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I see my crumby pic of my Dunklegelb repaints up there so sorry for the quality.

I like the M-8 and I've had good luck with it. The FC is a real sledge hammer that is hard to stop in fact I've yet to actually loose it in combat. My opponent needs to work on that

Do you support your Fire Crawler with mechanics, or run a M.Ind list?

I have a FC coming to me in the mail, and a big AT-43 game on Thursday, 5000+ AP on a 6' by 4' table using regular terrain. I'm going to run the FC and want to know how to support it.

IvanTT wrote:I see my crumby pic of my Dunklegelb repaints up there so sorry for the quality.

I like the M-8 and I've had good luck with it. The FC is a real sledge hammer that is hard to stop in fact I've yet to actually loose it in combat. My opponent needs to work on that

Interesting, I liked your Dunklegelb when I saw it on the AT-43 forums, though to me repainting anything other than the snow camo and to individualise stock striders seems a bit of a waste. Each to their own though. are you going to buy decals and give them something other than an ochre paintjob?


How do you keep the M8 alive, is it a low priority target, target saturation, limited target arc or whatever.

I am also curious as to game sizes you are playing, allowing for how quickly I could kill a Baal when the opponent was busy pouring routines into keeping it going - at discount. This was at 4000pts. I wont 'get out of bed' for less. My current pthoughts on *** vehicles is get two or dont bother. Fire Crawler is the exception because of its clearly superior firepower, if I hang back in restricted fire lanes. Taking two of those would end up a sinple case of slow advance and annihilate any target in LOS. No other unit has quite the same firepower and I dont want the gavmes to devolve that way. Also Fire crawklers are expensive and decent UNA units are expensive, Cobra excepting. I canot get what to me is a decent sized army with a good selection of toys including two Fire Crawlers even at 7000pts.

In WWII, when the Germans first released their vaunted Tiger tanks, they actually used them in platoons of 2 Tigers, and 3 Panzer IIIM's. They didn't have enough Tigers to do full platoons of them, and the Panzer III's had weak anti-tank guns, but provided infantry support to let the Tigers focus on killing bigger things

Using that as a model to create a heavy strider platoon for the UNA, here is my experimental list:

Platoon 1
- Fire Crawler (Lieutenant)
- 2 Lancelot (Sergeant)
- 3 Shock TacArms (Sergeant)
- 9 Steel Troopers (Captain, 2 Laser Gun)
- 9 Steel Troopers (Master Sergeant, 2 Laser Gun)
Platoon 2
- Fire Crawler (Lieutenant)
- 2 Lancelot (Sergeant)
- 9 Steel Troopers (Master Sergeant, 2 Laser Gun)

I have two ultra-heavy Firecrawlers as the core, but provide a pair of Lancelots to support each. The Lancelots provide the inf killing, and since it's a MInd list, they also help repair the Firecrawlers. I've also added an inf platoon to hold objects and provide basic cover/support. Each steel trooper squad has a medic and mechanic. The only part I'm still debating is what kind of TacArm to use. I originally had Jam TacArms, but am debating between Deathdealers and Shock Arms as well. This is a 3500 point list. Comments welcome!

Rackham hasnt got how borkan blast weapons are, and think they are less valuable than autofire weapons. this is why Lancelot is cheap and Sierp is 'compensated' for being 'weaker' with Disruption.

I dont like Lancelots, I think Fire Toads are a better rounded choice. Low mounted direct fire guns give good penetrating fire against infantry but the idea of grenade launchers in a low position and flat fire arc simply doesnt make sense
Sorry my anti Lancelot bias effects my view of this list.

Now you save a lot of popints with Lancelots and I wont try and steal that from you, I suggest however you suck up the activation point and make at least one Fire Crawler piloted by a corporal. Ditch one or both master sergeants too.
I would use Death Dealers with this list, you have plenty of anti vehicle firepower. I do endorse Shock TacArms though, but only if you give them GPacks. They are excellent objective grabbers, they also smoke out units hiding from heavy firepower in cover, this makes Shock TacArms very good support for vehicle heavy armies. With Lancelots you dont need this so much, normally we play with saner house rules where you do get cover against indirect fire but not projection, which is far more sinsible really. Under standard rules go with Death Dealers and allow Lancelots to clear up those 3+ save hiders.

Given a fresh start and done more or less my way I would come up with this:


Fire Crawler (Lt)
3 Fire Toad (Sgt)
3 Steel TacArm (Sgt)
14 Star Troopers (Cpt Newton, 2 medics, 2 flamers)
Wing Sniper team (tri lens)

Fire Crawler
3 Lancelot (Sgt)
Wing Sniper team (tri lens)

You have two officers, one active one backup and drop 3LP on activation but I think the list is tighter. Hidden flamers do some damage while lurking behind walkers, Newton repairs (she is ok pointed when on foot) and hero rules make her more survivable, important with only two officers.

Take the Star Troopers if you can, but many players dont have them. Otherwise take 10 Steel Troopers (Cpt, medic, mechanic, 2 lasers/MG's). With Newton this army is 3500pts on the nose, otherwise 3495pts.
Steel TacArms are choisen for versatility, though GPacks would be nice for objective grabbing. You might need to lurk with the TacArms to keep your meagre infantry asets active. Saying that with the lethality of AT-43 the original list doesnt have much infantry either, four units dont last too long if there is any exposure, adn your list really needs their firepower, the new list can do without most of the time.

Interesting list. It's very strider heavy, but then again MInd lists are supposed to be. I personally like a little more infantry than you have, but that's just a personal preference. Your list definitely looks nasty! Yes, I tend to lean towards probably more leadership than I need, but I hate to have major leaders nailed and having nothing backing them up, and I think in terms of historical lists for how platoons would really work in real life and not just min/max them for the game. I know, it's an odd way of looking at it, but I'm trained as a military historian

Just the thought of two Fire Crawlers in a 3500 list is scary though! That is a deadly list to deal with

Its a list designed to win. Frankly I would be fairer and not use two Fire Cralers in 3500pts, call it 4000pts which is startup for me. At eitjher points replace one with a Cobra, add more TacArms and add in Steel Troopers. I dont actually have any Star Troopers and feel no need to get any.

Interesting list, but beware of counter-snipers.

Cairnius wrote:Do you support your Fire Crawler with mechanics, or run a M.Ind list?

I have a FC coming to me in the mail, and a big AT-43 game on Thursday, 5000+ AP
on a 6' by 4' table using regular terrain. I'm going to run the FC and want to know how to support it.

I run a MIND list typically as you can't beat the repair abilities. I change up my list all the time to keep things
interesting but favor Steel Tacarms (in my opinion one of the most powerful units on the board), Steel Troopers
w/ Lasers, and a compliment of Toads. I keep things alive by keeping them under cover and at a distance from
my opponent and force him to come to me taking advantage of the UNA's superior range. I worry about objectives
once his forces are decimated.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Orlanth wrote:
Interesting, I liked your Dunklegelb when I saw it on the AT-43 forums, though to me repainting anything other than the snow camo and to individualise stock striders seems a bit of a waste. Each to their own though. are you going to buy decals and give them something other than an ochre paintjob?

I'm slowly converting most of my UNA stuff to dakyellow. I like the Fallschirmjäger look of UNA troops and since Paolo Parente had alot to do with
the design of AT-43 it was obviously intentional. That being the case the striders deserve to be DkYellow. I print my own decals using black as a low vis
alternative to white you just need to look closer. I'm also a big WW2 and SF3D/Ma.K 3000 fan so that is a influence for me as well.

Cairnius wrote:Do you support your Fire Crawler with mechanics, or run a M.Ind list?

I have a FC coming to me in the mail, and a big AT-43 game on Thursday, 5000+ AP on a 6' by 4' table using regular terrain. I'm going to run the FC and want to know how to support it.

Do you think you could write up this battle and/or take some pictures? I'm trying to get a grasp on the game and seeing some batreps would be awesome Especially if your fire crawler has come by then!!

IvanTT- that sounds awesome! If the pic in this thread wasn't your favorite, do you have some more so we can see what they look like?

Here's a fellow sentinel that writes comics for At-43. He got a Firecrawler awhile ago and posted pics for those of you that haven't seen what they look like out of the box:

http://www.at43comic.com/?paged=3

If that doesn't work, let me know and I'll take some pics of the pair that I own

Thanks for the link, those are some good pics . That thing is Big!!

Well, I hope that the Fire Crawler in the game is more resilient than the toy, because mine showed up today with three out of four legs not plugged into the feet pieces. Two of them snapped in, and the third one will not, the front-left one. In addition, the armor plate on the front of the left front leg is not glued into place, and I'm not sure what happened to it.

You can't even blame this on the early production runs being not so good as the Fire Crawler is one of the last, most recent U.N.A. units to be released.

It's quality-control like this that KILLS me. If you are going to sell pre-paints, THEY HAVE TO BE ASSEMBLED AND PACKAGED PROPERLY!

No one at Rackham answers quality-control emails...if FFG hadn't had some missing parts for me, even though I didn't buy my stuff from them, I'd have been screwed on three separate occasions, and my Fire Toad Mark 03 was also broken and needed fixing.

This really ticks me off. If you're not going to produce unpainted kits so that I can assemble the mini myself to make sure it is done right, engineer them simply to eliminate the potential for screw-ups for instance why are these Fire Crawler legs even in two pieces, leg and foot, at all? Why not one piece with a thick, solid plastic at the "ankle" so that the legs stay in place.

Also, is the turret on this thing supposed to be movable, because mine isn't facing directly forward and that is a tremendous pet peeve of mine...if not...why glue the stupid thing into place so that I cannot rotate it myself?

Oh, the incompetence...

Hmm aside from your OT post , how did you game go last thursday? We are eager to see the battle report ( especially the pics )

Yeah, sorry. Little venting. Got the leg fixed on the Crawler, but the turret isn't meant to move, I don't think. *sigh*

The game didn't happen. :( Opponent had to bail, wound up playing Flames of War instead. This is kind of the problem...there's no one to play AT-43 against in Boston, other than the two guys from my club I got to buy into the game, one being the opponent who bailed, the other who is about to use his Therians as Necron parts though I got him interested in the pick-up play system I'm developing...

Yeah, I'm not happy the turret is glued in place either. I would have liked to have played with the pose a bit before I repaint em and ungluing turrets is virtually impossible. However, both of my Fire Crawlers showed up in flawless condition! Nothing broken, nothing unattached. Nice paint job with lots of decals to give em detail!

Personally i like the Super heavy guns to be not rotatable.

Because it emphasizes its a walking weapon platform.
rather then a walker with guns.

For example: shadow sword bane blades and all their variations.

Orlanth wrote:
[...]

I really wonder if the Fire Crawler is really any more suirvivable, it certainly has punch though

A dead threat is no threat any more. The Fire Crawler hase an OBSENE amount of firepower. And rightly so as it carries not one buy TWO weapons designed to shoot down spaceships in orbit!

The games I've played thus far with my Fire Crawler has been pretty much "Fire Crawler see, Fire Crawler kills". Type 3 infantery are dead in one salvo, two if in cover. It kills Red Blok type 1 striders in one salvo (thus 2 kills per activation), or kills one Type 2 dead. It cripples an enemy Type 3 strider, if not killing it outright.

UNA is all about first strike. A little less than the Karmans, whom are even more fragile, but still need to focus on grabbing and keeping the initiative. Play aggressive, play bold and you will corner and wipe out your opposition! (And (ab)use terrain to make sure you get some cover for incoming enemy fire.. )


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Orlanth wrote:
[...]

I am also curious as to game sizes you are playing, allowing for how quickly I could kill a Baal when the opponent was busy pouring routines into keeping it going - at discount. This was at 4000pts. I wont 'get out of bed' for less. My current pthoughts on *** vehicles is get two or dont bother. Fire Crawler is the exception because of its clearly superior firepower, if I hang back in restricted fire lanes. Taking two of those would end up a sinple case of slow advance and annihilate any target in LOS. No other unit has quite the same firepower and I dont want the gavmes to devolve that way. Also Fire crawklers are expensive and decent UNA units are expensive, Cobra excepting. I canot get what to me is a decent sized army with a good selection of toys including two Fire Crawlers even at 7000pts.

The Swedish Championships was a 2500pts tournament (1750/750-split). I played a Cypher list with a Omi-Baal in it. And, sure enough, it died. Not every game thou. It was against what was almost a mirror-list but from the Web Striders faction. His Tiamat ate my Baal, then my Tiamat ate his Tiamat. (and my summoned Hekats plus my Assault Goliaths ate his Baal...)

I won mostly because I forced him to kill the civvies I've captured thus "earning" him a massive -15 VP! Needless to say, he never recovered from that...


In the end, I came out as the overall winner and thus I am the current National Champion in AT-43! Still can't belive it, even thou months have passed...




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Myrnir wrote:In WWII, when the Germans first released their vaunted Tiger tanks, they actually used them in platoons of 2 Tigers, and 3 Panzer IIIM's. They didn't have enough Tigers to do full platoons of them, and the Panzer III's had weak anti-tank guns, but provided infantry support to let the Tigers focus on killing bigger things

Using that as a model to create a heavy strider platoon for the UNA, here is my experimental list:

Platoon 1
- Fire Crawler (Lieutenant)
- 2 Lancelot (Sergeant)
- 3 Shock TacArms (Sergeant)
- 9 Steel Troopers (Captain, 2 Laser Gun)
- 9 Steel Troopers (Master Sergeant, 2 Laser Gun)
Platoon 2
- Fire Crawler (Lieutenant)
- 2 Lancelot (Sergeant)
- 9 Steel Troopers (Master Sergeant, 2 Laser Gun)

I have two ultra-heavy Firecrawlers as the core, but provide a pair of Lancelots to support each. The Lancelots provide the inf killing, and since it's a MInd list, they also help repair the Firecrawlers. I've also added an inf platoon to hold objects and provide basic cover/support. Each steel trooper squad has a medic and mechanic. The only part I'm still debating is what kind of TacArm to use. I originally had Jam TacArms, but am debating between Deathdealers and Shock Arms as well. This is a 3500 point list. Comments welcome!

Do your Shock TacArms have Laser designators? Could be VERY usefull in keeping your Lancelots alive a wee bit longer... (and widening their threat-area)

Deathdealers are cool, especially when lead by Lt Epistone (Fire At Will ftw! ), but never ever underestimate the universal usefullness of the Steel TacArms. They auto-kill most infantery, and easily deals with other TacArms. They also threatens enemy armour! But then again, with 2 Fire Crawlers, you might be more interested in Deathdealers led by Lt Epistone to provide that sweet Dakka.

What splits are you using? What Specialists? What Subfaction?

It's a Mind list to give the Firecrawlers the maximum amount of repair points that I can. And whatever TacArm I go with will have a laser targeter. Don't get me wrong, I love Steel TacArms, heck I own 27 of them But I think this platoon could use more anti-inf firepower. Leanin towards Deathdealers again. Not sure about splits yet. As much as I hate to, it might be necessary to split the Firecrawlers. Thoughts on that?

Myrnir wrote:It's a Mind list to give the Firecrawlers the maximum amount of repair points that I can. And whatever TacArm I go with will have a laser targeter. Don't get me wrong, I love Steel TacArms, heck I own 27 of them But I think this platoon could use more anti-inf firepower. Leanin towards Deathdealers again. Not sure about splits yet. As much as I hate to, it might be necessary to split the Firecrawlers. Thoughts on that?

I own alot too... *thinks*

3x DeathDealers (+Lt Epistone)
3x Jam
3x Shock
12+x Steel

Don't have any exact numbers as I am using a ton of open Steels to convert all Sgts to Open... Will find out once they all are finnished...

I am using open steel TacArms as bonus chassis.

My first open suit (Epstone allowing) is my Steel tac Arm sgt. my second Steel TacArm unit has a normal sgt. Thus I get to distinguish the units and give them character.

The second 'open steel' will gert a little conversion work done to him, ie a repainted chest and new arms lega snd pack. He will be an 'open Jam' instead and will lead my second Jam TacArm unit.

DeathDealers are not doscounted anymore and shock TacArms dont fit an open suit concept. I might get a second squad of the latter, but proably wont. Six squads is good enough.

Perhaps I whould have three Steel TacArm squads and save on a conversion, but I think lasers are so good they become a crutch, and am determined to field Death Dealers and Jams aswell.

As for the two spare suits, one will be in pieces anyway and I dont need them. I could buy an extra Steel tac Arm unit and have twelves as you have done, but frankly I need lasers for Steel troopers far more. The conversion material is more important than the bonus suits, besides an open Jam Tac Arm suit should look rather good..

Orlanth wrote:I am using open steel TacArms as bonus chassis.

My first open suit (Epstone allowing) is my Steel tac Arm sgt. my second Steel TacArm unit has a normal sgt. Thus I get to distinguish the units and give them character.

The second 'open steel' will gert a little conversion work done to him, ie a repainted chest and new arms lega snd pack. He will be an 'open Jam' instead and will lead my second Jam TacArm unit.

DeathDealers are not doscounted anymore and shock TacArms dont fit an open suit concept. I might get a second squad of the latter, but proably wont. Six squads is good enough.

Perhaps I whould have three Steel TacArm squads and save on a conversion, but I think lasers are so good they become a crutch, and am determined to field Death Dealers and Jams aswell.

As for the two spare suits, one will be in pieces anyway and I dont need them. I could buy an extra Steel tac Arm unit and have twelves as you have done, but frankly I need lasers for Steel troopers far more. The conversion material is more important than the bonus suits, besides an open Jam Tac Arm suit should look rather good..

You could use the "unarmed" suits as CTF-objectives as per the new über-cool player-made senario on the AT-43 boards...

Sikil wrote:
A dead threat is no threat any more. The Fire Crawler hase an OBSENE amount of firepower. And rightly so as it carries not one buy TWO weapons designed to shoot down spaceships in orbit!

I believe all of the Type 3 Striders are designed to "push button.... receive bacon" (or in this case, something that is nice and crispy on the other end)

The 2k point game played this weekend, my opponent took the Baal Golgoth.... OUCH!

We don't tell each other what faction/army we are playing in advance. If I had known, definitely M.Ind, but I went Union and GOT OWNED. I did manage to take out the propulsion on the Baal, it but that was it.

Even my King Mammoth does some serious damage to enemy units. It's just not survivable without some backup or playing Hide and Seek.

Well I will be pushing buttons soon. Just bought a Fire Crawler and Cobra M8 from a Feebay shop.