New Rules: Antares - Special Ops teams
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New Rules: Antares - Special Ops teams
by shimond007 Thu Apr 21, 2016 3:07 pm
Antares - Special Ops teams is a Beyond the Gates of Antares modifications of the rules that allows the players to field special operations teams in small team vs team engagement. The mod is a work in progress and any suggestion is very welcomed. [I'd like to add, english is not my first language and I didn't edit the document so be nice and forgiving but please let me know where a re-wording is necessary. Thanks]
I still have to play this so please if you like to give it a go let me know your opinion and any feedback you have.
The mod uses Beyond the Gates of Antares rules in most of the cases, below you will find the modifications to apply for specific part of the rules, if something is not clear or it’s missing refer to the normal Beyond the Gates of Antares rules.
Select your Forces
Every player is the squad leader of a special operation team, these teams are composed by exceptional soldiers recruited from their units of origin. Examples of suggested teams are provided at the end of this document, to keep consistency we assume the cost of soldiers and equipment as well as optional equipment is taken directly from the army list in the rulebook. Special ops specific equipment might be added in the future.
Each team is composed by one Squad Leader (chosen from the Commanders/Overseers in the lists) and up to five Operation Specialist, the cost of each model is derived from the army list. For example, an AI Trooper cost is 17 pts, an AI Leader costs is 26 pts. As explained models can have extra equipment from the list of the units they are part of and they keep same standard equipment and special rules. Drones cannot be taken as equipment option. To be able to use a Drone in small scale engagement that usually involve a lot of stealth some experience is necessary so Drones will be available to Drone specialist in the campaign game. [what do you think of this rule? Better to allow Drones from the beginning?]
Special weapons options are available as per cost in the list, however the only weapons allowed are standard and hand, plus grenades.
Every player has 150 pts to build his team.
Example of Algoryn Special Ops Team
1X AI Commander @64 pts with Overload ammo @5pts
1X AI Trooper Command with Plasma Carabine @20pts
1X AI Trooper Assault @22 pts
1X AI Trooper @17 pts with Micro X-Launcher and SlingNet ammo @5pts
1X AI Trooper @17 pts
Total 150 pts
Example of Boromites Special Ops Team
1X Overseer @63 pts with Tractor Maul @5 pts
1X Handler @48 pts
1X Lavamites @17 pts (Special rule - if within 10” from handler can use handler Co)
1X Ganger with Mass compactor (no armor) @17 pts
Total 150 pts
Order Dice
The mechanic of the order dice and the type of orders a unit can have are the same of Beyond the Gates of Antares, however in this ruleset every model is considered a single units and every units is a MOD units. This means that two dice are used for every model in the team.
In the previous example the total order dice of the team is 10, two for each model.
Order dice are used in exact same way as per standard rules.
Some skills can give we call “order synergies”, for example the skill “Always Vigilant” allows a model that used the first order dice to advance or run, to use the second order dice to advance or run a second time but ending the turn with the ambush order instead of advance/run.
Pins
Pins also work in the same way as standard rules, by considering every model in the team a single unit therefore penalties are applied to the single model.
Also pins are removed as usual during the game.
Break & Panic Test
If in one single turn a model takes more than half of his Command stats in pin markers derived from shooting or assault the unit has to test Command, if he fails unit is automatically in Panic:
Panicked units with at least one order dice left in the bag will immediately take an action, remove one or two order dice (depending on how many are left in the bag) and roll a D10:
1-2 Kill’em all! use one or two dice to shoot once or twice to the closest enemy model in sight.
3-4 Just shoot’em down! - if units has two dice left use one order to advance to cover up to 5” and use the second to fire to the closest enemy model in sight (if any).
5-6 Run away! use one or two dice to move as far as possible from every enemy in sight. Run orders
7-8 Take cover! - If units has two dice left use one order to move up to 10” to gain cover, use the second dice to go down. If the unit has only one dice left it moves up to 10” in cover
9-10 Unit goes Down - both order dice are displayed with Down order
Panicked units with no order dice left in the bag will automatically suffer one wound (see later Wounds)
Units with pins equal or more than their command stats are automatically broken - Remove all the order dice of that units from the bag or the table.
At the start of each turn, before the first dice is drawn, roll a dice for each broken model, with a result of 1 the model recover, use one dice to give him a rally order and put the second dice in the bag.
with a roll of 2+ the model will move towards the closest border of the table by 20”.
Wounds
Shooting and hand to hand combat work in the same way as standard game, however to reflect the small skirmish operation we will go a bit more into details for what concerns survivability of the models, after all these are exceptional soldiers chosen for their bravery and toughness.
Every time a model should be removed in the standard rules instead that model suffer a wound.
Every wound a model suffer gives a permanent -1 to any action the model has to test for excluding Command (so this doesn’t apply to break test or order test).
A model is removed when he suffer a number of wounds equal to his wounds stat.
Every model has two wounds and the Squad leader has three. Some skills add more wounds to the model or have some effects related to wounds.
Hand to Hand
Hand to hand is resolved in the same way as standard rules, with below exceptions:
Firefight - When one model is assaulting an enemy model resolve point blank shooting, however if one or more units with at least one order dice left in the bag are within 10” of the assaulted model they can also participate in the point blank shooting. treat this as a reaction and follow same rules of a normal reaction, place one order dice to each model participating the firefight with the order fire, +1 bonus doesn’t apply for shooting with a fire order. Each model can shoot against the enemy model that is participating in the fight.
Brawl - Units within 5” from the assaulted model with at least one order dice available, can make a reaction test to partecipate the brawl. Place an order dice with the order run and move the models into hand to hand combat.
Note: the above reactions can be combined for a deadly firefight and brawl, if a model has two order dice still in the bag and he is within 5” from the assaulted units he can take both reactions, allowing for a multiple and exciting combat.
Coordinate Assault - this is an addition to the Follow special rule available to commanders, a commander can use this rule to coordinate an assault towards one or more enemies in range, the assault can be directed against one single enemy model or split to multiple models, as per normal rules, the only exception is that the units that follow the leader can have pins markers in which case a normal command check is required for the unit to follow the order.
When a unit is defeated in hand to hand and it’s not killed by results of the fight check the result as follow:
Winning unit can force another round of hand to hand as usual. Losing unit has to make a break test:
If success the unit can consolidate (or fight another round if forced) if fail then check the total number of pin marker in the unit: If pin markers are more than half the command stat of the unit then the unit suffer a wound. If pin markers are less than half the command stat of the unit the units is broken (see break & panic test above)
Campaign progressions
Clearly this mod is inspired by games such Necromunda and Frostgrave as well as the recent X-Com 2 videogame, and obviously the most rewarding way to enjoy it would be with a campaign. [I'm having a lot of fun in writing these rules for myself so I'm planning to write scenario that can be played in solo mode with an AI]
After every game the team will gain experience point that can be spent to buy new skills or special equipment dedicated to the most experienced soldiers. You need to keep track of the action of each model during the game and add experience point at the end of the game for each model:
1 xp = Winning the scenario or surviving the battle (so if a model is out of action but the squad won the scenario he will still get 1xp)
1 xp = killing or putting an enemy out of action
X xp = for completing secondary objectives as noted in the scenario
Progression:
1 xp - 1 level up
3 xp - 1 level up
5 sp - 1 level up
8 xp - 1 level up
13 xp - 1 level up
Every level up will give you the option to improve your model, by choosing one of the following:
Extra condition
Intense physical and mental training choose a +1 in one of the following stats:
Ag, Acc, Init, Co
No stat can be improved more than 10
Skill
Some skills have a cooldown period, these skills once used can be used again only after a number of turns equal to the cooldown value are passed. So for example a cooldown of two means that if the unit use the ability in turn one the ability can be used again in turn 4.
Choose any one skill from the following list:
Run & Shoot - cooldown 2 the model can use one of his dice to make a run action and be able to shoot with a -1 penalty to hit.
Sharpshooter - cooldown 2 the model can use both of his dice to activate sharpshooter, this means once a dice is assigned to this model and the model use the skill draw another dice from the bag and assign both dice to the model, both with fire order. The model ignore any range penalties, add a +1 to hit as per normal fire order and ignore LOS penalties. Also if he hits with a 1 on the dice roll the shoot cause 2 wounds, therefore immediately killing a standard team member.
Grenadiers - cooldown 1 the model can throw grenades up to 10”
Field medic - cooldown 0 the model can heal one wound, to heal a wound the model have to use one order dice as advance order, but instead of firing he can attempt to heal a wound. He will test Acc, if test is successful one wound is healed for a model within 1” from the medic.
Always vigilant - cooldown 0 if the model used a run or advance order with his first dice and uses the second dice to also run or advance, once the last action is resolved the order is automatically changed in ambush.
Drone expert - cooldown 0 the model is a drone expert, he can bring a drone in battle, drone can be bought as special ops equipment.
Gunslinger - cooldown 1 if the model is equipped with a pistol he can shoot twice with one order at the same target. It can also be used in point blank shooting
Hacker - cooldown 1 the model is an expert hacker, he can hack into a drone and use it for that turn. Test on Acc. Target units with drone should be within 15” from the hacker but LOS is not necessary
Stealth - the model use some kind of camo device, he is invisible as long as he only moves and doesn’t enter in a 15” radius from an enemy model. An invisible model cannot be shot at or assaulted.
Tough Fighter - the model has one extra wound. Can only be taken once
Veteran - cooldown 2 the model can reroll one single dice. Only one reroll is admitted (it doesn’t stack with Leader)
Runner - cooldown 1 the model for the turn he uses this skills can sprint without testing agility therefore without risking taking a pin
Close combat expert - the model can reroll one dice during a and to hand, either point blank shooting or hand to hand combat.
Ambusher - cooldown 3 the model in ambush can shoot twice to up to two target
I still have to play this so please if you like to give it a go let me know your opinion and any feedback you have.
The mod uses Beyond the Gates of Antares rules in most of the cases, below you will find the modifications to apply for specific part of the rules, if something is not clear or it’s missing refer to the normal Beyond the Gates of Antares rules.
Select your Forces
Every player is the squad leader of a special operation team, these teams are composed by exceptional soldiers recruited from their units of origin. Examples of suggested teams are provided at the end of this document, to keep consistency we assume the cost of soldiers and equipment as well as optional equipment is taken directly from the army list in the rulebook. Special ops specific equipment might be added in the future.
Each team is composed by one Squad Leader (chosen from the Commanders/Overseers in the lists) and up to five Operation Specialist, the cost of each model is derived from the army list. For example, an AI Trooper cost is 17 pts, an AI Leader costs is 26 pts. As explained models can have extra equipment from the list of the units they are part of and they keep same standard equipment and special rules. Drones cannot be taken as equipment option. To be able to use a Drone in small scale engagement that usually involve a lot of stealth some experience is necessary so Drones will be available to Drone specialist in the campaign game. [what do you think of this rule? Better to allow Drones from the beginning?]
Special weapons options are available as per cost in the list, however the only weapons allowed are standard and hand, plus grenades.
Every player has 150 pts to build his team.
Example of Algoryn Special Ops Team
1X AI Commander @64 pts with Overload ammo @5pts
1X AI Trooper Command with Plasma Carabine @20pts
1X AI Trooper Assault @22 pts
1X AI Trooper @17 pts with Micro X-Launcher and SlingNet ammo @5pts
1X AI Trooper @17 pts
Total 150 pts
Example of Boromites Special Ops Team
1X Overseer @63 pts with Tractor Maul @5 pts
1X Handler @48 pts
1X Lavamites @17 pts (Special rule - if within 10” from handler can use handler Co)
1X Ganger with Mass compactor (no armor) @17 pts
Total 150 pts
Order Dice
The mechanic of the order dice and the type of orders a unit can have are the same of Beyond the Gates of Antares, however in this ruleset every model is considered a single units and every units is a MOD units. This means that two dice are used for every model in the team.
In the previous example the total order dice of the team is 10, two for each model.
Order dice are used in exact same way as per standard rules.
Some skills can give we call “order synergies”, for example the skill “Always Vigilant” allows a model that used the first order dice to advance or run, to use the second order dice to advance or run a second time but ending the turn with the ambush order instead of advance/run.
Pins
Pins also work in the same way as standard rules, by considering every model in the team a single unit therefore penalties are applied to the single model.
Also pins are removed as usual during the game.
Break & Panic Test
If in one single turn a model takes more than half of his Command stats in pin markers derived from shooting or assault the unit has to test Command, if he fails unit is automatically in Panic:
Panicked units with at least one order dice left in the bag will immediately take an action, remove one or two order dice (depending on how many are left in the bag) and roll a D10:
1-2 Kill’em all! use one or two dice to shoot once or twice to the closest enemy model in sight.
3-4 Just shoot’em down! - if units has two dice left use one order to advance to cover up to 5” and use the second to fire to the closest enemy model in sight (if any).
5-6 Run away! use one or two dice to move as far as possible from every enemy in sight. Run orders
7-8 Take cover! - If units has two dice left use one order to move up to 10” to gain cover, use the second dice to go down. If the unit has only one dice left it moves up to 10” in cover
9-10 Unit goes Down - both order dice are displayed with Down order
Panicked units with no order dice left in the bag will automatically suffer one wound (see later Wounds)
Units with pins equal or more than their command stats are automatically broken - Remove all the order dice of that units from the bag or the table.
At the start of each turn, before the first dice is drawn, roll a dice for each broken model, with a result of 1 the model recover, use one dice to give him a rally order and put the second dice in the bag.
with a roll of 2+ the model will move towards the closest border of the table by 20”.
Wounds
Shooting and hand to hand combat work in the same way as standard game, however to reflect the small skirmish operation we will go a bit more into details for what concerns survivability of the models, after all these are exceptional soldiers chosen for their bravery and toughness.
Every time a model should be removed in the standard rules instead that model suffer a wound.
Every wound a model suffer gives a permanent -1 to any action the model has to test for excluding Command (so this doesn’t apply to break test or order test).
A model is removed when he suffer a number of wounds equal to his wounds stat.
Every model has two wounds and the Squad leader has three. Some skills add more wounds to the model or have some effects related to wounds.
Hand to Hand
Hand to hand is resolved in the same way as standard rules, with below exceptions:
Firefight - When one model is assaulting an enemy model resolve point blank shooting, however if one or more units with at least one order dice left in the bag are within 10” of the assaulted model they can also participate in the point blank shooting. treat this as a reaction and follow same rules of a normal reaction, place one order dice to each model participating the firefight with the order fire, +1 bonus doesn’t apply for shooting with a fire order. Each model can shoot against the enemy model that is participating in the fight.
Brawl - Units within 5” from the assaulted model with at least one order dice available, can make a reaction test to partecipate the brawl. Place an order dice with the order run and move the models into hand to hand combat.
Note: the above reactions can be combined for a deadly firefight and brawl, if a model has two order dice still in the bag and he is within 5” from the assaulted units he can take both reactions, allowing for a multiple and exciting combat.
Coordinate Assault - this is an addition to the Follow special rule available to commanders, a commander can use this rule to coordinate an assault towards one or more enemies in range, the assault can be directed against one single enemy model or split to multiple models, as per normal rules, the only exception is that the units that follow the leader can have pins markers in which case a normal command check is required for the unit to follow the order.
When a unit is defeated in hand to hand and it’s not killed by results of the fight check the result as follow:
Winning unit can force another round of hand to hand as usual. Losing unit has to make a break test:
If success the unit can consolidate (or fight another round if forced) if fail then check the total number of pin marker in the unit: If pin markers are more than half the command stat of the unit then the unit suffer a wound. If pin markers are less than half the command stat of the unit the units is broken (see break & panic test above)
Campaign progressions
Clearly this mod is inspired by games such Necromunda and Frostgrave as well as the recent X-Com 2 videogame, and obviously the most rewarding way to enjoy it would be with a campaign. [I'm having a lot of fun in writing these rules for myself so I'm planning to write scenario that can be played in solo mode with an AI]
After every game the team will gain experience point that can be spent to buy new skills or special equipment dedicated to the most experienced soldiers. You need to keep track of the action of each model during the game and add experience point at the end of the game for each model:
1 xp = Winning the scenario or surviving the battle (so if a model is out of action but the squad won the scenario he will still get 1xp)
1 xp = killing or putting an enemy out of action
X xp = for completing secondary objectives as noted in the scenario
Progression:
1 xp - 1 level up
3 xp - 1 level up
5 sp - 1 level up
8 xp - 1 level up
13 xp - 1 level up
Every level up will give you the option to improve your model, by choosing one of the following:
Extra condition
Intense physical and mental training choose a +1 in one of the following stats:
Ag, Acc, Init, Co
No stat can be improved more than 10
Skill
Some skills have a cooldown period, these skills once used can be used again only after a number of turns equal to the cooldown value are passed. So for example a cooldown of two means that if the unit use the ability in turn one the ability can be used again in turn 4.
Choose any one skill from the following list:
Run & Shoot - cooldown 2 the model can use one of his dice to make a run action and be able to shoot with a -1 penalty to hit.
Sharpshooter - cooldown 2 the model can use both of his dice to activate sharpshooter, this means once a dice is assigned to this model and the model use the skill draw another dice from the bag and assign both dice to the model, both with fire order. The model ignore any range penalties, add a +1 to hit as per normal fire order and ignore LOS penalties. Also if he hits with a 1 on the dice roll the shoot cause 2 wounds, therefore immediately killing a standard team member.
Grenadiers - cooldown 1 the model can throw grenades up to 10”
Field medic - cooldown 0 the model can heal one wound, to heal a wound the model have to use one order dice as advance order, but instead of firing he can attempt to heal a wound. He will test Acc, if test is successful one wound is healed for a model within 1” from the medic.
Always vigilant - cooldown 0 if the model used a run or advance order with his first dice and uses the second dice to also run or advance, once the last action is resolved the order is automatically changed in ambush.
Drone expert - cooldown 0 the model is a drone expert, he can bring a drone in battle, drone can be bought as special ops equipment.
Gunslinger - cooldown 1 if the model is equipped with a pistol he can shoot twice with one order at the same target. It can also be used in point blank shooting
Hacker - cooldown 1 the model is an expert hacker, he can hack into a drone and use it for that turn. Test on Acc. Target units with drone should be within 15” from the hacker but LOS is not necessary
Stealth - the model use some kind of camo device, he is invisible as long as he only moves and doesn’t enter in a 15” radius from an enemy model. An invisible model cannot be shot at or assaulted.
Tough Fighter - the model has one extra wound. Can only be taken once
Veteran - cooldown 2 the model can reroll one single dice. Only one reroll is admitted (it doesn’t stack with Leader)
Runner - cooldown 1 the model for the turn he uses this skills can sprint without testing agility therefore without risking taking a pin
Close combat expert - the model can reroll one dice during a and to hand, either point blank shooting or hand to hand combat.
Ambusher - cooldown 3 the model in ambush can shoot twice to up to two target
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» Rules errata or FAQ not yet published by Warlord
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» Rick talks about factions in Antares
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