A Tactical Look – PHR Proteus

In this tactical look it’s time to see the kinds of lists you can use the Proteus in.

Welcome to another tactical look into the newest PHR unit, the Proteus. With the release of the absolutely jam packed PHR Starter imminent (seriously, this box is ready to burst open with posthuman goodness at any moment) we’re going to take a dive into some of the lists you can make with the brand new command choice and star player of the box.

The Proteus is excellent for making sure your critical units stay critical and your tanks (walkers) stay tanky. Granting a bubble of EM protection, the Proteus makes your units that much harder to hit. There’s a lot of potential in this smaller commander and we’re only going to scratch the surface.

1500 Points Extended Starter

With this army our goal is to extend the starter box out into a well rounded 1500 point list. To get us there we’re going to add a pair of Valkyrie squads and a squad of Immortal AM Rifle Teams. Along with the required transports, of which we’re opting for Triton A1’s, we’re able to squeeze all 1500 points out of our allotted maximum. Thanks to the PHR having alternate weapon options for a few of their cheaper transports you have a lot of extra options for dealing with medium armoured targets (and the occasional extra way of dealing with high armour).

Here our smaller frontline battlegroup has the Junos equipped with Huntsman Cannons, great for providing scan tokens and the odd shot of E8. The larger of the two frontline battlegroups gets one of the 3 Triton A1’s with Stealth Missile Batteries and upgrades to Cannons on the Junos. While they may not be the most powerful of weapons, having penetrative and being on a flying platform can give these missiles a surprising amount of reach. Lastly we have our two squads of Valkyries. These super powerful units are able to deal with a significant amount of building dwelling annoyances as well as drop into buildings from their still flying transport, though at around a third more expensive than Immortals, you pay for what you get.

Balanced 1500 Points

This list changes things up a bit, now you have a more varied battlegroup distribution. Your armour battlegroup is now condensed down into a block of 6 Ares, for when you really want an opponents armour turned into something a bit more ventilated. Our anti-air here has been moved over to the Helios’ whose mobility and large number of penetrative shots makes up for the power drop to E6. Again we’re taking a pair of squads of Valkyries, they really need to pull their weight alongside the sole Immortal and AM Rifle Team. We’re still using the Proteus, but pairing it with a Tiamat as the mount for our CV4 commander. Having your Proteus protect either the Tiamat or the squad of Ares is probably going to be the best use of its time, they’ll be targets anyway, so you may as well make your opponent work for any kills.

Tough Type-4 1750 Points

Personally I think the Type 4 walker chassis is one of the coolest things in Dropzone. I’d take one all the time if I could. That said they can be a bit of a priority target to those that have stared down the wrong end of a heavy rail repeater. So in the spirit of redundancies, this list has 2. And a Proteus for each. If I’m going to be bringing such a rail/plasma/gauss magnet I’ll be making sure it’s going to last as long as possible.

I wouldn’t recommend playing this to win any games, it’s going to be much more of a fun list to play than something competitive. That said, A Bellona left alone can do some real damage to heavier targets. While a Hades can and will make a real dent in more reasonably armoured formations, you can always swap it out for a Persephone. This is a great alternative if you have a particular hate for something like Prowlers, Wagons, or Wolverines. You have a spare 20 points tied up in transport upgrades, so if the Bellona is your favourite kind of death machine, you’re able to double up on those too, for some extra E13.

To round out this list we’re using Phobos’ as our primary source of AA, with an Athena for priority targets. Immortals and Sirens as will be our troops, riding in missile equipped Triton A1’s. I’m using a pair of Erebos’ for a little bit of extra annoyance and EM Disruption, a questionable choice to some, but I know something they don’t.

All of these lists really work well with the Proteus, in fact some of them just wouldn’t be the same without it. PHR are already quite tough and with the added protection and mobility of the Proteus’ EM Disruption, your critical units will be that much tougher for that much longer. It’s not invincible though, and most of the AA units included in starter sets are able to out-range the potential for +4 Accuracy penalty with energy high enough to deal some damage. Let the Proteus get caught unawares on the ground though and it may very likely not be long for this world. While well armoured in the air, it’s not all too tough on the ground, a squad of Sabres or Hunters would have no issue with taking it off the table once they hit it.

If any of these lists have piqued your interest you can find the PHR range over on our webstore here.