How to use The Institute in your games of Fallout Wasteland Warfare

Fallout: Wasteland WarfarePanayiotis Lines
How to use The Institute in your games of Fallout Wasteland Warfare

Ethan Heywood, wargames developer at Modiphius, discusses how you can make the best use of the upcoming Institute miniatures in your games of Fallout Wasteland Warfare. 

There is a good reason The Institute is known as the bogeyman of the wasteland; their arsenal of limitless synthetic soldiers and advanced weaponry makes them a force to be reckoned with. Technological advancement is the main goal behind any Institute plot and the perfect beginning to achieving this is The Institute Core Box, containing 4 Gen 1 Synths, a Patroller, a Trooper, a Scientist and, a Courser. No more are the people of The Commonwealth safe while The Institute operates uncontested.

The body of an Institute force is made up of their synthetic human soldiers commonly known as Synths. In Fallout: Wasteland Warfare you have access to several different types of Synth. Beginning with the basics, Gen 1 Synths are bread and butter (Tato and Water?) of your Institute force. While individually they pose little threat, Gen 1 Synths become dangerous in large numbers. As they are armed with the basic Institute Laser Pistol you will want to bring as many of these guys as possible, especially for the cost of a mere 38 caps. If that's not cheap enough, sacrifice some reliability and bring along the Battered Gen 1 Synth variant. A fun strategy to use against unexpecting wastelanders is to lob a Synth Relay Grenade and surprise the enemy by teleporting in a Gen 1 Synth right in the middle of the battle.
Institute Core Set

More advanced than their Gen 1 counterparts, Patrollers and Troopers are the frontline soldiers of any Institute incursion into the wasteland. Proficient in the use of most weaponry, the true strength of these Synths is their versatility. The Patroller can be used in a similar manner to the Gen 1 Synths, with added survivability and expertise. For combat-focused encounters, The Trooper excels in a more focused assault role. Going one step further we have A-2018, a programmable killing machine with the ability to test LUC to be able to fire the same heavy weapon for a second time during the same activation.
Institute Synth
The driving forces behind everything that the Institute does are its science divisions. Sometimes these Scientists and Engineers are required to go out into the wasteland to field test an experiment or recover a runaway Synth. Under no circumstance should you leave these assets unprotected; they are as poor in a fight as you would expect. Where the Synths provide the brawn, Scientists and Engineers excel in those difficult tasks requiring a brain. Equivalent to the Enslaved Tech in most expertise skills, a Scientist also has access to the Cleanroom Suit. Whilst it does not provide any Physical or Energy armour, it does boost the Engineers END up to a massive 7 rivaling even the hardiest Super Mutant.

The Institute’s elite operatives, Coursers are tasked with completing The Institute’s most dangerous missions. Coursers are the latest generation of Synth to stalk the wasteland and are so advanced they are indistinguishable from the Humans. Hidden in plain sight they watch and wait, blending in until the perfect time to strike!

Institute Courser

Your opponent is going to have a hard time hitting a Courser, with their continuous Stealth Boy always active. Any model wanting to target a Courser needs to pass a PER test with a -4 modifier to the skill roll, even when up close-in combat. Need a more rounded stat line on your Coursers? Z2-47 sacrifices many of a Courser's higher attributes for a more uniform stat-line.

Conrad Kelogg

Finally, we have Conrad Kellogg, the swiss army knife of an Institute force. This infamous mercenary has been in the employ of The Institute for several decades, and it shows. Kellogg's strengths lie in his Cybernetic Pain Inhibitor, an implant that allows him to not just take a hit, but to hit back harder because of it, adding bonus dice to Kellogg’s next attack. He’s also quite handy with firearms, firing Pistols and Rifles on AGI 7. Never seen without his trusty pistol, this unique weapon gives its wielder the ability to Crit even without being Heroic, but then again, you’d expect him to know a thing or two given he’s over 100 years old!

Even from this brief rundown, you can see how the institute gained its fearsome and shadowy reputation. You can have some hope of fighting back – or aiding them towards their final goal, to see mankind redefined.

By Ethan Heywood

The Institute will be launching on the 6th of December and you'll be able to pick them up at the Modiphius Store here.

Tags: Fallout: wasteland warfare