New Ideas

Now blessed with more bugs I will over the next few months paint and playtest.

After a discussion with a friend who hated the DV+Pilot rule which has now gone, it has made me think about how to deal with the high cost of the bugs and having to pay for x pts on top for 'crew'.

Skimming through Drydock II I noticed the Datasphere had been given crew of 10 and through damage get worse.

Whirr clank, thinks, etc.

Bugs have a 'crew' and the number of crew equals their pilot and gunnery skills.  Ergo, killing or destroying weapons downgrades their effectiveness.

Remember playtest remit was to get the bugs to swarm.

I had floated that the 'Regen' rating could be used to add buffs to other bugs in forms of pluses to hit.

What if we say the bug ships in range of the regen rating gives the Bugs bonuses not just to hit but also improves their pilot and gunnery ratings.

A 4 group of bugs with a standard rating of 4, would lift their gunnery rating up to 7, the original bug from the help from its buddies and also gets a +3 to hit.

Drawback:
If the bugs has been screened and or is in Ink it cannot help other bugs and other bugs cannot help it.

Note:  The pilot does not fire a weapon and therefore the minimum skill will always be 2 for a weapon.

Regen can be used x times = to its rating.  Either DC x hits up to y times, or grow back ammo x times, grow back weapons, J pods, and drones etc in any mix that is not greater than the Regen Rating...

Now to get to work on painting up some bugs.

Another got me thinking. Bugs target aggression. So if a ship does not fire, lock on or anything but move then the bugs will ignore it.

Problem, if all terran ships don't fire and sneak in close. The Bugs will attack the ship with the largest crew... terrans make bugs think fuzzy.

And another idea to set the bugs apart:

Mood of fleet:
Frenzy, add plus 1 to hit but has to attack the closest foe
Guile: add plus 1 to DV
Fleet, add plus 1 to Drive
Fortitude, add plus 1 to DR

To issue orders there must be a Pilot of 10 to issue them. This can be done with the above mentioned boosts. If there is no Pilot of 10 then the swarm behave as they were last instructed.

All terrific ideas Smurf.

I had a looksie at our previous rules discussion in the Playtest Check Station thread as a refresher. Now that it's been given some time to age, looking back on it seems a bit clunky to read -probably due to the way I wrote it: rules writing isn't my specialty. It's a simple rule & easy to teach, I just would like to see it written out in an easy for a beginner format.

That's the whole goal of the bugs revision- easy to understand & easy to implement without much recordkeeping or hassle. I'm thinking the core metal express dice system in elegance. I say this, but see how soon I deviate...

There are many ways to reinvent bugs, but if swarming of grubs is one of their design goals- they should drop in points value to the cheap attrition fighter levels on an individual basis. In other words, they can be bought as a pack (of  2-4 what is typically on their display sheet) at a higher points value, but per ship, the price is low... example: four thistles cost about the cost of four crewed attrition fighters but are bought as a swarm of 4.

With that accomplished, you can:

1. Throw one set of attack dice for the whole swarm and just have each element in the swarm add a die to the attack. (in effect it's one 30-60 TPV ship in segments). Since this represents a mass of swarmed fire, just give the swarm sheet a specific short-ranged weapon with a juicy damage type: [ND6 + 1D4 +N]; Damage: ADB Value x2 for any doubles, x3 for triples, etcetera. (where N is the number of ships in the swarm). The swarm must stay within a set cohesiveness distance in hexes from each other (at time of firing) or it can't add its die to the shot. For extra Yahtzee funzies- allow the player to reroll any "N-dice" once.
   ----this eliminates tallying up modifiers- if the swarm is in cohesion, they use more dice making their chance to hit near-certain and their chance for damage in the form of doubles or triples greater. The low end- five 1's does 10 points damage, while the high end- five 4's does 24 points damage. I haven't thought about the damage curve too much beyond that though. Resorting to variables for a unique yet reasonable damage code is its Achilles Heel IMO.
   
2. Supported swarms use the inverted pilot skill die (think tight turn die) of their supporting beta or alpha when they roll for temperament or their own D10 if they are not supported. Each swarm tests its temperament the start of the turn (print this chart on all gamma sheets).
   
3. Regeneration (hatchling damage control) values can be one (good) spread, but caps for each ship per turn.
   

I tried to stay simple but failed. I kept it to 3 points, but completely changed key concepts like 4 swarm ships attacking as one yet tracking damage separate? Does the damage track W mean it can no longer add its dice to the attack? If the core ships are getting an overhaul, what are the grubs being designed to? More thoughts on the concepts presented are fleshed out...

Further details on the rules presented above:

1. Firing range is measured to closest grub in the swarm. In order to qualify to add a die to the pool, the eligible members of the swarm must also have the target in arc and be in at least long-range to the target (the current weapon arcs will probably need to be more forgiving to accommodate ship class: swarm). More misguided ideas: the swarm's attack is an area of effect (yay templates!) or directed at all targets within range...  -unavoidable- the pumpkin spice attack of the hivemind.
   
2. The range betas can support will be listed on their display sheet (as suggested it can be the beta's regeneration value or independently set). The range for command/cohesion should be 1-2 hexes to look as a swarm would. Roll for temperament for the swarm early in turn phase using the lowest-est die the swarm can claim from support or their own D10 if out of support range. The chart could read something similar to this:
   • 7-10= Frenzy: +1 to hit but has to close the range at the max drive and if in range in fire phase- attack the closest enemy. This acts like tailing a target- the swarm moves after their target moves regardless of movement order considerations. (sounds clunky when I spell it out in detail, but that's what the Frenzy rules section in the packet is for- to explain the frenzy condition)
     
   • 5-6= Fleet: +1 to Drive
     
   • 3-4= Guile: +1 to DV; plus Fleet as above 
     
   • 1-2= Fortitude: +1 to DR; plus Guile & Fleet as above
     

Superior cognition linkages produce the best, if somewhat sporadic, results (swarms can be hard to control and tend to frenzy occasionally). So a beta supporting a swarm with a Pilot Skill of 7-8 would cause the swarm to test with a D4, Pilot Skill 5-6 betas let the swarm test on a D6, unsupported Gamma swarms test on a D10.  something to that effect. Modifiers can be added to the mix for more complicated modeling- like any swarm that took damage in the previous turn has a +5 modifier, but it overly complicates the flow of the game. Alphas can either modify one swarm test per turn or reroll all within its area of influence, or by whatever means their tactical relevance is to be modeled.

All in all, while I enjoy brainstorming thematic rules, they belong in a sort of Expert's Field Manual for slow-paced enthusiasts. If the hatchlings are too strong in current form, why can't a simple points adjustment handle it, or why can't they just remain a more powerful denizen of our fictional world? It's only an issue in a competitive setting, which Silent Death isn't currently that type of game. How many among us are fine with them being narratively a bit stronger and used in those types of narratively driven campaigns? I don't trouble to ask myself if the Dragon in our D&D campaign is balanced to the party per se. Sure that's the goal, but rarely does it mean anything- party composition & the types of players at your table throws it out the window.

TL;DR- I'm opposed to implementing my own fanciful ideas. 

I was using the Regen counter as the range and activation.

Regen 4 can:  DC 4 boxes 4 times, fix a weapon, grown a ammo or jump pod extra.  Anything but fix criticals.

Regen can be damaged and therefore reduced.

Using this 'Regen' indicator the bug can help buff 4 separate bugs within 4 hexes.  Each buff add+1 to hit and moves their Gunner Skill up one.

The Regen number means it can only be buffed x times too.  Yes thes means a Monarch can be buffed 8 times for 2D8+D10+ 8 attacks... truly frightening or practically ignoring SR and ranges.

If a bug has 3 'crew' it has a Pilot and Gunnery of 3, each buff adds +1 to this.

Hence the swarm can buff each other to maybe a Pilot/Gunner of 7 with 3 or 4 buffs.

The cost of the ships can remain the same (for now) but there are no crew costs

I like the idea of the mood of the fleet and also if the terrans do not shoot the bugs go for the biggest (crewed) thing... it's a trap.

This means the bugs can be in for a surprise with ML and Torp locks ons but that is really close to the bugs with all their buffs.

Another idea has popped into my head is that Bugs with their quick regen may like to ram.

I had a good chat with a mate who I spar with in Silent Death and he said 'meh' on the buffs because one was better than the other and one was really arse.

Mood of fleet:
Frenzy, add plus 1 to hit but has to attack the closest foe
Guile: add plus 1 to DV (but cannot use Regen this turn)
Fleet, add plus 1+D4 to Drive
Fortitude, add plus 1 to DR, toying with the idea that it give a single point defence based on the Pilot rating.

The question came up about robbing the bugs of first turn shooting because the terrans go quiet. The response was if they are that good, you don't want a bunch of ratty bugs within the fleet.

Due to painting schedule and time we are looking to run a game in October and I will be also play testing that MLs have SR10, hopefully giving the bugs some chance from 5 packs, not so much against 10 packs.