Dropfleet Commander/Tactics/PHR

A Brief Treatise on Pinko Abandonist Punks

Why Play PHR

Maybe you think transhumanism is the future, and extravagant AI-laden vessels are the way to show those baselines the error of their ways. Maybe you think capital ships that are sturdy enough to make broadside battery tactics work in space through brute force are awesome. Or maybe you're just expressing you childhood desire to fuck that robot from Flubber.

Whatever the reason for your technophilia, you've come to the right place.

Special Abilities

Calibre (X): Many PHR ships have their standard guns fall into light, medium, or heavy calibre categories. If you target a ship of a tonnage that corresponds to the calibre, your lock value is reduced by 1. Additionally, calibre(H&S) guns only need to roll 1 higher on their lock to get a critical hit, as opposed to the standard 2 higher.

Launch assets: PHR have the only bombers with a 2+ lock, although they have 3" less range than Scourge or Shaltari bombers. Their fighters are second best compared to Shaltari, giving equal PD but having 4" less range.

Assault troopships: While UCM/Scourge troopships are based off their standard cruisers and lacking in weaponry (while Shaltari are their own thing), PHR troopships are the equivalent of their heavy cruisers for the most part, and come equipped with weaponry equal to a standard cruiser. You'll likely see multiple of these in a list due to how good they are.

Ships of the Line

• Light Tonnage:
  • Echo-class Corvette: The toughest corvette, which doesn't mean too much considering it still only has two hull points. The only corvette with a regular gun on top of the close action weapons they all have, it's capable of popping out of atmosphere and posing a threat. The only PHR ship with stealth, although taking advantage of that is difficult considering the ship only has a signature of 2" anyway.
  • Medea-class Strike Carrier: With a single piddly bombardment cannon for armament, this ship won't be scoring any kills against other ships. However, with 5 Hull and 3+ armor it is practically impossible to kill once it gets into atmosphere.
  • Europa-class Gun Frigate: With three shots on each side arc, this frigate does wonderfully in a first-wave linebreaker battlegroup alongside a Theseus, Orion, or Leonidas/Agamemnon.
  • Pandora-class Laser Frigate: One of the few PHR ships with a focus on forward arc firepower, and even a lone Pandora is useful for adding spikes.
  • Calypso-class ECM Frigate: Once per turn, this escort can apply a penalty of +1 to the lock values of one enemy group when targeting a nearby friendly ship. Not only great for causing misses, but a single Calypso can render a ship immune to critical hits from 4+ weapons. Stackable, but you're limited in how many you can take. Either dump multiple of these on a single ship that you plan on diving into the thick of things, or spread them out to protect critical ships such as troopships.
  • Andromeda-class Launch Frigate: Has a happy chin hangar with Launch 1. Great for flanking and getting bombers far down field sooner.

• Medium Tonnage:
  • Theseus-class Light Cruiser: The only light cruiser that can be taken as a single ship. Can keep up with frigates and has solid broadside weaponry and armor, and it's cheap for PHR. The biggest weakness is awful point defense; frigates have better PD than this ship.
  • Ikarus-class Vanguard Carrier: A mixed gunship-carrier that has a couple shots in each of its F/S arcs to supplement its two bases of fighter/bombers.
  • Perseus-class Cruiser: Bad.
  • Ajax-class Cruiser: While it's not a bad cruiser, it suffers from two things: you often overkill frigates with your twelve dice per side, and for only thirty points more you can get an Orpheus with the same weaponry and troop dropping ability. The Ajax does have linked broadsides going for it, and one more inch of thrust.
  • Orion-class Cruiser: The standard gun cruiser. Eight 4+ dice per linked side isn't too shabby.
  • Ganymede-class Assault Troopship: Bombardment batteries can help clear out enemy tokens in a cluster before you drop your own down.
  • Orpheus-class Assault Troopship: Slightly cheaper than a Ganymede, and you trade out bombardment for light broadsides. Rolling twelve dice per side lets you roll for sixes while attacking strike carriers competing with you for a cluster.

• Heavy Tonnage:
  • Bellerophon-class Heavy Cruiser: One of the best ships PHR has to offer. Launch assets complement the burnthrough laser very well. They tend to do better staying back.
  • Achilles-class Heavy Cruiser: Can be good for reliably putting a couple points of damage on a target thanks to the heavy calibre broadsides. You're mostly paying for the torpedo though, and torpedoes aren't too great at the moment.
  • Hector-class Heavy Cruiser: An Orion with a burnthrough laser slapped onto it and a few more hull points. The problem with the Hector is the difficulty in using both the linked broadsides and the laser, as going weapons free prevents you from turning and lining up the three weapons systems in an optimal way.
  • Priam/Scipio-class Battlecruiser: PHR battlecruisers are interesting in that they're as fast as their frigates. While the Bellerophon wants to hang back and snipe with the laser, the Priam is different in that with its higher thrust, more hull points, better PD, and light calibre broadsides, it wants to dive in and project bombers as far down the board as possible.
  • Agamemnon/Leonidas-class Battlecruiser: Weapons-wise, essentially two Theseus stapled together in terms of total dice. Each side of the ship has both light and medium broadsides, but what can pose difficulty is in that the two light and two medium broadsides are linked with their counterparts on the other side of the ship, so in order to fully utilize a facing you need to go weapons free.

• Superheavy Tonnage:
  • Minos-class Battleship: With two torpedoes, heavy calibre cannonades, and a crippling close action weapon, the Minos wants to get up close and brawl. Torpedoes suffer a bit as they do generally, but the neutron missiles go well with the cannonades.
  • Heracles-class Battleship: While the Minos wants to dive in, the Heracles does better hanging back and sniping with its dark matter cannon. It functions as point-and-delete with enemy cruisers thanks to the crippling ability of the DMC. Firing it does give you a minor spike though, and it can be harder to take advantage of your heavy cannonades with a front narrow arc weapon.

Building a Fleet

The PHR's uniquely capable assault troopships give them the option to invest points in ground assets and decent combat output at the same time. Be prepared to plug an Orpheus into at least one of your medium slots.

Tactics

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Counter-Tactics

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Common Playstyles

Beams and Bombers: One of the weaknesses of PHR is the difficulty in getting the most out of their broadsides. Bombers don't care about facing, and burnthrough lasers aren't as difficult to aim if you don't need to worry about lining up for weapons free. Relies largely on the excellence of the Bellerophon.