Mantic: Deadzone Faction Focus – The Forge Fathers
Get ready for this year’s Deadzone summer campaign with this faction focus from Mantic. The Forge Fathers of the Star Realm are tough, steadfast, and they are crack shots.
These warriors have good armour, saves, and weapons that can pierce amor and they can shoot straight. They’re one of the pricier factions in the game, so their teams are a smaller but they make up in ability for lack of minis on the table. Pick up an Iron Ancestor – with armor 4, some choice weapons, and fire control that allows you to shoot with both weapons in a round. He’s the most expensive Strider in the game, but he’s totally worth it.
Do their tactics sounds interesting? Take a look at their backstory…
The sturdy folk of the Star Realm, a collection of systems coreward of the GCPS, are known in Galactic Standard as Forge Fathers – a rather prosaic translation of their native tongue, though not one to which they seem to object.
Short in stature and powerfully built, the people of the Star Realm are best known for their technological aptitude, which far surpasses that of the finest human engineers and is the rival of any other race thus far encountered. Split into various clans located throughout the Star Realm, the Forge Fathers are generally peaceable, preferring trade to war. Indeed, it is from their workshops that many of the finest weapons, armour and other tech used by the GCPS is obtained.
Though massively advanced by human standards, it is clear that the equipment they sell to the Council is far short of their true capabilities, and nowhere is this more clearly exhibited than when Corporation Forces clash with Forge Fathers in a Deadzone. The Brokkrs who lead these excursions hail from a distinct caste of Forge Father society, wandering engineers and prospectors who seldom have official links to the Star Realm when about their business (or at least any that can be proven).
Backed by sturdy Forge Guard and using modified mining lasers and even the occasional Iron Ancestor, these expeditions arrive in Deadzones ready to plunder whatever resources might be at hand. The Forge Fathers have little interest in territory, but exploiting the resources of planets is what they do best, and the disappearance of a planet from the official record affords them a convenient opportunity – after all, the GCPS can hardly declare war against the Star Realm over an incursion to a planet that they deny exists.
Sound like the faction for you? Pick up the Forge Father Faction Starter that has Steel Warriors, a variety of weapon options, heavily armored Forge Gaurd, and some Brokkrs to do damage in close combat. You can use this set to build your strike squad led by Forge Guard Huscarl or Steel Warrior Huscarl, and a full campaign force. And you can bulk it up with a Hellermal Pattern Iron Ancestor with a Twin Magma Cannon and a Power Claw with built-in Flamer.
