From Trenches to Triumph: Imperial Faction Focus

Ah yes, Imperial, Regia’s Finest Warriors. The faction without a planet. The seal-breakers. Don’t mind me, I’m just memeing on the Imperial faction because there’s a certain someone who loves them and I like pulling his leg. What characterizes the Imperial faction is their hard hitting guns – even their SMG goes for at least DAM 12 on its long range! Braveheart would be proud.

Blood Berets

Blood Berets are actually quite interesting. They are the standard 4-0 trooper – Camouflage(1), Shake it off and Rebreather. Their stat line is very good from start to finish and what tops everything off is the fact they’re armed with a main gun, a melee weapon and a pistol. Having options is great, you know – in case you critically fail. Their primary weapon, the Invader Assault rifle, is probably the hardest hitting rifle in humanity’s arsenal, though quite inaccurate at their long range. You want these troopers to hang in cover and start going to town with shot after shot of DAM14 guns.

Their Specialists are Medics equipped – in typical fashion – with the standard trooper gear plus First Aid and the AOE 6″ AR crit fail protection. We love em, we take em, we keep em in cover with their good DEF and Camo.

Their leaders also in typical fashion, get the upgraded stat line and 3 SP to give to your army. They get their shotgun – you know the DAM 14×2 buckshot at 6″, making even the might Razide sweat. Hm what is this? Oh yeah, a chainsaw in sword form with the most badass name for a weapon yet: the Chainripper! This thing is a flat DAM13 weapon with a x2 damage multiplier, Continuous and Reach (1). This means that should your opponent fail their save with either one die (or one of three in case of a critical) you get to roll for another save. Basically keep the troopers in front and have the leader clean up any survivors who dare try melee.

Their Support version carries the Southaw RPGs for DAM 13, or 15 if you Aim. RPGs are always a great thing to have, their downside being that if you counterattack with them, you are doing it at a slight disadvantage.

Blood Berets’ main weakness is their CC game, especially if they can’t Charge to take advantage of their Thrust (X) weapon. Shake It Off means they remove their Pinned Counters at the Start Phase of a new turn, so a canny opponent will act fast when after inflicitng a Pinned Counter on them. As with all Camouflage units, take advantage of all Obstructed opportunities and don’t worry too much about them getting them pinned .

Golden Lions

Where Blood Berets are focusing on finding ways to eradicate the Dark Legion, the next unit is Imperial’s answer to slaughtering humanity – as if they didn’t condemn us enough by breaking the seal!

The Golden Lions, CQB specialists of Imperial, wield the Interceptor SMG and have the Focused Fire ability, increasing the DAM of their weapon by +1 for each previous successful Shoot Action Test of the current Activation. I’ll let that sink in. While it does, note that they boast an exceptional MW 14 and 22 AR, but no further defensive capabilities – sans a rebreather (not that they need it). Golden Lions offer a breath of fresh air in their choices outside the troopers. Their Operators, for example, don’t have an SMG or standard grenades – instead, they have access to plasma weaponry, grenades included. Plasma weaponry is yet another Continuous weapon in the Imperial arsenal, meaning they are very likely to kill their targets on a successful hit. Their Plasma Carbine, has a reasonable set of range bands (8″ for Close and up to 24″ for Long) and a solid DAM12. They kept their Smoke Grenades as a bonus that helps them get into that sweet, sweet CQB.

Their Leader comes with a Plasma Carbine plus a Chainripper. A savage machine of Continuous carnage.

The Golden Lion Support has an LMG, which is an Invader with Burst (2) and Recoil(4), giving the close-focused Lions some answers to the 12-24″ range band.

Overall, Golden Lions are dangerous units at close range, but don’t fair nearly so well in melee. If you find yourself on the wrong side of some Golden Lions, don’t linger in the 5-8″ range band for too long, because they are extremely strong there. Keep them Pinned as much as possible to contain their nasty Reactions while you close the distance. If you don’t have strong melee units available, keep your distance and force them to take shots at their “bad” range bands. Lastly, plasma weapons are great but they come with a weakness of failing Ammo rolls on an 18 or more. That’s a flat 15% chance of Critical Failure and needing to reload when you need it most.

Trenchers

Lastly, the Regia Imperialis fields the mighty Trencher, ordinary men and women like you and me – armed with just a shovel, a prayer and an Invader Assault Rifle. I meme again on the Trenchers, but they are great. The first Recruit – Group (2) unit in Humanity’s arsenal. And they cost 3DP! Their stats are laughable but their defensive capabilities via Entrenched are not. At least not for a 3DP model.

Keep in mind that when you deploy Group (X) units, you MUST deploy them in groups of X within 6″ of each other. Once deployed, though, they can part ways, and can be Activated in pairs – but not always the same pairs. So you can make interesting activation combos, and use them to cover each other (see our recent-ish article for more Group (X) tactics! – Ed). Their Invader can pack a punch, but with their MW of 11, they will miss a lot unless you Aim. You can keep Trenchers, well…Entrenched and take aimed shots or go for the occasional reactive pot-shot. Do you like to gamble? Because Trenchers are a bit like gambling. They can be both very good and mediocre at the same time, but they are worth every penny when they’re on a good streak. Getting Pinned with Trenchers sucks, because they need to make a coin-toss (LD 11) roll to remove the Pinned Counter, even when performing a Rally action.

Important disclaimer – Recruit only affects Rally, so any Leader with Inspire can remove a Pinned Counter from Trenchers without the need to make a roll. Usually your Leader will have better things to do with their Actions than give pep talks to Trenchers, but it’s a nice option to consider in a pinch.

Their Leader also has the Invader rifle, they cost 4DP and have a “meh” stat line of their chassis. You need them for very cheap SPs, though, and cheap Inspire. LD 13 is quite decent, so Command is still viable. Remember, though, you need to bring two Trencher troopers for every one Leader.

Their Support option is also kinda memeable, since they are effectively an MW12 model when firing their Burst (3), DAM 14 weapon at 24″ or below. Beyond that, their effectiveness drops, but they are more effective than you might think.

Overall Trenchers are fun and effective. You can make a meme list with only Trenchers make it work with some work and cleverness. Alternatively, you can just yell “fix bayonets” and charge to enemy lines if you are ballsy enough, but there’s downsides. Trenchers can be shut down by Pinned Counters, any form of melee or by Shoot Actions coming from any form of Obstruction.

Assets

Clan Rivalry: When you roll 20 on a Shoot or Strike Action, another Imperial unit within LOS is immune to nat 20 failures. Not bad!

Seize the Initiative: Situational, but helps you maintain the Initiative even if you’re winning by a lot. Careful against Bauhaus – don’t let them ‘The Moment Has Come’ this away from you!

To the Last Warrior: Very good for Pinning Counter removal, but doesn’t work with Blood Berets due to their Shake It Off ability. The magic thing about this one is that it works every turn – so use it!

Imperial is a very fun faction to play as (well all are, but you get the point), especially if you prefer aggressive shooting-oriented games.