OK here it is. My first rough draft for my "Alien" race to be used in an
upcoming FMA campaign. I would love to play test these out and work out the
bugs as it were. The only problem is that finding out how the aliens react and
think will be a big portion of the campaign. Thats where all of you alien
minded folks come in. I am using the Hive Mind type of alien mentality for
marole with a few figures being the controlling point for the army. Once these
figures are gone the army should quickly fall apart as the units become
uncoordinated. I am going to use the GW tyranid minatures as they are
available in 6mm and 28mm. (painted like lady bugs... dont laugh, lady bugs
are some nasty bloodthirsty insects.)
Thanks for the time and any comments that might come my way.
Others on this list have had some really good ideas and I have incorporated
some of their ideas into this and I would like to thank them.
________________________________________________________________________
____
____________
Quality is based on species of alien and Leadership Value (1-2) is based
on the type of hive node creature present. Only certain creatures are
classified as hive nodes. A few creatures fall into the independent category
which will use a Leadership value of 2.
Aliens remove one suppression counter at the beginning of each of itÂs
activations. A +1 modifier is applied to all control checks for each
suppression marker on that unit. (an additional +1 for the node
creature made the checks a little to difficult in the simulations) Suppression
only effects confidence and control checks. It does not limit what the unit
may or may not do.
The basic alien psychology is based on 3 types of behavior in combat; lurk,
hide and attack. Each type of creature will have a defualt basic behavior.
(may add one or two more. want to keep it simple though)
- A lurking unit will take the best available cover. If it has a ranged
attack it will fire at any targets that come within range. If an enemy unit
comes within 12Â make a control check or the unit will attempt to assault.
- A unit hiding will attempt to be unseen by any enemy unit. Will
always take cover and will attempt to Âcreep away from any enemy units that
come within 12Â. If it is fired upon and takes a suppression it will flee
away to the next available piece of cover.
- An attacking unit will attempt to attack the nearest unit with any
means possible. It must always use at least one action to move straight
towards the nearest enemy.
(Best available cover is kind of a vague statement. Need to work on a better
description) (ÂCreep will be the ability to move hidden markers d6Â. As
alien minefields and boobytraps will have legs this will not be a problem)
To make a unit do something other than itÂs basic behavior requires a control
check. A control check is made by a hive node creature spending one action and
rolling the target units quality die vs the node creatureÂs leadership value.
This roll is modified by the below factors
+1 for each suppression marker on target unit
+1 to +3 based on current morale
+1 for each full 12Â between node creature and target unit
Once a control check has been made the unit will do as it was told unless
their morale level changes.
Alien Morale ÂWhat makes a bug think twice?Â
Confidence tests are made using the quality of the unit and the Leadership
Value of the closest hive node creature. If there are no hive node creatures
on the table use a LV of 3. Independent creatures use a LV of
2.
Hive node creatures ignore all suppression and never take confidence tests.
Aliens take confidence tests for the below reasons Â
Unit takes casualties from fire +0 (even bugs
donÂt like being dead)
Unit suffers casualties from a flame or 2 (I watched too many movies) plasma
type weapon
Loss of a hive node creature 3 (Feeling your mind die is hard on the senses)
Loss of a hive node creature within 12Â 4 (Seeing your mind die is even
harder)
Each suppression marker +1 (All those
bullets are distracting)
For each full 12Â from nearest node +1 (Even
bug communications are not perfect) creature
Results of reduced morale:
Confident - ÂSend more meat!Â
Steady - All control checks are at +1 ÂThis meat is
crunchyÂ
Shaken - All control checks are at +2 ÂThis meat needs to be
cooked moreÂ
Broken - All control checks are at +3 ÂThis meat has
teethÂ
Routed - The hive mind can no longer maintain control. Models in
unit will
revert to their basic behavior. A hive node creature must move within
12Â to regain control of the unit. ÂWhoÂs eating who here?Â
A hive node creature may raise the morale of one unit by making a successful
control check.
Hive node creatures should be limited to 1 per 3-4 units. The
importance the hive mind puts on a certain objective determines the number of
hide node creatures it allocates for the battle. (Play testing will determine
the right numbers)
[quoted original message omitted]
On 7-Mar-02 at 08:30, Bell, Brian K (Contractor)
(Brian.Bell@dscc.dla.mil)
wrote: > -----Original Message-----
> From: The Sutherlands [mailto:nma@kda.attmil.ne.jp]
Do you think we will ever figure out that intentionally importing someone
elses fauna is a bad thing? The accidental tourists are bad enough.
No. We will make the same mistakes, exporting terran flora and fauna to other
worlds to make them seem more like "home". I expect the first of these to be
"food" plants and insects to pollinate them, prepare the soil, etc. Second
(perhaps, first) will be pets that escape and go feral (if there are local
flora or fauna it can eat). Then someone will decide it would be great to
clone big game and let them loose to have an unrestricted hunting of
engineered "endangered" species on the planet (independent world). All of
this, of course, doesn't count the engineered bacteria that we drop to
"terraform" the planet.
Of course at the same time we will bring back alien life forms (plant and
animal) to earth for "display" and research. Some will invariably escape.
Humanity has an almost unlimited capacity for destruction of itself and its
environment. No wonder the Kra'Vak, Phalons, and Sa'Vasku see us as dangerous.
-----
Brian Bell
-----
[quoted original message omitted]
Quoting Roger Books <books@jumpspace.net>:
> On 7-Mar-02 at 08:30, Bell, Brian K (Contractor)
We did crash that probe into jupiter to avoid the theoretical chance it might
crash into Europa and any bacteria it might just possibly be carrying could
contaminate any hypothetical[1] biosphere there...
[1] Only hypothetical from our point of view of course; if they're there
they
> [Bri] Is this geared to DS2, SG2, FMASk, or all? Can the Control
Mostly for SG2 with some big climatic battles in DS2.
> [Bri] You may want to add 'Hunt', 'Scout', and/or 'Protect' for
Wanted to keep the bugs pretty simple for basic behavior. The
scout/hunt
bugs would be independent types witht he ability to operate away from the hive
mind.
The protect would be a good idea for units within 12" of a hive mind. The hive
mind is after all the only thing worth defending:)
I did not want the bugs to have the ability to remove suppression as its only
real effect on them is to make them more difficult to control. Hive node
creatures dont get suppressed.
Quoting katie@fysh.org:
> Quoting Roger Books <books@jumpspace.net>:
Actually, having thought about this, all this demonstrates that we're on the
side of the puny Europan Federation instead of being with the mighty Jovian
Empire... with their massive resources and /unlimited/ manpower... damn,
does
Quoting katie@fysh.org:
> Actually, having thought about this, all this demonstrates that we're
damn,
> does
*sniff* One would think, were the Jovians all THAT mighty, they'd have been
able to
stop Shoemaker-Levy 9 from delivering a whole tanker of gravity-served
whoopass on them, let alone a puny Terran artificial satellite.....
2B^2
> On 7-Mar-02 at 09:51, Brian Bilderback (bbilderback@hotmail.com) wrote:
Oh great, now we are going to be blamed for that one also.
> From: Roger Books <books@jumpspace.net>
> Oh great, now we are going to be blamed for that one also.
Such are the travails of our species, Homo Scapegoatiens.....
2B^2
_________________________________________________________________
Quoting Roger Books <books@jumpspace.net>:
> On 7-Mar-02 at 09:51, Brian Bilderback (bbilderback@hotmail.com)
Hey, maybe it wiped out the last political opposition on the planet? There
might be a bright side to all this after all!
> At 02:19 PM 3/7/02 +0000, katie wrote:
I seem to recall some debate about whether or not to include some primitive
monocellular critters on the Huygens probe to Triton, so that life there
will get a jump start when the Sun enters the red giant stage (which,
according to some calculations -- at least in my memory <grin> -- will
then be in the "habitable zone" with liquid water).
Dunno if that was serious or not -- from the time span, I think the
magazine I was reading it in was probably Discover, which is a neat mag but
somewhat sensationalist at times....
On Thu, 7 Mar 2002 09:03:18 -0500 "Bell, Brian K (Contractor)"
> <Brian.Bell@dscc.dla.mil> writes:
<snip>
> Humanity has an almost unlimited capacity for destruction of itself
Gracias,
<snip>
> Do you think we will ever figure out that intentionally importing
When the fauna start using Starships?
Gracias,
G'day,
> Do you think we will ever figure out that intentionally importing
At least it allows for cool article titles like "Alien vs Predator"... yes I
have seen a biocontrol article called that;)
G'day,
> - A unit hiding...
What type of unit will want to be doing this?
> - An attacking unit will attempt to attack the nearest unit
I take it you mean nearest enemy unit?
> To make a unit do something other than it's basic
What about intervening terrain? In other words what are they using as their
means of communication? A neat twist might be to require "runners" to actually
carry the "change in orders".
> Hive node creatures ignore all suppression and never take
Why not?
> Routed - The hive mind can no longer maintain control.
The reproductive costs on the colony of having units that don't know when to
run away must be pretty high;)
Either that or there are a lot of node creatures around so they can tell them
to run.
Cheers
> G'day,
This was intended for the artillery bugs. They hide until they get a direct
order from a hive node to attack a certain area.
> > - An attacking unit will attempt to attack the nearest unit
The original idea was a form of telepathy, but pheromones worked a little
better as I could put in the distance modifier. The chemicals get weaker with
distance and time. That and once the players start to figure this out it will
allow for some interesting PCM (pheromone counter measures)as they attempt to
find the right combinations to affect the bugs. Cant wait for them to
accidently confuse the "dont eat me" smell with the "mate with me" smell.
Runners would be kind of different. Give those human snipers something to do.
> > Hive node creatures ignore all suppression and never take
The hive node creatures are directly controlled by the hive mind which is
somewhere else and uses them like communication relays. In the first
simulation games we let them get suppressed and things tended to fall apart
for the bugs a little to quickly.
> > Routed - The hive mind can no longer maintain control.
Creatures with the attack behavior are not going to be that common. Suicide
assault troops that are created as one use type units. Ammo with legs.
> Cheers
Thanks for the feedback.
G'day,
> This was intended for the artillery bugs. They hide until
Be good for ambush troops too, or sentries may be.
> The original idea was a form of telepathy, but pheromones
Cool.
> That and once the players start to figure this out
Or to find that the stealth coating on your shirts is also a useful
attractant....
Might also be "fun" (in a challenging kid of way) to play a few games in high
winds or bad weather, where the prevailing conditions (wind in wrong
direction) make it much harder for the signals to get through.
Cheers