AT43 Addict

So you’re thinking of getting into at-43 but don’t want to shell out for a full 2000+ point army? Here are some good places to start if you’re looking at getting into the game. Each of these armies will give you an AFV, a type 1 unit and a battle suit to give you a flavour of each of the unit types. Best of all none of the units will go un used as they are all staples of each army.

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.

The guys over at Le Dragon Du Nord have a fantastic painting / modelling blog up and running. Their work is really phenominal and I highly recommend everyone go check it out. Its pretty amazing what these guys are doing with the AT-43 Pre-Painted Plastic (PPP) and the fact that they really love using it as a base for all their detailed painting. They have lots of other games covered too so if you’re into confrontation and the like this blog will be of interest to you too.

If you’re looking to play Cogs and you like AFV’s then the A-Volution list is for you. The layout is similar to Red Blok’s Frontline list but with an even greater focus on AFV’s.

• 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.

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.

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.