Lancer NPC Overview - Bastion

Art by Retrograde Minis

Target

Bastion - Defender
A large, well armored mech that operates like a mobile piece of cover for its allies.

Range 

Short/Support

Threat 

Low

Complexity 

Low

Overview 

Before we start, I am going to say that while I love the default art Retrograde Minis provides for the Bastion, it makes it look far more intimidating than it really is. While that's not to say the Bastion isn't useful, it's benefit to the battlefield is usually to allow greater threats to perform their roles behind the safety of the Bastion and allow it to ward off anything trying to get close or pick off a designated ally. It has a very low damage output, and what damage it can put out is either more of a defensive tool or relies on Loading, while still not being that good offensively. In terms of basic stats it has good Engineering and Hull on its HASE, with terrible Agility and a flat 0 for its systems. With its size and Knockback 1 melee weapon it's pretty much set against any grappler, and it can easily disrupt enemies attempting to move around it due to its large threat radius due to its size. However, its Sensor Range is truly terrible and its HP is tied for second lowest amongst all the NPCs starting at Tier 1, leaving it heavily reliant on armor and resistance to keep itself alive.

Strengths on the Bastion are pretty much entirely reliant on its defensive suite. The Bastion is a pretty pure Defender, having minimal tools to inflict damage or conditions on enemies and it struggles to offer support to its allies with the basic Tech options due to its low Sensors. However, its among the best of Defenders for keeping a particular target ally alive and safe, with several tools available to ensure their ward's safety. First, they act as Hard Cover and as a Size 2 mech that means that the majority of mechs can safely take cover behind their big friend. Next, Friendly Interdiction allows the Bastion to mitigate damage to both itself and an ally that starts its turn next to the Bastion to one character the Bastion chooses. Between that and the Hard Cover, this means that the Bastion can all be nullify the threat of most attempts of simply blasting their ward directly, at least not without some tactics and conditions. And finally as a defensive option, their Heavy Assault Shield while doing little damage can break up grapples and interrupt movement as something tries to walk around it to get to their ward, making it just a bit more difficult to actually reach them.

However, the Bastion has a few major weaknesses that need to be considered. Its base HP stat is amongst the lowest in the game, leaving it heavily reliant on its Armor and selectively choosing who its Resistance is applying to. Shredded cripples the Bastion and leaves it a sitting duck for almost anyone to attack it and likely destroy it, whereas multiple opponents that can deal with its high Armor means that it cannot apply resistance to both. The Bastion also lacks any consistent ranged means of doing just about anything. Due to its short Sensor range and the fact its only ranged weapon is a Loading weapon can leave it without much means of effecting the battlefield beyond its role as cover for its ward, unable to even assist via Invades or Lock-Ons. Finally, while the Bastion is decently mobile, due to Friendly Interdiction requiring a Protocol to activate and it losing effect on allies that break adjacency the Bastion can somewhat struggle to reposition to keep a specific target alive beyond providing it Hard Cover, which in many cases a Mech should have available to it nearby anyway unless it is itself Size 2. And as adjacency is required, Knockback or similar effects targeting its ward or itself can break the effect and break the Hard Cover effect, being a massive double whammy that opens its Ward to being destroyed. Remember, the Bastion only counts as Hard Cover for adjacent mechs and otherwise is ignored for the purposes of cover!

Many of the Bastion optionals don't help fix many of these core weaknesses and can often make them more pronounced. While the Rotary Grenade Launcher it has can do some damage to clustered enemies, its inconsistent and requires a full turn to reload via Stabilize. And its Shield is more viable as a Knockback weapon for breaking grapples or warding enemies off then as an offensive tool, due to low damage and the Bastion's strong need to remain stationary next to their ward. However, there is a few tools remaining in their arsenal that they can still use.

Due to their high Hull and inherent Size 2 that puts them above most mechs, Bastions make for decent Grappling and Ram frames to control the battlefield. While this often means relinquishing their duties to protect a specific NPC ally, knocking an enemy Prone then following up with a Grapple is a decent means of shutting down an opponent's means of engaging the Bastion's allies. Ram can also be used to 're-try' a Knockback attempt after a miss with its Heavy Assault Shield, or to Grapple an adjacent enemy to disallow that foe from re-engaging their ward or other allies. While the Bastion isn't threatening per se, it can still make itself a problem.

Optionals 

Near Threat Denial - Sadly, this is the most aggressive Optional tool the Bastion gets. Not sadly, it's pretty good! It's basically just a punishment tool for anyone choosing to attack the Bastion. The first and likely intended usage of this is simply to disincentivize melee or CQB mechs from dealing with the Bastion. The other more offensive option is to have the Bastion take on a more active, grapple and direct control oriented role and use this to further harm targets that are in its grasp, unable to get out. Either way this works much better against attackers that use multiple little attacks, which the Bastion is already naturally strong against with its high armor. It also applies to Tech attacks, though most Tech attackers tend to keep their distance so the utility in that case is somewhat limited unless the Bastion is actively wrasslin' them.

Siege Guardian - Now we're on to the rest of the Optionals, of which all allow the Bastion to enable its allies or disable options for enemies to circumvent its weaknesses. In this case, it prevents people from reaching around, through, or past the Bastion with anything that isn't just a direct shot or attack, which is likely prevented by their Guardian trait. It's important that this resistance to virtually all templated attacks only applies to its allies and not the Bastion itself, oddly enough. On the upside it means that even allies that aren't its ward can run up and use the Bastion as cover to prevent themselves from getting bombed out if that's a concern.

"Pause" Engine - This is a weird one! However, I think it's one of the most powerful Optionals a Bastion has and possibly in the game at the moment. This doesn't even require much setup, like the Friendly Interdiction it has by default, merely requiring that the Bastion get up and adjacent to an ally in order to use this. And when it does, both the Bastion and the ally become completely immune to... well, everything. It does have a line about breaking adjacency, but that's only a concern if the mechs themselves choose to move, because immunity to effects means immunity to all forms of force movement. There's no counter to this once a Bastion activates it, you merely have to run out the clock. And under ideal circumstances, the Bastion will go before the ally its affecting giving that ally two rounds of uncontested problem making before it hits them with that nasty Stun. However if you did it this way, the "Pause"d mech can start their turn the following round, removing it immediately. Use cases are really vast, but can be generally classified as the following; saving an ally while it's facing imminent death, holding a CZ without contest for a few rounds, or just bullying someone the Bastion has grappled. However, be careful using this to autowin CZs with too many Bastion or putting this on any Grunt. If spammed, this can absolutely kill a session of combat and autowin encounters for the NPCs.

Fearless Defender - This is basically the Bastion going 'get down Mr. President!' as it takes a shot intended for another ally. It does require the Bastion to be close and the Bastion to not be immobile for any reason, but it allows the Bastion to take killing shots intended for allies. However, based on the wording, only the damage applies and not any other effects. The Bastion also doesn't have to move, merely be able to, allowing them to use this on their Ward for an additional level of security.

Deathcounter - The simplest of the optionals, when the Bastion is hit for the first time it doesn't. Great for grunts! Doesn't work on damage that applies on a miss or any other effects that might damage it as a non-attack, so just be careful there.

Recommended Sitreps 

Bastions are fast enough to work on Sitreps where they need to be offensive as well as naturally pairing well with maps the Party is attacking the NPCs. A great all-rounder, just keep in mind the Bastion needs a buddy to actually do stuff because while they're a great supporting mech, they're generally pretty crap at dealing with stuff by themselves. Wherever they are, they're going to be near the front lines more often than not as most of their tools require them to be either next to an ally or within moderate to short distance to work.

Recommended Allies

The Bastion pairs well with any ranged Striker as well as Controllers or Supports that require a moderate range to operate. They don't generally pair well with artillery due to their own toolset being limited to being a piece of Hard Cover and the artillery generally have that wherever they set up, but are a notably good fallback point for Striders as they alternate between forms. They also pair well as either being or working with a Commander unit, either giving the Bastion more to do besides be a big wall or giving their Commander an additional layer of metal as they buff the surrounding mechs respectively.

Other Considerations  

If you're using a Bastion you need to pair it with something that can use it well. If all you have are artillery and melee mechs and other things that just don't need a mobile piece of cover much of the Bastion's utility goes to waste, beyond them being a semi-decent grappler. They're also very fragile if your Party is heavily focused on anyone who can get through their high armor.

The Bastion is also an NPC that pairs very well with any Template that gives it another weapon to use to deal actual damage, making the Bastion significantly more of a threat on the battlefield.

Final Thoughts

I generally prefer my NPCs to be a bit more proactive in what they can do, as the Bastion can have turns where Scanning or Invading someone and then waiting where they're standing is literally their best move by design. They're still very useful and tactically relevant, but I haven't found them the most satisfying thing to use. That, and some good rolls on your Party's weapons can mean your Bastion goes down even with their high armor!