Lancer: Enhanced Combat

[round pecan]

since that way they cant

grapple then structure in the same round

[spare kernel]

But that's so cool

🥺

[round pecan]

may be cool but your players may not think so

besides grapple in first round

Then structuring the second?

sets the stakes and lets them be like

'oh shit this fucker is strong if we let him hang around'

[spare kernel]

They still gotta move into position

A size 2 is not gonna be ignored either

[round pecan]

true..

[twilit flower]

ohoho my support player who's looking into Bligh will be happy to hear that

[hardy sierra]

Executioners are big flashy distractions

they lummber into position until they grapple a player

and then they demand they be dealt with before they inflict a staggering amount of damage

but lets be real, dealing with them isn't terribly hard

any instance of knockback or involuntary movement applied to them will break the grapple and save the player

[spare kernel]

one of my players is a caliban so lol

[hardy sierra]

things only get disgusting if you make them ultras with unstoppable

because that remove like

all the counterplay

https://tenor.com/view/revolution-guillotine-marie-antoinette-off-with-their-heads-behead-gif-12604431

and then its just

[tardy willow]

Question

Since uh

Behemoths are always ultra

Does that mean that they get optional ultra systems and traits?

If so

YES AHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAH YEEEEESSSSS

[vagrant lodge]

it cannot

[tardy willow]

NOOOOOOOO

No short cycle lance :(

[vagrant lodge]

it has the doomsday missile

[tardy willow]

But being able to throw colossal bolts of lightning....

maybe i could just do that with the artillery, just change the damage type to energy

[hardy sierra]

you can just ignore that rule

i know i have in the past

the reason its included is just that its safer to not have an ultra optional loaded behemoth

but ive given the behemoth a short cycle lance as a treat before

[vagrant lodge]

oh haha

when i ran my behemoth it felt a bit toothless

or at least

lacking in variation

[twilit flower]

"you can give the walking death machine an instant structure gun, as a treat"

[wind skiff]

When can swabber drones attack? As an action by the mech, or on their own? I don’t know where it is elaborated on

[hardy sierra]

No quarter

[zealous scaffold]

Per your recommandation I ran one like that once, where I used it to replace a Behemoth optionnal, and it went great !
I did use a slight variation I like to makje it more fair : You activate it as a full action, and as a protocol you can fire it. It went from a damage to control tool, and feels way more fair (wasted an entire turn to get themselves out of the line)

So I can confirm Behemoth with the short-cycle lance does indeed work

[ripe lichen]

one of the bligh's traits, no quarter, dictates when the drones can attack.

i do have a question;
Contract Killer. So, he vanishes when he inflicts a structure. I was hoping to use him more climactically; the vanishing conditions sort of make it impossible to have a 'final battle' with the guy.
I assume it would be fitting to have him show up in multiple sitreps in a mission unless destroyed, to represent ambushing the party opportunistically, carving some structure off of them, and dipping back into the shadows.
The actual question is here, though: am I reading the bonus objective correctly?
The target gets to ignore damage, heat, and effects from every NPC that isn't the killer?

[past turtle]

question on swabber drones... is drone commander rank 1 +hp bonus meant to apply to them? the wording on drone commander specifically says "systems" for the +5 hp while the swabber drones are a core passive(?)

[zealous scaffold]

Core systems are systems indeed
They're sometimes refered to as core passives or something, and Comp/Con maybe doesn't show it well, but from what I understand Core systems (core passives + core actives) are counted as systems.

I could be wrong, so don't just take my word for it, but it seems logical, at least to me

[past turtle]

gotcha wasnt sure, 10hp +1armor +resistance seems like a lot of effective health for drones on the gm side, esp at lower tiers...i guess just dont bother hitting the drones

[hardy sierra]

bombards are super efficient at clearing them out

the bligh player usually cant afford to keep them adjacent either, shepherd field usually comes into play so the drone actually gets a turn after it is deployed EoT

[weak kelp]

train heists <3

[wind skiff]

CORRECT AND FACTUAL

[spare kernel]

used crusader in my holdout

with the jammers

players were for destroying the jammers, but things got outta hand once they made a crusader reactor meltdown lol

[hardy sierra]

that does sound like a time lmao

[spare kernel]

was nice

[spare kernel]

@hardy sierra hope y'don't mind the ping, but i'm thinking of a sitrep where players need to turn on generators/redirect power to power on an elevator. i was thinking of reflavoring the sitrep beacon reacon, or either siege, what do you think from your personal opinion?

it's either one of those two, because i think i don't reaaaally need to also add the final objective of "get on the elevator after powering it up"

feel like getting to a designated zone would be too much by that point i think lol

[manic jasper]

Right, because the fight on a slowly descending elevator is for the next scene

[spare kernel]

CLOSE

but the next scene is just them riding the elevator and shor resting before fighting a ultra behemoth ship at the top of an industrial building

[oak flame]

Well, elevator conversation is just as nice as elevator fight

Put on a 15 minutes timer and tell the characters to talk through the awkwardness as they ride the comedically slow elevator lol

[spare kernel]

haha its a short rest too, BUT that sounds cool

i'm gonna have the sub zero effect during the first 3 combats of the mission

its an ice planet... and the whole place is abandoned as a dash to the elevator

should i build my maps around the fact that everybody is slowed, or build maps as normal?

i will inform my players of the ice planet's hostile conditions, say that generating heat will be something to keep in mind, but won't say the exact effect

this effect is for a holdout > gauntlet and finally the elevator powerup stuff

also! how should i go about my npcs for this mission to make them fit with the effect?

should i go for slow moving npcs? or npcs that are okay with heat? what should be my course of action to show off that these npcs are adept in these conditions

[manic jasper]

Swap the background music to tinny elevator music

[spare kernel]

also, this ice mission has an extra effect of them bein chased by a giant ship

so it launches blast 1 areas at start of rounds

and those areas explode at end of rounds

i was thinking that those exploded areas become scorched, which makes it so that if a character starts in that zone, they dont suffer the sub-zero effect

is this a good idea?

to those that have ran nosferatu npcs before

is my enkidu player gonna hate me for it

thinking of having two elite commander nosferatus for a holdout

one starting, then on round 4 would come the second one

[round pecan]

probably

[spare kernel]

[round pecan]

ive never used a nosferatu but just reading them they are Built to fuck with HA frames

and nuc cav users

[spare kernel]

well not only that but also wuth the sub-zero effect on the encounter too

every player is gonna have some form of heat

[round pecan]

[spare kernel]

and the nosferatu existing is gonna make them think if its worth clearing the slowed

[round pecan]

interesting combat puzzle

[spare kernel]

to be fair all of them have something that gives heat fyi

[round pecan]

i like it

[spare kernel]

im now thinking what other npcs to pair for them

this is all for a holdout

so i dont want to abuse strikers

any ideas to go with them? like, a battalion or so?

[round pecan]

so you can have the nosferatus be the sort of 'main' striker

is this faction melee oriented or a mix

[spare kernel]

oh yeah, the faction is very military doctrine based

[round pecan]

ok very military doctrine

so:

[spare kernel]

Lang Xian (branched spear) doctrine, main officers act as the "head" of the spear, with the other chaff/standard infantry supporting them are the "shaft", artillery taking advantage of not needing to move much anyway are the "leaves", dealing damage to anyone trying to avoid the main head

so, the elite commander nosferatu would be the "Head" in this case

[round pecan]

ye

deploy the nosferatu with a squad of legionnaires

[spare kernel]

oohh

[round pecan]

with ranking officer

[spare kernel]

those seem like such a hassle to use

😭

[round pecan]

not really

one standard move, one quick action, only boosting or skirmishing

[spare kernel]

are they much better than just using a normal striker?

[round pecan]

not really

they're like an alternative to grunts

that don't die Instantly

but they also dont do obscene damage like assault grunts

[spare kernel]

hmm

[round pecan]

4 legionnaires is roughly = to one normal striker

[spare kernel]

i mean i dont wanna use grunts, i always avoid grunt because they never really fit too much as an enemy imo

[round pecan]

they're just split up

[spare kernel]

hm

thinkin

[round pecan]

if you dont wanna run a legionnaire crew though try a phantasm
same general gist of damage that can come from anywhere but its a little stronger, mobile artillery

might fit better with the exotic design of

Nosferatus

as command frames

[spare kernel]

ah didnt look atthat one

the idea is that they're ambushing the players in the moment

[round pecan]

ok ok

[spare kernel]

so thats hwy i went with nosferatu as the leader of the ambush

lemme look at phantasm

[round pecan]

so frames that could, Reasonably;

be part of an ambush crew

phantasm, nosferatu, operator, mirage, priest, scout, witch, seeder, strider

dont use all of these all at once just

pick your faves

[spare kernel]

hmm

i just saw the phantasm

neat

[round pecan]

and if you want a defender its hard to go wrong with a bastion

[spare kernel]

i think, i could use the strider, phantasm and operator, as for the ambush but also repurposing it for future combats

i'd like to try and reuse the npcs as much as i can to spare me time on sprites and whatnot

[round pecan]

^

fair

[spare kernel]

so its also just trying to figure out "which of these would fit as part of a force normally"

[round pecan]

operators are more like incredibly mobile strikers

that happen to be long range

so by a technicality they're artillery

[spare kernel]

it would work well for the encounter

just dunno how many to put and what templates

[round pecan]

how much action economy do you want your opfor to have vs your players

[spare kernel]

dies

i have 6 players, and this is for a holdout so far

[round pecan]

okay okay

uhhh

[spare kernel]

phantasms could just be templateless

no optionals

[round pecan]

^^

[spare kernel]

they fit as fodder enough even if their chassis is "advanced"

[round pecan]

phantasms are complex enough

without any optionals

[spare kernel]

yooowza

so, 6 phantasms

and just one more class to round this up

[round pecan]

remember that it can bounce its attacks off of

its decoys

[spare kernel]

yeye i saw

very dense enemy

[round pecan]

but uhhh

if you ask me

[spare kernel]

i am not sur on the bastion

that thing is slow as hell

[round pecan]

i'd axe 2 of the operators

replace them with scouts or mirages

[spare kernel]

mirages...

i literally had a holdout and my players

HATED

the 1 mirage

[round pecan]

hm

then try a priest

[spare kernel]

it was really funny

[round pecan]

or two

hated (fun) or hated (ughhh)

[spare kernel]

should my operators have templates too?

oh they loved it

they just kept telling the mirage to kill itself

[round pecan]

then you could go with mirages ya

[spare kernel]

because it kept teleporting in

so

many

enemies

into the holdout

it was also a spec ops mirage

so most of the time the extra spec ops turn was for the mirage just to deny the knockback efforts

very funny

[round pecan]

up to you, operators are pretty simple without optionals

or templates

i wouldnt recommend any template that gives structure tho

[spare kernel]

im just thinking template for operator to make it more important

like a second-rank officer, or just be the "Leaf" in this case

[round pecan]

[spare kernel]

hmm

[round pecan]

you could make them spec ops or 'mercenaries'

+1 accuracy to engaged hostiles by mercenaries, plus scout drones

[spare kernel]

im more thinking that the operator is just focused on those that arent engaged by the nosferatu

[round pecan]

hmm

[spare kernel]

spacer template to have thumper grenades?

i duno

[round pecan]

thumpers

or gravity rifles

[spare kernel]

grrr thinking of elite operator

[round pecan]

both can be used effectively by an operator given their ability to teleport

[spare kernel]

im thinking this:

for first round,

• elite commander nosferatu
• elite operator
• x2 phantasms
• x1 support/defender

agaisnt 6 players in a holdout

does this sound too oppressing?

[oak flame]

The 6 players will eat those alive

Slow is not a very significant debuff in the holdout sitrep

[spare kernel]

i see

should i opt for more striker/artillery then?

instead of a support?

[oak flame]

Holdout is a double budget

From what I see, you have a 1.5 rn, I am not familiar with phantasm or nosferatu I am afraid

[spare kernel]

ah nah thats 2x budget

phantasm is artillery

nosferatu is striker

[oak flame]

I think that work ye

Just put in sufficient reinforcement

[spare kernel]

really? just two elite commander nosferatu, two elite operators

and the rest just as phantasms?

[oak flame]

I think so

It never hurt to overprepare reinforcement

[spare kernel]

scared of all the strikers thats all lol

[oak flame]

You can always withheld the excess

[spare kernel]

and in the end it's just be 3 npc classes on field

maybe i should just do the ol reliable

and throw in sentinels

[round pecan]

sentinels are hard to beat for a mobile defender

or goliaths

big and fuck ugly but crush targeting tho

[spare kernel]

those are way too darn big for an ambush

im just thinking of ways to make the holdout exciting beyond the nosferatu

the phantasms seem very long range too with the operators

maybe i should go with berserkers?

ooorrrr

hmm

darn this is such a puzzle lol

[spare kernel]

whats the opinion on this so far for an ambush in a holdout

considering the sub-zero effect, i think the berserkers heating themselves up will make them fine to deal with

i will avoid phantasms for now, i will use them in the gauntlet or control

and for staples of the faction, i'll likely end up using the berserkers and witches

[spare kernel]

thinking of this now tho

[glad plank]

We had fun :)

Wait I don't think I'm supposed to be here

[spare kernel]

GHOUL WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE

he's my player AND HE'S SPOILING HIMSELF KILL THIS GUY

[glad plank]

This means nothing to me I don't know what any of it means anyways

teehee whoops though

[strange garden]

Sorry if this has been discussed already, hard to search since it’s a forum; any opinions on running elite/ultra executioners? I’m scared there’s little counterplay if the executioner goes late in turn order

Especially with Cast in the Name of God

But I want to have that big scary oomph CNG gives, so I guess my question is is it as not fun as it looks?

Just force the executioner to spread out their activations in a round?

[hardy sierra]

its pretty opressive due to no counterplay, yea

the idea with executioners is that the team can deal with them before the axe comes down

but i guess in that way they arent much different from elite witches waiting to go last, feel?

[strange garden]

Mm, might have to play around with it and see what works then

[spare kernel]

@hardy sierra ralf! hear me out: i gave it thought for my control/beacon reacon, and i mentioned i wanna reflavor it as a generator power up thing, so...

• beacon recon is instead of "ping beacon" would be "redirect power"
• the last CZ would be the main generator powerflow and thats required to do a full action to turn that generator on (or quick action if they have manipulators or are a caliban)
• after that, this opens up the elevator which is an extraction zone in a spot of the map

do y'think this sounds good? i was thinking of making it a round 8 rather than round 6, or maybe just removing the round limit once the elevator is open

also i need to know how it is to having the sub-zero effect active and wanting to do a gauntlet with difficult terrain that splits the map in two

[hardy sierra]

sounds cool!

[spare kernel]

woo

should i change up my design philosophy for the gauntlet cuz of the sub-zero?

my slowest player is like...

4 speed

and they're a tortuga

[hardy sierra]

if they are aware of the effect and packed some self heat stuff it should be fine

[spare kernel]

alrighty

[spare kernel]

The mission briefing is gonna be a while, but at the end of downtime this week, I'll inform them that their next mission will be at a cold planet and for that they'll require heat producing stuff to avoid getting slowed

[twilit flower]

@hardy sierra Hey so quesiton about Bligh. One of my players has taken Field Analyst, and we got the the 2nd rank. If his Swabbers attacked from him triggering No Quarter, would that count as him taking a hostil action, or the drones since it clarifies they are the ones attacking, he's just selecting them. If it doesn't count as him making a hostile action, just the drones, does that mean Field Analyst: Information Handling would still increase?

[hardy sierra]

correct

no court of law can prove you shot that man

[twilit flower]

Boomboy(my player) thanks you

Also, does this imply that Swabbers are full blown NHP Level Sapient if they are technically their own persons?

[twilit condor]

nah you've just got a technicality and a really good lawyer

(you called saul)

[zealous scaffold]

MSMC legal corps can and will put the blame on the one who got shot

[hardy sierra]

they might sentence the drone to death

(you create a new one at the end of your turn)

[twilit flower]

My Bligh player is going to be investing in either Balor for Hive Drone or Gorgon for Sentinel. Help I'm scared of the Omnibus Plate shenanigans he'll do alongside the Swabbers

He also has a neverending supply of Turret Drones

[hardy sierra]

bombards with bunker buster an scourers with melt are your friends

breachers with breach ram alsp

they all easily destroy objects

[ripe lichen]

at least he's not taking hydra 😛

[twilit flower]

do not tempt fate

[hardy sierra]

Lancer Enhanced Combat has officially reached 1000 sold copies in a little over 2 months!

Thanks to all of you who supported me and the project, especially the artists who really brought the supplement to life!

Big thanks to you if you bought the supplement ❤️

Love you all ❤️

[spare kernel]

I'm doing my part

[tawdry sail]

I'm doing my part!

[neon marsh]

hell yeah!

[brazen oasis]

Service gaurantees citizenship!

wait, wrong movie

[ripe lichen]

so who inherited interpoint?

[urban sage]

Ralf Jr

[round pecan]

ralph

ph, not f

[hardy sierra]

Ralg

[manic jasper]

Ralf (1) (copy) (copy) (final) (2)

[wanton granite]

Love the book, it's chock-full of everything I wanted in a Lancer supplement. More tables, more battle modifications, more NPCs, more reserves...it's awesome.

[hardy sierra]

❤️

[tawdry sail]

"I'm doing my art! I'm doing my art!- what?!"

[hot crown]

I'm trying to plan out an Infiltration sitrep and I'm having a surprisingly difficult time thinking of what NPCs work well with this sort of sitrep. The Scout seems like it needs to be right out, for instance, since it straight up ignores PCs' Hidden status. Plus I get the impression that this is more about having NPCs that patrol about rather than actively set up defenses and only really start fighting once alerted, no?

[hardy sierra]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2054534975

first half of this stream is an infiltration sitrep

the NPCs arent really menat to pretend not to know where the PCs are

the spotting and investigating actions are so restricted that as long as the PCs smartly stick to cover and coordinate they will be able to tackle the sitrep relatively easily

[hot crown]

Gotcha

[tawdry sail]

noice, i was getting bored at work xD

boredom no more

[steady fern]

trains trigger mines right?

[hardy sierra]

they dooo

:3c

but so do players when you drag them onto the tracks

[steady fern]

me when i iskander place down three mines then manticore swap with an unfortunate size two who's already taken their turn

[hardy sierra]

the train knows no mercy

it hates all life equally

[tawdry sail]

lmao evil train

[minor garden]

True neutral train

[raw forge]

quick question: is it intentional that morningstars' Last Judgement doesn't seem to have any special interactions with objects? the description only mentions causing damage to characters, not objects or terrain or etc. just wondering if that's by design

[hardy sierra]

That's a good point, it should affect objects

I usually just throw a big crater on the board that kills all terrain haha

[tardy willow]

:3 👍

[dreamy oak]

sorry if this has already been asked, but is there an LCP for the sitreps? not sure if that's even something you can include in LCPs, but I'm just curious if it exists

[hardy sierra]

its not something that exists or that can be created i think

at least last i heard

[dreamy oak]

cool thanks, not hard to put it in custom, was just wondering

[midnight jolt]

quick note on the lcp for enhanced combat in foundry - for some reason it doesn't given Morningstars Last Judgment by default, which is Weird; equally the compcon version doesn't give them siege armour (?) I don't think it's that I have an older version as I bought it just a weekish ago...

[hardy sierra]

Thanks!

[twilit flower]

@hardy sierra So my Bligh player has had his first fight. He enjoys it and says it feels good to use. He says it lacks the wow factor of popping Shiver Timbers, but he really likes the chessmaster element.

He says that it's best to use them in melee for the AP, and the artillery is the weakest unless you use it on grouped up squishies, and the rifles are solid, espeically if there were grunts, but they're mostly for plinking until melee is gained. He originally considered charging alongside for giving them resistance, but then realized spreading them out was the best plan so they can melee. To be clear,you don't need to buff the others, he's just saying in terms of "big number go BRRR" he likes melee.

Drone commander is great because of the free movement, extra HP, and Invigorate for daisy chaining Overshield and damage across the field.

tl;dr a less flashy kidd, but very fun and tacticool.

Also the image is his Bligh, the Fuck-I.T. Bucket

[manic jasper]

Part of me wants to do a really stupid selfish support build with Bligh. FABI+Leader 3 to buff up the artillery fire, that kind of thing. ...problem being, after those two your options start to look a little thin

[ripe lichen]

The bligh is very fun.

[twilit flower]

indeed.

One of my players is convinced the Bligh may be way too strong, but I've managed to convince him to wait until the current mission is finished, and also that as a GM I so far haven't had any "holy shit" moments when fighting it.

His main concern is the stats are high and you can swarm the field with chip damagers that can add up over time, buuuut that also requires good positioning and not having the Bligh get stage dived by an Assassin, which did happen and possibly would've been deadly had it not switched targets(because I felt bad the Bligh player got stunned from Strucure Check...)

[minor garden]

Mmmm bombard mmm

[twilit flower]

Indeed

[minor garden]

Legionnaire NPC with RPV template - yay or nay?

[ripe lichen]

My GM doesn't like using bombards, so I am lucky. 🙂

[wind skiff]

bombards eatin GOOD tonight

[hardy sierra]

WAITER! WAITER!

MORE SWABBERS PLEASE

[ripe lichen]

Hey RALF, quick Q.
In Infiltration, is there any way to interrupt an NPC that's spotting someone outside of destroying their mech?

[twilit condor]

Not Ralf and havent read the sitrep, but would jamming them not stop them from alerting the rest of opfor? The npc themself would be aware, but it couldn't tell anyone.

[ripe lichen]

it could, i'm more trying to figure out if it's intended to be able to buy extra time by jamming/stunning people.

or if that's something that would break the sitrep in half.

[hardy sierra]

No, once they've started you must kill them.

It's a tech action so you can jam them to prevent them from taking it but once it's underway it's too late

It's a balancing concern since otherwise a single horos1 trivializes the sitrep to an insane degree

[ripe lichen]

fair!

[plucky current]

If it's an effect from a tech, wouldn't like
Shut Down/PEBCAC/ICEOUT work

[hardy sierra]

its not really dependent on the target

its not an effect that sticks on the target

[plucky current]

We will admit to the great sin of Not Having Read The Thing In Question so. fair.

[tranquil bay]

Is it mandatory to clear 2 heat after attacking with my heavy ranged weapon if I’m using the Oleander’s Absolute-0-Module, or can I choose not to?

Asking because the text says “you clear 2 heat” and not “you may clear 2 heat”.

[hardy sierra]

Once per effect are always optional in lamcer

[raw forge]

oh huh, is it? where's that from? I'd be very interested to learn about that

[manic jasper]

it's sort of...implicit? extrapolated? a 1/round or 1/turn effect is different from effects that are templated as "the first time you..." It's basically the difference between Nuclear Cavalier triggering on exactly the first attack on your turn and Siege Specialist 2 letting you wait for a later attack in your barrage.

[raw forge]

OH, I see. I was thinking of the wrong thing. that makes sense now. thanks

[obsidian dome]

So my players LOVED the Nexus Defense sitrep

[hardy sierra]

yippee

[obsidian dome]

I gave them a lot more supplies (One for every opened box in another Bonus Objective) for a total of 10 since it took them a long time and they got beat up getting there

and gave them a HUGE deployment zone

[hardy sierra]

they built a whole city!

[obsidian dome]

lemme show you

I was also extra mean because the Nexus was a ship of evacuees getting loaded in

and each charge was more of them getting take nout

And the main Ultra NPC that was messing with them was a Bastion with Bombard optionals

[hardy sierra]

i hope they made it out O:

[obsidian dome]

Yeah, they were fine

Managed to get out with minimal casualties thanks to a lich of all things being a supertank

just eating a short cycle lance with its core power

[north leaf]

For the Habsburg I assume it's Eisen Shield apply on... systems that are not attacks. Like Assaults Micro-Missile barrage. It came up with some funky interactions with House Guard 3.

Also, does burn that triggers at the end of turn also get reduced by the Habsburg's trait?

[hardy sierra]

yes and no

[north leaf]

So for the Eisen Shield, if an enemy creates a hostile effect like Razor Swarms, and the Habsburg walks into that, should that trigger House Guard 3?

[hardy sierra]

only if Feedback shield from the spite triggers off of stuff like Plasma Thrower fire and Iskander Core

[silver kiln]

not to complicate things unnecessarily, but does the Drone tag effect these rulings? Razor Swarm is a Drone and so is technically a character like all drones. So if anything gets jammed from Feedback Shield, it would be the Razor Swarm

[hardy sierra]

Wew

[silver kiln]

also, House Guard 3 says "attacker" explicitly as the target of the effect so I would assume there would have to be an attack involved to trigger it

[shell sleet]

i think the idea there is that if you rule house guard 3 applies to those kinds of "non-attack roll damages" as part of "reducing damage to an allied character", then it should apply. i think it's possible to interpret that either way

[undone ore]

So behemoth question. When I build a tier one behemoth in foundry it has 4 structure. But I believe that the Redundant Systems trait implies that it should have as many starting structure as you have nodes (or PCs.) So in a 3 PC fight it would have 3 structure and nodes, but in a 5 or 6 PC fight it would have that many nodes so it would have 5 and 6 structure and stress respectively. Am I reading that right?

[hardy sierra]

its always got an ultra amount of structure, so 4

the nodes just serve as "stoppers" so the players cant burst it down too quickly

so a 3 node behemoth can lose 1 structure up front before the PCs need to clear out nodes

that is inteded and correct

[undone ore]

So if they have 5 nodes, they have to lose at least a couple nodes before they can take any structure? That was my other thought.

[hardy sierra]

yes

if they have 5 nodes 2 nodes need to die before the body can structure once

[undone ore]

And you said 3 in your first response, you meant 4, correct? 1 +3 for ultra? Your subsequent examples seemed to imply that.

[hardy sierra]

oh yea, that is correct

4 total structure at all times due to being an ultra

[undone ore]

Cool. I'm sorted, then. I'm remaking one of the In Golden Flame combats as a Behemoth so I'm making sure I understand.

[hardy sierra]

https://tenor.com/view/giant-robot-robot-destruction-destroying-giant-gif-15898110

[undone ore]

Oooooh yeah!

[hot crown]

ooh which one

[undone ore]

||Anti-Capital.||

[late herald]

Trying out fortress NPC this sunday and excited for it. Spent a while even making a unique sprite for it to really make it stand out while being clear about what it does.

Any suggestions for running it before I finally get into the thick of it?

[hot crown]

my gm didn't tell us the scene names but i can guess which one it is lol

[undone ore]

||Sunbird||||-1|| will be a behemoth. I made this big 8-round staged map where all the terrain is being destroyed as the battlefield shrinks, throwing dangerous/difficult terrain into space and leaving behind soft cover.

[hot crown]

oh sick

[tawdry sail]

bro is displaying his own lancer game in the middle of battle

[late herald]

Its meant to be a hardlight barrier but now i want to make a Goblin doing exactly that

make a mini battle map projection like that

Wait no a swallowtail

[hot crown]

gotta admit that sprite fucks btw

it kicks an unreasonable amount of ass

[tawdry sail]

i know i was just kidding ToT

[late herald]

well it gave me a fun idea lmao

[tawdry sail]

i am glad xD

[steady fern]

always love terrain destruction. had a similar sitrep where a size 4 titan slowly spreads its difficult terrain by trampling every non-flat ground in the area

[floral oxide]

hey if Bligh takes a friendly tech action and has its Swabbers shoot enemies, does that count as having taken a hostile action for Field Analyst, Orator, etc?

feels like it should but im not sure it technically does

[twilit flower]

Nope! I had this exact question for Field Analyst bcz my Bligh player picked it up.#1179990837661278330 message

According to Ralf as you can see, by law it was the drones who shot that man not the pilot.

You were just buffing allies, the drones shot of their own accord

[floral oxide]

hee hee hoo hoo scheming

ty for the reply!

[twilit flower]

np!

[twilit flower]

I'm sending this to my Bligh player

[wind skiff]

correct

[pale isle]

Does a Behemoth have multiple turns due to the Ultra template? Or is that meant to be sort of covered by the Auxiliary nodes?

[hardy sierra]

The body has 2 turns because it's an ultra

[pale isle]

And it would gain Overshield on each of those turns?

[hardy sierra]

it do

(he's a big guy)

[round pecan]

for you

[pale isle]

Alright cool. Throwing one of these at my party in a few sessions and want to make sure I understand it all. Complicated beast.

[thin crow]

Speaking of Behemoths, would it be considered foul play to throw one at my party of 4 on the 4th fight of a mission? I'm worried looking at some of these damage numbers that they might be a smidge too worn down by the time they get to it

[hardy sierra]

https://tenor.com/view/rocky-iv-dolph-lundgren-captain-ivan-drago-if-he-dies-he-dies-dies-gif-4956349

then they can go hunt it down and take revenge the next mission

[thin crow]

Fair enough! Planning on reflavoring one as a big kaiju type that attacks the party after fleeing an underwater SSC research base they caused a reactor meltdown in so looking forward to trying this thing out hehehehe

[hardy sierra]

there is something cooking...

[round pecan]

!!!

enhanced combat sprites!

👍

[wind skiff]

YEAAAA

[twilit flower]

https://tenor.com/view/nimona-metal-netflix-gif-7656955279592810629

[minor garden]

Ran a Behemoth Brawl for the campaign finale tonight - couldn’t have gone more perfect! 🎉 \o/
Made prepping the encounter a piece of cake too! Super happy with the resources available

[hardy sierra]

LETS GOOOOOO

[minor garden]

Thanks again for everything Ralf ✌️

[zealous scaffold]

Yeah, Behemoth is such good design for a Big Boss

Compaired to standard Ultras, it's so much simpler, yet just as threatening (if not more !)

[unreal pivot]

Is there a plugin to add the new reserves to Foundry VTT?

[hardy sierra]

i dont have one

[unreal pivot]

darn, guess copy and pasting effects it is

[hidden sand]

Ok dumb question... I've been thinking about Morningstar's... Especially an ultra Morningstar with the button, or superior reactor

But more importantly... If you have a Morningstar veteran with the veteran trait that allows it to self destruct... If it isn't exposed and initiates a veteran self destruct does it technically explode twice?

[hardy sierra]

i believe you never become destroyed when you melt down

but i may be incorrect

[hidden sand]

According to the rules when you have a reactor meltdown your mech is "vaporised" and the wreck is "annihilated", RAW it never states it's "destroyed"

[hardy sierra]

up to the gm i suppose

[hidden sand]

Time to implement the world easiest veteran ultra by getting it to blow itself up twice round one

[floral oxide]

might set an awkward precedent for the Manticore. or a really cool one

[late herald]

Id classify "being completely vaporised" as the mech being destroyed

[hardy sierra]

THE BOY DEPLOYER

[plucky current]

The Lad Creator

[hidden sand]

LETS FUCKING GOOOOO

Friendship ended with Zheng, now Bligh is my best friend

[twilit flower]

HE

big stubb legs

[manic jasper]

my only complaint with that sprite is that it's going to be really hard to steal the legs for kitbashing. it's such a great token

[wind skiff]

Squad

[next rapids]

Just saw this in the concept art forum, would make a great bligh token! https://twitter.com/tankhead_mecha/status/1764678562747998529

TANKHEAD (Available for preorder now!) (@tankhead_mecha) on X

Tankhead development went in two directions throughout the war. Ever larger walking machines of war were conceived, but the technology was also miniaturized allowing for smaller faster fighting vehicles. Both extremes can be seen in the FT3 Hen Transport and Vickers Egg Tankette.

Twitter · Mar 4, 2024, 3:45 PM

[hardy sierra]

but we're already getting a great bligh token 😭

[eternal tree]

Whoa, bligh with eggs /lh

[next rapids]

Technically it's for the upcoming "tankhead" lancer supplement, so no need to worry

[eternal tree]

Is tankhead a supplement? I thought it was just a seperate mech art worldbuilding project

[minor garden]

Tankhead is not related to lancer https://emersontung.com/tankhead

[next rapids]

Oh, the font looked the same so it got me, either way it would be an amazing lancer supplement. I'm definitely using art from it in my future games!

[brazen oasis]

tankhead is pretty old. Like even on artstation the oldest tankhead illustration posted there is 7 years ago.

[next rapids]

Awesome, that means there's a lot of cool art!

[hardy sierra]

https://tenor.com/view/pirate-ship-arr-pirate-dance-pirate-dance-gif-12107966

[hot crown]

I'd like to look at some recordings of people playing a Breach and Clear sitrep, is there a good one on the interpoint twitch I can review to get an idea of running it?

mostly cause I want to look at deployments and think about how to arrange enemies so it's appropriately frantic without the broken up deployment allowing the players to too easily just ignore enemies and rush the exit but also not overwhelm them

[azure pond]

oh i love this one

[ripe lichen]

The scuttler!

[wind skiff]

Yarr

And I can’t stress this enough

Har

[spare kernel]

introduced nosferatu as a elite commander

player hit the darn thing for 16 dmg

whilst it was exposed

sobbing

definitely a dangerous mech to use, probably should have avoided activating feeding frenzy so early

either way, here's the sprite for my nosferatu made by a friend in a quick whim

i am just not used to dealing with very glass canon npcs

but i still got another one coming, phew

[hardy sierra]

i think if you activated feeding frenzy you arleady won

[spare kernel]

i won mentally

but

the tortuga shooting me for 16 dmg

turned it 32 dmg

painful

blud went right through the 2 structure augh

[eternal tree]

Okay I put way too much effort into this meme.
But something hit me over the head and spoke to me when I made this

[dim swift]

On top of my head I don't know which exact vod hm

[hidden sand]

Which scallywags require plundering?!?!?!?

[mental willow]

had a thought about Oleander with the Caliban's HHS Cannibal

Supermassive Mod, when overclocked, causes the weapon it's applied to to have more knockback but also Ordnance

Oleander ignores ordnance

Add in Auxiliary Rails (from Oleander)

If it stacks that's about 8 Knockback with a single double-barrel shot

[hardy sierra]

yea, its a railgun shotgun

[dim swift]

Uncle cannibal oleander is also a classic 👀

[hardy sierra]

they said he would never roll

[zealous scaffold]

"He could never be rollin' "

[hasty ivy]

It wants to make sure it is reading or interpreting this correct, for if it wants to take a certain weapon. If say it uses a weapon with heat 3. Does the heat from the weapon go of before or after absolute zero kick in. absolute zero says after the attack resolves, and heat tag says after using the weapon.

its assuming absolute zero is before? as the attack resolving is part of using the weapon?

[hardy sierra]

simultaneous effect

you choose

basically itll eat the heat always outside of niche cases where you wanna overheat yourself

[maiden belfry]

do legionnaire npcs have a standard move?

[hardy sierra]

yea

allegedly standard move isnt an action

(the scholars debate this)

[hidden sand]

Where subaltern grabbing onto a wheel and spinning on it?

[dusk sage]

I just had a dumb thought.....could you possibly do a Displacer Oleander or no?

[hardy sierra]

its got a main mount

but it cant put hte assembly on the displacer sings its not a heavy

[dusk sage]

Well I got some sad news for one of my players then. Though that Hannibal build is gonna be something they're into

[ripe lichen]

Clearing up something about the payload rules- "This is the ONLY way a payload can be moved" is intended to stop things like "i ram the payload / i accelerate the payload", yeah?

[hardy sierra]

i dont believe that is a sentence that requires clearing up

(but yes)

[ripe lichen]

I just have a thick skull and wanted to be absolutely certain.

thanks!

[tranquil cedar]

is it intentional that the siege and signal chase sitreps don't include the "Hostiles with multiple Structure count as 1 character per Structure remaining." condition that other sitreps with control zones have?

[hardy sierra]

it is

[gilded rose]

so quick question on the alt frame Bligh, are swabber drones unlimited, or do you only get 4 per scene or something akin to that?

[ripe lichen]

the passive says you may have a maximum of 4 swabber drones at any time, but as long as you have space within that cap you can keep printing drones.

like if the GM keeps melting your drones, you'll continue to get 1 at the end of each of your turns until the combat ends or the bligh/npc in question is destroyed.

• the line about having an integrated printer implies they're meant to be able to continuously throw drones onto the board.
  tl;dr i don't think they ever run out of drones to deploy, they just have a hard limit on how many can exist at any given time.

[gilded rose]

got it, just wanted to make sure when building with the frame

[hardy sierra]

https://www.retrogrademinis.com/

yo ho

https://tenor.com/view/pirate-ship-arr-pirate-dance-pirate-dance-gif-12107966

[signal drum]

har yar!

[nova sky]

Yar har har a pirates life for me

[winter bloom]

In the Infiltration sitrep, the RAW would suggest that hostiles who have initiated a Spot Hostile or Investigate Body get the VP at the end of their next turn unless that hostile gets destroyed before the end of their next turn arrives. Is that the ONLY way for either of those actions to be blocked, once they've been initiated?

In other words: assume an enemy begins a Spot Hostile against a PC. If that PC then moves to a spot where they could Hide, does the ongoing Spot Hostile against them end? Going by RAW, the answer is no. Just making sure that's the intention.

[hardy sierra]

that is the correct read and intended

this sitrep is already heavily in favor of the players

[midnight folio]

Hello everyone, does someone have some OpFor ideas I could use for a tier 1 signal chase sitrep ?

[midnight folio]

Nevermind, I just remember that Hive exists.

[umbral oyster]

Apologies if this has been answered before, but I'm looking to use the Executioner NPC, but I'm confused looking at its tactical advice. This sentence, Their aura of dread means that hostiles have a hard time coming to grappled allies' aid while the Executioner's imposing Trait makes it exceedingly difficult to escape their grasp. seem to suggest they're meant to have... abilities that have these names and do those things, but neither seem to be the case. Was the Executioner redesigned and this text just wasn't changed, or are features missing from the NPC?

[hardy sierra]

imposing is mech catcher and aura of dread is onto the scaffold

[umbral oyster]

Ok thanks.

Love the book by the way, just got hung up on this

[quaint seal]

Just spotted "vase systems" on the artillery emplacement

[hidden sand]

Got a question about the habsburgs Eisen shield...

I was rereading the rules for order of handling damage
Step 2 is reduce armour, step 3 is other reductions including resistance.

So as eisen shield is a reduction and not armour, if you had resistance which would be resolved first or is it choice of the player?

I'd assume it would be eisen shield first because that's how armour works but could you have eisen reduce after resistance afterwards?

[hardy sierra]

It works the same as leadership 3 Damage reduction

[hidden sand]

Ah... well now I need to ask what order that resolves 😆

But that's a big old cup of not your problem

OK so it's what I assumed it was... characters choice... that makes eisen shield so much better than I thought it was...

[hardy sierra]

its pretty good, yea

it also works against stuff that armor doenst work against like burn

its super armor

[hidden sand]

It's also the fact that when you take chip damage and have resistance for some reason you can just negate it rather than just saying "I half 1 to 1"

[floral oxide]

i think habsburg and white witch should stand next to each other

[umbral oyster]

Could the Oleander frame mount a superheavy weapon and still benefit from its core system, or is the intent that the frame is really meant to only ever use a heavy?

[hidden sand]

It's for regular heavies only

[hardy sierra]

the core passive was too powerful with superheavies

i initially madea compromise where the core active worked with superheavies still

but a lot of people were even more confused by that

so i just axed them

[hidden sand]

The ability to remove ordinance from a superheavy is still pretty nifty

[umbral oyster]

I assumed as much but wanted to be sure. I was wanting to suggest one of my fellow PCs give the mech a try, but people have also been trying to get them to try a superheavy weapon

[twilit flower]

updoot on my IGF campaign and my Bligh player. Still haven't had any Bombards to throw his way, and holy fuck Blighs are a nightmare on objective missions that involving contesting multiple zones. I love it, and also Swabbers having Reliable on their rifles makes them weirdly good at shredding invis targets like Dataveil Scouts and Mirages.

[manic jasper]

🤔 ...I was thinking about respeccing to something to deal with invis

[manic jasper]

Actually, anyone got spicy LL4 Bligh builds? My immediate thought was loading up on support options that normally need another player

[hardy sierra]

god i hope your gm isnt letting you contest zones with drones

[twilit flower]

Wait can you not do that? I thought since Drones were characters they could? Also I'm the GM.

Ah well, it didn't make much of a difference in said control mission because the enemies were practically forced off the objectives turn 1 by the Manticore Beckoning a Goliath from one objective into the arms of the waiting Bligh player.

[twilit flower]

My bligh player is speccing into Emperor for even more overshield shenanigans, may be worth looking into

[ripe lichen]

sorry for the ping, but idk if you're still around. this is what the FAQ has to say about it.

[twilit flower]

Ty for the ping it is appreciated

I will try to remember this for when I am not high

[ripe lichen]

fair!

[hidden sand]

Enhanced combat also has "scoring character" rules clarifications right near the beginning so you don't need FAQ

[spare kernel]

Yeah

[ripe lichen]

A recent convo about hiding revealed to me that the bligh could leverage hiding to a despicable degree.
In light of this information, a bligh passed through photo editing software to look like it has a cloaking module of some sort.

[twilit flower]

you take your eyes off the Bligh for one second then suddenly BOOM, hordes of swabbers

[ripe lichen]

I call this build, "Plausible Deniability". The swabbers shot that mech, it wasn't me!

[twilit condor]

they legally cannot prove that you shot that man

[ripe lichen]

I have an alibi, I was nowhere near the combat zone!

[tranquil cedar]

for the payload rules, must the PC start their standard movement next to the payload, or is it possible to still move it even if they had already spent some of it on that turn?

[hardy sierra]

that is possible

[twilit flower]

TO ANYONE WITH A PC RUNNING BLIGH: Do not let them deploy all 4 Swabbers before a fight bcz they are in position to ambush. Worst mistake in my life... I talked with player and he agreed we aint doin that again.

also Bligh gunsquads with Emperor systems are my sleep paralysis demons...

https://tenor.com/view/1000-quota-stare-lethal-company-1000-yard-stare-gif-8412969833343799422

[hardy sierra]

lol

yea its very much balanced around not that

[twilit flower]

yeeaaaaaaaaaahhh...

my god Bligh is terrifying. I need to crank up my difficulty and throw more Grunts in to slow them down

[hot crown]

Arguably Grunts would just get torn up by swabbers

[hardy sierra]

the best way to prune the swabs is obviously the bombard

[ripe lichen]

scourer has an entire system that just says, "wow, fuck drones" iirc

[umbral oyster]

Planning to run a Stockpile sitrep as essentially a game of soccer with mech fighting. I was going to have the PCs (LL3 Mourning Cloak, Pegasus, Lich, and Genghis, having expended a lot of their resources) up against a team of 4 templated units, no reinforcements. I had NPCs in mind, picked from memorable NPCs they've fought in the past... but said NPCs would be a rough team comp (3 strikers, 1 defender), so I need to make changes.

Current idea is:

Veteran Commander Cataphract (Lightning Reflexes, Quick March, Elec. Lasso, Cap. Discharge)
Veteran Avenger (Slippery, Judgement Shotgun, Duck)
Elite Hive (Grind Maniple, Motile Swarm, Grind Maniple)
Veteran Demolisher (Acrobat, Conc. Missiles, Sap)

Anyone have suggestions, with respect to fitting the sitrep or otherwise?

[winter bloom]

Minor error discovered in the EC .lcp - the Contract Killer's Hunting Knife is listed as a Heavy Rifle instead of an Auxiliary Melee.

[hidden sand]

your knives aren't ridiculously heavy and rifled? What knives are you using!?!?!

[hardy sierra]

now, this is a knife

[hidden sand]

Question about breach and clear sitrep. End of round one is it guaranteed the second zone will be revealed? So it kinda acts like a brawl to defeat any quadrant 1 hostiles ASAP?

[hardy sierra]

Yea!

Very Action packed start

[hidden sand]

Can't wait to run it

It's only checks plans 3 missions away

[umbral oyster]

Looking forward to running this Stockpile game for my players on Sunday. The PCs are going to be playing mechball for the fate of the world! (Or at least, if they win, they'll have a much easier time protecting this world)

[brazen bloom]

TIL The Habsburg colors are just the Saladin colors inverted

[hidden sand]

Huh?

[brazen bloom]

ok now that i'm looking at it again, it doesn't really work

it's kinda close??? maybe?

[hidden sand]

No I see it

[hardy sierra]

Is saladin yellow or blue

[hazy talon]

It's various shades of blueish grey

[hidden sand]

Dumbass question about the "lock pick" pattern nuke

Do you have to be in a mech to use the full action to throw it?

[fast bay]

My next character will pilot a Saladin in that dress. Like, the Saladin will be in that dress.

[hardy sierra]

You decide

[hidden sand]

Lovely

[hardy sierra]

If the pilot works out and is yoched they can probably toss a nuclear bomb

How heavy can it be

[hidden sand]

Maybe make it like range 1 or something lmao

[hardy sierra]

A tonne?

[shell sleet]

google says the one on tomahawk missiles weigh 130kg

[umbral oyster]

https://i.makeagif.com/media/1-27-2016/WZFOss.mp4

[shell sleet]

if you're juicing you could probably make it work

[maiden belfry]

you could probably make pretty portable nukes with 5016u tech

like that one bomb from halo 4

[main turtle]

For the Oleander, Heavy Gunner would work with Absolute-0-Module and the heat clear wouldn't be halved (similarly to how Heat X isn't halved), correct? Was considering combining the thing with Heatfall to allow for very sustainable overcharging so as to fit in Killshot, Core Siphon Skirmish, and Covering Fire every turn.

(also the lightest complete nuclear weapon I know of, the SADM, weighed about 27 kg)

[umbral oyster]

I think Heavy Gunner would work with that, just keep the limitation of firing only once per turn in mind. Though that's... probably why the Absolute-0 module also says it's only once per turn.

[hardy sierra]

it does work

otherwise it would say 1/round

[steady fern]

TTS my beloved...

[thorny pewter]

Is the Train in the Train Heist sitrep intended to count towards encounter balance? And if so, how much? A standard NPC? Elite? Ultra?

[umbral oyster]

I believe it isn't counted. The encounter budget already takes it into consideration

[minor garden]

Train is tacked on at the end in addition to what you prep, yeah

[thorny pewter]

Thanks ya both! Good to know.

[kindred cliff]

For the necromancer NPC, is there any drone or item that we have access to deploy the thralls? Or do i need to make a mech from scratch

[brazen bloom]

^^ same here for foundry, does the lcp have any implementation of that

[hardy sierra]

no

i dont use foundry so i dont know how it works :S

i thought making it like the engineer would be enough sorry

[brazen bloom]

ripo

[hidden sand]

Foundry imports npcs and mechs from the LCP. So if you have an enemy lcp you can click and drag the enemy to an empty stat block and it auto generates the NPC with all their abilities and automated weapon macros. Engineers need to either manually set up their turrets as deployable objects (which doesn't have traits like NPC mechs nor does it have an automated attack rolls/weapons to attack with) or there's an alternative where people have made "engineer turret lcp" which adds engineer turrets as an NPC type in comp con

[hardy sierra]

https://tenor.com/view/pikachu-shocked-face-stunned-pokemon-shocked-not-shocked-omg-gif-24112152

[winter bloom]

All it takes is a new actor of the “deployable” type and then set the stats accordingly. Doesn’t take that much longer than setting up a base NPC.

[kindred cliff]

but thralls are unique. I guess i can treat it like a moving drone. Its got 1-2 attacks

just gotta find a retrograde-style model for them to look like robo zombies

thinking about it now...i could probably pull one of those cyber zombies from Mass effect

[wind skiff]

explosive husks my behated

[tropic crow]

SITREP #14 - SEARCH AND RESCUE from enhanced combat - do you randomly pick both the extract and objective zones? So sometimes they are close to each other and sometimes far apart?

[hardy sierra]

Yep

It usually evens out so you get some good ones and bad ones

Promotes team decision making which one's to go for

[tropic crow]

So, just to confirm my understanding, you roll twice and might get extract 1 to go to objective 6 and it's the full length of the map?

[hardy sierra]

Yea

And each zone can only happen once

[midnight folio]

Hello, the Cohesion Trait of the Legionnaire does not show up on Comp/Con, is that normal ?

[midnight folio]

Nevermind, I just updated my lcp.

[late herald]

Hey, can spot hostile be disrupted by iceout drones?

[hardy sierra]

The targeting can

Once it's underway the only way to prevent it is to keel

[late herald]

got it

[safe aurora]

anyone have general advice for running an infiltrate sitrep?

[hardy sierra]

Elites can make players sweat

So can terrain destruction

[lofty heath]

Sniper with two activations is many times scarier than a sniper with only one activation

[safe aurora]

My tactical goal is pretty much to compromise/ control their targeting priority, and generate tension between knocking out the guy who is spotting them vs a more threatening foe yeah?

[pseudo linden]

in your experience, how difficult is a legionnaire compared to a single striker? I feel like the legionnaires would be a bigger threat just based on action economy

[hot crown]

They're more or less equivalent to a single Striker tbh

In practice I've found that, at least

Their reduced actions and low damage and having to roll for each shot makes em pretty reliable though

[pseudo linden]

i guess the tradeoff is that their damage is vulnerable to attrition in a way that a single unit isn't

[hot crown]

They also die instantly if a chomolungma pops core

[grim pawn]

NPCs don’t die to stress though

[hot crown]

System Crusher.

They have 2 HC and 4 HP so

It just kills them

[thorny pewter]

Only works, guaranteed, at tier 1

[hardy sierra]

retrograde is working on the Habsburg now
that is all

[wind skiff]

YEAAAA

[pseudo linden]

the additional reserves aren't added to the lcp, are they?

[hardy sierra]

No

[grim pawn]

They’re more single-use anyhow

[manic jasper]

do a salamander's slag bombs block LOS or provide cover? Normally I'd assume, no, they're just objects, but I'm wondering if that was supposed to be an effect of making them Terrain Objects specifically.

[hardy sierra]

Same as kobold blocks

[manic jasper]

Aha! Great, thanks. So that's explicit hard cover...implicit LOS block?

[hardy sierra]

its whatever the kobold blocks do

[paper tundra]

Ello! Rules question here, I'm confused what this mount does on the Bligh can you use it to shoot your drones weapon? If so what kind of action is that?

[umbral oyster]

You can only fire your swabber's weapons by using the frame's passive traits iirc

[hardy sierra]

its basically just there because thats the best way to display the swabber weapons in comcon

[umbral oyster]

Would Strong Winds be too mean of a battlefield effect for my PCs' first time doing Signal Chase?

I'm torn between that and Extreme Sun.

[ripe lichen]

it also happens to make it a lot easier to roll the attacks in Foundry, from a player's perspective. so it was, imo, a good decision.

[brazen bloom]

👀 👀 👀 👀

[lofty heath]

Saladin with da big iron. What will he do

[spare kernel]

you know i gotta ask

who runs the hapsburg?

like, i'm not a player but i'm trying to understand whats the build for this guy

or like, the intended playstyle

as a support shield, idk what the hapsburg can do that other bigger mechs can't do

heck, i got a bligh player in my campaign and his supporting is pretty cool cause it rewards them to shoot their lil guys

[hardy sierra]

its cool to fire out shields via pylons

you can even use them with hardlight or blinkshield to create prisons for NPCs

[spare kernel]

ooh

but what about like, the rest of the kit? with just one main mount and -2 tech attack, what is the build for this to enable the pylon throwing

[hardy sierra]

houseguard 3
saladin shields
emperor shields

HG3 can trigger off the passive Eisen Shield
Saladin shields can trap enemies or protect far away allies
Emperor shields can also be measured from the pylons

The Habsburg has a much easier time keeping up with faster teams or on sitreps that split up the players because the pylon represent another anchor point to rally around making Control sitreps for example more fun for the defender

plus its got unique supera rmor with the Eisen Shield capable of working even while shredded or against burn

i dont know htat it plays much different from a saladin but it has some cool unique interactions that make it ineresting i think

[spare kernel]

ooh ok

yeah sorry i am just not a player

so i had no idea of all this stuff

like i was staring at it as a gm and i did not see the vision

[brazen bloom]

OH RIGHT EMPEROR

[zealous scaffold]

it can also serve as a remote trigger for stasis bolt !

[pseudo linden]

if I use a contract killer npc that i plan to reuse later, potentially as an ally, should they keep the contract killer template?

[grim pawn]

Also the “ceaseless bombardment” sub objective in a nutshell is just:

YOU ARE IN RANGE OF ENEMY ARTILLERY

[wind skiff]

I thought I was free from that

[hardy sierra]

harrison armory drake

lol

[azure pond]

HA drake... wild

[dusk sage]

Ah yes the Fear killer.For when defense becomes an unstoppable offense.

[wind skiff]

Habsburg

Habsburger

[hidden sand]

B I G

[tawdry sail]

I love this thing

[true plaza]

If a size 1+ PC boosts next to and triggers overwatch from a Necro's size 1/2 Thrall Drone, which hits and grapples on hit, does the player lose the rest of their boost?

Confusion we ran into with a smaller character grappling a larger one mid-boost for the larger one.

Grappled says you can't boost or take reactions while grappled but the grapple happens as the boost starts

So, does the player lose their triggering boost?

[hardy sierra]

Can't boost, boost ends

It's the same as becoming slowed basically

[zealous scaffold]

Does HoG 2 also apply to they Habsburg's pylons ? For normal usage and Eisen shield, in case there's a difference...
My reading is no, but I'm still checking : since the part about Eisen shield being relayed is still in the trait itself and not the deployable, I feel like it's worth asking

[hardy sierra]

It's a no

[zealous scaffold]

Aight, noted

[safe aurora]

question, can someone give me the TLDR on the Bligh, my drone queen player, i feel, might at least be somewhat interested in it

[ripe lichen]

they print free swabber drones that attack when you do supporting actions or place non-drone deployables; like if you bolster an ally or put down a smokestack, a couple of the swabber drones get to attack.

[safe aurora]

ah so its like extra offense now instead of building up to big lasor in how it differs form the kidd

do support, get reward still being its kinda core thing

[ripe lichen]

kind of. you're building up to a swarm of 4 drones, because each drone can only attack once per turn and you get four maximum at any given time.

[minor garden]

Played in a Nexus Defense for a Wallflower campaign with remixed sitreps - Played beautifully. Great objective and very fun using the Installations!

[twilit flower]

Gonna throw this put there for any GM who is struggling to fight a Bligh. Bombards work great, but if gou wang to mix things up Hornets and any Jam spammer work great. Also, Scourer with Melt. Specifically, a steady trickle of Melt Scourer Grunts can really put pressure on the Bligh and force the party tp divert attacks to deal with them

The Melt Scourer Grunts is something I have in fact tested and it works

[safe aurora]

is bligh a challenge to play against?

[hardy sierra]

not more so than the hydra

[safe aurora]

that was my impression, ok, i have some experience with the hydra

[twilit flower]

the main thing is just keeping track of all the crazy 4D shit a Bligh player can do

[manic jasper]

Such as?

[lofty heath]

Setting up Tempest Drones to turn the battlefield into a ping pong table

[ripe lichen]

My GM specifically disallowed hydra shenanigans, so i'm playing a bligh without puppetmaster and it still plays good.

[manic jasper]

huh. I was looking at Bligh the other day and I couldn't decide whether it actually wanted drones besides the swabbers. It seemed like drones would cut into your No Quarter damage.

[lofty heath]

Do you like Bloons TD 6
⬇️ ⬇️
Yes No
⬇️ ⬇️
More Drones Still more Drones

[hardy sierra]

turret drones can be fun because the swabs can trigger them

other than that, yea

theres no real incentive to deploy them

(by design)

[safe aurora]

the biggest reason you'd do more more more drones is kinda flavor/narrative rather than mechanical

not that there arent good drones available

especially if you have more 3rd party and youre insane enough to stack em

though h aving a butt load of drones gets cumbersome i imagine

[lofty heath]

Isn't the general consensus that you do like ghostbusters and not cross the beams homebrews?

[umbral oyster]

It's best to do so because it could easily lead to unintended/unaccounted-for interactions

[lofty heath]

unless, you know...🤣

https://preview.redd.it/me-and-the-boys-on-our-way-to-delete-that-part-off-of-the-v0-hm8b6oz351wc1.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=dcae19f8a10198a619bea3bf4524aa4eb3ffa668

[umbral oyster]

Unless you want to break game balance over your knee, yes :p

[signal drum]

I for one had to learn the "don't mix homebrew" rule the hard way.

[umbral oyster]

What did it?

[safe aurora]

I don't know that that's the general consensus, my understanding is that it's mix homebrew at your own discretion as they are not balanced against each other and will likely have unintended interactions.

I do it, I manage the unintended interactions as we discover them. Players and myself are all on the same page about how we want to address exploitative interactions to keep things interesting

Been running that way for a while just fine. I usually just advise beginner gms or gms who want a more controlled environment to avoid picking more than 1 at least initially

[twilit flower]

So far I've kept it mostly to "one homebrew book per player" as a soft rule. Albeit I've allowed my Bligh player to dip in WAZAL for the Serjeant talent, though that may be tweaked depending on how things go

The other homebrew that's in use for me rn is Burning Memories cuz I got someone rocking Phaon Crescent.

[spare kernel]

just wanna make sure i ncase im not misreading, the aux nodes can be anything right?

like i can have 4 point defense and 1 shield gen and whatnot?

also @hardy sierra sorry to bother, but what do you recommend about dealing with a flying ship behemoth vs a melee lancer, and also a cqb lancer? i'm thinking of the ship flying around height 3 with the melee being size 2 and the cqb being size 0.5, or maybe going higher with height but there being towers around for them to climb around or something?

[hardy sierra]

THE GRAV FIELD THE BEHEMOTH IS EMITTING IS SO STRONG THAT IT PULLS UP THE LANCERS, ALLOWING THEM TO FLY WHILE CLOSE TO IT

[spare kernel]

AUGH THATS A GOOD POINT LOL

yeah i was kinda

considering that

rather than random towers

it fits too because of the weird energy the ship is powered by haha, ok, another question then: is 2 gun emplacements, 2 artillery, 1 hunter killer and 1 shield gen sound fine enough?

[hardy sierra]

how large is your fucking group

6 people??

[spare kernel]

yes.

<:3

[hardy sierra]

damn

then yea

[twilit flower]

https://tenor.com/view/adventure-time-jake-the-dog-existential-existential-crisis-gif-22706230

[hardy sierra]

also my sympathies

[twilit flower]

dear lord

[spare kernel]

though granted i did mention this wayyyy long time ago, but the boss fight is coming up now so i will remind: every 3 rounds the behemoth gets stunned by cannon and loses its funny armor

and permanently lowers its armor

kinda basically "shoot the guns and then unload onto the ship once it gets knocked down"

kinda also thinking the ship's aux nodes get stunned for a whole round too when "knocked down"

it is literally the worm fight from ac6 but its a giant ship

[lofty fossil]

Hey so for the spotting infiltrator actions in the Infiltration sitrep, do hostile NPCs have to still have been able to take their scanning action at the end of the round, do they still have to be alive, or if they start doing it are they guaranteed to get points?
Example: Sentinel walks up to a wreck and uses its full action to Investigate Body. Players shoot the sentinel with knockback and it is no longer adjacent to wreck. Do they still score? What if the shot just killed the sentinel?

[manic jasper]

killing the NPC definitely stops them from scoring, since they won't have a next turn

[ripe lichen]

as far as i'm aware, killing the NPC is the only way to stop them from gaining VP once the action has started, because it stops them from having a 'next turn'.
that said, jamming them before they can take the action does help, because it's a tech.

[lofty fossil]

hm... ok so its like they already know there someone from the moment that action resolves, but they have to wait until the end of the round it report it to their team?

[hardy sierra]

Yea, uploading the pictures takes way long

Except if you're an elite

Priority channels

[hidden sand]

The elite is using nordvpn

[vagrant fulcrum]

Elites have wireless ethernet

[hidden sand]

That's not allowed, simply too powerful

[umbral oyster]

Would putting Captive Spike from OWS on an Elite Executioner be too evil? I've yet to use the Executioner in my campaign and I'd like it to have a big entrance. I'd like to use a method of grappling that doesn't require a to-hit roll because most of my PCs either have a sub-8 evasion... or have exclusively put points into Agility, and I don't want that character to feel completely unthreatened. Would I be better served using Imaple or Electrified Lasso?

[hidden sand]

Habsborg ❤️

Wait DD288 Habsborg?

IT CAN HAVE 2 DD288'S!?!?!?

[manic jasper]

with the power of kitbashing, there's almost no limit to how many DD288s a mech can have

[hidden sand]

Mmmmm

[hardy sierra]

idk what retrograde was cooking with the double DD 😂

but it looks sick

[hot crown]

sometimes you gotta double fist it

[twilit flower]

the power of Superheavy Mounting is strong

[hidden sand]

They're just a big guy

A large fella

With the power to atomise you with two overclocked punches

[safe aurora]

quadrupal d

dddd56

[candid pelican]

How come LEC has the two best retrograde sprites, how is that fair? 😏

[hidden sand]

Someone did Habsburg paint job already?

Damn

[hardy sierra]

itll be 4 before you know it

[candid pelican]

Very exciting

[hidden sand]

Who's next 👀

[hardy sierra]

Haven't talked to Retrograde yet

I'd like salamander I think

[hidden sand]

Different topic, I'm curious if anyone has ran legionairres ignoring their template and structure limitations. Like, elites, vets or ultras. My assumption is that the trait was added to keep them closer to grunts, but the concept of an elite legionnaire squad sounds really cool

[wind skiff]

Elite legionnaire pods? Neat

[hidden sand]

I mean, in my mind I'd kinda wanna try an ultra legionnaire squad. With +2 hp each rather than +5 each. Then make each of them have unique ultras systems or something. Like the anti armour weapon is only equipped to one legionairre, one gets a wolfhound or devastated cannon or something

[zealous scaffold]

A full squad of legionnaires with ravager turret to make your players despise your continued existence

almost as bad as a squad full of short-cycle lances

almost

Might want to be careful with the action economy, joking aside : the legionnaire's actions are not worth as much as a typical NPC's, wich is why they get twice as many; if you give them access to normal-power actions while still having more, things could get messy

[hardy sierra]

Crew served ravager turret good meme

[hot crown]

Crew Served Short Cycle Lance is actually kind of a dope centerpiece for an encounter

[hardy sierra]

Recharge roll increased by 1 per alive legionnaire

[hidden sand]

I mean, none could activate it cos none have full actions :P

[hidden sand]

Or make it the opposite, increased by 1 per dead legionnaire

Probs also make stuff like juggernaut only apply to 1 npc per turn. 1 repaired weapon/system for the squad, 1 cleared condition

[lofty fossil]

can legionnairres do spot target or investigate body in infiltratoin sitrep?

[hidden sand]

No? Because they can only perform boost, skirmish and overwatches

I've never used legionairres and I love them

4 INDUSTRIAL LEGIONAIRRES, WITH FUSION CUTTERS OR BUZZSAWS

[lofty fossil]

damn. Sentinel grunts it is then

[hardy sierra]

I usually let them spot

[lofty fossil]

cool

[hardy sierra]

But they're terrible at it

They die so fast lol and have 5 sensors

[lofty fossil]

Maybe I'll give them 3 spotters and an one support shooter who cannot spot

The goal is for them to be pinaka fodder

[hidden sand]

Ah fair, this is my brain coming from kill team where some units "can't perform mission actions" so I defaulted to that

Like... a dog can't interact with a computer... so I thought an intern in a mech couldn't investigate a corpse since both situations are very similar

[lofty fossil]

no investigating bodies tho?

[hardy sierra]

They don't have full actions yea

Not trained for forensics

[lofty fossil]

ah, fair enough

[lofty fossil]

legionnairres should be budgeted for similarly to normal strikers yes? just with particular weaknesses and strengths?

[hardy sierra]

ya

[safe aurora]

ooo whats teh role shift between the haps and the sally?

or the playstyle change

[vital spindle]

Hapsburg is just a lot more usable tbh

it provides passive damage reduction in a small radius

(I mean only to adjacent character but lets be real every single person taking this frame has House Guard)

and it deploys relays so it doesn't have to be standing where the shield is (or immobilized) while providing shields

[lofty fossil]

hm... double budget 5 player sitrep, 10 legionnairres + assorted non-dps npcs. Let a player hit the xiong limit

[hardy sierra]

i played lance warriors once

liky daynasty warriors

where we chewed through like 50 legionnaires

interspersed with veterans

[candid pelican]

How do you track legionnaire groups? Just have one massive group and only activate 4 at a time?

(Asking for a friend 😅)

[hardy sierra]

Legionnaire A1
Legionnaire A2
Legionnaire A3
Legionnaire A4

Legionnaire B1
Legionnaire B2
...

[manic jasper]

Color coordinate the tokens 😛

[candid pelican]

Welp ik what I'm doing this evening I guess

[safe aurora]

Ah got it, so same role actually, but does so via passive mitigation instead of reactive mitigation and does it more consistently

[zealous scaffold]

Its deal is better range and mobility than the saladin

[safe aurora]

? It's got the same base speed as the saladin and less sensors, is the mobility your referring to from something else?

[manic jasper]

half of Sal's mobility problems are its speed, the other half is its love of systems that slow or immobilize it. The Hapsburg can use its pylons to project its immobilizing shields, and to generally get more range for things like Stasis Bolt

[zealous scaffold]

Yep, exactly what I was referring to

[late herald]

Continuing to slowly hammer out my own takes on the NPC types from Enhanced combat. Previously slowed off the Fortress, Still going with GMS asthetic as that's what my part is dealing with.

A Crusader (With deathcounter shield) and then an Executioner both with grappling arm hidden and revealed in order to spook players who dont scan it (with a variant for showing the "cast in the name of god" optional system)

Trying my best to capture the essence of the idea behind each of these NPC types. With the Crusader standing proud as a beacon to up morale, and the executioner cloaked and hiding its strength in order to have an intimidating look especially with it being hunched over and dragging its sword.

[lofty fossil]

With the Infiltration Sitrep, does anyone have experience with changing scoring so that hostiles have to still be able to see their opponent/be next to the wreck in order to score? I'm worried that the only counterplay once you get spotted being "kill that guard right now" might not be so great for controllers?

[hardy sierra]

The sitrep already heavily favors pcs, if the npcs also have to maintain linear of sight they have no way to score

[lofty fossil]

Fair enough I suppose. I've not actually run it, so I might be overestimating how easy it is for PCs to get spotted

[hidden sand]

Are swabber drones allied characters to yourself?

If so is it possible to

Deploy GMS turret -> Activate swabbers -> attack with swabber -> attack with same drone?

[hardy sierra]

Yea Swabbers can activate a turret

Just note that deploying is not turret doesn't trigger no quarter

So you'll need to use some action to activate no quarter because swabs can't attack without it

[hidden sand]

Oh ofc they're drones... Not deployables

MB

[late herald]

Genuinely rules as written infiltration works fine. My party hard murdered everything before they could score anything and in doing so managed to get a barbarossa through while completing the objective

[lament pier]

@hardy sierra can I check with you something regarding the Payload

"Payloads are Size 1 Mission Critical Entities. 1/turn when a PC performs their standard movement while adjacent to a Payload, they may place that Payload in a free and valid adjacent space at the end of that movement. They may not interrupt the movement with any other movements or actions and may not fly more than 1 space above the surface during this movement."

does this work with Blinkspace Tunneler, where "As part of any movement, characters other than you (hostile or allied) that enter the space at least partially may teleport to a free space adjacent to you. "

My intuition says no, because payload shouldn't be able to teleport. But my player raised a good point in that a core-active Mourning Cloak would thus be unable to escort the payload at all

[hardy sierra]

It depends how much Lancer you wanna play

A mourningcloak with core and a sunzi on the team can raw complete extraction round 1

Talk to your players if they want that or if they actually want to play Lancer

[lament pier]

I okay-ed the Mourning Cloak's core still rendering it able to move the payload, but said no to the Sunzi trick

[hardy sierra]

That would be my take as well

[lament pier]

Was hoping to get your input on the RAI

alrighty, thanks

[eternal echo]

Heya, do External Batteries affect the Bligh Swabbers?

[lament pier]

I really don't think so. The Swabbers are not the the Bligh's weapons after all

[hardy sierra]

ya

[umbral oyster]

As in, they don't?

[hardy sierra]

they do not

they are their own little guys

[umbral oyster]

Cool, figured as much

[manic jasper]

Making sure my group is reading Infiltration right: if the PCs get to the enemy deployment zone before the end of round six, they have to hang out there until the end of round six?

[hidden sand]

Amen 🫡

[twilit condor]

https://tenor.com/view/pirate-ship-arr-pirate-dance-pirate-dance-gif-12107966

amen

[spare kernel]

context: swabber drone knocked wolfhound missile back to the ultra

player immediately made meme

[hidden sand]

Holy fuck that's based

[spare kernel]

it was certainly a genius moment

paid off lovingly

[hardy sierra]

based

[late herald]

Ultra Executioner running cast in the name of god: The most stressful session my players have ever had, but they won

I fucking LOVE the Executioner

[candid pelican]

What's the counterplay to that? I worry the fight is just the Exe killing one player over and over while the players race to shoot them

[hardy sierra]

if you give the executioner unstoppable there is 0 counteplay

so dont do that

you can end the grapple by applying forced movement to the exe

sotpping the execution

can be very dramatic

as the executioner slowly readiess its oversized blade

positioning it over your allies grasped mech

very slowly

https://tenor.com/view/bh187-austin-powers-noo-move-get-out-of-the-way-gif-19284848

[eternal echo]

Is it possible to Skirmish a Superheavy with the Oleander?

[manic jasper]

no, Oleander largely doesn't interact with Superheavies except for removing ordnance.

[late herald]

Our player who was geting grabbed was abusing juggernaut and their core power from Orchis to keep it off them but it was a STRUGGLE and was stupidly dramatic

Made for an incredible fight, my party now has a mortal enemy cause he lived

[late herald]

Genuinely though like, Enhanced combat has become so much fun for creating far more interesting combat encounters. I am so happy I ended up picking this up and I will probably never run a lancer game without it

[hardy sierra]

😊

[hidden sand]

Nah lancer enhanced combat is stinky and bad... SMH

(It's such a nice QOL for GMs, the variant frames fit right into base games. Hell 2/4 of my players are using LEC frames. The sitreps are just more thought out and refined with much more variety than the base game. Side objectives are real cool, environment conditions are real cool additions too which I want to use, new NPCs are tasty... sadly not all appeal to me but those that do appeal to me appeal hard, and God damn are the reserves fun! And there's one hundred of them! It's a great book for GMs that brings little overhead apart from what the GM wishes for and it's great)

[safe aurora]

i almost make a point of using or riffing off the liquid rules in almost every encounter

or riffing off them to make more interesting difficult terrain in general

[late herald]

Pretty basic additions to my GMS enemy work, but this time made legionairres and one with a support weapon. Figured this was an interesting take and all made with basic simple parts to especially get accross how its a basic-ass unit, fodder

[ripe lichen]

I find it funny that I ended up going with the same model type.

(I didn't do an editor pass on mine, so they're just flat colors)

[late herald]

heh

yeah those are pretty similar

[lofty fossil]

my own Legionnairre tokens.

[lofty heath]

https://tenor.com/view/anger-angry-break-gif-19098093

[candid pelican]

Ended up of something a bit weedier myself for Legionnarrie

[hardy sierra]

i like the new nelson with a bayonet rifle myself

[late herald]

I'll definitely be doing that when I make some IPSN legionaires

[grim pawn]

I just use a half-scale assault

[zealous scaffold]

Is the contract killer's "Shrug it off" not showing 1/round on Comp/Con a know issue ? or perhaps only on my part ?
Either way, that's what it says on my screen.

[hardy sierra]

You appear to be correct

[zealous scaffold]

Not going crazy ! That's a relief.

[hardy sierra]

(as a general rule though, if a reaction does not have a per round limit its always 1/round

[zealous scaffold]

Of course, that's why I went to check the book after seeing C/C

[maiden belfry]

does a crusader’s inspiring aura affect itself?

[spare kernel]

Effects that usually say "allies", never counts itself

[late herald]

Question about the train heist, I know the train NPC itself is size 3, are there meant to be multiple segments that all share the same HP that are size 3 like different parts or is the whole thing fitting in the size 3 area?

[hardy sierra]

its just one

i experimented with segments like that

its more trouble than its worth in the end

[late herald]

Understandable

[shell sleet]

#lancer-vtt message contract killer is missing the bonus stress/structure in the LCP

somebody mentioned that in the vtt channel and I figured I'd mention it here for any rounds of minor lcp cleanup

[hardy sierra]

thanks!

[lofty fossil]

how strong are legionnaires in terms of raw damage? I know they're strikers, but there's a difference between "striker like an ace" and "striker like an assault" when it comes to damage

[grim pawn]

Hmm

I mean worst case they do 8AP

And they can’t boost and attack in the same turn

They’re like grunt+

[lofty fossil]

I might have to bump up the damage of this opfor than, its mostly controllers/defenders/supports (actual low damage ones) and legionnaires

[spare kernel]

@hardy sierra question, is the behemoth supposed to have 35 hp?

or i mean like

when i add the ultra template

it adds the +5 hp