They are Imperial too. The old SM material just call the Squat unit Robot and I think renaming it would be odd since I haven't renamed anything else. As I said though, if we make a tank robot we don't have to call it "Robo-tank". We can call it a Hemlock, Traxxon, Rumbler, or any other name. I'm totally open.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

OT - Tom Webb from Exodus Wars will be at my local club this coming Sunday, anything ppl want me to suggest to him for the Kazari range? i was thinking an AA platform (ie thunderfire equivalent - as they are hard to come by)

back on topic:

with the idea of the Trade consortium looking to differentiate themselves from the Strongholds, i was thinking maybe going for a more corporate style force - cost effective machinery with elite multi-role squat infantry as the basis of the force...also with the flesh sacs being what u want to keep alive as much as possible, infantry would be armoured and heavily armed (hearthguard stats with rejigging of the weaponry)...backed up with different robot troop types...as well as walker robots i would envisage tracked remote controlled tracked tanks/skimmers/flyers providing the heavy punch...no super heavy tanks as u have the WE (land train/colossus/leviathan/cyclops) to fulfill that role...possibly increase the WE allotment in the list as well...

would keep bikers/trikes as recon/strike elements - bikes with scout ability maybe?

envisage the infantry would have integral transports - rhinos or modified gyrocopters or tunnellers.

this is just brainstorming at the moment - when i have some time i will put together something more comprehensive...

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May your tankard never be dry and the Dice Gods look favourably upon your endeavours!

Ok, this past month been playing around with this concept. Tried some formations in small 1000 points just to get a "feel" to what could be done to make it distinctive from the pre-tyr squats.
True, the idea i had of just using robots on the field and putting the squats only aboard the vehicles looks too much like a robotic army so I tried mixed formations and separating them until i noticed the wording of the autonomon rule (composed entirely...) so off goes the mixed formations for now at least.
But still, mixed units worked well enough. I see this as squats using robots as auxilia troops to flesh out their own small units. If we tweat the autonom rules so that the formation still gets a blast marker when a squat unit is destroyed as opposed to "All formations composed entirely of autonom units will not collect blast markers for casualties to the formation or for crossfire bonuses, but will collect blast markers for coming under fire and disrupt attacks." could be used still.

As separate formations i see them as expendable resources to be used in the more risky roles that squats would shun away from now. Both work ok and look distintive in the tabletop.
Keeping with the more mobille theme for the survivors kept out of the list the slow artillery. Support would come from the airships. Squat infantry would use existing stats except for armor 5+ accounting for better protection available (and needed)

I came up with this for my vision of the consortium:
Core choices:
Heavy robot comp.
Robot comp.

Support (3 per core):
Thunderers
Warriors ?
Bikers ?
Overlord airship (just 1 to keep a limit to the number of these on support slots)
Tarantula
Iron Eagles

WE:
two versions of big airships
- a bigger overlord-type airship - more guns, with a bomb bay that can either do bombing attacks OR use the cargo space to work as a tranport vehicle (choose at start of the game)
- command and support airship - longer range weapons, barrage weapon, limited TK capacity.

Still planning on using the drone-screen for these instead of armor or shields for added survivability. still haven't tried how this works out, have doubts about not having shields at all. Not sure if the command center on the big airships would add anything to this list if it just removes the limitation of autonom units not marching...

What do you guys think?