Help! I'm an Exosuit Addict

[Goldwyrm]

As a sequel to my "Help! I'm a Marauder Addict" topic..

I did inventory of the Exosuits I already owned and recently acquired. I've got 21 Grizzly Suits and 8 Cougars. Only one is painted and half are not assembled yet. I'm pretty sure I know how I want to organize them (see below) but I'm turning to all of you to give me suggestions on how you would load out the weapons per squad and platoon. Feel free to suggest training upgrades as well. At least a third of my Grizzly Exosuits will be given magnetized weapons, like BuShips from the forum has already done. I thought it was a great idea.

Here is my Exosuit Company. Assume all would be deployed by drop capsule.

Hick's Helljumpers
Alpha Company, 8th "Infinity" Battalion

[Cougar] Captain Lowrie M. Hicks

1st Platoon- "The Crushing Crew"

[Cougar] Lieutenant Marullo

1st Squad- 3 Grizzly Suits

2nd Squad- 3 Grizzly Suits

[Cougar] NCO Weslowski

3rd Squad- 3 Grizzly Suits

4th Squad- 3 Grizzly Suits

2nd Platoon- "The Jawbreakers"

[Cougar] Lieutenant Spindle

1st Squad- 3 Grizzly Suits

2nd Squad- 3 Grizzly Suits

[Cougar] NCO Ryan

3rd Squad- 3 Grizzly Suits

4th Recon Squad- 3 Cougar Suits

The entire company will be making its first drop in the new year. I'll post pictures of course when that happens. In addition to working on my Marauders and Exosuits, I'm also going to have to get more Warrior Bugs painted, a lot more..

 

[Lieutenant Rasczak]

And whats wrong with that then . . . . . .

 

[Goldwyrm]

And whats wrong with that then . . . . . .

Assuming you mean the part about having to put together more Warriors- I've got 73 right now done- 10 Tigers, 30 in a black pattern, 30 in tan pattern, and 3 for Ambushing. That's only around 1200pts. I think I've got another 5 box sets worth of Warriors, so another 100, still bringing me just shy of 3000 points total. That's not alot.

I'm hoping to run a game with a company of Marauders and a company of Exosuits w/Nukes against all Warrior Bugs. I could do Endless Tide, but I'm probably still a few hundred Bugs short of where I'd like to be. I was hoping to do something very simple on a large scale*, but I may have to add in a few of those extra Tanker kits I've been hording or some of the other Arachnid unit types.

*The goal being a convention game where players aren't burdened by too many options. Run 3-4 Marauders, Run 7 Exosuits, or Run equivalent of Warriors. Lots of tunnel assets in play. MI players drop in on the table. Dead players resurrect as new Warrior Bug players. MI players mission is to find and destroy the Brain Bug which will be one of the tunnel markers.

 

[Makoto]

Efficiency-wise it's best to put officers into grizzlies w/twin firestorms (maximises heavy firepower flexibility) and to remember to keep one 3-strong grizzly squad w/twin sixguns for AA defence.

 

[Lieutenant Rasczak]

Nothing wrong with being keen, I have EVERY SST release Mongoose has done except the Landing Crew and Brutes (and thats only because I'm working up an order to go with them).

Long Live SST I say

 

[Goldwyrm]

Efficiency-wise it's best to put officers into grizzlies w/twin firestorms (maximises heavy firepower flexibility) and to remember to keep one 3-strong grizzly squad w/twin sixguns for AA defence.

Good ideas.

I like the officers in Cougars because they give the impression of faster more maneuverable command suits, even if they do jump the same as Grizzlies. I wrote up the squads as minimum size so that the whole force could cover more area on the table in a Heinlein like way. So that might make up on the Officers being Cougars. Any Firestorm Grizzly troopers will be in a minimum size unit so it's a compromise on firepower and flexibility.

I think I'll make the 4th squad in the first platoon my AA squad per your suggestion. It will balance out for the recon squad in the 2nd platoon.

Thanks!!

Anyone got ideas on training upgrades they like to give their exosuits? I'm not looking to apply an upgrade to an entire squad, just a handful of individuals across the company for flavor.

Nothing wrong with being keen

Thank you. My local gaming buddies just say I'm insane :lol:

 

[Lieutenant Rasczak]

Thank you. My local gaming buddies just say I'm insane :lol:

People who lack vision, passion, and/or enthusiasm often try and belittle others . . . .

 

[Goldwyrm]

Thank you. My local gaming buddies just say I'm insane :lol:

People who lack vision, passion, and/or enthusiasm often try and belittle others . . . .

No, It's not quite like that. It's friendly joking about my compulsiveness with SST. They all have their own visionary and passionate pet projects. They just like to comment since I've been consistently buying SST stuff since the summer of last year and almost every time they see me I've got a new acquisition I'm eager to tell them about.

 

[Lieutenant Rasczak]

They all have their own visionary and passionate pet projects.

THATS EVEN WORSE LMAO!!!!

They should understand better!

 

[Gauntlet-]

You ALMOST stole my platoon name... but of course mine are

Heinlien's Helljumpers

 

[ScipioAmericanus]

Interesting.

I would consider revising your TO&E to 3 squads per platoon. Hint.

Regards.

 

[Goldwyrm]

Interesting.

I would consider revising your TO&E to 3 squads per platoon. Hint.

Regards.

Doh! Ok.. thanks. Hope my NCO's aren't out of work too.

I suppose a 3rd platoon in the company is a possibility. My intended Mobile Infantry Battalion will be a company of Marauders (3 platoons), a company of Exosuits (3 platoons now) , a regular company of PAMI (3 platoons), and a "Special Missions" company of PAMI (Roughnecks platoon w/ CHAS unit(s), a WASP platoon, plus PAMI on Quad ATVs). Attached to the battalion is an understrength LAMI company and a soon to be platoon of Pathfinders. Also fleet assets as required.

And apologies to Gauntlet for almost stealing his unit name.

 

[ScipioAmericanus]

Interesting.

I would consider revising your TO&E to 3 squads per platoon. Hint.

Regards.

Doh! Ok.. thanks. Hope my NCO's aren't out of work too.

I suppose a 3rd platoon in the company is a possibility. My intended Mobile Infantry Battalion will be a company of Marauders (3 platoons), a company of Exosuits (3 platoons now) , a regular company of PAMI (3 platoons), and a "Special Missions" company of PAMI (Roughnecks platoon w/ CHAS unit(s), a WASP platoon, plus PAMI on Quad ATVs). Attached to the battalion is an understrength LAMI company and a soon to be platoon of Pathfinders. Also fleet assets as required.

And apologies to Gauntlet for almost stealing his unit name.

Your NCO's job's are safe. In fact, they just might be getting more work heaped on them. :?:

After all, everybody knows that NCO's really run things...officers exist purely to take the credit for the work that the NCO's and soldiers do. :lol:

And I'm an officer, so I can say that! :lol:

Regards.

 

[BuShips]

Goldwyrm, you make perfect sense for using the Cougar model for both the Command suit as well as for the Scout suit. From reading the book, it's easy to justify that the Command suit is basically a modified Scout variant. The difference iirc was stated that the Command suit had more "jump juice" and com circuits, but was as fast as a Scout suit. The Grizzly is the no-brain-er model for the Marauder suit.

It has been mentioned in the past that there should have been a third suit model, but with a few added whip antennas (lol), you'd have an easy Command variant model.

 

[Goldwyrm]

Thanks BuShips. I was drawing from the book and probably from something you may have said about officers and scouts when detailing your own force a few months ago. What I may do for the officers is make some kind of communication module with antennae and a small dish to go on their back.

I still have quite a bit of work to do on this force.

 

[Mage]

In the novel didnt they have some sort of command unit or scanners or some comms units near where the military intelligence guy showed up, toward the end?

 

[BuShips]

Thanks BuShips. I was drawing from the book and probably from something you may have said about officers and scouts when detailing your own force a few months ago. What I may do for the officers is make some kind of communication module with antennae and a small dish to go on their back.

I still have quite a bit of work to do on this force.

I'll bet the dish is for XM and Sirius. Those officers get all the good stuff, you know? :lol:

Until hearing what you have been putting together, I thought that I had a nice pile of exosuits. :roll:

A word of caution, though. With the rule changes in awhile, I'm glad that I made mine up with detachable weapons. You might give that some thought, unless you are going to stay with v1 of the game. :idea:

 

[BuShips]

In the novel didnt they have some sort of command unit or scanners or some comms units near where the military intelligence guy showed up, toward the end?

They were anchor beacons, placed to locate the perimeters of the patrol areas the M.I. were assigned to guard. As I remember, that is about all they did. They could be accessed by any trooper, so they were not part of any command or other communication duty iirc.

 

[Mage]

Hm. Thought I was on to something there.

 

[Goldwyrm]

I'll bet the dish is for XM and Sirius. Those officers get all the good stuff, you know? :lol:

That's funny.

Until hearing what you have been putting together, I thought that I had a nice pile of exosuits. :roll:

But yours are put together and painted. :wink: I can field one painted Grizzly right now..

A word of caution, though. With the rule changes in awhile, I'm glad that I made mine up with detachable weapons. You might give that some thought, unless you are going to stay with v1 of the game. :idea:

I took note of your suggestion back when I only had 10 Exosuits sitting in boxes. I ordered 100 of the those magnets. With the added reinforcements, I'll probably set up the heaviest Grizzly Exosuits with magnets and the ones with a lighter weapon payload will be assembled normally. If v2 is v1 upgraded I'll most likely pick up the rules and play it.