AT43 Addict

Ask me which  type 3 infantry I fear the most from at-43 and every time I will say Bane Goliaths. These guys are monsters. They are a must have in my Therian lists simply due to the shear amount of Anti AFV firepower they can throw down.

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. read more »

Now that I have my Hussar I decided to put together a 2000 point Red Blok Frontline list that utilized it and see how it played out. I must say I really like the new list and found it performed really well. I was playing a Therian opponent and found that having 2 type ** afvs was invaluable. With repairs from the krasnye and from Urod there was little my opponent could do short of taking out an afv in one barrage. The sierps did melt pretty quickly but they got their primary job done. Ground the Banes. The list is as follows. read more »

Whenever I’m putting together a Therian list the grim golems are certainly on it. What is not to like about this unit? It has stealth, two melee weapons you can toss 3 flamers into it and, for that extra bang, it can teleport anywhere it can see if Atis-astarte is with them.

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.

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Red Blok is a very short range army. Aside from the Medium AT Cannon of the Hetman and the AT Gauss of the Dragonov Kommandos there are no other long range AT weapons available to Red Blok. Unfortunately these weapons are both 1 damage making it very difficult for Red Blok to down type 2 AFVs from range.

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.

In AT-43 you spend most of your time taking and holding points. getting RP are essential to getting your reinforcements on the board and VP are essential to winning. Enter the point holding unit. Its job is to get to an exposed VP point as fast as possible and hold onto it for dear life. Every faction can field such a unit and it is essential to have one in your force.

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.

Heroes play an important role leading infantry units in AT-43. While remaining fairly easy to kill, they bring many benefits to the battlefield. Some questions come up fairly often though. Why would you want to put your hero on foot vs in an AFV where they arguably are more protected? The Fire at Will combat drill is why. A unit that has a hero as an officer can spend 1 LP to increase the number of re rolls on their weapon profile by 1 if the unit doesn’t move that turn. This means that you can increase your effective range substantially.

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.

Many players on their first playing AT-43 find that AFV’s are incredibly overpowered. I must admit the first time I played, my Therian infantry got absolutely crushed by some Sierps. It wasn’t until I had a few games under my belt that I realized that AT-43 is about counters. Sure Mortars, grenade launchers etc will absolutely pound infantry, but in order to actually win most games infantry must hold various points.

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.

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 Molot is the Twin flamer Type * afv for Red Blok. It is very devastating when used correctly and there are a few things you can do to make them even more useful. I always field at least 2 of them this is because often times, by the time they reach their opponent they have so many pieces hanging off of them that if I had one it likely wouldn’t make it at all.

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.