Now that the new plastic Automatons are out for Konflikt 47, I've expanded my British into a playable Automated Platoon. I've always loved the robots, but the metals are awful to assemble so I wanted to wait for the plastics before I added more. The new kits are quite good and easy to put together (simply by nature of being plastic over metal). The new platoon is quite interesting mechanically and you can easily do an all-robot list just with the new platoon on its own, but I want to also discuss a couple of other options that I would consider adding to the Automated Platoon
Automated Platoon Rules
Increased range on the Data Transmission rule means you have way more board presence, as you don't have to keep things as close, and 12" range is quite big so you can have your whole army moving and shooting on 4s with tons of shots.
Being able to use Snap to Action! on all your MkII units as well as the Director is massive, and the activation control this gives you is really great. You have to take 1 MkII unit, but I would definitely take 2 as the 2 give you such a better bonus.
I should also note the British Commonwealth rules that are relevant for the Automated Platoon. Superior Codebreaking when you really need to go first can be game-changing, and although you can't Snap to Action! on it activating a unit first is still very big. Computational Systems is a rule all Automated units have, and no -1 to hit for moving and shooting is excellent despite First off the Line giving you a -1 penalty base. You can play around both of these things and have a force that can't be pinned, can always move and shoot and keep positioning wherever you need to go. Automated Recovery stops you from being Stunned on your Rift vehicles, which is all Automated vehicles and the other units I'll mention later on, and just taking less pins is great as a rule. The rules all combine to make an army that is hard to lock down, and outside of outright killing Automated units you can't really stop their advance.
Automated Units
MkIIC Automated Director- The command option for the Automatons, the Director is effectively a better MkII with a couple of special rules. They carry the M21 Light Tesla that you can upgrade a MkII with, and can take up to 2 more MkII in the unit that can also upgrade to another M21 for 2 or 3 Tesla Cannons in a unit which can do a lot of work in the right situation. Their Snap to Action! is slightly restricted to only being on units with Computational Systems, although that is every Automated unit and a good chunk of the armour options for Commonwealth so not really a downside when you're theming towards that, and at the cost of exhausting a Rift Dice they can Snap to Action! any 2 units on the table which is huge for activation control and doing what you want early in a turn. While Surging they can also Snap to Action! on 3 units, and they can't Snap at all when Exhausted so managing the Rift Dice on a Director is going to be quite important when playing an Automated Platoon. They do come with 2 Rift Dice though, so somewhat easier to mitigate in that regard.
MkI Automated Infantry Squads- Your basic Automated option, the MkI troops come with 6+ as their damage value so while not necessarily easy to kill they will take hits from higher pen weapons. They come base with MMGs which are not that great in Konflikt (outside of Fireflies and Totenkorps they won't hurt things that reliably, although they have a ton of shots) and should really always be upgraded in some way. They can take Combat Blades on the MMGs for relatively cheap which gives them +1 pen in combat and Tough Fighters, which is best used in combination with their Rift Enhancement to exhaust the Rift Dice for doubling their movement and attacks in combat, making them fairly scary threats for the turn once you've used the dice. Close combat isn't necessarily a place they really want to be, but it does make for a very interesting potential attack if you find yourself up against lighter infantry or can finish off a unit with a lucky charge. The HMGs on the other hand are a really great weapon to get through 6 and 7+ armour units as they can put out a ton of dice with +1 pen, and things that you can hit quite a lot will be taking damage fairly reliably. Squads without a high armour value will just get shredded by either variant of MkI, but generally speaking the HMGs are far better in a game where simply having a pen value matters a lot.
MkII Heavy Automated Infantry Squad- Bigger than MkIs in every way with 40mm bases, 7+ armour and Light Autocannons base, the MkIIs are real beefcake units and a key piece of the Automated Platoon. Hard to Kill makes them even tougher than 7+ would be normally, and is fairly standard for 7+ Rift units, although they are slower than most being Automated and 4" movement without a Surging dice. Their weapons are all decent, with the Light Autocannon being able to take Combat Blades for +1 pen and Tough Fighter, the Heavy Autocannon being just a better version of the Light and the M21 Tesla Cannon for some more Rift shenanigans. I don't think the Tesla is great on the base unit though, as it doesn't give an extra Rift Dice and you really want to have their dice active for Data Transmission, which negates First off the Line on the other bots so they don't have penalties to hit on their shots. The ability to exhaust their Rift Dice is interesting, although I personally don't think it's really great as it will turn off Data Transmission so the timing of it is very important unless you overlap bubbles of MkIIs.
Automated Mobile Platform 'Hunter'- The 1st of the Automated Mobile Platforms, the Hunter is quicker than the regular Automated Infantry and does have Hard to Kill, but is still only a single model. The Hunter is the anti-tank variant with a Light Anti-tank Gun (albeit with First Off the Line, so you need MkIIs around to avoid a -1 to hit and get to 3s on a Fire order) and you can spend your Rift Dice to bump it up to a Medium Anti-tank gun on a Fire order specifically. The Rift Enhancement means you can't move and get the benefit of a bigger gun, but it is great to have the versatility of being able to punch up into slightly bigger vehicles.
Automated Mobile Platform 'Bombardier'- The mortar equivalent of the Platforms, the Bombardier carries a Light Howitzer with Corrosive D3. This is quite good as although it won't be super great against really heavy vehicles it does mean it can do a ton of damage to all kinds of infantry and light vehicles, and can punch up on a gamble into bigger things. Like the Bombardier though it is only on a Fire order, so no movement when you do it.
Automated Mobile Platform 'Lancer'- 3 HMGs on a single, easy to hide and impossible to pin model. While it is easy to kill with only a single wound it does have Hard to Kill for an extra save, and for 99 points for what it does it is more than worth the cost. You can take up to 3 in an Automated Platoon, and depending on what you're facing these things will be fantastic. They're incredible into Totenkorps or Fireflies, less useful but still good into Ursus, other robots and Stahltruppen and all but useless into the heavier mechs.
Automated Carriers- A fairly light vehicle at 7+ armour, but can't be pinned and is quite quick with 2 Light Autocannons so is pretty decent. With Recce while Surging they're hard to lock down, and Fast gives you lots of movement options without a shooting penalty as an Automated unit, but you have to be careful not to overextend and move them away from MkII units.
'B for Bertie' Automated Infantry Hero- All the new waves for K47 have given their respective unit types a named Hero, and the Automated Infantry are no exception. While 120 points for a model with only 4" move and 6+ to damage may seem quite steep, I think Bertie actually has the potential to be one of the best pieces in a British army when used well. He is effectively just a hero version of a MkI Automaton with a HMG, so with the +1 Pen that is so important in K47, but also brings 3 points of Luck and a different Rift Ability. 3 Luck is huge, and means he can either let you reroll dice on important rolls, or simply stay alive when he would be killed up to 3 times in a game. With Hard to Kill for extra saves as well this makes Bertie a real pain to take down, and with Infiltrator and the ability to automatically pass any Outflank rolls you will always have him exactly where he needs to be at any given time. His Rift Ability is also quite interesting, as it lets you make an Advance order after another unit shoots at one of your units in line of sight to Bertie, so effectively letting him shoot twice a turn which is quite a good upgrade in output. It also acts as a kind of deterrent to shooting other units as if they're getting shot, Bertie can put more pins onto you in retaliation (assuming they aren't veteran vehicles or Fearless) or just take more models off after your own activation. Fireflies are a good counter here, as you can Regroup in Hell! to get out of line of sight of Bertie so he can't shoot back but this is also risky.
Additional Takes
Merlin Heavy Walker- A personal favourite of mine, the Merlin has Automated Systems so synergises with the Director and can be splashed in quite easily as an Armoured Walker Platoon. Thematically it works too as it has an AI core in it, so you aren't losing out on all-robot by taking a Merlin. The fists are decent melee weapons and I've had it punch into other mechs quite successfully, the HMG on the arm is great for firing into infantry of all kinds with the +1 pen and full shots being an arm weapon, and the Heavy Anti-Tank Gun with Improved HE is just a great gun all around, especially moving and shooting with 4s to hit. Being able to exhaust a Rift Dice to ignore a Vehicle Damage result is also really good, and it has to be remembered this is on top of the flat ignoring of Crew Stunned results as well.
Veteran Vehicles- The Humber and Churchill Meteor are potentially worth taking with an Automated Platoon, as you can Snap to Action! from the Director and get a bit more value out of it. The Churchill is a very expensive investment though, and with the Automated units also being on the expensive end you probably won't have a lot of activations if you take a Churchill.
