Lancer NPC Overview - Assault

Art by Retrograde Minis

Target

Assault - Striker
A reliable damage dealer without any major strengths or notable weaknesses.

Range 

Medium

Threat 

Moderate

Complexity 

Low

Overview 

Ah, the humble Assault. One can overlook this admittedly fairly bland NPC in favour of other options, and some have been known to think this is a sort of filler enemy. However, Lancer NPCs are often defined as much by their strengths as their weaknesses, and so I would argue that is the Assault's greatest strength; it's lack of any real exploitable weakness. Across the board its statistics aren't anything to write home about, ranging from 'decent' to 'okay' and never deviating out of that bracket. It's not slow, not fragile, has bonuses in every HASE (Hull, Agility, Systems, Engineering) stat, and isn't weak to tech attacks. It's also got an Armor and decent health, with a speed of 4 which is generally considered the standard speed. A sensors of 8 could be better, but it's perfectly serviceable especially as that's near the upper limit of where the Assault wishes to be engaging targets anyway.

Okay, but so what? It might not have anything wrong with it, but what's right with it? Well, the two major things to note on the base frame is of course its damage potential and its Brace reaction. The Heavy Assault Rifle (the HAS) does good damage at a moderate range with a Reliable trait meaning even on a miss it's probably doing a little bit of something. With the Combat Knife it has that also means as the cost of Engaging with an opponent (and remember, that's a Difficulty for ranged attacks!) the Assault can get a barrage it, firing its HAS and stabbing with its knife in the same turn for a bit less reliable but far more damaging potential option. The Brace action it has, meanwhile, is specifically strong against targets that deal most of their damage in a single shot and can drastically increase the lifespan of this guy.

Now, I did say it doesn't have any weaknesses, but that's mostly referring to overt and directly exploitable weaknesses. The Assault does have specific sorts of Player loadouts that do better against it than others. I refer to these as 'soft' weaknesses, being things it just can't directly bring its strengths against rather than things that'll cripple the function of the mech. The three most reliable problems an Assault needs to face are targets that remain far away, high Armor targets, and small amounts of AP damage repeatedly.

As a medium range damage dealer, and without any real mobility tools, targets that can stay out of the 10-8 hex range of an Assault have absolutely nothing to fear from them. As even their sensors are only range 8, this means they can't even perform Lock-Ons to those targets, meaning they're effectively neutered. Mind you, it's incredibly unlikely that every Party mech will be outside of that range, so it's more a problem of disabling their ability to prioritize backline targets. High Armor targets (someone with 2 or more armor) similarly neuter the Assault's ability to output as much damage, negating a massive chunk of their damage even if they get their aforementioned HAS+Knife combo in. They still do something against these targets, but they're just not as good against them. An Optional does mitigate it, but it introduces other problems which we'll go over later. Finally, small amounts of AP damage nullify the effectiveness of both its armor and brace. If it was a single high damage AP strike they could just Brace it, and if they were non-AP low damage attacks the 1 Armor it has would eat it, so this specific mixture while relatively uncommon does negate the Assault's primary defensive tools.

All in all, the Assault is an incredibly versatile mech that fits almost every situation. Whether on offense or defense they have some traits that give them the tools needed to perform well, and their Optionals help them specialize to do even better in specific roles. I would utilize Assaults either to provide an NPC that covers the weakness of other more specialized allies, or for use to give some mobile, interactive targets with other NPCs that might be more one note.

Optionals 

Underslung Grenade Launcher - Another weapon! Lovely bit of kit here. Allows the Assault to do a ranged barrage, but does unfortunately have the Loading tag which means you might only fire this off once or maybe twice a combat. With the range being 8 it pairs extremely well with the HAS and along with its Arcing+Blast combo, means its an effective tool at threatening targets behind cover or providing some hurt on clustered targets. As a special note, I think this goes extremely well with High Impact Rounds, another Optional, due to the nature of making reloading a bit more rewarding. A HAS with High Impact Rounds + Underslung Grenade Launcher barrage is an incredibly high amount of alpha damage at the expense of consistent DPS.

Micro-Missile Barrage - This specific tool feels like it pushes the Assault into a more offensive role, due to wanting to line up multiple targets in the line effect. With this being Recharge 6, this does mean it's more of a once a combat sort of attack. At minimum you want to hit 2 targets, but the real sweet spot is 3 where even in the worst case scenario you're doing about as much damage as an ideal HAS+Knife barrage. The Assault will likely need to boost to use this effectively. When paired with the Grenade Launcher can turn the Assault into a fairly mean AOE machine.

High Impact Rounds - AP Damage does mean that high Armor targets aren't as much of a threat when the Assault needs to shoot them, and the extra damage is a nice boon. However, Loading means that the Assault still prefers hitting squishier targets as it won't be doing as much damage alternating between using this and Stabilizing to reload as it would if it were just firing its HAS every round. Can also be a good last stand sort of attack if the Assault is going to die.

Auto-Targeting - I know I said the Assault was reliable damage, but this just cranks that idea up to 11. Ignoring all cover on attacks means that the Assault can just find somewhere safe and make everyone's life miserable until they stop and deal with it. Be extremely careful pairing this with Optionals from Templates that give the Assault extra ranged weapons that do high damage, as this can turn the Assault from a Moderate threat to an extremely High threat.

Rank Discipline - Probably the most defensive-oriented trait the Assault has, really makes it want to pair up with other Assaults or Defenders to hunker down with. I would say the Accuracy on attacks is less of a boon than the Accuracy on both Saves and Checks, which can make the Assault incredibly resilient to means of Control beyond direct Tech attacks. Also, as a result of it needing to remain adjacent, means it either needs to buddy up with another mech to use this trait offensively which can be quite unreliable in my experience. Best used with other NPCs that don't have much desire to move around, especially on Sitreps where they can do so like Control or Recon.

Recommended Sitreps 

Unsurprisingly, the Assault does well on every Sitrep. Optionals might lean them more towards one or the other, as noted.

Recommended Allies

Again, there's nothing the base Assault desperately wants to pair up with nor any NPC that desperately wants an Assault to improve their own means of doing things. They pair well with everyone, favoring certain NPCs only when optionals come into play. I would however, recommend another offensive type of NPC in any Sitrep you have Assaults, just to add some dynamic elements.

Other Considerations 

Don't forget about tech actions! The Assault might lack any specific tech bonuses or actions but they also don't suffer any major problems in that field, either! If it doesn't have other actions to perform along with a typical Skirmish you should be Invading targets to give them problems and soften up that heat bar for the dedicated Tech attackers, or using Lock-On to make them even more reliable before an attack or passing that Lock-On to another NPC that might be suffered from disadvantage.

Final Thoughts

I really like the Assault, it's a bit like a piece of play-doh in a game where NPCs are mostly puzzle pieces. The Assault covers a lot of bases and fits in well in almost any NPC comp or sitrep situation. It's the GMS Everest of NPC mechs, in a way. Still, it's not to be underestimated either as a GM or a Player, especially with some of its optionals. While not the focus of this series, the Assault is also very easy to justify in pretty much any mission narratively.