Port of Call - Kar'a Nine - Concord Builder

Once again we’re taking a break from sailing, as we enjoy shore leave upon Kar’a Nine during this Port of Call.

Kar’a Nine is the new introductory set for Antares, featuring Algoryn and Concord.  We looked at Algoryn last time growing from what is in the box to a fully-fledged 1,000 point force.  Predictably, we’ll do this for the Concord to.

Starting Force

In the box you get two frames of plastic Concord troopers, which can be made into 2 Concord Strike Squads accompanied by 2 C3D1 Light Support Drones. 

There aren’t that many options on the Concord sprues to cause difficult decision making.  Squad leader gets an X-Sling as standard and you could upgrade a basic Plasma Carbine with a Plasma Lance, but as there’s only one Lance per frame you can’t go far wrong.  The Light Support Drone could be given a Plasma Light Support weapon or a Subverter Matrix, I’d suggest a maximum of one being given a Subverter though. 

The basic un-upgraded Concord Strike Squad is 112 points.  The squad size can be increased to a total of 8, but as you only get two sprues of Concord in the set you’ll be left with two units of 5.  I’m going to presume most folks are going to use the Plasma Lance option too.

The Leader can be upgraded to be given Slingnet ammo in their X-Sling and promoted to Leader 2.  The whole squad can be given Plasma Grenades and accompanied by a Spotter Drone. 

Each squad will therefore cost:
C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125

These will be accompanied by a pair of Plasma Light Support Drones at 59 points, upgraded with spotters.

So in total, my base cost of the four units will be:
C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
C3D1 Light Support Drone (59), Spotter (+10) = 69
C3D1 Light Support Drone (59), Spotter (+10) = 69

A total of 388 points.

Force Selector

Force size	Points Value	Tactical (t)	Support (s)	Strategic (g)	Auxiliary (a)
Scouting Force	500	3-4	0-1	0	0-1
Skirmish Force	750	4-6	0-2	0	0-1
Combat Force	1,000	4-8	1-4	0-1	0-2

From the table above, if we’re looking at turning these four units into a 500 point army, we will have the minimum number of three tactical choices.  We would be able to take a fourth tactical choice, a single support choice and a single Auxiliary choice.
If we’re planning on going higher than 500 points we’ll need a fourth tactical option.

Selecting the 500 point army

With a 500 point list we’ve already got 2 Tactical Choices and 2 Support Choices.  This is the first hurdle, reducing the Support Choices.  This is not a problem as both C3D1 Light Support Drones can be fielded as a single unit.  So that leaves us needing one tactical choice.  As we’ve already got 2 Strike Squads, I’m going to pop for the Command Squad.  This is a Limited Choice meaning we need three other units (1 in 4 units being the 25% maximum for Limited Choice units), of which we have.

The list could be:
(t) C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(t) C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(t) C3 Command Squad (110), Spotter (+10) = 120
(s) C3D1 Light Support Drone (59), Extra Light Support Drone (+59), Spotter (+10) = 128
Total = 498 Points & 4 Order dice.

Three infantry units supported by a single unit of Light Support Drones, which pack a nasty punch.  Not too many order dice, so may feel outnumbered, but keeping the opponent at range and supporting the infantry with the drones may offset this – especially if using the Command Squad’s ‘Follow’ ability.

Another list could be:
(t) C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(t) C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(t) C3 Command Squad (110), Spotter (+10) = 120
(s) C3D1 Light Support Drone (59), Spotter (+10) = 69
(a) C3D1GP General Purpose Drone (20), Subverter Matrix (+20) = 40
Total = 479 Points & 5 Order dice

If we choose to build a drone as a GP Subverter Matrix, we reduce the firepower of the Light Support Unit, but potentially gain order dice superiority, even more so if Superior Shard is taken as an upgrade. 

Overall, it doesn’t matter too much how your Light Drones are assembled, much of it is personal preference.

Taking it up to 750

The next 250 chunk is mainly going to be absorbed by a fourth tactical option. 

There will not be enough Limited Choice options available to take a Nuhu or Command Squad.  The Drop Troops are prohibited by requiring a Drop Command Squad, again a Limited Choice.  Kind of forced to take a Strike Squad.  We’ll upgrade this to match the earlier units, nice and symmetrical.

As there’s a Light Support Drone on the plastic sprue (presuming you’ve not bought a metal box of Strike Troopers) we’ll build this as either the Subverter Matrix (if we had 2 Plasma Light Supports) or as a Plasma Light Support (if our first build had a Subverter Matrix).

(t) C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(t) C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(t) C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(t) C3 Command Squad (110), Spotter (+10) = 120
(s) C3D1 Light Support Drone (59), Extra Light Support Drone (+59), Spotter (+10) = 128
(s) C3 Support Team (40), All Ammo (+15), Spotter (+10) = 65
(a) C3D1GP General Purpose Drone (20), Subverter Matrix (+20), Batter Drone (+20) = 60
Total = 748 Points & 7 Order dice

The two lists at the 500 point level have now merged together.  A pair of Light Support Drones providing a bit of punch, lots of infantry and an X-Launcher all working together.  Every unit has a spotter (well, maybe not the GP Drone) to allow patch sighting for the X-Launcher.

The push to 1,000

Once we reach 1,000 points we unlock the Strategic options to add to the units above. 

We could pop for just a single Strategic option for about 250 points and take a C3M4 Combat Drone.  That’s 249 points as it is and would take our total up to 998 (and 9 Order dice).

We may get some more mileage from taking advantage of the 2 additional Support options and the extra Auxiliary option.

(t) C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(t) C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(t) C3 Strike Squad (112), Plasma Lance (+3), Spotter (+10) = 125
(t) C3 Command Squad (110), Spotter (+10) = 120
(s) C3D1 Light Support Drone (59), Extra Light Support Drone (+59), Spotter (+10) = 128
(s) C3 Support Team (40), All Ammo (+15), Spotter (+10) = 65
(s) C3 Interceptor Squad (136) = 136
(s) C3D2 Medium Support Drone (93), Plasma Cannon (+5), Spotter (+10) = 108
(a) C3D1GP General Purpose Drone (20), Subverter Matrix (+20) = 40
(a) Targeter Probes (20) = 20
Total = 992 Points & 10 Order dice

There’s plenty of mileage for the Concord force when starting with the Kar’a Nine set.  Moving from the basic 388 from the intro set through to a 1,000 list.  A 1,000 point list that can be refined further by personal choice for both aesthetics and tactics.

Obviously the above are all suggestions.  I personally have my other lists, elsewhere on this blog, and tend to chop and change constantly.  I could do with making a big list of every options available and allocate to all these options the units that I’d take.  Then chop the list down to fit point’s values.  We’ll see what the future holds for now though.

Until next time!