Bioficers

You saw SkyNet take over the world, and thought that humanity deserved it. You watched the Matrix use humanity as living batteries and thought that was a pretty elegant solution. Maybe you found yourself sympathizing with Cylons just trying to find their way in the galaxy. Well, Mr. AI lover, Dropfleet's new faction just might be for you. Below is our faction introduction and guide for Dropfleet's Bioficers, including our ship guides (coming soon), in the links below.

Light Ships Mediums Ships Heavy & Colossal Ships Admirals

Welcome to the Bioficers, ancient artificial intelligences who have outlasted their creators. Their only purpose, now, is to find worthy opponents and enjoy their suffering as that prey is hunted to extinction. A quote from the PHR Commander Aurelia Felix most succinctly describes them:

The Sphere surmises they were weapons that outlasted their masters. They are code, but individuals. Each sentience was generated eons ago, cannot be replicated, and is beyond our comprehension. Some are quite limited, like those that pilot their vehicles, others are towering intellects. Each exists in a distinct, physical space, but can be transferred, like when a ship or vehicle is destroyed. Each transfer introduces data corruption. Simply, they become less capable and less sane each time. They were built to enjoy war. By now, they are twisted things. 

They are master fleshbuilders. They cannot synthesize complex, sentient, or lasting structures, but biology is their clay. They can vaporize it, ingest it, and shape it. The drones you have fought can be woven in minutes and are disposable. Their bioforms are built for specific tasks, as needed, and might be any shape your nightmares can conjure. 

Their technology is apparently painstaking to build, and their spacefaring is glacial—we suspect foldspace jumps degrade their code. Losses will slow them, but they are in no rush. They have no grand strategy. Time is irrelevant to them. They want us to resist, and we have no choice but to. We are their playthings until they annihilate us. That may take years, decades, or lifetimes.

So yeah, they’re pretty damned terrifying in the lore. On the tabletop, they are probably best described as the Lego brick faction. Personally, I like calling them angry geometry. The Bioficers have an additional level of complexity like the Shaltari, but in a distinctive manner all their own. This lies primarily in their unique use of payload cells. Most of the Bioficer cruisers and frigates have slots for these cells. They start the game attached, and can be detached on any order that allows launch. Once detached, the cells are very slow and quite fragile. They are quite cheap, however. Their low signature and lack of a group can make them somewhat difficult to hunt down. Playing Bioficers well comes down to effective use of these cells for the various capabilities. They are largely the source of Bioficer drop assets, but also have some very efficient firepower.

Another major advantage for Bioficers is their high scan and low signature values. They are comparable to Shaltari in this regard, making Bioficers a premier alpha strike faction. They want to hit hard, hit fast, and leave nothing left to retaliate against them. Finally, the Bioficers also have a unique ground game that can be very difficult to root out. The Genitor Towers are a massively important asset to bring along. In line with the Bioficer’s background as master fleshcrafters, this deployable feature is basically a mobile drone factory. When an enemy battalion is defeated, you get some additional battalions of your own. That’s right: bodies go in, drones come out. Gross.

The major drawback of Bioficers is their fragility. The cells have 1-2 hull points. None of their drop assets are able to hide in atmosphere like other factions, remaining vulnerable in orbit to all fire. Their ships have some of the worst armor in the game, as well as the lowest hull values. Their light cruisers, for example, have only five hull points. That’s almost half of other faction equivalents. You have to lean hard into that alpha strike, because you’re not going to last long in a brawl. They also have a pretty weak anti-descent game. They have a serviceable corvette and a slooooooooow monitor with bombardment…and that’s about it for things that can target descent ships. They lean hard into winning the orbital fight. They have to either win the ground game hard, or turn it into a meat grinder. If they lose their genitor towers early, they can struggle to get back into the game. It makes for an interesting dichotomy between space and ground. In space, they’re glass cannons. On the ground, they’re all about attrition.

I hope you enjoyed our introduction to Dropfleet’s AI gone wild. 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!