Epic Warpath – Tactics Series #2

Welcome back to the second blog in this series - this time focusing on the Forge Fathers and Asterians!

The Forge Father’s opponents respect them for the martial prowess and resolute determination, but they don’t get that respect back.  Forge Fathers say it’s either theirs already or will be soon.  That attitude extends to shrugging off opponents attempts to Pin units with the army wide ability to ignore a pin marker on a 5+; so don’t forget it!  Forge Fathers have ‘Tis but a Scratch as a Strategic Order to ignore some opponents’ attacks too; remember to use before the opponent rolls to hit and hopefully you your money’s worth out of it.

As for units it’s tempting to go for ‘the best’ every time, but they’re expensive.  Forge Father commanders are careful with resources and wants to use the cheapest unit to get the job done.  Jack-of-all-trades are never cheap so look at Steel Warriors as a solid Troop choice that come with AP1 weapons which makes a difference against opponents’ armour.  Load them in transports to speed them along, or push them with Unnatural Sprinters if 5/8 is just too slow.   Then go for a mix with harder hitting units to make a real dent in the opponent; the Thorgarim are great for assault (A2, AP3) and can also be delivered on Drakkar APC or Sigrúnn Pattern Dropships, and some long range firepower comes from the Sturnhammer Battle Tank (24”)

• Roll to shrug off pinning on a 5+
• Troop options are solid choices; take Thorgarim if you have a plan to get them in to Assault.
• The longest range firepower options have different uses, Sturnhammer Battle Tank for armoured targets and Jotunn Weapon Platforms for Anti-Aircraft or low armour targets.
• Want all rounders? Look at the Iron Ancestors.

Iron Ancestors

Great allrounders with survivability (Heavy Armour, AR 8+, SV 7+) to make them hard to shift, on top of good assault and ranged options.  Everything you’d want from a Forge Father unit!  Anti-Aircraft capabilities for a unit often in the middle of the battlefield is a nice added bonus.  Just don’t forget that they are walkers with height 3 meaning cover is harder to get, and with 3 bases per unit other similarly priced units will pump our more attacks in assault or shooting.

Jotunn Weapon Platform

Sometimes you need to reach out and touch someone, and 24” range and 4 attacks per base can do just that.  Against light infantry it can be devastating at double the opponents fire range.  Remember at AP1 it won’t take down armoured units.  Plus it’s incredibly slow and not well armoured so be careful with placement.  Put off?  On the flip side with 24” Anti-Air it can be used as area denial which can work wonders!

Hrungnir Magma Destroyer

And sometimes you just want an unstoppable force of destruction!  This unit has AR10+ and so needs to be hit by an AP2 weapon to have any chance of taking damage, and if that attack gets through it still have a 5+ save and a resilience token.  It functions as a transport and can sprint 10” and still use it’s Hailstorm Autocannon's, so you can get a close assault unit into position quicker without having to sacrifice firepower.  Sprinting does rule out firing the titular Magma Destroyer, so you have to balance up losing the 1 AP3 that offers.  Just don’t confuse unstoppable with invulnerable, it can do down to concentrated fire, and it’ll hurt when it does!

Asterian Tactical Overview

Noh Charger boosting offensive output for the weaker units, it was more powerful during early testing so it has been dialled back a touch. It still benefits the units you’ll tend to have most of in your army, units like Marionettes are going to be occupying objectives supported by the big units.

Vibroshield really helps the melee units if you can bait the charge from your opponent and can help hold those weaker units on objectives.

Energise is much more situational but increasing any shield save by an extra 12.5% (or 1 in 8 if you prefer) has value but you need to keep tabs on those command points so this is the most situational of the 3 stratagems.

• The Sight – The bonus for the initiative roll on turn one is nice, but the extra scout moves are very, very nice. Scout moves don’t have to move forwards. Most Asterian units sprint at least 8” so you can pull off some potentially very frustrating repositioning after your opponent has got his units all laid out and waiting to go.
• Energy Shields – In Warpath many Asterian units have the Shield keyword. This is represented in Epic Warpath with Saves and a higher number of saves than many other factions. While they look squishy some of these constructs really stick around.
• Cool looking robots – well a high number of construct units being remotely piloted but come on... ROBOTS.

Stand out Units

Troops

Cypher Wardens – Stats wise these are an elite unit, pricier than some troops choices but hard hitting in close combat with good armour and a save these are worth taking to provide some backbone to your Marionettes.

Marionettes – Far from the best troop unit in the game, also one of the cheapest troops units. Their low cost means you can, if you wish, fit quit a few of these into a force which will absorb a lot of shooting and assaults. Buffable with Noh Charger and Vibroshield they can even the odds and even get ahead of the odds in some cases against units which are more expensive. Because of those Stratagems these aren’t a cheap, cannon fodder, horde style unit… they can do a lot more.

Specialists

Black Talons – Very very powerful unit, they are expensive to field and they are more than capable of justifying their cost. Vibroshield gives them an even greater edge in close combat if they are holding an objective or key position and Energise can give them a 5+ shield save, that’s heavy vehicle levels of shielding.

Matsudans – Resilient lizards in samurai armour, pinning weapons and 18 dice in close combat with AP1. Worth having to overwhelm small units on objectives.

Support

Shade Escort Gunship – These got less play than expected during beta testing which surprised us as they offer a lot. The unit did get a few adjustments during development but 6 shots, hitting on 5+ with AP3 and a potential follow up of another 9 shots at AP 0 from the Blasters is a lot of fire power in a compact package.

Today we give Tobias his turn on the blog, showing off his incredible Forge Fathers Army (he was actually the first to fully paint his plastic army and is moving onto some of the Super Heavy and resin bits now!)

He even managed to keep to his Firefight colour schemes!

Join us tomorrow for some space rat themed fun!