Mercenaries of Trench Crusade- A Discussion

 Next up instead of a sub-faction overview I'm going in a little bit more depth on the Mercenaries of Trench Crusade. These are more tilted towards the Faithful as they have more, but there are quite a few very interesting options in general. 

Combat Biologist- A personal favourite of mine from both a model and rules point of view, the Biologist is just cool overall. With 6" movement, -1 Armour, and only +1 in melee it is a fairly standard profile albeit cheap for 3 Glory. Coming stock with Gas Grenades and a Gas Mask is quite good too as it helps with getting Blood out on your opponents (and defends you against Gas from an opponent) while NEGATE FEAR is something I will always find useful as the matchups where it really matters it is absolutely invaluable. The Biologist brings a unique Glorious Deed for your Warband which is quite interesting and can help make its cost back quicker, although killing 3 enemies within 1" of a single model on a 32mm base is a bit of a hefty task unless your Biologist has a super lucky game. It also gets a Blessing Marker if it personally kills DEMONIC or BLACK GRAIL models in melee, which the profile is really made to do anyway so it is quite nice to have a way to make the model snowball in terms of successes. The other thing to note with the Combat Biologist is its unique weapon, the Vivisector. This behaves mostly like a Polearm with 2 special rules, namely Pain Amplifier giving you a really boosted chance of critting provided the target has Blood on them (so if you Gas Grenade you can potentially already go to critting on 10s instead of 12s) and if you do crit against a non-ARTIFICIAL model on a 40mm or smaller base (which is almost everything on a 40mm or smaller base) you can move them d3" directly away from the Biologist, forcing more attacks on the target from anyone that it leaves engagement with. Biologists really promote a dogpile style of play, and charging the Biologist into things that are already engaged is a really valid play because the enemy is likely already damaged and thus more likely to force out of combat and get hit even more times. 

Communicant Anti-Tank Hunter- A fairly simple yet really good Mercenary, the Anti-Tank Hunter is a big guy with a big gun. The AMR is always incredible, when you put REGENERATE and TOUGH on top you have a merc that will always do good work on the table. Plus they just look really cool, so what's not to love

Goetic Warlock- As the name suggests, the Goetic Warlock is a Fallen Mercenary and has 2 unique Goetic Spells it can use. For its battlekit it has a fairly standard combo of Reinforced Armour and the Flaying Iron Claws, which are effectively 2 Swords that don't suffer from an off-hand penalty so you can make the most of its +1 dice in melee on both attacks. Enemies within 1" of a Goetic Warlock also get exponentially worse as they stay nearby, as they can't take a Retreat Action and gain a Blood when they activate, but also can't remove the Blood themselves while near the Warlock. Add FEAR on top of that and you have quite an annoying model to face already for 4 Glory, but that's without even looking at the Goetic Powers it has which ramp up the uses of the Warlock quite a lot. It does have the downside that it can only use Blood on enemies or friendly Wretched, so no taking it in Heretic Legions to get Blood from anyone in the Warband and super reliably heal while casting spells, but in Court you were using Wretched to fuel it anyway so this isn't a huge downside and enemies should be taking Blood fairly easily in Heretics with things like the Artillery Witch bombing and easy grenade access. The Necrotic Gaze is a 0 cost power that simply doubles the amount of Blood on the target from 24" away, with it being a Ranged Attack so at +1 dice although suffering from Cover and Long Range. If the target has no Blood then they gain one, so you will always net at least 1 Blood out of the action and there's no risk to doing it, meaning you will always use this action every activation on the Warlock provided there is a valid target. The other action, which is a little more complicated and has a cost of 2 Blood attached is Goetic Portal which is effectively a 6" teleport that can carry 1 enemy model with it. I personally love using this to kidnap enemy support pieces and drag them into your Warband where you can make the most of the Goetic Warlock's penalties, but it's also just great threat extension and a way to keep it safer on the advance, especially when combined with its regular move and dashes. 

Mamluk Faris- A fairly standard profile for a not quite ELITE model with +1s for both melee and ranged, but it does have some unique rules that are pretty neat and change up how its used. It adds a FIRETEAM option to the Warband you might not normally get (or just an extra one for activation economy) but only for an ELITE, and both ignores HEAVY if it takes a Greatsword and gains ASSAULT and Shield Combo on its Jezzail. The Jezzail is also worth noting as it is on the base profile with Alchemical Ammunition, so it is really shooting at +2 dice base with ASSAULT, with a choice of either a Greatsword, a Polearm and Shield or a Sword/Axe and Pistol. The Sword and Pistol is definitely the weakest option of the 3 as you have a good heavy hitter in the Greatsword or a defensive powerhouse with the Polearm and Shield while the Pistol and Sword is just kind of ok. You do get a 2nd attack ignoring the off-hand rule but with no other bonuses like the other profiles it isn't going to be anywhere near as good for the 4 Glory. You can swap between them after any game, but you usually would swap between the Greatsword or Polearm/Shield IMO with my personal favourite going towards Polearm/Shield as I really just love that combo in general. The last thing to note is the Automaton Destrier rule which functions similarly to Infiltrators as it lets the Mamluk forward deploy, and is turned off in a scenario which denies Infiltrators, but lets you deploy from any board edge as opposed to anywhere on the board. Great for a little bit of extra board presence

Mendelist Ammo Monk- An old favourite of mine that got knocked down a few pegs in the latest changes to Mercenaries, the Ammo Monk is still quite good as a 2 Glory support piece for New Antioch or Trench Pilgrim warbands that have good shooting threats. Gone are the days of the BLAST AMR Communicant or BLAST on AUTOMATIC weapons, but being able to give bonus Injury Dice is still really good and having an Ammo Monk sitting behind a Sniper Priest at the back of the table is very useful to have in the toolbox. 

Observer- Going up to 5 Glory is steep, but still more than worth it for what you get from the Observer. 2 attacks in melee with the Polearm at +2 dice means it's fairly reliable (albeit with the downside of not ignoring FEAR), plus with 8" movement it can immediately do a lot of work despite lacking a ranged weapon. It does have a Medi-kit which is nice, but less likely you use that over its other actions which are all going to be very good. Temporal Fugue for a -1 dice to attack it always, and that can't be ignored, is simply amazing, and going to -2 when it gets charged makes actually charging the Observer a really annoying prospect when you can't land hits on it. The big things that make the Observer unique though, and the reason it costs as much as it does, are Eye of God and Voice of God. Eye lets you reroll any failed rolls with the downside of going Down if you roll any 1s on the 2nd roll (something which isn't super likely to happen, and the odds of rerolling into a pass is worth the downside) while Voice of God lets you force your opponent into activating a model of your choice next, basically giving you an opportunity to get a double tap on a specific model or deny synergies in a really unique way. The power this gives over action economy can't be underestimated, and the Observer is really just a great package for what it does

Scripture Guardian- At 7 Glory this thing is super steep, although it does put in work. With Golem it is really hard to put down, and although it only attacks once it does get bonuses simply if the target has Blood (and even more so if you spend it for extra dice) plus on crits it has an absolutely ridiculous damage potential. You're investing a lot into a Scripture Guardian, and likely buying other Mercenaries before this one, but it is a nice flavour pick and can do great work on the table even just taking fire from other things in your warband.

Sin Eater- A big, TOUGH bruiser of a model for 6 Glory, the Sin Eater has quite a lot of rules text based around their unique action. They do also have quite a decent melee profile, although no ranged capabilities, and -2 Armour with FEAR. Their unique weapon, the Tenderiser Maul, has the option to either attack every enemy within 1" of it so you can do some nasty plays against players that bunch up (particularly if you're playing Heretic Legion and get an Artillery Witch bombing the clump as well) or alternatively use the Crushing Blow to get an extra Injury Modifier for if you really need to kill a single target that's bogging you down. The main reason you bring this though is for Devour the Guilty, something which is a very unique way to get either your own models up the table or take an opponent's piece off- eat it. On a friendly model it's easier, with the action not being Risky and with an extra Dice, but for opponents it's a Risky roll without any bonuses so is somewhat difficult to get off successfully, especially if you already have Blood (and I would always recommend spending Blood to make this action fail if you're against it). Once devoured a model gains a Blood every turn and is effectively off the table (they can attack, but at -3 Dice and no weapon almost nothing will reliably hit), the Sin Eater gains REGENERATE 1 so becomes even tankier, and the Sin Eater can drop them at any time they can do an Action. You can use it to get your own models up the table more reliably, have a model sit inside the Sin Eater to fuel Goetic Magic, or just lock out an important piece for the opponent and all of those options are worth doing. Sin Eater is expensive for 6 Glory but it is quite good for the cost.

Sister of Saint Cosmas- Basically the Antioch Combat Medic but for Trench Pilgrims, everything I have to say about that model in New Antioch is equally as valid here. For 2 Glory the Sister is a steal, as she can very reliably use her Medi-kit with +2 DICE, and getting extra injury dice on top of ignoring armour against Down enemies is fantastic as a finisher, particularly with her NEGATE FEAR. She's always going to be more of a utility piece and a somewhat squishy one at that, but for the low cost always something to consider as she brings a lot to the table. 

Witchburner- This one is in a bit of an odd spot I feel, as the Witchburner has one of if not the coolest sculpts out of all the Mercenaries, but for 6 Glory it is a bit steep for what it does. While being able to potentially put 6 Blood on a single Fallen model in a turn between the Gavel of Justice and Divine Judgement (or 4 on Faithful, still excellent), it does only have 1 attack in melee with +2 Dice,  and not being able to Dash makes for something that will be quite slow to get into the fray despite ignoring difficult terrain. It is ELITE though which means you can level it up straight off the bat, and it's harder to outright kill than most Mercenaries immediately after hiring on top of TOUGH and -2 Armour. I'd say it's not strictly the best Mercenary to take in a Warband, but really cool as a centrepiece in something like a Papal States Warband and that alone makes it worth using. 

Trench Dog- While not quite a Mercenary, it functions somewhat similarly. Costs Glory to add to your warband, although as a piece of Battlekit and not simply a hire, you can also upgrade them into various different forms. They're fast and fragile, and although not super great at anything in particular they can be useful to just run to objectives and claim things early as between 8" movement and +1 to Dashes they're reliably quick. You can buy them FIRETEAM for an extra Glory, which can be useful, but fully upgrading a Dog is 3 glory so a bit of a steep investment. I really love them as a flavour option though

    Mercy Dog (New Antioch only)- I've spoken about these a bit for Red Brigade, and being able to move Down models around plus having a Medi-Kit is really great all around. 2 Glory is on the pricy end, but you're getting a fair bit of utility out of it 

    Guard Dog (every warband other than Grail or Court)- This one I think is the least useful of the Dog variants, as forcing INFILTRATOR models to deploy slightly further away from it isn't especially useful and half the time doesn't work at all. It's a really neat idea, I just think one that's implemented in such a way that it isn't especially worth taking particularly when you have to earn Glory and it's at the expense of other Dogs.

    Martyrdom Dog (Trench Pilgrims only)- This one is purely a flavour pick unfortunately, as it has a couple of downsides. It pays a Glory for a Martyrdom Device, which while nice it is basically just another Ecclesiastic Prisoner in almost every way apart from costing you 2 Glory, and it still dies outright on less then a 4+ in post-game. The investment is a bit steep I feel like for something that is very likely to die after the first time you use it. 

    Hellhound (Fallen Warbands only)- Extra dice on attacks, and either GAS or FIRE depending on the warband (FIRE as default, GAS for Grail and Knights of Avarice) while also being NEGATE FIRE gives you quite a decent fast threat for any warband. Knights of Avarice I think care the least about it, as you want to load up on your more elite models (and Wretched spam for bodies) but any Fallen warband can do far worse than taking a Hellhound. 

Konflikt 47- Automated Platoon

 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.