Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: Mr. White on February 07, 2023, 11:19:02 PM
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I've got a near-future-dystopian/proto-post-apocalyptic setting I've been working on (it's over in the Post Apoc forum under "Roswell '98"), but most of the XR discussion seems to be happening in this forum, so I'm asking my questions here.
I've played, and loved, Dragon Rampant, so am familiar with the concept and mechanics. However, I'm kinda struggling on the best approach for my XR units because of 1) my models cross several of the sample settings in the book - and the authors point out that units across settings might not work (more on this below) and 2) I've read about the strength of Elites and want to keep that in consideration.
So, on my antagonist side I have:
Aliens (greys) - masterminds so the leader unit
T-1000 like robots
Xenomorphs (like from the movie aliens)
Human cultists - worshippers of the greys
I've also got zombies and graboids (from the movie Tremors) but those I plan to use as AI controlled creatures like in the Post Apocalypse - After the End setting in the XR rulebook.
On the protagonist side I have:
Police/Highway Patrol - probably the leader units
Army Veterans/Rednecks
Scientists
Punks
So, the book has sample units that closely match these, but again, across 3-4 different settings. Space Opera - Beyond the Final Frontier has T-1000 like terminator robots as Hvy Infantry. It also has Police in Post Apocalypse - After the End, but there also as Hvy Infantry.
It would seem to me that T-1000 robots are more deadly than police who are more deadly than cultists. So...Robots (Elite) > Police (Hvy) > Cultist (Lt). But doing that, means I'm introducing units of Elites into my game. Maybe the Robots should be Heavy but with Mechanoid (obviously) and Shields? Then, I've got to find a way to place all the humans on the protagonist side. Mainly Heavy (Police and Army) with maybe Recon (Scientist) and Berzerk (Punks)? But then, is my table to skewed towards Heavy Infantry? Ha! I kinda wanna get this close. Since I'm providing the models and new rules, I fear if it's too imbalanced my opponent may not wanna come back for another round of XR. :/
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The setting sounds like fun, and using XR seems like a great way to get additional play out of your post-apoc collection (I enjoyed your posts in the thread where you showed the forces you developed).
Your concerns about getting the balance about right all seem reasonable to me, definitely don’t want it skewed to the point where it scares off regular players! Maybe solo playing a few options ahead of time would help give some idea where the balance points are. You might be able to do that with just pencil and paper, rather than setting up the figs, and run through some dice rolls for likely situations.
One possibility that occurs to me is to use reduced model units for some troop types (robot heavy infantry, for example), to give them a different feel than their opponents even when the base profile is the same. Two killer ‘bots with 5 damage each will seem different than 10 police swat officers with 1 point each (it will feel more desperate for the police as they are losing figures in every volley and the damn robots are still standing even though they’ve been shot repeatedly).
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In your setting I assume you don’t have too many T-1000 units? If so having 1 or 2 units of them as Elites sounds OK. Perhaps up the points on them by a couple of points as has been suggested elsewhere
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Also don’t overlook that XR is really a toolkit: a lot of the flavour cones from what extra rules you attach to the units.