Expanding your Firefight Force – Asterians

It’s been a few months since the launch of Firefight: Second Edition and hopefully by now you’ve played loads of games. No? Erm… painted your Strike Force? Wow, this is getting tough. You’ve built your Strike Force though, right? RIGHT? Opened the box?

Just in case you have made a start on your Strike Force, today we’re launching a new series of blogs that will look at what to buy next, once you’ve got the Strike Force set under your belt. These are suggestions of what to buy next to give you some alternate tactics, or provide a boost to the stuff you already have.

Let’s kick things off with the Asterians!

KALYSHI

One thing the Asterian Strike Force lacks is some real oomph in close combat. While the Marionettes and Cyphers are hammering away with their Noh Rifles, you can add to the pressure with the Kalyshi. First up, they’re fast… like Veer-myn fast. They have a threat range of 15”, but that can be boosted even further with the Kalyshi Deathstrike’s Command Order, which allows friendly Kalyshi within 12” to make a 6” Advance. Suddenly that enemy that was carefully placed out of a range, will have to deal with a mean Glaive in their face.

On a Charge they’re hitting on a 2+ with 3D each. That’s 15 dice in a standard five-Kalyshi troop, although you can increase that with up to five additional Kalyshi. The drawback is, a mild breeze can wipe them out, thanks to Armour 5+ and a Nerve of 5+, so keep them safe until your ready to strike.

Good news is - Kalyshi will be back in stock soon too! So make sure you add them to your wish list.

WEAPON PLATFORMS

The Weapon Drones typically come in squads of two and have a variety of options including:

Heavy Fission Beamer – take down those pesky aircraft and tanks with this heavy duty tin opener. AP5 and 3D for each Drone ensures your opponent is going to have to think twice before closing in. Just be aware they have Slow Reload, so Shoot is a Long Action, which means you'll need to be in position before blasting away.

Pulse Bombard – with a 48” range that doesn’t require line of sight (thanks to Indirect), the Pulse Bombard can be used to Pin enemies from a massive distance. It has Blast (D4) too, so the two dice being rolled have the chance to ‘explode’ after hitting. The Bombard can be unpredictable, but devastating.

Plasma Vortex – similar to the Pulse Bombard, the vortex has Blast (D4) but only has a range of 18”. Handy for taking out troops, rather than heavily armoured vehicles.

Shield Generator – shields are absolutely vital for a successful Asterian list and the Shield Generator helps to potentially restore any Shields that have been lost earlier in the game. You can take the Shield Generator as a Drone option for your Cyphers and Black Talons for a measly 5pts.

MARIONETTE PHANTOM

Having recently been on the receiving end of a few angry Phantoms, I can attest to their potential quality. At 60pts for one, they’re not exactly cheap, but you can boost the squad with an additional two Phantoms for 50pts each. What makes them so tough though, is an Armour value of 7+ and 4HP each! Get a couple together and your opponent will have to slog through eight wounds to clear them off the table.

When it comes to ranged attacks, they’re rolling 3D each for the Twin Noh Rifles, but that can easily be boosted to 4D each with the Asterian Faction order. The 5+ Shoot stat can be a little swingy, but they’ve got Weight of Fire (1), so at least you can re-roll one miss per Phantom. Assault-wise, they’re kicking ass and taking names with a 4+ (3+ on a Charge) but do only have 2D each, so their damage output on assaults is a little more limited.

So, there you go folks, our top suggestions for how to expand your Asterian Strike Force. In our next blog, we’ll take a look at the Enforcers. Let us know on social media if you’ve got any combos that work… unless you want to keep them a secret, of course.