Need IG ideas for Forbidden Stars faction

[stefoid]

Hi Im doing an IG faction for the game Forbidden Stars.

I am a bit stumped coming up with Schemes and Tactics, and also Order Upgrades.

Schemes and Tactics are randomly drawn event cards - Schemes can be held and played at any time, while Tactics must be played immediately.

Order upgrades are improvements on the basic four orders for the game

- Advance (moving units on the map)
- Deploy (building units)
- Strategise (buying certain unit upgrade cards)
- Bombardment (ships dropping bombs on army from space)

I need 2 more Schemes and 3 more tactics.

I also need an Advance order upgrade, a Deploy order upgrade and 2 bombardment upgrades (a minor one and a major one)

You dont have to be familiar with the game, I just need fluff ideas for typical aspects of the IG that I can then translate into FS rules.

For instance I already have a 'strategize' order upgrade called Departmento Munitorum that allows the player to turn their full strategise order into half a strategize order and half another type of order, giving the faction extra flexibility - based on the huge administrative abilities that drives the guard. 

The schemes I have are:

nova cannon (scheme) when an enemy fleet comes to bombard one of your planets, use this card to shoot first from the planet rolling X dice.  Any surviving enemy ships can then bombard as normal
veterans (tactic): upgrade one of your guardsmen units to the next tier of unit (makes it stronger for free)
deathmark missile (scheme): during battle, use this card to destroy one enemy unit.

basically Scheme events should probably be things that have been documented to have happened in the fluff, that the player can invoke, probably during battle but maybe during other players movement etc...

tactics are more limited in that they have ti happen immediately, so involve playing around with units/ships/structures/resources/upgrades.

any ideas appreciated.

[nutty]

Not familiar with the game.. but perhaps something that allowd you to deploy additional basic units, exchange damaged units for fresh ones, or bring back destroyed units? To fit with the IG's approach to most problems by simply sending in more guys? They are well known for winning wars through attrition, and generally not caring about casualties.

Most recent example would be the end of the campaign described in Mont'ka: blindy sending regiment after regiment into an artificially created storm filled with ambushing Tau cadres.. in order to assault a heavily fortified position. All the while being unable to communicate with said regiments.

[stefoid]

Hi, thanks for your reply.

Im with you on that aspect  Ive given the guard the ability to manufacture units at a 1pt discount if they spam them (i.e. make a lot of units of one kind at a forge world'.  Which makes Guardsmen particularly cheap as it represents a 50% cost reduction, but they fight like crap compared to their peer units.

Specifically, can anyone think of any Imperial Guard advantages regarding strategic movement (i.e. between planets and systems) ?

Also any advantages they might have concerning orbital bombardment, taking into consideration the game has already given the Ultra Marines faction the 'exterminatus' bombardment upgrade which does a nuts tonne more damage.

[RedsandRoyals]

Navy support seems to be what you're hunting for. Consider a "tactical air support" advantage. Since I don't know the rules of the game, I can't offer specifics on how to implement it, but incindiary rockets/bombs, different styles of templates for the strike (long, narrow strike corridors to represent a strafing run, or even rolling a die at the start of each turn to determine if the air support continues. For example, once it deploys, they roll a d6. On a 2+ the strike happens. Then next turn on a 4+ the strike happens again, etc.

Strategic mobility is, rather famously, the Achilles heel of the Guard,but some commanders like Creed and Al Rahem are famous for their maneuvering. A "Tactical Genius" stratagem could let you outflank or deploy units in a special way, or you could have something like "A clever ruse" which allows you to redeploy one unit after everything has been deployed on both sides but the game has yet to start.

Another potential source is the IG's allies. They're the backbone of the Imperium's forces, but the Inquisition, Stormtroopers, Adeptas Sororitas, and even Mechanicus and Space Marines all fight beside them from time to time. Maybe you can have cards that allow you to deploy a special squad of troops, like Battle Sisters or Marines, or one like "Stormtrooper Strike" that inflicts a certain number of hits against a specific unit to represent an ambush.

[stefoid]

Yep, I added a 'tactical genius' event and also a tempestus scions event that allows you to target an enemy unit for an sabotage attack.

The strategic movement Im stuck on is for moving ships and land units around in space before the guard makes planet fall and fight on the ground.

I guess I really should be looking at their navy websites for that sort of thing.

[macknight]

What about armor? IG is known for their superheavies. There should be some drawbacks cards too for IG, I lost count how many times in the fluff the munitorum send the IG wrong equipment and ammo.

[stefoid]

Thanks for the thoughts - In case you are interested, here is the final writeup:

boardgamegeek.com/thread/1573334/hammer-emperor-imperial-guard-faction-overview-and