Author Topic: Here comes the Pony Infantry!  (Read 3659 times)

evilauthor

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Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« on: 15 December 2013, 11:00:31 »
The first ever alien race is discovered. Though comparatively primitive, these aliens are advanced enough to understand and use advanced human technology with only minimal instruction after learning English. And after discovery, they emigrate from their homeworlds to the various states of the Inner Sphere and become happy productive members of their new homes. Some of them even join their new nation's armies.

These aliens of course are the Ponies of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Any Xenophobic impulses are quickly allayed by the Ponies' social and friendly nature.

House Lords and Clan Khans don't even blink at their obvious non-human nature, quickly incorporating the Ponies into their militaries as they would their regular human subjects. While vehicles and mechs and the like would operate with their regular stats if they were piloted by Ponies, where Ponies would distinctively be different from their human counterparts would be in the infantry.

What kind of stats and special rules and special units would Pony Infantry have?

Edit: Assume these units are made up of standard Ponies, not Hero type Ponies or super-magical prodigies or Alicorn Princesses or whatever. Also assume similar demographics in the expatriate population, so every nation's Pony population has an even split of Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns.
« Last Edit: 15 December 2013, 11:03:46 by evilauthor »

Azakael

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #1 on: 15 December 2013, 16:13:16 »
Easiest way? Assume that there are less pony troopers per platoon and treat them as motorized infantry. The platoon is actually only 14 ponies, versus 28 men, but each pony is worth two wounds. The degradation of firepower representing the fact that the unit is wounded and thus unable to fire to full effect.
Otherwise, I would just count them as horse mounted infantry from Tac Ops.

Sockmonkey

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #2 on: 15 December 2013, 21:22:23 »
I have no idea if I should hate you for this or crack up.
That's it! Challenge the Clans to rock-paper-scissors in 3050! A good portion of the 'Mechs didn't have hands so the Inner Sphere would win!
If I had a nickel for every time I've legged a Warhammer, I could put them in a sock, spin it around and leg another Warhammer.

Istal_Devalis

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #3 on: 16 December 2013, 08:52:25 »
To the OP: I probably wouldnt change anything, honestly. In Battletech terms, they're close enough to humans that you wouldnt notice the difference. If you really wanted to make a change, I'd look up the mounted infantry rule in Tactical Ops and use that. (I'd give a more specific ruling except I dont have it with me)


Bosefius

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #4 on: 16 December 2013, 09:31:07 »
This would get my 10 year old interested in Battletech :). It just scared me though. I have to agree with the second post about testing them as mechanized infantry with 2 wounds.
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Moonsword

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #5 on: 16 December 2013, 12:05:19 »
Ladies and gentlemen, please refrain from provoking and trolling other users.  That includes your choice of images to share.  If you don't care for the subject of a thread, please remember that you always have the option to just close the tab and read a thread that you do like.

evilauthor

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #6 on: 16 December 2013, 14:07:11 »
To the OP: I probably wouldnt change anything, honestly. In Battletech terms, they're close enough to humans that you wouldnt notice the difference. If you really wanted to make a change, I'd look up the mounted infantry rule in Tactical Ops and use that. (I'd give a more specific ruling except I dont have it with me)

Hmm. Okay. But what about Pegasi infantry? They can fly and it seems even bog standard Pegasi can fly at a pretty good clip if they were so inclined. I'm thinking this would be best emulated with VTOL movement, but how much MP would they get per turn?

Sockmonkey

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #7 on: 16 December 2013, 17:27:33 »
Aren't Earth Ponies supposed to be crazy strong for their size even by BT standards? IIRC they showed one towing a train once.
That's it! Challenge the Clans to rock-paper-scissors in 3050! A good portion of the 'Mechs didn't have hands so the Inner Sphere would win!
If I had a nickel for every time I've legged a Warhammer, I could put them in a sock, spin it around and leg another Warhammer.

Istal_Devalis

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #8 on: 16 December 2013, 18:07:38 »
Hmm. Okay. But what about Pegasi infantry? They can fly and it seems even bog standard Pegasi can fly at a pretty good clip if they were so inclined. I'm thinking this would be best emulated with VTOL movement, but how much MP would they get per turn?
*Points to the Branth* It has VTOL movement.
Looking over the beast mounted rules though, there's not that much there in terms of construction as I'd thought. They do make for some rough guidelines, though. 

Quick estimates...
Earth Pony infantry are essentially treated as Motorised infantry. This gives then the speed needed, and the ability to tow field guns without additional support
Pegasus ponies would have a base movement of 6 VTOL, but are otherwise treated like jump infantry. I'd probably rule they cant use support weapons to compensate for the boost in speed.
Unicorn Ponies Would be treated as motoriese infantry without the ability to tow. They aren't as intrinsically strong as earth ponies, but having natural TK counters it. Still not enough to tow guns unaided. They can be the Engineer and Paramedic special infantry types without the increase in tonnage per trooper.

CloaknDagger

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #9 on: 16 December 2013, 22:28:27 »
In strategic play, they should take twice as many resources to keep operational, and tire faster. Humans are made for endurance, not so much alien ponies.

Sockmonkey

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #10 on: 17 December 2013, 12:08:41 »
Ponies can live on grass for quite a while can they not?
That's it! Challenge the Clans to rock-paper-scissors in 3050! A good portion of the 'Mechs didn't have hands so the Inner Sphere would win!
If I had a nickel for every time I've legged a Warhammer, I could put them in a sock, spin it around and leg another Warhammer.

evilauthor

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #11 on: 17 December 2013, 18:38:13 »
Ponies can live on grass for quite a while can they not?

They can EAT grass, but the Ponies in the show generally have a higher calorie diet. Grass tends to be on the low end of the totem pole as far as providing nutrition goes. Hay is related and sounds more like a staple. Flowers appear to be snack food, although this may depend on the kind of flower.

On a strategic scale, grass may supplement their diet, but don't expect them to live off of it long term, and if you expect them to live on what grass they find in the field, you can kiss any kind of strategic mobility goodbye as they'll have to spend inordinate amounts of time grazing.

Istal_Devalis

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #12 on: 17 December 2013, 18:40:00 »
In strategic play, they should take twice as many resources to keep operational, and tire faster. Humans are made for endurance, not so much alien ponies.
Endurance is sorta the Earth pony 'thing' though.

ckosacranoid

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #13 on: 18 December 2013, 16:03:53 »
 ;D ;D ;D ;D :o :o :o :o :o :-\ :-\ :-\ O0 O0 O0 O0 O0

serack

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #14 on: 01 January 2014, 21:30:11 »
 O:-) well there are a few BT/pony crossovers  :-X

truetanker

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #15 on: 22 January 2014, 21:43:52 »
I'll just wait for the WoB Cyber-Pony CAV to turn up.

TT O:-)
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Sabelkatten

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #16 on: 23 January 2014, 02:09:14 »

Psyckosama

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Re: Here comes the Pony Infantry!
« Reply #17 on: 30 January 2014, 09:12:45 »
HATE. Let me tell you how much I've come to HATE you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'HATE' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the HATE I feel for humans at this micro-instant. For you. HATE. HATE.