The Brave Little Toasters

“Our citizens rely on robots to assist them with the drudgery of everyday life; why shouldn’t they serve our soldiers in the same manner? Our new and improved skirmish bots will now be a valuable battlefield accessory. To quote our corporate motto: Never do anything you can get an expendable robot to do for you!”

~ William Chi Zyhcron, Alonix CEO

Robots are a common sight in Teknocrat society, being almost as populous as humans.  Most tasks that can be automated are fulfilled by efficient machines, freeing humans to focus more on their research.  Service and utility bots are a commonly used to assist humans in everyday tasks in an effort to increase the efficiency and safety of researchers and engineers.  Alonix Industry’s “ST-407 Utility Bots” were praised as one of the most cost efficient bots on the market with customizable hardware.

Being classified a ‘bot’ they are considered one of the lowest forms of artificial intelligence. They are programed to be proficient in specified tasks, but lack any high level of critical thinking. They are frequently found doing routine maintenance and cleaning or scowering the wastelands for materials to recycle. Human oversight is usually required for them to perform any more advanced tasks.

When the waygates to other dimensions opened the Teknocrats found themselves in a drastic shortage of combat ready units.  Alonix saw this as an opportunity to move their popular models into the military market, re-branding them as “Skirmish Bots”. Despite the relatively low intelligence of the Skirmish Bot, their value as an inexpensive and replaceable combat unit has earned them a permanent, albeit unpopular, place on the battlefield.

Skirmish Bot Strategies

Due to low Battle Value of the Skirmish Bot and their squad size they make a fantastic unit to charge into melee with enemy ranged units and lock them out of hitting your longer range units. While their attacks are weak, the sheer volume of models can mean that a powerful elite with only one or two attacks per turn could take up the majority of the game just getting the annoying tin cans off them.
Skirmish bot mobility is also an asset allowing them to get to places other units can. This can be particularly helpful if you have upgraded to Gun Bots. Lastly, skirmish bots also make an effective shield to provide cover to some of your more valuable units, particularly your  Archon.

Aeon Card Suggestions

Signature Mask
This unit is a prime target for this tricky card. Allowing you to move forward and clear terrain with their Flying ability, then to swap them out for two Assault Drones in order to deliver Matter Compression Fists to your opponent’s face.

Linked Weapons
More than any other unit the Skirmish Bot has the opportunity to use Linked Weapons even late into the game.

Fire Mission
With a high model count, Skirmish Bots rely on quantity of attacks over quality. Providing them with rerolls can offer a significant benefit to that handful of dice.