RE: [SGII] Close Encounters Of The Exceedingly Violent Kind

G'day,

Well I've finally got the email thing sorted, apparently an Aussie
server
that passes stuff from overseas to CSIRO had got thwacked. Thankfully I
get
duplicates of most gzg posts anyway (another server idiosyncrasy) so I
didn't miss much ;)

> I know that other people have used these guys in their games 
> (Beth?  I'm looking at *you* here....), and I'm curious as to 
> how you statted 'em up.

Now I wonder why that could be? ;P
For what they're worth I've stuck my grey rules on the bottom, they are
fun,
but seem a bit different to what you're after.
 
> Here's what I'm going with thus far....
> Quality:  Regular at best, maybe green, with Leadership of 1. 
>  All units are identical.

I'd probably stick with regulars.

> Movement: Fast.  10" / 2*1d10".  Additionally, they can move 
> across water or up vertical surfaces without any reduction in speed.

Sounds good, I gave them 12" but didn't have the other tweaks.

> Special Rules:  The Grays are not suppressed by enemy fire 
> *unless* one of more members of a squad is actually hit...
> Grays can only have a single Suppression marker at a 
> time...A Suppressed Gray unit *must* spend its first action
> to make a combat move away from the attacker(s) and (if 
> possible) into cover.  Doing so removes the Suppression 
> marker, and the unit may now act normally on its second action.

This could make them very tough, just keep an eye on whether they're
getting
too much of a benefit out of this.

> Secondly, individual Gray units do not make confidence 
> checks.  Only the force as a whole
> has any kind of Morale (it's a group mind kinda thing), and 
> this will require me to write up a
> little chart to indicate when rolls should be made.  
> Additionally, they don't have a command
> structure as such, so there's no transferal of actions allowed.

OK no confidence checks isn't too much of a killer unless you use
Allan's
morale houserules normally. The lack of transfer of actions may also
balance
out the suppression mechanism change.
 
> Now, I need to come up with some Close Combat rules that 
> reflect that, while they are still hard to kill, the 
> Grays really suck at hand-to-hand combat.  
> Maybe a d12 roll for CC, but if a
> Gray wins he inflicts no damage?

I'd say do CC as normal, but if the opponent is 'hurt' the worst
possible
result is a stun result. That way the Greys could win the CC, but the
humans
will be able to recover from it eventually... assuming they survive the
abduction ;P

> The scenario will be a simple one: the NSL will have 10 men 
> defending a cruise missile base
> against twice that number of Grays....
> Increase the number of defenders?  
> I'd prefer to have some more
> attackers, but I've only got 20 Grays painted....

Given the changes you've made the defenses the NSL are sitting behind
would
want to be pretty good. I'd probably start with 10, but have a "reserve"
deeper into the complex which could appear as reinforcements should the
aliens prove to be getting too all too easy ;)

Have fun

Beth

>>>>> RULES FOR GREYS <<<<<<<<<<<<
Thanks to Jeff and some other generous gentleman on the list, whose name
escapes me right now (sorry seem to have lost the "from" part of that
email
when I saved it), who were of great assistance in coming up with the
original ideas for these guys. Anything not mentioned here is as for
humans
(or hasn't been thought about as I don't have any vehicles yet... though
GZG's saucer and the Lost In Space saucers are proving mighty
tempting!). I
did also think about effecting cross species EW (nominally at present
they
get a D12 EW die or 2D10 depending on whether the scenario calls for bad
comms for the humans or REALLY bad comms).

Run away pretty easily however they come back even faster. Thus they get
a
-1 to their roll on confidence tests and a +1 to rally tests. They can
only
have high motivation missions under exceptional circumstances - like
you're
about to take over their ship! However, they do not surrender to humans.

They have a terror affect (vs humans) for close combat purposes.

The first time a human squad SEES them in a game they cause a confidence
test with the threat level of +1. In addition to this their leaders have
PSI
powers (gadget based, like the alien equivalent of a radio operator,
once
this equipment is lost the commander can't use these PSI powers anymore)
that allow them to try and influence weak-willed members of opposing
human
squads. To do this they make a communication attempt with any human
squad
within line of sight. If they succeed then they may do one of the
following:
a) make the human squad take a confidence test as if they had been
forced to
abandon wounded ("the bastards are going to leave us behind, the
bastards
are going to leave us behind...")
b) cause a panic test (as if seeing them for the first time... "We've
actually got fangs, are 10ft tall and standing right behind you!")
c) shift the die type up one type if the target of any spotting attempts
initiated by that human squad during its next activation (this one is
not
announced at the time, but noted down, let them sweat on it! "Nobody
here
but us chickens")
d) cause a reaction test if the target of any firing initiated by that
human
squad during its next activation (this is another one that's not
announced
at the time, but noted down, now they've got a choice of things to be
worried about. "Target, what target?")
e) cause a "who's my buddy" test, performed in the same way as a
reaction
test, but if they fail their target is actually the nearest/easiest
human
target. If their are no human targets around pick a piece of scenery
(not
one any greys are hiding in obviously). The human squad must fire at
that
target during their next activation and may not fire at the greys at
all.
("You're not my buddy, you're out to get us, you're one of them...")

They are fast with a basic move of 12" (Combat move of D12x2"). They can
pop
out from cover and disappear again like lightning. They don't seem to
have
light troops or anything in power armour - at least not yet...

They usually wear partial light armour, though no combat or heavier
armour
has been reported.

They use the following weapons:

Small Arms	  Range Firepower Impact
Energy rod	  Close   2	    D6
Power sphere	  Close   3	    D8
Light ray-gun	  Close   3	    D8
Heavy ray-gun		  2	    D8
Laser rifle			  3	    D10

Support Weapon		Firepower  Impact
Plasma launcher 	  D10	   D12*
Laser cannon		  D10	   D10x2**
*Impact value against dispersed targets of for MINOR hits on point
targets -
DOUBLE this for MAJOR hits on point targets.
** These are RARE!!!!!

When killed they emit a high pitched squeal (regardless of whether they
died
under fire or while their medic was treating them), at this point if
that
alien had been hidden its corpse is placed on the table. The rest of the
recently ex-alien's squad must make an immediate 6" concealed movement
(with
the usual test, if they fail then they're seen as normal) - this may
well be
out of sequence and is in addition to their usual activation.

Their reactions are good and, while they're unwounded, if they do not
move
before firing they get a +1 to their impact die roll in the wound
determination (step 3) phase of the infantry fire procedure.

They definitely see a lot better in the dark that we do, they get a D6
for
vision even without sensors. They also avoid fighting on clear days,
though
its not completely unheard of.

Being small and sneaky they can find a corner and remain still for quite
a
while. Thus, even when attacking up to half their force may be deployed
as
hidden units. All greys may also use the snipers' concealed movement and
going into hiding rules (though rather than doing it for each figure you
do
it for whole squads at a time and just mark the centre of the squad with
a
chits rather than each figure).

They're willing to destroy their technology to prevent humans getting
it,
even if this means going up with the ship. If a last stand test has
previously been past and the unit in question is defending an
artefact/ship/piece of their own technology and has been reduced to one
man
then a "pull the plug" test is made - on a 3+ (you've got to leave some
stuff for the conspiracy theorists to gesticulate about) the figure
shoots
the power core and everything in a 12" (or more appropriate self
destruct)
radius goes up. If they fail the test they must immediately begin using
concealed movement to exit the area.

Taking human prisoners as a past time for these guys and interrogation
is
just so much run of the mill. Thus they get a die shift up one level
during
any interrogations. If they are successful and the prisoner is an
ordinary
trooper the interrogating player gets to choose three inverted counters
on
the tabletop and then the owning player choses one of these to reveal.
If
the prisoner is an officer/NCO then the interrogating player choses
which
counter on the table will be revealed (as for standard human
interrogation).
Prisoners are often released again, however they are a bit vague as to
what
just happened and are effectively broken and exhausted (see Rest and
Recovery rules in SGII) - and they keep talking about hard metal
surfaces
and flashing lights...

The greys aircraft may use a "light" round - basically they shin very
bright
light at the target. To do this place a fire marker and any human within
3"
must take a panic test. The light is then removed.