Lancer NPC - Assault
Core Detail Overview
Stats
The Assault is pretty much the all-rounder NPC, with average Hull, Agility, Systems, Engineering, Armor, E-Defense, Speed, Save Target, and Heat Cap; high HP, and below-average Sensors. Evasion starts out average but scales well into higher Tiers to end up above-average, helping it maintain some baseline defensive presence at higher levels. The below-average Sensors can be a little limiting for tech attacks, but aside from that, the Assault has pretty much the most generalist stats of any NPC, built to dependably stick around and keep putting in work.
Base Systems
Heavy Assault Rifle is a workhorse of a weapon, not unlike the GMS Assault Rifle that PCs can use. Having slightly longer Range than the Assault’s Sensors can make it a little awkward to use with self-applied Lock On, but Reliable damage helps to make up for just having average accuracy, and the damage output is pretty good, matching the single-hit damage of the Breacher’s or Sentinel’s main weapons. It can’t match the range of artillery weapons, but otherwise, it’s just a solid weapon that’s almost always good for a Skirmish (or as the backbone of a Barrage).
Combat Knife is a fairly unremarkable weapon, but it does at least give the Assault a melee option to avoid Difficulty from using a gun while Engaged (including for overwatch), and the damage is typically enough to get something through PC Armor. Aside from the obvious, this has a few uses. First, it makes the Assault one of the few NPCs that can Barrage with just its base systems, allowing it to threaten a substantial amount of damage as a melee deterrent (ideally with something like Prone or Lock On to offset the Difficulty for using Heavy Assault Rifle while Engaged). Second, it gives the Assault a better-suited weapon to use against short-range PCs who have soft cover, increasing its expected damage output in that situation. Finally, if the Assault has more than one Structure, this can be sacrificed in case of a Tear Off result from Structure damage to preserve the Heavy Assault Rifle. None of these are amazing benefits, but the Barrage potential in particular does give the Assault better spike damage potential than other strikers who are built around consistent damage output.
Hunker Down helps make the Assault even more durable than its baseline stats imply. There isn’t a whole lot else to say about it, aside from generally not using it against weapons that do less than 1d6 damage because Resistance is rather unimpressive against small numbers. Compared to other similar NPC reactions, it has no extra effects or special conditions; it does what it’s meant to do and does it adequately. Note that it can work against any attack as-written, which means it can be used against tech attacks that deal damage (though remember that Heat is not damage, and most Quick Tech/Full Tech systems that deal damage don’t have an attack roll on the target, so this is an extremely niche application, but it’s funny when it comes up).
Optional Systems
Underslung Grenade Launcher should be a bad weapon, considering it does basically the same damage as Combat Knife, with less Range than Heavy Assault Rifle, and with the Loading tag (which means it’s probably only getting a single use). Three main things make it still have some use. The most obvious is that Blast 2 is a chunky AOE, meaning it tends to have a good chance of hitting two or even more PCs and thus increasing its total damage, and it also often gets to ignore cover entirely when combined with Arcing. Second, it allows for an all-ranged Barrage (and coincidentally enough, the extra reach from the target point due to Blast 2 lets it effectively match the Heavy Assault Rifle’s maximum range), and while its own damage is low, adding it on top of the Heavy Assault Rifle’s damage makes for a good total, especially against a target with 1 Armor or less. Third, while Loading is an especially bad tag for NPCs because their version of Stabilize is much worse than what PCs can do, the Assault can potentially justify a reload turn if it’s using this and High Impact Rounds together, especially if it happens to cost a PC turn (or even a whole PC mech) with a Direct Hit from Structure damage. It’s still a situational weapon that isn’t going to displace Heavy Assault Rifle as your default primary Skirmish option, but having all of that situational usefulness just makes the Assault even more of a versatile all-rounder, and I’m generally able to find some use for it when I pick it.
Micro-Missile Barrage is a pretty cool system to give the Assault a non-attacking damage option. Calling for a Hull save is bad, and the damage on a success is slightly worse than Combat Knife, so don’t count it to do much against a single target unless they’re Stunned or Impaired (or otherwise more likely to fail the save), but I find it’s usually possible to get two PCs in the AOE to help make up for that (especially with help from allies to set up the line), and since its range is the same as the Assault’s Sensors, you can usually precede it with an Invade to help it stick on the most important target, if desired. It’s useful for hitting through cover with no penalties, the damage is equal to Heavy Assault Rifle when the save fails (and better than its Reliable when the save is passed), and having a way to deal damage without an attack is never bad. It’s especially good in Tier 1, where getting full damage and landing a Heavy Assault Rifle shot (ideally with High Impact Rounds on top) is one of the highest single-turn damage outputs among all NPCs, but even at later levels, it remains among the most damaging non-attacks (among quick actions, the only ones that can hit a single target harder are Rainmaker’s Hound Missiles, Seeder’s Explosive Mines, Mercenary’s Favors Owed, and Ultra’s Wolfhound Missile). Recharge 6+ means you’re probably only using it once per scene, though, so try to make it count, but even with its drawbacks, it’s one of my two favorite Assault optional systems.
High Impact Rounds is my other favorite Assault optional system. While Loading is a bad tag, the mechanics for this at least let me pick when I’ll have to deal with those consequences, and it often feels like a fair trade for 40-66% more damage (depending on Tier) plus AP. I wouldn’t use it all the time (unless it’s with an Ultra that has Supreme Maintenance, in which case it’s pretty much strictly an upgrade to the regular Heavy Assault Rifle), but popping this to suddenly cause Structure on a PC who thought they were safe or to get one last big turn before dying is a wonderful surprise. Keep in mind that while this only boosts the damage on a hit, Reliable does inherit AP, so even a bad attack roll can’t ruin the fun entirely. Really, though, it’s hard to overstate how much of a spike damage threat this adds to the Assault; in Tiers 1 and 2, the damage from this is competitive with the Assassin’s Devil’s Cough Shotgun (while also having AP) and the Sniper’s Anti-Material Rifle (while needing only a Skirmish and not having Ordnance), which are coincidentally the only other Loading weapons that I find are strong enough to potentially justify a Stabilize (though the Assassin is usually too close to the action by the time it uses Devil’s Cough to have a dead turn, but Heavy Assault Rifle has enough Range to find more space to fit that).
Auto-Targeting is very simple and pretty effective; it’s frequently equivalent to giving the Heavy Assault Rifle +1 Accuracy and sometimes +2, and it gives the Assault some more freedom with its positioning. I would tend to call it the weakest of the Assault’s optional systems, but that’s more of a statement on how good they all are than a real criticism. It’s obviously not as good as having a Seeking weapon since it doesn’t ignore line of sight, and it doesn’t have the spike potential of the other optional systems, but just making the Assault more consistent at the main thing it wants to do (shoot fools with Heavy Assault Rifle) is good. It also helps the Underslung Grenade Launcher overcome omnidirectional cover, which is a nice benefit when it comes up.
Rank Discipline is the main reason why I don’t think more highly of Auto-Targeting. Being adjacent to an allied mech is typically an easy requirement to fulfill, and getting +1 Accuracy to pretty much all rolls for doing so is a strong effect. Not only does this raise the Assault’s performance in just about all ways aside from passive defense and Micro-Missile Barrage, it increases the chances of triggering critical hit effects from templates with those types of traits. This also brings some added power to Prepare, where the Assault can wait on an action until an ally is in position to trigger this trait. Do note that this can’t be triggered just by riding on a Ship or Vehicle ally, since those templates explicitly take away the Mech tag, unfortunately. The downsides of restricting the Assault’s positioning freedom and making the NPCs more vulnerable to AOE damage/effects are significant, which is why I don’t rate this as highly in a vacuum as I do Micro-Missile Barrage or High Impact Rounds, but simply getting half of the benefits of Hyperspec Fuel Injector (rightly considered one of the best PC core powers) for standing next to most allies is a strong buff.
Templates Overview
As I’ve probably said too much already, the Assault is the all-rounder, and that extends to working fairly well with any templates. The only one I’d somewhat recommend against is Grunt; Chaff makes Hunker Down useless, so it’s borderline-mandatory to add an optional system to give them some defining character, and the Assault’s typical damage per turn is high enough with an effective range that’s long enough that I think it can be excessive to have three or four of them with Underslung Grenade Launcher, Micro-Missile Barrage, and/or High Impact Rounds. Grunt Assaults with just Auto-Targeting and/or Rank Discipline are fine, though.
Rank Discipline is also quite nice on RPV Assaults, to offset the Impaired, or they can use Micro-Missile Barrage to ignore it (albeit probably just once). The extra HP helps to boost the Assault from being fairly sturdy to being genuinely tanky.
Ship and Vehicle (with Transport) are notable for their potential to always trigger Rank Discipline if an ally Mech is riding on the Assault. Note that a default-Size Vehicle Assault would be limited to carrying only a Size 1/2 ally, but a Priest, Scout, and Witch would all tend to be fine riding along.
Among the other templates, Exotic has some synergy between Living Weaponry and either (or both) Loading optional systems, and with how consistent the Assault tends to be, Chronotorus can be a useful check against bad luck; I’d suggest against Realspace Extrusion since Hunker Down won’t stack with it while halving all damage dealt is a major downside. Amusingly, Living Chassis is entirely compatible with Rank Discipline since only the adjacent ally needs the Mech tag, which has no mechanical significance but feels like it should have some interesting flavor to describe the effect. Pirate is also a surprisingly good fit; not only does Deadly (and Splinter Rounds) have the usual synergy with Rank Discipline granting universal Accuracy, but Boarding Leash is a welcome upgrade to Combat Knife as a melee weapon and would even enable being able to Barrage with both (which I wouldn’t consider to be good damage for a full action, but sometimes just having the potential to do a decent pile of melee damage is more important than the efficiency). Spacer can be interesting to give some control potential alongside the Assault’s typical damage, though the Assault’s average Save Target makes Gravity Rifle or Thumper Grenades inconsistent, so this is one of the weaker options, outside of the situational utility of Maneuverable.
Elite and Ultra go especially nicely with any of Underslung Grenade Launcher, Micro-Missile Barrage, and/or High Impact Rounds, since the extra turns can make it less costly to reload (Supreme Maintenance obviously makes this even better, though if using both Underslung Grenade Launcher and High Impact Rounds, keep in mind that it reloads only one as a free action) and grant more chances to hit that Recharge 6+ roll. Volley Module High Impact Rounds Heavy Assault Rifle protocol into Supreme Maintenance free action reload can be a thing of beauty, but really, any of the Ultra options can work well, though Supreme Melee is probably the weakest (but even the most basic use of that as a free action Ram with +1 Accuracy to break Engaged and inflict Prone is still nice).
General Use
Overall, the Assault is a straightforward mid-range striker that can put out dependable damage and take a decent beating in return. It doesn’t have much in the way of playstyle gimmicks or built-in nuance (especially if you aren’t using its optional systems); it’s designed to just be a simple, effective, consistent source of damage that isn’t easy to take out.
That said, I’d actually say that makes the Assault trickier to use to the best of its abilities. With NPCs like the Demolisher or the Ronin, just having them on the field is enough to start getting value from how they will naturally influence the players (assuming the players have some idea of what they’re capable of), and while they are limited in what they can do, those limits also help to streamline the decision-making process when using them. With the Assault, there isn’t that built-in guidance; how well you play it depends on your ability to get value out of mostly-baseline generic options. This can make it unclear when you’re making the best choices or not, though on the other hand, getting better at using the Assault tends to give transferable experience to other offensive NPCs.
Something to keep in mind with the Assault is that, while it is a well-rounded generalist in its role, that role is still a striker meant to provide fairly good damage output. It gets nothing special for support or control purposes, it lacks the functional range to work as an artillery unit, and it is relatively weak in melee. Most of its turns should typically involve hanging out around four-to-ten spaces from the enemy and doing some mix of movement (if desired), a Heavy Assault Rifle Skirmish, and using its other quick action for something useful. If it gets attacked, use Hunker Down if available (unless the incoming hit is only threatening trivial damage). Without Underslung Grenade Launcher or High Impact Rounds, that’s about it; the Assault is probably the simplest NPC on the surface, but getting the most out of it requires experience and skill. With either or both of those optional systems, there is some additional complexity to manage their uses due to the Loading tags. I tend to reserve them until there is either a chance to cause Structure damage or an apparent likelihood that the Assault is taking its last turn, but I’m very adverse to reloading with NPCs; I would encourage others to experiment more to fit their favored approaches.
As could be expected, the Assault performs well in pretty much any sitrep. Whether attacking a fortified position (like Holdout), defending one (like Gauntlet), chasing down PCs (like Extraction), racing against them for control points (like Control), or anything else that comes to my mind, the Assault can contribute effectively.
Compositions of Note
The Assault works pretty well with anyone. It can provide backline fire support for close-range allies, or it can be a close/mid-ranged screen for NPCs who want to stay away from the thick of things. It doesn’t have any major deficiencies or enabling that it needs allies to help with (aside from appreciating allies that can ignore or negate Armor, but that’s true for most offensive NPCs in Lancer), but it can do enough damage to still benefit reasonably from general effects like Exposed, Prone, Shredded, Impaired, or Lock On. If anything, the lack of much in the way of specific synergies is one of the few weaknesses of the Assault; it will do its job well, but nobody unlocks another level of power for it along the lines of pairings like Bombard/Hive, Aegis/Engineer, or Demolisher/Mirage.
That said, the Assault is on the weaker side when it comes to melee, so it benefits noticeably from having a dedicated melee unit with it. The Berserker is a stand-out here because the Assault can also have relatively weak AOE attacks in Underslung Grenade Launcher and/or Micro-Missile Barrage (assuming a successful Hull save, which the Berserker is good at, but stick to Underslung Grenade Launcher if you don’t want to gamble); as long as Stampede Defense is up and positioning makes it sensible, a little bit of friendly fire can scratch the Berserker to trigger Aggression (potentially with Retribution on top) to make the effective damage much better. The Cataphract is good at snatching PCs to bring them to a more advantageous location, the Demolisher will win most melee brawls if it can get into the fray, and the Hive’s Razor Swarms can punish PCs for getting close while also providing soft cover for the Assault (even better with Driving Swarm to also move any PCs who take Burn from a Razor Swarm).
While it has no immediately obvious synergy, the Avenger is a strong partner that just works well with the Assault. The Assault is comfortable hanging in range to trigger Revenge or Mimic Mesh, and it has enough non-HP durability that Infectious Revenge can realistically make it last for another hit. Slug Pistol having AP also helps to address the Assault’s lack of solutions for high-Armor PCs other than High Impact Rounds. The Lurker can provide similar support with Ripper Claws, and its Shroud Zones cause Shredded as a further anti-Armor measure.
The other area of weakness that the Assault has is lacking any threat from beyond 10 spaces. Any artillery can work well to address this (while the Assault itself acts as a tough roadblock that can also cause significant damage if the PCs ignore it), with my favorite being the Bombard. It isn’t the best friendly fire set-up since it relies on a 1/round reaction and the Assault’s Evasion isn’t high, but the Assault can offer itself as an additional target for triggering Cluster Munitions and then Hunker Down to mitigate the damage if it gets hit; don’t do this every round, but one or two shots like that can be worth the self-damage for some extra kick. The Sniper can also be interesting with an Assault that has High Impact Rounds, where the two can try to trade turns doing their hefty AP shots so that they aren’t so exposed while reloading. It’s not a strategy that I like, personally, but my aversion to NPC Stabilize makes me biased, and even I’ll admit that it can work with the right support (from allies or from the sitrep) to make the PCs split up.
For something that works better in a cluster, the Priest can have a fun and strong synergy with a Vehicle Assault that has both Rank Discipline and Transport. Riding on the Assault will trigger Rank Discipline, and the Priest can stack Investiture on top for even more generic Accuracy to all attacks. Add in Fractal Assault as well to punish attacking the Assault, and self-buff the Priest with Dispersal Shield to help it survive (ideally with Empowered Shield on top). Even better is if the Investiture is used on another target (such as an Archer, Avenger, Scourer, Sentinel, or Support, who should all be able to keep pace with the Assault to maintain the Investiture link), which can lead to all three having Resistance on demand (the Assault from Hunker Down, the Priest from Dispersal Shield, and the third ally if the Priest also has Greater Investiture, which has its downside cancelled out by riding on the Assault). The combination results in a surprisingly tough mini-team for sitreps that suit a mobile deathball (like Escort), though it is vulnerable to AOE damage.
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