BELT BUZZARDS: Ruckets of Bust

On the ravaged husks of worlds decimated in the Hatchling War, outposts turned hellscapes both written off and long forgotten, vestiges of humanity defy extinction as they salvage and war over the scraps essential to survival in the howling canyons of their twisted habitats and the silence of space...

"Faster - More Ridiculous"

This pirate Warband is inspired from Fury Road's Buzzard's gang, and... well that pretty well covers it- Warhammer 40k Ork vehicle mentality meets Wheelers from Return to Oz smothered in a thick layer of crysteel rust (how does that happen?) and spikes, scads and scads of spikes. Add a dash of flame gouts (in SPAAAACE!) and you've bridged The Rule of Cool where these nutters gad the brood haunted fringes of no man's space.

If the Universal Night Watch is a scalpel in the fight against the grubs, this clan is a wrecking ball. Long gone are specialized equipment, decoys, torps, and most other ordinance with the exception of rare finds, P-D batteries are seldom found operational. Stockpiles of missiles and other scattered cargo left abandoned in decimated battlezones being the staples found most often. More often than not a pilot locking on to a vessel will fail due to the launchers targeting panel cutting out than any lack of skill on behalf of the operator per se. A drubbing with a spanner is usually enough to dislodge the dust therein and bring it back online. This bashing remedy a microcosm of the Buzzards way of life.

The Hedgehog Ram is common amongst the ships that scour these parts. The shells of Shryak Shuttles littering old settlements a ghostly memorial to a large scale rescue effort that never got off the ground either figuratively or literally.

Gutted of anything nonfunctional, engines juiced past their limits, these reinforced death cages almost make you pine for a Delta II. Almost. The quad pulse lasers are swapped out for meld laser mounts where possible for a bit more reachy-reachy, and the fragile to the elements defensive shielding module- nearly never found functional is often pulled and patched with one from an old tug (or worse).

The iconic bristling beast that results is THE rusty maul of the Buzzard fleets. Slamming the chassis into an enemy is not the last ditch effort described in the cadet training manuals of 'safe-space'- these pilots are a last-ditch martini, 200 proof, a vultures eye olive on a rusted nail, set on fire.




A triad of Hedgehogs accompanied by a Hellbender wing scouts the debris for salvage.

Optional Rule: Zeal

The ragtag bands of Buzzards may not be well trained in traditional flight dictums of Terran academia, but where they lack in honed technique, they make up for with a fanatical zest for proving themselves worthy of the flame of glory in fearlessly courting a grizzly death in battle. A life devoid of civilization has marked these twisted bodies with skills that top out in the 4-5 range, a skill of 6 being an example of an exceptional pilot or gunner, probably a raid-leader or clan-boss. In inspired fits of zealous excitement, audacious feats are performed for a reckoning by those brethren who bear witness.

• Buzzard Pirates start the game with one point of Zeal and can never have more than one point at any time. Buzzards do not accumulate Luck.
  
• Zeal can be spent at any time by a crewmember of a ship to temporarily double their PLT or GNR skill (max 10) for the remainder of the turn phase. Hedgehog ramming attempts accompanied by a fervent cacophony of howling from the crew are typical.
  
• Fervor for Carnage: Zeal can be regained in various ways depending on the role of the ship or crewmember, but the closest Buzzard ship to a 'reactor hit' resultant destroyed ship (friend or foe) always gains a point of zeal on a D6 roll of a 4+.
  
• The Chosen: A Hedgehog crew regains Zeal on the crit result of a 7: when their ship shudders and threatens to rip apart but somehow manages to hold together.
  
• Flaming Skullz: Buzzards often coat their missiles with incendiary dope because-- fire, and sometimes they even stay lit.  If at least three 6's are rolled in the missile to hit/damage roll, a point of Zeal is regained as the crew's goggled faces contort into pyromaniacal sneers of jagged teeth.
  

"Look at that ship burn Kraz!"  "Eat fire normie! Reeee!"

What are you waiting for? Get your pirate on! Silent Death Style...

The verdict: while a fun concept, in theory, the result is not worth the points for a couple of reasons:

1. I used the wrong template for starters: the light (300 ton) 2 person fighter template instead of the scout -oops- shuttle template. If only I had scrolled down a bit further. So here I am trying to redesign a Shryak Shuttle with the wrong template (an impossible task, I know) which predictably proceeded to eat up the precious slots in getting to the DR 5 value that there was little left to play with. I took every flaw possible to shave some points to justify the junky design, and the flaws are at least 'in character' for the ship, but in the end, it still feels over-pointed for what it does. The flawed ship design system is well known and discussed thoroughly, so this result was expected to some extent -no need to retread old ground here.
   
2. I tried to stick too close to the Shuttle's original spec where I should have branched off to fit the role of the refit: ramming. To that end, I should drop the 360 mount altogether and add a minelaying bay and as many Mk 10 mines as slots will allow. The concept: a number of 'sticky bomb' mines positioned on the belly of the spiked behemoth that detaches on a 1-2 on a D4 to leave "gifts" behind for the end of the turn when they activate by being away from the transmitter. Each does standard mine damage with the usual +2 to hit/damage formula overlapping minefields use. It's stretching the rules in an unconventional way but seems reasonable.
   

As soon as I get done stitching up a new sheet I'll repost it above. I think using the correct template and focusing on the design concept a bit more might yield an improved result. Stay tuned.

Edit:
  ...well that didn't take long...
-- 400-ton shuttle template. Lowest possible speed. Lowest possible DV: 6! DR- 5. Six slots left. Enough for a Type 2 Drone Mine Bay & a pair of Mk 10 Drones. Nothing else.

Wow.

Clearly trying to marry a high DR (the worst possible scenario for the templates) with a corner case (by generous standards) ramming tactic breaks it -no mind-blowing revelations there, but even as a bog standard mine laying platform it would suck. I knew from discussions DR was busted, more so the more you buy, I just didn't appreciate how badly.

Any suggestions besides just cobbling together an appropriate design by feels and submit for peer review?

If anything, after looking at the templates & the Space Junk mine table, I have a newfound appreciation for Brood drone ships. In its current iteration, an Eel is a bio-mine laying god compared to anything you can build.

I found the rules to be quite balanced. The weapons system seems to be an after though. Firstly do you need a gunner?

Its primary goal is to ram stuff. Albeit with a D12. Can you get another piece of armour (6) if you ditched all the weapons iirc they cost a grand 3pts, the 360 weapon is going to cost another 2 pts You could replace it with a a pulse laser or twin pulse laser to make the pilot feel important. Would a single seat be better, if not quicker and tougher?

No- a gunner is not necessary, edit: it just needs to be a TPAC hull for the 3D12(All)  bracket where 5-6 DR mitigates about 1/3 of it for the Hedgehog while it lasts- (19-20 points average with the max damage caveat listed in the ramming rule section).  This makes the ship essentially an Mk. 30 guided torp that ignores decoys, jamming, P-D, and is reusable until killed or it succumbs to ramming damage itself. Perhaps lifting the last resort stipulation is all it needs to be viable. A weapon for the pilot isn't needed either -their date with ramming destiny is all the self-importance they'll need. I could see a limited ammo type - a harpoon w/attached mine type shot that only works at range 1 for times when a ram attempt is missed maybe as an option. I'll adjust for no gunner or weapon and see where that falls. The bewilderment above stems from looking at other attrition fighters (like the Iklwa at close to half the price and what it gets at that price point comparatively) and doubting* the suicidal rammer concept can 'make a dent' -pun intended. *at this point it just needs testing.

DR 5-6 (immunity to all but the best Low weapon shots) is nothing to scoff at, if the cost to get there weren't an 'all your eggs on one basket' proposition, it would be too good. The design challenge is: can a rammer make it partially pay off without being trivially answered by cheaper traditional designs. Maybe not and that's a good thing lest we'd have bumper cars in space: the game.

I'm aiming for a sort of Goblin Fanatic from WHFB type unit: a one trick pony black swan dangerous enough to give pause, with a short window of opportunity to cause havoc before it self destructs. It's the kind of thing better suited to its own sourcebook where you can craft unique rules to encapsulate special corner cases and thematic trends, and I realized that early on and why I offered the Zeal optional rules, but I was trying to keep the actual ship within the constraints of the design system. I think a community designed sourcebook would best meet this goal. Doesn't have to be wild scavenging pirate gangs, but that's a pretty good theme if you ask me. Perhaps detailing 5-6 notorious pirate groups in various sectors of death-space from data sphere rogue ai anomalies to dashing privateers and the quirks that make each of them unique.

Also, a reminder (to myself) that the theatre of operations for this clan is in grub won areas as of yet taken back Terran space where the brood has mostly settled back down. Zip for torpedo defenses isn't a concern for this design- X-Beams & Drones being the primary mode of damage even amongst many betas. If the Hogs end up taking the heat of the relatively rare Y-Beams for the gang, all the better probably. Drones being a massive killjoy to a ramming nutters aspirations though, so perhaps a minesweeper on a swivel mount for a gunner isn't a bad idea after all... Choices-choices: cut speed for more arcs on a sweeper mount? Cut DR slightly for a 'NOS-like' jump pod clone?

Speaking of- since there aren't any published design notes on hatchling tech points & slot costs, how much should three type 2 pods cost for a ship? (this would add 3 points to the drive for each boost used for the turn, but doesn't cause the ship to actually enter hyperspace, so it doesn't cause tracking ordinance confusion, and all boosts to be used must be declared at the start of the move, unlike pay-as-you-go grub pods. I'd piggyback this drawback also: after a movement that utilized a boost roll a D6 for each boost used and total the result. If the result is greater than the number of boosts used x3, then mark off a drive box for every 3 points the roll exceeded by. (if there is a more concise way to word that, please share.) This represents damage to the drive while overstressing it. I'm gonna spitball three shots (J) (J) (J) of this engine-adrenaline called "The Juice" so I can stick with the J/j hitbox nomenclature at 5 points, 2 slots. I have no clue. Lowballing it? Too pricy? About right?

This brings up another overlooked potential problem... How can it be determined which is the smaller ship in a ram since brood ships tonnage is not documented? Any guidance in that department? I will weigh the ships on a gram scale and report back my findings for scientific fact based ruling  (Shryak's are stout buggers compared to flat hatchlings this should be interesting)

Back to the ship design rules for a second- Designed ships in a vacuum: balanced. Designed ships that focus on DV & PD/Drive -no issues. Designed ships that focus on DR especially when up against book fighters look comparatively the worst off to my eyes, but it could just be a case of bias: paper staring down scissors and balking. Will redesign and more importantly- test.

New version:


All 15 slots were spent, same quirks, snagged a minesweeper with 5 arcs (10 pts/3 slots) should be [F] arc instead of [R], and added the boost system (5/2) with details on the sheet for it: basically, it risks damaging the drive the harder it's pushed in a turn. The critical box needed some corrections, and the new template gets the total damage boxes up to 50 with the quirk.

The breakdown on the boost system: if you use one in a turn the chance of the drive degrading under stress is 16.67% if you use two- 25% chance you degrade a point, and a slight 2.78% chance you lose a second point, for a cumulative chance of 27.78%. If you punch it and run it all through the system at once, after you enjoy that turn of drive19 burn, there is a cumulative 50% chance that you lose some drive- 24.07% that it's a mere point of drive, 24.07% that it's two, and a very slight chance of 1.85% that you lose three, but in hindsight I should have made that result cause catastrophic failure with a blown thruster. I'm not done tinkering with it yet because, in order to add it to other faster ships and not have them get in the mid-20s, I think it needs to top out at 6 extra drive per turn max- more like this:
   ...diminishing returns with a press-your-luck component. The rules handled visually, serves to minimize complexity bloat. Each line is a single use: +3, then 5, then 6 if you want to go all out. The numbers would be needed to be tweaked from what was presented above or few would risk it for that last point of thrust (though if you had a proper Buzzard mindset you would!). Afterburner sounds to competent for these wrench monkeys strapped to rustbuckets though, so a better name is in order. Maybe even a +2 +2 +1 for a cap of 5 would be even better to increase the number of buzzard ships that can use the system without in going off the rails.

Debating dropping the quirks: a 10% discount on the whole shebang for shifting a single minesweeper one spot to the left on a 50 damage track seems exploitative.

It's looking like this pig can ruin a gamma's day on just a single crunch (not larvas so much, but several others)- Zeal will probably have to be reworked or dropped. The cap on gamma PLT skills has them at too much of a disadvantage to win a ramming contest. Perhaps if I start them with 0 Zeal and give them a +1 when they take max risk on the afterburner juice.

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As for size class of brood ships when determining the max damage caveat in the ramming optional rules section, I remembered that the store has listed weights for the ships. Probably not very accurate, but will do in a pinch until official tonnages are given. Below is a simple guide with listed weights (lbs.) and a few explanations of my reasons.

Larger weight class
Monarch .05                ------the only one listed heavier
Muskellunge .03           ------because it's an Alpha
Eel .03                         ------because it's even more slippery than most!
Lamprey .03                ------another eel-ish name, another pass
Wormpod .03              ------because I think of them scaled to warhounds

Same weight class (around 300-400 tons)
Shryak Shuttle .03    -----our Hedgehog chassis
Bright Thorn .03
Dragonfly .03
Manta .03
Skree .03
Squidge .03
Tiger Moth .03

Lighter weight class
Larva .02
Muckworm .02
Remora .02
Scarab .02
Shaggai .02
Thistle .02
Vartak .02

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Errata: sheet for the Dain has incorrect ranges, or the Ba'al Mapteach 1 satellite & minesweeper entry in Spacejunk does. Noticed while stitching a new sheet. Might have even reported this before.

New version:

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Where did you get the sheet from or was it a mad photoshop thingy?

Where did you get the sheet from or was it a mad photoshop thingy?

Mad photoshop from Shryak Shuttle & other Area 51 PDF sheets. It's only at 96 dpi, so it might print a bit blurry. I sometimes make 'condensed' versions of the sheets for Vassal play where screen real estate is at a premium, but it's often easier to just have the sheets on hand at the table (I have the Red Star vs Grub sheets at my side ready to go as I type this).