Grimdark Future/Tactics/Machine Cult

Why play Machine Cults?

The machine cults house some of the most unique shooting among all of Grimdark Future, equipped with rules unavailable to other armies. Combined with Regeneration

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Pros

• Plenty of units get Regeneration
• Your heroes can actually interact with your troops
• Lots of shooting with special rules

Cons

• Your forces are average in defense
• Your troops are rather costly
• Those special rules on the guns tend to lack anything for heavy armor.

Special Rules

• Canticles: Similar to the HDF commanders and their equivalents. Upon activation, this hero and their unit gains one of the following boosts (+3" movement, +1 AP to either melee or shooting, -1 to get hit in melee).

• EMP: Rending +1. It now triggers on a nat 5+.

• Phosphor: The P in P-Pistols/Carbines. Lets you ignore cover, which is handy because your guns are rather short-ranged.

• Radiation: The R in R-Pistols/Carbines. If an enemy hit by this weapon rolls a 1 on their defense, they eat an additional wound. Not a bad gift, but absolutely not something to rely on.

• Taser: Poison+1. On a nat 6 to hit, each hit is multiplied by 4.

Psychic Spells

• Lock-On (4+): Friendly unit within 12" adds +1 AP to their shooting. Pretty handy for your troops.
• Solar Beam (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes an AP 2 hit.
• Iron Body (5+): Friendly unit within 12" can resurrect a model (at 1 wound if they have Tough) or restore a Tough wound. This is scary good because nobody else can do something like this.
• Shrapnel (5+): Two enemy units within 6" take 3 AP 2 hits each. Pretty good punch.
• Corroded Metal (6+): One enemy unit within 12" takes a -2 penalty to their next defense roll. This is absolutely cruel when focused at the right targets. Do note that this won't help with triggering Radiation though.
• Machine Terror (6+): Enemy unit within 12" take 8 hits. See that horde of grunts? Now you don't. See that tank? It's probably now weak enough to clean up in another turn.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Machine Priest: A tank among your heroes, stacked with both a 2+ defense and Regeneration. He's costly, but you get access to both Psychic powers (as well as being able to upgrade to Psychic 2) as well as Canticles and the power to repair nearby units on a super-easy 2+. This combined with the rather impressive axe-halberd and guns available mean that you can make this guy in a pretty broad variety of ways so you can help bolster your ranks.

• Machine Deacon: A budget machine priest. While largely unchanged in terms of wargear (They're trapped at Psychic 1 if they go there), they suffer more defensively. Gone is Regeneration and their defense is now nerfed to a 4+, making them no better than the rank and file.

• Cult Alpha: A solo version of the Cult Rangers (you can tell because this guy has Strider). They have access to the pistols and melee weapons the unit normally gets (including EMP and taser swords and R-pistols) as well as the choice to buy Canticles. The shooting is the selling point for the Cult units, so you likely won't benefit too much from the melee AP boost.

• Sect Chief: This guy is your genuine beatstick, taken from the Sect Stalkers. They're not the fastest, but they've got a dangerous weapons and won't go away anytime soon. Aside from any of the weapons available to the Stalkers and Infiltrators (including an additional metal spike for an EMP hit), you've also got access to Canticles. This is more worthwhile since the chief is better inclined for melee and has guns that can appreciate a boost to AP.

Infantry

• Cult Vanguard: Your cheapest troops are quite versed in their shooting repertoire. Alongside their R-carbines, they also have rifles (their free alternative if you want long-range but don't care about cover), and one model can pick up some more interesting guns like the EMP rifle (with a heavy variant for Deadly 3) and the Uranium Rifle for sniping. These guys are best suited at short to mid-range with their guns, mostly because of the range of your guns and you lack any means to ignore terrain without those R-carbines.

• Cult Rangers: Add 25 points to the vanguard and you get Strider and no access to the R-carbines. That's okay, you're already bypassing terrain. This also means that you might have a better use for the uranium carbine, as you're at a fairly long range by default.

• Shock Priests: Absolutely naked, but they have Regeneration. They are pretty much depend on getting the charge since they have both Furious and Impact 1. By default, they only have their AP 2 shock staves and no shooting, but you can instead buy taser gauntlets that give shooting, but lack any AP, instead relying on Taser. If you can protect them, they can prove particularly deadly with Canticles.

• Sect Stalkers: They're a fair bit deadlier with a 3+ quality and Regeneration gives some additional protection. They are also melee-only, so they need that Furious and are helped out immensely by Strider. Their weapons have both Poison and Rending, which can add to be pretty devastating. However, you can instead give double sonic blades, replacing Poison with AP 1. One guy can also make an attack with EMP, which makes them even more dangerous.

• Sect Infiltrators: These sect warriors lack Furious, but have Scout and Stealth. These are the shooty versions, with some decent firing rates but nothing too special while still having some decent melee weapons.

• Sky Stalkers: Jetpack warriors with P-throwers giving good shooting and Furious for their CCWs. You can improve their charge game by buying cluster grenades for Impact. If you're looking for better shooting, you're stuck with the blaster carbines, which lack any special rules but have double the range. You can also grant one model a taser sword, but you're sacrificing the P-thrower for a blaster SMG without Phosphor.

• Raider Cavalry: Your bikers are very much pistoliers, bathing enemies with Phosphor. You can give two of them P-blaster carbines and get all the bikes P-breath for even more phosphor blasting. Your only longer-ranged option is the carbine, but it's not Phosphor. Only one model can go more melee, going either with the free revolver+saber for AP 1 or the P-blaser pistol+energy sword.

• Breacher Cyborgs: Slow, plodding brutes with Tough 3 and 2+ defense. This guy's got the contortion cannon, which has Deadly 3 AP 3 for shattering heroes or punching holes in tanks. Your alternatives for guns are the EMP cannon for breaking heroes and elite infantry or the heavy EMP cannon for the best of both worlds. In melee, you can buy upgrades for those three claw attacks, granting either EMP or AP 2. You should beware that these guys aren't really artillery, so mobs will annoy them.

• Destroyer Cyborgs: Come stock with gravity cannons with a bunch of rending hits. You can buy a heavy plasma canon for Blast, something the breachers can't. The destroyers can also mount an additional P-rifle or flamethrower, giving some additional close-quarters combat.

Vehicles

• Landing Craft: A zippy transport that's dedicated to its role. Its only guns are the two machineguns mounted to it (with an option for an additional twin machinegun). This gives a decent means of blasting enemies, but they won't stop a tank or heavy infantry.

• Attack Craft: A landing craft that exchanged its Transport capacity for Tough 12 and disruption missiles, giving flurry of attacks that can punch armors. You can then buy an additional machinegun and either the energy cannon for Blast 3 or the ion cannon for Deadly 3.

• Crawler Tank: The eraser beam gives you some good artillery that flattens light infantry. This massive gun can be replaced with either the twin P-cannon if you want to ruin enemies and laugh at their bunkers, the Icarus AA-System gives you some premier anti-air and the machinegun+neutron blaster that's very high AP. On top of that, you can also buy a light machinegun for more dakka, the Anti-Charge System to potentially harm anything that charges or the Repair Arm for Regeneration.

• Combat Robot: Comparable to combat walkers of most battle brothers-like armies, this robot totes a heavy flamethrower and two energy fists to wreck elites. You get Stealth and can even buy a mechanic for Regeneration, giving more protection than most walkers. That flamethrower can be swapped out for a P-cannon, replacing the weight of attacks with longer-range that disregards cover. If you want to go full shooty, then you can exchange those fists for twin P-cannons.

• Dragoon Walker: A faster walker but still has Stealth. Its base weapon is the taser lance, giving Impact 3 and Taser, but you can swap that off for an R-sniper rifle. That's pretty nice for a walker. You can also get a P-carbine if you're looking for close-quarters.

• Iron Walker: The Dragoon sacrificed Stealth and instead goes full dakka with the twin autocannon. You can instead give it a twin laser cannon if you really want to destroy tanks.

• Arch Gunship: A pretty basic flyer with a twin machine gun. While you can buy more guns for it (standouts being the bomb rack for Blast in the air and the twin P-gun that replaces the stock guns), but the big note here is that you can buy Transport 6, making a flying transport.

Army Building

Tactics

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Pros

• Plenty of units get Regeneration
• Your heroes can actually interact with your troops
• Lots of shooting with special rules

Cons

• Your forces are average in defense
• Your troops are rather costly
• Those special rules on the guns tend to lack anything for heavy armor.

Special Rules

• Canticles: Similar to the HDF commanders and their equivalents. Upon activation, this hero and allies within 12" gains one of the following boosts (+3" movement, +1 AP to either melee or shooting, -1 to get hit in melee) until the beginning of their next turn.

• EMP: Rending +1. It now triggers on a nat 5+.

• Phosphor: The P in P-Pistols/Carbines. Lets you ignore cover, which is handy because your guns are rather short-ranged.

• Radiation: The R in R-Pistols/Carbines. If an enemy hit by this weapon rolls a 1 on their defense, they eat an additional wound. Not a bad gift, but absolutely not something to rely on.

• Taser: Poison+1. On a nat 6 to hit, each hit is multiplied by 4.

Psychic Spells

• Lock-On (4+): Friendly unit within 12" adds +1 AP to their shooting. Pretty handy for your troops.
• Solar Beam (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes an AP 2 hit.
• Iron Body (5+): Friendly unit within 12" can resurrect a model (at 1 wound if they have Tough) or restore a Tough wound. This is scary good because nobody else can do something like this.
• Shrapnel (5+): Two enemy units within 6" take 3 AP 2 hits each. Pretty good punch.
• Corroded Metal (6+): One enemy unit within 12" takes a -2 penalty to their next defense roll. This is absolutely cruel when focused at the right targets. Do note that this won't help with triggering Radiation though.
• Machine Terror (6+): Enemy unit within 12" take 8 hits. See that horde of grunts? Now you don't. See that tank? It's probably now weak enough to clean up in another turn.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Machine Priest: A tank among your heroes, stacked with both a 2+ defense and Regeneration. He's costly, but you get access to both Psychic powers (as well as being able to upgrade to Psychic 2) as well as Canticles and the power to repair nearby units on a 2+. This combined with the rather impressive axe-halberd and guns available mean that you can make this guy in a pretty broad variety of ways so you can help bolster your ranks.

• Machine Deacon: A budget machine priest. While largely unchanged in terms of wargear (They're trapped at Psychic 1 if you go there), they suffer more defensively. Gone is Regeneration and their defense is now nerfed to a 4+, making them no better than the rank and file.

• Cult Alpha: A solo version of the Cult Rangers (you can tell because this guy has Strider). They have access to the pistols and melee weapons the unit normally gets (including EMP and taser swords and R-pistols) as well as the choice to buy Canticles. The shooting is the selling point for the Cult units, so you likely won't benefit too much from the melee AP boost.

• Sect Chief: This guy is your genuine beatstick, taken from the Sect Stalkers. They're not the fastest, but they've got a dangerous weapons and won't go away anytime soon. Aside from any of the weapons available to the Stalkers and Infiltrators (including an additional metal spike for an EMP hit), you've also got access to Canticles. This is more worthwhile since the chief is better inclined for melee and has guns that can appreciate a boost to AP.

Infantry

• Cult Vanguard: Your cheapest troops are quite versed in their shooting repertoire. Alongside their R-carbine, they also have a rifle (their free alternative if you want long-range but don't care about cover), or you can pick up some more interesting guns like the EMP rifle (with a heavy variant for Deadly 3) and the Uranium Rifle for sniping. These guys are best suited at short to mid-range with their guns, mostly because of the range of your guns and you lack any means to ignore terrain without those R-carbines.

• Cult Ranger: Add 5 points to the vanguard and you get Strider and no access to the R-carbines. That's okay, you're already bypassing terrain. This also means that you might have a better use for the uranium carbine, as you're at a fairly long range by default.

• Shock Priest: Absolutely naked, but they have Regeneration. They are pretty much depend on getting the charge since they have both Furious and Impact 1. By default, they only have their AP 2 shock staves and no shooting, but you can instead buy taser gauntlets that give shooting at the cost of AP, instead relying on Taser. If you can protect them, they can prove particularly deadly with Canticles.

• Sect Stalker: They're a fair bit deadlier with a 3+ quality and Regeneration gives some additional protection. They are also melee-only, so they need that Furious and are helped out immensely by Strider. Their weapons have both Poison and Rending, which can add to be pretty devastating. However, you can instead give double sonic blades, replacing Poison with AP 1. They can also make an attack with EMP, which makes them even more dangerous.

• Sect Infiltrator: These sect warriors lack Furious, but have Scout and Stealth. These are the shooty versions, with some decent firing rates but nothing too special while still having some decent melee weapons.

• Sky Stalker: Jetpack warriors with P-throwers giving good shooting and Furious for their CCWs. You can improve their charge game by buying cluster grenades for Impact. If you're looking for better shooting, you're stuck with the blaster carbines, which lack any special rules but have double the range. You can also buy a taser sword, but you're sacrificing the P-thrower for a blaster SMG without Phosphor.

• Raider Cavalry: Your bikers are very much pistoliers, bathing enemies with Phosphor. You can buy a P-blaster carbine and P-breath for even more phosphor blasting. Your only longer-ranged option is the carbine, but it's not Phosphor. You could also go more for melee, going either with the free revolver+saber for AP 1 or the P-blaser pistol+energy sword.

• Breacher Cyborg: Slow, plodding brutes with Tough 3 and 2+ defense. This guy's got the contortion cannon, which has Deadly 3 AP 3 for shattering heroes or punching holes in tanks. Your alternatives for guns are the EMP cannon for breaking heroes and elite infantry or the heavy EMP cannon for the best of both worlds. In melee, you can buy upgrades for those three claw attacks, granting either EMP or AP 2. You should beware that these guys aren't really artillery, so mobs will annoy them.

• Destroyer Cyborg: Come stock with gravity cannons with a bunch of rending hits. You can buy a heavy plasma canon for Blast, something the breachers can't. The destroyers can also mount an additional P-rifle or flamethrower, giving some additional close-quarters combat.

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