Grimdark Future/Tactics/Robot Legions

Why play Robot Legions?

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

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Pros

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

Cons

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

Special Rules

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

Psychic Spells

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

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Tri-Scorpion Overseer: If you're looking for a straight-up beatstick of a hero, then you've come to the right place. Strider makes it more mobile and it's tougher than the base Overseer, while the weapons it has let it flatten units in both ranged combat and melee. The devastator blade in particular is tailor-made to turn heroes into paste. If there were to be a weakness, it would lie within the price tag - At 235 points, it's not the cheapest and you'll need to ensure that whatever else you bring (if you can. Not really a question in lower point games) will support more than it can kill.

• Annihilator Overseer: Not as expensive as the Tri-Scorpion Overseer, but it looks more akin to a normal one - only with Tough 3, Ambush and Strider. While your basic staff is serviceable, you'll likely be tempted to replace it - doing so will strip you of shooting so you'll probably want to grab a wrist-mounted flamethrower or laser cannon.

• Overseer: Over half the price of the other overseer variants, but you'll see the obvious downsides: It's Slow and is only Tough 3. It also lacks any special improvements aside from the ones to its staff and hand-mounted guns. Considering how much slow will hinder you, you'll be turned off from going for a better melee choice unless you opt for a transport.

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

• Warden: A straight, no-frills shooting hero. This guy totes a heavy reaper rifle, which is essentially an improvement over the warrior's reaper rifle, as well as a heavy CCW that's more than enough to handle melee if necessary.

• Nanobot Wraith-Shard: A massive unit and your most powerful psychic. Its melee attacks practically spell death for anything it's engaged with and being 2+ in defense with Tough 12 and Regeneration means that it won't die to anything short of concentrated laser cannons.

Infantry

• Warriors: Your humble frontliners are quite a durable force. That said, being walls are what they suffice as - Their gauss rifles can only shoot one Rending shot and the alternative reaper rifle halves the shooting range for a guaranteed AP 2. from there you have the option for a cheap flame caster, plasma caster or a costlier fusion caster.

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

• Guardians: By default, they're pretty much mini-overseers with toned-down staffs. However, they can be given jetpacks for some good mobility. As for other weapons, you're stuck with either war scythes (High AP), antimatter pistols and void swords (More melee than shooting) or the hyper swords and shields (Granting a pretty good weapon and Stealth).

• Flesh Eaters: Pure melee murderers. They have absolutely no hope of shooting, so you should consider Ambush if you're not driving them to the fight. The claws are fairly effective with AP 1 and Rending, though you can pop 5 points to replace Rending with either more attacks, AP 3 or Deadly 3.

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

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

• Hover Bikes: These guys are able to move with normal speed and Strider, which makes for very good news for shooting. aside from the twin gauss rifle, you can instead by a twin flux rifle (for poison) or an antimatter rifle (for mobs).

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

• Tri-Scorpions: While technically similar to the hover snakes, these guys get arm blades that trade some attacks for guaranteed AP 2. You can even buy the unit Rending again, making them better for heavy infantry. Buying a heavy blade just makes a bigger can opener.

• Annihilators: Ambush and Strider make them a good bit more mobile than most, but they're still Slow. That said, that's fine since they're floating weapons platforms. Whether you pick the more anti-infantry gauss cannon or one anti-tank heavy gauss cannon, you should never be on the front lines.

Vehicles

• Transport Tank: Fast and Strider give you some needed mobility for your transport, while the gauss array makes sure you have plenty of chances to gun down an enemy. You can also buy Regeneration if you want to ensure the cargo's survival.

• Doom Tank: Swap out the transport tank's capacity for a devastating doom cannon (48" A1 AP 4 Blast 3) and you've got this. You're not likely to be seen at the front lines with this beast, so you're not so pressured to take Regeneration. You still should though, you've got a big target here.

• Support Platform: A bit of an oddball, being Slow yet having Strider. The gauss cannon is essentially a double gauss rifle (swappable with a flux cannon), while the real star of the show is the twin flux cannon. Both of these guns are mid-ranged, so grabbing Regeneration here isn't a bad idea.

• Spider Walker: The antimatter cannon here is a beast, made to mulch most armored mobs, and it's on a Fast platform with Strider. You can also grab up to two antimatter rifles in order to blow up some more mobs as well as Regeneration, Gloom-Protocol for more spell-denial and a Bot-Fabricator so you can spawn bot swarms out of thin air.

• Tripod Walker: The atom-beams give you a bunch of short-range AP 1 shooting, which is fairly handy. You can also buy Reanimator, which lets a friendly unit within 12" have Regeneration trigger on a 4+. Because this requires you to be fairly close, you'll see some incentive for buying Regeneration.

• Spider Robot: To call this the big brother of the spider walker is kind of a tough call, as it's functionally identical aside from costing more, putting Regeneration on a higher pricetag and being Tough 6. Really, one has to wonder if the Tough values of the walker and robot were switched around?

• Night Transport: Your flying Transport is already pretty good, and having a twin flux cannon gives you a literal storm of shots to blow stuff up. With how aircraft are, it's a bit of a waste to even consider Regeneration.

• Doom Fighter: The night transport swaps it Transport capacity for a death beam, a really powerful piece of artillery that anyone would consider a threat for their AA and Aircraft to take on. Regeneration's a good option here.

• Death Fortress: Holy crap. This thing is expensive as hell and it has a lot of features. It has a lot of guns to throw around between the gauss machineguns and the heavy antimatter cannon of anti-hordes, it's tanky as hell with Tough 18 and it's able to carry 21 models, which is madness. It's even able to Ambush and has Strider (held up by Slow) so it's not bothered by terrain.

• Fortress of Destruction: No. Just no. If you're taking this, it's for a massive game. Otherwise, you're dumping 900 points into the most insane WMD ever. All those guns, Tough 24, Ambush and Strider, this thing's a giant bullseye for all the heavy weapons to fire upon it.

Army Building

Tactics

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Pros

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

Cons

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

Special Rules

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

Psychic Spells

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

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Overseer: The Overseer is your only melee hero, though Slow makes it a pain to really get stuck in. If you don't opt for the wrist-mounted flamethrower or laser cannon, you're relying on the staff's short-range shooting.
  • Melee: Aside from the staff, which is basic but provides shooting, you can also buy other options - your cheapest is the hyper sword, which provides AP 1 and Rending. For only 5 points, you could either grab the the void sword and lose Rending for more attacks or buy the phase glaive to trade it in for AP 3. The war scythe is 10 points, but it gives AP 2 and Deadly 3, making it the ideal option for other heroes.

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

• Warden: A straight, no-frills shooting hero. This guy totes a heavy reaper rifle, which is essentially an improvement over the warrior's reaper rifle, as well as a heavy CCW that's more than enough to handle melee if necessary.

Infantry

• Warrior: Your humble frontliners are quite a durable force. That said, being walls are what they suffice as - Their gauss rifle can only shoot one Rending shot and the alternative reaper rifle halves the shooting range for a guaranteed AP 2. from there you have the option for a cheap flame caster, plasma caster or a costlier fusion caster.

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

• Guardian: By default, they're pretty much mini-overseers with toned-down staffs. However, they can be given jetpacks for some good mobility. As for other weapons, you're stuck with either war scythes (High AP), antimatter pistols + void swords (More melee than shooting) or the hyper swords + shields (Granting a pretty good weapon and Stealth).

• Flesh Eater: Pure melee murderers. They have absolutely no hope of shooting, so you should consider Ambush. The claws are fairly effective with AP 1 and Rending, though you can pop 5 points to replace Rending with either more attacks, AP 3 or Deadly 3.

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

• Bot Swarm: Absolutely abysmal quality and defense, but they have Fearless and Regeneration on top of Tough 3 to tank out some wounds and move at a normal speed with Strider. If nothing else, they're a good fodder unit to throw at the enemy while you cap objectives.

• Hover Bike: These guys are able to move with normal speed and Strider, which makes for very good news for shooting. aside from the twin gauss rifle, you can instead by a twin flux rifle (for poison) or an antimatter rifle (for mobs).

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

• Tri-Scorpion: While technically similar to the hover snakes, these guys get arm blades that trade some attacks for guaranteed AP 2. You can even buy the unit Rending again, making them better for heavy infantry. Buying a heavy blade just makes a bigger can opener.

• Annihilator: Ambush and Strider make them a good bit more mobile than most, but they're still Slow. That said, that's fine since they're floating weapons platforms. Whether you pick the more anti-infantry gauss cannon or anti-tank heavy gauss cannon, you should never be on the front lines.

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