Help me with an ability.

[Irishrover13]

Hi all,

I am new to IHMN and I decided to make a league, one thing I am not sure how to do is cost new abilities.

The League is based around the Ned Kelly Gang and the idea they survived their final shootout with authorities. I have already made a new armour for  this league and now I want to make a ability.
Original Ned Kelly Suit:
Weight: Heavy
Rating: 14
Cost: 36
The ability is thematic but quite situational:
"House Thief: If this character kills a mounted enemy in close combat they can immediately take that horse even if they did not start the match with a horse."
I am not sure what to cost this at since very few of the bands have mounted units and I can't see many people being willing to bring a mounted unit anywhere near a foot unit with horse thief. I guess I could also just give the entire gang the ability to start with a horse at normal cost.

Cheers,

Daniel

[Smith]

I'd personally say that the armour rating for the Kelly armour is a bit high – it's more than a full set of gothic plate, which represented the pinnacle of (European) armour design. A bit much for something homemade and which didn't cover the arms or legs! I'd go with Medium/11/9pts (same as a steel breastplate – rationalizing that home-made kit with a helmet balances out professionally made armour without one) or Medium/12/16 (as SRC breastplate) at most.

But on the subject on which you actually wanted comments, I'm with you – horses aren't exactly common enough (though that may change with some of the supplement lists) to make it a worthwhile investment. It is flavourful, though. My instinct would be to make it something like...

Horse Thief (3pts)
If a character with this Talent contacts a riderless horse during his movement [N.B. this is covered in more depth in the supplement], he may claim it as his own by performing no other actions that turn. If on foot, he may mount the horse and ride it thereafter. If already mounted or not wanting to mount it, he will lead the horse behind him. Unless it escapes, that horse will remain in base-to-base contact with the Horse Thief. If the Horse Thief is engaged in hand-to-hand combat, Knocked Down or taken out, the horse escapes and follows its natural behaviour [again, the supplement explains all!]. At the end of the game, the Horse Thief may either keep the horse for himself (even if the Company List does not normally offer him that option), or sell it (in which case he gains a number of points equal to the mount's listed cost which can be spent in the same way as VPs acquired during a scenario).

3pts might be a bit cheap, given the possible rewards, but it does recognize the disadvantages that come with handling an unfamiliar horse in the middle of a combat environment!

[Irishrover13]

Thanks for the help with the Horse thing it gives me some more stuff to work with.
 As for the Ned Kelly Suit it was able to effectively and repeatedly stop a  Martini-Henry bullet at 10 paces and weighted in at around 75-90 pounds depending on which of the 4 suits you look at so I can't make it medium armour, it was described as so heavy one of the Bandits could not lift his hand to his mouth to drink. They were fashioned out of boiler plates and having done some blacksmithing with old boiler plates I can see how that much metal would slow down a lot of heavier shells. I might lower it to 13 or I might just greenstuff some leg plates onto my models and keep it at 14, Ned Kelly and the lads decided they liked there knee caps.  

[Bullshott]

it was described as so heavy one of the Bandits could not lift his hand to his mouth to drink.

In which case I would say there would be absolutely no chance of being able to use Horse Thief or any other trick riding skill while wearing armour even heavier than the original Kelly armour. Even if the wearer was strong enough to wear the suit without it encumbering him, you would only be able to change mounts if the new mount was a heavy horse used to carrying a such a weight (how many medieval knights' mounts are there in the 19th century?) and certainly not your average native pony.

[Irishrover13]

Ned Kelly and the other three originals are the only ones allowed to take the Armour, the rest of the group is made up of Bushrangers, rebels and Greta Gang members who are the horse thieves.

Also what do you mean heavier then the original? I have been using this link for my Ned Kelly information http://www.ironoutlaw.com/html/armour.html and it has the armour in the picture at  91 pounds and that is an original suit.