More Fun With Prador!

Here’s some more from Andy Bryenton:

Key to the tactical difference between the Prador and other more conventional factions in 40k is the concept of chemical, pheromonal control and command. The most utterly alien aspect of the Kingdom, to me, is not the lack of compassion (we can see enough of that on the 6 o clock news among our own species, unfortunately), but the lack of free will.

To that end my ally in this project, Kurt, has helped by developing some tactical commands issued via pheromonal means, and a range of random consequences should any ‘junior’ Prador stray out of their elders’ influence. Obviously in terms of canon, it’s obvious that cunning individuals like Vrell can think for themselves, and know how to carry out a mission light-years from their old dad. But on the tabletop it adds a bit of narrative flavor if the scuttling hordes need to stay in some kind of cohesion, or else decide it’s a good time to knock off some sibling competition!

Also included is the draft of the cover – my apologies for my awful artistic skill, but hopefully that’s a menacing looking Second Child with some heavy weapons and a few cybernetic bits welded on…

For your perusal, then…

Pheromonal Commands and Chemical Imperatives

Prador orders do not take the form of spoken language, like the commands barked out by human drill sergeants or flickers of code as between engines of war. Prador utilize a language of chemicals and pheromones to control their lessers, commanding them against their will at a moment’s notice. Indeed, free will is an unknown concept in Prador society, where the might of the elder generations is made manifest through their undeniable orders.

Chemical Imperatives may be used at any time by Prador equipped with them – even during the opposing player’s turn.

When issuing a Chemical Imperative, roll a d6 for each Prador unit within 12”. On a 3+ they obey the chemical order given without question. On a 1 or 2, the shifting winds of the battlefield dilute the pheromones with the scent of blood and high explosives, causing confusion and panic. Squads who fail this roll are subject to Disobedience next turn.

Suppressing Fire! – any Prador of a lower Generation within 12” immediately fire their Railguns (not special weapon variations) at the nearest enemy unit. May not be used when locked in combat (8pt)

March or Die! – any Prador of a lower generation within 12” immediately make an additional run move on 2d6, taking all appropriate terrain tests. This move may not be used to assault enemies or exit combat. (3pt)

Shells Down! – all Prador of a lower generation within 12”dig into the dirt, effectively becoming living fortifications. Prador who are Shells Down benefit from a 2+ armor save, but cannot move during the movement phase after they re-emerge. (8pt)

Feed Me! – the nearest Prador of a lower generation is immediately sacrificed to regenerate a single wound on the issuer of this imperative. The Prador thus sacrificed must be of the right size – i.e. a Third Child must be sacrificed to regenerate a Second Child, a Second-Child for a First Child, and a Second Child or a First-Child for an Adult. Gulp! This imperative may not be played AFTER a Prador has lost its final wound to prevent its removal from the game. (10pt)

Feel the Hate! – all Prador of a lower generation within 12” gain the Preferred Enemy rule this turn against a single nominated race (usually the one they’re currently fighting, if the Prador high command have gotten their chemicals right!) (5pt)

Disengage! – any Prador of a lower generation within 12” who are locked in combat immediately break free and move 3d6, away from the combat. The enemy may not pursue or consolidate, as if the Prador unit had just Hit and Run. (8pt)

Destroy Them! – all Prador of a lower generation within 12” gain the Furious Charge special rule for this turn (5pt)

Scuttle! – any Prador unit of a lower generation within 12” completely ignores terrain during its next movement phase, except impassable terrain. (5pt)

No Mercy! No Quarter! – any Prador within 12”gain the ability to fire into a combat which includes models on their own side, so long as those models represent Prador children of a lesser generation or human thralls. Failed ‘to hit’ rolls are counted as striking Prador models! (10pt)

And this….

Prador General Special Rules

Perhaps no other race encountered by man is quite so alien as the Prador – except the Tyranid hive mind, which may or may not be cosidered a ‘race’ at all. By turns inscrutable, violent and downright stereotypical (in that they really do eat people!), these xenos have a society as complex as that of Man, with technology easily equal to our own. That being said, the alien predispositions of the Prador are never more apparent than on the field of battle.

Eaters of the Dead – Prador may never consolidate or make sweeping advances – instead, they devour the bodies of the dead, crunching bone and armor with their grisly mandibles.

Merciless – The Prador have no concept of a ‘right to life’ – their Children are only allowed to survive so long as they prove useful. Any unit of Prador Third Children who flee from battle (failed leadership test etc) within shooting distance of a railgun-armed superior (A Prador of the First, Second or Adult generation) is immediately fired upon by that superior, regardless of whether they have already fired their railguns this turn.

Pheromonal Web – All Prador are bound together by the will of their Sire, with a clear hierarchy delineating the chain of command. Every Prador in your army, excluding Drones and Thralls, is subject to the rules for Disobedience if they are not at all times within 12” of a Prador of a higher generation, with First-Child Tribunes and Adults at the top, First Children on the second tier, Second Children below them, and Third Children at the bottom.

Prador out of Pheromonal Web range at the start of their movement phase must roll on the Disobedience table.

Disobedience –

When a Prador is out of Pheromonal Web range, or otherwise has to roll for Disobedience, roll a D6 and consult the table below:

1 – Slavish Devotion – the Prador continue with the mission plan, fearful of reprisal if they disobey!

2 – Where’d they go!? – the Prador must move toward a higher generation model this turn, and make no other moves. They may still shoot and assault as normal in the appropriate phases.

3 – Panic! – The Prador must move 2d6 scatter this turn, and make no other moves. They may still shoot and assault as normal in the appropriate phases.

4 – Run Away! – the Prador leg it 3d6 toward their deployment zone table edge. If they go over the edge they are removed from the game entirely. This move counts as ‘fleeing’ under the Merciless rule.

5 – Paralysed with Indecision – The Prador may not move, shoot or assault this turn unless compelled by a Chemical Imperative. If locked in comat, they may not attack or counterattack.

6 – Now’s Our Chance! – Sensing weakness in their Elders or siblings, the Prador revert to their genetic urges and try to thin out their own numbers! The affected unit immediately shoots at the nearest other Prador unit, or if none is in range, makes its full move and then shoots at the nearest other Prador unit.

In cases where two or more Prador units are locked in combat with enemy forces and one of them rolls this result, ALL Prador in the affected combat assualt EACH OTHER this turn, while the enemy may choose either to stand there and watch (after all, it’s quite entertaining) or leave the combat and ‘consolidate’ away 2d6”. As they are not involved in the combat any more (internecine war is very single minded), no enemy models make any attacks or counter attacks this turn.

Prador locked in combat who roll this result count as (5), Paralyzed with Indecision.

Moves caused by Disobedience allow Prador to flee from combat – if they are locked in combat and are then forced to move (i.e. by Panic, Run Away, Where’d They Go?), they suffer a number of wounds equal to the number of enemy models who were in base to base contact with them. These may be saved as normal.

More Gamer Stuff

Here’s some more gamer stuff from Andy Bryenton:

The first test game has come and gone, and it’s been a great success. Very narrative rich, very exciting, and quite a close victory for the Prador, which is satisfying.

As I explained before, taking a complex and savage race like the Prador and turing them into a Warhammer army has meant inventing new unit types and battlefield roles for what would seem to be in your books a very versatile and non-unit-bound species.

I’ve tried to base the whole structure on the hierarchy of Third, Second and First Children, with the big, legless Adult hovering at the top of the pyramid.

So… here are the categories:

HQ (command units)
Adult Prador
First Child ‘Tribune’ (Delegated mission leader… he’d better hope he’s successful!)

Troops (Basic units, usually in groups of 10-20)
Third Child Interdiction Squad (medium range railgunners with a couple of heavy weapons)
Third Child Assault Squad (code-named ‘Eliminators’ by the Imperium)
Third Child Scouts/Infiltrators (Code-named ‘Intruders’ by the Imperium)
Human Thralls (fitted with suicide bombs for extra nastiness!)

Elite Units (Rare, S.A.S – equivalent troops and tactical command groups. Ususally in small groups)
Second Child Tactical Commander (Leads units of Third Children. Code named ‘Executors’)
Second Child Shock Troops (Heavy, shock-assault elites. code named ‘Eviscerators’)
Spatterjay Thralls (Feel no pain, have no fear… virus-infected Thralls which are hard to kill)

Fast Attack (Outflanking, surprise attack and fast response units)
Prador Attack Drones (bladed, high-atmosphere insertion anti-personnel weapons)
Prador Gun Drones (code named ‘Eradicators’ – anti-armor rapid deployment drones)

Heavy Support – (Heavy weapons, defensive units and tank-killers)
First Child Tankhunter (a First Child of lower status than the Tribune, deployed in the role of tankbuster and long-range heavy railgun / particle weapon support)
King’s Guard (I had to put these guys in! What’s heavier in hand to hand combat than a huge, armored, Spatterjay-Virus-mutated Prador with a bad attitude? That’s a rhetorical question!)
Thrall Barge (A hovering Thrall control, processing and deployment vehicle, lightly armed with point defense masers. For extra horror, it can enslave enemy troops and core out their living brains on the fly!)

This army list closely follows the pattern of other Warhammer 40k armies without being too powerful or too weak. The unique tactical facet of the Prador army is its pheromonal web of control and command, in which a strict hierarchy must be preserved. On the tabletop battlefield, lower-order Prador cannot stray too far from a commanding ‘officer’, lest they become subject to randomly determined disobedience effects, up to and including killing each other instead of the enemy! The plus side of this is a set of instant-effect Chemical Imperative orders, obeyed without question or the burden of morality…

For example, in the test game, the poor old Adult Prador was under seige, shot down to one remaining wound by a heavy tank. Just before he could be charged by a rampaging Daemon (yep, there’s gonna be some wierd crossovers in this thing!) he successfully issued the pheromonal command ‘Feed Me!’, devouring the Second-Child commander of a nearby unit and re-gaining one wound to weather the assault.


Another unit successfully issued the ‘Show No Mercy!’ command, firing into a melee which included their own troops. While Prador casualties were high, the enemy were routed by attrition.


Sadly, though, the First Child commanding the front-line assault got out of line, and his disobedience cost him his life. He rolled ‘Paralyzed by Indecision’, and was powerless to stop a group of heavily armored humans slicing him limb from limb!

So, short answer, things are rolling along nicely. Another of the Northland Wargames Alliance has voiced his intent to raise an ECS force to crush the Prador menace!

Who Reads my Books: Kerri & Guy Slaney

Hello Mr Asher,

My name is Kerri Slaney and my husband Guy and I are both big fans of your books.

He’s a civil servant working for DFT in Transport Security and I’m a commercial scheduler for a few niche channels like CBS Reality & the Horror Channel.

Guy’s been a fan of your for many years and is more interested in sci-fi whereas I’ve always been more of a Pratchett girl. That said a couple of years ago on holiday in Scotland he’d bought along Prador Moon and Alastair Reynolds House of Suns, so I read both and adored them. I read Prador Moon twice that week and have enjoyed all the series, particularly Brass Man.

We’re really a geeky couple, so I’ve attached few pics of our library of books and Guy’s Mr Crane character from the Champions Online which I think is rather spiffy.

Best wishes and Merry Christmas to you & your family.

Kerri

Of Interest to Gamers.

Recently got a couple of emails from Andy Bryenton that might be of interest to gamers here. The first is this one:

I just thought I’d add to the already bulging overflow in your inbox (damn those ‘gentlemen’s pills’ dealers!) with a request for some minor assistance. Oh, and the usual congratulations on an ever-growing series of post-cyber-awesome novels so sharp you can use them to peel diamonds..

As an unrepentant geek, I’m compiling a ‘Codex’ (a rulebook for the popular* tabletop wargame Warhammer 40k) for the Prador. My hope is to enable Warhammer players, of whom there are more than could be deemed healthy for any society, to download this resource for free and enjoy a bit of cross-franchise slaughter. There’s quite a bit of crossover between your fans and players of 40k, and the need for models is easily addressed with enough sculpting putty, resin, plastic guns and superglue.

Of course it’s my intent not to utterly mangle your creation in the process! So if there are any links you can think of to relevant images, rest assured that I’ve trawled through all your books for data about weapons, tactics, technology and limitations of the Prador in battle.

I just thought it’d be nice to tell you that relatively hard-working geeks are busy expanding your universe in a very strictly not-for-profit, just for the fans kinda way!

I won’t bore you too much with details, at least until it’s done. And at that point, you’ll probably wonder how the hell my little crew got it so wrong…

Just rest assured that very soon, somewhere, some Space Marines are gonna get eaten.

*popular, at least, with the kind of guys who will fight for the honor of Darth Vader in a pub argument, tend to grow ill-advised goatees, and wear t-shirts which say ‘You don’t have to be the Kwisatz Haderach to work here but it helps’.

I supplied a little bit of info (basically graft a spider’s visual turret on top of a fiddler crab. Maybe you guys here have your own ideas? Then I asked if I could publish his emails (well, not the next one, but I don’t suppose he’ll mind).

Go for it! I’d like to make the final codex available to everyone for free, and the more people who can participate in this bizarre little experiment the better!

Due to the way the tabletop game works (and you may have seen those strange GW stores full of tiny, spiky models), I’ve had to use a little artistic license in shuffling First, Second and Third Children into units like ‘Heavy support’, ‘Basic Troops’, and ‘Elite warriors’, which in the ‘real’ Kingdom they are unlikely to have. For sheer shock and awe it is my intent to make an ancient Adult available as a commander, even though from what you’ve written such a being would be infinitely cunning and cautious, thus unlikely to leave its sanctum. Damn thing’s gonna have armor that you could crack tanks open on!

Armament is running to variants of railguns, with various nasty particle beam weapons as heavy tank-busting clout. Once again, the constraints of putting the pure idea of Prador into the framework of a 60mm model game are kind of like straining single malt through a gym sock… there may be a slight change of ‘flavor’.

Pictures, I assure you, will be forthcoming!

And thanks for taking an interest in the old, obligatory ‘what me and my mates did on our holidays’! If and when the modeling part of the project produces a resin-cast Prador First-Child Warrior with twin-linked Decimator railguns, I’ll send you one…

What do you think about this?

Gary Gibson on E-books.

Here’s another way of looking at the whole issue … with tongue firmly wedged in cheek.

I would like to make ‘a modest proposal’ concerning the ebook market, given that I agree fully that authors should get paid for their work. I should know, I’m one of them, and yet according to some we are about to be inundated by a vast wave of piracy that will see artists and creators of all types rendered destitute.

Now I must confess some of my sins.