Tech Level Asymmetric Warfare

[SJE]

What options are available in the rules for waging successful warfare against a much higher tech level? (aka the Ewoks vs Stormtroopers problem)

I'm writing a scenario in which a bunch of numerically superior monks (40) without weapons may need to overcome an occupying force of 8 pirate vargr with at least TL 7 armour and weaponry (I went with cloth armour and Snub pistols/Shotguns since I reasoned they would be star-ship safe and combat armour and TL12 weaponry would make them effectively invincible)

Do the rules support the following?

Targeting unarmoured body parts- e.g. aiming blows at the throat or eyes since even Protection 5 is going to make most unarmed assaults useless?

Grappling or holding down an enemy through weight of numbers (a chained Strength task?)

I appreciate there are other ways to wage this war- waiting for the vargr to remove armour, poisoning food (though tricky with their sense of smell), pushing them from high places but I wanted to figure out what the minimal preparation options are.

Thx.

SJE

 

[Condottiere]

Massive sensor jamming, and forcing the fight into close quarters.

Krak grenades to deal with battle dress and combat armour.

 

[baithammer]

Direct confrontation would be a disaster, insurgencies will use methods to avoid doing so unless they can find a source of weapons that are effective against the opposing forces. ( IE, bombs, traps and sabotage.)

 

[NOLATrav]

Regarding targeted attacks, you could increase the difficulty level. For example DM-2 for a throat attack, DM-4 for attacking eyes. I would be inclined to apply a +DM to damage equal to the penalty (so for example, damage DM+2 for a throat hit). Or that particular Vargr suffers -DMs on all tasks for the remainder of combat. Say your Monk hits a Vargr in the eyes with Effect +1; DM-1 to that Vargr for the remainder of combat (blood in the eyes, blurry vision, one eye smashed, etc).

Regarding multiple grappling, the task chain rules seem underpowered here; you can make a roll with decent Effect but it usually reduces to a mere +1 on the next task. I would think an additional motivated Monk would be worth more than a DM+1, especially if the first Monk gets the Vargr's full attention. In this case I'd allow the Effect as rolled for each Monk to be applied as a -DM to anything that Vargr attempts this round. So 3 Monks attack with Effect +1+2+0 = DM-3 for that Vargr for any task, in addition to any damage suffered. Initiative order would apply but you get the drift.

The above is very fiddly and labor-intensive for the Ref IMO. You might be better off with blanket DMs, i.e., TL3 Monks vs TL7 Vargr have DM-4 to hit, Vargr have DM+4 to hit (using the difference in TL). But each additional Monk reduces their penalty and also reduces the Vargr bonus. So 5 Monks vs 1 Vargr is a fair (DM+0) fight, assuming my TL suppositions are correct. Regardless, you could now have a small handful of hopefully manageable mini-combats as opposed to dealing with 48 individual combatants. Plus your PCs?....