Re: DS - BUGS!!!

Beth Fulton wrote:

> G'day,
>
> Sorry about taking so long to respond to this, but anyways...
>
> >I've got a small wave of bugs on order from GZG
> > (11 packs coming plus the 1 I already have...)
> >and need to develop stats for them in DS.
>
> Thank you you've just saved Derek a lot of trouble ;)
>
> >My current idea is that they move like powered
> >armor (6" with the same restrictions), take 5 valid
> >damage points to destroy from the front (the heavy
> >frontal carapace), 4 valid damage points on the sides
> >and rear, draw 4 chits in close assaults, have no
> > range fire capability, and are always veteren units.
>
> Sounds great so far. One thing though, did you think about the odd
ranged
> fire abilities, before discounting them? Its just that Derek has a
25mm bug
> that has 'bioweapon guns' (for want of a better word	much like the
> Blister? Los mentioned appears in the SST show) on one set of its
forward
> legs (one of the varuants he picked up from Nic, I guess Jon has them
too)
> and as he wants his DS and SG forces to match he would like to seem
some
> ranged fire possible. Maybe a swarm of these would have the same fire
> ability as standard infantry, but such swarms would be rare, what do
you
> think?

I might try giving one swarm RFAC-1's or DFG-1's...  One or two per bug,
fixed
60 degree arc.	I guess a slasher bug would draw five chits in close
assaults
against infantry, but only two against armored vehicles.

>
> > Bugs can attack vehicles in close assaults.
> >They draw 4 chits per bug and only yellow
> >chits count.  Bugs are organized in to "swarms"
> >of about 12 bugs each.
>
> If it were me I'd probably knock that down to 6, they are pretty big
> compared with a human <and I'm gonna be broke otherwise ;)>. Maybe to
keep
> the flavour of your larger swarms there should be a restriction on how
far
> apart swarms can be (then again may be that's too restrictive)

I don't have a problem with smaller size swarms or even different number
of bugs
per swarm.  May be a 2d6 +4 bugs per swarm.  I like the idea of a fixed
value
because I'm cleaning my swarms of bugs up and planning on painting each
of the
swarms differently.

> >If a swarm ever get a rout result, they immediately
> >go beserk and automatically pass all confidence
> >checks for the rest of the game.
>
> Ouch! Good idea, but ouch ;)
>
> >Each bug in a swarm is an individual target.
> >Bugs can be shot at by vehicle weapons as
> >either infantry, or as size class 1 targets.
> >Any valid damage points will kill one bug,
> >if the bug was engaged as a size class 1 target.
>
> Sounds good too.
>
> Just some background fluff we were mulling over (if your interested),
we
> were thinking of allowing the bugs to communicate via radio by an
internal
> organ able to generate VHF/UHF (some form of radio) waves. We hadn't
got
> down to whether or not it could be 'stumbled upon' or jammed, but I'd
say
> that'd be possible, giving you another way of breaking down their
cohesion
> - with the very real risk you may send them frenzied by the look of it
;)

Sounds interesting for long range communications.  Short range would
probably be
phermones and chemicals...  They are bugs after all...

I'm working on rules for bio-vtol bugs.  I'll post them when I get them
done...

IAS