communications

[Ranger S2H]

here is something I am working on:

communications:

Troopers need to get orders from someone, any minifig must be within yelling range of another (8" according to 2001) to be able to receive orders.
this way, u create a command network, which should start at the highest ranking minifig on the field, e.g. a hero or officer should a hero be absent or dead. if there are no heros or officer on your team, orders come from the biggest network of minifigs whithin 8"of eachother.

note that ninjas en non commander heros don't need to get orders as they wouldnt follow them anyway, and theyre simply too kickass.

for squads and teams u want to be able to operate away from your main army, u can buy them a radio, but it would have to be held by someone, the squads commsguy, who can't use the hand to handle weapons.

Im still working on what figs without communications should do, "trying to get back to the network" would be too easy, and isn't what I pictured. the organised figs should try to find him (if they want him), not the other way around imho. disorganised figs could panic for not knowing where the carnage is, keep moving in whatever direction they were moving in before the lost communication, or find a defensive position to shoot anything that moves along, or simply hide as there are certain monsters and humans who can smell the fear of missing any carnage a commless minifig has. any commless fig within 8" of another one will group together to scare eachother with stories of other minifigs who's head exploded when they were carnageless for too long.

what do you guys think? I think this means you can cut communications to parts of your opponents army to create complete chaos. and it should create funny situations when lone figs done anything to survive to die another day, probably the day after.

[birdman]

you need to read the nanofleet supplement.

[ahp77]

If a radio is all the commsguy could hold, there are plenty of one-handed weapons for them.If the commsguy couldn't attack, he'd go mad and steal another person's weapon to commit suicide.

[Ranger S2H]

sorry, thats a bit unclear, I meant the radio counts as a one handed weapon, denying him the kickass ones

[jifel]

Well, maybe the squad or figs would just attack the nearest minifig if they're out of range.

jifel

[Ranger S2H]

are you telling me you would let them do other things when you did have control over them?

[IVhorseman]

These rules make sense, but they seem like they'd make the game a whole lot less fun incredibly fast.

[jifel]

are you telling me you would let them do other things when you did have control over them?

Yes. Attack the Dimmie, who is closer, with your RPG squad, or shoot the Tank which is blowing up all your guys, and would die to your RPGers. Shoot the tank.

And IV is right. This would make it too complicated.

jifel

[Greenkey15]

Instead of making these essential, how about if an enemy unit was behind cover and was seen by your unit, he has to yell or use a radio to relay the information to his allies. It's a house rule of mine that you can't randomly throw a grenade towards an enemy your troop could not possibly see.

[Blitzen]

So GreenKey, are you suggesting that a minifig needs to have or be in contact with someone else with line of sight to the target? That's a realistic idea, and might not get too cumbersome if applied correctly.

[Bennanteno]

In one of the pre-2001 editions I think there was a part where all squads had to have radios or communication of some kind. If somehow the radio was lost, the squad could only move every other turn unltil it got another radio, or joined up with a radio equipped squad.

[Rayhawk]

The nanofleet stuff birdman's referring to is over here:
http://www.brikwars.com/construction/nf_2003.txt

Those were pretty cumbersome, but maybe they'll give you some ideas.

Forum battles lend themselves nicely to this kind of stuff since all your orders have to be written down anyway. Here's my suggestion:

Any squad or unit within 8" (yelling distance) of a friendly Hero, Officer, or any minifig with a comm device (radio, printed face headset, bugle, signal flag, vehicle comm, telephone, smoke signals, etc.), is Under Command. The player may handle them as normal.

Units outside of that distance are Outside Command and continue following whatever their last order was. If they've completed their most recent orders, they'll take cover and attack whatever enemies come in range, but won't otherwise do anything. The only way to get them back into the command structure is to send a unit that's still Under Command to go retrieve them.

[Greenkey15]

So GreenKey, are you suggesting that a minifig needs to have or be in contact with someone else with line of sight to the target? That's a realistic idea, and might not get too cumbersome if applied correctly.

If targeting it for attack, yes.

[pesgores]

These rules make sense, but they seem like they'd make the game a whole lot less fun incredibly fast.

~

Sadly I prefer realistic battles when I play solo. Because I can fudge for two teams and that sucks.

About the communications idea, I started to think about it but never really got deep into it. But 8"? I hope that's for the lowest ranking ranking officer. That has a radio and receives orders from above. Then transmits it to the guys.

But what if they run out of officers?

[lrdofbricks]

In one of the pre-2001 editions I think there was a part where all squads had to have radios or communication of some kind. If somehow the radio was lost, the squad could only move every other turn unltil it got another radio, or joined up with a radio equipped squad.

hmm... i just read the origanal 1998 version. theres a lot of fascinating items and supplements in there that should be reused.