Grimdark Future/Tactics/Prime Brothers

Why play Prime Brothers?

Take everything you like about the Battle Brothers and then give them better guns. So what if you're paying twice as much per model? Your weapons are powerful enough that you'll likely not need more bodies.

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Pros

• Your entire army is with great defense
• A high amount of customization when including the specialized Detachments.
• Firstborn is an incredibly powerful rule.
• Your troops are more specialized in their particular role.
• Your transports all have strider.

Cons

• Your forces are even more expensive than Battle Brothers. Especially the tanks and heroes.
• Your troops lack Tough, so heavy weapons or Rending ones can very easily wipe out a unit of Brothers.
• You only have one Psychic model. Some forces add more, but you'll be paying a pretty penny for that.
• Flexibility is pretty bad for the troops.
• Specialty Detachments will lack your guns.

Special Rules

• Prime: Your entire army has Fearless and Regeneration against all non-psychic attacks, which is almost everything. This makes your force very durable. Note that this isn't the same as regular Regeneration, which you can buy for certain units.

Psychic Spells

• Blurred Sight (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to hit with shooting. Vital for protecting your troops from heavy weaponry of any kind.
• Psychic Terror (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Cursed Ground (5+): An enemy unit within 18" that attempts a charge loses 6" to their charge distance next time they charge. Note that this won't save anyone from a charge if they're too close, but it will prevent any long-range gambits.
• Cerebral Trauma (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes a single AP 3 hit. Pretty much all you can ask for when sniping a hero or heavy weapon.
• Time Passage (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately move 6". This gives you a desperate escape button or possibly an easier charge.
• Lightning Fog (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 8 hits each, making this hell for mobs of grunts.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Captain: Compared to prior iterations, this captain is has become perhaps the most important addition to your army. Hyper customizable to fit out any mix of shooting or melee, which becomes rather odd since if you spring for a better gun you also need to grab a pistol (at a discount) and get also gives you four CCW attacks.
  • Shooting: The base auto-rifle gives you the best mix of firing rate and range, though it lacks AP. If you're looking for better range, you can instead grab a rifle or precision rifle (and both come as options to replace the pistol so fun discount over there). Aside from those you also have the shard pistol (for another shot and Rending), the plasma pistol (AP 2), a heavy carbine (Rending at slightly better range) and the flamethrower pistol (lots of shots).
  • Melee: You've got quite a lot of attacks to rely on, especially if you grab the pistol. If you're looking for more punch, your options are rather limited to either the energy sword (Rending), energy fist (AP 3) or energy hammer (AP 1 Deadly 3). If you plan on going all in with melee, then you can go buy a fist and pistol in tandem with a fist-mounted pistol (12" A3) for all the best in punching.
• Wargear Upgrades: The Captain has three separate options for this. The cheapest is the camo cloak, which provides. Scout and Stealth, thus providing the option to nab early objectives. The shield gives Shield Wall, which doesn't eat up a weapon slot. The bike gives you Fast, Impact 1 and a twin rifle to add on top of everything else. The last is the Grave Armor, a destroyer armor equivalent that only provides Tough 6.
• Personal Upgrades: They can also grab either Advanced Tactics to add +3" to allied shooting and charging ranges or War Chant for an extra attack on the charge, both available to their basic brethren. They can also get the Engineer's Repair ability, the Ancient's Banner for Fear, or Precision Shots to add +1 AP to his unit's shooting.

• Judge: Another veritable beatstick, though this one is more focused on melee with their awesome relic sword. Seriously, this sword is capable of dropping pretty much any other hero in a straight-up fight. While they can hold their own a bit against enemy fire and grab a pistol, you still need people to clear the path to the ideal weapons. Fortunately, these guys can get the same wargear the captain gets, which gives the judge a much-needed boost of versatility.

• Psychic: Slightly more expensive than the captain, but they also provide you with your lone psychic casting. Alongside the weapon and wargear upgrades available to your heroes, you can also upgrade to Psychic 2 for extra power.

Infantry

• Prime Brothers: Your basic unit will describe the basis of how your army operates, and it's none clearer than here. You've only got guns to pick from with only one of the pack selecting a melee weapon of some sort. Fortunately, a lot of the guns you can pick from are free and swap the auto rifles for their equivalents in any equivalents. If you're worried about survival, you can also buy Medical Training so they gain Regeneration or Grave Armor for Tough 3 (though this seriously ramps up their cost).
  • Auto Rifles are pretty much for making sure you cut down enemies in a hail of bullets. These are also the only type that can equip grenade launchers so you can deal with crowds, though it's limited to one model.
  • Rifles lose an attack at A2, but you're now able to shoot from a greater distance.
  • Precision Rifles, despite their name, aren't really good at sniping heroes. Indeed, their guns only have AP 1, making them more suited for picking off a soft unit.

• Assault Squad: These prime brothers are all given pistols and CCWs, which give you a cheaper melee force. However, you can tell how bare-bones it is, since your only options is Regeneration and one plasma pistol. If you're looking for something more anti-elite, then you'll need another unit.

• Blaster Squad: Somehow cheaper than the base Prime Brothers, but these guys have absolutely no business in close quarters. Indeed, their only options are Regeneration and another sort of plasma gun, which just puts them at the same price as the Primes.
  • Heavy Plasma Rifles give you a pretty good range to deliver AP 2, though it's only at one shot.
  • Light Plasma Cannons only give you a boost in range, which is a bit appreciated so you can stand a little further back in the field.
  • Plasma Auto-Rifles are your only option for rapid fire. Though your range is at 24" and your guns are knocked to AP 1, you can now fire twice each turn.

• Raider Squad: Short-range specialists. If you stick with the default loadout, you get AP 1 on your pistols and 3 melee attacks and Furious, which is a fair bit more than most (and lets you slap on Battle Rites easily). You can even buy an energy weapon in order to make them hurt more. If you don't plan on being so close, you can just buy them all assault rifles. However, these assault rifles will lack any AP. On top of this, you can give them Medical Training, Strider (which is quite useful for covering ground) and Ambush (if you feel like ruining the enemy's day).

• Infiltration Squad: These are your a sort of middle ground between basic Prime Brothers and actual snipers. Scout makes sure they get into position early and their heavy carbines give them Rending for a bit of a punch, but lack any dedicated precision fire.

• Guard Squad: Your elite bodyguards, each equipped with energy swords and shields. Though they lack any additional options, they won't need any more to carry out their purpose. Their shields grant Shield Wall, and that's enough to help protect your heroes.

• Elimination Squad: Your actual snipers. Unlike any of your precision rifles, these guys carry actual sniper rifles with the actual Sniper rule and AP 1. They have both scout and stealth, making sure that they make the most out of their protected position. If you feel like killing the enemy even faster, you can buy a laser rifle for AP 3 and Deadly 3, capable of wiping any heavy armor hero and denting vehicles.

• Eradication Squad: Your prime brothers now have a unit singularly dedicated to firing fusion rifles. Sure, they're shorter range compared to most weapons, but this is a pack of five with all the prime rules and Relentless, meaning that they could likely level tanks with a good shooting turn. Under no circumstances are you allowed to waste them on piddly grunts - if you've got no tanks, then fire at the elites.

• Aggro Squad: The Prime answer to destroyers. Your shooting to firing ratio is more balanced between having two fist-carbines pumping three shots each (or buy fist-flamethrowers for even more shots) and two energy fists with AP 3 each. This is pretty much your only option, so you'll absolutely want make sure these guys are protected if you bring them in.

• Jetpack Squad: Each of your models comes with a jetpack and two plasma carbines so you can pump out AP 2 at a little faster than most, though this is at a very short range. If you feel like shooting more, then you can grab assault carbines for extra shots with no AP. The drawback is that short range leaves them vulnerable to any counter-attacking and from here, only their CCWs and 2+ defense will save them.

• Suppression Squad: So you see the jetpack squad and ask "What if I want more dakka?" Well, that's what this squad's here for. These guys have autocannons so they can shoot anti-armor rounds from a long range, making vehicles and heavy infantry alike relent. That said, they also lack the ability to defend themselves much in close quarters.

• Prime Bikers: And now they are here. About the same as base brother bikers, with Fast and Impact 1, though they are focused on melee out of the box. So far, their only upgrade is the option for twin rifles if you feel the need to get shooty bikes.

• Prime ATV: You can pretty much call these as the equivalent of the attack bike, but you're getting a lot more for this. Right off the bat, Strider lets it cover more ground than any bike and it comes pack with more guns between the twin auto rifles and the gatling gun. It also has the heavy fusion rifle option instead of the gatling gun in the event that you need something to pop a tank but can't afford a tank.

Vehicles

• Anti-Grav APC: Your APCs have Strider, which you'll absolutely need since you're gonna need to transport your 11 models. Fortunately, your loadout is also a bit more robust than just storm rifles; if you want, you can grab some HR missiles for some crowd control since you're otherwise limited on that front. You can still grab a machine gun in any case to complement your fire as it is, then buy one of the following:
  • Twin Anti-Air Machine Gun gives you one of your precious few anti-air options, opting more for shooting a lot over anything with punch.
  • Artillery Relay gives you real long-range blasting for more effective crowd management.
  • Shield Projector grants Regeneration. Very much necessary for a transport.
  • Missile Array gives a shorter range blast with smaller coverage, but it's more of it and has AP 2 so you can smash light armor.

• Anti-Grav Tank: Sacrifice the transport capacity for twice the Tough value and a twin laser talon on top of the storm rifles (now effectively doubled instead of being twinned). Simply put, this is your battletank. Both of its guns have options that allow it to take on any foe and it can still equip an AA missile pod and machine gun to give additional venues for combat.

• Heavy Anti-Grav Transport Tank: So what would be worth gaining 11 Transport capacity? Truth be told, your weapons are the only things tanking a hit, as you're no longer tanking the heavy cannons made to decimate units. That isn't to say that this is some unarmed APC however, as you get a potent laser talon and the machinegun. Fortunately, you've got plenty more options to mount additional weapons, considerably more than the Destroyer.

• Heavy Anti-Grav Destroyer Tank: Now you're sacrificing transport capacity, but considering you're hauling a literal heavy plasma cannon, it's worth it. Indeed, your weapons make this more like an artillery transport with some other guns that cover slightly more close-range affairs. Since this won't be wanting to move much, you'll be needing to pick a more shooty unit to transport, since they'll be needing to move less as well. You should be extremely aware that this will be hogging up a lot of your points allotment, even if you buy nothing.

• Prime Speeder: A super-mobile weapons platform, equipped with both Strider and Ambush so it can appear wherever it wants. Fortunately, it's also not much more expensive than an anti-grav APC starting out, though that does come with the condition that you don't go all-out with weapons.

• Prime Light Walker: While tough and with Scout, it's somewhat limited in armaments with only a fist and incendiary cannon (replace with iron cannon if you want better range and AP). You can grab a few more weapons to bolster your shooting, but you're still going to be staying within mid-range.

• Prime Attack Walker: Big and tough, having Tough 15 over the Light Walker's 12. This is where your big guns lie, like your heavy gatling gun (which you can replace with a heavy plasma cannon at a steep discount if you hate mobs) and stronger walker fist with AP 4. This one also has an option for Anti-Air missiles, which is welcome considering how few of those you have.

• Support Turret: A bit unexpected to see a literal sentry turret. It's utterly unable to move, but its twin heavy autocannon has a great enough range to render the issue with mobility not very relevant. If you go for the twin laser cannon option, then you'll need to worry a bit more about distance.

Detachments

Blood Brothers

The Blood Brothers are remarkably choppy and fast, with Furious being available for only 5 points for most of your troops.

Rules

• Very Fast: Fast +1. Your units now move 12" and can run or charge 24", making them incredibly mobile. You can buy this on all of your tanks for a modest 10 points.

Psychic Spells

• Fear (4+): Enemy unit within 12" suffers a loss of 3" to its next movement. It's trading off Cursed Earth's range for a penalty that's always on.
• Lance (4+): Enemy model within 12" takes an AP 2 hit. Compare with Psychic Blast.
• Quickness (5+): Friendly model within 12" may immediately charge up to 6", making this a godsend when you get it off on that pack of very angry death brothers.
• Blood Curse (5+): Two enemy units within 6" take 6 hits each. Essentially Lightning Fog.
• Break Shields (6+): Enemy unit within 12" takes a -2 to their next defense roll, giving an extra AP 2 to any attacks you make. Especially useful if you want to guarantee death.
• Rage Burst (6+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 3 AP 3 hits. It's essentially a focus-fire Cerebral Trauma.

Unit Analysis

• Blood Priest: Your stand-in for the Champion with Furious applied. In exchange however, you can't buy Battle Rites or War Chant, instead being limited to the Holy Chalice. This is tailor-made for your build, as it's adding +1 to any unit's melee attack and regeneration rolls.

• Death Brothers: A serious price jump when compared to base battle brothers, but you get Regeneration and Furious, making them ideal company for the Blood Priest. Other than that, you can just consider them seriously angry assault brothers. If you have a prime hero guiding them instead, Battle Rites or an ancient's banner are the only options you should consider.
• Guardian Brothers: Even more expensive assault brothers with jetpacks and furious built in. They come with plasma pistols available at no cost, but you're very limited otherwise. Your only weapon options are the fusion pistol, energy sword, or energy fist. You could also grab a banner if you want to throw Fear in as well.

• Blood Tank: A battle tank with a flamethrower cannon (or twin miniguns). Other than that it's pretty much identical to the base tank including the option for Very Fast with the exception that you have flamethrowers instead of laser cannons as add-ons.
• Blood Walker: See that battle brother walker? It now has two fists, Fear and Furious. If you want Rending in place of high AP you can instead slap on Blood Fists for free. You can also buy a frag launcher for an extra weapon, but the standout here is Psychic. Yes, you can add another Psychic model and make it a towering walker of death.

Dark Brothers

The Dark Brothers don't specialize in any particular form of combat, but instead focus on holding on no matter the odds. They will not break as easily.

Special Rules

• Dark Assault: This adds onto Ambush by making you able to deploy them on any round you wish, adding to your strategic game of dropping in troops. However, this is only available to base captain, jetpack and suppression squads, limiting its value.

• Grim: This unit isn't only Fearless, it's so fearless that if it fails a morale check you can roll another d6 to make it pass instead on a 4+. Unlike the prior rule, this is more widely available to your forces.

Units

• Interrogator: Make an Champion and replace their option for Battle Rites or War Chant with Grim. This is essentially what they're good for.

• Dark Destroyers: Quite expensive compared to the base destroyers, but you get both Grim and Dark Assault, allowing them to pop in wherever and whenever you want. They also have access to plasma cannons, giving them an answer to any Brother-tier squads out there. This lets them specialize for whatever you need, whereas the aggros are locked in their loadouts.
• Destroyer Knights: These Destroyers have shields and wicked maces with rending, meaning that they need an avenue of delivery. If you feel keen on charging, you'll be wanting to take a heavy flail for Impact 3.
• Black Bikers: See those bikes? They're now Grim. They also have the option for twin plasma carbines or grenade launchers, both quite handy though you can't grab the other guns. In exchange, you also get to buy some stronger melee weapons.

• Shroud Speeder: A speeder traded off a weapon for Grim and Stealth. You also can swap that heavy machine gun for a minigun if you so please. The lone upgrade here is the Dark Shroud, which gives two friendly units within 6" Stealth when they're shot next, and considering how your men are made for hanging on rather than killing, you want that protection.
• Vengeance Speeder: This speeder has a plasma cannon and Grim, making it better for artillery made for countering armor. Oh, and you still have either the heavy machine gun or minigun for more massed enemies.
• Dark Gunship: Superheavy weapons ship over here. Its two exclusive weapons are both blasts with AP1, ideal for chunking lower-tier mobs with disdain. If you feel like ruining someone's day even further, may I introduce you to the twin assault rifle array, dishing out 12 hits on top of everything else.
• Angel Jet: A dogfighter with some light weaponry. Without upgrades, it only has AP 1 for all its guns, though you could also buy a twin laser cannon so it can punch more heavily-armored foes.

Knight Brothers

While the Guardian Brothers have to rely on auxilia sisters to block off spells, the Knight Brothers can pull it off themselves without such an absurd price hike, while your exclusive choices also come with storm rifles. This also comes with the perk of being able cast by themselves, which gives you some well-needed support on casting.

Special Rules

• Aegis: Your entire army can block powers as if they were psychic. In the case of Psychics, they instead get a +1 to block. This is available to all your infantry choices.

Psychic Spells

• Ward (4+): Enemy unit within 12" suffers -1 to hit with melee on their next turn. Important since you're only protected by a mere 2+ save for the most part.
• Cleanse (4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits. Somewhat equivalent to psychic blast, though it hits the entire unit.
• Warp (5+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to defense, which you'll want if you're struggling to turn the tide.
• Doom (5+): Enemy model within 12" takes an AP 3 hit, making this a prime sniping spell.
• Strike (6+): Friendly unit within 12" can immediately shoot.
• Purge (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 2 AP 1 hits each, making it comparable to Lightning Cloud.

Units

• Knight Champion: A very costly hero, but you get quite a bit. Alongside Aegis and Psychic 1, you also get Combat Master, which gives you one of four different styles each round you're in melee (+1 to hit, AP +1, Rending or Impact 1). This champion is a through and through beatstick with psychic powers. If you want support, pick the generic heroes.

• Knight Brothers: Each of these boys has a storm rifle, an energy sword and Aegis, which is plenty worth the price hike. They have a very unique selection of weapons. Their guns are now an incinerator (a flamer with AP 1), a psychic silencer (a minigun-lite with 6 shots) or the psychic cannon (AP 2 and rending). In melee, they can swap their energy sword for an energy staff (less attacks but it's poisoned), the halberd (less attacks but AP 2), twin energy falchions (Rending) and daemon hammer (2 attacks, but now AP 4 and Deadly 3). You can also grant them Impact 1, Ambush or Teleport (so you can jump 6" anywhere without regard for terrain and isn't the same as ambush for some reason). Oh, and these guys can be psychic too, so joy.
• Purgation Brothers: Knights with Relentless. They now have free reign of the special weapons but can't specialize in melee. They can also be psychic too.
• Knight Destroyers: Destroyers are already dangerous, so you know for sure that stacking all the benefits of Knights makes them deadlier as well as obscenely more expensive. Their weapon choices mirror the base knights, but they can also grab a standard (for Fear) and Regeneration as well as the ability to give everyone Impact 3.

• Knight Walker: This walker lacks its guns. However, it is Tough 18 and psychic, making it a tank in both a physical and mental sense. You can grant heavy guns that won't replace your fists and then take either an energy great sword or daemon hammer for extra punch. You can also grant it Teleport to surprise enemies or Regeneration if you want to drive it deep into battle.

Watch Brothers

The Watch Brothers are for those who are super spoiled for choice. Your basic brothers all have an obscene number of weapons available

Special Rules

• Tactical Master: Your Captains, Death Watchers, Lieutenants and Ancients can buy an upgrade for additional ammo for their pistols, assault rifles and storm rifles. Each turn, you can pick between +1 to hit, Rending, +6" to range or AP 1, giving you a wide choice of options for them. This bites a little harder for prime heroes though, as RAW this ammo can only be thrown onto their pistols.

Units

• Death Watcher: Essentially a Captain for all intents and purposes. Aside from the frankly obscene number of guns available to the basic watch brothers, you can also grab a guardian brother's spear-rifle and the choice of either a jetpack or destroyer armor. If you pick up Tactical Master for special ammo, do be wary that the number of weapons you can use it with is very slim. Don't grab it unless you are absolutely planning to use it because 30 points is not cheap.

• Watch Brothers: Your base troops are given practically free reign on weapons. Whatever you want, wherever you want them, you can buy some and drop them wherever. You can also grab shields if you want to protect the force.
• Watch Vanguard: Take assault brothers with jetpacks and make them FAST. While the firearms are limited to pistols, the melee weapons aren't. With this includes shields, meaning you can have a very mobile and hard to hit squad of mofos with heavy hammers and claws.
• Watch Destroyers: Destroyers are already expensive, so why take these? Because these bastards can slap extra guns (Gravity, Fusion, Plasma or Flamethrower) on top of your energy fists. And this is on top of the rest of the guns a squad of destroyers can grab.

• Watch Star Jet: Tough 6 and that 2+ defense make the Watch Star a tough nut. It also comes with some good long range weapons including anti-air missiles and short-range bombs. If aircraft aren't in play, pick those 5 points to take Storm Missiles with Deadly. The twin minigun can also be replaced with twin laser cannons for more deadly at a great range. And on top of all this, you can make it a transport for 11 models.

Wolf Brothers

Where the Blood Brothers are for getting stuck in quickly, the Wolf Brothers are for getting as many attacks as possible. Between their spells and their loadouts, you should be sure to get all the attacks you want in any situation.

Special Rules

• Counter: When this unit is charged, you can give one melee weapon an extra attack. All of your infantry can pick it up so you can make your army quite defensive.

Psychic Spells

• Fury (4+): Friendly unit within 12" gains Furious. You definitely want to set this off whenever possible.
• Hurricane (4+): Two enemy units within 6" take 4 hits, making it a diet Lightning Cloud.
• Storm (5+): Enemy unit within 18" takes -1 to their next shooting rolls. You absolutely want this to protect a vulnerable unit as they make their attack.
• Thunder (5+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 3 AP 2 hits, making it better for punching big boys.
• Wrath (6+): Enemy unit within 12" can be thrown 6" in any direction, leaving them out of a weak unit's hair or right in the sights of a charging mob.
• Lightning (6+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 3 hits. The inverse of Thunder, making it for blasting vehicles.

Units

• Lone Wolf: A genuine beatstick of a hero that's cheaper than the grave captain. Perhaps most remarkable is its option for pet guard wolves (for bonus attacks) as well as a great wolf mount instead of a bike, thereby granting the rider extra melee weapons as well as Impact 3.

• Wolf Rookies: Take pathfinders and toss them into basic brother armor. Their quality won't be as good, but you'll be able to buy them weapons that would normally be impossible.
• Wolf Brothers: Your basic battle brothers, though their weapons lack anything with heavy punch. You can also give them jetpacks or bikes to fill in a hole you want - ones that could normally be filled with the appropriate base units.
• Werewolves: While more expensive with a 3+ defense, these guys are genuine melee monsters with Fast and Regeneration. While normally without any shooting, you can give them backpack grenade launchers to give at least a cursory effort at softening up crowds before ripping into them with the variety of evil implements at their disposal.
• Wolf Destroyers: What makes these guys different from the stock destroyers? It's their ability to replace their storm rifles with base assault rifles (at a discount of 5 points even!) and then buy an attachment that's normally only for champions and captains.
• Wolf Riders: Take bikers and replace their bikes with angry wolves with Impact 3 and 3 AP 1 attacks to add to the frenzy. Almost all their options focus in on that, though you could also be a square and grab a plasma pistol or assault rifle for some variety.

• Wolf Walker: It comes stock with a pretty fierce blast weapon, but it's capable of taking just about any other weapon the walker could normally take. If you want a melee focus, you could either make its fists claws with Rending or take a big axe with AP 4 Deadly 3 and a shield to make sure it's not focused on too much.
• Fang Gunship: This ship is strapped with a devastating cannon tailor-made to wipe off mobs with ease and missiles to kill single targets. This can be added on to with extra guns as well as room to carry 11 models.
• Wolf Jet: The less focus-firing equivalent of the Fang with slightly less evil twin frost cannons and twin laser cannons. Aside from that, they can carry the same upgrades as the Fang aside from the one replacing missiles.

Army Building

Tactics

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Pros

• Your entire army is with great defense
• A high amount of customization when including the specialized Detachments.
• Firstborn is an incredibly powerful rule.
• Your troops are more specialized in their particular role.
• Your transports all have strider.

Cons

• Your forces are even more expensive than Battle Brothers, especially your heroes.
• Your troops lack Tough, so heavy weapons can very easily wipe out a unit of Brothers.
• You only have one Psychic model. Some forces add more, but you'll be paying a pretty penny for that.
• Unit flexibility is pretty bad.
• Specialty Detachments will lack your guns.

Special Rules

• Medical Training: More prevalent here than on the base brothers, this lets models within 12" of this unit gain Regeneration. For the most part, this is just so you can protect yourself against psychic shenanigans.
• Prime: Your entire army has Fearless and Regeneration against all non-psychic attacks, which is almost everything. This makes your forces very durable, which guarantees a bit more protection. Note that this isn't the same as regular Regeneration, which you can buy for certain units.
• Shield-Wall: Anyone that tries to shoot a model with this rule takes a -1 to hit them.

Psychic Spells

• Blurred Sight (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to hit with shooting. Vital for protecting your troops from heavy weaponry of any kind.
• Psychic Terror (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Cursed Ground (5+): An enemy unit within 18" that attempts a charge loses 6" to their charge distance next time they charge. Note that this won't save anyone from a charge if they're too close, but it will prevent any long-range gambits.
• Cerebral Trauma (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes a single AP 3 hit. Pretty much all you can ask for when sniping a hero or heavy weapon.
• Time Passage (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately move 6". This gives you a desperate escape button or possibly an easier charge.
• Lightning Fog (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 8 hits each, making this hell for mobs of grunts.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Captain: Compared to prior iterations, this captain is has become perhaps the most important addition to your army. Hyper customizable to fit out any mix of shooting or melee, which becomes rather odd since if you spring for a better gun you also need to grab a pistol (at a discount) and get also gives you four CCW attacks.
  • Shooting: The base auto-rifle gives you the best mix of firing rate and range, though it lacks AP. If you're looking for better range, you can instead grab a rifle or precision rifle (and both come as options to replace the pistol so fun discount over there). Aside from those you also have the shard pistol (for another shot and Rending), the plasma pistol (AP 2), a heavy carbine (Rending at slightly better range) and the flamethrower pistol (lots of shots).
  • Melee: You've got quite a lot of attacks to rely on, especially if you grab the pistol. If you're looking for more punch, your options are rather limited to either the energy sword (Rending), energy fist (AP 3) or energy hammer (AP 1 Deadly 3). If you plan on going all in with melee, then you can go buy a fist and pistol in tandem with a fist-mounted pistol (12" A3) for all the best in punching.
• Wargear Upgrades: The Captain has three separate options for this. The cheapest is the camo cloak, which provides. Scout and Stealth, thus providing the option to nab early objectives. The shield gives Shield Wall, which doesn't eat up a weapon slot. The bike gives you Fast, Impact 1 and a twin rifle to add on top of everything else. The last is the Grave Armor, a destroyer armor equivalent that only provides Tough 6.
• Personal Upgrades: They can also grab either Advanced Tactics to add +3" to allied shooting and charging ranges or War Chant for an extra attack on the charge, both available to their basic brethren. They can also get the Engineer's Repair ability, the Ancient's Banner for Fear, or Precision Shots to add +1 AP to his unit's shooting.

• Judge: Another veritable beatstick, though this one is more focused on melee with their awesome relic sword. Seriously, this sword is capable of dropping pretty much any other hero in a straight-up fight. While they can hold their own a bit against enemy fire and grab a pistol, you still need people to clear the path to the ideal weapons. Fortunately, these guys can get the same wargear the captain gets, which gives the judge a much-needed boost of versatility.

• Psychic: Slightly more expensive than the captain, but they also provide you with your lone psychic casting. Alongside the weapon and wargear upgrades available to your heroes, you can also upgrade to Psychic 2 for extra power.

Infantry

• Prime Brother: Your basic unit will describe the basis of how your army operates, and it's none clearer than here. You've only got guns to pick from with only one of the pack selecting a melee weapon of some sort. Fortunately, a lot of the guns you can pick from are free if you stick with the auto-rifle. If you're worried about survival, you can also buy Medical Training so they give allies Regeneration. Grave Armor is also an option for Tough 3, but you're paying out the nose for that option.
  • Auto Rifles are pretty much for making sure you cut down enemies in a hail of bullets. These are also the only type that can equip grenade launchers so you can deal with crowds, though it's limited to one model.
  • Rifles lose an attack at A2, but you're now able to shoot from a greater distance.
  • Precision Rifles, despite their name, aren't really good at sniping heroes. Indeed, their guns only have AP 1, making them more suited for picking off a soft unit.

• Assault Brother: These prime brothers are all given pistols and CCWs, which give you a cheaper melee force. However, you can tell how bare-bones it is, since your only options is Medical Training and a plasma pistol. If you're looking for something more anti-elite, then you'll need another unit.

• Blaster Brother: Same cost as a base Prime Brother, but these guys have absolutely no business in close quarters. Indeed, their only options are Medical Training and another sort of plasma gun.
  • Heavy Plasma Rifles give you a pretty good range to deliver AP 2, though it's only at one shot.
  • Light Plasma Cannons only give you a boost in range, which is a bit appreciated so you can stand a little further back in the field.
  • Plasma Auto-Rifles are your only option for rapid fire. Though your range is at 24" and your guns are knocked to AP 1, you can now fire twice each turn.

• Guard Brother: In the event that you need a wall, these guys have you covered. Each of them comes with a shield and energy sword and aren't much costlier than any other prime brother, so they can give a durable melee unit when you combine that with Prime.

• Raider Brother: Short-range specialists. If you stick with the default loadout, you get AP 1 on your pistols and 3 melee attacks and Furious, which is a fair bit more than most (and lets you slap on Battle Rites easily). You can even buy an energy weapon in order to make them hurt more. If you don't plan on being so close, you can just buy an assault rifle. However, these assault rifles will lack any AP. On top of this, you can give them Medical Training, Strider (which is quite useful for covering ground) and Ambush (if you feel like ruining the enemy's day).

• Infiltration Brother: These are your a sort of middle ground between basic Prime Brothers and actual snipers. Scout makes sure they get into position early and their heavy carbines give them Rending for a bit of a punch, but lack any dedicated precision fire.

• Elimination Brother: Your actual sniper. Unlike any of your precision rifles, these guys carry actual sniper rifles with the actual Sniper rule and AP 1. He has both scout and stealth, making sure that he makes the most out of his protected position. If you feel like killing the enemy even faster, you can buy a laser rifle for AP 3 and Deadly 3, capable of wiping any heavy armor, but you're sacrificing Sniper it.

• Eradication Brother: Your prime brothers now have a unit singularly dedicated to firing fusion rifles. Sure, they're shorter range compared to most weapons, but this has all the prime rules and Relentless, all to eradicate any brutes you gind. Under no circumstances are you allowed to waste them on piddly grunts - if you've got no tanks, then fire at the elites.

• Aggro Brother: The Prime answer to destroyers. Your shooting to firing ratio is more balanced between having two fist-carbines pumping three shots each (or buy fist-flamethrowers for even more shots) and two energy fists with AP 3 each. If you're planning on doing light mob control, then you can toss grenade launchers on for Blast 3. This is pretty much your only option, so you'll absolutely want make sure these guys are protected if you bring them in.

• Jetpack Brother: Each of your models comes with a jetpack and two plasma carbines so you can pump out AP 2 at a little faster than most, though this is at a very short range. If you feel like shooting more, then you can grab assault carbines for extra shots with no AP. The drawback is that short range leaves him vulnerable to any counter-attacking and from here, only their CCWs and 2+ defense with Prime will save them.

• Suppression Brother: So you see the jetpack squad and ask "What if I want more dakka?" Well, that's what this boy's here for. This autocannon can shoot anti-armor rounds from a long range, making vehicles and heavy infantry alike relent. That said, he also lacks the ability to defend himself well in close quarters.

• Prime Biker: About the same as base brother bikers, with Fast and Impact 1, though more focused on melee out of the box. So far, the only upgrade is the option for twin rifles if you feel the need to get shooty bikes.

Detachments

Blood Brothers

The Blood Brothers are remarkably choppy and fast, with Furious being available for only 5 points for most of your troops.

Rules

• Very Fast: Fast +1. Your units now move 12" and can run or charge 24", making them incredibly mobile. You can buy this on all of your tanks for a modest 10 points.

Psychic Spells

• Fear (4+): Enemy unit within 12" suffers a loss of 3" to its next movement. It's trading off Cursed Earth's range for a penalty that's always on.
• Lance (4+): Enemy model within 12" takes an AP 2 hit. Compare with Psychic Blast.
• Quickness (5+): Friendly model within 12" may immediately charge up to 6", making this a godsend when you get it off on that pack of very angry death brothers.
• Blood Curse (5+): Two enemy units within 6" take 6 hits each. Essentially Lightning Fog.
• Break Shields (6+): Enemy unit within 12" takes a -2 to their next defense roll, giving an extra AP 2 to any attacks you make. Especially useful if you want to guarantee death.
• Rage Burst (6+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 3 AP 3 hits. It's essentially a focus-fire Cerebral Trauma.

Unit Analysis

• Blood Priest: Your stand-in for the Champion with Furious applied. In exchange however, you can't buy Battle Rites or War Chant, instead being limited to the Holy Chalice. This is tailor-made for your build, as it's adding +1 to any unit's melee attack and Regeneration rolls. Note that RAW, this might be snarled up by Prime being part-Regeneration.

• Death Brother: Nowhere near as dangerous as your prime brothers, but you get Regeneration and Furious, making them ideal company for the Blood Priest. Other than that, you can just consider them seriously angry assault brothers. If you have a prime hero guiding them instead, Battle Rites remains the only option you should consider.
• Guardian Brother: Even more expensive assault brothers with jetpacks and furious built in. They come with a plasma pistol available at no cost, but you're very limited otherwise. Your only weapon options are the fusion pistol, energy sword, or energy fist. You could also grab a banner if you want to throw Fear in as well.

Dark Brothers

The Dark Brothers don't specialize in any particular form of combat, but instead focus on holding on no matter the odds. They will not break as easily.

Special Rules

• Dark Assault: This adds onto Ambush by making you able to deploy them on any round you wish, adding to your strategic game of dropping in troops. However, this is only available to base captain, jetpack and suppression squads, limiting its value.

• Grim: This unit isn't only Fearless, it's so fearless that if it fails a morale check you can roll another d6 to make it pass instead on a 4+. Unlike the prior rule, this is more widely available to your forces.

Units

• Interrogator: Make an Champion and replace their option for Battle Rites or War Chant with Grim and Fear. He's better kitted to the melee front.

• Dark Destroyer: Quite expensive compared to the base destroyers, but you get both Grim and Dark Assault, allowing them to pop in wherever and whenever you want. They also have access to plasma cannons, giving them an answer to any heavy armor squads out there. This lets you specialize the destroyer for whatever you need, whereas the aggros are locked in their loadouts.
• Destroyer Knight: This Destroyer has a shield and a wicked mace with Rending, meaning that they'll want to make use of Dark Assault. If you feel keen on charging, you'll be wanting to take a heavy flail for Impact 3.
• Black Biker: See those bikes? They're now Grim. They also have the option for twin plasma carbines or grenade launchers, both quite handy though you can't grab the other guns. In exchange, you also get to buy some stronger melee weapons.

Knight Brothers

While the Guardian Brothers have to rely on auxilia sisters to block off spells, the Knight Brothers can pull it off themselves without such an absurd price hike, while your exclusive choices also come with storm rifles. This also comes with the perk of being able cast by themselves, which gives you some well-needed support on casting.

Special Rules

• Aegis: Your entire army can block powers as if they were psychic. In the case of Psychics, they instead get a +1 to block. This is available to all your infantry choices.

Psychic Spells

• Ward (4+): Enemy unit within 12" suffers -1 to hit with melee on their next turn. Important since you're only protected by a mere 2+ save for the most part.
• Cleanse (4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits. Somewhat equivalent to psychic blast, though it hits the entire unit.
• Warp (5+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to defense, which you'll want if you're struggling to turn the tide.
• Doom (5+): Enemy model within 12" takes an AP 3 hit, making this a prime sniping spell.
• Strike (6+): Friendly unit within 12" can immediately shoot.
• Purge (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 2 AP 1 hits each, making it comparable to Lightning Cloud.

Units

• Knight Champion: A very costly hero, but you get quite a bit. Alongside Aegis and Psychic 1, you also get Combat Master, which gives you one of four different styles each round you're in melee (+1 to hit, AP +1, Rending or Impact 1). This champion is a through and through beatstick with psychic powers. If you want support, pick the generic heroes.

• Knight Brother: Equipped with a storm rifle, an energy sword and Aegis, which is plenty worth the price hike. You have a very unique selection of weapons. Their guns are now an incinerator (a flamer with AP 1), a psychic silencer (a minigun-lite with 6 shots) or the psychic cannon (AP 2 and rending). In melee, they can swap their energy sword for an energy staff (less attacks but it's poisoned), the halberd (less attacks but AP 2), twin energy falchions (Rending) and daemon hammer (2 attacks, but now AP 4 and Deadly 3). You can also grant them Impact 1, Ambush or Teleport (so you can jump 6" anywhere without regard for terrain and isn't the same as ambush for some reason). Oh, and you can make then Psychic too, so joy.
• Purgation Brother: Knights with Relentless. They now have free reign of the special weapons but can't specialize in melee. They can also be psychic too.
• Knight Destroyer: Destroyers are already dangerous, so you know for sure that stacking all the benefits of Knight Brothers makes them deadlier as well as obscenely more expensive. Their weapon choices mirror the base knight's, but you can also grab a standard (for Fear) and Regeneration as well as Impact 3.

Watch Brothers

The Watch Brothers are for those who are super spoiled for choice. Your basic brothers all have an obscene number of weapons available

Special Rules

• Tactical Master: Your Captains, Death Watchers, Lieutenants and Ancients can buy an upgrade for additional ammo for their pistols, assault rifles and storm rifles. Each turn, you can pick between +1 to hit, Rending, +6" to range or AP 1, giving you a wide choice of options for them. This bites a little harder for prime heroes though, as RAW this ammo can only be thrown onto their pistols.

Units

• Death Watcher: Essentially a Captain for all intents and purposes. Aside from the frankly obscene number of guns available to the basic watch brothers, you can also grab a guardian brother's spear-rifle and the choice of either a jetpack or destroyer armor. If you pick up Tactical Master for special ammo, do be wary that the number of weapons you can use it with is very slim. Don't grab it unless you are absolutely planning to use it because 30 points is not cheap.

• Watch Brother: Your base troops are given practically free reign on weapons. Whatever you want, wherever you want them, you can buy some and drop them wherever. You can also grab shields if you want to have some protection.
• Watch Vanguard: Take assault brothers with jetpacks and make them FAST. While the firearms are limited to pistols, the melee weapons aren't. With this includes shields, meaning you can have a very mobile and hard to hit mofo with a heavy hammer or claws.
• Watch Destroyer: Destroyers are already expensive, so why take these? Because these bastards can slap extra guns (Gravity, Fusion, Plasma or Flamethrower) on top of your energy fist. And this is on top of the rest of the guns a destroyer can normally grab.

Wolf Brothers

Where the Blood Brothers are for getting stuck in quickly, the Wolf Brothers are for getting as many attacks as possible. Between their spells and their loadouts, you should be sure to get all the attacks you want in any situation.

Special Rules

• Counter: When this unit is charged, you can give one melee weapon an extra attack. All of your infantry can pick it up so you can make your army quite defensive.

Psychic Spells

• Fury (4+): Friendly unit within 12" gains Furious. You definitely want to set this off whenever possible.
• Hurricane (4+): Two enemy units within 6" take 4 hits, making it a diet Lightning Cloud.
• Storm (5+): Enemy unit within 18" takes -1 to their next shooting rolls. You absolutely want this to protect a vulnerable unit as they make their attack.
• Thunder (5+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 3 AP 2 hits, making it better for punching big boys.
• Wrath (6+): Enemy unit within 12" can be thrown 6" in any direction, leaving them out of a weak unit's hair or right in the sights of a charging mob.
• Lightning (6+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 3 hits. The inverse of Thunder, making it for blasting vehicles.

Units

• Lone Wolf: A genuine beatstick of a hero that's cheaper than the grave captain. Perhaps most remarkable is its option for pet guard wolves (for bonus attacks) as well as a great wolf mount instead of a bike, thereby granting the rider extra melee weapons as well as Impact 3.

• Wolf Rookie: Take pathfinders and toss them into basic brother armor. Their quality won't be as good, but you'll be able to buy them weapons that would normally be impossible.
• Wolf Brother: Your basic battle brother, though the weapon choices lack anything with heavy punch. You can also give him jetpacks or bikes to fill in a hole you want - ones that could normally be filled with the appropriate base units.
• Werewolf: While more expensive with a 3+ defense, these guys are genuine melee monsters with Fast and Regeneration. While normally without any shooting, you can give them backpack grenade launchers to give at least a cursory effort at softening up crowds before ripping into them with the variety of evil implements at their disposal.
• Wolf Destroyer: What makes this guy different from the stock destroyer? It's the ability to replace that storm rifle with a base assault rifle (at a discount of 5 points even!) and then buy an attachment that's normally only for champions and captains.
• Wolf: The closest you get to a glass cannon to an army that's otherwise filled with Prime and 2+ defense. However, what you have is plenty fast and aggressive. If you're looking to mitigate that weakness, buy a cyborg body upgrade - it won't be much, but it'll help.
• Wolf Rider: Take bikers and replace their bikes with angry wolves with Impact 3 and 3 AP 1 attacks to add to the frenzy. Almost all their options focus in on that, though you could also be a square and grab a plasma pistol or assault rifle for some variety.

Army Building

Tactics

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Grimdark Future Tactics Articles
General:	General Tactics
Alien Hives:	Alien Hives - Soul-Snatcher Cults
Aliens:	Dwarf Guilds - Eternal Dynasty - Jackals - Orc Marauders Robot Legions - Saurian Starhost - TAO Coalition
Battle Brothers:	Battle Brothers - Custodian Brothers - Prime Brothers
Elves:	Dark Elf Raiders - Elven Jesters - High Elf Fleets
Havoc:	Havoc Brothers - Machine Cult Defilers - Wormhole Daemons
Humans:	Battle Sisters - Feudal Guard - Gangs of Hive City Human Defense Force - Human Inquisition - Infected Colonies Machine Cult - Titan Lords - Rebel Guerillas
Ratmen:	Ratmen Clans - Vile Rattus Cult