How to use civilians?

[consectari]

There was a post not long ago about the availablility of sci-fi or alien civilians. 

It got me thinking, in what ways could unarmed civilians be intergrated into a wargame.

Anyone have any thoughs?  Have a game with good civilian rules?


BTW, the recent Dreadball Xtreme kickstarter should produce a lot of unarmed aliens.

[Elk101]

Good question. The use of civilians in any wargaming period raises all sorts of queries. The rules for our Aliens/USCM/Predator type setting have civilians as objectives, random encounters (which can then become objectives as they then have to be led to safety or otherwise protected), or they become opponents in the case of games where rebels or gangs are the protagonists.

The Vietnam work in progress rules feature civilians quite regularly in the various scenarios and in the events that can be played by the Communist player, but the nature of the Vietnam setting offers great opportunities for civilian involvement; the presence of 'Doubtfuls' on the table can unnerve opponents to the stage of being trigger happy! The Communists get victory points and extra options when civilians are killed by the Free World Military Forces so the presence of civilians can make a big difference to how players play, as it probably should.

I only use the examples above just to give an idea of how we use civilians in games that could be integrated into a sci-fi setting. Much of it will depend on the context of your setting. These are just my own thoughts so excuse the rambling!

[matakishi]

For my modern insurgency games the insurgent player gets to control the civilians, some of which may reveal themselves as combatants when needed. This is easily transferred to a sci fi setting.

In my Alien Invasion games the civilians are just a herd that reacts to and runs from perceived threats, often hampering the moving and firing of combat units. In one game an alien attack force of Spugs herded some humans towards the Daleks knowing the Daleks had to fire on the nearest non-Dalek unit. Once the Dalek fire had been exhausted mowing down the civilians the Spugs could close and melee unhindered.

Civilians can be used as 'loot' that aliens must collect or friendly forces rescue for victory points.

Civilians may need to be escorted to safety or otherwise protected. Colonists in an Aliens game are good for this, forcing the Marines to split their forces into less than optimum units.

There's a wide set of possibilities depending on your setting.

[Maj Guiscard]

Well certainly NOT as the main ingredient in Soylent Green food products...

...'because that would be wrong

[Elbows]

As listed, lots of ways to "use" civilians.  You can also use them for crowds or rioters (demonstrators).  A crowd's morale increases with the number of models present and decreases when models break off or are slain (or subdued).  Add in some "non-lethal" riot control stuff for the good guys --- and again, allow the insurgents to control the crowds and you have a new mechanic.  Allow insurgents a special card or ability to "reveal" a fighter using a civilian model (ie. insurgents hiding in the crowd).

Number the models or assign one to be a person of interest and the "good guys" must locate/rescue/abduct the model, but they must be within X" to identify the character --- meanwhile the opponent is moving all civilians away or around, trying to evade them.

Lots of good ways.  Rescue abducted civilians from the aliens birthing chamber etc.

PS: For Old West game it's often fun to use civilian models as a possible posse.  Sometimes I'll run a scenario where bandits come into town and the Marshall or Lawmen must run around pleading for help from civilians (rolling a Charisma check of sorts to convince them to join up).  Lots of possibilities.

[Shawnt63]

I use civilians all the time with INEPTT. Some times they are non-coms, sometimes they are targets or need to be rescued and sometimes they might turn against the good guys.

They can be Crowds, rioters, survivors, refugees or just chaff that get in the way and are too dumb to hit the deck when the firing starts.

Shawn

[Michka]

I like to run RPG-style miniatures games, so civilians are often a mystery to the players. They can end up being obstacles or objectives. They also provide another element to dress up a game table. There's nothing like a table crowded with buildings, vehicles and innocent bystanders to make a visual impact. And if your players are particularly blood thirsty, they can provide cover. 

[Cory]

After the last thread about sci-fi civilians I picked up a box of zombie survivors to make some generic civies that I then used as blind markers for a Tomorrow's War game. The defensive players were really unnerved by the visual reminder that unidentified movement might not be the enemy.

[Hrothgar]

In addition to the above ideas,  I use civilians in some solo scenarios as cover for either player or npc with infiltrators who are trying to get past security checkpoints.   The infiltrators are less likely to be caught if they tag along with a big group of civilians milling around. The civilians usually follow somewhat predictable but still randomized routes,  So the players' chances of, say,  getting his Rebel infiltrators past the Stormtrooper checkpoint/patrol can entirely hinge on using the right group of civilians as cover.

Basically, the enemy's line of sight is obscured by the civilians,  So if the rebels end their activation with the randomly moving civilians between them and the Imperials,  they won't be spotted.

[Bahir]

I think there is a blurb about Civies in the Boarding Action Rules for No Limits. http://www.wargamesunlimited.net/nolimits/

[The_Beast]

After the last thread about sci-fi civilians I picked up a box of zombie survivors to make some generic civies that I then used as blind markers for a Tomorrow's War game. The defensive players were really unnerved by the visual reminder that unidentified movement might not be the enemy.

Excellent!

I was thinking along the lines of police firearm courses, where you had to identify foe vs. non-combatants. '...might not be the enemy' has been a bit of a laugh above, but it'd be interesting to add real consequences.

Doug

[Dr Mathias]

Crowds that get in the way of street chases mostly. Use a CD as a 'crowd maker' and put some figures on it. Shots fired at a crowd (or over their heads) can disperse it. You can also hide your badguys inside crowds.

I'm using Heroclix repaints for cheap crowds by the way.

[Ironworker]

I was just looking through some shots I took for a RPG game report and although I have a lot of sci-fi minis I have very few civilians.  In fact they are hard as heck to find.  There just aren't all that many on the market especially if you don't like paying international shipping. 

Anyway the players got into a violent encounter with some bounty hunters is a crowded bar.  I didn't really have enough civilians for even that scene so looking back at the pics I had a hard time remembering which minis where the "bad guys".  In fact it caused some confusion during the game which I suppose would be realistic but not always a good thing. 

For wargames there are a lot of uses I can think of many have been mentioned.  In addition they could also be good for undercover infiltrators.  That group of innocent looking civilians might suddenly pull guns and start shooting at your troops for instance.  Just like using any other infiltration rule but with a twist. 

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Did you see the "Palace Intriigue" scenario in the Ancients Board? Just bump it forward a few millenia..

[Cory]

After last night's emails our next Tomorrow's War scenario will have three players on one side, two on the other. Therefore we are giving each player 5 civilians that cannot be primary targets, but that will compete to scrounge from the board, loot the dead, and grab supplies. A game within a game if you will, allowing the player with the most scrounged goods on the winning side combat wise to be the overall winner.