Alien Attack!

[epix]

Hello,

I have been thinking of a way to be able to play Starship Troopers or Alien like games with a lot of monsters and bugs.
Here are some ideas:

Swarm (Light Infantry)
Cost - 2 Bp
Mv – 4
Tp – 5
Sv – 5
Weapon: Claws

Bug (Heavy Infantry)
Cost - 3 Bp
Mv – 4
Tp – 4(*6)
Sv – 10
Underground Move
Weapon: Claws

Flying Bug (Jump Infantry)
Cost – 5 Bp
Mv – 6
Tp – 4
Sv – 10
Weapon: Claws
Wings (Ignore Obstacles/Terrain)

*Underground Move: At the beginning of a MOVE action the unit can decide to start or stop an underground Move. While underground it cannot do any RUSH action and its Tp has +2. While underground the unit cannot attack nor does it give free attacks for the Claws weapon.

Giant Monsters:
They are the equivalent of the Mechs to represent their biological nature they follow some special rules:
Note: Heat can be called Adrenaline, it works the same way.

- Each Giant Monster has a Rg statistic equal to its number of Armor Rows divided by two and rounded down.
Example: A seven armor rows monster has a Rg of 3.

Giant Monsters are weaker than their metallic equivalents so it is easier to damage them (shooting the head?) to represent this for each Rg point remove the 4 center grid cells. These cells can never be healed.
However the Giant Monsters can regenerate themselves: before the Heat Vent Phase perform a new Regeneration Phase: through Rg x D10 on the Location Grid to remove damages.

Special Equipment:

Light Claws :     Cost 1Bp Rv:0/0 Hv:1 Dp: 2xD10*
Medium Claws : Cost 1Bp Rv:0/0 Hv:1 Dp: 3xD10*
Heavy Claws :   Cost 1Bp Rv:0/0 Hv:1 Dp: 4xD10*
*For each OTHER friendly unit with Claws in base-to-base contact with the ennemy unit you can perform another free attack, however receive one additional Hv point for each free attack.

Adrenaline Gland:
Cost 1Bp (Light Equipment): When performing a Move or a Rush, you can receive between 0 and 2 Hv points, for each point received you can move an additional 1".
Can be cumulative with other Adrenaline Glands.

Overmind:
Cost 2Bp (Medium Equipment): Only one Overmind per unit. During the Combat Order instead of FIRING you can activate friendly units around 24".
The sum of Bp values of all activated units cannot exceed the Bp value of the Overmind controler. You can re-activate units that way; however units re-activated by the Overmind will receive additionnal Hv points.
You cannot use a Overmind to activate another unit with Overmind.
Note: If a FIRING Order would not be normally possible, then the Overmind cannot be used.

[Dagger]

Excellent work... Love the "Adrenaline" idea.

For the "infantry" units... I would consider not giving them Crew Served Weapons, and instead boost another stat to give them a more distinct flavor from human troops. They would still have their inherent individual weapons... but with boosted speed (Mv), strength (Sv), or camouflage (Tp).

[epix]

Thank you for the kind words!
I have edited my original post to include your advices.
I have removed the Crew Served Weapon and:
+1 Tp for the Swarm
+1 Mv for the Flying Bug
And finally the Bug has now the Underground Move special skill.

[Dagger]

Feb 14, 2015 15:30:28 GMT -5 epix said:

Thank you for the kind words!
I have edited my oridinal post to include your advices.
I have removed the Crew Served Weapon and:
+1 Tp for the Swarm
+1 Mv for the Flying Bug
And finally the Bug has now the Underground Move special skill.

'Underground' is a great idea... it gives the unit a very bug-like flavor. The more you can give each faction a different "feel", the more fun it will be...

[epix]

Here are some rules for a more Alien movie like games:

Egg:
Cost - 1 Bp
Mv – 0
Tp – 3
Sv – X
Weapon: None

When an ennemy unit move at 4" or less of an Egg, replace the Egg by a Swarm unit, you can perform a free Move with the new Swarm.
When an Egg is hitten by a weapon it is automatically destroyed. If the weapon was a Missile or Flame Weapon, roll a die for each Egg in a 2" range of the destroyed egg, on 1-5 the Egg is destroyed.

*Eggs can be bought as additionnal equipment by Monster units with a maximum of 1 Egg for a Light Monster, 2 Eggs for a Medium Monster and 4 Eggs for a Heavy Monster. Any time during its movement a Monster can drop any number of Eggs in base-to-base contact for 1 Hv point per Egg.

Acid Blood:
Infantry can purchase Light Acid Blood, Giant Monsters(Mechs) can purchase Light, Medium or Heavy Acid Blood depending on their class.
Light Acid Blood:     1Bp - When the unit is destroyed any unit (and building) in 2" range suffer 2xD10 damages.
Medium Acid Blood: 2Bp - When the unit is destroyed any unit (and building) in 2" range suffer 4xD10 damages.
Heavy Acid Blood:   3Bp - When the unit is destroyed any unit (and building) in 2" range suffer 6xD10 damages.
Acid Blood can only by purchased once per unit and does not take an arm or torso emplacement. Units in Cover and units with Acid Blood are immune to Acid Blood effect. When purchasing Acid Blood for a Swarm Egg the Egg does not benefit from the rule, only the Swarm replacing the Egg will.

Bug Larva:
1Bp - Swarms and Swarm Eggs Only -
When the Swarm unit destroyed an Infantry ennemy unit you can replace the Swarm by a Bug with full health. If the Swarm had Acid Blood then the Bug has Acid Blood too. Can only be purchased once per unit.

[Dagger]

"Aliens" is right up there with "Starship Troopers" as some of my all-time favorite movies... I really like how you've created the feel of an Alien xenomorph.

A Predator troop unit would be neat... I think it should be an individual troop rather than the usual troop unit which represents a squad-size element, since a single predator is about as deadly as a whole squad. Basically it would be the same troop size base except with front/rear arcs instead of a single 360 degree arc. It would still be different than a Mech's base in that it wouldn't need left/right arcs, just front/rear.

The problem with Predator though is the lack of opportunity different model types; you really only have the one Predator archetype to work with. You can give each one its own character with different equipment, traits, and weapons choices...

[epix]

Yes making rules for Predator is much more complicated.

I think they should cost between 10 and 15 Bp so in a 50Bp game you could field beween 3 and 5 of them.

Here is a proposition for a profil card:

Base Cost 10 Bp
Mv: 4
Tp: 3



When it is hit by a weapon roll a D10 to see which part is damage:
1&2: Shield
3-8: Equipement
9&10: Boby

When rolling the die if you hit a part already destroyed then the Body is hit instead.
During the Heat Vent Phase if the Shield has still some boxes left, then restore two shield boxes.
When the Body ten boxes are removed the Predator die.
When an Equipement has no boxes left it is destroyed.

When hit by a weapon a Light one removes one box, a Medium weapon removes two boxes and a Heavy weapon removes three.
Laser weapons inflict double damage again the Shield. Missile weapons inflict one additional damage again Equipement and Canon weapons one additional damage again Body.

A Predator can receive Light and Medium equipements each of them occupying one of the four free Equipement slots.
You can buy an equipement for each slot between 5-8, the slot 3 and 4 are already taken by standard equipements.

Slot 3: Cloacking System: You can switch this equipement On/Off at the beginning of your activation, while On Tp is increased by 2 but you cannot fire more than one weapon (even with IWTS see below) also ennemy units cannot use IWTS or RGMS again a cloacked Predator.
Slot 4: IWTS, also allows shooting 2 weapons per activation (except if the Cloacking System is On). If destroyed, the predator can only shoot one weapon per activation.

Predator Special Equipements:

Stim-Pack: Cost 1Bp - One use only, restores until 5 boxes in Equipement and Body (not Shield). You cannot restore boxes of a destroyed Equipement.
Nano-Molecular Blade: Cost 1Bp - Range 0/0 Damage 5xD10 Ignore Cover and Concealment.
Doom Device: Cost 2Bp - When the Predator is killed roll a D10 it is the number of unit activations before the Doom Device explode. After X units have been activated, any unit in a range of 12" of the Predator dead body suffers 10xD10 damages all buildings in this range are destroyed.
Razor Net: Cost 1Bp - One use only, once per game you can target a unit in 6", if hit, at the beggining of its activation the unit must roll a die on 7+ the Net has no effect anymore otherwise the unit suffers 1D10 damage and skip its activation this turn, roll again next turn on 6+, then 5+,... until the Net is removed.
 

[Dagger]

Love the card... but I was thinking of something more simple. I would make it more like a Troop unit without the hassle of mounting equipment or hit locations, the Mechs/Vehicles already do that. The shoulder weapon is a 1-for-1 swap for a Troop unit's crew-served weapon and functions the same (I would also limit it to Light items). The cloaking system, stim pack, nano blade, doom device, and razor net can all be implemented as optional Traits... maybe a limit of two or so. Imagine a Predator with cloaking and a shoulder-mounted RGMS...(GriN)

It would function the same as a Troop unit except is would have front/rear firing arcs and have access to some cool Traits... The choice of Traits would give you a good variety of Predator types...

[epix]

I agree something easier may be better.

Predator (Heavy Infantry)
Cost – 4 Bp (max 7Bp)
Mv – 3
Tp – 4
Sv – 10
Weapon: Light Laser
Equipment: between 0 and 2 light equipments.
Must choose one Hunting Behaviour.

- Predators can only shoot in their 180 degree front arc.
- Predators can shoot two weapons per FIRING action.

Predator Special Equipments:

Cloacking System:  Cost 1Bp - You can switch this equipement On/Off at the beginning of your activation, while On Tp is increased by 2 but you cannot fire more than one weapon. Also ennemy units cannot use IWTS or RGMS again a cloacked Predator.

Stim-Pack: Cost 1Bp - One use only. Once per game instead of a FIRING action, restore until 5 damages.

Tribal Spear: Cost 1Bp - Range 1/1 Damage 3xD10 Ignore Cover and Concealment. Defensive weapon: +1Tp again ennemy in base-to-base contact.

Nano-Molecular Blade: Cost 1Bp - Range 0/0 Damage 5xD10 Ignore Cover and Concealment.

Doom Device: Cost 2Bp - When the Predator is killed roll a D10 it is the number of unit activations before the Doom Device explode. After X units have been activated, any unit in a range of 12" of the Predator dead body suffers 10xD10 damages all buildings in this range are destroyed.

Razor Net: Cost 1Bp - One use only, once per game you can target a unit in 6", if hit, at the beggining of its activation the unit must roll a die on 7+ the Net has no effect anymore otherwise the unit suffers 1D10 damage and skip its activation this turn, roll again next turn on 6+, then 5+,... until the Net is removed.

Hunting Behaviour:

Hunter Prey: After the Deployment,  choose one ennemy unit, if the Predator kills this unit you receive twice more victory points but killing other units with this Predator does not provide any victory point. Two Predators with the Hunter Prey cannot choose the same ennemy unit target.

Biggest Skull: Killing units does not provide victory points. At the end of the game score as much victory points as the most expensive unit killed by this Predator.

Quantity Over Quality: Killing units does not provide victory points instead the first unit killed by this Predator gives 2 victory points, the second 4 victory points, the third 6 etc... For example, if the Predator has killed 4 units during the game he scored 2+4+6+8 = 20 victory points.

[Dagger]

Now you're on the right track... the Doom Device is terrifying!

[epix]

Great! I need to find the miniatures and paint them now.
I will post pictures when it will be done, in one year probably ^^

[epix]

I have made some cards for my bugs.
The alien miniatures are from Ravenstar Studios and Khurasan Miniatures.

[Dagger]

Wonderful ideas... and great work on the cards. You can give the aliens a little more unique flavor by renaming "Heat" to "Fatigue" or something similar. Let Heat be specific to terran mechs and let Fatigue be a different mechanic for the aliens.

[epix]

Thank you for the kind words. I was on the fence on renaming "Heat" into "Adrenaline" but I though it may over complicate things.

[Dagger]

Jun 6, 2015 9:14:13 GMT -5 epix said:

Thank you for the kind words. I was on the fence on renaming "Heat" into "Adrenaline" but I though it may over complicate things.

I don't think it would complicate things. It's not like a player has to contend with both Heat and Adrenaline/Fatigue at the same time. If you're a mech player you're only dealing with Heat; if you're an Alien player you're only dealing with Adrenaline/Fatigue. Unless the Terrans capture and train an Alien to fight on their side, it shouldn't be an issue...(GriN)