We have seen the different Class options you have for your Infantry.
(see blog post Star Tale Classes)
And we have looked at the different Armour options you have for your Infantry.
(see blog post Star Tale Infantry Armour)
This time we are going to explore some of the things that affect Weapon choices.
In Warhammer 40,000 you are limited in how many special weapons your Infantry can take. Traditionally in a squad of 10 space marines you can take 1 assault weapon and 1 heavy weapon. The rest of the soldiers must take the ‘basic rifle’.
Star Tale rules allow much greater customisation though. Any soldier can use any weapon provided they have enough Strength to wield it. They also need enough Skill in that weapon type to be accurate. You can take a whole squad of soldiers equipped with missile launchers if you want.
Another thing in Warhammer 40,000 is that weapons and equipment have different point costs depending on who is using it. For example heavy weapons cost a lot more when you are equipping a dedicated heavy weapons team than when you are giving them to a regular squad.
But in Star Tale: Ground Wars it works differently. All weapons and equipment have a fixed price no matter who is using it.
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Strength Requirement
Weapons have a minimum Strength requirement that must be met by the soldier that wants to wield it.
Previously we have looked at the Attributes system which Strength is a part of.
(see blog post Star Tale Attributes)
In Warhammer 40,000 there is overlap and not much differentiation between humans, eldar and space marines in their base stats because the scale is too small. It revolves around the number six (the number of faces on common dice).
The scale used in Star Tale (‘1 to 12’) gives much more design space within the game mechanics to differentiate the alien races.
It was a priority to make sure there is a mechanical difference between the basic troops of the Terran, Farlin, and Callisto. But we have to make sure there is still space for all the other bigger, stronger and scarier stuff too.
Lets take a look at the stats of some of the basic troops in Star Tale.
Terran Corsair Class: Strength 2
Terran Lancer Class: Strength 3
Terran Goliath Class: Strength 4
Farlin Corsair Class: Strength 3
Farlin Lancer Class: Strength 4
Farlin Goliath Class: Strength 5
Callisto Corsair Class: Strength 4
Callisto Lancer Class: Strength 5
Callisto Goliath Class: Strength 6
To learn more about the main races in the Star Tale world:
(see blog post Star Tale Factions)
When a unit performs an attack, the Strength of the attack is compared against the Toughness of the target.
Also, the Penetration of the attack is compared against the Armour of the target.
If a soldier is using a Melee Weapon, then the Strength of the attack is whatever the Strength of the soldier is.
The Penetration of the attack is tied to the melee weapon itself. The better the weapon is at defeating Armour, then the higher its Penetration stat will be.
If a soldier is using a Gun, then the Strength of the attack is tied to the Calibre of the bullet (not directly to the Strength of the wielder like with melee attacks). However, you will find that the higher Strength guns require the wielder to have a slightly higher Strength stat to actually use them in the first place.
Generally the better anti tank weapons are usable by the Lancer class. And the better anti personnel weapons are only usable by the Goliath class.
By the way, we use the following acronyms:
AP = Anti Personnel
AT = Anti Tank
AA = Anti Air
To avoid confusion we do NOT use:
AP = Armour Piercing
AA = Anti Armour
AI = Anti Infantry
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Skill Requirement
Your troops also need to have enough Skill in the correct weapon type to be able to use a weapon effectively.
Again customisation is prominent in the Star Tale Skills system.
We will have a look at the Skills system in a future blog.
So thats an introduction to Star Tale Infantry Weapon Requirements. As always, everything is public domain. You are free to use anything however you wish. See you next month on the 12th.