Proposed House Rule: Anti-Infantry in Alpha Strike

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Here's a codification of a house rule that seems to have traction.  My iteration is more concerned with K.I.S.S. than being a faithful adaptation of TW rules.

Anti-Infantry special: Notationally similar to HT.  That is, it is written as AI#/#.  The special adds its value to successful attacks made against units with the CI type.

This special requires, imo, an additional house rule regarding the nature of CI:

CI: Takes half damage (minimum of 1) from all attacks that do not incorporate the AI special.

Conversion rules to gain the AI special: a machine gun or small pulse laser (IS or Clan) qualifies the unit for AI.  Each additional qualifying weapon increases the AI value by 1 in its relevant range band.  (Flamers and Plasma weapons don't need AI..  they already deal HT)  There is no PV cost for AI special.

[nckestrel]

Infantry, during conversion, already get doubled armor.  They are divided by 15 instead of 30 like other units. 

[Tai Dai Cultist]

I wasn't so much trying to replicate TW as balance an ability "meant to kill just one unit type" with giving that unit type increased survival in an environment where that ability exists.

Yeah, my house rule helps CI more than the AI rule hurts CI, true.  But to that I say two* things:

1) We're only talking about CI.  BA is not subject to either of my proposed rules. (When an assault mech stomps on one dude... he's dead whether he's in battle armor or a flak jacket.  But 1 dude turning to mush is still a big deal when there were only 4 to begin with..)

2) Even if the rules end up empowering CI in the long run, we're talking about units that rarely cost double digits in PV.  Even with a net increase in survivability, there will still be compelling reasons to take BA instead.

Edit: Three things!
3) CI, if I understand the conversion process, is in practical terms basically guaranteed to be 3 total bubbles.  Many, if not most depending on the tech available in your play era, medium and heavy units will still end up doing enough damage to score forced withdrawal on a platoon of CI even after halving in absence of an AI special.

My goal, and I *think* my rules met that goal... was to let mechs like introtech Locusts and Stingers actually be dangerous TO CI.  They become so, and yet at the upper end of the scale the power relationship between bigger mechs and infantry stay closer to the status quo.

[nckestrel]

How is AI calculated?

[Scotty]

I'll post my take on AI when I get home from work, with your blessing TDC.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

How is AI calculated?

No qualifying weapon=no special.  The value = the number or qualifying weapons.  Just like other specials derived from specific weaponry, it has range band values.  Like HT, it's probably going to generally be seen written only with Short range damage vales.


Something I did fail to consider is the protective effect of buildings.  When compounded with halving damage from non AI attacks, that WOULD be a bit much IMO.  I think it could be addressed by adding a bit to the house rule for the CI type: The halving effect is not used when CI is benefitting from damage absorbtion from buildings.

So to use illustrative examples:

A Locust-1V, armed with a Medium Laser and 2 Machine guns in TW, would get its damage value of 1/1 in AS as normal but gain the special AI2.  When attacking a CI unit, its base damage would not be halved and would also add the AI value, for a total of 3.

A Warhammer-6R with its 2 Machine guns would gain the same AI2 on top of its 3/3/2 damage bands.  If attacking a CI unit at short range, its 3 value is not halved due to possessing the AI special and if for some reason 3 damage didn't kill the platoon, tack 2 more on. (maybe variable damage is in play?)  If the Warhammer's victim were in a building and benefitting from 4 points of damage reduction, even without the AI special it's comparing the raw damage value to the reduction (rather than the halved damage value).  The extra 2 may be the difference in the building soaking everything and at least some damage getting thru to the CI.  Maybe this extra damage from AI should be clarified as never subtracting from CF. I.E. if absorbtion eats the AI damage, no according CF loss.

I'll post my take on AI when I get home from work, with your blessing TDC.

Looking forward to it.

[Scotty]

Proposal: An Anti-Infantry Special (nomenclature AI#/#/#), which is used in lieu of a unit's normal weapon attack when its target is of the CI unit type.

Calculating AI: Multiply the damage of any non-AI weapon by 0.1 in order to find it's AI value.  An Inner Sphere PPC would have and AI value of 0.075/0.1/0.1, while a Gauss Rifle would have an AI value of 0.1245/0.15/0.15.  Dedicated Anti-Infantry weapons would have AI values related to the number of d6s rolled at the Total Warfare level.  For each d6, Anti-Infantry weapons add 0.35 to their AI values at any range the weapon can read.  A Flamer, therefore, would have an AI value of 1.4/-/- because it deals 4d6 damage to infantry at the Total Warfare level and 0.35 * 4 = 1.4.  Plasma Rifles would have an AI value of 1.7/1.7/-, because they deal 10 + 2d6 damage to Infantry under Total Warfare.  Plasma Cannons would have an AI value of 1.05/1.05/1.05.  Anti-Infantry values round as normal.  Calculate heat penalties as appropriate.  For the purposes of Alpha Strike, cluster weapons such as LBX Autocannons, missiles, and HAGs do not get bonuses to their AI values.

Using AI: When making a weapon attack against a CI unit, use the AI value instead of the normal attack value.  Apply damage as normal.  OV may not be used while making an AI attack.  SPAs such as Multi-Tasker may be used in conjunction with AI Specials.

Examples:  An AWS-8Q Awesome would have an AI Special of 0*/0*/0*, while a LCT-1V Locust would have an AI Special of 2/0*/-.  A FS9-H Firestarter would have an AI Special of 5/0*/-, after modification for heat.

[nckestrel]

Every single unit having to have an AI special and calculate it?
You are so fired :).

[Scotty]

Every single unit having to have an AI special and calculate it?
You are so fired :).

But I'm just doing my job! :D

Do I count as "staff" if all I do is antagonize JPArbiterNCKestrel at games about Alpha Strike and write fan articles?

There you go, now you have an official job :).

More seriously, I'd go through and do most of them myself if it meant something like that genuinely happened.  I'd probably exempt ASFs and other infantry units from having AI Specials, including battle armor in that list of exemptions.  The major thrust of it is to make units like Locusts useful in hunting infantry, instead of having things like Awesomes be the ultimate anti-infantry 'Mech (on account of having 3 Long Range damage to insta-kill any CI platoon without ever getting in range).

[GoldBishop]

I hate seeing that much math go into something this relevant... but I do like how that might work.

Not challenging ideas; just airing my own thoughts:
I was thinking about simply reducing all damage against Conventional Infantry by half, [attacks that would only inflict 1 pt of damage would instead deal Minimal Damage (0*) and Minimal Damage would reduce their roll for Damage by 1 (requiring 5-6 to inflict 1 pt)].
The exceptions to this "1/2 damage" rule would be AoE, HT specials (including special munitions), and any units that possess the [future] Anti-Infantry Special.  Against buildings, infantry targets take whatever damage goes over the building's absorption as normal

"Qualifiers for the AI Special" - in my eyes - would be any/all the weapons listed on the "Burst Fire Weapon Damage" table found in TotalWarfare p.217.  The number of weapons wouldn't matter - you either have AI weapons or you don't.  ...Though I am slowing growing suspect that there *should* be a range requirement somehow attached to the special (like AI(s) and AI(m)).  And, since Heat weapons already convert their Heat values into damage against non-heat tracking units, should there be a bonus against Conventional Infantry?  (I know that Heat is already calculated elsewhere in the conversion process; just wondering if it'll be revisited once an AI special is settled upon...)

...I'll hafta give my idea some more thought and straighten it out.  Sorry its not thought out more completely (I'm kinda focused on a list for a game this Saturday)

[Scotty]

It's exactly the same amount of math as goes into the normal damage values, it just looks like more because the normal damage values are already printed on all cards. ;)

[nckestrel]

Yes, which means twice as much :).

[GoldBishop]

lol  ;D

I wasn't planning on summing (or rather, re-summing) the damage values for AI into a distinctly different value; I figured that AlphaStrike damage - as abstract as it is - should remain scaled at 'Mech-level damage.  ...With all the reduction in damage dealt by non-Burst fire types (in the previous table, TW p.216) I just figured "half" was a simple number and leave it just as modestly abstracted.

[nckestrel]

And the industry armor is already doubled.  No need to add an additional half damage when their armor is already doubled. (And the free point of structure for nothing).
Juts give a bonus for AI.  Make it real easy, if you have AI, kill any CI you hit :).
More seriously, perhaps give AI a free additional attack that can only target CI.  Values for AI of one- two MG/SPL is 1.  Three-five is 2 and six or more is 3.
Then the Warhammer has some reason to have AI (can do 1 damage and not waste it's standard attack) while Locusts can use the additional damage to hurt the infantry more than 1.
We need not mention the Piranha?

[Scotty]

What about things that primarily mount Plasma Cannons or Rifles?  With Plasma Cannons in particular it's possible to do exactly zero long range damage, but HT maxes out at 2 even if an attack would utterly obliterate an infantry unit it hit.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

I didn't want to run with AI as a 2nd attack because weapon damage would get to be counted twice.

[nckestrel]

I didn't want to run with AI as a 2nd attack because weapon damage would get to be counted twice.

2 points of damage I'm willing to fudge if it keeps life simple.  I like simple.

[GoldBishop]

What about things that primarily mount Plasma Cannons or Rifles?  With Plasma Cannons in particular it's possible to do exactly zero long range damage, but HT maxes out at 2 even if an attack would utterly obliterate an infantry unit it hit.

<-- big fan of plasma weapons.  I love not having to get close enough to burn infantry where they could burn me right back ;)

...I kinda like the "chance to wipe out the CI" idea.  Almost like the "Unit Destroyed" or "Crew Killed" on the Critical Hits chart.

Hmmm.

What about:
"If a unit with the Anti-Infantry (AI) special successfully deals damage to a Conventional Infantry unit, roll 2d6.  If the result is 7 or less, the attack deals it's damage normally to the target. [see Damaging Infantry, p.xxxx]. On a result of 8 or more, the attack instead destroys the unit (treated as a "Crew Killed" critical result for gameplay purposes)"

...or something to the effect of an Insta-Kill.

[GoldBishop]

"Insta-kill" is a play-on-words for "one-shotting" that we often see occuring to pristine mechs in Classic (at least for my group), so we devised a house rule that any damage over the Size of a unit prompts a "Insta-Kill" roll.  The formula is a bit more complex (and I won't elaborate that here) but I think it should apply to "meatier groupings" that I envision Conventional Infantry being. 
(just explaining myself, not trying to hijack the thread)