Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Minions: Imperial Troopers

We already discussed Imperial Troopers in some detail when we talked about building mooks, but let’s go from theory into concrete detail. I want to start with Imperial troopers because they represent the most obvious element from Star Wars that we’d want to port into Psi-Wars. We already know what Storm Troopers look like and how they fight: They’re terrifying, they’re highly inaccurate, and they’re impressively armed. In Psi-Wars, Imperial Troopers will have the same vibe, but I want to dig a little deeper into the reasoning behind the decisions and the impact they’ll make on how combat plays out for our heroes.

The Concept of Imperial Troopers

When we discuss empire, especially in the context of something like Star Wars, we really mean dictatorship, the rule of a single august emperor, directly, over all of his territory (one can make the case that the big shift in Rome with the victory of Augustus Caesar was not from republic to empire, but from republic to dictatorship, since the Roman Republic had been an empire for many years, in the same way that the British Empire was also a parliamentary democracy). Typically in these sorts of dictatorships, the military is personally loyal to the dictator, and their loyalty and might keep him, directly, in power. This fact also forces him to conquer, since his conquests result in increased wealth and prestige for his military forces, which gives him more power, but also more military officers to please, which means he needs to conquer again.

The military in these cases needs to be deeply loyal and very impressive. They need to march in the square, to intimidate the populace, as much as they need to march on the enemy. Thus, as said before, they need to be about shock and awe. The empire also has vast resources that it constantly pours into its military (at the expense of its civilian populace), meaning the empire has all the coolest toys. Their deep loyalty, though, either needs some form of personal empowerment or a deep sense of belonging to the group and a willingness to sacrifice oneself for the “greater good” represented by the dictator. The former would result in heroes who could overthrow the emperor, though, so the latter is far superior. Imperial troopers need to be brainwashed and devoted to the imperial cause or, at least, made to fear those loyal to the cause enough that they’re willing to fight.

We also know what stormtroopers feel like in a film: Faceless mooks who look really frightening but prove to be rather ineffective. They might have the coolest toys, but they often prove overpriced and fragile, glass cannons easily destroyed by a focused and skilled opponent. They pour firepower into the enemy, but they’ll seldom actually hit. They are Goliath, vulnerable to a focused and skilled David.




Tactical Theory

Star Wars focuses on tactics inspired by WW1 and WW2, which are reasonable enough given the semi-automatic nature of blasters. The ideal tactic in such an environment is to “dig in” and wait for your opponent to come to you, using trench warfare, and the Trooper templates built thus far assume this sort of approach. To defeat it, the Empire will need to use their superior equipment and shock-and-awe tactics to defeat them.

We know that superior equipment means superior armor (we want our soldiers covered head-to-toe). We’ve already seen that even light battle suits make a trooper rather hard to kill. Heavy combat suits can endure quite a few hits, and if we argue that “superior armor” means “flawed TL 12 combat hardsuits,” or “up-armored TL 11” then we have even harder soldiers who can afford to wade directly into rifle-fire. The cost of such armor are combat masks, which make sighted shots (thus, aimed shots) difficult, but if we focus on hip shooting fast-fire or suppression fire, this isn’t such a problem. This suggests a heavy focus on assault troopers, which fits the original conception of storm troopers. They “storm the enemy”, overwhelming the enemy lines.

The idea of a recon trooper as a sniper doesn’t fit the machine-like nature of the military force. Snipers are elite soldiers, highly trained, rather than disposable minions that one can feed into the military machine. However, if we focus on the idea of expensive gear, then artillery makes sense. After all, we have space tanks and Empire-Class dreadnoughts backing up the military. Therefore, recon troopers as forward observers make the most sense.

Artillery plus suppression fire drives the enemy into hiding deeper into their trenches. Once pinned down, the empire is free to advance on the enemy. Their shock and awe has worked, now they must commence with execution of their opponents. Grenades tossed into trenches will flush out the enemy, but flame throwers represent an even more terrifying threat, which fits the modus operandi of the empire perfectly. The only problem with flame throwers is that they’re weak, TL 9 weapons. We’d have to upgrade them. Other weapons could work well too: Melee weapons (vibro bayonets, nuerolash batons), but they don’t fit the “terror” of the empire as well as a flame thrower.

The only time we see heavy troopers in Star Wars is when we see storm troopers mounting a tripod machine-blaster and then laying waste to all around him. This seems suitable to the tactics we've described: we have a heavy Imperial team, carting around far more fire power than any other heavy, and then laying waste to the enemy once their impromptu machine-gun-nest has been put in place. This approach neglects the sort of heavy firepower necessary to take out an individual hard target, but Imperial troops tend to lack that: they're more like American troops in modern warfare, where they never seriously expect to meet hard opposition, and when they do, well, that's what tanks are for!
Thus, our combat roles are
  • Rifleman who focus on rapid fire and quick advancement
  • Elite, heavily armored assault troops equipped with grenades and superior rifles
  • Assault troops with superior flame throwers
  • Heavy troopers with tripod gatling blasters for extreme suppressive fire.
  • Recon troops with a focus on Forward Observer skills
  • A heavy vehicular presence.

Skill Level Theory

Highly trained professional soldiers should probably be Skill 15, but this poses a problem. First of all, it suggests that Imperial Troopers are always a dread threat, often more competent than all but the most combat-focused PCs. Moreover, if the Empire treats its troops as disposable, then it’s losing thousands of highly trained super-soldiers every battle. With the endless resources of the empire, equipment is easily replaced, but training is slow. Well trained soldiers take time. Worse, huge numbers of highly skilled, innovative and independent soldiers could easily turn on the Emperor and try to gain power in their own right. It makes more sense to have a few highly skilled units who are exceptionally loyal to the Emperor bolstering hordes of less well-trained, expendable recruits.

This means we have two levels of soldiers: the typical Skill-12 soldier, and the elite Skill-15 soldier who may or may not be a mook.

Technological Detail

If the hallmark of the Empire is better technology (higher quality, higher tech level) and greater cost and with a risk of a certain fragility (making them, upfront, more terrifying, but in the long run more easily defeated), then we need to tinker with trouble-prone, advanced technology, and create the beginnings of a technological combat suite for the Empire.

The Blaster Carbine

The Blaster is the golden standard of the Psi-Wars military. How can we alter it to fit the technological paradigm of Psi-Wars? Simply taking a TL 1 blaster carbine, even a flawed one, isn’t an option, because there are no TL 12 blaster carbines. However, we can use the suggestions from the Cult of the Gun in GURPS Gun Fu page 39. The Imperial blaster carbine is probably reminiscent of “German Engineering,” over-priced, over-engineered, but with an exceptional reputation. The simplest way of depicting it would probably be slightly higher damage (+10%), higher rate of fire (a light automatic weapon with sufficient rate of fire to engage in the suppression fire so vital to the empire’s strategy), a higher malfunction rate (representing fragility), a lower HT (likewise), and higher price. For simplicity, we’ll say that if a mook rolls a critical failure, he’s out, too busy trying to fix his gun to worry about anymore.

Instead of fudging numbers, we can directly create one using the Blaster and Laser design system in Pyramid #3-37, and modify them based on the quality modifiers: we can have “cheap” or “advanced” blasters (from standard ultra-tech gadget design), and we can have fine (accurate) or fine (reliable) weapons. We don't have the reverse options... but RPK has some suggestions on his site: “Cheap” guns are -1 to acc, HT and Malf for -60%. For greater granularity, let's say that each is -20% to cost. The point here isn't to allow players to modify their guns, mind you, but to give us additional detail that Ultra-Tech doesn't grant us.

An increase in damage from 5d to 5d+2 increases the cost to about $12,400 and the weight to 7.2 lbs, or 5.1 lbs if we use the “advanced” option. If we also increase the rate of fire from 3 to 4-10, that doubles the cost of the weapon. On the other hand, this removes the need for the Fast-Firing technique. We could instead argue the weapon effectively has a free +2 to fast-firing (the equivalent to a perk) via “rapid charge-cycling technology” or some such nonsense. We'll give this a +10% cost. If we reduce the Malf to 16 and the HT to 9 (it's delicate from over-engineering) and lower the accuracy by 2, we have a total saving of -80%. So, we get a total CF of 0.3, and thus a final cost of (fudging upwards slightly) $16,200, which looks excellent for an “overpriced, over-engineered carbine.

If we want a superior weapon for assault troopers, we can build a “heavy carbine.” We’ll use the same basic stats above: 5d+2 damage, Malf 16 (-20%), HT 9 (-20%) and -2 Accuracy (-40%), advanced, but instead of fast-firing bonus, we’ll just go straight for a rapid fire weapon. Increasing to a full ROF 10 is effectively double the cost. If we reduce it to RoF 8, I think I can justify a -20% to the increased cost. Thus, between it being “advanced” and its various drawbacks, the total CF is 0, which means it costs about $25, 000. If we add an underbarrel EMGL which weighs +2 lbs and costs us another $1000.

More Blasters!

If we want to continue this theme, we might expect the equivalent to a blaster submachine gun. We’ll create a gun from scratch, a “pistol” with 4d+2 damage, RoF 8 (-20%), HT -1 (-20%) Malf 16 (-20%), -2 Acc (-20%) and “Advanced”, and we’ll charge $13,500 for it. I doubt that our military troops might use it, but the same factory/corporation that makes the other blasters might make these, and imperial police forces might use them.

For our Heavy, the Semi-Portable Blaster is the closest to what we're looking for, but it's both too heavy, and it doesn't have the ROF we're looking for. If we envision a two-man team, one carrying the E power cell and the tripod (~45 lbs), and the other carrying the heavy weapon, then we come to a weight of about 50 lbs. Assuming a blaster of 6.6 lbs (including a clip of 2 c cells) and a light hardsuit of 18 lbs, the typical heavy is carting around at least 68 lbs, putting him at Medium encumbrance. It might make more sense to give the assistant (the one with the tripod and e-cell) the blaster, and the guy carrying the heavy weapon a pistol, just in case. A heavy blaster takes 5 seconds to reload, and a tripod takes 3 seconds to put into place and attach to the blaster. Thus, it takes ~8 seconds to ready a machine gun nest “from nothing.”


Heavy Gatling Blaster is about 50 lbs, deals 9d+2 damage, and has an RoF of 16. As a gatling blaster, it has no malf. It's not an overengineered weapon, specifically, but it's a strategy unique to the Empire, which is good enough for me.

The Flamer

If we’re going to use a flamer, it needs to have a purpose. The standard flamer isn’t that great: An assault flamer deals 5d burning damage that isn’t tight beam. That means it’ll deal an average of 17 burning damage, which is enough to instantly ignite flame resistant materials, which includes everything short of green wood and flesh. If it can be lit on flame, assume it is. That’s pretty decent. Unfortunately, armor stops it far more effectively than it stops a blaster. However, High-Tech p 178 has its own rules on flame throwers: Unsealed armor defends at 1/5 value (which is consistent with blaster damage!) and damage dealt by a flamer counts as large area damage, you can “sweep” the attack with All Out Attack (Jet), (for simplicity, just divide the dice of damage up), and finally, the plasma “sticks” to the target and deals 1d damage per second for the next 2dx5 seconds (allow the target to get it off with a DX roll, at the normal penalty for “being on fire”, -2 and don’t bother with tracking how long it lasts). This last isn’t entirely realistic (We’re blasting our opponents with streams of plasma rather than burning fuel), but anything to boost the effectiveness of a flamer.

Artillery

If the primary focus of an imperial recon trooper is as Forward Observer, then we need appropriate artillery. We have no rules for orbital bombardment (other than a direct attack, though I expect the spinal battery of an Empire-Class Dreadnought is probably not a precision weapon that can shoot an apple off someone’s head without blowing away his city block). So, we’ll stick with actual artillery. Pyramid #3-31 has an article on heavy guns, including artillery. We don’t need the precise stats of artillery weapons so much as we need the damage they deal. If we assume that all artillery rounds are plasma rounds, then a 100 mm round (a “medium howitzer”) deals 6dx10 burn ex sur. The rules listed in the book for a 160mm plasma round are nonsensical (they deal less damage than the 100mm round), so we’ll just make it 6dx20 burn ex sur. Given how Cinematic Explosions work, the only pertinent facts are how far away someone can stand and be in danger of being reduced to 0 damage. For a 100mm round, that’s a 5 yard radius, while for a 160mm round, that’s a 10 yard radius.

But how long, after calling in artillery, will it take for the artillery shell to reach the point of attack? According to High-Tech, it takes 2d+5 seconds to finish calling in a precise airstrike. Furthermore, the round travels at 500 yards per second on a flat trajectory, or 250 on an arced trajectory. Noting that advanced artillery (to say nothing of orbital bombardment!) will travel faster (2-4 times as fast!), and noting 3000 yards as a good standard estimate, we can guess that the shot will arrive between 1.5 seconds and 6 seconds after the call has been made, or almost exactly 1d seconds! Once barrage has arrived, it can be any number of rounds of 100-160mm. The exact amounts are up to the GM and depend on the situation. A low-danger situation might have a single, low RoF 100mm medium artillery, while a highly dangerous situation could result in the deployment of a battery of railguns each firing 3 160mm rounds. A good rule of thumb might be 1 round per BAD, with 160mm rounds counting as two rounds.

Armor

The Combat Hardsuits, as written, are already as small and expensive as they can reasonably get without going to TL 12. A basic combat hardsuit is already DR 100, which means that more than half of all blaster carbine shots will already fail to penetrate a heavy combat hardsuit, and a blaster carbine shot will regularly penetrate a lighter combat hardsuit, just not enough to reduce the target to 0 hp (the fact that we remove a mook after he’s taken any damage at all is a cinematic artifact, one not everyone will use, and not relevant to the intentions of the empire in armoring their disposable troops). Thus, arguably, the hardsuit that we’re already using are “good enough.” Moreover, they have the masks we want for our “dehumanizing” effect. What is left?

We argued that we want each group to be distinct, that Imperial technology should be “over-engineered”, over-priced, cutting edge and prone to failure. The problem here is how do we define this “over-engineering” element without making things exceedingly complex for mook design? Thus, I’m not going to bother: While High-Tech fixates on highly specific make and model of firearms, it seldom bothers to go into great detail with armor and I suspect this is not from a lack of interest or research, but a lack of tools to meaningfully model differences in kevlar vests.

Support Technology

All imperial troopers come with communicators and IR visors in their helmets. This gives them a 100-mile communication range and the ability to see in darkness, plus +2 to vision rolls to pick out someone based on their heat signature. They do not carry light sources (their IR vision is good enough). Given their visors, let’s go ahead and include a HUD, including mapping software. That’s a little more advanced than we strictly need and makes them pretty accurate… but I’m alright with that.

Imperial Troopers

All the following troopers have been created in such a way that they'll fit on two sides of an A6, so you should be able to print 4 per page. I have greatly reduced their complexity even further, so that most characters are virtually identical. Note that the listed tactics aren't the only moves possible, just a helper for some of the more complex actions these characters might undertake.

Imperial Carbine Trooper

This is our basic “storm trooper.” He has decent armor and the Imperial Carbine, giving him superior rapid-fire. The primary tactic of the Carbine trooper is to stand around spraying fire everywhere. The fact that he primarily uses Suppression Fire explains why he's so easily hit: He cannot defend. On the other hand, his superior armor will keep him upright in most instances.
ST 11 HP 11 Speed 5.00
DX 10 Will 10/12 Move: 5 (4)
IQ 10 Per 10

HT 11/12 FP 11 SM +0
Dodge 8 (7)
Parry 9
DR: 60/30

Imperial Blaster Carbine (12): 5d(5) burn sur

(Acc 10, Range 500/1500, RoF 3, Bulk -4)

Rifle Butt (12): 1d+1 cr (Reach 1)

Plasma Grenade (12): 6dx4 burn sur ex
(Range 35 yards, +4 if you aim for the ground, 1 turn to ready, 2 seconds to blow)



Skills: Pilot (Contragravity)-12, Savoir-Faire (Military)-12, Soldier-12, Vacc Suit-12

Traits: Fearlessness +2, Fit

Notes: Human; Armor grants DR 60 to skull and torso, and DR 30 to all other locations, and is sealed; Helmet provides filtered air, IR vision (+2 to vision checks), a HUD and hearing protection (+5 to resist hearing damage) and -4 to sighted attacks. They also feature 100-mile communication devices. At light encumbrance (-1).

Imperial Trooper Tactics
Suppression Fire (8): While firing from the hip, move up to 2 yards and make an unsighted All-Out Attack (Suppression fire) using Fast-Firing for RoF 5. Your recoil is 2. Anyone under the suppression zone can be hit (to a maximum of 5 targets) and must make a Will or Will-based Soldier roll (Add Fearlessness as a bonus, +2 from Combat Reflexes, and characters with Unfazeable automatically succeed) to expose themselves to the suppressive fire zone. Successful hits strike a random hit location and deal 5d+2(5) burn You may not defend. Gain +2 to Fast-Draw or to act first during a cascading wait.
Combat Assault (10): While firing from the shoulder, make a Move and Attack. Move up to 5 yards and attack, using full RoF 3. Successful hits strike a random hit location and deals 5d+2(5) burn. You may dodge, but you may not retreat or drop.


Imperial Flame Trooper

The Imperial Flame Trooper is the imperial assault trooper. He lacks the superior armor and he's slower, thanks to the heavy power pack of his weapon, but if we use the above flame rules, it's a fairly devastating weapon.
ST 11 HP 11 Speed 5.00
DX 10 Will 10/13 Move: 5 (4)
IQ 10 Per 10

HT 11 (12) FP 11 SM +0
Dodge 8 (7)
Parry 9
DR: 60/30

Heavy Flamer (12): 8d burn

(Jet, Range 130/390, Bulk -5)

Plasma Grenade (12): 6dx4 burn sur ex
(Range 35 yards, +4 if you aim for the ground, 1 turn to ready, 2 seconds to blow)





Skills: Intimidation-12, Pilot (Contragravity)-12, Savoir-Faire (Military)-12, Soldier-12, Vacc Suit-12

Traits: Fearlessness +3, Fit

Notes: Human; Armor grants DR 60 to skull and torso, and DR 30 to all other locations, and is sealed; Helmet provides filtered air, IR vision (+2 to vision checks), a HUD and hearing protection (+5 to resist hearing damage) and -4 to sighted attacks. They also feature 100-mile communication devices. At light encumbrance (-1).

Imperial Flame Trooper Tactics

Sweeping Flame (9): While firing from the hip, move up to 2 yards and make an unsighted All-Out Attack (Jet). Attack up to 2 targets out to 130 yards. Deal 4d damage to anyone hit, plus 1d burning per second until they clean the plasma fuel from them, and another 1d burning per second if they catch on fire. You may not defend. Gain +2 to Fast-Draw or to act first during a cascading wait.

Burning Assault (10): While firing from the shoulder, make a Move and Attack. Move up to 5 yards and attack a single target. Deal 4d damage to anyone hit, plus 1d burning per second until they clean the plasma fuel from them, and another 1d burning per second if they catch on fire. You may not defend. You may dodge, but you may not retreat or drop.

Imperial Heavy Trooper

Aka the Gatling Gunners, the Imperial Heavy Trooper consists of a team of soldiers, one carrying a heavy gatling blaster, the other a carbine, a tripod and an E-Cell. Together, they rapidly set-up an entrenched gatling nest, with the heavy gunner focusing fire down range while his teammate supports him.
ST 12 HP 11 Speed 5.00
DX 10 Will 10/12 Move: 5 (3)
IQ 10 Per 10

HT 11 (12) FP 11 SM +0
Dodge 8 (6)
Parry 9
DR: 60/30

Heavy Gatling Blaster (12): 9d+2 (5) burn sur (RoF 16, Range 1500/400, ST 20, Bulk -10)


Imperial Blaster Carbine (12):
5d(5) burn sur (Acc 10, Range 500/1500, RoF 3, Bulk -4)




Skills: Pilot (Contragravity)-12, Savoir-Faire (Military)-12, Soldier-12, Vacc Suit-12

Traits: Fearlessness +2, Fit

Notes: Human; Armor grants DR 60 to skull and torso, and DR 30 to all other locations, and is sealed; Helmet provides filtered air, IR vision (+2 to vision checks), a HUD and hearing protection (+5 to resist hearing damage) and -4 to sighted attacks. They also feature 100-mile communication devices. At Medium (-2) Encumbrance. A team of two, one carrying the tripod and power cell, the other heavy Gatling.

Imperial Heavy Trooper Tactics

Set-Up: It takes 3 seconds to set up the tripod and 5 seconds to load the cell into the Gatling blaster.
Suppression Fire (11): While firing from a tripod, make an All-Out Attack (Suppression fire) for RoF 16. Anyone under the suppression zone can be hit (to a maximum of 16 targets) and must make a Will or Will-based Soldier roll (Add Fearlessness as a bonus, +2 from Combat Reflexes, and characters with Unfazeable automatically succeed) to expose themselves to the suppressive fire zone. Successful hits strike a random hit location and deal 9d+2(5) burn. You may not defend.
Focused Fire (17): Make a sighted All-Out Attack against a single target, or a group of foes (Dividing shots among them) at full RoF 16. Successful hits strike a random hit location and deal 9d+2(5) burn. You may not defend.

Imperial Recon Trooper

The Recon Trooper wears camouflaged armor or a cloak/net over his armor, and wields a longer blaster rifle. His primary purpose is to act as a forward observer for artillery (characters with knowledge of Imperial Tactics, especially if they have Expert Skill (Miltiary Science), will recognize a recon trooper on sight and know what he's up to). They can also snipe, but they're less precise about it than other snipers. They’ll typically work in teams of two, one spotting while the other snipes.
ST 11 HP 11 Speed 5.25
DX 10 Will 11/13 Move: 5 (4)
IQ 11 Per 12

HT 11 (12) FP 11 SM +0
Dodge 8 (7)
Parry 9
DR: 60/30



Blaster Rifle (12): 7(5) burn sur
(Acc 10+3, RoF 3, Range 800/2400, Bulk -5, Malf 16)

Blaster Pistol (12): 3d(5) burn sur
(Acc 5, Range 300/900, RoF 3, Bulk -2)





Skills: Camouflage-12, Forward Observer-12, Observation-12, Pilot (Contragravity)-12, Savoir-Faire (Military)-12, Soldier-12, Stealth-12, Vacc Suit-12

Traits: Fearlessness +2, Fit

Notes: Human; Armor grants DR 60 to skull and torso, and DR 30 to all other locations, and is sealed; Helmet provides filtered air, IR vision (+2 to vision checks), a HUD and hearing protection (+5 to resist hearing damage) and -4 to sighted attacks. They also feature 100-mile communication devices. At light encumbrance (-1). HUD has mapping software, and Recon trooper carries a basic Forward Observer range finding device.

Imperial Recon Trooper Tactics

Vanish (7): At the beginning of a fight, a psycho will attempt to vanish and get the drop on his opponent. Roll Vanish (ignore modifiers for stealth at the beginning of a fight). Success means he may attack one opponent “from behind.” He may not do this at any other point in the fight.
Forward Observer (12): After 2d+5 seconds, of observation and calculation, make a roll. On a success, call in BAD 100mm plasma rounds or (BAD/2) 160mm plamsa rounds, which arrive 1d6 seconds later.
Situational Awareness (14): Make a Concentrate maneuver and make an Observation roll. You can attempt to spot hidden opponents, or sudden changes in the battlefield.
Spotting (12): Make a Concentrate maneuver and make an Observation roll as a complementary roll to an ally’s aimed attack.
Snipe (23): After a single aiming action, make an All-Out Attack (Aimed) with Masked penalty. Successful hit strikes a random hit location and deals 7d(5) burn sur. You may not defend.
Immediate Action (12): If the imperial trooper critically fails, make an Immediate Action attempt on his next turn. If successful, his gun returns to normal, otherwise it is inoperable.

Imperial Kill Squad Elite

Kill Squads are the Empire's elite. They're fanatically loyal and lethal. They wear heavier armor and carry heavier carbines with superior rate of fire and dangerous grenades. They perform effectively the same tactics and role as carbine troopers, but better. They can act on their own (they're as stealthy as recon troops), but they're most often used to bolster support for carbine troopers and flame troopers, acting as a front line, laying down heavier fire and soaking up most hits.
ST 12 HP 12 Speed 6.00
DX 12 Will 11/13 Move: 6 (5)
IQ 11 Per 11

HT 12 (13) FP 12 SM +0
Dodge 10 (9)
Parry 11
DR: 100/60




Heavy Blaster Carbine (15): 5d+2(5) burn sur (Acc 10, Range 500/1500, RoF 8, Bulk -4, Malf 16)

Carbine Butt (15): 1d+2 cr (Reach 1)

Underbarrel EMGL (15): 8d cr ex or 6dx3(10) cr in + linked 2d cr ex [1d-2 cut]. (Acc 4, Range 360/2200 yards, RoF 1)


Skills: Observation-12, Intimidation-15, Pilot (Contragravity)-12, Savoir-Faire (Military)-15, Soldier-15, Stealth-12, Vacc Suit-15

Traits: Bloodlust (12), Combat Reflexes, Fanatical (Empire), Fit

Notes: Human; Armor grants DR 100 to skull and torso, and DR 60 to all other locations, and is sealed; Helmet provides filtered air, IR vision (+2 to vision checks), HUD, and hearing protection (+5 to resist hearing damage).They also feature 100-mile communication devices. Lightly Encumbered (-1)

Imperial Kill Squad Tactics



Suppression Fire (7): While firing from the hip, move up to 3 yards and make an unsighted All-Out Attack (Suppression fire) using RoF 8. Anyone under the suppression zone can be hit (to a maximum of 8 targets) and must make a Will or Will-based Soldier roll (Add Fearlessness as a bonus, +2 from Combat Reflexes, and characters with Unfazeable automatically succeed) to expose themselves to the suppressive fire zone. Successful hits strike a random hit location and deal 5d+2(5) burn You may not defend. Gain +2 to Fast-Draw or to act first during a cascading wait. You may not defend.
Combat Assault (13): While firing from the shoulder, make a Move and Attack. Move up to 6 yards and attack, using full RoF 8. Successful hits strike a random hit location and deals 5d+2(5) burn. You may dodge, but you may not retreat or drop.
Immediate Action (15): If the Imperial trooper critically fails, make an Immediate Action attempt on his next turn. If successful, his gun returns to normal, otherwise it is inoperable.

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