Robot Legions Firefight Tactics

Robot Legions
Setting:	Grimdark Future
Games:	Grimdark Future, Grimdark Future: Firefight
Species:	Android
Version:	v2.50

Why play Robot Legions

The robot legions are akin to an indomitable tide. Though each unit has Fearless and Regeneration and most of them are Slow, they will make their way over eventually. The issue then becomes making your forces effective, for otherwise you're just being a nuisance rather than being a threat.

Pros

• All your units have Regeneration and Fearless
• Your troops are very strong with plenty of Rending
• Your army has great defense

Cons

• Average to low activations
• You have to contend with Slow for most of your units

Special Rules

• Flux: Poison +1, equipped on flux rifles. Any nat 6 to hit now makes a hit count as 4 hits.
• Gloom-Protocol: Allows the unit to block spells as if it had Psychic(2). If the model could already cast, then it's getting a +2 to block.

Psychic Spells

• Star-Bots (4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to hit with melee. Pretty much an insurance policy considering how your forces mostly have a 3+ defense
• Meteor Bots (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Assault Bots (5+): An friendly unit within 12" can immediately move up to 3". Not really an escape button, but more of a good nudge out for another shot.
• Thunderbolt Bots (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes 4 hits. While the hits lack AP, this will be enough to crush a weaker hero like the HDF.
• Arrow Bots(6+): Enemy unit within 18" takes -2 to hit with shooting. This pretty much makes it an improvement over Star-Bots.
• Fire Bots (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 6 AP 1 hits, making it more effective against the average force.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Overseer: Your prime beatstick for a hero, blessed with a 2+ defense a 3+ quality and a modest selection of guns and blades to assert his place as the top dog.
  • Shooting: By default, the overseer comes with a ranged attack with his staff, a decent weapon with AP 1. However, the moment the staff is gone, you'll be stuck with one of two choices if you still want to shoot: a wrist-mounted flamethrower or a laser cannon. Both of these can still be bought alongside the staff so it's not a straight sacrifice, but neither of them can exactly make up for the loss of the staff. The flamethrower lacks any AP but offers plenty of shots and the laser cannon is a single shot with incredible range and high AP, but saddled with an incredible price tag that makes it unappealing.
  • Melee: The basic staff offers nothing in this department, but the shooting can compensate for this. However, this staff can be replaced with a hyper sword for AP 1 and Rending at no cost, a very tempting offer for melee-centric overseers. The paid options don't slack either, with the void sword offering a flurry of AP 1 blows keyed to lesser-defended heroes, the phase glaive giving a battle-brother-breaking AP 4, and the war scythe dealing Deadly 3 for ending better-defended heroes.

• Technomancer: Likely your chief choice of hero - Not only does this guy give you buffs for your troops, but they also act as your psychics.
  • Shooting: While you have the same staff as the overseer, you can buy some better shooting to bolster it. The Flame-Protocol gives you a lot of short-range attacks, the Dread-Protocol gives a middle of the road option, and the Solar-Protocol gives the best range at AP 3 and Deadly...for one shot.
  • Additional Protocols: Gloom-Protocol gives you additional anti-psychic measures and doesn't overlap with being a psychic in itself. Nightmare-Protocol gives Fear - You're not that powerful in melee, but maybe it'll work when ganging up with another unit or two that is good there. Darkness-Protocol grants half of your army Ambush, which is quite the gift for an mobility-challenged army.
  • Personal Upgrades: While a jetpack sounds tempting, do remember that you'll still be hampered by Slow, so you'll likely be stuck with jetpack guardians. Bot-Master grants Psychic, which is quite powerful considering how costly your other is - though that one can be far stronger. Regen-Protocol boost the Regeneration score of nearby friendlies to a 4+. You can also add up to two Technoslaves if you're really looking to jump into melee.

• Warden: A straight, no-frills shooting hero. This guy totes a heavy reaper rifle, which is essentially an improvement over the warrior's reaper rifle, as well as a heavy CCW that's more than enough to handle melee if necessary. What brings this guy an edge over the overseer as a beatstick and hero of choice is the Royal March ability, which lets nearby allies negate the Slow Rule - and you will definitely want this to throw your minions into place.

Infantry

• Warrior: Your humble frontliner is quite a durable force. That said, being walls are what they suffice as - Their gauss rifles can only shoot one Rending shot and the alternative reaper rifle halves the shooting range for a guaranteed AP 2. from there you have the option for a cheap flame caster for a bunch of short-range shots, plasma caster for a long-range reaper rifle, or a fusion caster for an expensive anti-tank mob.

• Eternal: Essentially specialist Warriors with a 2+ defense. Your eternal has access to either a flux rifle (if you want to risk it all on Poison) or a heavy gauss rifle (Adding AP 1 to the gauss rifle).

• Guardian: By default, they're pretty much a mini-overseer with staff that's missing an attack in both modes. However, they can be a given jetpack for some good mobility. As for other weapons, you're stuck with either the war scythe (High AP but no guns), antimatter pistol and void sword (More melee than shooting) or the hyper sword and shield (Granting a pretty good weapon and Stealth).

• Flesh Eater: Pure melee murderer. They have absolutely no hope of shooting, so you should consider Ambush if you're not driving them to the fight (or hitch a ride on a technomancer's Shadow-Protocol). The claws are fairly effective with AP 1 and Rending, though you can pop 5 points to replace Rending with either more attacks, AP 3 or Deadly 3.

• Sniper: While just as powerful as a base eternal with Ambush, these guys suffer on account of having a rather pitiful range for their rifle. By buying Hunter, you can make their first turn far more valuable by granting their rifles AP 4 on the turn they arrive - just what you need to kill whatever key unit they see.

• Bot Swarm: Absolutely abysmal quality and defense, though they hold onto all the same rules and move at normal speed with Strider and have Tough 3. If nothing else, they're a good fodder unit to throw at the enemy while you cap objectives.

• Hover Bike: As a bike, it's able to move with normal speed and Strider, which makes for very good news for shooting. Aside from the twin gauss rifle, you can instead by a twin flux rifle (for super-poison) or an antimatter rifle (for blowing up clumps of foes).

• Robot Snake: Truly a threatening unit. Their melee weapons are strong and they have Strider and Tough 3, so they are very capable of getting in position to strike. You can even buy them an antimatter pistol or death gaze for cheap short-range shooting or whip coils to double the melee.

• Tri-Scorpion: While technically similar to the hover snake, this guy gets arm blades that trade some attacks for guaranteed AP 2. Buying a heavy blade just makes a bigger can opener, while buying Rending...feels utterly irrelevant unless you're dealing with a lot of Regeneration.

• Annihilator: Ambush and Strider make them a good bit more mobile than most, and Tough makes sure that this gun platform lasts. Whether you pick the more anti-infantry gauss cannon or one anti-tank heavy gauss cannon, you should never be on the front lines. If you really want it there, buy the hyper swords and have fun.

List Building & Tactics

General Advice

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Tactics

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See Also

• Robot Legions
• Robot Legions Firefight Quickplay Armies
• Battle Brothers Firefight Quickplay Armies
• Grimdark Future: Firefight