With the biggest Ghar creation yet stalking the battlefield creator Rick Priestley examines the tactical options provided by the Ghar Command Crawler:
The Command Crawler is a mobile headquarters vehicle for a Ghar Commander, a machine from which he can monitor and direct the battle around him. Ghar communications are not as effective as most Antarean systems. This is partly due to the waves of radiation that spill from volatile plasma reactors, and partly because of all the random fractures in space-time generated by Ghar disruptor weaponry. This means that Ghar Command Crawlers have to get close to the fighting to be able to function, and by necessity they have to be capable of looking after themselves.
MOD2
Like most medium sized vehicles in the Antares game the Command Crawler is a Multiple-Order-Dice unit or MOD unit – which in this case means it has two Order Dice (MOD2). A Command Crawler therefore gets to make two actions every turn rather than just one, which is a tremendous advantage. This enables a Crawler to move quickly beyond danger if necessary, or to contribute its considerable firepower to an attack, and – not least – by using its double dice to both Rally and Fire or Advance in the same turn it can more easily shrug off pins. Even better, if you choose to fit the Crawler with the optional Plasma Amplifier upgrade it becomes a MOD3 with three Order Dice… and that’s something to make your enemies think twice before they mess with you.., or possibly three times!
Support Units
Aside from the very useful boosted Command values, the chief reason to have a Command Crawler is that it allows the Ghar force to include support units in the army lists. This is something that becomes increasingly important with larger forces.
Leader 2
In medium sized games the Command Crawler is best thought of in terms of a high Res (resistance value) vehicle comparable to the bigger drones in other armies. Its natural high Res is considerably enhanced by the Leader 2 rule, which means it can re-roll up to two Res fails at a time – again a very useful trait and something to bear in mind when positioning.
Follow
Last but not least, don’t forget about the Follow rule (BtGoA rule book page 133) which allows units within 5″ to carry out the same order as the Command Crawler. A nasty tactic is to position a Bomber Squad on either side – then with your first Order die of the turn going to your Command Crawler you can pull 2 further order dice from the bag and unleash all three units to fire on the enemy. Devastating!
I’ll wrap up for now and let you explore the inner workings of such wondrous machines – after all where better to explore the strengths and weaknesses of one’s army than on the battlefield in glorious combat!
If you’ve yet to explore the Ghar army then there are two must haves that you can’t go without. First the Ghar Starter Army, a complete force in its own right, and secondly the Ghar Support set providing both your Command and Bombers (it even provides 1 FREE bomber to get 2 small squads!):
Sam Phillips
Tom Mecredy
