Hi there!

This article is the first of three that discuss how to build armies for the various factions.

Quick recap: The three major factions in the Albedo Universe are:

1. the ConFed – the Confederation of Planets: Their armed force is the Extraplanetary Defence Force or EDF for short;

2. the Independent Lapine Republic (ILR): The Armed Forces of the ILR comprise an army and a space force;

and

3. the HomeGuard – individual systems have their own defence forces, regardless of faction. So their armies tend to be a grab bag of equipment and forces that suit their needs.

If you want more background on these forces, or the game generally, I really recommend buying the sourcebook. It’s not easy being a struggling author…

Origin and development of the EDF

In the sourcebook, I wrote a lot of history about the EDF and how it developed over time, starting with its formation at the start of the First Lapine War. This was a couple of years after the war ad really begun, but since war was a new concept, and communication lag is a thing in the Albedoverse, nobody realised that this was a problem.

Basically then, I have conceptually split the organisation and doctrine of the EDF into four phases:

1. Formation – during the second phase of the war, the ConFed was formed and the EDF was created by combining the HomeGuards of the ten founding systems.
2. Pre-Beii – before the battles for the planet Beii, the EDF doctrine revolved around standardised heavy mechanised infantry. At Beii, this resulted in a meat grinder for ground forces that was only resolved by the hasty introduction of new technology, and the adoption of more flexible tactical ideas.
3. Post-Beii – the new tactics reshaped the EDF. While retaining a mechanised core, airmobile infantry could now swoop ahead of the line of advance and secure strategic points. These tactics proved to be successful, and were becoming well-established when the Oo’anti protocol was established.
4. Modernity – The EDF is a mature, well trained force, with excellent logistic support and high grade weapons. However, there is a well established maxim which states that armies train to fight their last war… is the EDF still up to the job?

The takeaway from this is that, in matters of detail, the EDF Table of Equipment (ToE) changes from period to period. The good news is that all of them are achievable with the range of miniatures available from Sally 4th, with a few exceptions in terms of specialist vehicles. So, let’s look at building your army.

Building an EDF Army

The minimum realistic force that you’ll need is an infantry squad. The EDF sees a squad as being eight critters of various sizes, bsically because this was how many critters fitted in the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) design.. The foundation of the squad is the MAKW 3-60 Machine Gun, and the gunner is supported by a loader. The squad leader is equipped with a Machine Pistol, because they are leaders, not shooters per se and the remaining five critters carry the standard LAKW 1-56 Assault Rifle. Based on the size of this, you could argue that it’s a battle rifle – but advanced technology has made it possible to have bigger weapons that don’t weigh too much, so there you go.

This is a heavy infantry squad. All the critters are medium frame or bigger, because small frame critters simply can’t carry the big guns and armour while being combat effective. They ride around in an APC, which is the next logical step in expanding your army. The one pictured below is an AV-8A, and one of the critters is the driver. The heavy machine gun on top is directed by the commander but fired by the onboard computer.

This unit is the basic building block of the EDF. If you have three of them, and a command element, you have a platoon. For ACP164 this is a good sized unit. A platoon each side makes for an interesting, balanced battle that doesn’t take too long to play out.

Getting Airborne

After Beii, focus on EDF development shifted to the AirMobile side, as we discussed earlier. Owing to the lift capability of the Aerodynes available, the standard equipment of the infantry squad was altered to include lighter, less bulky armour, but otherwise the organisation is basically the same as the Mechanized platoon.

Their normal ride is an Aerodyne. The rules specify different fits for various time periods, but they are currently all represented by the same miniature. Nominally an Aero 2 (AV2A), I’d personally love to see more options available for this, but it’s a brilliant model and really dominates the table.

So, the function of the Aerodyne is to move a squad of troops from their troopship in orbit, and land them as close to the target as possible. They are the linear descendants of WW2 gliders and modern Helicopter troop carriers. If you were to build a platoon of these, with their associated troops, that would be super impressive and would look like this…

As you can see, flying the Aerodyne is a bit more complex than driving an APC, so a dedicated pilot is added to the unit. Typically, they don’t get out (“Never get out of the boat.”) but as we saw in the early issues of the comic, when they do the resuts can be spectacular!

Summary

In this article, I’ve looked at the origins of the EDF and how to build basic squads, using the miniatures availabe from Sally 4th. I’ve not looked at the support options, and will save that for another article. Broadly, you can play with the squads provided here. if you want to add light frame critters, or have different species included in your squads, there are minatures for that – the lighter folks carry carbines, not rifles and have their own advantage on the battlefield.

In the next part of this series, I’ll do the same for the ILR. Until next time!