Thoughts on a home brew Smuggler crew list.

[ironworker]

Hey I've been working on an idea for a Smuggler crew list. My thoughts are they should be subtle and have extra gear options and more skills but lighter armor and no big guns. For instance none of the squad or individual will have the option or taking anything but pistol or LRF and single handed melee weapons. Their natural armor scores would be lower and they would be restricted to fields and light armor suits.

I've got a framework of individual and squad types.

Pilot veteran individual

Co-Pilot veteran individual

Bodyguards veteran squad (2)

Fence regular individual

Spotters regular squad (2)

Hacker regular individual

Hands green squad (3)

I've got a lot of work to do on this list but any comments would be welcome!

[varagon]

Sounds interesting. Keep us posted and updated!

[ironworker]

Ok here is my first draft minus flavor text.

Smugglers

Faction Objective (1000 credits): Many hands make light work and as such Smugglers prefer to live to profit another day. While not particularly cowardly Smugglers usually try and avoid a stand up fight in favor of hit and run tactics. The main goal of a smuggling crew is to survive a fight with themselves and their goods intact.

For every Smuggler that has not been captured or removed as a casualty in the Smuggler crew the Smugglers receive a bounty. This bounty is determined by the model's Experience Level. Green models are worth 100 credits each, Regular models are worth 150 credits each, Veteran models are worth 250 credits each, and Elite models are worth 500 credits each.

Pilot (individual)

Experience Level: Veteran

Composition: 1 Smuggler

Equipment: 1 pistol choice, 3 gear choices

M/3 RC/3+ CC/3 A/3 S/2 DR/3 W/2

Ability:
*Solo
*Hidden Deployment
*Steady Hands

Options:
One of the units Gear Choices may be exchanged for a single handed Melee Choice.

This unit may not take an armor gear choice heavier than a Light Armored Suit.

This unit may not take and melee weapon choice that requires two hands to wield.

The individual's Experience Level may be increased to Elite.

The individual may be designated as a hero.



Co-Pilot (individual)

Experience Level: Veteran

Composition: 1 Smuggler

Equipment: 1 pistol choice, 2 gear choices

M/3 RC/3+ CC/3 A/3 S/2 DR/4 W/2

Ability:
*Solo
*Hidden Deployment
*Command

Options:
One of the units Gear Choices may be exchanged for a single handed Melee Choice.

This unit may not take an armor gear choice heavier than a Light Armored Suit.

This unit may not take and melee weapon choice that requires two hands to wield.

The individual's Experience Level may be increased to Elite.

The individual may be designated as a hero.



Bodyguards (squad)

Experience Level: Veteran

Composition: 2 Smugglers

Equipment: 1 pistol choice, 1 melee choice, 1 gear choice

M/3 RC/3+ CC/4 A/4 S/3 DR/4 W/1

Ability:
*Melee Master
*Unstoppable
*Hidden Deployment

Options:
The units Pistol Choice, may be exchanged for a LRF choice.

This unit may not take an armor gear choice heavier than a Light Armored Suit.

This unit may not take and melee weapon choice that requires two hands to wield.

The squads Experience Level may be increased to Elite.

Note: This unit's Drive may not be used for the purpose of rolling initiative.



Fence (individual)

Experience Level: Regular

Composition: 1 Smuggler

Equipment: 1 pistol choice, 2 gear choices

M/3 RC/5+ CC/2 A/3 S/2 DR/3 W/2

Ability:
*Solo
*Stolen Goods: For every Fence in the Smuggler crew a single individual or squad may take an additional gear choice with the normal restrictions. A fence may use this ability on themselves.

Options:
The units Pistol Choice, may be exchanged for a LRF choice.

This unit may not take an armor gear choice heavier than a Light Armored Suit.

The individual's Experience Level may be increased to Veteran.



Spotters (squad)

Experience Level: Regular

Composition: 2 Smugglers

Equipment: 1 pistol choice, 1 melee choice, 1 gear choice

M/3 RC/4+ CC/3 A/2 S/2 DR/3 W/1

Ability:
*Hidden Deployment
*Alert: For every squad of Spotters in the Smuggler crew the crew gains a +1 on their initiative roll at the start of every turn.

Options:
The units Pistol Choice, may be exchanged for a LRF choice.

This unit may not take and melee weapon choice that requires two hands to wield.

This unit may not take an armor gear choice heavier than a Light Armored Suit.

The squads Experience Level may be increased to Veteran.



Hacker (individual)

Experience Level: Regular

Composition: 1 Smuggler

Equipment: 1 pistol choice, 2 gear choices

M/3 RC/5+ CC/2 A/2 S/2 DR/3 W/2

Ability:
*Solo
*Hidden Deployment
*Hacking: Hackers may hack into electronic devices and disrupt or destroy those devices with their own personal wireless computing devices. During the Hackers activation the Hacker may attempt to hack by spending an activation point. There are a number of things a Hacker can attempt while hacking. Consult the list below:

Slice: Hackers my attempt to open electronic locks by rolling a d6. On a 2-4 the hack fails. On a 5-6 the lock opens.

Data Retrieval: Hackers may attempt to retrieve data from a computerized device by rolling a d6. On a roll of 2 the hack fails. On a roll of 3-4 the Hacker has access and receives a +1 on their next attempt to hack the same device. On a roll of 5-6 the hacker successfully retrieves the target data.

Hack Robot: Hackers may attempt to disable to take control of a single robot or robot squad by rolling a d6. On a roll of a 2-3 the hack fails. On a roll of a 4-5 the Hacker may shut down the robot until the the Hacker's next activation. On a roll of a 6 the Hacker has gained control of the robotic unit until such time as the hacker is taken out of action or another Hacker gains control of the unit.

Hack Gear: Because most complicated electronic devices need to be linked to a computing system for analysis and repair a hacker may attempt to disable or destroy these devices by rolling a d6. On a roll of 2-3 the hack fails. On a roll of 4-5 the Hacker may shut down the device until the Hacker's next activation. On a roll of 6 the Hacker fries the electronic device rendering it out of order for the remainder of the game. Hacker may attempt to hack: Particle Beam Weapons, Electrolazer Weapons, Arc Guns, Automated Tracking Weapons, any Field, any Cybernetic Augmentation (bonus effects only), Personal Teleporter, Self Destruct Mechanism (may cause these to go off on a roll of 6)

Critical Failure: If a Hacker rolls a 1 while making a hacking attempt the hacker's personal computing device is infected with a counter hacking virus which will disable the device. The Hacker must spend an action point and roll a d6 to attempt to kill the virus. On a roll of 2-3 this attempt fails. On a roll of 4-6 the Hacker kills the virus and may continue to use the device to make hacking attempts. On a roll of 1 the Hacker's personal computing device is fried by the virus and the Hacker may not make any additional attempts to hack for the rest of the game.

Options:
The units Pistol Choice, may be exchanged for a LRF choice.

This unit may not take an armor gear choice heavier than a Light Armored Suit.

The individual's Experience Level may be increased to Elite.

The individual may be designated as a hero.

Note: A Hacker may only attempt one hack at a time against a single device. A hacker attempting to shut down or destroy individual pieces of gear carried by a squad must make a hacking attempt against each device not the entire squad. The exception is a squad of robots as they are considered to be on a slaved system.



Hands (squad)

Experience level: Green

Composition: 2 Smugglers

Equipment: 1 pistol choice, 1 gear choice

M/3 RC/5+ CC/2 A/2 S/2 DR/3 W/1

Options:
The units Pistol Choice may be exchanged for a Melee Choice.

This unit may not take and melee weapon choice that requires two hands to wield.

This unit may not take an armor gear choice heavier than a Light Armored Suit.

The squad's Experience Level may be increased to Regular.

[ironworker]

I hope to playtest this list tonight. Anyone have any thoughts?

[mrharold]

These are pretty cool... I look forward to seeing how they play.

I like your idea to have them rewarded for escaping...

[ironworker]

Ok I finally got a play test game in. I did a report on my blog. You can read it here: ironworkersminiatures.blogspot.com/2011/06/ae-bounty-battle-report-boons.html

Before the game started we decided to lower the Pilot and Co-pilots natural armor value from 3 to 2 which gave them both an armor value of 3 because they both had light armored suits. I'm not sure if this was a good idea but we felt a save of 4 was too high and not in keeping with out ideas about the smuggler crew type.
The hacking rules worked out well although I had a lot of failed attempts and got two viruses during the game. The hacker only managed to hack one piece of equipment but did manage to fry it. The hacking rules will take more testing but for now they seem to be working as planned.

[varagon]

Jun 11, 2011 12:34:30 GMT -5 ironworker said:

Ok I finally got a play test game in. I did a report on my blog. You can read it here: ironworkersminiatures.blogspot.com/2011/06/ae-bounty-battle-report-boons.html

Before the game started we decided to lower the Pilot and Co-pilots natural armor value from 3 to 2 which gave them both an armor value of 3 because they both had light armored suits. I'm not sure if this was a good idea but we felt a save of 4 was too high and not in keeping with out ideas about the smuggler crew type.
The hacking rules worked out well although I had a lot of failed attempts and got two viruses during the game. The hacker only managed to hack one piece of equipment but did manage to fry it. The hacking rules will take more testing but for now they seem to be working as planned.

I wondered about that. So you are saying that the rules work well, but it may not be balanced/statted right.

Good work. Keep coming up with ideas!

[ironworker]

Jun 12, 2011 18:16:44 GMT -5 varagon said:

I wondered about that. So you are saying that the rules work well, but it may not be balanced/statted right.

Good work. Keep coming up with ideas!

I think they only need some minor tweaking at this point but they also need much more playtesting. The senerio was somewhat against them because they are not designed to be as good at stand up fights. Especially the crew I designed to play. They did a lot of damage to the Mercs but in the end they all died. Then again I just had a 9 man pirate crew wiped out by 4 bounty hunters.

I don't think the fact that they were wiped out has as much to do with the list as bad luck and the fact that my wife who played the militia has played several games with them and is really starting to get the hang of how they work. We also made a few minor mistakes with the rules that might have changed a few things.