Strange Aeons FAQ

[LidlessEye]

Ack, it's the old Instant vs. Interrupt situation from Magic all over again! 

What may make situations like this easier is if Psychology checks are only taken after the Action which initiates them has been resolved.  In this case, a Formless Thing uses a Shoot Action to fire out a pseudopod to drag in a Human.  Prior to taking this Action, neither the conditions for Fear or Hideous are met, as the models are 6" apart.  After the Action has been completed, the Human model is in base-to-base with the Formless Thing, forcing checks for both Fear and Hideous.  This approach strikes me as a little more manageable (albeit a rather unfortunate situation for the targeted Human) than attempting to deal with the confusion of making checks mid-Action.  Seems workable to me, but Mike can correct me if this is impracticable for any reason.

Speaking of, I see Mike has formally changed the definition of Hate!  Time to make some edits....

[Mathyoo]

Thanks for all the clarifications, but new game new questions  

We've played "problem with the dead things" scenario + just started strange case of H.P. Lovecraft.

I had 21 points to spend - a mummy, banshee, 2 zombies.

Now, banshee...she screams, agent fails resolve check. What then? It says all attacks against its own profile.
How would I resolve if I got character with 3 attacks and a bowie knife and a pitchfork? We threw 3 attacks, took the highest one, threw for a wound. But as he can't loose to hit...why'd that make sense? Are 3 attacks = 3 dice to wound, then take the highest? That would make much more sense. As for weapons, I guess it takes best melee weapon?

Zombie respawning...I was respawning zombies all day long, from same grave, as it died. I find it impossible for agents to win this scenario if zombie keeps respawning on same last grave and agents have only 1 model left. And there is no restrictions for 1 per-turn?

Can Lovecraft use actions to purify graves? I think I've read it somewhere.

Lastly, the chase scenario - do lurkers use points of whole treshold list or just from the used agent?

Wait, one more thing, if battle axe doesn't kill and uses "power", this means lurker is pushed out of cc, does he get that extra hit for running away from CC?

Thanks!

[Argonor]

I have a couple of questions regarding VUK that came up while reading - some of them may have been explained before, but I was away from the hobby for almost 2 years, so:

1: Number of Skills:
The cult Magus may gain up to 10 skills: This is in addition to his starting skills, right?

2: I found a chainsaw in the rules for the Dunwich Folk; is that supposed to be a motorized saw like the ones we use nowadays for cutting down swathes of zombies, or is it something else (I don't think the motorized saw had been invented in the 1920's)?

EDIT:

3: Cult Unity Test; is that the test some members make if you can't pay upkeep? Or is it something else? It's only mentioned once, right at the end of the book...

[LidlessEye]

1: Number of Skills:
The cult Magus may gain up to 10 skills: This is in addition to his starting skills, right?

Correct.  All skills included with any model's profile are considered 'free'.

2: I found a chainsaw in the rules for the Dunwich Folk; is that supposed to be a motorized saw like the ones we use nowadays for cutting down swathes of zombies, or is it something else (I don't think the motorized saw had been invented in the 1920's)?

Yeah, we took a bit of liberty there.  The first commercial chainsaw was introduced in 1925, but it was a two-man monster that wouldn't have been much use in a fight unless you could somehow toss your opponent onto it while it was in operation.  The modern portable form is a post WWII development, so those intent on having some degree of historical accuracy (in their game about fighting tentacled beings from beyond) should probably skip over the chainsaw!  Well, that or at least make it a 2-man weapon.

3: Cult Unity Test; is that the test some members make if you can't pay upkeep? Or is it something else? It's only mentioned once, right at the end of the book...

A Cult Unity Test is required when your models in play drop below 50% of their starting numbers.  Covered in detail on pg.15.

And I just saw Mathyoo's questions from, oi, nine months ago! Will get to those next....

[Argonor]

A Cult Unity Test is required when your models in play drop below 50% of their starting numbers.  Covered in detail on pg.15.

OK, must have missed that - shall go reading...

Thanks for the answers!

[Pseudopod]

Questions regarding Alert/ Ambush.

This is the most contentious rule that has caused us so many problems in our games. Please help!

Alert: Any model that is Alert may make one Shooting attack during the opposing player's Turn, immediately after the target model has taken an action.

Ambush: The model is considered Alert, even after taking actions.

1) Lurkers have first nomination and move a cultist within 10" of an Alert Threshold agent (A). The Threshold player chooses to shoot and causes a major injury to the cultist, the cultist's turn ends. Threshold activates A and moves forward, Threshold agent A has the Ambush skill. Back to the lurker turn and another cultist moves within 10" of A.

i) Does A get to shoot since according to the rules at the top of page 12 this constitutes a new "Turn"?
ii) Once all models are activated (what I'd call the end of a round) is a model with Ambush still considered Alert?

2) Lurkers have first nomination and choose to nominate a Mummy, the Mummy commands two nearby Ghouls. Ghoul 1 moves within 10" of Alert agent A, A chooses not to shoot. Ghoul 2 moves within 10" of A, A chooses not to shoot. The Mummy moves within 10" of A and A chooses to shoot.

i) The wording of Alert states that a model "may" make a Shooting action. Does this mean the Alert model can choose to pick his targets as per the example above? If this is the case it is my view that it somewhat defeats the idea that Alert shooting is a reaction shot.

3) Lurkers have a nomination and choose a cultist that is armed with a .22. The cultist is within 10" of Alert agent A. The cultist's first action is to shoot agent A. Agent A chooses to shoot back as per the rules for Alert. The cultist is lucky and the Agent is taken off with a Minor Injury.

i) Does the Agent still get to shoot back to simulate a simultaneous action or is he not allowed to since he is no longer on the table after the cultist's shooting attack has been resolved?

4) Lurkers have a nomination and choose a cultist 5" away from Alert agent A. The cultist charges agent A.

i) What is resolved first Alert Shooting or Combat?
ii) If the agent is hideous due to an injury what is resolved first?
iii) As per example 3 if Combat is resolved first and the agent is removed from the table does he still get his Alert shot?

Okay, I could go on about this. I hope this post communicates the difficulty we are having with this area of the rules. I think that the problem stems chiefly from the fact that the rules need another stopper in the turn sequence called a Round. IMO Ambush should be a once per Round skill and it should be a "Must" rather than a "May" skill meaning that the Alert model shoots the first enemy that crosses it's path, it being a reaction shot after all. This allows the Lurker player to bait out reaction shots.

I'm interested to hear what others think of this and how they use these rules in their games of Strange Aeons.

[LidlessEye]

1) Lurkers have first nomination and move a cultist within 10" of an Alert Threshold agent (A). The Threshold player chooses to shoot and causes a major injury to the cultist, the cultist's turn ends. Threshold activates A and moves forward, Threshold agent A has the Ambush skill. Back to the lurker turn and another cultist moves within 10" of A.

i) Does A get to shoot since according to the rules at the top of page 12 this constitutes a new "Turn"?
ii) Once all models are activated (what I'd call the end of a round) is a model with Ambush still considered Alert?

A model with Ambush is perpetually Alert, so there's never any sort of 'reset'.  Some of your confusion here may be stemming from the definition of a Turn.  There's really no such thing as a round, just alternating Turns, on which each player may nominate the model of their choice (plus additional models when utilizing Command/Lieutenant).  It's entirely possible a game could complete with certain models never being nominated; I could, for example, choose to repeatedly nominate the same model every Turn and ignore the others all game.

2) Lurkers have first nomination and choose to nominate a Mummy, the Mummy commands two nearby Ghouls. Ghoul 1 moves within 10" of Alert agent A, A chooses not to shoot. Ghoul 2 moves within 10" of A, A chooses not to shoot. The Mummy moves within 10" of A and A chooses to shoot.

i) The wording of Alert states that a model "may" make a Shooting action. Does this mean the Alert model can choose to pick his targets as per the example above? If this is the case it is my view that it somewhat defeats the idea that Alert shooting is a reaction shot.

I believe you can indeed select your target, though I'll have to defer to Mike for a definitive ruling.  Alert isn't so much a reaction shot as a reflection of a model that is particularly aware and able to anticipate/counter the enemy.

3) Lurkers have a nomination and choose a cultist that is armed with a .22. The cultist is within 10" of Alert agent A. The cultist's first action is to shoot agent A. Agent A chooses to shoot back as per the rules for Alert. The cultist is lucky and the Agent is taken off with a Minor Injury.

An Alert/Ambush shot is always taken after the target model's Action has been fully resolved - it's not a simultaneous response, but a reaction to the target's Action.  Thus in this case the Alert model never gets a chance to shoot back, as it is removed by injury at the conclusion of the Lurker Action.  Similarly, in your following example:

4) Lurkers have a nomination and choose a cultist 5" away from Alert agent A. The cultist charges agent A.

the Cultist's Charge must be fully resolved prior to the Alert shot being taken.  In fact, the only circumstance in which the Agent may take the shot is if they manage to win the close combat and elect to back away 2" rather than rolling to wound, as shots may never be taken in base-to-base.

[Pseudopod]

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions.

A model with Ambush is perpetually Alert, so there's never any sort of 'reset'.  Some of your confusion here may be stemming from the definition of a Turn.  There's really no such thing as a round, just alternating Turns, on which each player may nominate the model of their choice (plus additional models when utilizing Command/Lieutenant).  It's entirely possible a game could complete with certain models never being nominated; I could, for example, choose to repeatedly nominate the same model every Turn and ignore the others all game.

Wow, we've played around 40 odd games and we've always nominated until everyone has been chosen and then reset to the top of the round. In scenarios where turns matter we've always counted rounds rather than 1 nomination = 1 turn. Incidentally, the game has been just fine like this barring the mess we've got into with Alert/ Ambush. This point changes EVERYTHING though! I'm not sure where we got the habit of playing in rounds, most likely a hang over from various other game systems merging in our collective brain. I'm looking forward to playing games with this understanding.

Thanks again.

[LidlessEye]

Yikes, can't believe I left this for almost a year.  Well, no time like the present...

We've played "problem with the dead things" scenario + just started strange case of H.P. Lovecraft.

I had 21 points to spend - a mummy, banshee, 2 zombies.

Now, banshee...she screams, agent fails resolve check. What then? It says all attacks against its own profile.
How would I resolve if I got character with 3 attacks and a bowie knife and a pitchfork? We threw 3 attacks, took the highest one, threw for a wound. But as he can't loose to hit...why'd that make sense? Are 3 attacks = 3 dice to wound, then take the highest? That would make much more sense. As for weapons, I guess it takes best melee weapon?

Self-inflicted attacks will automatically hit, so you do indeed skip straight to the roll to wound.  In the event of multiple weapons, I'd say whatever the model last fought with probably makes the most sense.  Alternatively, you could determine it randomly, which makes a certain amount of sense under the circumstances.

Zombie respawning...I was respawning zombies all day long, from same grave, as it died. I find it impossible for agents to win this scenario if zombie keeps respawning on same last grave and agents have only 1 model left. And there is no restrictions for 1 per-turn?

Threshold actually needs to leave some Zombies alive if they want to search the crypt, as killing all of them would immediately end the game (remember that they won't respawn until the beginning of the next Lurker Turn).  I can see where this would prove challenging if the only remaining grave was close to the crypt though, and you may be right that the respawns should be limited to one Zombie per grave per Turn, as having a multitude of undead suddenly appear in one spot is a bit of bit nasty reward for purifying the rest of the table.

Can Lovecraft use actions to purify graves? I think I've read it somewhere.

For all scenarios except The Chase, Lovecraft functions as any other Threshold model would, with the one caveat being that you can never use him to attack anything.

Lastly, the chase scenario - do lurkers use points of whole treshold list or just from the used agent?

Just the value of the selected model, so far as I'm aware.  The scenario should specify this for clarity.

Wait, one more thing, if battle axe doesn't kill and uses "power", this means lurker is pushed out of cc, does he get that extra hit for running away from CC?

By the letter of the rules, involuntarily leaving combat does grant a free Wound, but I don't think that was the intention here.  Once you're in Close Combat, you're usually not looking to knock your opponent out of range.  My preference would be to create a new weapon ability that automatically knocks the target Face Up if it doesn't suffer an Injury from the hit, but that's just me.

[gmanrocks]

Hi All

Quick question, I know this has been brought up before, but it's not quite sinking in, sorry.

with Lurkers with two Con values, such as a Formless Thing's 6/8, I've read threads that says the lurker uses the higher con value, in this case 8 for regular attacks, but if using a weapon with AP against it uses the lower one, 6 As such, does it work out that because you're using an AP1 weapon, it's the lower value, 6, then an AP2 weapon makes it 5?

Am I right in thinking this, or does it work out like AP1 makes the value 7, and AP2 make it 6? In which case, why is the lower number there?

Sorry if this is a little bit of a dumb question.

[Mr. Peabody]

Please correct me if I'm getting this wrong, but this is how we play it:

AP reduces the higher (armoured) Con value, point-for-point.

So a weapon with AP1 versus the Formless Thing's 6/8 Con, would start calculating damage at Con 7.

However, If an opponent had no armour, the AP value has no affect... So an AP1 weapon versus a Con 6 foe would start calculating damage at Con 6.

It's worth noting that the game mechanics limit how high an unarmoured Con can go. Armour and Armour Piercing weapons help create and balance the tough stuff.

[gmanrocks]

Please correct me if I'm getting this wrong, but this is how we play it:

AP reduces the higher (armoured) Con value, point-for-point.

So a weapon with AP1 versus the Formless Thing's 6/8 Con, would start calculating damage at Con 7.

However, If an opponent had no armour, the AP value has no affect... So an AP1 weapon versus a Con 6 foe would start calculating damage at Con 6.

It's worth noting that the game mechanics limit how high an unarmoured Con can go. Armour and Armour Piercing weapons help create and balance the tough stuff.

Thanks for the reply. I think I get it. So in this case, the Formless thing's Con is 8, unless it had no armour, in which case it's 6?...If that's so, is there an option for it to have the lower Con, or is that when something is used against it that ignores armour? (if something like that exists. I haven't read all the expansions yet)

[Mason]

In your example, using the Formless Thing Con of 6/8, you always use the Con of 8 as the basic stat, which can be reduced to as low as 6, but no more, by AP weapons.

It is not wearing armour, as such, it is just that its superior toughness can be reduced somewhat by AP weapons.
 

[gmanrocks]

In your example, using the Formless Thing Con of 6/8, you always use the Con of 8 as the basic stat, which can be reduced to as low as 6, but no more, by AP weapons.

It is not wearing armour, as such, it is just that its superior toughness can be reduced somewhat by AP weapons.

Ahhhhh. I get it. So the lower of the too numbers is the minimum it can be reduced too.

Thanks. Was scratching my head a little there.

[LidlessEye]

These gents absolutely have the right of it!  Just to get myself a bit of practice writing an 'official' interpretation, which I'll have to do eventually anyhow:

Models with armour, whether equipped as gear or an inherent part of their profile, will have two Constitution ratings, represented as X/Y.  X represents the profile's 'native' Constitution, while Y represents 'armoured' Constitution.  Only points of Constitution granted as a bonus by armour can be reduced by an AP weapon.