AT43 Addict

The Kaptars and Anakongas are the type * infantry of the Karman forces. They each serve a distinct role in the army and have their advantages over the other. Without access to medics both units are very fragile and don’t respond well to taking casualties, but they have an awesome amount of fire that makes up for this fact. Kaptars and Anakongas are also the only Karman troop type with access to mechanics, this plays a crucial role in how they are deployed as that one repair can mean the difference between your King Buggy becoming immobilized for the game, or regaining its propulsion to wreak havoc for another turn. The following is a comparison between the two Karman Type *’s. read more »

I was giving a demo of some larger scale battles and decided to do a 3 way free for all in order to demo the rules. We didn’t play with reinforcements or VP as the goal was to get the core rules down so many of the strategic elements weren’t represented in this battle. That being said it was a ton of fun.

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

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The karman Type 3 infantry are extremely powerful heavy hitting units. Unlike their counterparts in other armies, each unit only has 2 models. They make up for this drawback by having an enormous amount of firepower and as much armour as a toad. Grounding is their worst enemy, as most weapons wont be able to damage them at all. Karman K-units now have the stability ability which makes them ungroundable, just like TacArms.

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.

The Karmans have a wide array of Buggies available to them, knowing when to take the right tool for the job is paramount in being successful with the Karmans. Breaking down each buggy, it’s strengths and weaknesses, will help a Karman commander decide what the best buggy to take is.

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.