Gates Of Antares: Role-Specific Army Lists, part 2


Concord Combined Command Sector 8/SP97 Light Infantry Brigade, the “Skiritai” – part 2

Tim Bancroft continues his look at creating a role specific army for his C3 Concord

Read Part 1

Tim: Whilst for tournaments and Boot Camps I’m fairly strict on army lists, on a week-by-week basis at the club we’re fairly relaxed. As long as the force is pretty representative then it’s okay. It’s nice to experiment and we’re social gamers more than competitive. I’ll even admit to not selecting some kit (multiple Rebel Creepers in a squad, for example, or having dice-heavy Rebel armies) because it might spoil the game for my opponent.

However, I was thinking about my Concord Skiritai light/mechanised infantry force and wondering what would actually be a representative army list for them.

To start with, it’s worth looking at their role. Like many GoA forces, it’s assumed that orbital or aerial superiority or travel is nullified in some way (aerial by orbital, for a start, perhaps). This means the force’s job is to land wherever they can in a temporary window in the orbital blockade and travel quickly to their destination overland – most likely a place that is embedded in bad or difficult terrain.

The Skiritai aren’t intended to be bogged down: they are intended to move. They may have heavy support weapons temporarily attached, or may even have the heavier tanks assigned, but this is all temporary: what they do have is infantry transports (the excellent T7), a few supporting drones, the lighter support weapons they can carry and themselves – a core of strike squads. Perhaps a medium tank drone such as the M4 might sometimes find itself attached to or associated with the Skiritai but this should be a fairly rare occurrence. Perhaps such situations are best dealt with by allowing allied strategic forces from time to time…

ConcordCoverI’ve assumed that there is a company of drop troops assigned to the regiment – not because I like the drop troops but because it makes sense that a light infantry force would have something like the fast-moving drop troops assigned as a rolling screen. In a similar vein, interceptors have to be part of the outfit as scouts.

But what form of transport? It would be nice to have everyone on interceptors, but that sounds far too much like the Rapid Reaction force. Whilst nothing in the force is slow, the infantry still need something to get them as far they can go before they have to get out and slog the rest of the way on foot.

This means a reliance on the T7. It’s well-protected, carries a plasma light support as default, and is a MOD2. This means the force consists of the following:

  • Strike Command & Strike Squads
  • Drop Command & Drop Squads (for specialist company)
  • C3D1/D2/GP drones
  • Interceptors – possibly an Interceptor Command
  • C3T7 Transports for the strike squads
  • Possibly any close support drones that appear
  • Probes as required – Scout possibly, quite likely Targeters, certainly Medi-probes
  • A little light strike support (X-Launcher, possibly PLS, almost certainly plasma cannon but probably not the specialist weapons such as fractal or compression weapons unless in a very particular situation)

There are restrictions I give myself, however, based on the force composition. The obvious one is that there should not be more T7s than half the number of strike command/strike/strike support squads (at 2 squads/T7 on average) – a change to the existing list, but taken as a Support option with squad limits, they don’t overpower the game. Further, given the Skiritai’s role, it seems reasonable to limit the number of support weapons to 1 in 4 of the total number of squads.

But we need to look to the core of the force: the Strike Squads. Given the shape and role of the Skiritai, the core Strike Squads should be present. We could mandate a single squad like the Ghar, but the Skiritai are infantry. As a result, it seems more sensible to mandate that one in four units (at least) should be the humble Strike Squads. NuHu are unlikely to want to come on such missions, but are already Limited Choice and may even be needed. Command choices are also Limited Choice, so that seems reasonable, too.


So, it seems my Skiiritai list has ended up as:

Tactical

  • Strike Command – Limited
  • Strike Squad – One per four units
  • Drop Squad – As at present
  • Drop Command – Limited Choice
  • NuHu Strike Commander – 1/force

Support

  • C3T7 Transport – One per two ‘Strike’ units
  • Strike Support Team – One per four units.
  • Interceptor Command – Limited Choice
  • Interceptor Squad – One only to be taken before Command.
  • C3D1 Light Support Drone
  • C3D2 Medium Support Drone – no Compression or Fractal Cannon

Strategic

  • C3T7 – No restrictions at this level
  • C3M4 – A C3T7 must be taken for each M4 used
  • Specialist support heavy drones (as hinted)

Auxiliary

  • Any of the auxiliary options can be taken.

Do you have an article within you? Are you itching to show your collection to the world? Join our Beyond the gates of Antares facebook page for the most up to date news and more!

Gear up for Combat!

View in Store

View in Store

View in Store

The post Gates Of Antares: Role-Specific Army Lists, part 2 appeared first on Warlord Games.