• Registered: 2022-11-14
  • Posts: 17

Topic: So how does Defiance handle...

Rabble', opportunity fire, and mixed units?

Coming from systems like 5150 and Infinity, I'm looking for something a little more customizeable, as I've got a wide range of 28mm scifi mini types. A few things come to mind, that I'd like to know more about before I sink money into another ruleset.

1) 'Rabble'. Poorly trained or untrained/undisciplined fighters. Think gangs, really. How well can that sort of chaotic force be represented? I've got plenty of ganger-type minis, from Necromunda up to Reservoir Dogs/Street Thugs.

2) Opportunity Fire. One of the things that drives me nuts about a lot of skirmish rules - or at least the older ones - is that figures and units are often static in the face of approaching enemies. How does Defiance handle that?

3) Mixed Units. Corvus Belli's Infinity range is one of my current favorites, with some wonderful sculpts. The thing is, though, there's not many poses for various troop types, and I really don't like duplicating figs. So for something like the super-flexible combat units of Infinity (where I might have a heavy power-armored leader, a handful of light infantry, and a stealthed sniper with mid-range armor), how could that be handled under Defiance? Or, something like a Tau Fire Warrior unit, with its attendant drones?

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 416

Re: So how does Defiance handle...

NVDoyle wrote:

1) 'Rabble'. Poorly trained or untrained/undisciplined fighters. Think gangs, really. How well can that sort of chaotic force be represented?

It sounds like you want for troops that do not lack motivation but instead lack coordination. It's not necessarily immediately obvious how to accomplish this in D:VG since for the most part troops are coordinated as long as they are motivated. So making such troops with low troop quality, which equates poor motivation in the game, is not necessarily what you are looking for.

You can reduce the level of coordination somewhat in less obvious ways tho. One way is by curtailing the troop type's leader options, leaving out commanders and allowing only low level leaders. This doesn't so much lower the coordination level as make it harder for them to push beyond their normal limits. Another is the obvious-sounding "mob" option you need to select for at army construction time but can use on game-by-game basis; the mobs automatically benefit less from leadership but on the other hand they come in large, well, mobs (which will mean you need more minis per unit too).

2) Opportunity Fire. [...] How does Defiance handle that?

There's a pretty standard overwatch mechanic called "covering fire", although with a number of game mechanical twists that don't make it very powerful. There is also an option for speculative suppression fire which can under certain circumstances do the job of opportunity fire. This was introduced only after the book came out, but can be found it the FAQ IIRC.

3) Mixed Units

Mixed units can be predefined or assembled on game-per-game basis, provided all the troops in the unit are of the same quality. So Fire Warriors with Drones may be a little odd, but if the troops are roughly of the same sort (eg. all humans, even if differently equipped) there's no insurmountable problems.

These are the most obvious options I can think of right now. D:VG allows you to tweak a lot of things and the apparent rigidity of the army construction is in fact often an artefact of not being able graps the emergent properties of certain decisions you make. Which keeps the army construction bit interesting, not just an exercise in calculator use. Or I think so anyway...