UEDF - Wave One Mecha

The UEDF has five flavors of Veritech and four varieties of destroid in Wave One. This faction has tougher mecha with weapons that have longer range and deal more damage, but the Zentraedi almost always outnumber them.

I don't explicate these mecha as much as their alien enemies for the simple fact that these mecha are so much easier to use. I mean, how complicated is winning the game that's so skewed in your favor?

In Wave One, the UEDF can field a Valkyrie Squadron (1 VF-1J, 3 VF-1As), Armored Destroid Squadron (4 Tomahawks), Area Denial Squadron (2 Tomahawks and 2 Defenders), Brawler Destroid Squadron (2 Tomahawks and 2 Spartans), Fire Support Destroid Squadron (2 Phalanxes and 2 Defenders), Close Quarters Destroid Squadron (4 Spartans), and the Artillery Destroid Squadron (4 Phalanxes). Weirdly, there's no option for fielding four Defenders.

Super, Armored, Jotun Armored Valkyries, and YF-4 prototype Veritech are in Wave Two, as are the Monster destroid, Ghost UAV, and Lancer II space fighter. We'll get to those later.

VF-1 Valkyrie Veritech

This transforming mecha is the star of your show. It's fast and flashy, with enough firepower to evaporate the enemy's screen of battle pods.

The Valkyrie has three different modes: the humanoid battloid, the hybrid guardian, and the fighter. All modes are capable of flight; they can easily maneuver over terrain.

Battloids can fire their gun pod three times per turn (at a cost of 1 CP per extra shot, of course) and have double range, but can't use their wing-mounted missiles. Between that and the battloid's melee ability, you probably want to use this at the end of the game, when the Zentraedi catch you in close range.

Guardians are my favorite mode - best skills, access to wing missiles, and the Hover rule makes them just as hard to hit at range as the fighter, without the pesky Aircraft, Afterburner, and Fast Mover rules forcing you all over the board.

Fighter mode is saddled with Afterburner rule, forcing them to move their full speed in a straight line at the end of their activation. Aircraft forces it to fly in straight lines, with only the ability to turn up to 90 degrees at the start of its movement, and it must move at least half its speed during movement phase. Fast Mover lets it fire only one weapon system per turn, once per turn. Use fighter mode to get places fast, or to break contact. Be careful you don't fly off the board.

There are four models in Wave One - VF-1A, VF-1J, VF-1S, and VF-1R - which can be told apart by their heads. The most common is the VF-1A. VF-1Js are assigned to flight leaders, and atop their improved Piloting and Gunnery have Leadership 2. The VF-1S has even better skills and Leadership 3, but is expensive. It costs more than a VF-1R, but is slower and frailer.

VF-1As and 1Js can be upgraded to VF-1Rs, gaining three extra hit points, increased speed, and four anti-missile missiles. You can do worse for the points.

Defender Destroid

It's fragile and not particularly fast, but this thing can reach out and touch someone from far away. Defenders aren't exactly exciting, but they do what they do rather well. They're like a cheaper version of the Tomahawk.

Keep them out of melee.

Battletech players know this as a Rifleman.

 

Tomahawk Destroid

Think of these as your main battle tanks. They are tough, if slow (as most destroids are), but when your main gun has a 36" range and deals 8 Overwhelming damage, you don't need to be fast.

I generally prefer to hold my Tomahawks in reserve, moving them out to engage once the veritechs cleared out the first wave of enemy battle pods.

Battletech players know this as a Warhammer.

Phalanx Destroid

There is a power imbalance between the UEDF and Zentraedi, and nowhere is it more obvious than the Phalanx.

A study among rats found that larger and stronger rats would deliberately hold back when play-fighting with smaller rats. If they didn't, the smaller rats would eventually stop playing with them.

Skip the Phalanx if you're stuck with Wave One. It's not fun for you to just blow your enemy away, and it's not fun for your opponent to just get blown away.

If you aren't stuck with Wave One (read: is fielding power armor) or you're less skilled than the Zentraedi player, then stick the Phalanx in your backfield and rain fiery death on your enemies. 

Battletech players know this as a Longbow.

Spartan Destroid

This one is surprisingly fun. Spartans are killer in hand to hand, but have good missiles for close-range fire.  You may want to reserve them for anti-missile fire, but they offer a lot of damage that's hard to turn down - and the Spartan has a lot of MDC to soak fire.

Battletech players know this as the Archer.

Zentraedi - Wave One Mecha

The Zentraedi Armada is primarily, but not obligately, a swarm army. Unfortunately, it's harder to win - the UEDF player just has to show up. The Zent player actually has to think. Zentraedi have weaker weapons, shorter range, and more fragile mecha than the UEDF, especially in Wave One, but they have the advantage of numbers.

In Wave 1, the available models are the Glaug (officer pod), Regult (battle pod), Quel-Regult (recon pod), Quel-Gulnau (recovery pod), and three different flavors of artillery pod. This limits us to the Regult Attack (9 battle and 1 officer pod), Regult Attrition (12 battle pods), Regult Recon (1 recon, 6 battle, and 1 officer pod), and Regult Artillery (4 light, 2 heavy artillery pods) Squadrons.

Outside of Wave One, the main stars are the male and female power armors. We'll get to those later.

 

Glaug Officer Pod

The officer pod is key to your success as a Zentraedi player, because it's your main source of Command Points and resurrects lost battle pods. It is pretty dangerous, too, with an Accurate, Inescapable, Overwhelming MD 6 128mm CPC and the MD 8 rail cannons. Don't waste its missiles on offense; you'll want the Anti-Missile Missiles and their 4+ shoot down for incoming fire. Getting an extra officer pod in a given squadron is impossible, so be careful with the one you have. The UEDF player is going to go after it, so protect it.

Keeping a battle pod or three within 2" of the officer lets you shuffle off damage by splitting it.

Cover is a double-edged sword. You can't bring back regults that the officer didn't have line-of-sight to (unless you're Grell), but keeping cover between your enemy and your officer keeps it alive. Good news! Those battle pods you're keeping next to your officer pod are cover for the enemy, but not for you.

Between the ability to spread damage and cover, bubble wrapping the glaug is pretty much mandatory.

Target saturation is another layer of defense. Your opponents aren't terribly concerned about the battle pods, except as they interfere with his efforts to kill the officer. Regults aren't really targets, just dangerous obstacles to maneuver around. Give him something else that he needs to kill, like another officer pod or an artillery squadron.

Battle pods move 12" a turn, so try to keep your officer within 20" of your deployment zone. You don't want a spawn-camping enemy to permanently kill them.

Basically, the officer pod is the centerpiece of the Zentraedi army. You win or lose by how you use it.

 

Regult Battle Pod

Surround the enemy and kick him to death.

No, seriously.

If the battle pods are in melee with an enemy, he can't Dodge. Even the papier-mache pods can destroy an outnumbered enemy. Don't forget that +1 bonus to hit for outnumbering an enemy mecha, and you have no reason to not outnumber your enemy. 

They can do that at range, too (which is a good way to make the enemy burn CPs), but their Gunnery is awful. Keep them close to each other to take advantage of the close formation rules, both to spread damage around and to improve your chances to hit. Crossfire and back strike are your friends.

Battle pods can be upgraded with Veteran Warriors. You'll rarely regret doing that. 

 Ultimately, battle pods are disposable. They're an ablative barrier between your enemy and your main offense. So long as their officer is still around, they'll come back.

 

Quel-Regult Recon Pod

Recon pods provide a much-needed boost to your Command Points - and a use for them. They're completely unarmed and fragile, so you'll need to protect them with terrain, battle pod bubble wrap, and something bigger and scarier.

Of course, a Veritech can still kill one with a single shot, and unlike the battle pods, the recon pod won't come back.

The recon pod's Advanced Reconnaissance Suite gives the most bang for the buck, giving friendly mecha within 12" a +1 bonus to hit. Use it to boost artillery, if you have them; using it on battle pods requires the recon pod to be too close to the enemy. The other option, the Electronic Attack Suite, gives an enemy mecha a -1 penalty to hit in ranged combat for 1 CP. You can debuff multiple enemy mecha like this at a cost of 1 CP apiece, but that gets expensive. Use those CP to get an extra attack out of an officer pod, and you've done more to harm your opponent. I would hold off on activating the recon pod until late in the turn, and burning unused CP on it if there's no other use for them.

 

Quel-Gulnau Recovery Pod

Recovery pods are useful primarily because they're dirt cheap and have a big pile of hit points. If that sounds like damning with faint praise... well, it is. They extend the officer pod's bubble to 12" instead of 8" (they still have to be in line of sight) and are otherwise largely ineffectual. This might be useful in bigger games, but... why are you letting your battle pods stray that far away from their officer pod?

Gluuhaug-Regult Artillery Pod

There are three varieties of artillery pod: the good Gluuhaug-Regult, the bad Telnesta-Regult, and the ugly Serauhaug-Regult. None of them have Life is Cheap, so at least they give you Command Points.

The Gluuhaug, the light artillery pod, has a shorter range than the heavy pod. That's okay; 24" is plenty for your army. It's a little slower than your other regults, though you'll probably not want to put it out front. It's still faster than the UEDF's destroids.

You don't care about the artillery pod's speed, though, except for getting into firing position. You care about its rack of missiles. Each light arty pod can fire a volley of six missiles four times, potentially dealing fifty-four damage a turn. Realistically, you'll probably see half that.

Remember what I said earlier about giving your opponent more targets to worry about than just your officer pod? A pack of Gluuhaugs will definitely do that.

Unfortunately, they only have four shots. That will probably last you most of the game, but after they've emptied their magazines, they're basically slow-moving battle pods that don't have anti-missile beanies.

Telnesta-Regult Artillery Pod

Cannon pods are cheaper than the light artillery pods, but they deal less damage. Their range is the same as normal battle pods.

A cannon pod will best serve you not by standing in the back with the gunline like the other artillery pods, but by acting as a heavy weapon guy in your swarm of battle pods. It's cheap enough that you don't have to be afraid of losing it, and its cannons can end most enemy mecha. Best of all, the cannon pod's attacks can't be shot down.

Concentrated fire from close formation is a big help with this one.

Serauhaug-Regult Artillery Pod

The only reason you should take this is if you're grabbing an Artillery Squadron.

The heavy artillery pod has double the range of its light counterpart, but at almost double the cost. It has Volley X, meaning it can fire up to four missiles per game.

But at least they have Blast?

For the same price, the UEDF has the Phalanx - which is better in every way possible. I've seen this defended with people claiming the Zentraedi find the heavy artillery pod more useful, therefore it should cost more.

I guess I missed where the UEDF was a swarm army full of fragile mecha.

Making an Army

The game uses a system of cards (freely available on the internet, but once upon a time we had only the cards from the core box and supplemental boxes) to create armies. There are four kinds of cards - core, support, special, and character. The core cards form the units, and the others are added on to it.

An army must have at least two cards, plus an additional core card for every 150 points above 300 (so two for 300 and below, three at 450, four at 600, and so on).

The army can have two support cards and one special card per core card. While the rules specify that each core card can have up to two support cards attached, there's no limit to the number of special cards that can be attached to a core card (other than the limit of how many in the army). Both of these add mecha or upgrade existing mecha.

Characters are added to existing mecha.

All of these cost points. If you're playing with just Wave 1, you won't want to go much outside the 300-450 points range. The problem is the Zentraedi either get overrun by the UEDF at too high a points, or get wiped out at too low.

As an aside, beware playing on too small a board or with too little terrain. The Zents need something blocking the UEDF's ranged firepower, and everyone wants room to maneuver. 4'x4' is good, but 4'x6' is better. The book suggests you cover at least a quarter of the board with terrain - I wouldn't go up over half, though.

Introduction

 I recently got (back) into the defunct game, Robotech RPG Tactics. There was a bit of controversy years back over the publisher, Palladium Games, completely screwing over their Kickstarter backers and mismanaging the whole thing badly enough that they lost the license. The minis themselves have the problem of being shrunken versions of the model kits, which is pretty much the worst of all worlds.

But on the upside, it's a cheap and easy game to get into, and you can either 3d print missing minis or pick up proxies from Kids Logic's MiniTech line.

Plenty of other people posted unboxing reviews and complained about everything, and the last thing the internet needs is more bitching. I'm going to discuss the game itself, including using the various units and building armies. Where I use a mini not from Wave 1, I'll provide a source if I remember it.