[Tim Kauffman]

Ogre Ninja – Draft of 10-9-2016

Points: 150+

Of the many experimental cybertanks designed by the empires of the 21st century, certainly the best known was the Combine's Ninja. It was by far the most successful attempt at a "stealth" cybertank. How do you hide something the size of a small building? With lots of electronics. The Ninja traded offensive armament for speed, intelligence (almost all were self-aware), and defensive electronics and weaponry. Probably fewer than a hundred were built; they were expensive, and not cost-effective in a stand-up combat role. But as sneaky raiders or tactical recon units, they were unmatched. Legends built up around the Ninja.

The Ninja carried a main battery and 2 secondary batteries. It had a single missile rack and 4 internal missiles; 2 more missiles were mounted externally. It had 8 AP batteries. A Ninja starts with a move of 4 and 40 tread units.

A Ninja has state-of-the-art detection equipment, giving it advanced awareness of mines and other hidden units. Whenever a Ninja is about to enter a hex with a mine, or a hidden unit, the opposing player needs to acknowledge the presence of a mine (or hidden unit) within the hex. The Ninja may then choose to either not enter the hex and move elsewhere, or continue on into the hex. Additionally, if a Ninja voluntarily enters a mined hex, the mine goes off only on a roll of a 6, instead of the usual 5 or 6.

This is a situational rule, but it's a simple and really good one that compliments the NINJA.
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Through the use of the Ninja's drones and EW suite, it may create two ghosts of itself. A ghost is indistinguishable from the real thing outside of direct inspection. When the Ninja enters the map, it may split into three separate units, one being the actual Ninja and the other two being ghosts. Each unit may move independently, and if attacked at range, may appear to suffer damage. The owner of the Ninja should keep a record of "damage" to the ghosts as well as the real Ninja, until such a time as the ghost(s) is/are dispelled.

The primary method by which the opposition can determine whether any particular Ninja is real or not is by overrunning (or being overrun by) the Ninja. Under this circumstance a false Ninja disappears whereas an overrun attack proceeds if it is the real Ninja. Additionally, the real Ninja declares itself upon firing on a target. One exception to it revealing itself with firing is if all of the ghosts are within range of the target with the same weapon system. In that case, all of the Ninjas may appear to be firing on the target, and the real Ninja is not revealed.

If the Ninja has fewer than two ghosts created, it may create one or two as needed to bring it back up to two total ghosts if desired, provided that there are no enemy units within two hexes of the spawning Ninja at the start of its turn. Both/all of the Ninjas move out from the origin hex during the movement phase. Note one Ninja need not move at all (either a ghost or the real thing) as long as by the end of the turn, each Ninja occupies its own individual hex. At no time may the Ninja have more than two ghosts active. If one ghost is dissipated, the Ninja may create a new second ghost from either the true Ninja or the surviving ghost, subject to the two-hex rule as above for the spawning Ninja. A Ninja may spawn a total of six ghosts before needing to restock their drones.

As the ghost is in part comprised of a series of small drones, it does have the same detection capabilities of the real Ninja. This means the ghost may dispel an enemy ghost (note: two ghosts would dispel each other, in this circumstance!), suppress the spawning of a new ghost if within two hexes, detect mines or hidden units, dispel dummy counters, etc. Note: a ghost entering a hex with a mine or hidden unit is dispelled the same as the overrun detection described above.

I like the concept, but this seems too much to deal with in the game, especially the record keeping of the damage and dummy tokens. This is making the NINJA a more difficult target, but there are too many moving parts Imho.
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The Ninja has a single drone channel in the manner of a Vulcan. This drone-control channel could be used to communicate with the onboard computer systems of a regular armor unit. Those systems, unaided, will allow an armor unit to move intelligently over short distances, and to attack at half strength; that's why disabled units defend normally and attack at half strength while the crew recovers. With a Ninja in the loop, the combat unit may be controlled and function normally in the absence of a human crew.

If the Ninja is not trying to do any more with a controlled unit than keep it nearby and drive it along, it may have up to four units of any type in the drone control "channel." So a Ninja might be followed by up to 4 "ducklings," all within one hex of the Ninja. These ducklings may be any combination of armor units or vehicles.

In a combat situation, the "ducklings" fight at half strength. They must either stay within a hex of the Ninja or stop moving completely, in which case they are considered disabled. (Of course, if there is a live crew aboard, it can take over.)

In most surprise combat situations, a Ninja with ducklings would simply take full control of the most useful one and drop the others to fend for themselves as disabled units. The Ninja determines which duckling is under active control at the beginning of each turn. It can switch which one it controls each turn. If a group of ducklings is overrun, the Ninja can take active control of one of the units for the duration of the overrun; the remainder of the units should be treated as disabled.

FanMade idea ALRT: How about something simpler and more easily managed like you pay for how many friendly units you can remote control once they become Disabled by an attack and they then are considered normal units not suffering a Disable effect as long as they are within a certain range of the NINJA.
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The Ninja can self-destruct. Treat this as a cruise missile detonation. Note that the Ninja is intelligent and probably does not want to die.

:)
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The Ninja Bag of Tricks

As Ninjas were used for specific missions, they inherently have a large degree of customization. These specialized attributes are collectively known as a 'bag of tricks', each having their own VP value and spatial requirements. Every Ninja is capable of carrying two tricks without alteration to their weapons package. However, a Ninja may carry up to five total tricks by subtracting internal missiles. A Ninja may substitute two internal missiles for a third trick or replace the entire missile rack and internal missile load for three additional tricks (thereby totaling five). Some tricks are capable of being destroyed by external attacks or expended through use, whereas others are inherent abilities unique to that specific Ninja (see description).

Excellent using the load space this way. :)

Stealth LGEV. 2 tricks, 10 VP. The Ninja may carry a payload of a single specially "palletized", unmanned LGEV and launch it while the Ninja continues normal movement, if it's on the road or clear terrain. The LGEV moves one hex from the drop point on the turn it is dropped and has normal movement thereafter, being controlled by the Ninja. This unit doubles its attack strength in an overrun just like any other Ogre weapon system. The Stealth LGEV has its own EW suite, which provides it with some degree of protection from enemy units. Subtract 1 from the die roll of any attack made against this LGEV except by infantry in overruns. Additionally, units cannot combine fire against the Stealth LGEV unless they are attacking from an adjacent hex. Units farther away must take their shots individually.

So THIS is what happened to the original NINJA Rule...lol, with making it a separate auxiliary unit. This is really cool.