Re: [SG II] Tyranid conversion

Con't comment on all of the specifics  - never had much opportunity to
use
tyranids back when I did 40k, nor have I played SGII (I do own the
rulebook
and have read it.)  However, I think it is a bad idea to recreate the
40k
Tin-God syndrome in which psychological factors completely fail to
affect
your units. It may be appropriate to allow the 'line troops' to reduce
Threat Levels when they are within a certain range of the controlling
elements.  And give them a more alien feel by perhaps modifying what the
units do at different confidence levels - perhaps a broken genestealer
will
break the control of the hive mind and automatically assault the nearest
enemies - You lose control of them.

Which sets me thinking (dangerous, I know):

Epic Tyranids had a natural tendency for each of the units - sit back &
fire - Charge - etc.  assign 'natural tendencies' or 'Instincts' to your
tyranid unit types.

Give your controlling units a 'control' value (Hive Mind is 1, Other big
&
nasty control dudes 2, Tyranid warrriors 3).  Under normal circumstances
a
control unit can override natural tendencies and direct their
underlings.
However, when a unit's confidence is reduced, you must dice to see if
you
can make them follow orders ('coersion').  Roll a die appropriate for
the
unit's current confidence (I would not give Routed units a roll,
starting
broken at d4) and they must roll above the control number of the
commanding
unit to perform your requested action.	Possibly make is an opposed roll
vs. the commanders rating (hive mind gets d12, lvl-2 get d10, lvl-3 gets
d8).  In this case the commander's roll must ber greater that the unit's
roll. (this will give less consistent control.)  For additional fun,
when
the controlling units themselves lose confidence levels, reduce their
command ability.  For example, when a Tyranid warrior drops to shaken,
it
loses it's control ability. I would say start dropping levels at Shaken,
and keep dropping 1 each level.  So a Broken Hive mind, while it may
limitations on actions it can perform, can still 'coerce' troops as if
it
were an unwounded Warrior.

For more options, (at the cost of more complexity) do not give fixed
control ranges, per se.  Instead reduce effective control rating one
level
per 12" range band.  So your tyranid warrior again could not control
units
outside this 12" radius, but the hive mind could at least try to coerce
a
broken unit into action from 36" away - but at that range it would have
the
same chance as the warrior within 12".

Perhaps the Control rating could also determine the number of units that
can be 'coerced' in a given turn by that controller.

just some random thoughts...

Jared Noble

Magnus Alexandersson <m96maal@mtek.chalmers.se> on 10/06/98 07:32:33 AM

Please respond to FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk

To:   Full Thrust <FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk>
cc:    (bcc: Jared E Noble/AAI/ARCO)
Subject:  [SG II] Tyranid conversion

I'm doing small homepage with adaptations for tyranids to use them in
SGII.

It's _almost_ done, so I won't post it yet, but I was thinking:

Using Tyranids in any battle involves alot of small changes and extras
just to make the work. So I thought I'd run 'em by you lot.

Hormgaunt leap? triple combat move? 3*D?

The Hive node priciple? i.e. Hive Tyrant and Tyranidwarriors and the
"Immune to psy."-rule. According to the system (FMA) all can run away,
all can get scared. If a tyranid creature is within 12" from a Warrior,
then do they pass all test? All reaction tests or what?

There's probably alot more, but I can't remeber any q. we had when we
discussed this. Will playtest our rules this weekend, and after that
I'll
post 'em.

///magnus

*********************************************
|	    Magnus Alexandersson	    |
|Email: m96maal@mtek.chalmers.se	    |
|Site: http://www.mtek.chalmers.se/~m96maal |
*********************************************