AT43 Addict

I’ll admit it, I often make mistakes when interpreting rules. I only hope that I can clarify those rules for someone else. The rule in question was split fire. I initially assumed that you needed to use split fire on your infantry units if you wanted to shoot your special weapons at a separate target. This was incorrect.

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.

There has been a lot of discussion around shield formation and how it is actually used. I will summarize the rules and you will see that it is actually clearly defined. The major problem that most people encounter when interpreting the shield formation rules comes down to line of sight. Firstly, AFV’s can block line of sight. The rule “assume the vantage point of the shooter and if you can see a part of your target you can shoot it” stands. You can be in a situation where some of your models behind an AFV cannot be killed by direct fire because the models shooting it cannot see it (sideways positioned afv for example).

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.

There is a nice little AT-43 scenario available called Premier weapons. It is for UNA and Red Blok and uses 2 units for each side. Should be a pretty fun game to play if you’re short on time or want to make a little demo for people. You can download it here.

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.

Lots of news today. There is a great write up of a tournament in France. Lots of great pictures of their fantastic playing boards and a bunch of games in progress. These are the kinds of events that I would love to see more of as they are a ton of fun and show everyone that AT-43 is a contender.

Fantasy flight is having a massive AT-43 sale, and by massive im talking 66% off their list price sale. I completed some missing stuff from my Karman and Red Blok armies this morning. So go, get cheap AT-43 stuff! Unfortunately this is North America only though.

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

For any Therian player, Atis-Astarte is a must have model. Being the leader of a grim golem unit, she has the ability to teleport the entire unit into combat with any unit she can see. There is no range limitation to this ability either.

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.

I came across this rule clarifaction on the at-43 forum and it changes the way I have been playing with indirect fire.

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.

So the word from rackham is that unpainted model kits are coming for the whole range of at-43 minis. This is great news for those that love the modelling aspect of table top games. With at-43 you will soon be able to get the best of both worlds.

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.

So with the realease of CHO 111 comes a lot of new Cogs info. There is a brief overview of the faction and they supply their base platoon pattern.

• 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.