Grimdark Future/Tactics/Alien Hives

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Special Rules

• Pheromones: Two units within 12" of this unit get to add +1 to their next morale checks. Important for when you're managing your packs of grunts.
• Psychic Barrier: The unit in question can now block psychic powers as if it could cast. This turns into a +1 bonus to block if the unit could already cast.

Psychic Powers

• Fear (4+): One enemy unit within 12" suffers -2 on their next morale roll.
• Psychic Blast (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes one hit with AP 2 and Deadly 3. Bad news for any solo units.
• Infuse Life (5+): One friendly unit within 12" gets Regeneration when they suffer their next hit. An absolute godsend for your softer units.
• Shriek (5+): Two enemy units within 12" suffer an 3 AP 2 hits each. Pretty much built to give you breathing room without being Psychic Blast tiers of deadly.
• Animate Flora (6+): A setpiece within 6" of the caster can be moved anywhere within 6" or removed from play. This is especially helpful in keeping your gunlines alive or exposing the enemy.
• Overwhelm (6+): One enemy model within 12" takes 3 AP 2 hits. If you wanted to focus fire on Shriek, this can be more reliable damage than Psychic Blast.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Hive Lord: A very flexible but also expensive pick. In low points games, it may struggle to get where it needs even with wings. Can be upgraded to be either very shooty, very choppy, or a mix of both, along with some support options. Somewhat unusually the Hive Lord is actually best run on his own, as with Tough 12 and a 2+ save he can take a beating and doesn’t offer any benefits to the unit he joins besides a morale boost. Unless going for a very shooty build, I would suggest avoiding hook upgrades as otherwise you will probably never actually use them. On the other hand, the tail upgrades are quite handy regardless of build. Support-wise, he can operate as a morale buff to friendly units within 12”, or as a counter to enemy psychics.

• Prime Warrior: While not quite as flexible as the Hive Lords, these guys are still very flexible for about half the price. They still retain the fierce 2+ save and Tough 6 to absorb most blows.

• Snatcher Lord: The only Psychic among the Heroes by default, though only at a rating of 1. The combination of Fast, Scout and Strider all make this hero incredibly mobile out of the gate, and for much less. Its claws also have Rending on them, making short work of armor while Tough 3 gives it some limited protection. However, it can only operate as either melee or as a psychic if you spring for more powers.

• Veteran Warrior: A Hero Hive Warrior for all intents and purposes. Its upgrade list is more in line with that of a warrior rather than the budget Hive Lord's list that the Prime Warrior can use while retaining Tough 6. This means that it will also lack heavy weapons and has a lesser AP game, but you make up for it in the very low cost.

• Snatcher Veteran: A super Soul-Snatcher, though you're also picking the cheapest of the lot. This guy loses out on the AP on his claws as well as Fear, but you have all the other goodies. For all intents and purposes, the only upgrade you can give it is Psychic 1, and if that's the case and you're not pressed for points, you'd be better off picking the Lord.

Infantry

• Grunts: Very basic horde unit with only one shot/attack on a 5+ at a pitiful 12” range. They are cheap though, and can serve as good chaff or to add some activations if you’re taking lots of big boys. They have a surprising number of upgrade options, including a couple melee upgrades (although I find these to be better when saved for assault grunts, you will get much more mileage from them). They can get one special weapon, three of which are of particular interest. The Bio-Shredder is a cheap option, but a 6” range means you might fire it once the entire game. The Shock Gun provides some needed AP2, but on a 5+ won’t hit often. The Bio-flamer is appealing, with a 12” range and 6 attacks you may get some use out of it. The Acid Gun faces the same issue with its 6” range compounded by also only one shot, and finally the Bio-rifle is a good choice for units which plan to hold objectives. It offers a very cheap AP1 sniper which can remove special weapons from enemy units. In my opinion the Bio-flamer or Bio-rifle are the best all around choices. As for the rest of the squad, here you get three upgrade options, Bio-pistols which give them an extra attack for 5 ppm, Bio-spikes which upgrade their shots to AP1, and Bio-carbines which give a longer 18” range and triple the shots, but at nearly double the unit cost. For an objective-sitting squad, carbines may be a good choice, but also increase the threat potential. Otherwise, for general purpose, either the pistols or spikes are solid choices, or you can also just keep them cheap and run them plain. If their main purpose is to server as chaff, then that’s probably the way to go.

• Assault Grunts: Angrier stabby Grunts. These get an extra attack in melee and are Fast for 40pts more. They can grab some melee upgrades such as doubling their attacks, adding Rending, AP2, or Deadly 3. They can also take Furious and/or Poison for 10pts. However, they’re just as squishy as Grunts and even more expensive, so be sparing with upgrades. That said, AP2 attacks are not to be ignored on such a cheap unit, especially if you also grab Furious (with Fast, if you’re good with positioning, you should get the charge most of the time).

• Winged Grunts: Grunts, with the same upgrade options, but now with Flying and Ambush for 60pts. Due to their increased price these are less of a chaff unit, and can serve two main roles. One is to be a late-game objective grabber, where they are protected from a turn or two of shooting. In this case giving them a rifle can be a good choice. The other is to harass backlines, which will only be useful if your opponent has fragile long-range units. In that case, running them with pistols and a flamer can result in a lot of dice being rolled. In either case however, this is a specialty unit which should only be used in situations where that ambush is useful and something like Swarms or winged Warriors aren’t the right tool.

• Soul-Snatchers: Your elite melee units. There's less of them when compared to Assault Grunts, but your weapons are also Rending and you have a scout move so you can make an alpha strike. This also makes them great for nabbing early objectives. If you buy the upgrade, you can also make one of them a Psychic, though a limited one.

• Hive Swarm: Fairly tough for the price and can be given Ambush and a 12” A6 gun fairly cheaply. Again, there are two main roles here; objective holder or cheap suicide unit. For 65pts you can get a unit which can appear on any objective, and requires likely a full unit’s or more to deal with. That can draw fire away from your Grunts, or make your controlled objectives harder to shift. Alternatively, for 75pts you can drop them in next to whatever unit you need to deal with and drop 18 dice on them, but with only 6+ quality don’t plan on hitting much.

• Hive Warriors: The elite units. Each of them is tanky with a 4+ save and Tough 3, so they can definitely hold their own in any situation. It also helps that they also have both choppy and shooty options. You can also grab wings for the unit, which gives them a boost to mobility that's bolstered by their toughness.

• Ravenous Beasts: Pure elite assault types. These guys lack any shooting and only two sets of 3 attacks with AP 1, so you'll be needing to make use of Fast and Strider to avoid fire. You have only two options for upgrades: Tunnel Attack so you can grab Ambush and then rush in on an enemy, or scout so you can start fighting immediately. The choice between the two ultimately boils down to when you want these guys to begin slicing into the competition.

• Venom Floaters: Your floating cover generators. Sure, they have Tough 3 and 6 poisoned attacks to make them effective in combat with their Hive Warrior statline, but their cover powers are way more useful.

• Synapse Floaters: Synapse Floaters are actually pretty durable for artillery. They still have a 4+ save and Tough 3, but they also get to use Regeneration to tank even more. But their real role is in their Psychic Synapse rule, which lets the unit count as Psychic with a rating equal to the number of models in it.

• Hive Guardians: The toughest of the goons. A 2+ save and Tough 3 means that he won't be going any time soon. you can strap him up with either much deadlier melee weapons so you can screen the potential threats to your Heroes. You could also grab either the Heavy Shock-Gun for its AP 2 and Blast 3 for mob removal or the Bio-Harpoon for AP 4 and Deadly 3 so you can kill most anything.

• Spores: Great chaff. They die to a stiff breeze, but they offer two big advantages. One, they’re a very cheap unit that your opponent has to deal with, and two, they are one of the cheapest activations in the game. They’re especially useful against hordes or units with low defense, as 9 automatic hits is nothing to scoff at for 40pts. But the main utility is that cheap activation. It means that you have more capability to outmaneuver your opponent by forcing them to move first when it may not be advantageous, because you can just stall them with little 40pt units. Combined, these hit hard and are still only 80pts (if they survive).

• Massive Spore: The same thing as Spores, but with one Tough 3 model instead. That means they don’t lose effectiveness as they take damage, but are susceptible to Deadly weapons and can’t be combined. They also have larger models and may have a harder time getting cover.

Monsters

• Shadow Hunter: The premier assassin unit. Between Ambush, Fast, Strider and Tough 6, you're going to have plenty of time to get within Hook range (if you buy that) and then close in to rip the unlucky target apart with its twinned claws.

• Carnivo-Rex: An absolute battering ram with Tough 12 and a 2+ save. You'll be either wanting to get up close and personal with this beast, in which case you'll also be eyeing either Regeneration or Impact 3 as well (and possibly a tail weapon as a backup), or as a heavy cannon.

• Toxico-Rex: Oh, is this a big boy. Its lone ranged attack packs a punch with Blast 6 and Poison, while its melee has a flurry of Poison strikes on top of the stomps. This on top of its statline makes this a pain to go up against. All you can do is grant it either Regeneration or Impact 3.

• Psycho-Rex: Though it only has one set of claws, the Psycho-Rex also comes with the power of Psychic 2 to make it a tanky casting beast. It can also grab Pheromones or Psychic Barrier so you can boost its casting game even further.

• Tyrant Beast:

• Devourer Beast:

• Artillery Beast:

• Burrower:

• Spawning Beast:

• Flamer Beast:

• Mortar Beast: Although at first glance it seems a little underwhelming for the cost, this can be a pretty good unit. Indirect means that you can park it in cover, LOS blocking cover if you can, and just rain down spores. It’s only hitting on a 4+, but even if you miss, you get more spores! That means more for your opponent to deal with, and more activations for you. It may not be the most directly useful choice, but in the right army it can be handy, especially if you like to overwhelm the enemy in targets. Because it lacks AP, you’re going to need to make up for that somewhere else, or primarily target low-save units. Against hordes, this is nice.

• Invasion Spore: Your only transport is also capable of Ambush, which is a pleasant way to drop its cargo (11 models of any sort or a Carnivo/Toxico/Psycho-Rex). This means that you can indeed throw in a pack of Grunts or Hive Warriors backed up by a Hero at the worst possible flak to snag a point. However, on its own it's essentially chaff. After landing, it's immobile with a pretty lousy 5+ Quality to fire five Bio-Guns (That you can upgrade, though all of them become the same gun) and some rather token melee. Don't expect the points you spend on upgrading those guns to pay you back.

• Artillery Spore: A bit of a weird one, this is a bit like a Mortar Beast, but also immobile, but also has ambush, but also shoots worse and at a shorter range. The main reason to take this over a Mortar Beast is because you want to be sure you have that objective, and nothing will come close to it. It can also be given Regeneration to make it an even better wall Since it’s immobile it’s not that good for late-game objective grabbing, and you will miss one turn of shooting. In other words, this is really only a better choice if you desperately need better defensive abilities, or you are running out of points. Otherwise, use some Spores or Swarms to block objectives and a Mortar Beast to give fire support.

• Rapacious Beast: Your lone aircraft is rather modest with only Tough 6 and a 2+ save. Alongside its main gun (which can be upgraded to either be Blast or Deadly), you can also grab bombs that either act as your lone Anti-Air option or as extra spore deployments.

Army Building

Tactics

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