Human Defense Force Tactics
| Human Defense Force | ||
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| Setting: | Grimdark Future | |
| Games: | Grimdark Future, Grimdark Future: Firefight | |
| Species: | Human | |
| Version: | v2.50 | |
Note: as v2.50 is in constant development the following might not be accurate.
Why Play Human Defense Force
The Human Defense Force (HDF) provide a huge variety of playstyle. They play mainly with a lot of activations, allowing you to seize the initiative in the first turns and to play around your losses in the late turns.
Pros:
- Lots of Activations and Infantry Models. Your units are very cheap, especially the infantry ones, which makes it easy for you to develop a wide board or to consider taking big units instead of little ones without sacrificing activations.
- Lots of Vehicles. You have a considerable amount of choices between which vehicles you want to bring, depending on the role you need to fill. Be it transporting units, providing long range support or simply blast through objectives, HDF has you covered.
- Very Versatile. Not only you have a lot of vehicles and infantries, but they can provide different bonuses depending of what peculiar role you want them to fill. You can think of any strategy anjd you'll surely find between your units the one that fits the most for those roles without trouble.
- Good Buffs. Not only your heroes are pretty cheap, but they can choose between a very wide range of buffs to give to their attached units, as well as nearby ones. Wheter you need shooting, psychic, immunity to morale or repositioning, you can easily spare a few points and make the best out of a unit.
- Lots of Shooting. Between your buffs and spells, every single one of your weapons and veteran teams and most of your vehicles, you'll find out that the HDF really loves to solve most of its problems with a cacophony of multiple guns terminating any unfortunate shmuck in sight. You're one of the factions that can easily fit your units with whatever ranged heavy weapon you'll need.
Cons:
- Pitiful Stats. You do not have more than 4+ in Quality, most of your infantry has 5+ in Defense (4+ at best) and your heroes are no less. The reason you have lots of activations is because your units will hardly hit their targets to begin with and will get utterly decimated by most attacks. Do not trust this laser cannon squad.
- Weak to Dedicated Anti-Infantry and Anti-Tank. Your infantry reaches as best veteran efficiency, while vehicles fit the standard and their most note-worthy aspect is the usual 2+ in Defense. The reason this is troubling is that an opponent that can field specialized units can exploit your army weak points. Flamethrowers and similars near any of your infantry will burn them to a crisp in no time, while fusion rifles and similars near your vehicles will vaporize them. You need to carefully place and move your units or you'll easily risk blowing them up against their counters.
- Weak Heroes. Heroes are pretty much there only to provide buffs. Stats wise they're pitiful, while weapons wise they are somehow worse than the Guard. Do not expect them to be anything more than a nice keyword added to your units.
- Weak Psychic. Your only Psychic choice is in the hands of your heroes, which however also means you're forfeiting their other buffs for this. Moreover, you have no access to any counter-Psychic ability, making your units very vulnerable against spells.
- Weak Melee. Yes, you have the possibility to give Furious to your units, but even more melee-centric ones like OGREs (to a degree) and Cavalries will find themselve lacking against more melee-centric factions, while your other ones will get blown away in no time. Even your only Walker is, compared to most other monsters/constructs, good mainly for ranged fighting. Do never forget that you are first and foremost a shooting army and make sure your units stay the hell away from your opponent's ones.
Army Special Rules
- Battle Drills: Grants Furious for the unit, which makes it best for a unit you're planning to throw into melee, be it either a sacrificial mob of Conscripts or lumbering OGREs.
- Company Standard: Once per activation, this unit provides two units within 12" a +1 to their next morale checks, which might make it more convenient for most squads. This can free up your hero to go on the offensive.
- Double Time: Once per activation, this unit can let a unit within 12" immediately move 6", giving them the means to encircle the opposition or save them from unfortunate fire.
- Field radio: Increase the range of Double Time, Focus Fire, or Take Aim to 24". Warning: the upgrade must be bought for both the commanding and the commanded unit. To make the Commander have a field radio, buy an Infantry Squad with a field radio and attach the hero to it with the Hero special rule.
- Focus Fire: One unit within 12" of this unit gains +1 to their AP when they shoot next. This can be very helpful in upping the effectiveness of any of your troops' guns, from mere rifles to even the attached Heavy Weapons Crew.
- Medical Training: Increases the chances of survival of an infantry unit. This is worth buying only if the unit is fully kitted with expensive options and have only a defense of 5+, as it almost costs as much as a vanilla Infantry Squad.
- Set Example: This makes you the butcher of your own troops. This allows to sacrifice a model in order to pass a failed morale check. This is good when the model is cheap, like a Conscript or an Infantryman. For Veterans or Storm Troopers, however, it will be more advantageous for your opponent than for yourself.
- Take Aim: Once per activation, one unit within 12" of this model gets +1 to hit rolls when shooting for the next activation, helpful for your mediocre infantry
Psychic Spells
- Flame Breath (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes two AP(2) hits. A good choice to soften up or finishing off most units.
- Foresight (4+): Friendly unit within 12" takes +1 to hit with shooting. With how limited your shooting can get, you'll be needing every shot to count.
- Expel (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes a single AP(4) Deadly(3) hit. Pretty much all you can ask for when sniping a hero or heavy weapon.
- Protective Dome (5+): A friendly unit within 12" gains Stealth when they next get shot at. Useful against shooting, consider using it when taking up objectives to give needed increased survivability.
- Psychic Speed (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately move 6". This gives you a desperate escape button or possibly an easier charge.
- Tempest (6+): Enemy unit within 6" take a hit per model, making this hell for mobs of grunts.
Unit Analysis
Heroes
- Company Leader: Your main hero isn't any tougher than the average grunt, and is only slightly more accurate. Hell, they don't even have a good selection of weaponry, since you're stuck between either the assault rifle or a pistol (plain or plasma) and your choice of either an energy sword or fist in place of the CCW. No, you want them for their many rules, all of which can seriously improve and influence the options of their troops.
- Upgrades: Your heroes can purchase one of several influential rules. Drill Sergeant issues Battle Drills, which itself issues Furious so it works best for a unit you intend to throw on the charge. Battle Mystic offers you Psychic(1). Executioner straps you with Set Example, a potentially dangerous way to prevent pinning and overruns. Forward Observer gives Take Aim, which can be useful both for artillery or on gunlines. Munitioner gives Focus Fire, making it the best for a squad where you might need that bump in AP. Commander offers Double Time, pressing your numerical advantage and offering a means to safety for your squads at a hefty cost.
- Storm Leader: A slightly more expensive leader, but considerably more effective in combat with a 4+ in quality and defense. Their loadout is only slightly better, as they get the Heavy Rifle for AP(1) and the option for either a Heavy Pistol or Plasma Pistol, while their CCW remains as effective as the Company Leader's. They also have the ability to use Ambush, letting them surprise attack an enemy force when properly supported by a pack of Storm Troopers. Though they can take the same upgrades as the Company Leader, their bump in price might see you reconsider options like Commander and Munitioner.
Infantry
- Conscripts: Send the untrained and the unfit to battle! Their 6+ quality and their lack of upgrade means their firepower is non existent. Instead focus on their durability: moving them into cover will decrease their likelihood of dying, and attaching them a hero with Executioner will decrease their likelihood of being pinned or routed. As a cheap and numerous unit which can't be pinned while still having an Executioner, they're very difficult to remove from objectives and can force your opponent to waste a number of activations and attacks to remove them instead of targeting more valuable units.
- Infantry Squad: The humble frontliner. Cheap as chips, flimsy as paper, but they have numbers. Alongside the melee weapons given to the heroes, you also have access to a special weapon, giving you a measure of flexibility, as well as your choice of either a Company Standard, a Field Radio, or Medical Training Regeneration.
- Shooting: Alongside the options one model has like the Company Leader, you can also provide two special weapons, all of which have their place depending on what you intend to use them for. The Plasma Gun offers you a cheap means to pop armor while the Fusion Rifle offers inexpensive tank-busting power at short range. The Flamethrower provides you with a good number of hits at short range while the Shred Rifle offers rapid-fire with the chance of Rending for high AP. The Grenade Launcher gives a small blast made to handle crowds. The Sniper Rifle in particular provides you extreme range that exceeds even the base rifle with AP(1) and Sniper to pick off key models.
- Weapon Teams: Available as a three-model squad or as a lone 60-point attachment to an Infantry/Veteran Squad, these are essentially Tough(3) soldiers toting a single heavy weapon. Each of these are made for long-range combat, so it's better to keep them as far away as possible. This is especially true of an attached team, as you'll be especially vulnerable to Deadly and Sniper.
- The mortar the Weapons Team provides gives you long-ranged crowd control but is limited by Indirect's movement penalty. You can replace this with the Heavy Machinegun for long-ranged firepower with AP(1), the Missile Launcher that can pop tanks ignore cover with Lock-On, the AP(3) Laser Cannon that can directly threaten tanks or the anti-infantry AP(2) Autocannon.
- Veteran Squad: 4+ quality makes your vets a little bit more valuable. These guys also gain access to a special weapons list that was expanded to include the short-range Shotgun and Heavy Flamethrower. You can also give the squad one of four different upgrades (AP(3) in melee, +1 to defense, Scout or Stealth) that can shift around just how these guys work. Since they can also grab a Company Standard, Field Radio or Regeneration on top of all that, you can make a pretty good HQ bunker.
- Special Weapons: Your soldiers can now grab whatever special weapons they want (barring Sniper Rifles)...at the cost of anything else. If you grab them, it's because you really need a certain weapon badly enough that one or two just won't cut it. Also helping matters is the fact that they have Relentless, making their dedication clearer. Be careful because their defense is still 5+, so they will die as fast as anyone else and lack the flexibility that basic Infantry have.
- Storm Troopers: Your elite troops. Each of them comes with 4+ to quality and defense as well as Strider and the option for Ambush for a surprise assault. Their base Heavy Rifles and Heavy Pistols also get AP(1), so they can take on infantry more comfortably. Like the veterans, you can buy up to two special weapons, and while they can take the guns most soldiers can, they can also grab the Heavy Volley Rifle - a 24" A3 AP(1) gun to give you some more attacks. Like the regulars, they can also grab a Company Standard, Field Radio or Regeneration to fit your goals.
- Sniper Squad: Whatever you do, DON'T LET THEM STOP SNIPING. These guys are no better than troopers outside sniping. Make use of their Scout and Stealth rules and move to the best position possible.
- OGRE Squad: Big beefy walls of meat with Fearless, Furious and Tough(3) to soak up blows. Their Mini-GLs are short-ranged crowd management, but you can grab Heavy SMGs if you want something to handle better-protected troops. If you're dedicating to melee, then grab either Shock Batons for Rending or Heavy Batons for AP(1) depending on what you're planning to punch. You can also grab shields, be it the shields, sacrificing the base CCWs with AP(1) for a 3+ defense that also weakens their output by losing AP and a swing with that hand's weapon.
- Cavalry Squad: Your troops are now Fast and have Impact(1) in order to give some better charges. If you plan to lean harder into that, you can give the squad Energy Lances to add to the Impact hits. You could also grab a special weapon if you were interested in making mobile firepower a thing, though be wary that most of your troops will be carrying pistols and thus will only have a 12" range.
Vehicles
- Field Artillery: A light truck with an artillery cannon, compensating being Slow with the Repair ability to help your other tanks. It starts out with a Rocket Battery to fire a barrage of small blasts, but you can buy a Field Cannon for AP(2) blasts if you're dealing with high-defense squads or a Heavy Laser Cannon to demolish all tanks. Considering its speed, you're not keeping this anywhere further than the back.
- Armored Truck: An all-terrain vehicle gifted with Strider and capable of buying Transport(11) to make it a surprisingly well-armed transport depending on what you pick up. While the Dozer Blade's Strider is wasted on this truck, Camouflage Netting gives a more palatable Stealth.
- Shooting: The Armored Truck comes equipped with a Twin Volley Gun, providing long-ranged fire for any opponent with AP(1), capable of being swapped for a Twin Autocannon for extreme-range fire. On top of that, you can offer support with anti-aircraft Hunter Missiles and the option for either a Storm Rifle or Heavy Machinegun for supporting fire. On top of that, you can purchase either a crowd-popping Light Battle Cannon, rapid-firing anti-aircraft Twin Taurus Missiles, or the Twin Gatling Gun's extreme rate of fire at a relatively short range.
- Light APC: A cheaper transport compared to the Armored Truck, but it loses out on Strider. It is quite lightly armed, coming stock with two Heavy Flamethrowers. Alongside the upgrades available to the truck is the ability to upgrade your guns to Heavy Machineguns (or make one a Laser Machinegun for better AP). All in all, it fits its role as a transport quite nicely and little else. Do not expect it to fare much against other tanks.
- Attack Vehicle: A Light APC that sacrifices its transport capacity to upgrade a Heavy Flamethrower into a longer-range Flamethrower Cannon, which can be replaced with either the Acid Cannon for Poison or the Fusion Cannon for long-ranged tank destruction. The Heavy Flamethrower can also be replaced too, with the options being either a Heavy Machinegun for long-ranged firepower or the Fusion Rifle to help destroy tanks, which can be further supported like with the Armored Truck and Light APC.
- Support Vehicle: This tank carries Twin Shard Mortars, long range small blast artillery that can see it tear through plenty of targets without hassle. Depending on your preferred targets, you can upgrade that to either the Eagle Rockets (providing long-range AP(3) blasts to destroy forces like Battle Brothers), Twin AA-Cannons (Rapid-fire with AP(2) and Lock-On to target aircraft), the Artillery Cannon (carrying Blast(6) to handle hordes at long range), or the Ballistic Missile (a devastating Blast(12) AP(2) explosion that will disintegrate nearly any squad it sees).
- Battle Tank: Finally, something with meat. Toting Tough(12) and a Nova Cannon to flatten mobs, this is a tank worth the combat potential. On top of that and the auxiliary Twin Heavy Flamethrowers, you can also buy Commander, making this tank provide Double Time. This can make your tank into a stronger leader that can shuffle your troops forward or boost a transport towards its intended destination.
- Main Gun: The Nova Cannon, while impressive in range, has limited effect against small units and monsters. For this, you can replace it with either the Battle Cannon (providing a smaller blast and AP(2) to pop Destroyers), the Gatling Cannon (extreme rate of fire), the Anti-Tank Cannon (AP(3) and Deadly(6) to demolish most vehicles), the Heavy Plasma Cannon (A large blast with AP(4) to better handle Custodians), the Heavy Autocannon (Rapid-fire at AP(2) to handle most things) and the Siege Cannon (A sort of middle-ground between rapid-fire and bombardment with AP(3) Blast(3) but indirect).
- Side Guns: If you plan to replace the Twin Heavy Flamethrowers, you could spring for a few alternatives. The Twin Heavy Machineguns offer long-ranged fire with AP(1). The Twin Plasma Cannons are a costly way for long-ranged bombardment with AP(4) Blast(3). The Twin Heavy Fusion Rifles gives an extreme way to demolish tanks. On top of that, you can purchase an additional Heavy Flamethrower, Heavy Machinegun or Laser Cannon to add another role to this behemoth.
- Heavy Battle Tank: A heavier tank with Tough(15) and packing more guns, though Impact(6) males charging less of a bright idea. The chief weapon you'll be using is the Twin Battle Cannon, providing plenty of blasts to handle crowds, but you can replace that for an Oppressor Cannon that breaks tanks and a smaller autocannon to pepper on extra damage. Next up is the Twin Heavy Machinegun, which can be swapped for a Twin Heavy Fusion Rifle, but doing so might be a bit excessive with the main tank already crushing tanks. The Light Gatling Gun is your smallest gun that helps deal with light infantry, one you can exchange with a Pulverizer Gun to demolish small crowds of high-defense foes. On top of all this, you can also pick up either a Twin Fusion Rifle or Twin Heavy Machineguns to add in even more firepower.
- Super Heavy Battle Tank: The points cost is over the roof, but this thing can pretty much cover any role you need while also being very difficult to bring down. It comes with a massive Tough(24) and Impact(12), meaning it can take double the pain as your Battle Tank and roadkill most units in front of it. Its standard package also includes a Twin Heavy Machinegun for moderate fire, a Siege Mortar that can threaten smaller veteran/elite units and a devastating Hell Cannon that can shoot 6 Blast(3) AP(1) shots with Lock On, capable of completely eradicating any ammassed mob with extreme prejudice.
- Main Gun. Outside of your Twin Heavy Machinegun, your main weapons are pretty good outside of maybe the Siege Mortar, but they both come with the Indirect rule and their range isn't too much. You can opt to swap the mortar and cannon for either 3 different weapons together (an Autocannon with long range, low rate of fire and decent AP, a Siege Mortar and a Bane Cannon which are similar to your main ones, only that the first one has AP(3) while the second one has slightly increased range, less attacks, no Lock-On and AP(2)), a Hammer Cannon which is a Hell Cannon that sacrifices Lock-On for slightly more range, a Doom Cannon (long ranged anti-vehicle), a Twin Lord Cannon (Rapid fire with Lock-On to ignore cover), a Storm Cannon (shorter mortar with Indirect, high AP and Blast(6) to flatten heavily armored non-Tough units), a Sword Cannon (the Storm Cannon, but with extremely long range and without the Indirect rule) or the Shadow Cannon (extremely long ranged tank busting weapon, it deals as much as the Doom cannon with a lower rate of fire but with higher Deadly, AP and range).
- Upgrades. If you can spare some points after the initial purchase, you can opt to add an additional weapon between a Storm Rifle or a Heavy Machinegun and Transport(21), allowing you to safely bring pretty much anything with you. The real kickers are however the Sponsons: while they do cost a lot, any Sponson gives your Tank an additional Tough(3), a Laser Cannon and a choice between a Twin Heavy Flamethrower or a Twin Heavy Machinegun. The best part is that Sponson can be taken up to 4 times, but do consider that the points spent can easily rack up.
- Light Walker: This is not something worth taking to melee. Even though it has Fear, it only has a two stomp attacks to utilize that on. Instead, take it because it has a rather decent list of heavy weapons, complemented by a purchase of Scout and a choice of either Stealth or Tough(9) depending on how aggressive you intend to make it.
- Shooting: The Rapid Heavy Flamethrower gives the walker quite a lot of shots with AP(1) to handle with crowds. If you plan to replace it, you can purchase wither the Rapid Heavy Machinegun for long range firepower, a Rapid Missile Launcher for anti-aircraft power with AP(2) Deadly(3) Lock-On, a Rapid Plasma Cannon for anti-armor bombardment, a Rapid Laser Machinegun to demolish tanks, or the Rapid Autocannon for long-range heavy fire. On top of all this, you can also buy Hunter Missiles in order to take down any aircraft.
Aircraft
- Light Gunship: This plane gets Transport(11) out the gate, providing quite a bit on top of being an affordable plane. Because it is an Aircraft, it is faster and less vulnerable than the Light APC as a transport. The Laser Machinegun can be replaced for a Laser Cannon if you need that extra range, while the Twin Rocket Pods can offer plenty of small blasts or be replaced with Strike Missiles if you plan on fighting other planes.
- Equip the Light Gunship with Laser Cannons and embark Veteran Squads with flamethrowers (or plasma rifles against Battle Brothers/Robot Legions/etc...) and you have a combo that can deal with most threats and attack opponent's objective defense toe to toe.
- Heavy Gunship: This plane comes with half the transport capacity but double the Tough value and more dangerous guns. The Fury Missiles give you a long range means to bombard foes with smaller blasts, but they can be replaced with Quad Laser Cannons, piling on with the default Twin Laser Cannons to utterly demolish anything for a high pricetag. If you plan to focus more on infantry, you could instead buy Twin Heavy Machineguns.
List Building & Tactics
General Advice
- It is likely you will have more activation than your opponent. Make use of this by playing defensively for the first activations of the turn, forcing your opponent to play their most valuable units. Then with the last activations concentrate your firepower on dangerous units that were forced to placed themselves in a bad position.
- Make heavy use of cover! Most of your units have low defense, meaning they will quickly die if attacked in the open.
- Make sure every role in your army have redundancy. For instance, the anti-tank role is usually filled by a Weapon Squad equipped with Laser Cannons. However with their 5+ quality the will miss 2 out of 3 shot, and their defense 5+ means they will die if seriously attacked. Make sure to have another unit in your army that can fill this role.
Tactics
- Paratroopers list: Take Veteran Squads with 2 flamethowers and transport them in Light Gunships. Drop them in a cover near the enemy units by turn 2 and erase them. Equip Light Gunships with Laser Cannons to destroy enemy tanks that would threaten your Veteran Squads. Make sure to take other Infantry Squads or Conscripts to defend the other objectives. However if your paratroopers fail to significantly reduce the enemy firepower on their first attack it is likely that they will go down quickly and you will be left in a very bad spot.
- Mechanized infantry list: For each of your Infantry Squad take a Light APC or an Armored Truck. This will give you the speed to occupy advantageous covers in the first turn. Then try to wear down the enemy before advancing again on their objectives.
- Tank platoon list: Forget the boots, get the treads. Using nothing but Tanks make HDF play significantly different, because they are costly units with tremendous firepower. For a more balanced list add Infantry Squads with few option transported in Light APC or Armored Trucks.
- Heavy artillery: Building a list around the Support Vehicle with the Artillery Cannon is tempting and rewarding, but keep in mind that the enemy will have something to deal with armored targets who will be either ambushed, transported or long range. As the support vehicle is very fragile, you must take full advantage of the Indirect special rule and make a good screen around your artillery. Waves of conscripts will be key here-- they will rely on Artillery and heavier weapons for offence, while providing a shield to absorb your opponents attacks and grab objectives.
See Also
- Human Defense Force
- Human Defense Force Quickplay Armies
- Grimdark Future Tactics
- Grimdark Future List Building
- Grimdark Future Strategy
- Grimdark Future
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