[Red Orc]

Just wondered if anyone ever used in their games, or had converted/built/found anything to be represent civilian life? Whether for hostages, crowds to get in the way or whatever, or vehicles as terrain pieces or anything.

:cyclops:

 

[Stella Cadente]

I have thought about it many many times, for special scenarios, with some very basic and low stats, make some interesting rescue and escort missions

 

[Gaz Taylor]

I've played games many years ago using civilians. We basicly gave them the same stats as a Guardsman but with WS & BS 2 and Leadership 6 and no armour to represent them.

 

[Cadian81st]

I have thought about it many many times, for special scenarios, with some very basic and low stats, make some interesting rescue and escort missions

heh bs 1 ws 1 armed with a pipe.

I've done it a few times, sort of a "stop the orks from killing an X amount of civvies" kind of deal

 

[cccp]

it would be cool to have a small points game based in a hab or something, and every turn you roll to see where the civvies stampede. obviously, theyd block LoS and movement ans stuff.

would make for an interesting game......

 

[Red Orc]

That's pretty much what I was thinking, a bunch of special missions or special rules, eg prisoner-rescue, firefights in cities where one side (generally only side!) can't shoot the meatshields, finding the survivors of a crashed shuttle, kill-team-style 'kidnap the scientists' type missions or whatever.

Also trying to model some civilian vehicles for CoD boards - I've not read a lot of the 40k novels so I only have a hazy idea of the civilian side of the Imprium works or even what it looks like, but i find myself going 'hmm, that shampoo bottle might make a cool groundcar' - but for whom?

It's a bit naff putting time and effort into painting armies and making terrain, then going "oh we'll just use these LOTR High Elves as civvies, just ignore the swords and armour. And pointy ears. Oh, and we'll use this Chaos Rhino and an old Goblin chariot as civilian vehicles."

:cyclops:

 

[The Son of Horus]

Taking a page from XCOM is always the way to go-- defending civillians from baddies is always an interesting (and impossible) objective. For kicks, we played a game where ten Space Marines had to defend the governor of a hive from two hundred plague zombies, and the objective was to see how long the Astartes could hold out. Yes, we actually had two hundred zombies on hand... we used the little imperial guard dude from Battle for Macragge as the governor, and a Tactical Squad of my Lions Rampant that weighed in at 225 points with a veteran with a power fist and bolter, a meltagun, and a heavy bolter (as the squad was essentially unchanged from its normal configuration, with the exception of adding in the heavy bolter.) I think I was able to keep the governor alive for eight turns before Sergeant Cervantes slumped to the ground, overwhelmed by zombies. It was a good game.

 

[black chaplain]

how do you get 225 points out of one marine squad

 

[uberschveinen]

Max/Maxing.

 

[Cadian81st]

obviously, theyd block LoS and movement ans stuff.

No they wouldn't... :twisted:

"Cut them down men! What do you think lasguns are for anyway?"

 

[Ordo Xeno Commander]

well they wouldnt LoS block Space marines, orks or necrons because they can just see over their heads and keep fighting. plus they would prbbly just kick them out of the way. lol flying civilians

 

[Red Orc]

how do you get 225 points out of one marine squad

Easy.

10 marines with frag/krak, plasma gun, lascannon, vet sergeant, melta bombs, master-crafted power weapon or fist, auspex, master-crafted combi-melta... and a rhino with all the trimmings. Of the top of my head that's about 300 pts.

Is that max/maxing, then Uber?

:cyclops:

 

[cccp]

obviously, theyd block LoS and movement ans stuff.

No they wouldn't... :twisted:

"Cut them down men! What do you think lasguns are for anyway?"

obv if you wanted to shoot at them you could, but youd waste a turn of shooting.

 

[Red Orc]

And indeed the way I was looking at it, keeping the civilians alive might be part of the mission objectives! Otherwise you may well use a big crowd of... I dunno grots maybe.

:cyclops:

 

[black chaplain]

how do you get 225 points out of one marine squad

Easy.

10 marines with frag/krak, plasma gun, lascannon, vet sergeant, melta bombs, master-crafted power weapon or fist, auspex, master-crafted combi-melta... and a rhino with all the trimmings. Of the top of my head that's about 300 pts.

Is that max/maxing, then Uber?

:cyclops:

sounds more like super/maxing

 

[Red Orc]

...

sounds more like super/maxing

Busted. Obviously, the master-crafting is a bit poncey.

But I was merely over-egging as a demonstration, I wouldn't really field a unit like that. I mean an auspex? What a waste of points!

:cyclops:

 

[torealis]

how about this for a statline?

2 2 2 2 1 3 1 4

i do love the idea. the whole background fascinates me. the one point you do raise that i hadnt thought of before was civilian transit. it makes me wonder whether the entire galaxy is geared to a war economy in an extreme way, or if societies continue to exist in a 'normal' fashion...

 

[The Son of Horus]

I like to think that there probably are some planets whose population don't really have to focus on having a war economy. Read Index Astartes: Lions Rampant (which I've posted in 40k Fluff) and check out the description of their homeworld. The whole planet is modelled on the stereotypical French countryside... they wouldn't know which end of the gun to point at a threat if it came their way, yet they're still in the 41st millenium. Admittedly, having a Space Marine Chapter babysitting the planet due to a strategically relevant position is probably a good excuse for not worrying about extraplanetary invasion.


Torealis, I like the stat line. I think I'd make them Ld. 5 though-- while they're almost assured to break at Ld 4, 5 gives them a slightly better chance of sucking it up. You have to figure that on a planet that's in the middle of something nasty like a Tyranid invasion, the propaganda machine is going nuts and people are probably at least considering fighting on the assumption that they're damned (and dead) if they don't.

 

[Ordo Xeno Commander]

hmm yea it sounds good. i would have a small campaign based around capturing and taking the civilians to safety. it would start with a few squads of marines having to round up a certain number of civvies and if they lost then the next mission is regaining them from an enemy column. if the SM or IG win the first mission the next is they have to escape in an APC, if they win then thats the campaign, if they lose then the civilians each scatter like 5d6 or 6d6 in a random direction (scatter dice), if they hit the board edge then they just stop. then you have to round them up while under fire from the xenos. and so on and so forth. just an idea.