Drop-verse Faction Intro: Post-Human Republic

Are you better than other people and know it? Do you like cybernetics? Do you want to hear about our lord and savior, the White Sphere? Then we have the faction for you!

Welcome to the Post-Human Republic, the GloboGym of the Drop-Universe. We’ve mentioned the White Sphere before in passing, but it is uniquely significant to the PHR. To recap, the White Sphere arrived on Earth a year before the Scourge invasion, transmitting a warning of an unspecified approaching apocalypse. It provided coordinates for a rally point, from which those that followed the warning would jump away to an undisclosed location. While only heeded by a minority of humanity, it was still enough to assemble a fleet thousands strong. It was enough to warrant a response from the Earth Alliance, who was worried about a general panic. The Earth fleet confronted the “Abandonist” fleet at Vega, who opened fire on the Earth fleet to escape. This crippled the Earth fleet, which was then promptly routed by the Scourge two days later. The surviving humans of the UCM remember the Battle of Vega as a betrayal that doomed humanity to defeat at the hands of the Scourge.

To the “Abandonists,” Vega was just the start of something far greater. They followed the White Sphere and became something more. The humans of the PHR are enhanced with an advanced bio-artificial melding of tissue and nanotechnology. Their appearances are unnervingly perfect: perfect complexion, perfect movements, perfect speech, and so on, all punctuated by the occasional flash of silver below the skin. All of it is as unnatural as it is disquieting. The first encounter between the newly enhanced humans of the PHR and the UCM was on the eve of the Reconquest. The interaction was brief and not particularly cordial. The PHR attempted to warn the UCM against the Reconquest, while the UCM government dismissed the “Abandonists” out of hand. The PHR didn’t exactly do themselves any favors, either. They made no real attempt to apologize for Vega, and made no qualms that they had evolved beyond “merely human.”

In the ensuing campaign, the PHR intervened seemingly at random. They appeared in sectors to seize unknown items, sponsored Resistance factions that worked against the UCM, and boxed the UCM out of entire systems, but also fought the Scourge and Shaltari at every turn as well. Leading into the Battle for Earth, the UCM, the PHR, and the rogue colony of Kalium formed an uneasy alliance called “The Triumvirate.” The exact motives of the PHR remain a mystery. Our resident PHR expert speculates that the PHR has been playing the long game on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Shaltari. Where the Shaltari are attempting to prolong the conflict, the PHR were forcing the UCM out of certain theaters of war to preserve UCM resources.

PHR have a clean, futuristic look that is part Mech Warrior, part Space Marine, and 100% awesome. We here at Blissfully Ignorant Gaming think PHR has some of the Drop-verse’s most striking models. Their fleet has a very sleek design throughout the range, with smooth armor punctuated by ordered arrays of batteries and weaponry. Their ground forces have tons of walkers, the largest of which have a techno-scorpion look. They are distinctly tough amongst the Drop-verse, but as such tend to be more expensive per model. PHR are the prototypical "elite" style army of the Drop-verse, which is where the Space Marine feel comes in. They excel at creating a perimeter of pure beef, engaging at range, and then pushing out with a quick strike units.

In space, toughness is the defining PHR trait. Almost all of their ships have an extra hull point compared to other factions. For example, most PHR frigates have 5 hull points and their cruisers usually have 11 hull points. It might not sound like much, but it is significant when it comes to crippling results. 66% of all possible crippling results cause 2 or more additional hull damage. That’s especially pronounced with frigates, who have a tendency to pop as soon as they are crippled. A bad explosion from one destroyed frigate, say one that causes 2 damage with no saves allowed in a large radius, means all of the sudden your frigates are all dead from just 2 damage on a single ship in the group. Taken in that respect, PHR frigates are significantly more durable, as they need at least 3 damage to be crippled. And that’s before we get to armor saves. Nearly everything in the PHR lineup has a 3+ armor save. In essence, you better bring a lot of shots, weapons likely to generate lots of crits, or weapons that bypass armor, or you’re not so much as scratching PHR. The counter balance is that PHR tends to be quite expensive. They aren't going to overwhelm anyone with numbers.

PHR ships have some unique weaponry styles and capabilities as well. More than any other faction, PHR have a strong tendency toward broadside batteries with large, but low lock value, dice pools. They make extensive use of calibre weapons, which encourage the targeting of specific sizes of ships with that battery. Calibre-light weapons gain a lock bonus against light ships. Calibre H&S weapons gain a lock bonus and a critical bonus against heavy and superheavy ships. Finally, PHR launch is essentially the polar opposite of UCM. PHR generally has a harder time stacking bomber launch capabilities, but those capabilities are some of the best in the game. PHR bombers are right up there with Scourge bombers as the most dangerous. Finally, a rather unique aspect of PHR is how well their ships can serve dual roles. With most factions, a carrier, a dropship, or a troopship does not have significant weapons. That’s not so with PHR. I am especially jealous of their troopship, which is just as well armed as other cruisers and still spits out 2 bulk landers to boot.

On the ground, PHR is also defined by their toughness. They’ll get there when they get there. Their standard walkers, which should form the bulk of their armor, all have 2 hit points. Criticals can be a problem, but overall serves to make those walkers uniquely durable. Add to that units like the Proteus Mobile Command Post, which can use an EM Disruption Field Generator to make nearby units even harder to hit. Killing PHR armor can be a difficult undertaking. PHR excels at creating a perimeter around critical areas and then just shutting down avenues of approach with brutal long range firepower. The Taranis using the Thor Bombard Cannon is amongst the most versatile and dangerous pieces of artillery in the game. PHR infantry are also excellent. Sirens are one of the best defensive infantry around with a 2+ dodge. Valkyries are probably the best smash and grab infantry out there, able to move away with an objective quickly, with or without a transport. Then of course there’s the Medusa, which uses swarms of nanobots to slaughter infantry and armor alike. Even their basic infantry are head and shoulders above that available to other factions. As you can imagine, PHR, just like UCM, excels at combined arms warfare. The comes at the cost of speed, however. They are the slooooooooooowest faction in the game. They have a few quick strike units that can push a flank or react to a collapsing line, but overall don't ask them to go faster. They'll get there when they get there.

I hoped this helped you get acquainted with the universe’s very best cyborgs. If you have questions, feel free to jump into the Blissfully Ignorant Gaming Discord at https://discord.gg/77EQzSF. We’ll do our best to answer your questions there. Thanks for stopping by!