Chapter Eight: Irregular Combatants

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• Civilians
• Mercenaries
• Pirates
• Humanoids
• Awful Green Things from Outer Space

Civilians

Abnormal People
Some Normal People are a little screwy and break this standard, becoming obsessed with weapons and killing and death.  If they act on this obsession, stockpiling weapons and ammunition and training themselves in the Deadly Arts, they become Somewhat Less Normal or even Abnormal People.
 

The Abnormal Person
Move:	4"
Armor:	1d4
Skill:	1d6
Ratio:	1 per 10 Normal People
Points:	3

  Every now and then you'll be fighting a battle in some urban area, mowing down stray Normal People as usual, and then suddenly some Psychotik will do something totally unexpected, like blow up a bridge, mow down SpaceMen in his monster truck, or install MkIII Lasers all over his house.  The most generic Abnormal People have the stats listed above, but crazier types can be assigned other point values depending on exactly how Abnormal they are.  Most Abnormal People fall into the category of Mad Bomber, Paranoid Arms Stockpiler, and Suicidal Maniac.  Invariably, they come in one of three 'flavors:'  the unshaven, blue-collar psycho who's missing a hand, arm, leg, or face; the jet-setting businessman sociopath with his suit, briefcase, and sunglasses; or the homicidal maniac postal worker.  There are no restrictions to the kinds of weapons these types of people will find some way to stockpile and use.  Better yet, they don't care at all who else gets mowed down in their quest to reach their target.
 
Normal Belligerent People
While most Normal People spend a battle doing Normal Things, there are some who don't react well to violence.  Some even go out of their way to find violence to react badly to.
 

The Belligerent Person
Move:	4"
Armor:	1d6
Skill:	1d6
Ratio:	None(troop)
Points:	3

  Usually these are the people who live and work on whatever land you've chosen as your battlefield, who consider it their personal duty to protect their community.  In more modern communities (such as SpacePeople or TownPeople), these will be policemen or guardsmen.  In more primitive cultures (like MedievalPeople, IslandPeople, or TribesPeople), these will be hunters and warriors.  More primitive warriors won't be able to use modern weaponry, but they'll have put more priority on musclebuilding and close combat, and will get Close Combat bonuses.
 

Civilian Technology
Type	Highest Tech	CC Bonus
Space	all	-
Town	Shotguns, Revolvers, some armed vehicles, airplanes	-
Rennaissance	Pirate weapons, cannons, sea vessels, horse-drawn carts	+1
Medieval	armor, crossbows, catapults, horses, swords	+1
Tribal	bows, spears, horses, islander masks, feather headdresses	+2
StoneAge	clubs, spears, fire, grunting	+2

 
Belligerent People may be groups of Smuggling People defending their hideout with Impact Pistols and jury-rigged MkI Lasers, or it might be a bunch of Islander People throwing spears, or a castle full of Medieval People jousting around, lopping off SpaceMen's heads with battleaxes.  Unlike the Abnormal People, their primary goal is to keep their communities safe, rather than kill as many SpaceMen as they can.  If you keep clear of their communities, they'll leave you alone.  On the other hand, they're pretty weak, so it's not a big deal if you really want to send a squad out to shoot up the town.
 
The most dangerous group of Belligerent People are those in the Wolf Rebellion.  These political malcontents range from civilly disobedient left-wing activists to heavily armed right-wing militiamen.  These disparate groups rally under the banner of the Wolf's Head, and are opposed to the constant warfare and oppression under the rule of the StarShip Civilizations.  Wherever there is a government presence, these guys are starting riots and strikes, organizing terrorist attacks, raiding supplies, destroying infrastructure, and being extremely inconsiderate in general.  If there are any Wolfen Rebels on the battlefield, they'll do everything they can to disrupt your military activities.

Normal Creatures
In addition to native minifig populations, many planets are also swarming with dangerous wildlife.  Stats and point costs differ depending on how dangerous the animal is.  Remember that a peaceful deep-sea black octopus from Risley IX looks just like a vicious Brain-Sucking Land Blob from Antares III, so feel free to make up new stats and animal abilities for all your creatures at any time.  Animals that Civilians ride around on should be treated as One-Piece Vehicles.
 
 

Mercenaries

One example of an objective might be to take and hold a position, such as a fortification or base.  If, on the Mercenaries' sixth turn, they are pinned down by enemy fire and haven't even reached the target position, they have not made Reasonable Progress and will Ditch.  If, on their sixth turn, they have eliminated or taken control of most of the defenses at the target position, then they have made Reasonable Progress and will stick around to mop up the remaining defenders and set up a defense perimeter of their own.  If, on their sixth turn, they are engaged in battle for control of the position, and it's unclear who has the upper hand, it's harder to say whether or not they have made Reasonable Progress.  Their decision to Ditch may be affected by how many casualties they have taken, their chances for eventual success in their current objective, and how well their allied SpaceTroopers have supported them.  Sometimes they are looking for any excuse to Ditch their current commander because of his reputation for treating his Mercenaries badly, and sometimes they have a tendency to be lenient towards the enemy commander because he has treated them well in the past.  Hopefully, a strong case can be made one way or the other; often, it can't.  When it's hard to decide whether you've made Reasonable Progress or not, roll 1d6.  A roll of 6 means the Mercenaries decide that they have made Reasonable Progress and stick around to complete their objective.  A roll of 1 means they Ditch.  Any other roll means they keep fighting, and try to decide again next turn.

Even if they have made Reasonable Progress and stuck around for twenty turns or so, they may still decide to Ditch if the tide of battle has turned seriously against them.  If their forces are getting ground into hamburger, their allies have abandoned them, and it's obvious there's no way they're going to hold their position, they're going to start looking for avenues of retreat.

A Mercenary group that Ditches does not necessarily abondon their objective or their allies, they just make keeping themselves alive their new priority.  This may mean they try to retreat from the battlefield, or they may try to take up a defensible position and try to hold out until one side or the other wins.  They may move to take cover in their allies' base (if the allies still trust them after they Ditch), or their TacOps Commander may try to negotiate a truce with the enemy forces.  As a Civilization commander, you might want to arrange things so that their best chance for survival when they Ditch is to stick with your team and finish taking their objective, but Mercenaries who are manhandled in this manner are likely to get ticked off and will try to stab you in the back as soon as it is practical, and Mercenary groups hold grudges for a long, long time.
 
The most significant group of Mercenaries in the galaxy are the descendants of a lost division of Kraan BlitzTroopers, who dress in black and white uniforms with big neon-green B's emblazoned on their chests.  Lately, however, their preeminence among the Mercenary groups has been challenged by the thrill-seeking X Brigade, who dress in mostly-black uniforms with a red X emblazoned on their chest and back.
 
 

Pirates

The equipment of SpacePirates is temperamental to say the least. PirateArmor is different for each Pirate, and the armor that saves a Matey from an Impact Rifle one moment, may fail utterly when hit by a simple fist. PirateArmor is unpredictable, but can actually provide more protection than SpaceArmor, in rare cases.  Some Pirates go to battle in only a tank-top!
 
Close Combat is the Pirates' specialty.  It seems as if SpacePirates were born for fighting at close quarters, and countless bar brawls and pit-fights serve only to hone the skills of the strong, and weed out the weak members of a pirate band.  All Pirates get a +2 Close Combat bonus, even if they have no arms, legs, or heads.

SpacePirates are just as temperamental as their equipment.  Every turn, there is a chance that the Pirate Fleet will Mutiny against their Cap'ns.  At the beginning of every movement turn, the Pirate player must roll 1d6.  If he rolls a 1, then the fleet revolts against their Cap'n.  Whether or not a crew decides to Mutiny has nothing to do with whether they are winning or losing, whether their Cap'ns are heroes or cowards, or whether they are in good moods or bad.  The Cap'ns and their FirstMates must then try to regain control of their fleets by making heroic speeches and striking heroic poses.  All Cap'ns and FirstMates add their Skill Rolls together.  If the number rolled is greater than the number of mutineers, they successfully rally their troops and the turn can proceed as normal.
 
If the rolls fails, then the opposing player takes control of all Mateys and vehicles and tries to kill the Cap'ns.  The Cap'ns and FirstMates may make one Control Roll for every movement phase that they remain alive. If all the Capn's are killed, the SpacePirates withdraw from the battle, to party down and elect a new Cap'n.
 
SpacePirates (or just "Pirates") have a number of restrictions on the types of vehicles in their Fleet.  Pirates cannot have ANY land vehicles; all of their vehicles must be Flyers.  This is because Pirates do not take well to the land and except for Mateys who take to the ground as foot-soldiers, Pirates rarely set foot on earth.  Those who spend their lives planetside are known as LandLubbers and are distrusted by SpacePirates.

Pirate Flyers are highly customized and can use Mk1 - Mk5 weapons, unlike normal Flyers which can only use Mk1 - Mk3 weapons.  The limit of 4 weapons per Flyer, however, must be obeyed by SpacePirates.  SpacePirates can also use Boats as huge antigravity ships, at Boats' standard costs and statistics.  There are rumors of enormous Pirate SpaceGalleons roaming the galaxy loaded with SpaceBooty.
 
Each type of SpacePirate roughly corresponds to a certain type of SpaceMan.  A Cap'n has all the abilities of a SpaceChampion (including three Stupendous Feats per turn), a FirstMate is roughly equivalent to a SpaceHero (with one Stupendous Feat per turn), a Matey functions as a SpaceMan or SpaceDriver, a Doc works the same as a Medik (rolling at 1d6 rather than 1d10), a MateDroid works like a Synthetik, and Parrots and Monkeys work like SpaceScouts.  (It is unknown how the Parrots and Monkeys relay their targeting information back to the Pirate fleet, since they don't carry CBs, but that doesn't seem to bother any of the Pirates.  Monkeys can move vertically just as fast as horizontally, and Parrots can fly over any obstacles.  Monkeys can carry a weapon in each of their four hands, so watch out for them!)

A Cap'n is represented on the battlefield by the pirate captain minifig, of course.  FirstMates look like Mateys except they get epaulets and a tricorne hat, and generally look handsomer.  Mateys just look like whatever they feel like looking like.  Docs look like Mateys except they wear only red and white clothes.  Docs do not need Medikal equipment, since their standard Medikal procedure is to walk over to fallen Pirates and kick them to see if they wake up.  The parts of Parrots and Monkeys are played by parrots and monkeys.  PirateDroids are represented by Synthetix whose brains have been replaced with Monkey brains.
 
 

Humanoids

Most Alien People are similar to Normal People, except for one or two slight statistical and behavioral differences.  Most of them cost 3 points.  Examples include:

• The Coneheads, who have normal heads with yellow cone-pieces on top. Their Skill is 1d6+1, and they tend to flagrant yuppieism.
• The Blockheads, whose heads are the 1x2 Brik with a hole in the side. Their AV is 5 and they are fanatically bureaucratic.
• The Enormous-Head No-Limb People, who are about the height of normal minifigs but about 4x4 in width.  They move at 3" and have an AV of 1d6 + 5.  They behave like duplicitous children.
• The Large Stumpies, who evolved from the Enormous-Head No-Limb People, but their heads are not quite so enormous and they have limbs.  They are taller than normal minifigs, and have an AV of 1d6 + 2 and a Skill of 1d6.
• The Porous Giants, who are very tall and skinny, and whose limbs are perforated with many 1-dot holes.  They are technical geniuses and run around at 8" per turn.
• The Genetically Defective People, who are the minifigs that occasionally end up in your PBB collection when your well-meaning but uninformed aunt buys you PBBs from one of the less worthy companies.  They have -1 to all stats, and act like absolute dunces.  They only cost 1 point, and all normal minifigs are disgusted by them.

Awful Green Things From Outer Space