – 16 LP total

• 1 Sierp 200 AP
• Urod 570 AP
• 8 Krasnye Soldaty 1 grenade Launcher 2 Mechanics 150 AP
• 9 Dragonov Kommandos 3 AT-Gauss Sergeant 310 AP
• 3 Dragonov Groupa S 125 AP

Platoon 2

• 1 Sierp 200 AP
• 1 Hussar (sargeant) 445 AP

This list is very easy to split and given Frontline’s ability to take RP points very quickly, you can leave UROD off the board in reinforcements and grab enough RP points to bring him on in  turn 2 (Scenario depending). This really leads to a stunned look on your opponents face when he realizes you’re putting 6 units on the board turn 1 with 3 AT-Gauss guns, 2 sierps, a hussar, a repair unit, and if that wasn’t enough, sniper support.

I’ll see how this list stacks up against Karmans and UNA later but so far I’m really enjoying it.

The grims have three primary roles. Taking points from the enemy, holding points from the enemy, and taking out high threat infantry units. With Atis in the unit the Grim Golems are ideally suited to teleporting right into a highly contested point, eliminating many of the opposing figures and taking control of it.

Similarly, Atis can teleport her unit deep into your opponents lines in order to remove a high threat unit. Make no mistake the reaper blades are more than capable of removing even the toughest Red Blok kolossi from the table. With 2 attacks each and Hyper Nanonucleus, rolling 3 sixes on 18 dice isn’t a particularly difficult thing to do.

Even without Atis the grim golems become a formidable defensive unit. Armed with 3 flamers and invisible to most units, any player will think twice before sending their units into a position held by a grim golem unit.

Many green commanders often cry out about the imbalance of these guys, especially when there are more than one unit on the board. The Grims are easily countered, even without stealth detection.

Red Blok has it the easiest, by fielding a Zviezda you not only get some stealth detection but you also get a mortar. Additionally the dragonov kommandos can also see stealthed units and their snipers can deal with the flamer threats. Next up is UNA with their triple lens helmets, many of their men can see stealthed units. The Karmans do not have any stealth detection units but they do have very fast Trikes. These need to be used to get close to the grim golems and unload a barrage of fire. This is the one time when I actually like dirt trikes as they can kill far more Grim golems than a jungle trike can.

Grim Golems are a fantastic unit and I think that they should be included in most Therian lists. If you plan on going up against a therian commander, be prepared to deal with this unit as you undoubtedly will run into it.

Update: Fantasy Flight Games has entered the mix with their own sale.

Your Local Gaming Store (LGS) is the first place you should always check out for any gaming need.

My original thinking was that these guys are the ones that are running tournaments, offering prizes, building awesome gaming tables, great scenery and providing that great atmosphere for your local gaming community. If you take part in the events thrown by a store, you should at least throw some business their way.

The flip side of the argument, especially in the current age of social media, is that people are self organizing, gaming tournaments are becoming player driven with sponsors that may be globally based. The LGS is becoming less relevant to players and you only have to look at the number of  player groups to validate this.

All people need is a space, some game boards (which in AT-43 are supplied by Rackham for the campaigns) and someone to do a little bit or organizing. Things like Google Groups, Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have made this sort of thing extremely easy to do.

My Question is this. While the LGS was the cornerstone of table top gaming 10 years ago, where do you  do you think it stands today?  Is the LGS relevant to you as a gamer anymore or has it faded from view, a relic of a less connected world.

The Hussar fills this gap in the Red Blok’s arsenal while still staying true to the Red Blok’s style. With a missile launcher that fires 2 missiles that hit on a 4+ with a strength of 14 that ignores cover, this AFV has a damage potential of 4 from anywhere on the board. Its Medium Rocket Launcher must still get in close to be effective though. This keeps the Hussar in line with red blok’s style of rush the enemy and overwhelm them with firepower.

More importantly the Missiles are capable of damaging type 3 AFV’s, something the strength 12 Medium Rockets need 6′s to achieve. If you are facing an opponent that keeps their afv’s at long range the hussar gives the Red Blok the ability to hit key threats like UNA Snakes and Karman Jungle buggies before they lay waste to your expensive armour.

This AFV isn’t going to replace the Hetman or even the Kossak, but covers a large hole in the Red Blok’s armour; long range AT firepower.

New Scenarios

There is a new scenario Class of Snow which looks like it will be a lot of fun. You can get it here. In addition Awakening of the Machines is another interesting looking scenario involving 5000 RP for the therians vs 2500 assault, the catch is ALL of the therian forces are Reinforcements!. Both scenarios have been added to the scenario section of at-43 addict.

Upcoming Releases

First off there are grim golem overseers coming to the resin kit line. The decision of creating resin kits for the missing models is likely due to the cost of producing injection plastic molds. You’re going to have to paint these guys up yourself. An interesting find was made on rackhams servers. The release plan for the next few waves was discovered and what is especially eye catching is that Wendigo and Yeti Medics are being released in resin. This likely means that Karmans are going to receive a balancing by being able to get an additional medic in their type 2 units.

More on Errata after the break.

Errata

The errata section has a number of clarifications that are much needed for AT-43.

Shooting

The player chooses the type of weapon used to resolve the
shot. A type of weapon is the whole of the weapons sharing
the same name and same characteristics. All the fighters in
the unit equipped with the chosen weapon resolve their shots
simultaneously according to the following steps

This means that heroes in a unit that have the same weapons as another model in the unit must fire at the same target as that weapon profile. If the hero has different weapons they are free to engage a different target. This means that having a hero with a weapon that is different from the special weapon / regular soldiers becomes more of an asset as it lets you engage another target separately (Guru Lucius im looking at you).

Karmans

K-Units are getting the Stability ability which makes them immune to grounding, this is a welcome change as very often the K’s found themselves lying on the ground for an entire battle.

Other Changes

The rest of the changes are worth reading but those are the major ones. star/steel trooper bunkers have their costs changed, Bunkers have 17 armour, 4 structure points 2 roof points and Zviezdas only gain +1 accuracy to their direct fire weapons.

In Closing

I really like the new format, sure we have to wait a month between releases but the ammount of material in the release more than makes up for it. I’ve only gone into the at-43 stuff as CHO Issue 1 contains just as much Confrontation information.

These guys take indirect fire weapons so they don’t all have to be exposed to enemy fire, and can help slow the enemy’s advance. They also should have a large number of troops as they will be holding onto those VP points that will be highly contested and WILL take some nasty indirect fire in an attempt to dislodge them.

Examples of point holders are:

• UNA: 12 Star troopers with flamers and medics
• Therians: Grim golems with flamers
• Red Blok: Krasnye Soldaty with grenade launchers and medics (Captain Vrachov optional)
• Karmans: Anakongas with flamers (Guru Lucius optional) or Wendigos with grenade launchers (Lucius optional)

These units will be extremely tough to dislodge either due to large numbers and/or stealth and will also be very difficult to advance on due to their indirect weapons. The Point holder will need to be backed up with an anti AFV unit as these pose the greatest threat to dislodging them.

The point holder is a key role in any AT-43 army, sure lists that let AFV’s control points are great for grabbing RP points quickly, but when it comes to holding onto a fiercely conteded point, nothing beats the combo of a large unit with medics/stealth and indirect weapons.

Setup

The setup featured a lot of terrain, the way AT-43 is supposed to be played. We used a collection of home made terrain, Necromunda scenery and crates. The density of terrain represents a decent board for at-43. it opens up a lot of tactical avenues and will make for a really fun game.

Armies

We used a Therian Cypher list with Tiamat, Atis, Grim Golems, Incubus Golgoth and some storm golems.

RedBlok was vanilla with Urod, 2 Sierps, Dragomirov Kolossus with Lt Dragomoria, min sized krasnye repair squad, and a full size RPG soldaty squad.

The Karmans were also vanilla with 4 kaptars, 8 wendigos with grenade launchers + cornelius, an easy trike, k-shooters and a king buggy.

We didn’t want to complicate things using support squads and what not so we played the core lists of each army pretty much. See the Full report after the jump

Turn 1

Troops deployed as normal with Urod taking a full on assault from bane goliaths. Fortunately the krasnye came in on Red Blok’s next activation and fixed up some damage. This was lucky as the Therian Incubus came on next and re damaged Urod. The Krasnye repair unit got lucky with their one grenade launcher and managed to ground the banes with some lucky dice. Meanwhile the Karmans were happy to sit back and take up defensive positions. Unfortunately for the wendigos they were pinned by overwatched sierps and didn’t dare make an appearance. This gave the kolossus enough cover to advance towards the wendigos, bad news!

The Karman K shooters did some decent damage to Tiamat followed up with the easy trike which destroyed her out right. Unfortunately she simply body hacked into the storm golem unit, putting her closer to the vulnerable king buggy. The kaptars took up a defensive position from which it was easy to move in to repair the king buggy.

Turn 2

Turn 2 saw Urod first repair, then take out a bane goliath with his AT-cannon and do some damage to the Incubus. The therian player then pulled a nasty move by teleporting into the karman K-shooters. The Nearby k-fighters knew that they were going to face the brunt of the flamer in that unit so decided to unload its overwatch into the melee. What are the chances they would kill the heavily armoured K-shooters? Somehow with some unlucky dice out of the 3 impacts the k-shooters took, they rolled 2 sixes, killing them instantly. To make matters worse the grim golems armour deflected enough impacts that there was no way the flamer at the far side of the melee could be allocated a hit. This resulted in the unit getting flamed, killing 3 of the 4 kaptars on the next turn.

Realizing that unless they did something quick, the karmans would be wiped out, they ran full force into the overwatched sierups line of fire in order to take out as much redblok infantry as they could. The sierps hit 6 wendigos killing 1 grenade launcher. Luckily the wendigos manged to get close enough to the Kolossus to cancel their overwatch. If this didn’t happen it would have been game over for the karmans. Instead, at range 0, they fired on the full unit of RPG soldaty with their maser strike scoring 11 hits  for double damage and a 10cm radius. with with concentrate fire from cornelius, this scored enough wounds on the  unit to kill it outright. The wendigo grenade launchers then killed 5 of 8 of the krasnye soldaty.

The Therian player meanwhile realized attacking urod first is not the best way to go, given his 2 repairs and switched focus to the poor karman player. Tiamat manged to spawn a Hekat, then reach the king buggy in melee. With some lucky dice the king buggy became immobilized, with the flamers facing Tiamat. With the kaptar repair unit wiped out it was all but over for the poor buggy.

The Easy Trike then took a few more damage off of the Incubus golgoth. It we obvious that the karman player was pretty much out of the battle at this point so the Red Blok player destroyed the rest of the wendigos, with his sierps and moved the kolossus to engage the spawned hekats and the Incubus.

Turn 3

This was pretty much a mop up turn for the therian player. With hekats and tiamat screaming towards the kolossus and the banes and incubus bearing down on Urod the end was pretty much sealed for the Red Blok. It was a really fun game and a great way to introduce at-43 to a couple of friends.

Conclusions

Here are the main takeaways from the battle. Don’t engage Urod first turn, you’re better off focusing on the sierps / infantry. The same goes for Tiamat. If you are light on heavy weapons make sure that you’ve taken out the other overseers on the table first, the last thing you need is an infantry unit turning into an AFV. Snipers are great way to do this.

Fly on top of terrain with Buggies. it creates distance between you and other AFVs and doesn’t cost you any extra movement. Melee AFVs will be stuck on the ground.

ZZ rifles are fully able to take out battlesuits (even your own!), sure you need 6′s but with 16 dice you’re sure to get a few hits.

3 way is very fun and a great way to introduce players to the game. Sure you’re not getting RP or VP, but those are things to add in slowly as you get used to the core rules. The next battle we have will be fought over objectives with reenforcements .

For  Red Blok you will find that Fire at Will is a tremendous benefit as you can engage units sooner and you’ll have more of those 2 damage rockets hitting home. For UNA it means you can add a reroll to your missiles. Therians can engage with their sonic guns from father out and karmans don’t have to worry about their rocket launchers or drum pistols missing as much.

This will help to remove some of the disadvantages some of your units have, while still being balanced. A hero is easily sniped for instance. They have the same armour profiles as regular troops so there is nothing godly about them. This also creates incentive to bring lower ranking heroes as they easily become well worth the additional cost.

Heroes are a tactical choice, not a necessity, they can be point sinks if your opponent has snipers, but can give a unit the edge it needs to perform above and beyond its standard level.

Imagine a game of rock paper scissors, that’s how AT-43 plays out. Have too much rock, your opponents paper will kill you every time. Infantry are only vulnerable to rapid fire  and blast AFV weapons. In order to counter the rapid fire AFV weapons you can use your own AFV’s and even infantry against them, from full cover. remember an opponent can only kill the models that he can see which gives you the ability to medic those models that are killed. Activation order also plays heavily in taking this type of threat out as well. “Take cover!” reduces the number of impacts you take by 2/3, that should minimize a lot of the damage too.

Blast weapons are the biggest threat, you must deal with these quickly, perhaps double activating to ensure that they will be eliminated before they can do too much damage. If you are to hold onto a point you will want to remove your opponents indirect weapons asap. Likewise if you want to take a position from an enemy you need to make sure your own indirect/flame weapons survive.

Once these threats are off the table, infantry can move more freely around the battlefield, but they must keep their heads down until this time. They can soak up a far greater number of  shots than an afv before its specialists are endangered, they can get 3+ cover as well. Ensuring some of your infantry survive the onslaught of indirect AFV fire is essential in AT-43. Its hard to ignore that Juicy Urod for the unit of sierps, but those sierps are in fact the greatest threat to you.

If your opponent has too many blast weapon AFV’s he will not be able to deal damage to the biggest threat to them, AT AFV’s. In this situation just keep your infantry in cover and hidden until the big guns have left craters where the enemy afv’s used to be. Most scenarios have VP and RP points that will let you do just this, stay hidden from the enemy and gain points. Remember you will have to at some point make a charge for your enemy in order to tip point generation in your favour so dont hunker down too  long.

The dynamics of the game are a bit different than many other games, but once figured out AT-43 provides great strategic depth. Infantry are the backbone of any army, and in AT-43 this is no exception.

K-Fighters

They are the jammer equipped variant of the K’s. With  4 shots per model they are able to put out a lot of jammer fire. Jammers don’t have the range that ZZ-guns do though so you’ll have to be a little closer to your target than normal. Coupled with Jindo-Un this unit can easily capture enemy afv’s with one salvo.

K-Warriors

They are equipped with mortars making them the long range anti infantry choice. Again with 4 shots a piece they are easily able to create a max sized template that hits for 2 impacts, or able to engage at least 2 units of infantry when they fire strength 7 is also able to hurt all battle suits. This puts them a notch above the Wendigo Grenade launchers in terms of indirect effectiveness as they can actually dent red blok kolossus.

K-Shooters

They are armed with ZZ-Guns what sets them apart from a kaptar unit’s heavy weapons is they get an additional shot each and also are able to use concentrate fire in order to re roll their failed damage tests.  This damage re-roll is extremely valuable as it ups their damage potential by about 50%.  Throw karmic warrior on these guys and the chance of not doing damage becomes virtually 0.  They are also the cheapest K unit which opens up space in the other slots in your army.

K-Burners

They are highly specialized flamer equipped battle suits. They are very mission specific as they need to be within 25 cm in order to unleash their flames. They do not pack any more punch than the Anakonga or Yeti flamer teams but they also give you increased armour and the Super power grips for close combat action. This comes at a higher point cost than the Yeti or Anakonga teams but can pay off if used against units that have low strength weapons.

All of the K units have their uses though the K-warriors and K-Shooters are the most versatile.  If you want to run a small wendigo unit, taking K-Warriors will give you some great additional grounding power. Similarly if you want to beef up your anti afv capabilities the K-Shooters are really the way to go. K-Fighters are great but you must be using Saint Anuman / Jindo Un with them. This goes for pretty much any Jammer unit in the Karman force. Don’t take jammers without him.

If you have 3 control points and 2000 points to attack or defend each point you are not really forced to make any large tactical decisions. You will have more than enough infantry to capture all of the RP/VP points easily so that removes any strategy from your Assault/Reinforcement split decisions. Similarly you wont be forced to decide where to attack since you can just send an entire battalion to any place that needs attention.

If you do play large point value games you can make sure that the games are more balanced by increasing the number of control points and the VP required to win by the same proportion , playing on a wider board, and ensuring that the number of RP / AP points ensure that you are forced to play tactically when it comes to choosing which places you will capture.

One of the first questions most Karman players have is Anakongas or Kaptars, closely followed up by Yetis or Wendigos. For a starter list I would recommend going with Kaptars and Wendigos. Kaptars have higher strength and more range and therefore make a better all around unit. Wendigos have higher strength access to grenade launchers as well as maser strike. Yetis are very good but situational.

Karmans – Karmans (2000 AP)

Platoon 1
- 4 Kaptars (Mentor)
- 8 Wendigos (+ Venerable Cornelius, 2 Grenade Launcher)
- 2 K-Shooters (Mentor)
- 1 Easy Trike (Mentor) / (proxy jungle trike)
- King Buggy (Mentor)

I built this list to be compatable for zero proxies, I know some people don’t like to play with them. If you do allow proxies i would use a jungle trike and use the extra points on karmic warrior for the wendigos.

The King buggy is a great all around buggy. Its flamers are what set it apart and make it better than the Thunder buggy. in this list you’ve got K-shooters so having a Jungle buggy is a bit of overkill. For a comparison of all the buggy types see the battle of the buggies.

The first decision is whether you want to use Tiamat or Babylon Zero as your company commander. For a more shooty feel go with Babylon Zero, for some more Melee action take Tiamat.

Therians – Cyphers

Platoon 1
- Tiamat (+ Omega Tiamat) / Babylon Zero
- Wraith Golgoth (Alpha)
- 3 Bane Goliaths
- 9 Storm Golems (Alpha, 3 Sonic Gun)
- 6 Grim Golems (+ Alpha Atis-Astarte, 1 Flamer)

- 2 hekats for creation

This gives you some more key essential models for Therians, while rounding out a 2000 point list. As you play some more you’ll figure out what else you need. With this list you will probably want to pick up 2 hekats for summoning. This is an additional cost but what would the Theirans be without hekat summoning?

U.N.A. – U.N.A. (2000 AP)
- 12 Star Troopers (Sergeant, 2 Volcano MG) / 9 Steel Troopers (Sergeant, 2 laser guns)
- 3 Steel TacArms (Sergeant)
- 9 Steel Troopers (Sergeant, 2 Missile Launcher)
- 2 Fire Toad (+ Sergeant A. Borz)
- Copperhead (+ Colonel G. Stark)

You have some anti Infantry with the star troopers and Copperhead’s Mortar, lots of anti AFV fire with the 3 Fire Toads and 3 Steel Tacs, and the flexibility of changing the Toads to Iron Rain / Lancelots for more anti infantry.

From here there are lots of ways to expand this force. you can look into grabbing some more infantry for a Morningstar list, or perhaps another type 2 afv for M.Ind. No matter what list you find you like you really cant go wrong with the models listed above as they are all staples.

The next thing to do is back them up with Urod and min sized krasnye with engineers. This armoured column should constantly move towards the enemy as fast as possible. You force your opponent to focus on the Molot’s or Urod. If they focus on the Molots, Urod will be able to repair them, and if they focus on Urod the molots wont be taking any fire. Always force your opponent to make this type of choice, it will help guarantee that some of the units arrive in one piece.

If Urod leads the charge be sure to use shield formation. He has higher armour than the molots so you will take fewer damage over all if the lighter armoured units are benefiting from cover.

Have a goal in mind, usually this involves torching a key point holding infantry unit, If you are running Frontline once your afv’s destroy this unit they will be able to hold the point themselves. If you aren’t running frontline make sure to have an infantry unit that is backing up this armoured column.

Molots are a great asset to many red blok lists, they are feared by all and a well played unit of them can take away your opponents ability to gain Victory Points.

It is not his weaponry that makes him useful though. His special abilities permit any unit that can see him to automatically become valiant. This is especially useful when using Special weapons teams / MedTec as they must roll to activate every turn since they have 3 or fewer models even at full strength.

Stark is also a must have in a Morningstar List as their disadvantage limits the maximum rank officer they have access to (heroes being the exception to this).

Another Special ability is that for 1 LP he can look at which card his opponent will activate next on his own activation. This gives a UNA player a heads up as to what their opponent is planning and therefore room to make adjustments to counter.

He does come with a downside though. He must deploy first on the battlefield. This makes him a big target at the start of the game. It is best to deploy him in cover somewhere initially since he will have to endure an entire round of fire otherwise.

Stark must also be careful of the Red Blok’s Sgt. Timofiyeva as she can move any card in her opponents activation. If the Red Blok win authority on the first turn this can mean she can move Stark to the very end of the activation sequence. Since he must deploy first, the other UNA units may not enter the battle field until the second turn.

In order to avoid this problem you may place Stark somewhere else in your activation order (perhaps second) and then use 1 lp to move the first card so Stark can deploy as normal. This makes sgt timofiyeva a little less dangerous but still a threat, so watch out.

Stark brings some great abilities to the UNA and some great leadership. Whether in Copperhead or on foot Stark is a great asset to a UNA list.

Curtain of Flames is an interesting ability. When it is activated it obscures visibility of the King Mammoth and any units that are behind it. This works only for the side of the mammoth that the flamers are mounted on so you must be careful how you position it.

The best way to defeat the curtain is to shoot the Mammoth on overwatch as the curtain is considered to be down while it moves.

This ability provides some much needed cover to Karman troops to advance and shields the king mamoth from fire until it can bring its heavy weapons to bear on a target. The King Mammoth is a great addition to any Karman list and provides both heavy firepower with a great special ability.

There are a few errors in the actual scenario but it is pretty clear that the text for the “clear” weather effect and the “fog” weather effect should be reversed. Fog will give a -1 to your accuracy and clear weather +1.

This one is for all factions so get at it!

I also want to mention that I’ve started a new section dedicated to these scenarios so its easy for players to get at them.

For the cost of 4 LP you may take a type * AFV model that is not currently a part of your army and place it next to the Company Commander where it will be able to activate on your next turn. Only the Company Commander can use this routine so it is not possible to spawn multiple Type * AFVs in a single turn.

The spawned Type * AFVs are not alphas so they do not have any access to routines themselves. if you want to be able to use the rush routine with them the Company Commander must be the one to do it. Similarly, these summoned Type * cannot repair themselves, instead relying on the Company Commander’s routines. Remember the Company Commander is the only one that can use routines on other units in the army.

Another thing to note. If you are going to be summoning type *’s, having Sigma Urash around is extremely useful. Sigma Urash is the only Therian capable of using fusion on 2 afvs of different units. This means having him around will let you fuse those 2 half dead Hekats into a Type ** AFV of your choice.

UNA

• 1 Fire toad
• 1 steel trooper unit box
• 1 steel trooper attachment
• 1 unit of Steel TacArms

Karmans

• 1 Kaptar unit box
• 1 Wendigo unit box / k-shooter unit box
• 1 easy trike

Red Blok

• Krasnye unit box + attachment Box / RPG Soldaty unit box + attachment box
• Dragomirov Kolossus box
• Sierp

Therians

• Storm Golem unit box
• Bane Goliath unit box
• Hekat

As you can see each of these lists will come out to around 825 points give or take. you will get a feel for how the army will play and will find that all these units will be useful. Each of these armies are from their basic troop pattern so there are no extra rules to complicate matters. From here it is easy to branch out after you get a feel for how the army will play.

Star Troopers are the type * infantry of the UNA. They have a higher unit size than the Steel troopers, their guns are one less strength as well as their armor. They do get a reroll on their weapons though which is a big advantage in addition to having access to the all powerful flamer. This unit is really at home putting a large volume of fire on the enemy as it advances on or holds a position. Dude to their high numbers they are ideally suited to holding points especially in a morningstar list which gives them 3 medics. They can sustain 7 casualties before you are forced to remove specialists. this gives them a greater effective staying power than their steel trooper counterparts. The star troopers are also the only UNA unit with access to combat engineers which let them destroy terrain elements in order to advance quickly under fire.

Steel troopers have longer range, one more strength and armour but 3 fewer numbers. They are best used to back up an assault, firing from range with missile launchers/Laser guns. Because they have fewer numbers they can’t take as many casualties before you have to start removing medics/engineers/heavy weapons. In fact in a max sized unit with special weapons, medics/engineers and an officer there are only 4 standard fighters that can die before you are forced to cut into your specialists. The big advantage they do have is Engineers which are there to repair AFV’s. It makes sense that they are set up to fight from range where the majority of UNA’s AFV’s are going to be.

So there you have it. One troop type is not better than the other, when used for the purpose they are inteded they will shine, but dont expect a unit of steels to be on the front line, or a unit of stars to do well at the back of the field.

• AFV */**/***
• AFV */**/***
• AFV * Infantry ***
• Infantry */**
• Infantry */**

This pattern will let the Cogs run 2 type *** AFVs in a platoon. We haven’t yet seen the point costs for these but I imagine that a list with 2 type *** would be quite devastating.

The next bit of info about this list is the Heroes it can use. Remember there are no officers for the Cogs, only heroes so if you want to avoid paying for activation, one of these guys is essential.

First up is the G45. This Hero packs a hefty punch with a Quantum MG and a rocket launcher. The Quantum MG is a standard 4/1 shot MG with strength 7. Every weapon for the Cogs gets a reroll so this is pretty standard faire.

The Rocket Launcher is common to all 3 hero types and has 3 shots of strength 11/2. The difference between this rocket launcher and say redblok’s is that this comes with an accuracy of 6. While the red blok is struggling to run across

the board to use theirs, the Cogs will be happily engaging targets across the board.

The G36 Hero forgoes the MG for twin Quantum rifles. With 2 shots each and a reroll they get the same number of shots as the MG but with a range of 8 and a strength of 5. This is an even greater long range fighter, though his weapons are not going to pose a threat to anything but infantry. The G36 also has the standard rocket Launcher discussed before.

Finally the G18. This guy is set up for Melee. In addition to the rocket Launcher, he is armed with 2 quantum blades for a much more up close and personal style. He gives a +3 unit number bonus and he’ll need it to get into melee range.

All of these heroes can detect stealth as they are equipped with Detection Systems. They also have the ability to Rocket Jump. Most interestingly is these Heroes’ ability to summon type * AFVs.  Thats right, the Cogs are getting afv summoning ability just like the dreadded Therians. This ability costs 4 LP and behaves in the same way as the Therian’s construction routeine.

So there you have it, A-Volution is an AFV heavy list, the Heroes come in 3 flavours melee, MG, and ultra long range and they can summon. Sounds like this will be a really  interesting army to play. I can’t wait.

The first thing we need to understand is what “special weapon bearers” means. These are the guys in your unit that have been given special weapons. This includes heroes only if they have the same gun as the regular special weapons bearers in their squad. This is an important distinction to make as split fire only allows your special weapons bearers to shoot at a different time.

A unit without split fire may still fire at different targets as long as they dont need to Shoot, Move, Shoot. A Unit of Kaptars armed with ZZ-Guns lead by Guru Lucius may fire lucius left weapon at one target, right weapon at another, ZZ rifles at a third, and finally the ZZ guns at a fourth without having to use split fire as long as all the shooting happens at the same time.

What split fire would enable this unit to do is shoot the special weapon bearers ZZ Guns, move, then shoot the ZZ-rifiles and Lucius’ Drum Guns after the movement. The key here is that the guns shoot at different times, before and after movement, which requires them to be issued split fire.

Split fire is also useful on overwatch as firing at two different units means that they will be moving at different times. Therefore to split up your weapon profiles in terms of shooting during overwatch, split fire is required. Note the same rule applies as before, only the Special weapon bearers get to shoot at a different time. If you have a hero that does not have the same weapons as the special weapon bearers that hero must shoot with the regular troopers.

Hopefully this clears up this rule for some people, I know I was playing incorrectly. If anyone wants to read the thread where I’m taken to school on the issue it is available here.

Without Shield Formation

• Normal line of sight rules apply
• Models that can be seen can be killed
• infantry or afvs behind an AFV do not get any sort of saving throw
• The AFV unit that is blocking will take one impact for each AFV.

With Shield Formation

• Normal line of sight rules apply There is a conflicting ruling from march so the question has been asked again in the rules forum. JBLK on the boards has confirmed Shield formation does not affect Line of sight in any different way.
• Models that can be seen can be killed
• Infantry and other AFVs behind the unit with Shield Formation can use the afv’s base for cover
• Infantry behind an AFV with shield formation may benefit from Take Cover combat drill

Hopefully the answer in the rules forum clears up some of the confusion surrounding Shield Formation, I know I wasted a lot of time on the forums trying to get this clarified but as you can see The rule is I initially wrote. the rules are very straight forward are unclear, again. The main issue people argue about is if AFV’s in shield formation completely block line of sight for their entire base or not. With this most recent ruling it is clear that shield formation does not automatically block all line of sight, you must use the normal line of sight rules to determine what can be seen. We’ll know soon for sure. stay tuned for an update.

Urod for the Red Blok is quite a power house. The Hetman is quite a capable Type 2 AFV, but give it 2 repairs and it becomes very hard to take down. This, in a nutshell describes Urod. With high leadership, high armour and the long range AT-Cannon it is best used to pick off battle suits initally as it charges towards the enemy. The Medium Rocket Launchers have limited range so in order to get full use out of this AFV, it needs to keep moving towards the enemy.

The activation of Urod becomes very important as using his repairs at the right time is essential. Make no mistake, your opponent will throw everything they have at this guy and he will go down eventually, but this will buy you enough time to move the rest of your forces into position.

Backing up Urod with a min sized squad of krasnye with mechanics will increase his survivability, giving him 4 repairs a turn. This becomes even more feasable with Urod being given shield formation in order to protect the delicate repair unit.

Urod with his range and repairs makes for a highly survivable AFV commander, in a frontline list he becomes almost a must have and there is hardly a time when taking urod is a poor tactical decision.

This also sets some back story for Sgt Timofiyeva. I sure hope that more back story of the various AT-43 Heroes and history will be revealed through mini scenarios like this. Especially if they become a frequent occurrence.

The sale is on until December 9th but stock is not guarenteed to last!

This becomes extremely useful for dislodging units from cover and removing infantry that pose an immediate threat to your other forces.The ability is not cheap though, it costs 3 LP, so don’t expect to be creating hekats, teleporting and giving all your units combat drills at the same time.

The downside to this is that if some of your models cannot be placed in contact with the enemy and maintain cohesion, they are immediately eliminated. This gives an interesting defense against this very powerful ability.

By grouping your infantry together and against some sort of cover, you will ensure there is as little space as possible for Atis to teleport into. Therians do not have any long range indirect fire weapons so there is little to fear from using a tight grouping.

Atis is a powerful hero for the Therian army and the benefits far outweigh the costs of taking her.

Edit: Thanks to Blue Dane for clarifying an error, the post has been updated to reflect the proper rules.

according to the ruling a unit only becomes grounded at the beginning of its activation, this means that if a unit is hit with overwatched indirect fire, it may still shoot as normal. It also may use combat drills  as those drills will not be lost until the unit’s next activation.

Hopefully this will clear up some of the ambiguities with how indirect fire works.

These will be launched along side the new resin kit arm of rackham.

The release wave for cogs and Oni have been revealed as well. Cogs will start showing up in wave 11, while Oni begin to make their appearance in wave 15. I for one am very excited by this news.

• Infantry *
• infantry */**/***
• infantry */*** or  AFV *
• AFV *
• AFV */***

Interestingly the Cogs have no type ** striders at all.

The Cog standard units are equally effective in melee combat as they are at distance. A quantum pistol is worth, in terms of rate of fire, an MG of any other army. The quantum blades are among the best melee weapons in the entire galaxy.

Strong weapons, lots of shots, fearsome melee weapons. Sounds like they are shaping up to pack quite a punch. The Type ** and *** infantry are range specialists laying down heavy fire.

Interestingly there are no officers for the Cogs, only heroes. The heroes act as the officers for a unit and a unit my include as many officers as you want, so long as there are no two officers of the same type. At least this is how I interpret the text. This means that getting “officers” could be costly for the Cog forces.

After reading the forums a bit I came across some more info about how the cogs will play. The juiciest bit relates to how cover works for the cogs. Apparently cogs get no cover save from being around cover, but they may use the take cover drill anywhere they want and get a 3+ cover save. Sounds like enemy commanders might want to load up on flamers and indirect fire as these guys will be tough to shoot to death with direct fire weapons.

This army is shaping up to have a unique play style that sets it apart from the currently existing armies. Good on Rackham for keeping the new armies unique.

First up the standard stealth detection units. These units can hit stealthed units as normal. They include Red blok Dragonov Kommandos, Red Blok Zviezda and UNA with triple lens helmets.

The important thing to realize though is that ALL units can “see” stealth, they just can’t see them well enough to hit them. This makes any unit with a template weapon capable of inflicting damage on a stealthed unit. The two types of weapons are indirect fire weapons (grenades, grenade launchers, mortars etc…)  and flamers.

We’ll cover the non flamer weapons first. If shooting at a unit that has stealth that is outside range 1, all your shots are counted as missing. This means that the blast deviates a minimum of 10 cm and scatters as normal. If the opponent’s unit is sufficiently large and/or your blast template is sufficiently large you will still hit the stealthed unit. This makes the 7 cm blast weapons from the Cobra Snake and the 10 cm blast from Dotch Yaga especially dangerous.

Flamers are unique as they do not require a shooting test to hit. They may be fired at their full range of 25 cm even though this distance is outside the range 1 band for being able to shoot a stealthed target without missing.

As a side note. You can still teleport with Atis into a stealthed unit, you can see them just not very well.

So there you have it, even the armies without stealth detection can still deal with stealthed units. mortars, flamers, grenade launchers are all effective at hitting stealthed units outside the range 1 band.

King Buggy

Weighing in at 400 points this is the cheapest option available to the Karmans. Don’t let its lower point cost fool you though it is a very capable unit. Armed with twin ZZ Cannons and Twin Flamers this unit is used best when pushing towards the enemy. The nice thing is that this guy tends to attract fire away from your other units. No one wants those twin flamers to hit their troops.

Pros:

• Low Point Cost
• Flamers for dislodging infantry

Cons:

• Must get in close for maximum efficiency, otherwise it is simply a jungle trike with more Frame points

Jungle Buggy

The Jungle buggy is an AFVs worst nightmare. with 4 zz cannons putting out 8 shots, this is enough to ruin most anyone’s day. Those extra ZZ-cannons dont come cheap though, weighing in at 525 points its more than half the cost of a jungle trike over the king buggy. This guy does best sitting at the back of the field laying down a lot of accurate anti afv fire. It will become a very high priority early on as it will completely dominate firing lanes, making any afv or battle suit wary to poke its head out.

Pros:

• 8 ZZ Cannons will melt anything that gets in its way

Cons:

• High Cost

Thunder Buggy

The Thunder Buggy is a blend of both king buggy and Jungle Buggy. With 2 ZZ cannons and 2 Drum Guns it can deal with infantry, battle suits and lightly armoured afv’s. Weighing in at 425, I find this buggy excels at dealing with UNA. The drum guns can wound toads on a 5+ tacarms on a 4+. if you are hoping to hurt anything with armour greater than 11, consider paying the points to take the Jungle Buggy or save yourself 25 points and take the flamers on the King buggy and get in close.

Pros:

• Drum guns are great against UNA
• only 25 points more than the King buggy
• Can be effective from medium-long range

Cons:

• Drum guns ineffective on targets with moret than 11 armour (need 6 to wound)

There you have it. All of the buggies are useful in different situations. Depending on what sort of army list you build you may want the overwhelming power of the Jungle Buggy, The Infantry Routing of the King buggy, or the hail of drum gun rounds from the Thunder Buggy. The most important thing is that you have a plan for how you are going to use your buggy to its maximum effectiveness. If you dont then the points are simply wasted.

Friday: 5-10pm, Saturday 9-8pm

Check it out and represent AT-43.

Some players are claiming that this removes some strategy from the game. This is true, but it does streamline play a little. if you have 2 identical units on the board there is no need to mark which is which, you simply pick one to activate.

Personally I preferred the rules the old way but I suppose I will get used to this new rule. It doesn’t change a whole lot, and remember unless you’re playing a tournament just use a house rule, that’s what I do.

Next up are the Sharpshooters. They have dual rifles and look just as badass as their close range counterparts. This looks like the mid / long range infantry option for the Cogs.

The special weapon shown for both is below, some sort of laser weapon perhaps?

What I get from this is that Rackham been bought out and their Europe distribution network is ready to roll out right now, where that leaves North America is anyones guess (I wrote about Fantasy Flight Games and Rackham’s split earlier). We’ll just have to wait and see. The English release mentions they will be working hard to ensure retailers get their product and that they will be working on establishing more organized play.

UPDATE: Reps from Rackham Entertainment are supposedly in North America working out the distribution kinks. It looks like it is full steam ahead for Rackham.

Additionally it can provide a new player insight into how the various factions work. Making life as easy as possible for new players is essential to growing the game. Hopefully it continues to grow.

There is going to be an AT43 Tournament at our local game shop, Wargames Workshop. This is planned for November 15th, more info on the Bedford Gladiators website here http://gladiators.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/at-43-tournament

and keep an eye on the wargames workshop website http://www.wargamesworkshop.co.uk/

Sounds like it will be a lot of fun. You can check this event and more on the event schedule.

What we know about the Cogs so far is that they are heavily into genetic engineering, how this plays out remains to be seen. Its nice to see that they will have some melee capabilities as well. More info on the cogs as it becomes available.

The UNA TacArms units can be equiped with laser designators which tag enemy units. Once tagged, any indirect fire weapons and missile launchers may be fired at that unit without requiring line of sight. Snakes, Lancelots, and squads with missile launchers need not reveal themselves at all to the enemy in order to fire. Couple that with the very heavy weapon loadout of the TacArms and the fact they cannot be grounded you see that they are the backbone of the UNA army.

You can see how the UNA like to play. While the majority of the army is hiding from view, the tacarms designate a few targets and the rest of the army unloads their arsenal at them. This makes TacArms extremely high priority targets as once they’re dead it forces the UNA player into the open. With the TacArms down, UNA becomes a much easier nut to crack.

The fast hit from reserves is how I use them best. They have a 30cm movement and on most missions you can easily get the 200 RP to bring one on your second turn. When I bring them on I dont plan on them surviving very long so I make a bee line usually towards the enemies battle suits. With karmic warrior and the rerolls of the ZZ guns you are pretty much guaranteed to hit with all your weapons at close range. 15 strength will wound even the dreaded kolossus on a 3+. Not too shabby for a 200 point unit.

against armies that dont have missile launchers you can also have them hang around at the back of the field and take potshots all day long, just use their high movement to keep as much distance between your opponent and the trike and you’ll likely get a few rounds of fire un harassed. Arceo lists are ideal for this as you can give the trikes “take cover”.

There is no middle range for these guys, its either charge towards auto hit range and hopefully take a round of AT fire off your buggies, or hang back and let cover and range give you the advantage. Regardless of how you play them they’re a huge asset to a karman commander. I wouldn’t leave home without them!

An email that went out to all of the community evangelists (Sentinel program) seems to have made those people very excited. While they can’t reveal anything about the email until the 28th judging from the reaction some very exciting good news is on the way from Rackham regarding AT-43. I for one can’t wait to see what Rackham has in store!

Captain Vrachov

This commander can either drive a Kossak or join a krasnye Soldaty unit as a third medic. He is very useful on foot and makes the unit he joins very hard to dislodge from cover.

Sgt. Tymofiyeva

When on foot in an RPG soldaty unit Sgt. Tymofiyeva gets the disruption ability. in addition she has interference which allows her to move any card in the opponents activation sequence (before it has been revealed) to another location. This can play havoc with their activation order and give you the upper hand. (especially nasty vs  UNA with Col stark as he must deploy first)

Kransye Soldaty

These guys have your only mechanics you’ll likely want a full unit of them as they also are very difficult to dislodge from cover when Captain Vrachov is with them. This gives them 3 medics and the ability to stay alive forever.

Urod / Kossak

You will need one of these type 2 AFV’s both are decent choices. If you get Urod you have some extra long range weapons and the ability to self repair, if you get the Kossak you can turn him into KK5 which can heal nearby troops (especially useful for getting kolossus to the battle alive). Urod will be more forgiving to mistakes as his repairs turn him into an absolute beast. If you take the Kossak though you may find you have trouble filling up a 2000 pt list without buying another unit of something if you aren’t using RPG kolossus.

RPG Soldaty

These guys get rockets and combat engineers they’re supposed to get in close and melt enemy AFVs. They have to get close like most red blok units as they have very poor accuracy. their standard weapons also have twice the shots of the krasnye so they will score double the imacts with their standard weapons over the krasnye. The combat engineer can blow up terrain to speed this units movement since you dont have to move around something that no longer exists. Blowing up cover is a good way to attack without triggering overwatch as well.

Sierps, 2 of them

Sierps are feared by any army that faces red blok. with 2 light mortars they have a strength of 6, enough to impact even karman type 2 infantry 50% of the time. If 3/4 of the shots hit from this unit you score double impacts. what isn’t killed outright will be grounded. With a unit of 2 of these badboys you can be sure to ground 2 infantry units a turn. In addition to this the sierps have the disruption ability which drains the Enemies LP pool by 1 point per sierp. This can constrain what the enemy will do with their LP and can be a game changer if you can snipe / kill their commander.

Kolossus, RPG or Dragomirov

Both of these kolossus are good choices. The Dragomirovs have one rocket launcher and one mgauss giving you 6 rocket shots and 9 mgauss shots to divide among your opponents. If you want some pure anti AFV firepower go with the RPG kolossus they get 12 rocket shots and once in close very little can survive that sort of onslaught. I prefer to have each unit dedicated to a certain task so RPG’s are what I would take, but if you’re on a budget the dragomirovs might be more flexible.

Dragonov Kommandos

With their Sniper rifles your enemy will think twice about exposing their commanders and battle suits. Keep these guys in the back and pick off high value targets. You can use AT-Gauss Guns with them as well if you need to beef up your AT firepower. They also get the disruption ability just like the sierps, each unit of Dragonovs can cause 2 LP of disruption if they take 2 electronic warfare specialists. This leaves them without medics so it is a bit of a tradeoff.

Final Lists

• 12 krasnye soldaty grenade launchers + captain vrachov
• 12 RPG soldaty +rocket launchers + Sergeant Tymofiyeva
• 9 Dragonov Kommandos + sergeant + sniper rifles
• Urod
• 2 Sierps + sgt

or

• 12 krasnye soldaty grenade launchers
• 12 RPG soldaty +rocket launchers
• 3 RPG kolossus + sgt
• Urod
• 2 Sierps + sgt

or

• 12 krasnye soldaty grenade launchers
• 12 RPG soldaty +rocket launchers + sgt tymofiyeva
• 3 RPG kolossus + sgt
• KK5
• 2 Sierps + sgt

or

• 12 krasnye soldaty grenade Launchers + captain vrachov
• 12 RPG soldaty +rocket launchers
• 9 dragonov kommandos + at-Gauss
• kossak
• 2 Sierps

(final list has a few points to spare)

As you can see all these lists are very similar and will let you get into the game with no wasted purchases. All the units listed here you will use and provide a fairly balanced starter army.

Hyper Nanonucleus 2 LP (Infantry and AFVs)

This routine lets a unit re roll all the failures for one damage test. So if you score 10 impacts and only 5 of them damage, you get to re roll those 5 failed damage tests. Some players may tell you that this is 2 LP per die rerolled but this is NOT the case. You get to re roll all of them.

Transfer 1 LP (Infantry)

You may replace a living member of the squad with one that has been previously killed. This is useful for bringing back heavy weapons or heroes that have been killed

Repair (AFV)

This routine lets the overseer repair an AFV for 1 structure point of damage

Dash 2 LP (Infantry and AFVs)

Allows an infantry unit to move 30 cm when making a rush move. This is very useful for getting units into position. Medusa’s benefit from this letting them move 2 times their regular movement. The AFV version of this routine lets an AFV move 50 cm in a rush move. Very useful for melee AFVs like hekats and Tiamat.

Fusion 4 LP (AFVs)

Two AFVs of the same type in the same unit are fused together to create an AFV of the higher type. The two AFVs are replaced by the new higher type AFV.

Creation 4 LP (AFVs)

This routine lets the Company Commander create a type 1 AFV that spawns beside them. The Units card is added to the activation sequence for the next turn. This is a very powerful routine as it lets the Therians create a hekat a turn as long as there are enough LP to do so. If your opponent cannot deal with these hekats in a quick manner they will soon find themselves overwhelmed.

In addition to the general routines listed above certain heroes gain access to special abilities.  Since the Therians do not have access to medics and engineers it is essential to get the best use out of these routines.

I’ve been playing some games with the available tier 3 units and this week it was the Baal Golgoth. I set up a 2000 point list for either side, the Therians using the Baal golgoth plus some min sized grim golem units and a unit of assault goliaths. On the Red Blok side I ran a standard list Urod, Krasnye soldaty, some RPG kolossus Dragonovs and molots.

The Red Blok list had tremendous trouble inflicting enough damage to defeat the Baal. With 16 armor even the Dragonov at-gauss need 5+ to wound. Atis was very quick in recognizing that the dragonovs were going to be the largest threat and quickly engaged and dispatched them. Urod wounded the baal on a 3+ but for a maximum of 2 damage. The Soldaty took rockets and needed to be in range of the deadly heavy flamer in order to engage so they weren’t much use.

I tried out some bacterial grenades to no avail. Essentially Atis gives the Therians the ability to remove enough strong AT firepower (dragonovs) to make killing the baal extremely difficult. When Dotch Yaga comes along it will be a different story, but I don’t think that Tier 3 should be the only way to deal with the Baal.

Some Quick math came up with the following. assuming that the Baal has no cover and a range of 3.

• RPG kolossus 1 impact (2 damage)
• Dragonov AT-Gauss .83 impact
• Urod .88 impact (1 damage) + .25 impacts (2 damage)
• Kossack .5 impacts (2 damage)
• Dotch Yaga 1.25 impacts (2 damage)
• Soldaty .33 impacts (2 damage)
• Bacteriological Grenades .33 impacts (2 damage)

As you can see nothing comes near the effectiveness of Dotch Yaga in defeating the Baal, there is nothing in the Red Blok arsenal that for equivalent point cost can effectively deal with a tier 3 threat. Which basically forces Red Blok to take a tier three unit because they never know if they will be facing one or not themselves. Even 4 units of min sized krasnye with grenades can potentially put out the same damage as dotch Yaga, but they have to get so close to the baal that its heavy flamer will just melt them.

The Red Blok Kolossus are a very hardy battle suit. With 12 armour regular weapons just bounce off them. Couple that with the take cover drill or an infantry screen and you can give your unit a good chance of getting in close. KK5 with his medic ability can make all the difference though. Especially coupled with the new frostbite combat drill that lets AFV’s become cover, these hardy troopers can advance up the battlefield virtually unscathed.

This works particularly well with Kolossus that have indirect fire weapons as you can advance and still fire with all three while only exposing a spotter to any fire. Should this unit be shot and actually take an impact there is the 3+ cover and a medic provided to KK5 to keep him in the fight.

Use RPG kolossus and hide them entirely, By the time KK5 is in effective range so too will the kolossus and they can simply move out from behind him and unleash their rockets. back KK5 up with a min unit of krasnye soldaty with mechanics and you’ll have a very hardy column of units that all need to get close to the enemy and support each other in getting there.

This opens up a large amount of strategy since the order units activate becomes important. If a unit is destroyed before it gets to activate the player must still reveal that card. There are ways a player can manipulate their activation order by spending Leadership Points (LP). Leadership points are spent activating units without an officer, manipulating the activation order, assigning combat drills and using special abilities.

A player can manipulate their own activation order in the following ways.

• For 2 LP they may delay their activation essentially passing on their next activation, you may not delay twice in a row.
• For 2 LP on the activation following a delay the player may choose to activate the next 2 cards in their activation order.
• For 1 LP the player may move the card they are about to activate anywhere in the existing order and then reveal the following card.

These open up a lot of strategy with respect to the order of units. Double activation allows 2 units to act before the opponent gets the chance to move, repair, or activate abilities. It costs a fair number of LP to do this but it can be very powerful when executed correctly. Being able to move the upcoming card in your activation is also helpful. For instance if you realize you made a mistake in your activation order, or the unit that is coming up was destroyed and you dont want your opponent to act twice in a row and potentially inflict even more damage unanswered.

The strategic options in at-43 are great and this is what makes it such a fun game to play. Other table top games play like checkers, at-43 is more like chess.

For more details on the rules of At-43 you can download them at the at-43 website.

UPDATE: With the release of Operation frostbite, if you have two units that use the same card you may choose which one to activate when the card comes up. The units must have the same special weapons and officer rank for this rule to apply.

I recently picked up a Karman army and have been having a ton of fun with Guru Lucius leading a unit of 4 Kaptars. Lucius gives the unit he is leading stealth when they are in cover and given the take cover drill. This gives the usually fragile kaptars a lot more room to step out and fire all their weapons. The other benefit is that Lucius comes with 2 drum guns listed separately on his profile. This gives his unit the possibility of firing at 3 different targets with the split fire combat drill. This is extremely helpful when dealing with a UNA morningstar list as they are able to field a large number of smaller sized infantry units and if you’re lucky they’ll have left the triple lens helmets at home.

I am not totally sold on using diamond over a king buggy though. The flamers seem to be much more useful at clearing out infantry and for AFV killing, nothing beats the jungle buggy. Then again I usually run a Nova list so having a hero in an afv seems like a bit of a waste if they are anything less than a Saint.

The release of Operation Frostbite brought some new neutral units that could be called on. One of which being MedTec. They are owned by the ONI corporation and are doctors for hire. I have play tested this unit and found them to be extremely useful in certain situations.

First the basics. MedTec units consist of a container, 2 low walls and 3 MedTec specialists. The units deployment is slightly different from the rest of its army. When MedTec comes onto the battlefield it must set up its container after its first movement (after any possible over-watch as well). The container must be set up within the control range of the MedTec unit so this gives it a deployment range of 30 cm (20 from rush movement + 10 for deploying the container at max control range).  For most missions this is plenty.

The benefits of MedTec are that for any unit that contributes to controlling its container the MedTec may use its three medics to heal those units or themselves. The benefits of having three extra medics should be obvious especially when coupled with long range weapons. If it is possible to get this unit within 10 of a mission objective it would help make that objective extremely difficult to capture.

In addition to the 3 medics available to MedTec, they also get the field hospital ability. This allows an active unit that is contributing to the control of the MedTec container to bring a fighter back to life, regardless of where or when they were killed.

For 75 points this can be an invaluable unit to have for certain missions regardless if you are attacking or defending. It helps keep your troops alive and can bring back that special weapon that got sniped by accident last turn. It also helps create more tactical opportunities since it is deployable cover. I’ve found this unit to be well worth its point cost and have had a ton of fun playing with it.

I enjoy playing the Therians but do have a small problem with how Babylon Zero works. For those that haven’t encountered this unit yet be thankful. Essentially it gets 4 nucleus cannon 2.0 sniper shots while still being able to move. This means that in one turn it can pretty much kill any AFV on the board.

I recently played a game against the UNA where they were using Stark in his Copperhead. The UNA must deploy Stark first on the board and is a big juicy target for Babylon zero. I killed him on Babylon’s activation in one volley because I could re roll my failed damage tests. His cover was ignored. Now I could see zero fire being more balanced if you were required to use the “sniper” profile of the nucleus cannon 2.0 (only 1 shot instead of 2) but as it stands it seems extremely over powered.

I won the first game very easily but the UNA player came back with a good strategy. Using a morning star list, and Col. Stark on foot he took a good number of missile teams and laser guns. This put an end to Babylon Zero, but not before she had taken out a cobra snake, again with 1 attack.

Herein lies the problem though. This unit essentially is forcing a very specific build on everyone that faces Therians because if they are not equipped to handle Babylon Zero with overwhelming firepower they are going to get melted. Red Blok faces an even greater problem than the UNA, at least the UNA missiles ignore cover, practically the only option for the Blok is to go heavy Dragonov At-Gauss.

Infantry heavy lists seem to be the key to beating her, but I don’t think that anyone should be forced into a single cookie cutter list to just counter one unit. There is an interesting discussion over on the at-43 forums it is about cheese in general but a good portion is devoted to Babz.

Overview

The UNA are the most advanced human faction. They possess powerful technologies and are ideologically opposed to the Red Blok. They use their superior range and technology to their advantage, they annihilate enemy afvs with their missiles without having to expose themselves to retaliatory fire.

Play Style

The UNA are a very versatile force able to deal with most any threat thrown their way. They fight best at longer ranges where their high accuracy really shines. Equipped with laser guns, and missile launchers they are able to put a lot of hurt on enemy. Their TacArms are able to designate targets that can be engaged with indirect fire weapons like mortars, grenade launchers and missiles without requiring any line of sight to the target.

Advantages

• Laser designation with TacArms
• Missiles that hit on a 3+ with unlimited range
• TacArms ungroundable
• high accuracy

Disadvantages

• only 2 special weapons per infantry unit
• lower maximum unit size
• lower afv armour

Overview

Fighting for Justice Equity and Unity the Red Blok seek to fight against those that oppose those values. Each soldier is dedicated to bettering the collective which has been striving for their goal for over a century.

Play Style

The Red Blok combine very heavily armoured AFV’s with large numbers of ground troops. They are a faction that is constantly moving towards the enemy due to their limited effective range. Once the Red Blok guns are within their effective range though they have the potential to unleash an enormous amount of damage. They have many tricks up their sleeves to slow the enemy down and need to use all of them to be effective.

Strengths

• Highly armoured AFVs
• High damage potential of infantry units
• Effective snipers
• Disruption reduces the LP available to their opponent each turn
• Large numbers of troops lets them take and hold strategic positions easily

Weaknesses

• Inaccurate weapons forcing them to advance on the enemy
• Difficulty taking down very heavy AFV’s (Type 3 for example)
• Infantry has lighter armour compared to the other factions

Overview

The Therians are a species that wishes to bend the universe to their will. They are extremely technologically advanced and are ruthless in crushing anyone that attempts to get in the way.

Play Style

The Therian commanders known as overseers have access to routines that they can execute during battle. These routines provide many abilities from being able to re roll failed damage tests to summoning AFV’s out of thin air. All Therian infantry are also equipped with strong melee weapons so they can more than handle themselves in a close quarter battle. Their melee only, Grim Golems are invisible to the enemy and are ideal for charging towards the enemy. All Therian units are very fast and can take strategic positions faster than most of their opponents.  Don’t think that the Therian army is incapable of shooting though. They can also be very effective from a distance. They are a very flexible army and there is hardly a situation they cannot handle.

Strengths

• Summon AFV’s during battle
• Higher armor values
• 3 special weapons in a max size unit

Weaknesses

• very few 2 damage weapons
• routines are LP dependent
• no medics or engineers (though there is a repair routine)

Veteran players will also find there will be articles on more advanced strategy, upcoming Rackham releases, army lists and some great discussion. The at-43 community is one of the most supportive that I have come across and it is what will propel at-43 to the next level.