I've done some testing on my new army, Portland.

I'm currently working on the tiles.

here's a pic of the HQ being worked on in Eheck2:



The basic tactics of this army can be summed up in a few words: INDIRECT FIRE MORTARS.

This army has very, very few direct attack units. Those it does have should pretty much only be used to defend the HQ or, more likely, the mortar units which are your main way of attacking the enemy HQ.

The army list is as follows:

HQ X1 - Still has a one strength melee attack on all adjacent enemies. Initiative = 0. Can act the same as Hegemony's Transport module for all adjacent allied units (any adjacent ally can move one hex and / or turn any direction. HQ can not move using this ability itself).

UNITS:

Netters X4 - Each net unit has a net affecting one facing. No attacks. Initiative = hourglass

Sandbaggers X3 - Each sandbagger unit has 3 shields connected (protecting one half of the hex) and one strength one ranged attack facing in the direction of the central shield. Initiative = 1, TOUGHNESS X1

POV (personal offroad vehicle) X2 - Each POV has movement ability and a strength one melee attack on one facing. Initiative = 2

Light Mortar X5 - Each light mortar can fire one strength one mortar attack in a direct line along any of its facings during, and only during, a "Mortar Fire" action phase (see action tiles below). This fire MUST bypass the first tile section immediately adjacent to it but can hit any tile after the first along that line of fire. Mortar fire MUST be in a straight line along the hex facings of the firing unit. This is a strength one attack and shields on the target DO NOT prevent damage from mortar attacks.

Heavy Mortar X3 - Each heavy mortar can fire two strength one mortar attacks in a direct line along any of its facings during, and only during, a "Mortar Fire" action phase (see action tiles below). This fire MUST bypass the first tile section immediately adjacent to it but can hit any tile after the first along that line of fire. Mortar fire MUST be in a straight line along the hex facings of the firing unit. Each attack is a strength one attack and shields on the target DO NOT prevent damage from mortar attacks. You MAY split the fire amongst different lines of fire or concentrate them upon one target. You may also attack along the same line of fire but choose to have one strength one attack go to an enemy two spaces away and the second one strength attack go to an enemy four spaces away (as an example). TOUGHNESS X1

MODULES:

Medic X1 - Acts as normal medic. Can attach to 3 connected facings (one half of the tile)

Shield Generator X1 - Affects every other facing (three facings, each separated by a non-affected facing). Creates a "Shield" effect on ALL FACINGS of the affected units including HQ. DOES NOT gain the benefit of shields from itself.

FCC (Fire Control Center) X4 - Affects every other facing (three facings, each separated by a non-affected facing). Allows any attached Mortar unit to gain ONE strength one attack during the "Mortar Fire" phase. THIS DOES NOT ADD TO THE STRENGTH OF A SINGLE ATTACK! It simply adds another strength one attack to what the mortar unit could already perform. Thusly, a light mortar with a single connected FCC could perform exactly as a Heavy Mortar would. A Heavy Mortar with a connected FCC would have 3 strength one attacks to split as they saw fit.

ACTIONS:

Move X3 - Allows you to move a unit and / or turn the facing any direction as per normal rules.

HAS (Heavy Artillery Strike) X1 - This action tile acts exactly like the "Air Strike" tile of Moloch army.

Mortar Fire X7 - This is the crux of the entire army.
When you play a Mortar Fire tile as an action each of your Mortar units (light and heavy) may fire mortars. For every "strength" of mortar a unit can fire (be it from the initial info on the tile or from bonuses from modules) you may target ONE hex. You MAY NOT target hexes adjacent to the firing mortar unit. You may target ANY hex past that along the axis of a hex facing in a direct line. Shields of the targeted hex DO NOT negate mortar fire.
Each strength one attack from a mortar unit is considered a separate attack of strength one.
You may "stack" attacks onto a unit but each one must be dealt with separately in terms of attached medics to the target, etc.

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So, that's it for now.

As I said, I'm working on the tiles in eheck2 as soon as I get done with this post.
It may be up tonight.... I hope...
It may be up in a few days.

I've played a few games as it is and it seems to be pretty well balanced for one on one play. I haven't really gotten to try it out in a 3+ game.


What are your thoughts?

I remember the shield generator now. That thing's a bitch....


I thought New York was Purple? As I recall, Naz told me he's going with Grey.

New York is greyish, as seen on http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/388604

Now you HAVE to use purple!

Hmm.

New York looks light blue / purple to me...

I wasn't set on grey. I could make it darker.

How about brown? Maybe I could switch the icon to a pine cone.

Icon's fine, since it's fairly distinctive.

Go for light brown, perhaps. It's still unoccupied. =p

New York's a kind of light gray/purple or lilac. I just looked at my tiles to confirm and asked my SO's opinion too.

I'm male, I can't tell colors apart. They are the same to me. :P

You could always make them purple.

Why are you being shy with your opinions on the matter?

I just don't know if purple really goes with the flavor of the thing.
I was thinking grey because, well, it's Portland.... Cloudy and all that.
Plus the gear was supposed to be a bike cog but it doesn't look much like it.

I sort of was joking about the brown / pine cone thing but now I'm thinking that could be pretty cool, actually.

Brown wouldn't look all that spectacular though. Darker grey would look nice.
I'll have to admit a dark purple would be cool looking...

What logo though? I'm not set on either of the ones I've been toying with. And should the color and logo go together?
I think they should... If I went with purple what would be something that would match the flavor of the city and the army for purple?

Yes, I took the idea from the wonderful Mephisto army. I toned it down a bit in its power though. With four netters in the mix having shield generators that could shield all adjacent would just be way too powerful.

Not a bad idea. Perhaps keep it with the same amount of hexes? Seven hexes in a row, all must be on the board. This would only come into play if you were using the extended map though...

Here's some other ideas to play around with:

Walking Fire - Choose one mortar unit on the board when you play this action tile. This unit fires one strength one mortar attack at each hex it would normally be able to hit along one hex side to the end of the board. All units, including your own and allies, as well as HQ take the hit.

Name??? - Choose one mortar unit on the board when you play this action tile. This unit must fire one strength one mortar attack along each of its hex sides at a space it would normally be allowed to hit. You can not choose to not fire along a hex side, for example, if only your units lie along that path you must hit them.

Name??? - Heavy mortars fire from off board. Choose two axes to hit. The surrounding three hexes are hit by a strength one mortar hit. All hexes affected must be in the play area.


There are any number of ways to do this particular action tile. I would like to keep it in theme but I know that as I have it is balanced well. I suppose I ought to try some other types to see if they work.

If anyone would like to do so let me know and I'll then try it and possibly incorporate it.

Thanks to all for the feedback!

Tiles like "choose one mortar" cannot always be used, e.g. when you have no mortars or they are netted, or aiming at nothing. Instant damaging tiles ought to be usable all the time, especially if you have weak situation on the board.

I like the logo. Better representation of Portland than a raincloud or organic tofu or homeopathic medicine.

And dark Purple would be great.

Isn't Salt Lake City a dark purple?

SLC's #A40BA9, so yes, it's a slightly dark shade of purple.

Salt Lake City?

Yes. Very good point. I will not have this action tile usable only when you have a mortar on the board.

I finally have same time to look at your army. Here are my (few) opinions:

- You know that HQ in new official army (SMART from Duel) will probably has the same special ability as your Portland? There's nothing wrong in that
- If You want HQ to give move to adjacent tiles, remember about putting "+" sign in HQ tile
- If armors don't work on mortar attacks than you need to add a new icon to mortal tiles. Let me say it in another way - when in official rules is stated that armor works on all ranged attacks, you can't now say that it works on all with one exception. You also shouldn't put that exception in mortal attack's definition.
- Mortal Fire is... really great! I have been waiting for something so simple and innovative for a very long time. As far as I know this is the first fan made instant tile skill (not attack or bonus) after official Battle tile.

PS. Before uploading army to BGG show it to us so we could find and point places to correct.

No, I had no idea. I think I'll keep it. It's pretty essential to how the mortars work.



Yeah, I hadn't gotten that far in the picture above. I'm having trouble finding it in the Eheck2 file.



Yes, the mortar fire will have a very different symbol than the ranged, gauss or any other attack symbol. It's basically a dotted parabola with an explosion on the end of it to denote the arc of a shell and then boom.
Here's a rough image of my test tiles so you can see what I mean:




I'm confused why you feel I shouldn't put in the rules for mortars that armor does not protect against them? That's the whole point. They come down from above and all the shield icons protect a side or two (sometimes more, sometimes all).
In any case, the rules for shields say that they protect against ranged attacks. That is a very specific designation of attack with its own symbol. Mortar attacks (while they can attack non-adjacent enemies -actually they MUST attack non-adjacent enemies) are distinctly different from what the rules call a "ranged attack". Just as Moloch's Gauss is different with its own set of rules and a different (barely) symbol.

There are all kinds of attacks like this. Grenades, snipers, melee, poison, etc. To say that if it wasn't included in the original rules it can't be written seems to go against the spirit of the fan created army mentality.
I'm going to leave that rule as it makes sense to me from a thematic standpoint and there is precedence of new attacks (poison - neojungle) in the official expansions superseding the original set of rules.



Thank you very much! It came from my love of artillery in general. I know there is another fan army out there that uses artillery but it does so in a more abstract way. I felt it didn't have the immediacy that the mortars do. I also wanted the army to be dependent on them. In other words, if you can't figure out how to kill your opponents out of battle then you're screwed. It's all about raining down death from afar and defending with all of the other units as opposed to the usual way of sending in the troops to get a quick hit before they die from the HQ's melee attack.



Absolutely! That's what this thread is for! I thank you all for the suggestions so far. I will post pics to my personal gallery then in this thread so you can all test it and give feedback before I post the "official" PDF of the army.

NOTE: HEAVY MORTAR and SANDBAGGER units also have "toughness". I will edit the first post to reflect this.

Here's the initial build:

HQ x1: melee attack on all sides. Initiative =0. All connected allies gain move one (as per Hegemony transport module).



BIKERS x2:

X1 Strength one melee attack on one side. Initiative =2. Movement.


NETTERS x4:

No attack. Initiative =Hourglass.


SANDBAGGERS x3:

Three facings of shields attached (three connected facings). One strength one ranged attack facing the middle shielded side. Toughness X1.


LIGHT MORTAR x5:

Each "light mortar" can fire one mortar shell during a "Mortar Fire" action phase according to "mortar fire" rules as stated below. Initiative =0

HEAVY MORTAR x4

Each "heavy mortar" can fire two mortar shells during a "Mortar Fire" action phase according to "mortar fire" rules as stated below. Initiative =0. TOUGHNESS X1

AMMO DUMP x3:
Ammo dump allows an additional mortar fire during the mortar fire phase.

SHIELD GENERATOR x1:

Any affected allies are protected against enemy "ranged" attacks as per normal shield rules. SG generates a shield on all sides of affected unit.

MEDIC x1:

Normal Medic rules. Affects 3 adjacent facing sides.

MOVE X3:

Normal move rules apply.

OFFBOARD ARTILLERY X1:

This instant action tile allows you to target 3 spots. Each must be the nexus of 3 hexes. All connected hexes take one strength one hit. When targeting, all three hexes must be in the play area. You may target the same point for multiple hits.

MORTAR FIRE X7:

When you play a Mortar Fire tile as an action each of your Mortar units on the board (light and heavy) may fire mortars. For every "strength" of mortar a unit can fire (be it from the initial info on the tile or from bonuses from modules) you may target ONE hex. You MAY NOT target hexes adjacent to the firing mortar unit. You may target ANY hex past that along the axis of a hex facing in a direct line. Shields of the targeted hex DO NOT negate mortar fire.
Each strength one attack from a mortar unit is considered a separate attack of strength one.
You may "stack" attacks onto a unit but each one must be dealt with separately in terms of attached medics to the target, etc.

Why bikers and sandbaggers have different circles for their mobility and HPs?

Must have clicked the wrong one.

There's a lot of files in echeck2. It's kind of easy to get confused.

There is also Heavy Mortar's HQ with a wrong circle.
And, well. Why did you give mortars initiative 0? Shouldn't they have hourglasses?