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Post by hardlec on Jun 9, 2017 16:48:16 GMT
The idea of "Aliens" with ESP and/or some sort of Psychic weapon is a good idea, but not for Martians.
It would be interesting to see a new alien race endowed with Psychic weapons. There are lots of figures available which can form a base for such a race. Venus and several moons of Saturn and Jupiter are possible candidates as home worlds, with Europa being a very likely candidate.
Consider a "hive mind" such that if the aliens take casualties they all weaken, and if too many are killed at once the whole hive goes down. These creatures can take over other organic minds and use them as psychic batteries.
"Psychic Aliens" is a good, no great! idea.
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Post by loyalist on Jun 9, 2017 20:04:57 GMT
I don't think this ESP stuff should become part of the official rules. Between Martians for C&C purposes OK, but it's illogical that Martians could telepathically influence humans given that they evolved on different planets and have completely different neuroanatomy (speaking with my biologist/animal behaviouralist and psychiatrist hats on).
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Post by boxholder on Jun 9, 2017 22:52:26 GMT
Well, if the Martians have some ESP/psych ability, why do they use the acoustic vocalizations to communicate?
I might be willing to grant them limited radio ability for command and control, as Mr Washburn seems to have done. After all, there had to have been some way for Wells' first invaders to get the word back home about what had happened to them. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for the home team to work on immunization for this wave of attackers. They would have been blind as to the fate of the first wave.
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Post by Cman1O1Dalek on Jun 9, 2017 22:54:33 GMT
*Faceplams*
GUYZ
THEY ARE PSYCHIC!
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Post by David N.Tanner 07011959 on Jun 9, 2017 23:36:07 GMT
They're not psychic in my universe. It's bad enough they want to turn us into blood smoothies. I'm not going to give the power to scramble our brains.
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Post by hardlec on Jun 10, 2017 0:22:16 GMT
I'm sorry Cman101Dalek but according to H G Wells, they're not. There is no mention of psychic prowess in the Book or any of the movies. The Martians communicate with each other by some manner humans do not comprehend, which we would call telepathy because we don't have the right word for it. Humans communicate with sound mostly and the Martians can't hear, coming from a world with little air; no way to conduct sound. To the Martians, the prey that stings is telepathic. The Martians have not communicated in any way at all with humans. If they were (truly) telepathic they would be anticipating human tactics, which they have not. The terror which troops have from dealing with martians is the same terror shown by men in the Great War when the tanks, Armored monsters, first crawled across no-man's-land. Martians already have enough weapons. With the Dominator and the Overseer they have Tripods that can take out any human weapon system, even a landship, in one volley. I've seen a whole company of Mk IIIs shoot at an Assault Tripod and only scuff the paint.
The Martians can wage war against the humans quite well enough.
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Post by terrance on Jun 10, 2017 2:26:14 GMT
Was it Arthur C Clark who said to the effect that any sufficiently advanced technology would seem like magic to those who do not understand it? Substitute telepathy for magic.
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Post by madmorgan on Jun 10, 2017 9:08:57 GMT
Well, I've added telepathic blast to Martians as a 'side arm'. A pilot that's bailed out a tripod for any reason, has a very limited blast it can use short-ranged against infantry, and to a lesser degree, against armor crews. It requires a Morale Check (-2 if encased in armor vehicle) to panic troops within 6". They flee for one turn only, then recover. Easy to apply, based on up to today pilots with their personal firearm when punching out.
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Post by boxholder on Jun 10, 2017 12:01:51 GMT
I can live with that by substituting "revulsion, fear, and disgust" for "telepathic blast" in my mind.
Is this to be a one-shot capability or is it a continuing, multi-shot capability?
My caution with telepathic/psych weaponry is game balance. The humans must be granted some compensating advantage or else the tele/psych capability should be very expensive or hazardous to the user. For example, if the Martians are granted "brain fry," it should cost a lot. Or whenever it is used, there is a die roll for "failure and blowback." By that, I mean that the attempt to brain fry humans could blowback on the tripod using it. (Think an unexpected encounter with a nascent human psycher who becomes energized by the fear and terror of the attack.) The blowback would be (1) the Martian brain is fried instead and (2) it becomes a mindless slave to the humans. It would then act as a "control interface adapter," permitting the human to take over and operate the tripod psychically. The tripod can then be used by the human in combat or can be exited the board as a prize.
Lots of victory points at stake if you move the fight to tele/psych. Risk vs Reward. An interesting scenario dynamic can develop as a hijacked tripod begins leaving the table and its podmates attack to try to stop it.
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Post by madmorgan on Jun 11, 2017 9:51:21 GMT
As far as the 'sidearm' blast, it is a one shot. The Martian pilot has to hope the rescue drone will show up sooner than later. You could try it as a multi-shot, as human pilots have more than one shot weapons, but, I think this is a bit unbalanced. The human player should have a high chance of capturing a live Martian, especially as tough as it is to get one out of his tripod. Play test it please. I have no intention of having any further telepathic or psych weaponry in the game. This is a very limited idea, strictly an optional rule that can be easily left out or put in with little affect on game play. For the Martian player, you get a small chance to save a pilot. The important of this is a system I'm developing to give both human crews and Martian pilots experience modifiers based on survival and game performances. Much more on that much later. Cheers and game on!
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Post by Cman1O1Dalek on Jun 23, 2017 18:53:39 GMT
You know what...lets leave the TT in my fiction ok?... We can move on now. No more TT
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Post by boxholder on Jun 24, 2017 12:50:18 GMT
You can always house rule them in. Whatever you can sweet talk an opponent into is fair game (no pun intended).
My concern was fitting them into the overall AQMF context as a requirement. In my vision of the AQMF world, they just don't quite seem to fit. If there had been a groundswell of support for TT, I could just house rule them out of my games.
Your concept certainly spurred a good bit of consideration and discussion.
End of dead horse flogging from my viewpoint.
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Post by hardlec on Jun 24, 2017 18:28:38 GMT
Now about that Goliath.....
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Post by Cman1O1Dalek on Jul 4, 2017 20:46:20 GMT
The Goliath is pretty cool...and expansive...
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Post by ironcladgames on Jul 5, 2017 17:33:00 GMT
It is an upcoming model, sorry. We have been crazy busy with everything.
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