Grimdark Future/Tactics/Human Defense Force

Why play Human Defense Force?

You're the army men. The big wall of guns. You've got a whole ton of men out there and you're going to drown the enemy in massed fire or in the blood of your troops. Preferably the former.

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Pros

• Lots of Activations
• Your heroes can actually interact with your troops
• Your heroes are all rather cheap

Cons

• Your troops are flimsy as hell
• Your troops aren't all that good with their guns

Special Rules

• Commander: Exclusive to commanders. Upon activation, this model gets to give its unit one of four boosts (+3" to gun range, +1 to either shooting or punching or +1 AP on guns). You will need to constantly assess the situation to pick the best option, as this gives you a sizeable improvement to your forces.

• Company Standard: Grants Fear and Fearless. This gives you quite a bit for a close-quarters squad with no drawbacks at range.

• Field Radio: If the unit contains a hero with the Commander rule, then you can provide the Commander's bonus to another unit with a Field Radio within 24". You NEED to get one of these if you intend to do more back-seat slave-driving.

Psychic Spells

• 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.
• Flame Breath (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Protective Dome (5+): A friendly unit within 12" gains regeneration when they next get hit.
• 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.
• 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

• Commander: Your commander 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 the Command Trait; this gives you pick one of 4 buffs (+3" movement, +1 to either melee or shooting, or +1 AP to guns) each turn. This is seriously good news for those wanting to improve their troops, but will require some micromanaging to maximize the benefits.

• Storm Trooper Commander: Take your base commander and now make them a storm trooper. This gives some better protection and now both the pistol and rifle have AP 1. Storm troopers also have Ambush and Strider, making them considerably mobile. While the base commander was better suited just sitting back and letting others claim the glory, this commander's one willing to get in the thick of it with his comrades.

• Executioner: Remember how your troops have issues with morale? Well, these guys are how you account for that for a cheaper price than most heroes. If the executioner's unit fails their morale check, then you get to *BLAM* a single model in the unit and make the morale check turn into a success.

• Drill Instructor: This guy grants Furious to their unit, which makes him a good pick for melee. Taking that into account alongside his price and you'll find a good way to exploit both the commander and drill instructor for a more effective charge.

• Psychic: Your lone source of casting and a rather cheap one at that. Sure, he's only as strong as a regular grunt, but why would you need him to do much more than cast and block?

Infantry

• Conscripts: For the price of 5 veterans, you get...10 utterly crap guardsmen. Seriously, each one has 6+ quality and are only equipped with their rifles. If you intend on making them a bunker for an executioner, you might be able to piss off some forces by being idiotically sticky at the cost of a very short life.

• 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 Standard, Field Radio, or Regeneration.
  • Weapon Teams: Alongside the standard guardsmen is a pack of heavy weapons. Available as a squad or as a lone attachment to an infantry/veteran squad, these are essentially Tough 3 soldiers toting a single heavy weapon (Heavy machine gun, missile launcher, mortar, autocannon or laser cannon). Each of these are quite impressive with range, so it's better to keep them as far away as possible. This is especially true of an attached weapon, as you'll be vulnerable to Deadly and Sniper.

• Special Weapons: Your soldiers can now grab whatever special weapons they want! At the cost of anything else. If you grab them, it's because you really need a certain weapon badly enough that one just won't cut it. Also helping matters is the fact that they have Relentless, making their dedication clearer.

• Veteran Squad: 4+ quality makes your vets a little bit more valuable. These guys also gain access to a second special weapon, with the list expanded to include the short-range shotgun and heavy flamethrower. You can also give the squad one of four different upgrades (Rending in melee, +1 to defense, Scout or Stealth) that can shift around just how these guys work. Since they can also grab a Standard, Field Radio or Regeneration on top of all that, you can make a pretty good HQ bunker.

• Storm Troopers: Your elite troops. Each of them comes with 4+ to quality and defense as well as Ambush and Strider. Their base rifles and pistols also get AP 1, so they can take on infantry. 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 Standard, Field Radio or Regeneration - particularly useful if you grab a storm trooper commander.

• 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.

• Sniper Squad: Whatever you do, DON'T LET THEM STOP SNIPING. These guys were actually even worse than conscripts outside of 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 SMGs are short-ranged, though you can grab grenade launchers for free if you feel so inclined. If you're dedicating to melee, then grab heavy batons. You can also grab shields, be it the free light shields, which add +1 to defense in melee, or the heavy shields for a full-on 3+ save.

Vehicles

• Light APC: While no slouch when compared to other tanks, it is quite lightly armed, coming stock with two heavy flamethrowers. Among the upgrades available are the access to Strider and Stealth as well as the ability to upgrade your guns to heavy machine guns (or make one a laser machine gun for better AP). All in all, it fits its role as a transport quite nicely.

• Armored Truck: A more all-terrain vehicle, though it also has limited inventory in the twin heavy volley gun it has stock. If that's not your style, you can make it a twin autocannon. You also have access to some big guns here between the light battle cannon (for smashing hordes), the twin gatling gun (because you have absolutely no faith in that 4+ quality) or the missile volley. Also of interest is the ability to make this a secondary APC by giving it a Transport capacity of 11.

• Attack Vehicle: What stands out about this tank is its acid cannon, which takes a flamethrower and slaps Poison on it. The replacements include a heavy flamethrower, trading Poison for a bit more range, and a fusion cannon, which can obliterate vehicles and mobs alike (as it strangely has Blast when most fusion weapons tend to use Deadly).

• Support Vehicle: This tank has anti-air cannons. Their range is impressive and you have two AP 2 weapons tailor-made to sink planes. However, not all armies take planes. In those instances, you can instead buy one of a variety of different artillery options, each with some flavor of Blast and saddled with Indirect.

• Battle Tank: Finally, something with meat. Toting Tough 12 and a nova cannon to flatten mobs, this is a tank worth the combat potential. This cannon can also be replaced with a broad variety of weapons. On top of that and the auxiliary heavy flamethrower, you can also buy a matching pair of guns for additional pain (heavy flamethrowers, heavy machine guns, plasma cannons or heavy fusion cannons).

• Light Walker: This is not something worth taking to melee. Even though it has fear, it only has a measly single stomp attack. Instead, take it because it has a rather decent list of heavy weapons, complemented by a purchase of Scout and Stealth.

• Light Gunship: This plane gets 11 spaces for Transport, which makes it way more handy in addition to its guns. The laser machine gun can be replaced for a laser cannon if you need serious blasting, while the strike missiles could be swapped for rocket pods for Blast value.

• Heavy Gunship: Twice the Tough but half the capacity. You can swap out the fury missiles for more laser cannons, which stack with the existing laser cannons so you can obliterate almost anything...for a very high cost.

Army Building

Tactics

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Pros

• Lots of models and Activations
• Your heroes can actually interact with your troops
• Your heroes are all rather cheap

Cons

• Your troops are flimsy as hell
• Your troops aren't all that good with their guns

Special Rules

• Commander: Exclusive to commanders. Upon activation, this model gets to give nearby allies one of four boosts (+3" to gun range, +1 to either shooting or punching or +1 AP on guns). You will need to constantly assess the situation to pick the best option, as this gives you a sizeable improvement to your forces.

• Company Standard: Grants Fear and Fearless to allies. This gives you quite a bit for a close-quarters squad with no drawbacks at range.

• Field Radio: If the unit is within 6" of a hero with the Commander rule, then you can provide the Commander's bonus to another unit with a Field Radio within 24". You NEED to get one of these if you intend to do more back-seat slave-driving.

• 'Medical Training: Friendly models within 12" of this model gains Regeneration when they are hit.

Psychic Spells

• 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.
• Flame Breath (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Protective Dome (5+): A friendly unit within 12" gains regeneration when they next get hit.
• 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.
• 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

• Commander: Your commander 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 the Command Trait; this gives you pick one of 4 buffs (+3" movement, +1 to either melee or shooting, or +1 AP to guns) each turn. This is seriously good news for those wanting to improve their troops, but will require some micromanaging to maximize the benefits.

• Storm Trooper Commander: Take your base commander and now make them a storm trooper. This gives some better protection and now both the pistol and rifle have AP 1. Storm troopers also have Ambush and Strider, making them considerably mobile. While the base commander was better suited just sitting back and letting others claim the glory, this commander's one willing to get in the thick of it with his comrades.

• Executioner: Remember how your troops have issues with morale? Well, these guys are how you account for that for a cheaper price than most heroes. If a nearby unit fails their morale check, then you get to *BLAM* a single model in the unit and make the morale check turn into a success. This is essential for keeping your troops actually in the fight.

• Drill Instructor: This guy grants Furious to allies, which makes him a good pick for melee. Taking that into account alongside his price and you'll find a good way to exploit both the commander and drill instructor for a more effective charge.

• Psychic: Your lone source of casting and a rather cheap one at that. Sure, he's only as strong as a regular grunt, but why would you need him to do much more than cast and block?

Infantry

• Conscripts: Your most pathetic but your most numerous. Seriously, you get 5 models and each one has 6+ quality and are only equipped with their rifles. They're pretty much made to pad out a list and distract enemies that wanted to fight others.

• 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 Standard, Field Radio, or Medical Training.

• Weapon Team: These are essentially Tough 3 soldiers toting a single heavy weapon (Heavy machine gun, missile launcher, mortar, autocannon or laser cannon). Each of these are quite impressive with range, so it's better to keep them as far away as possible.

• Special Weapons: A lone soldier that grab whatever special weapons they want! At the cost of anything else. If you grab one, it's because you really need a certain weapon badly enough that one just won't cut it. Also helping matters is the fact that they have Relentless, making their dedication clearer.

• Veteran: 4+ quality makes your vets a little bit more valuable. This one also gains special weapons with the list expanded to include the short-range shotgun and heavy flamethrower. You can also buy one of four different upgrades (Rending in melee, +1 to defense, Scout or Stealth) that can shift around just how these guys work. Since they can also grab a Standard, Field Radio or Medical Training on top of all that, you can make them suited for a good deal more roles.

• Storm Trooper: Your elite troops. Each of them comes with 4+ to quality and defense as well as Ambush and Strider. Their base rifles and pistols also get AP 1, so they can take on infantry. Like the veterans you 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 Standard, Field Radio or Medical Training - particularly useful if you grab a storm trooper commander.

• Cavalry: 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 buy an energy lance to add to the impact hits. You could also grab a special weapon if you were interested in making mobile firepower a thing.

• Sniper: Whatever you do, DON'T LET THEM STOP SNIPING. This loser is actually even worse than conscripts outside of sniping. Make use of their Scout and Stealth rules and move to the best position possible.

• Ogre: Big beefy wall of meat with Fearless, Furious and Tough 3 to soak up blows. Their SMG is short-ranged, though you can grab grenade launchers for free if you feel so inclined. If you're dedicating to melee, then grab heavy batons. You can also grab a shields, be it the free light shields, which add +1 to defense in melee, or the heavy shields for a full-on 3+ save.

Army Building

Tactics

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Grimdark Future Tactics Articles
General:	General Tactics
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