Brains & Behaviors

The brain

Every Icaroid needs a brain - the pilot AI. The brain sets three things about how well the unit fights, and limits which behaviors and target priorities you're allowed to pick:

• Accuracy - the baseline chance to land shots, and (against the target's evasion) the chance those shots land as critical hits. A high-accuracy brain wants a precise, single-target-heavy loadout with high damage; a low one wants to lean on volume of fire or weapons with blast radius.
• Evasion - how well it rolls with incoming fire. Evasion doesn't stop shots from landing; it's the chance a connecting shot is only a glancing hit, and it starves the attacker's critical-hit chance. Its effect scales inversely with weight higher than your mobility, so it's near-useless on a heavy tank and superb on a feather-light flanker.
• Thinking rate (1–3) - how sharply it executes its role, and a major input to initiative (smarter pilots tend to act earlier in the round).

The six brains, from crudest to most specialised:

Behaviors

The behavior is the combat doctrine the Icaroid follows whenever its commander (you) hasn't given it a direct order - which is every round in an autobattle or campaign battle. Each behavior below describes the overall play, not the exact math. Which behaviors you can pick is set by the brain (see above).

Thug front line

A blunt, single-minded brawler. It walks straight at its chosen target and open fire the instant it gets in range - then keeps advancing until every weapon bears and stands still to let them all fire with as much accuracy as possible. No finesse, no cover, just relentless forward pressure. Great on a cheap, durable frame that wants to soak attention and trade hits.

Infantry front line

Infantry hold the front lines. It advances alongside the other Icaroids until an enemy is found, closes to a medium engagement band, then holds that line and trades fire on the best target in range every round. Where the Thug keeps walking into your face, Infantry stops at a stable mid-range and grinds. The backbone role for a balanced main line.

Sniper long range

Snipers provide long-range fire support. It fires every round it possibly can and treats movement purely as a way to hold the perfect distance, never to close. It likes to sit behind a friendly screen and shoot over it, keeps enemies at the far edge of its longest gun, and backs off if something gets close - but never so far that it loses the target. Pair it with a high-accuracy brain and a long weapon, and give it front-line allies to hide behind.

Skirmisher kiter

The Skirmisher uses (hopefully) superior mobility to stay at range, dancing into range to fire shots with its longest-ranged weapons and backing away when an enemy gets too close. It does its best to keep a clean shot at all times, favoring positions in cover that allow it to see (and be seen by) only its primary target if possible. When no target enemy has been seen yet, this behavior will try to identify the front lines and stay comfortably behind them to allow heavier units to take the hits.

Rogue flanker

The Rogue attempts to assassinate enemies. It works toward the top or bottom edge of the field through low ground, staying out of enemy sight for as long as it can, then - once it's flanked around the side - charges into range of its hardest-hitting weapon and attacks. It moves as much as possible each round to bank its movement evasion bonus. Devastating on a fast, evasive Scout frame that punishes exposed opponents.

Lancer melee charge

Lancers are shock troops, strongest on the attack when they aren't receiving return fire. It hugs low ground and cover, staying unexposed, until a target is spotted - then it charges into melee range and strikes. Because melee weapons swing after the move, it can close a gap and hit on the same round once it decides to charge in1. Once it has made contact it stays at the front, engaging with its current target until it expires. Built for the Cavalry brain and a big melee weapon or three.

Trencher low profile

Trenchers hug the terrain, attempting to hide behind terrain as much as possible. It uses low ground - digging it out with a Resonance Quake or Raise Terrain if its loadout can - to approach and shoot while showing as little of itself to return fire as possible.

Aura Support buffer

This behavior is for force multipliers, not weapons platforms. It positions so its support aura covers as many allies as possible, deliberately spreading out from identical copies of itself (whose auras would likely not stack). While it will fire on targets in range if it carries weapons, it will not go out of its way to do so. If the unit does not have an Aura - or no allies are left that aren't also an Aura Support unit - the Aura Support drops the role and fights in the front line as Infantry.

Guardian escort

Guardians are quite simply bodyguards. It picks an ally to shadow - preferring one that's actually leading the advance rather than another escort - and sticks as close to it as it can, timing its actions to move right alongside its ward and never fall a step behind, firing on an enemy in range along the way. Left alone with nobody to guard, it falls back to fighting as Infantry.

Target priority

Once a behavior is in range to shoot, the target priority chooses who. Like behaviors, the priorities you may pick are decided by the brain.

Making contact & retreat

Behaviors run on what the unit can actually see. Thanks to fog of war, most behaviors begin a battle with nothing spotted, so their first job is to make contact - they sweep forward through the fog until an enemy is detected, then switch into their real role. That's why a battle often opens with a cautious advance before anyone commits.

In campaign battles there's one more layer: a unit that can no longer fight - an armed unit with every weapon destroyed, or its whole side disarmed - stops following its behavior and retreats toward its own back edge to escape the field, preserving what's left instead of dying uselessly. A retreating unit never attempts to fire (it couldn't anyway) and never uses abilities; it's just running for safety.

Choosing a combination

Brain, behavior, loadout and target priority should all tell the same story. A few reliable pairings:

• Overwatch sniper - Ranger brain + Sniper behavior + a long-range gun + Furthest priority. Sits back, out-ranges everything, and reaches past the line to kill less-defended support and skirmish units.
• Anvil - Doldrum or Jack brain + Infantry behavior + durable mid-range weapons + Nearest. Holds the center and grinds down enemies.
• Flanking assassin - Scout brain + Rogue behavior + a heavy short-range hitter on a light frame + Structure or Shield priority. Slips around the side and deletes a wounded or shielded target.
• Shock lancer - Cavalry brain + Lancer behavior + a big melee weapon + Weight priority. Lurks, then charges the biggest tank to deliver a devastating blow.
• Escort / buffer - Support brain + Guardian or Aura Support behavior on an aura carrier, shadowing your main line.

Remember these choices only matter when the Icaroid is acting on its own - in a manual battle you always command your units directly. See How Battles Work for how orders, initiative and target priority play out round to round.