The Commander Series Forum

Hi, new around here, but I'm working up units for a 3mm TO&E for a FWC force called the St. Vincent Brigade - I discussed it on The Miniatures Page, but wanted to see if some more expert opinions from the FWC community might guide me in the right direction as I draw up the unit designs.



The units are all from the O8 range. MBTs and IFVs are from the new "sci fi" range (T228 Tank and Matabele IFV, modded to be hovercraft); the Infantry is the 08 Modern Soviets; the AA, Artillery and AT Missiles are all American/British flatbed armored tractors; the Chaparral, MLRS and Rapier, respectively. There's also a pair of cybertanks: two "Rommel Tank Howitzers" from the IWM line, used out of scale as "BOLO" style supertanks.

Just running it up the flagpole here to see if anyone has recommendations to make as I design the vehicle stats. Thanks for taking a look!

I might be tempted to pinch stats from the Cav or GZG list (as they've got loads of stuff in of about the right tech level?). Then use the Marine Corps doctrine & specials to represent the Brigades high esprit and élan compared to their more "workman-like" foes...

For the Ogre/BOLO's find some super heavy stats that look right and use them. Maybe give them shields to represent their AI controlled "smart defenses" like active EWO, smart-armour and so on. Because Massives attract such incoming fire that without them they'll get suppressed and killed very easily...

Unless you restrict Massives to only being suppressed by other Massives?

That looks great!

Oh yeah, and the TOE chart is ace Do you have a wiki or similar with the campaign/world wrote ups and other units etc?

Thanks, guys! And great advice, toxicpixie. Using some established units from the range will give a good baseline to plan from - my inclination is to over-design, so starting from a "standard" unit will rein me in and incline towards better balance. I am using macunaima's special "massive units" rules, though, to kick up the power of BOLO-type vehicles, which are supposed to be key to the background; basically if you don't have an AAV (autonomous armored vehicle) in your force, you're asking to get slapped down by enemies who do.

I don't have any kind of wiki, this being the first unit I've designed so far, but the background is one I dabble with on and off in between other projects, with the working title "Federated Space." I harbor modest hopes of turning it into some kind of more formal background or sourcebook, or maybe a comic/graphic novel (it bears some similarity to a webcomic I draw called 6-Commando). This bit pre-dates the main timeline of Federated Space by about a century and is tied to the war that basically swept away the "old order" from the pre-space age and led to the re-jiggering of political power in the world. But the meat of it is a world war in the indeterminate but not-too-distant future, with conflicts in Europe, Africa and Central America, as well as on some of the planets in the Solar System (the Moon, Mars, Titan, the Jovian Satellites). The Vinnies' main adversary is going to be a heavy armored unit from another European superstate called Mitteleuropa, and their main focus is a long, bitter campaign in Croatia and Austria. The superpower known as ENSPUN (the English-Speaking Union, which is mainly Britain, Canada, the "Associated States of America," and the other Anglo nations) gets in on the act later in the game.

Come to think of it, it really has a very larger-than-life kind of 'Anime' feel to it, in some respects, though it wasn't really my intention.

Sounds really good, looking forward to seeing it progress

6-Commando is kick-ass, so I´m very proud you're using my optional rules. Let me know how they work for you and how they can be improved.

Just so you know, I have apparently been perma-banned from TMP for reasons that the site's owner won't explain. I'm still participating in conversations there, but not as "Macunaima".

Say no more.

6-commando's heavy power armor is what I want to see in 3mm, btw.

If you ever need a Portuguese translator, let me know.

I'd basically go nuts for ANY 3mm-scale powered armor. But thanks! And I will of course, keep you posted on how the massive units rules work. I'm also working on rules for tactical nuclear weapons.

Just been reading 6-Commando, looks good

Pleasure on the advice, the army "specials" and pre-built units should let you get a handle on the way the units work and you can then tweak about easily from there, without ending up too bland or too OP'd.

Tac Nukes... Unit directly under aim point is vaporised, treat otherwise as heavy orbital bombardment? Unless you're of the Hammers Slammers or Traveller persuasion and assume no one travels without nuclear dampers thus rendering nukes a bit pointless...

Agreed, the comic is very cool!

Like for the Earthlight Division, here's a Formation Card for the St. Vincent Brigade. And again, the stats are all provisional, as I haven't designed or playtested any of these yet. Still, fun to look at, I hope!

Love those silhouettes

Thanks, man. I'm reaching for a "Space Marine" look. Can't say why but I loved those unit cards. It just made you feel like you were building a 'real' force, and not just picking and choosing pieces like a monopoly game. Plus, putting all the info in one place should help speed up play.

It's very nostalgia building for the old days of Spacemarine and Adeptus Titanicus so I guess it worked

I, too, loved the unit cards. I want to do something like this mysefl!