Example: As in, do you have the creatures attack anyone? It seems like most of the time in campaigns wampas and rancors aren't said to be trained animals.

Same goes for Tusken raiders. They have no allegiance to the empire.

Sometimes I'll also have a lone figure near death make a run for it or outright surrender.

One thing I was thinking of letting my rebel heroes do is use Onar, Dialla and other push effects to push people off the platforms in HotE 🤣

In short, no. Though I do keep my deployments thematic, so lots of stormtroopers and other imperial units, with scum coming when I feel they are appropriate by the mission details/setting/starting deployments.

For the raiders, I’d always imagined the Empire had made some deal with them.

For the creatures, do you have a simple AI you follow. For example, do you randomly determine when the activate? Do they default attack whoever is closest once the have randomly activated? Also, do you include anything to help balance this for the Empire? I mean, this will make some missions harder for them.

I’ve not played HotE, but I like the sound of that push mechanism. People going off platforms is pretty common in the Star Wars universe. Again, though, does it unbalance things?

I too use my deployments thematically, and NEVER use royal guards unless needed.

The creatures attack whoever is closest to them typically. Since heroes have more melee than me it somehow tends to be them anyways 😋

The heroes I play with aren't the most competitive and aren't the most skilled, so I don't know how much the push mechanic can swing things. After all, I plan to use jet troopers and probe droids (I imagine they would be an effective rapid response force in coruscant.). But I think it could be fun to push a stormtrooper or two off.

I should probably mention that the people I play with I play DnD with. And this is the closest I'll ever get to a star wars table top game at present 🤣

On 1/3/2020 at 7:49 PM, Master Wang said:

On 1/3/2020 at 12:07 PM, player4521223 said:

As in, do you have the creatures attack anyone? It seems like most of the time in campaigns wampas and rancors aren't said to be trained animals.

Same goes for Tusken raiders. They have no allegiance to the empire.

- Raiders are hostile to all units (even imperials) so i keep em separate from my stormies.

For the creatures, do you have a simple AI you follow. For example, do you randomly determine when the activate? Do they default attack whoever is closest once the have randomly activated? -Go for Blood- they always target the nearest Hero or Imperial with the least Hp from damage. If no damaged units are nearby, they then target the closest warm blooded unit that is furthest from their allies. By default they target Hero units first before Imperial. Creatures never attack droids unless no other targets are available.

Also, do you include anything to help balance this for the Empire? I mean, this will make some missions harder for them. Any Imperial units killed by a creature spawn may be brought back for free at the furthest spawn point on the map from the heroes.

Imperial Generals (Thrawn, Sorin, etc.) always have a Deathtrooper escort- affecting each mission's threat or spawns as necessary.

Royal guards may only be spawned in if a mission necessitates it for story purposes or if Vader, the Emperor, or the Royal guard champ are present.

Our group doesn't play this super-serious style, upfront. The same approach should work for you as well, though.

Especially on replays of campaigns, we'll adapt and adjust the dialogue and provided text to change the story as we see fit (mainly trying to keep building off jokes).

Examples:

• one core campaign, we joked that the objective-token-crates in a side mission were full of gumbo. That joke ended up turning the campaign plot into a hunt for a secret gumbo recipe
• One jabba campaign, brother (as empire) said that the refugees being protected were the MARTYRians. Immediate running gag of dead bodies everywhere
• Another campaign side mission one had the twist that the Inquisitor killed Fenn's brother ... after which the Imperial player tried to field the villain as much as possible

So yeah, I think it's usually easier to adapt the big-picture narrative (more memorable experiences) than it is to have hard-self-rules for the units.

I do. Trying to keep it thematic and realistic a bit. Affects deployment, but also i try to keep in mind LOS when determining my troops behavior (to include their awareness of situation). My players also agreed - and it was their proposal - for me not to show them deployed units that are outside their LOS and which are not yet 'discovered' by them - which basically affects usually starting deployment groups that are behind walls, doors etc.. Works great! What a surprise it was when they opened a door to reveal an e-web engineer waiting at the far end of a corridor..