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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 .

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.

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?

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.

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.

• 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.

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.

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 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.

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)