Grimdark Future/Tactics/Battle Brothers

Why play Battle Brothers?

Because SPEHSS MEHRENS! In all honesty, the battle brothers are a very powerful army that offers few weaknesses. Each member is resilient and has access to plenty of weapons to cover any weapons. Each of them can be relied on to pull off their assigned role without issue.

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Pros

• Heavily armored. Outside of your Pathfinders, your troops have universal Defense 3+. All of your units are pretty tough to crack and you can make them even tougher by giving some of them Regeneration, especially if you play Blood or Wolf Brothers.
• Elite Quality. Together with your armor you have also (almost) universal Quality 3+. Your units won't have too many problems to hit with their weapons, especially Watch Brothers.
• High Morale. All of your units have Fearless, even the vehicles. Coupled with your high Quality values, your morale checks are at 2+ and Dark Brothers further boost this by giving you a failsafe for those rolls of 1.
• Multiple Unit Choices. Your army can be fit for any play style you desire the most as you have every single type of unit available. Melee units, scout units, shooting units, bikes, beefy units with Ambush and Tough, every single vehicle type, aircraft, walkers. Couple this with your heroes' diverse buffs and you'll have no trouble in building the right list for the battle plan of your dreams.
• Multiple Weapons and Upgrades Choices. Adding to the previous point is the fact that you can pick up almost every possible weapon, especially the heavy ones. Not only you can choose between multiple units, but those units can be retrofitted to fit even more specific roles. To go even further, units can pick specific upgrades as well that can improve their general capabilities or give them more keywords like Fear and Ambush + Flying.
• Detachments. While you can generalize in terms of focus, if you want to specialize in a specific thing Battle Brothers got you covered with their detachments. Units in a detachment are the same normal units, but with detachment-specific additional keywords, units and Psychic spells. Moreover, said keywords can be a more powered up versions of already existing ones or completely new ones, making the Battle Brothers one of the most diverse army ever.

Cons

• Very Expensive Units. All of your units are practically elites and can bring almost everything they want. However, all this comes at a very high price, as your units cost a ton of points. Some weapons and especially upgrades (looking at you, Veteran Infantry) will bleed you dry and you need to seriously consider if they are worth the cost. It's very unlikely you will have more activations than your opponent.
• Low Model Count. Together with the low unit count, Battle Brothers suffer from a low model count problem as well. All your infantry units have at most 5 models and while you can bring specific weapons with a high number of attacks, unless you combine your units (which, again, is pretty costly if you also add buffs and detachments to the mix) you might find yourself lacking on this regard.
• Weak against Heavy Weapons. Outside of heroes, Destroyers and Bikes, all of your infantry has no Tough. While this normally shouldn't be a problem as your Defense is nothing to scoff at, it also means that high AP weapons like plasma and Energy Fists can easily decimate your troops. Add this to the fact that you won't have too many units and that those units won't have too many models as well and you get a situation where every single causality will hurt you hard. Your Tough units can mitigate this, but your general army tankiness means that an army skewed towards high AP weapons will spell trouble.
• Limited Spell Casting. You only have two Psychic models, which are also your heroes and the Psychic upgrade blocks you from getting the other buffs. Knight Brothers can field more Psychic choices, but they are also the most expensive Battle Brothers detachment as well.

Special Rules

• War Chant: For each unmodified result of 6 to hit when attacking in melee, the hero and its unit may roll 2 extra attacks. This rule doesn’t apply to newly generated attacks.
• Advanced Tactics: Once per activation, before attacking, pick one other friendly unit within 12” of this model, which may move by up to 6".
• Shield Wall: Attacks targeting units where all models have this rule count as having AP(-1), to a min. of AP(0).
• Repair: Once per activation, if within 2” of a unit with Tough, roll one die. On a 2+ you may repair D3 wounds from the target.
• Veteran Walker: +1 to attack rolls for melee and shooting.
• Veteran Infantry: +1 to hit rolls in melee and shooting.
• Medical Training: This model and its unit get the Regeneration rule.

Psychic Spells

• Blurred Sight (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to hit with shooting. Vital for protecting your troops from heavy weaponry of any kind.
• Psychic Terror (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Cursed Ground (5+): An enemy unit within 18" that attempts a charge loses 6" to their charge distance next time they charge. Note that this won't save anyone from a charge if they're too close, but it will prevent any long-range gambits.
• Cerebral Trauma (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes a single AP 3 hit. Pretty much all you can ask for when sniping a hero or heavy weapon.
• Time Passage (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately move 6". This gives you a desperate escape button or possibly an easier charge.
• Lightning Fog (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 8 hits each, making this hell for mobs of grunts.

Wargear

Melee

• Close Combat Weapon (CCW):

Ranged

• Heavy Rifle:
• Storm Rifle:
• Hunter Missile: Unlike the Hunter Killer missiles of 40k, Hunter Missiles are not a cheap throw-away. At 45 points, they're a bit pricey, and for good reason. Hunter Missiles are powerful, can be used as many times as you want rather than just once, and with the Lock-On rule, any vehicle that can take them has some decent AA capability. And just about every one of your tanks can take Hunter Missiles.

Special

• Dozer Blade: Provides Strider for ignoring difficult terrain.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Master Brother: Your gold standard when it comes to Heroes. He's heavily customizable to fit out any mix of shooting or melee without any issue. Also, instead of choosing between either a captain, librarian, chaplain, or techmarine as separate units, they're all bundled together with the Master Brother who can pick any one of them as an upgrade (which does not effect your wargear options). Or none, to keep his cost down.
  • Specializations
    • Preacher: Provides War Chant to generate more attacks in melee. Pairs well with Assault Brothers or melee-equipped Destroyers.
    • Archivist: Provides Psychic 1.
    • Engineer: Provides Repair. Don't be fooled by the name; these guys are your medics for any tough units you drag along, including other Heroes and Destroyers.
    • Captain: Provides Advanced Tactics. Your most expensive specialization, but Advanced Tactics lets you move Your Dudes around faster once per activation.
  • Shooting: The basic heavy rifle (or pistol) pretty much give you only one shot, nothing else. If you stick with the default heavy rifle, you can buy it an attachment for gravity (for Rending), flamethrower (for a bunch of attacks), plasma (for AP) or fusion (for making something die hard). If you instead go for a pistol, you can replace that with a gravity pistol (for Rending), a plasma pistol (for good AP) or a storm rifle if you just want a doubled-up assault rifle. If you're going all-in on melee, you can instead replace that with a Shield for Shield Wall.
  • Melee: If you just don't care about shooting or defense, you can buy either a heavy chainsaw sword for a bunch of attacks at AP 1 or twin energy claws for a good number of AP 1 Rending attacks. If you're taking the pistol, you can then replace that CCW with either an energy sword (AP 1 and Rending), energy fist (for tank-piercing AP 3), energy hammer (AP 1 and Deadly 3 so you can flatten elites) or chainsaw fist (energy fist but you're doing four attacks instead of 3)
  • The destroyer armor gives very blatant defensive boosts with +3 to Tough and Ambush so your captain won't immediately get shot up. The jetpack gives Flying and Ambush, especially useful since Firefight focuses more on verticality. The combat bike is more mobile in the traditional sense, as it grants Fast and Impact 1 (good for melee) while also carrying a twin heavy rifle so you have some sort of shooting.
  • Veteran Infantry gives a bog standard +1 to hit in both melee and ranged.

• Elite Pathfinder: Almost identical to the Master Brother, with most of the same options and upgrades, except that he's cheaper and squishier, and instead of the Jetpack, Destroyer Armor, Combat Bike and Veteran Infantry upgrades, he can get a Camo Cloak and/or Forward Sentry and has Strider.
  • The Elite pathfinder is a bit unique in that, unlike the rest of the Battle Brothers roster, he doesn't really have a direct generic counterpart in 40k. OPR instead took Torias Telion, an Ultramarines special character, and turned him into a generic Hero unit, with vastly expanded options.

Infantry

• Pathfinders: A cheap unit, but also your flimsiest so you need Strider to get to cover quickly. Alongside all the basic weapon upgrades they can also buy either Camo Cloaks for stealth or Forward Sentries so they can ambush enemies.
  • Ranged Weapons: While one model can take any sort of melee weapon or rifle-mods like the heroes, any model can either swap their rifles for either Shotguns (Free for half the range and double the firepower) or pay a sizeable price for Sniper Rifles. In addition, another model can pick up either a Plasma Rifle (for cheap anti-armor), a Flamethrower (Rapid-fire at short range), Gravity Rifle (for mid-range rapid-fire Rending), a Heavy Machinegun (long-range firepower), or a Missile Launcher (Tank-busting but with Lock-On to take out aircraft and cover-campers).

• Assault Brothers: Same cost as Battle Brothers, but with two CCW attacks and a pistol. These guys aren't as well-versed with their weaponry, but you can buy some extra melee weapons and some another plasma pistol. These brothers can also pick up jetpacks so they can get Ambush and fly as well, giving them good mobility to go with their punch.

• Battle Brothers: The baseline for your force, meaning a walking tank. Your brothers have the widest selection of weapons available, spreading almost any manner of weaponry. On top of this, you can also buy either a Banner for Fear, making melee fights easier to win, or Medical Training for Regeneration, which is more expensive, but makes your boys a lot more durable. If there's any drawback on them, it's their size - five models for their price is limited, making any casualties keenly felt.
  • Ranged Weapons: While one model can take any sort of melee weapon or rifle-mods like the heroes, one single model can pick up either a Plasma Rifle (for cheap anti-armor), a Fusion Rifle (in case you need to pop a tank for cheap) a Flamethrower (Rapid-fire at short range), or Gravity Rifle (for mid-range rapid-fire Rending). For heavy weapons, you can pick up a Heavy Machinegun (long-range firepower), a Gravity Cannon (two Gravity Rifles slapped together), a Missile Launcher (Tank-busting but with Lock-On to take out aircraft), a Plasma Cannon (crowd control with armor crushing), a Heavy Fusion Rifle (Slightly longer range than a Fusion Rifle, and you now can guarantee that tank will blow up), or a Laser Cannon (good AP and Deadly, at long range). All these heavy weapons are quite expensive, requiring that you guarantee that they survive to make back their points. For the shorter ranged ones an APC or a Drop pod might be useful for delivering them as near as possible their intended target.

• Support Brothers: These brothers lack the option for Veteran Training, but you do get Relentless and an entire squad filled with Heavy Flamethrowers where the base brothers only have one slot. That said, you can pick for whatever heavy weapon you want in case you need to take care of some major priority. Remember that Relentless triggers more often with high volume of fire weapons like Heavy Flamethrowers, Gravity Rifles or Heavy Machineguns.

• Destroyers: Incredibly expensive and equally tough. Each one comes with Tough(3) to tank blows and you can use Ambush to protect them from heavy damage. Their weapons are no joke with a pair of Energy Claws for a flurry of Rending. If that doesn't suit your fancy, then you can buy the team Energy Hammers and Combat Shields for a well-protected pack of horde-crushers or quite costly Storm Rifles for some measure of shooting. One of those CCWs can then be swapped out for an Energy Sword, Energy Fist or Chain-Fist. You can also pick up a set of Cyclone Missiles for very long range bombardment, but this does cost a good lot to an already highly expensive unit.

• Pathfinder Bikers: While Tough, these bikes remain as vulnerable as Pathfinders, defended by Scout and Fast. While the Pathfinders can only switch between either pistol+CCW or rifle, they do have bikes with Grenade Launchers for mob management. If you want something more capable of handling less mob-like foes that launcher can be replaced with a Twin Heavy Rifle.

• Brother Bikers: Cheaper than Battle Brothers, but also in a smaller unit size. Each comes with Fast and Impact 1, so melee is a viable option. If you're going for shooty, you can give an extra attack to your assault rifles or upgrade some of them with more interesting guns.

• Support Bike: A bigger bike strapped with a a heavy flame thrower and a Tough and Impact value of 3. Honestly, you shouldn't be using this for close combat, because that means you can't be firing the big gun (and if flamethrowers aren't your deal, you can take a heavy machine gun for long range or the fusion rifle so you can have fun with Deadly).

Vehicles/Monsters

• APC: The old reliable Metal Box, you know it, you love it. While your cheapest vehicle, it's far from defenseless. Q3+, D2+, and Tough 6 makes it fairly survivable, and combined with the stock Storm Rifle, you can also buy another Storm Rifle and Hunter Missiles (for a not insignificant cost), and the Dozer Blade gives you Strider to run through obstacles. Transport 11 gives it enough space for two five-man squads (or one combined big one) along with an attendant hero. Especially useful for delivering high-damage fragile units like Support Brothers, or melee units that need protection and faster movement. Being Fast and lightly armed means you can Rush without feeling too guilty of wasting its firepower.

• Attack APC: Slightly more expensive than the APC, this tank trades some space (Transport(6) instead of 11) for Twin Flamethrowers that you can swap out for either Twin Heavy Machineguns for AP(1) at long range, a rapid-fire Twin Minigun with more shots at slightly shorter range, a Laser Cannon and Twin Plasma Rifle for all anti-armor issues, or a Twin Laser Cannon for long-range tank-popping. An ideal transport for Support Brothers or even Destroyers, if you don't want to shell out for a Heavy Tank.

• Drop Pod: While Immobile, it also has Ambush just so you can just dump your squads into the thick of it. While it is cheaper than even the APC, it's hard to call this a vehicle as its use as a transport immediately ends the moment the troops exit. At that point, it's a Tough(6) piece of terrain with either a Death Launcher turret for blasting mobs or a Storm Rifle to handle some other infantry. Land near an objective to make your opponent waste firepower to remove it, since it still counts as scoring.

• Battle Tank: Combining the Predator, Vindicator, Whirlwind, Stalker, and Hunter all in one unit, a Battle tank can be built to fill just about any role you want, from AA and artillery, to infantry munching and tank hunting. It also comes stock with Twin Heavy Machine Gun sponsons and can upgrade those to Twin Laser Cannons no matter what main gun you choose, which can make for some interesting possibilities if you're building a tank specifically to make use of UPR rules rather than porting an existing one over that was built for 40k.

• Heavy Tank: The BIG Metal Box. Your most expensive tank, but this thing's a monster with Tough(18) and Transport(11) to handle multiple roles at once as well as the basic APC options, including an optional Heavy Fusion Rifle. This comes with Twin Heavy Machineguns like the Battle Tank, but these can only be replaced with a Twin Minigun to better wipe out mobs. It also comes with Twin Flamethrower Cannons to handle crowds, which you can replace with either Twin Heavy Rifle Arrays or Twin Laser Cannons depending on what you plan on sending it against.

• Artillery Gun: While ostensibly an equivalent to the 40k Thunderfire Cannon, a Battle Brother Artillery Gun plays quite a bit differently. It comes stock with a heavy flak cannon for AA (which the Thunderfire doesn't get at all), and instead of swapping between different ammo types mid-battle, you pick which gun type you want as an upgrade and you're stuck with it after that, so choose wisely. Also bear in mind that your engineer crewman (Who counts as a weapon rather than a separately useable or targetable model) has no gun of his own, only being able to punch in melee. Granted, with A3 and AP2 that's some pretty beefy punching if push comes to shove.

• Attack Speeder: While more nimble with Ambush and Strider to get wherever you need it, the attack speeder is just as durable as your APCs. You can even give it Transport(6), allowing you to make it for a lightweight carrier to bring a squad over before letting loose.
  • Taken stock, the speeder comes with a pair of Heavy Flamethrowers to take care of any crowds it encounters. One of these can be swapped out for a Twin Typhoon Missiles, letting you take care of armored enemies with Lock-On to avoid cover. However, either flamethrower can be exchanged for a Heavy Machinegun or Minigun for long-range firepower or the Heavy Fusion Rifle to destroy tanks.

• Heavy Exo-Suits: Superheavy infantry, packed with Slow and twin flamethrowers for an insane 12 attacks. Its other weapon options are a mix of either massive attacks or deadly attacks and you can buy either an assault rifle array (for 6 extra shots) or a grenade launcher for extra punch. If you're dead-set on melee, you could also buy combat drills for AP 4.

• Attack Walker: The bigger and badder version of the Exo-Suit, capable of doing a bit more with a more variable loadout. Even if it cannot shoot by default, its fists can rip apart armor alongside its more modest stomps. It also has its own Veteran Walker upgrade, giving it the equally powerful 2+ to hit.
  • Fist Add-Ons: For your cheapest means of shooting, you can strap on guns to your walker's fists so you can maintain its melee proficiency. Each fist can grab either a tank-busting Fusion Rifle, a horde-burning Flamethrower, or a Storm Rifle for anything in between.
  • Fist Replacements: While the add-ons can give you some decent firepower, you can only get some truly powerful guns by replacing the walker's fists. One fist can get you either a Missile Array with Lock-On to negate cover and harass aircraft or a Twin Autocannon for costly long-ranged heavy fire. The other fist can instead be used for a wider set of weapons. The Heavy Fusion Rifle provides you a more reliable means to destroy tanks at mid-range. The Heavy Flamethrower gives you enough shots to drown most hordes. The Heavy Rifle Array and Heavy Minigun let the walker shred infantry with armor. The Plasma Cannon gives you anti-armor and crowd-control power perfectly suited for dealing with Battle Brother-like armies. The Laser Cannon, while expensive, gives you extreme range anti-vehicle power.

Aircraft

• Light Gunship: Despite the name, this is still quite a dangerous flyer with plenty of guns. By default, it carries a Twin Minigun to handle infantry while the Twin Typhoon Missiles take care of heavier forces with Lock-On to negate cover. This can be further supplemented by buying either the Laser Talon for something better suited for anti-tank or the Storm Cannon for more long-range anti-infantry. The missiles can be replaced by the Heavy Machinegun to handle smaller forces, the Twin Laser Cannon to demolish tanks, or the Hammer Missiles if you want to destroy tanks and just cannot be bothered with cover.

• Heavy Gunship: When you need a Light Gunship to do more work, you take this. This gives the flyer Transport(11) and Tough(12) as well as adding Storm Missiles alongside the base gunship loadout, making it a death machine suited for whatever situation it comes across, though you can buy a Twin Rifle Array to make it even harder for crowds to exist near it. The Twin Minigun can be replaced with either a Twin Plasma Cannon to crack armored squads or the Twin Laser Cannon to blast tanks. The Twin Typhoon Missiles can be replaced with either the anti-infantry firepower of the Twin Heavy Machinegun or the Twin Heavy Fusion Rifle to destroy vehicles even further.

Detachments

Blood Brothers

The Blood Brothers are remarkably choppy and fast, with Furious being available for only 5 points for most of your troops (10 for exo suits and destroyers).

Rules

• Very Fast: Fast +1. Your units now move 12" and can run or charge 24", making them incredibly mobile. You can buy this on all of your tanks and speeders for a modest 10 points.

Psychic Spells

• Fear (4+): Enemy unit within 12" suffers a loss of 3" to its next movement. It's trading off Cursed Earth's range for a penalty that's always on.
• Lance (4+): Enemy model within 12" takes an AP 2 hit. Compare with Psychic Blast.
• Quickness (5+): Friendly model within 12" may immediately charge up to 6", making this a godsend when you get it off on that pack of very angry death brothers.
• Blood Curse (5+): Two enemy units within 6" take 6 hits each. Essentially Lightning Fog.
• Break Shields (6+): Enemy unit within 12" takes a -2 to their next defense roll, giving an extra AP 2 to any attacks you make. Especially useful if you want to guarantee death.
• Rage Burst (6+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 3 AP 3 hits. It's essentially a focus-fire Cerebral Trauma.

Unit Analysis

• Blood Priest: Your stand-in for the Champion with Furious applied. In exchange however, you can't buy Battle Rites or War Chant, instead being limited to the Holy Chalice. This is tailor-made for your build, as it's adding +1 to any unit's melee attack and regeneration rolls.

• Death Brothers: A serious price jump when compared to base brothers, but you get Regeneration and Furious, making them ideal company for the Blood Priest. Other than that, you can just consider them seriously angry assault brothers. If you have a captain guiding them instead, Battle Rites is a far more useful buy.
• Guardian Brothers: Even more expensive assault brothers with jetpacks nd furious built in. They come with plasma pistols available at no cost, but you're very limited otherwise. Your only weapon options are the fusion pistol, energy sword, or energy fist. You could also grab a banner if you want to throw Fear in as well.

• Blood Tank: A battle tank with a flamethrower cannon (or twin miniguns). Other than that it's pretty much identical to the base tank including the option for Very Fast with the exception that you have flamethrowers instead of laser cannons as add-ons.
• Blood Walker: See that walker? It now has two fists, fear and Furious. If you want Rending in place of high AP you can instead slap on Blood Fists for free. You can also buy a frag launcher for an extra weapon, but the standout here is Psychic. Yes, you can add another Psychic model and make it a towering walker of death.

Dark Brothers

The Dark Brothers don't specialize in any particular form of combat, but instead focus on holding on no matter the odds. They will not break as easily.

Special Rules

• Dark Assault: This adds onto Ambush by making you able to deploy them on any round you wish, adding to your strategic game of dropping in troops. However, this is only available to Destroyers and Heroes, limiting its value.

• Grim: This unit isn't only Fearless, it's so fearless that if it fails a morale check you can roll another d6 to make it pass instead on a 4+. Unlike the prior rule, this is more widely available to your forces.

Units

• Interrogator: Make an Champion and replace their option for Battle Rites or War Chant with Fear and Grim. Though they won't be able to support your forces as directly as a base captain, you can use a melee-tooled interrogator to help tip melee battles..

• Dark Destroyers: Insanely expensive compared to the stock, but you get both Grim and Dark Assault, allowing them to pop in wherever and whenever you want. They also have access to plasma cannons, giving them an answer to any Brother-tier squads out there.
• Destroyer Knights: These Destroyers have shields and wicked maces with rending, meaning that they need an avenue of delivery. If you feel keen on charging, you'll be wanting to take a heavy flail for Impact 3.
• Black Bikers: See those bikes? They're now Grim. They also have the option for twin plasma carbines or grenade launchers, both quite handy though you can't grab the other guns. In exchange, you also get to buy some stronger melee weapons.

• Shroud Speeder: Your speeder traded off a weapon for Grim and Stealth. You also can swap that heavy machine gun for a minigun if you so please. The lone upgrade here is the Dark Shroud, which gives two friendly units within 6" Stealth when they're shot next, and considering how your men are made for hanging on rather than killing, you want that protection.
• Vengeance Speeder: This speeder has a plasma cannon and Grim, making it better for artillery made for countering armor. Oh, and you still have either the heavy machine gun or minigun for more massed enemies.
• Dark Gunship: Superheavy weapons ship over here. Its two exclusive weapons are both blasts with AP1, ideal for chunking lower-tier mobs with disdain. If you feel like ruining someone's day even further, may I introduce you to the twin assault rifle array, dishing out 12 hits on top of everything else.
• Angel Jet: A dogfighter with some light weaponry. Without upgrades, it only has AP 1 for all its guns, though you could also buy a twin laser cannon so it can punch more heavily-armored foes.

Knight Brothers

While the Guardian Brothers have to rely on auxilia sisters to block off spells, the Knight Brothers can pull it off themselves without such an absurd price hike, while your exclusive choices also come with storm rifles. This also comes with the perk of being able cast by themselves, which gives you some well-needed support on casting.

Special Rules

• Aegis: Your entire army can block powers as if they were psychic. In the case of Psychics, they instead get a +1 to block. This is available to all your infantry choices.

Psychic Spells

• Ward (4+): Enemy unit within 12" suffers -1 to hit with melee on their next turn. Important since you're only protected by a mere 2+ save for the most part.
• Cleanse (4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits. Somewhat equivalent to psychic blast, though it hits the entire unit.
• Warp (5+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to defense, which you'll want if you're struggling to turn the tide.
• Doom (5+): Enemy model within 12" takes an AP 3 hit, making this a prime sniping spell.
• Strike (6+): Friendly unit within 12" can immediately shoot.
• Purge (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 2 AP 1 hits each, making it comparable to Lightning Cloud.

Units

• Knight Champion: A very costly hero, but you get quite a bit. Alongside Aegis and Psychic 1, you also get Combat Master, which gives you one of four different styles each round you're in melee (+1 to hit, AP +1, Rending or Impact 1). This champion is a through and through beatstick with psychic powers. If you want support, pick the generic heroes.

• Knight Brothers: Each of these boys has a storm rifle, an energy sword and Aegis, which is plenty worth the price hike. They have a very unique selection of weapons. Their guns are now an incinerator (a flamer with AP 1), a psychic silencer (a minigun-lite with 6 shots) or the psychic cannon (AP 2 and rending). In melee, they can swap their energy sword for an energy staff (less attacks but it's poisoned), the halberd (less attacks but AP 2), twin energy falchions (Rending) and daemon hammer (2 attacks, but now AP 4 and Deadly 3). You can also grant them Impact 1, Ambush or Teleport (so you can jump 6" anywhere without regard for terrain and isn't the same as ambush for some reason). Oh, and these guys can be psychic too, so joy.
• Purgation Brothers: Knights with Relentless. They now have free reign of the special weapons but can't specialize in melee. They can also be psychic too.
• Knight Destroyers: Destroyers are already dangerous, so you know for sure that stacking all the benefits of Knights makes them deadlier as well as obscenely more expensive. Their weapon choices mirror the base knights, but they can also grab a standard (for Fear) and Regeneration as well as the ability to give everyone Impact 3.

• Knight Walker: This walker lacks its guns. However, it is Tough 18 and psychic, making it a tank in both a physical and mental sense. You can grant heavy guns that won't replace your fists and then take either an energy great sword or daemon hammer for extra punch. You can also grant it Teleport to surprise enemies or Regeneration if you want to drive

Watch Brothers

The Watch Brothers are for those who are super spoiled for choice. Your basic brothers all have an obscene number of weapons available

Special Rules

• Tactical Master: Your Captains, Death Watchers and Champions can buy an upgrade for additional ammo for their pistols, assault rifles and storm rifles. Each turn, you can pick between +1 to hit, Rending, +6" to range or AP 1, giving you a wide choice of options for them.

Units

• Death Watcher: Essentially a Captain for all intents and purposes. Aside from the frankly obscene number of guns available to the basic watch brothers, you can also grab a guardian brother's spear-rifle and the choice of either a jetpack or destroyer armor. If you pick up Tactical Master for special ammo, do be wary that the number of weapons you can use it with is very slim. Don't grab it unless you are absolutely planning to use it because 30 points is not cheap.

• Watch Brothers: Your base troops are given practically free reign on weapons. Whatever you want, wherever you want them, you can buy some and drop them wherever. You can also grab shields if you want to protect the force.
• Watch Vanguard: Take assault brothers with jetpacks and make them FAST. While the firearms are limited to pistols, the melee weapons aren't. With this includes shields, meaning you can have a very mobile and hard to hit squad of mofos with heavy hammers and claws.
• Watch Destroyers: Destroyers are already expensive, so why take these? Because these bastards can slap extra guns (Gravity, Fusion, Plasma or Flamethrower) on top of your energy fists. And this is on top of the rest of the guns a squad of destroyers can grab.

• Watch Star Jet: Tough 6 and that 2+ defense make the Watch Star a tough nut. It also comes with some good long range weapons including anti-air missiles and short-range bombs. If aircraft aren't in play, pick those 5 points to take Storm Missiles with Deadly. The twin minigun can also be replaced with twin laser cannons for more deadly at a great range. And on top of all this, you can make it a transport for 11 models.

Wolf Brothers

Where the Blood Brothers are for getting stuck in quickly, the Wolf Brothers are for getting as many attacks as possible. Between their spells and their loadouts, you should be sure to get all the attacks you want in any situation.

Special Rules

• Counter: When this unit is charged, you can give one melee weapon an extra attack. All of your infantry can pick it up so you can make your army quite defensive.

Psychic Spells

• Fury (4+): Friendly unit within 12" gains Furious. You definitely want to set this off whenever possible.
• Hurricane (4+): Two enemy units within 6" take 4 hits, making it a diet Lightning Cloud.
• Storm (5+): Enemy unit within 18" takes -1 to their next shooting rolls. You absolutely want this to protect a vulnerable unit as they make their attack.
• Thunder (5+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 3 AP 2 hits, making it better for punching big boys.
• Wrath (6+): Enemy unit within 12" can be thrown 6" in any direction, leaving them out of a weak unit's hair or right in the sights of a charging mob.
• Lightning (6+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 3 hits. The inverse of Thunder, making it for blasting vehicles.

Units

• Lone Wolf: A genuine beatstick of a hero. Perhaps most remarkable is its option for pet guard wolves (for bonus attacks) as well as a great wolf mount instead of a bike, thereby granting the rider extra melee weapons as well as Impact 3.

• Wolf Rookies: Take pathfinders and toss them into basic brother armor. Their quality won't be as good, but you'll be able to buy them weapons that would normally be impossible.
• Wolf Brothers: Your basic battle brothers, though their weapons lack anything with heavy punch. You can also give them jetpacks or bikes to fill in a hole you want - ones that could normally be filled with the appropriate base units.
• Werewolves: While more expensive with a 3+ defense, these guys are genuine melee monsters with Fast and Regeneration. While normally without any shooting, you can give them backpack grenade launchers to give at least a cursory effort at softening up crowds before ripping into them with the variety of evil implements at their disposal.
• Wolf Destroyers: What makes these guys different from the stock destroyers? It's their ability to replace their storm rifles with base assault rifles (at a discount of 5 points even!) and then buy an attachment that's normally only for champions and captains.
• Wolf Riders: Take bikers and replace their bikes with angry wolves with Impact 3 and 3 AP 1 attacks to add to the frenzy. Almost all their options focus in on that, though you could also be a square and grab a plasma pistol or assault rifle for some variety.

• Wolf Walker: It comes stock with a pretty fierce blast weapon, but it's capable of taking just about any other weapon the walker could normally take. If you want a melee focus, you could either make its fists claws with Rending or take a big axe with AP 4 Deadly 3 and a shield to make sure it's not focused on too much.
• Fang Gunship: This ship is strapped with a devastating cannon tailor-made to wipe off mobs with ease and missiles to kill single targets. This can be added on to with extra guns as well as room to carry 11 models.
• Wolf Jet: The less focus-firing equivalent of the Fang with slightly less evil twin frost cannons and twin laser cannons. Aside from that, they can carry the same upgrades as the Fang aside from the one replacing missiles.

Army Building

Tactics

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Pros

• A majority of your army is very heavily armored.
• A high amount of customization when including the specialized Detachments.
• Your entire army is Fearless.

Cons

• Your forces are expensive.
• Lower-than-average number of activations
• Your troops lack Tough, so heavy weapons can very easily wipe out a unit of Brothers.
• You only have one Psychic model. Some forces add more, but you'll be paying a pretty penny for that.

Special Rules

• Shield Wall: Models with shields are harder to hit, with enemies shooting at them taking -1 to hit.
• Veteran Training: Models with this rule get a +1 to hit in both melee and shooting. This makes them very strong. This also tends to be an expensive upgrade for any unit that takes this.

Psychic Spells

• Blurred Sight (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to hit with shooting. Vital for protecting your troops from heavy weaponry of any kind.
• Psychic Terror (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Cursed Ground (5+): An enemy unit within 18" that attempts a charge loses 6" to their charge distance next time they charge. Note that this won't save anyone from a charge if they're too close, but it will prevent any long-range gambits.
• Cerebral Trauma (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes a single AP 3 hit. Pretty much all you can ask for when sniping a hero or heavy weapon.
• Time Passage (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately move 6". This gives you a desperate escape button or possibly an easier charge.
• Lightning Fog (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 8 hits each, making this hell for mobs of grunts.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Captain: Your gold standard when it comes to Heroes. He's heavily customizable to fit out any mix of shooting (which you can milk out with Relentless granting extra shots) or melee without any issue. They can also grab Veteran Infantry and either Advanced Tactics to add +3" to the shooting and charging ranges of all allies within 12" or War Chant to give Furious and make charging deadlier.
  • Shooting: The basic assault rifle (or pistol) pretty much give you only one shot, nothing else. If you stick with the default assault rifle, you can buy it an attachment for a gravity rifle (for Rending), flamethrower (for a bunch of attacks), plasma rifle (for AP) or fusion rifle (for making something die a hard). If you instead go for a pistol, you can replace that with a gravity pistol (for Rending), a plasma pistol (for good AP) or a storm rifle if you just want a doubled-up assault rifle. If you're going all-in on melee, you can instead replace that with a Shield for Shield Wall.
  • Melee: If you just don't care about shooting or defense, you can buy either a heavy chainsaw sword for a bunch of attacks at AP 1 or twin energy claws for a good number of AP 1 Rending attacks. If you're taking the pistol, you can then replace that CCW with either an energy sword (AP 1 and Rending), energy fist (for tank-piercing AP 3), energy hammer (AP 1 and Deadly 3 so you can flatten elites) or chainsaw fist (energy fist but you're doing four attacks instead of 3)
  • Personal Upgrades: Battle Brother leaders are quite capable of going into multiple roles. The destroyer armor gives very blatant defensive boosts with +3 to Tough and Ambush so your captain won't immediately get shot up. The jetpack gives Flying and Ambush, especially useful since Firefight focuses more on verticality. The combat bike is more mobile in the traditional sense, as it grants Fast and Impact 1 (good for melee) while also carrying a twin assault rifle so you have some sort of shooting.

• Champion: Take your Captain, chop off 10 points and Relentless and you get your Champion. They can be useful in plugging up any options that your captain didn't take or dedicate them to be the choppier since they don't have Relentless to incentivize shooting.

• Engineer: Don't be fooled by the name; these guys are your medics for any tough units you drag along, including other Heroes and Destroyers. You should be wary of the limits of the Repair ability, as it only heals a single wound on a single Tough unit within 2" on a 4+. This replaces the options for special rules captains get, but you can otherwise peruse their list of weapons and personal upgrades as you see fit.

• Psychic: Your most expensive heroes, but they also provide you with your lone psychic casting. Alongside the other upgrade lists open to other heroes, you can also upgrade him to Psychic 2 for extra power.

Infantry

• Pathfinder: Your flimsiest model, so you need Strider to get to cover quickly. Alongside all the basic weapon upgrades they can also buy either Camo Cloaks for Stealth or Forward Sentries so they can Ambush enemies. They also have possession of a sniper rifle so they can pick off units at their leisure.

• Battle Brother: The baseline for your force, meaning a walking tank, while also remaining as cheap as a pathfinder. Your brothers have the widest selection of weapons available, spreading almost any manner of weaponry. On top of this, you can also buy either a Banner for Fear or Medical Training for Regeneration.

• Assault Brother: A battle brother with two CCW attacks and a pistol. These guys aren't as well-versed with their weaponry, but you can buy some extra melee weapons and some another plasma pistol. These brothers can also pick up jetpacks so they can get Ambush and fly as well, giving them good mobility to go with their punch.

• Support Brother: This brother lacks the option for Veteran Training, but you do get Relentless and the option to pick a heavy weapon for only 5 points higher than the base brother.

• Brother Biker: Each comes with Fast and Impact 1, so melee is a viable option. If you're going for shooty, you can buy a twin assault rifle for the bike or upgrade the base assault rifle for some of them with more interesting guns.

• Pathfinder Biker: Take a bike, give it the Pathfinder's flimsy 4+ defense and add Scout. Though it lacks the sheer weight of options, you can still give the bike a twin assault rifle or grenade launcher. The grenade launcher in particular gives you the option for either Blast or Deadly depending on the situation, something that most guns cannot accomplish.

• Support Bike: A bigger bike strapped with a a heavy flame thrower and a Tough and Impact value of 3. Honestly, you shouldn't be using this for close combat, because that means you can't be firing the big gun (and if flamethrowers aren't your deal, you can take a heavy machine gun for long range or the fusion rifle so you can have fun with Deadly). You also shouldn't be throwing around something so expensive like it's nothing.

Detachments

Blood Brothers

The Blood Brothers are remarkably choppy, with Furious being available for only 5 points for most of your troops (10 for destroyers). That said, the loss of vehicles doe mean that they aren't any faster now.

Psychic Spells

• Fear (4+): Enemy unit within 12" suffers -3" to its next movement. It's trading off Cursed Earth's range for a penalty that's always on.
• Lance (4+): Enemy model within 12" takes an AP 2 hit. Compare with Psychic Blast.
• Quickness (5+): Friendly model within 12" may immediately charge up to 6", making this a godsend when you get it off on that pack of very angry death brothers.
• Blood Curse (5+): Two enemy units within 6" take 6 hits each. Essentially Lightning Fog.
• Break Shields (6+): Enemy unit within 12" takes a -2 to their next defense roll, giving an extra AP 2 to any attacks you make. Especially useful if you want to guarantee death.
• Rage Burst (6+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 3 AP 3 hits. It's essentially a focus-fire Cerebral Trauma.

Unit Analysis

• Blood Priest: Your stand-in for the Champion with Furious applied. In exchange however, you can't buy Battle Rites or War Chant, instead being limited to the Holy Chalice. This is tailor-made for your build, as it's adding +1 to any unit's melee attack and regeneration rolls.

• Death Brother: A bit of a price jump when compared to base brothers, but you get Regeneration and Furious, making them ideal company for the Blood Priest. Other than that, you can just consider them seriously angry assault brothers. If you have a captain guiding them instead, Battle Rites is a far more useful buy.
• Guardian Brother: Even more expensive assault brothers with jetpacks and furious built in. They come with plasma pistols available at no cost, but you're very limited otherwise. Your only weapon options are the fusion pistol, energy sword, or energy fist. You could also grab a banner if you want to throw Fear in as well.

Dark Brothers

The Dark Brothers don't specialize in any particular form of combat, but instead focus on holding on no matter the odds. They will not break as easily.

Special Rules

• Dark Assault: This adds onto Ambush by making you able to deploy them on any round you wish, adding to your strategic game of dropping in troops. However, this is only available to Destroyers and Heroes, limiting its value.

• Grim: This unit isn't only Fearless, it's so fearless that if it fails a morale check you can roll another d6 to make it pass instead on a 4+. Unlike the prior rule, this is more widely available to your forces.

Units

• Interrogator: Make an Champion and replace their option for Battle Rites or War Chant with Fear and Grim. Though they won't be able to support your forces as directly as a base captain, you can use a melee-tooled interrogator to help tip melee battles..

• Dark Destroyer: Insanely expensive compared to the base destroyer, but you get both Grim and Dark Assault, allowing him to pop in wherever and whenever you want. Dark destroyers also have access to plasma cannons, giving them an answer to any Brother-tier squads out there.
• Destroyer Knight: These Destroyers have shields and wicked maces with rending, meaning that they need to rely on Dark Assault if you don't want them to die early. If you feel keen on charging, you'll be wanting to take a heavy flail for Impact 3.
• Black Biker: See those bikes? They're now Grim. They also have the option for twin plasma carbines or grenade launchers, both quite handy though you can't grab the other guns. In exchange, you also get to buy either an energy sword or energy hammer.

Knight Brothers

While the Guardian Brothers have to rely on auxilia sisters to block off spells, the Knight Brothers can pull it off themselves without such an absurd price hike. Your exclusive choices also come with storm rifles and the perk of being able cast by themselves, which gives you some well-needed support on casting.

Special Rules

• Aegis: Your entire army can block powers as if they were psychic. In the case of Psychics, they instead get a +1 to block. This is available to all your infantry choices.

Psychic Spells

• Ward (4+): Enemy unit within 12" suffers -1 to hit with melee on their next turn. Important since you're only protected by a mere 2+ save for the most part.
• Cleanse (4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits. Somewhat equivalent to psychic blast, though it hits the entire unit.
• Warp (5+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to defense, which you'll want if you're struggling to turn the tide.
• Doom (5+): Enemy model within 12" takes an AP 3 hit, making this a prime sniping spell.
• Strike (6+): Friendly unit within 12" can immediately shoot.
• Purge (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 2 AP 1 hits each, making it comparable to Lightning Cloud.

Units

• Knight Champion: A very costly hero, but you get quite a bit. Alongside Aegis and Psychic 1, you also get Combat Master, which gives you one of four different styles each round you're in melee (+1 to hit, AP +1, Rending or Impact 1). This champion is a through and through beatstick with psychic powers. If you want support, pick the generic heroes.

• Knight Brother: Each of these boys has a storm rifle, an energy sword and Aegis, which is plenty worth the price hike. Each brother has a very unique selection of weapons. Their guns are now an incinerator (a flamer with AP 1), a psychic silencer (a minigun-lite with 6 shots) or the psychic cannon (AP 2 and rending). In melee, they can swap their energy sword for an energy staff (less attacks but it's poisoned), the halberd (less attacks but AP 2), twin energy falchions (Rending) and daemon hammer (2 attacks, but now AP 4 and Deadly 3). You can also grant them Impact 1, Ambush or Teleport (so you can jump 6" anywhere without regard for terrain and isn't the same as ambush for some reason). Oh, and these guys can be psychic too, so joy.
• Purgation Brother: Knight with Relentless. He now has free reign of the special weapons but can't specialize in melee. He can also be psychic too.
• Knight Destroyer: Destroyers are already dangerous, so you know for sure that stacking all the benefits of Knights makes them deadlier as well as obscenely more expensive. Their weapon choices mirror the base knights, but they can also grab a standard (for Fear) and Regeneration for allies within 12" as well as Impact 3.

Watch Brothers

The Watch Brothers are for those who are super spoiled for choice. Your basic brothers all have an obscene number of weapons available

Special Rules

• Tactical Master: Your Captains, Death Watchers and Champions can buy an upgrade for additional ammo for their pistols, assault rifles and storm rifles. Each turn, you can pick between +1 to hit, Rending, +6" to range or AP 1, giving you a wide choice of options for them.

Units

• Death Watcher: Essentially a Captain for all intents and purposes. Aside from the frankly obscene number of guns available to the basic watch brothers, you can also grab a guardian brother's spear-rifle and the choice of either a jetpack or destroyer armor. If you pick up Tactical Master for special ammo, do be wary that the number of weapons you can use it with is very slim. Don't grab it unless you are absolutely planning to use it because 30 points is not cheap.

• Watch Brother: Your base troop has free reign on what guns they want. Whatever you want, wherever you want them, you can buy some and drop them wherever. You can also grab shields if you want to protect the force.
• Watch Vanguard: Take an assault brother with jetpack and make him Fast. While the firearms are limited to pistols, the melee weapons aren't. With this includes shields, meaning you can have a very mobile and hard to hit mofo with serious weapons.
• Watch Destroyer: Destroyers are already expensive, so why take these? Because a watch destroyer can slap an extra gun (Gravity, Fusion, Plasma or Flamethrower) on top of his energy fist. And this is on top of the rest of the guns a destroyer can grab.

Wolf Brothers

Where the Blood Brothers are for getting stuck in quickly, the Wolf Brothers are for getting as many attacks as possible. Between their spells and their loadouts, you should be sure to get all the attacks you want in any situation.

Special Rules

• Counter: When this unit is charged, you can give one melee weapon an extra attack. All of your infantry can pick it up so you can make your army quite defensive.

Psychic Spells

• Fury (4+): Friendly unit within 12" gains Furious. You definitely want to set this off whenever possible.
• Hurricane (4+): Two enemy units within 6" take 4 hits, making it a diet Lightning Cloud.
• Storm (5+): Enemy unit within 18" takes -1 to their next shooting rolls. You absolutely want this to protect a vulnerable unit as they make their attack.
• Thunder (5+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 3 AP 2 hits, making it better for punching big boys.
• Wrath (6+): Enemy unit within 12" can be thrown 6" in any direction, leaving them out of a weak unit's hair or right in the sights of a charging mob.
• Lightning (6+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 3 hits. The inverse of Thunder, making it for blasting vehicles.

Units

• Lone Wolf: A genuine beatstick of a hero that sacrifices his ability to benefit allies. Perhaps most remarkable is its option for pet guard wolves (for bonus attacks) as well as a great wolf mount instead of a bike, thereby granting the rider extra melee weapons as well as Impact 3.

• Wolf Rookie: Take a pathfinder and toss him into basic brother armor. The quality won't be as good, but you'll be able to buy weapons that would normally be impossible.
• Wolf Brother: Your basic battle brother, though the weapon selection lacks anything with heavy punch. You can also give him a jetpack or bike to fill in a hole you want - ones that could normally be filled with the appropriate base units.
• Werewolf: While more expensive with a 3+ defense, you get yourself a genuine melee monster with Fast and Regeneration. While normally without any shooting, you can buy a backpack grenade launcher to give at least a cursory effort at softening up crowds before ripping into them with the variety of evil implements at your disposal.
• Wolf Destroyer: What makes these guys different from the stock destroyers? It's their ability to replace their storm rifles with base assault rifles (at a discount of 5 points even!) and then buy an attachment that's normally only for base brothers. In exchange, each one starts off with an energy sword instead of a fist.
• Wolf: This wolf is even more poorly defended than a pathfinder, but they're quite swift with Fast and Strider and give you a good number of attacks. If you're really worried about their survivability, you can buy the lone upgrade available and grant a wolf a 4+ defense.
• Wolf Rider: Take a biker and replace his bike with an angry wolf with Impact 3 and 3 AP 1 attacks to add to the frenzy. Your ranged options are very limited to just pistol, assault rifle or plasma pistol. If you're planning to go all in on melee, you can instead replace the rider's weapons with energy claws.

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