Collecting Fallout Factions: Brotherhood of Steel

They are the successors of pre-war military power, and devoted to preserving technology and regulating its usage in the wasteland. Often isolationist, aggressive and dictatorial, the Brotherhood of Steel are a quasi-religious organisation and have a strict hierarchy and odd customs. Over the history of the Fallout franchise their role has changed, as different philosophies and chapters are detailed. Despite this they remain perhaps the most iconic part of the setting, and their power armoured knights are instantly recognisable.

But how do they fit in with the new Fallout Factions game? At the moment the faction has a "Get You By" list, which will be finalised and expanded for publication in a standalone rulebook later this year. It's a slimmed down version of the final list that's been pared down to match, as best as possible, the existing resin range. That means that there's not a hard plastic box set for Factions specifically right now, with the intention that you'll use models from the Wasteland Warfare range until such a box is released. But what models should you use? What are the best options?

What's Available?

In this section we'll present each box available for the faction in the Wasteland Warfare range, describe what you can run the models as in Factions, and determine whether we think it's an essential purchase, a useful purchase, or a low-priority purchase.

Brotherhood of Steel Core Box

Essential Purchase. The most important box to pick up if you want to play Factions with the Brotherhood of Steel is the Brotherhood of Steel Core Box. It's very clear that the Get You By list has been written specifically around this box, and the miniatures are great and nice and varied. From this box you'll get:

Paladin with Gatling Laser (Leader Champion)
2 Scribes with Laser Pistols (Champions)
2 Aspirants with Laser Rifles (Grunts)
2 Lancers with Laser Rifles (Grunts)

Altogether this runs at 199 Rep, which is not quite enough for a full starting list but is pretty close. So what should you bulk it out with?

Order of the Shield Box

Useful Purchase. The Order of the Shield box is a slam dunk addition to almost any collection for Factions. It's just three models, they all have WYSIWYG rules in Factions, and they're useful additions too. It includes:

2 Knights with Laser Rifles (Grunts)
1 Scribe with Laser Pistol (Champion)

The only failing here is that you probably don't need another Scribe if you have the core box (though you might conceivably add one if you're playing a campaign and your gang hits tier 2). However, a couple of Knights is a fantastic addition to that box, and if you don't get the core box, then this is just all round great. Altogether it clocks in at 121 Rep.

Power Armor 1

Useful Purchase. Look, Power Armor 1 is just that - it's a single Knight with a Laser Rifle (Grunt). He'd round out your Core Box nicely. If you're on a budget it's a good choice. But I'd personally grab the Order of the Shield box for the variety and newer sculpts.

Citadel Command Box

Useful Purchase. The Citadel Command box is potentially a really good get, and a solid alternative for the core box if you're happy with a little bit of proxying. It's also not a great addition to the core box though, thanks to the cap on champions.

Elder Lyons and Scribe Rothschild make good Scribe models - they have laser pistols and look the part. Sarah Lyons is a good add for a Knight with Laser Rifle. Star Paladin Cross is best as a Knight with Ripper - that's a pretty good proxy, as your opponent will definitely know she's scary up close. Madison Li is less clear - she could perhaps be used as Lancer. That means that this box potentially provides you with:

2 Scribes with Laser Pistols (Champions)
Knight with Laser Rifle (Grunt)
Knight with Ripper (Grunt) (proxy)
Lancer with Laser Rifle (Grunt) (proxy)

If you ran all of this together it would be 162 Rep. That's not quite as much as the core box, but it's a pretty good alternative. You could also run Sarah Lyons as a Paladin to give yourself a Leader.

Captain Cade and Paladin Danse

Paladin Danse, Knight Captain Cade, and an Eyebot from Fallout. Credit: SRM

Useful Purchase. The Captain Cade and Paladin Danse box isn't the most essential item on the surface (it comes with an eyebot you just don't have rules for) but Paladin Danse is a nice addition as an alternative leader, who can also be used as a knight. You probably run this box as:

Paladin with Laser Rifle (Leader Champion) or Knight with Laser Rifle (Grunt)
Lancer with Laser Rifle (Grunt)

That clocks in at just 74 or 75 Rep (depending on how you run Danse), and so you might think this should rate as a low-priority purchase, but Paladin options are few on the ground and the joy with Danse is you can run him flexibly, so this can be a good add even if you have the Core Box and plan to run the paladin out of that. A solid addition.

Combat Patrol Box

Useful Purchase. The Combat Patrol box doesn't map as cleanly onto the Factions rules as some of the others, but it's actually got a decent number of models that are useful here. The Medium Combat Armour Troops work nicely as Aspirants with Combat Rifles, and you get three in here so all of them can be included in a list if you want. Then you get 3 Recon Armour Troops, which are a bit less clear cut. Given they're armed with a variety of stuff you're probably running them as proxies and not worrying too much about WYSIWYG guns (though one has a laser rifle, which is right). Their light armour reads best to me as a Lancer proxy, so that's what I'd peg them as.

That gives you:

3 Aspirants with Combat Rifles (Grunts)
3 Lancers with Laser Rifles (Grunts) (proxies)

That totals 147 rep, and because Lancers have no limit on the number you can include, you can drop the whole box in with the core box. Even if you just use the Aspirants with Combat Rifles, a couple of them is enough to flesh out the Core Box to a full starting list.

Heavy Armor (T-45)

Brotherhood of Steel Outcasts, built using the Brotherhood Heavy Armor plastic kit. Credit: SRM

Low-Priority Purchase. What a frustrating box the Heavy Armor (T-45) box is. This has a whole variety of different builds for this sole plastic kit for the faction, and literally two of them have rules. You can build a Knight with Laser Pistol and Ripper (which is fantastic) and you can build a Paladin with Gatling Laser (good, though if you have the Core Box you already have one) and then... all the other options are not available in this list. Your best bet is probably the Combat Rifle on the third model to proxy as a Laser Rifle, but it's frustrating that there isn't a Laser Rifle in here. That gives you:

Paladin with Gatling Laser (Leader Champion)
Knight with Ripper and Laser Pistol (Grunt)
Knight with Laser Rifle (Grunt) (proxy)

It's not the best kit for factions, and that's a shame. But it has a weapon option (the ripper and laser pistol) that's both very good and also only available here. So if you really want that, pick this up; but sadly, otherwise stick to the resin.

Unaligned: T-45 Power Armor

Low-Priority Purchase. The Unaligned: T-45 Power Armor box comes with three resin power armored models with a range of weapons, which you can absolutely use for Brotherhood even though they're labelled unaligned. This box is a little like the plastic kit in terms of suitability for Factions - one really useful option, and a couple of things that need proxying to make use of. Specifically you'll end up with:

Paladin with Minigun (Leader Champion)
Knight with Ripper (Grunt) (Proxy using the model with Super Sledge)
Knight with Laser Rifle (Grunt) (Proxy using the model with a Plasma Rifle)

That's a total of 159 Rep. The real draw here is, of course, the Paladin with Minigun, which is a great addition to a warband and a nice alternative to the ubiquitous Laser Gatling option. If you don't want that? Just pick up the Order of the Shield box instead.

Elder Maxson and Captain Kells

Low-Priority Purchase. The Elder Maxson and Captain Kells box includes... well, Elder Maxson (in and out of armour) and Captain Kells. Kells is a great Lancer model with a Laser Rifle, while Maxson in armour is a nice Paladin with Gatling Laser and out of armour is a solid Aspirant proxy with Laser Rifle. That's:

Paladin with Gatling Laser (Leader Champion)
Aspirant with Laser Rifle (Grunt)
Lancer with Laser Rifle (Grunt)

The issue is that none of these are very useful if you picked up the Core Box. This is potentially more of a priority purchase if you didn't, as you may be looking for a paladin, and this is a nice option. But ultimately it's unlikely to be high on your shopping list.

Frontline Knights

Brotherhood of Steel Knights for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare. Credit: SRM

Essential or Low-Priority Purchase. The Frontline Knights box might be appealing in some ways, but it runs into some issues. It comes with four models all of which are usable WYSIWYG in Factions:

Knight with Laser Rifle (Grunt)
3 Aspirants with Laser Rifles (Grunts)

This seems initially promising, but if you picked up that core box that you're already rocking two Aspirants with Laser Rifles and you can have at most three in a list - that means you can only make real use of two of the models in this set. If you don't grab that core box this is probably an essential purchase, but if you do it drops sadly to a low-priority one. The whole box altogether clocks in at a neat 125 rep, but again you probably can't actually use all of that.

Putting It Together

So what should you actually buy? If you want a standard 250 Rep list, then I'd pick up one of the following combinations.

Budget Pick

That leaves you running this list:

Paladin with Gatling Laser (Leader Champion)
2 Scribes with Laser Pistols (Champions)
2 Aspirants with Laser Rifles (Grunts)
2 Lancers with Laser Rifles (Grunts)
Knight with Laser Rifle (Grunt)

That is a total of 249 Rep so you start with just 1 Cap spare putting you very close to the maximum possible starting Rep.

Core Box Plus (Heavy Armour Version)

If you want to go a little fancier, then you should pick up:

This would let you run the same list as the budget version, or swap those lancers out and run:

Paladin with Gatling Laser (Leader Champion)
2 Scribes with Laser Pistols (Champions)
2 Aspirants with Laser Rifles (Grunts)
2 Knights with Laser Rifles (Grunts)

That's also 249 Rep making it a very strong (and absurdly tough) starting list.

Core Box Plus (Light Armour Version)

What if you wanted more bodies? Well then you probably grab:

And then you can run:

Paladin with Gatling Laser (Leader Champion)
1 Scribe with Laser Pistol (Champion)
2 Aspirants with Laser Rifles (Grunts)
3 Aspirants with Combat Rifles (Grunts)
2 Lancers with Laser Rifles (Grunts)

That's 250 Rep on the dot, and is a lot of bodies for Brotherhood of Steel. You still have the anchor of the Paladin, and the Aspirants are pretty tough still. That said, it lacks the punch of heavier lists.

Wildcard Option

You don't want the core box? Sure, why not. Let's see what else we can do with:

That gives us a list that looks something like:

Paladin with Laser Rifle (Leader Champion)
Scribe with Laser Pistol (Champion)
Knight with Ripper (Grunt) (proxy)
Knight with Laser Rifle (Grunt)
3 Aspirants with Laser Rifles (Grunts)

At 240 Rep you actually get enough Caps to buy some chems in your first game with this list. Run Sarah Lyons as the Paladin, and then you have a rock hard list with lots of heavy armour and good shooting mixed with a scary melee threat. A solid choice if you don't want that core box.

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