Mass Workshop

Who needs computer games when you can use little plastic people?

A tabletop minitures game of warfare set in the Mass Effect universe between the races of the Citadel, Terminus systems and the Reapers. The scale of battles is skirmish-scale; smaller than Warhammer 40k, but larger than Necromunda.

Space Combat is handled in the forthcoming Battlefleet: Citadel

Races and Armies

Alliance

Middle-of-the road army, no particular specialists. Can deploy Makos. Standard, generic units; not specialised, but have a fast and tough transport in the Mako.

Spectres

Your Spectre agent costs a shitload of points and is decked out with special abilities. Then you get to buy units from all Citadel-aligned factions for the rest of your points. To be covered at a later stage in the process SO STOP ARGUING OVER SHEPARD FOR NOW.

Geth

Gain more orders and actions when there are more units on the table. Many infiltration options (cloaking, deep strike). Mix of weak, tech-vulnerable soldiers and some powerful walkers with heavy-weapons. Like Quarians; have no biotics.

Mercenary armies

Tend to use cheap cannon-fodder units like vorcha or mechs to provide cover for their expensive leader units. If the top leader (The Warlord) falls, the army has to save or break; the next highest ranked commander unit is the new 'Warlord'

Quarian Navy

Emphasis on small commando units and tech support from Machinists. Best hackers of all factions. Quarians come with cheap Tech upgrades at the cost of not having Biotics and being generally expensive and a glass cannon army. Insane dakka output but low toughness. Use of Anti-Biotic Drones. Tech debuffs; anti-biotic field drones are a great idea. Use of tech drones to harass enemy while a few heavy-weapons commandos and snipers pick off the weakest. Maybe have a special 'Uncertain Gravity' rule; Growing up on board the flotilla most Quarians have developed an inate mastery of uncertain gravity, weightlessness, sudden shifts and the vagaries of constant spaceflight. As a result many biotic powers relying on these sudden changes to startle and disorientate their foe fight Quarians suprisingly tough. Many powers are less effective as a result. Quarians then may ignore X and X biotic powers.

Krogan

Force on their own, or can be used as mercenaries in many armies. Berzerk when they've taken a certain amount of damage or if they get close to an enemy unit. Vat-grown Krogan can not be given advanced orders. Use Clone-Krogan, Vorcha and Varren as screening units while the Pure Krogan and the Battlemasters move forward. Krogan Charge is a damaging move+Close-combat attack. Battlemasters need to be one of the most powerful units in the game; tough and able to perform a combined Biotic and Krogan Charge.

Asari

Most units are biotics. Many Vanguards. Adepts use biotic control powers while Biotic Vanguard Squads move through cover until they can charge into close combat. Matriarchs are enormously expensive Adepts, providing leadership and tactical bonuses.

Salarian STG

All units are techs. Snipers, saboteurs and infiltrators preferred. Faster and stealthier than Quarians. No Salarian biotics?

Turians

Disciplined army with classic rank structure. Turians don't use a lot of biotics or tech but volus have biotics and hackers. Turian units slightly more specialised and inflexible than humans. Sometimes use Volus exo-suits as heavily-armoured and be-weaponed Mech walker units.

Annoyed Curiosity: Why won't you die?

Elcor

Slow support units with heavy weapons mounted on top. The 'slow and shooty' army.

The Hanar & Drell

Most of the army would consist of Drell with Hanar clerics encouraging the fight from the back. Drell are fast and fragile close-combat, stealth and sniping specialists, but weak when exposed. If the rumors of Blasto are true, the hanar themselves can be armed. Some Hanar tentacle suits exist; gigantic octopus-like metallic walker units.

Rachni

Similar to Tyranids; some key 'synapse' controlling units and larger swarms of weaker drones.

Collectors

Squads of warriors with a reccuring Hero unit; Harbringer. The first DIRECT CONTROL takes place at will, while any further ones make the unit unusable for the rest of that turn, allowing the enemy to shoot at it for a whole turn before you can use him.

Alliances

Alliances battles allow several army lists to be used to make up one force. The main alliances are Citadel races, Terminus Pirates & Reaper Worshippers

Citadel Races

• Human
• Asari
  
• Turian
  
• Salarian
  
• Quarians
  
• Elcor
  
• Hanar & Drell
  
• Volus
  

Terminus Pirates

• Mercenaries (most Salarian, Human, Asari and Turian units)
  
• Batarians
  
• Krogan
  

Reaper Worshippers

• Geth
  
• Rachni
  
• Collectors
  
• Special unit; Husks
  

Rules

Basics

Ideas for actual Gameplay so far: We will use 40k as a starting point.

Stats are

WS BS S T W I A LD SH SV B

SH is shields. Allow you to disregard one hit per stat. Instant Death weapons ignore shields. (Potential for recharge only in cover???)

SV is as 40k. (But modified by weapon strength like WHFB???)

B are barriers. Act as an additional saving roll. Not every unit has them. Equivilent to invunnerable save. Maybe a little less powerful.

Close combat is every model within six inches uses WS rather than BS. (Models can disengage freely???) Shotguns are CC weapons.

Army Structure

Powers are taken as upgrades to squads rather than be a unit type in themselves.

Force Organisation

• Leaders
  
• Troops
  
• Special
  
• Heavy
  
• Heroes
  

Movement

Infantry: the default. Nothíng special, moves 6" / turn
Aerial: moves 12" / turn, ignores terrain
Vehicle: moves 12" / turn, or 6" and ignores difficult terrain

Unit types

Organic: takes more/less damage from certain powers
Mechanical: takes more/less damage from certain powers

Power types

Tech: can take tech powers
Biotic: can take biotic powers
Martial: Covers powers such as Krogan charges or Varren pounces.

Building a Squad

All units start with basic armor and pistol skill learned. Each model has 5 or something upgrade slots to fill.

Soldier upgrades:

Armor: Any Weapon type: Any except Heavy Weapons Ammo type: Any (note that "any" still means that you need to buy each individual option separately. So if you want the unit to use shotguns and assault rifles you need to buy them both).

Engineer upgrades:

Armor: Basic only Weapons: SMG's or Shotguns (one model cannot take both) Abilities: AI hacking (Quarian engineers get AI hacking for free), First Aid, Overload, Cryo Freeze, Incinerate, Sabotage

Adept upgrades:

Armor: Basic only Weapons: Pistols or heavy pistols Abilities: Throw, Warp (Asari biotics get Warp for free), Shockwave, Singularity, Pull, Reave, Barrier (Can only be used on self), Stasis.

Infiltrator upgrades:

Armor: Basic, Tactical Weapons: Pistols, SMG's, Sniper Rifles Abilities: Disruptor Ammo, Cryo Ammo, Incinerate, Tactical Cloak, Sabotage

Sentinel upgrades:

Armor: Basic only Weapons: Pistols only Abilities: Throw, Lift, Barrier, Warp, Overload, Sabotage, Cryo Blast, Tech Armor

Vanguard upgrades: Armor: Basic, Tactical Weapons: Pistol, SMG or Shotgun Abilities: Barrier, Throw, Lift, Warp, Charge (Krogan Vanguard get Charge for free), Pull, Shockwave, Incendiary Ammo, Cryo Ammo

Biotic Powers

Some ideas for implementing Biotic Powers:

Push/Pull - move enemy, enemy takes slight damage on open ground, high damage if model passes through or touches scenery on the way. Physical (push/pull) damage only affects unshielded enemies.

Singularity - lay down a small circular template anywhere in LoS within 12". All units in that area are affected. template lasts 1 round if not reinforced. Template can be reinforced by same or another character, and expands out to a larger template; can be reinforced up to 3 times. Unless reinforced, the template goes down a size at the end of your next go until it disappears.

Warp - 1d3 health damage/1d6 Armour damage/ removes biotic barriers/Two simultaneous warps on an individual enemy will remove it's shields. As in the rest of the game, order of priority is Barrier/Shields/Armour/Health.

OR

Warp - Rapidly shifting mass effect fields shred the target, the unfortunate victims torn, twisted and broken by the unpredictable fields. The enemy unit within 12" takes d6 str 5 hits. Armour saves and shields are allowed as usual. (Vanguard and Adepts only)

Throw - Shockwaves of biotic energy hurl targets within 24" to the ground, slamming them into walls, rocks and off ledges. The enemy unit must pass a toughness test or take d3 wounds. Armour saves are not allowed. (Sentinels and Adepts only)

Stasis - Mass effect fields pin the enemy to the ground with powerful biotic fields. Enemy must pass a -2 leadership test or be pinned next turn. (Sentinels and Adepts only)

Vortex - a powerful biotic field erupts into existence within an enemy squad dragging people of their feet or high in the air. The enemy unit must pass a leadership test or they may not fire next turn. In addition they automatically suffer d6 st 3 hits. (Vanguard and Adepts only)

Barriers - Powerful biotic barriers protect the squad from all sorts of harm. the unit gains a 5+ barrier save next turn.

Biotic powers will need to be synthesised into a cohesive form and balanced appropriately.