MERCENARIES

Why have seperate rules for Mercenaries in HotT at all? It would, of course, be so much simpler to just list the additional unit types in the "alternatives" secion of the relevant army list. However, within the context of an army with a specific background, some elements should *never* be present as part of that army. As an example, I do not think that my Siberian Nomads Army would ever have an Airboat element as part of the composition. It's just not part of what that army is all about.The same holds true for my Out of Africa "bad going" army. There could be many explanations of why there *could* be Airboats in either army, but the basic fact is that I never envisioned them there. Some days, thugh, I may feel a desperate urgent need for an Airboat against a certain army, and THAT is where these Mercenary rules make the game (more) interesting.

Upon agreement of both players, Mercenaries may be used to support existing armies with troops not normally available, or to provide greater availability of existing troop types. To facilitate this, there will be a pool of Mercenary elements available as follows: two elements of each troop type costed at 2AP, and one each of Airboat, Artillery, Behemoth, Magician, Hero, and Aerial Hero, all at the standard AP value. Sneakers, Clerics, Gods, Dragons, Paladins, Hordes, and Lurkers may not be Mercenaries.

An existing force may substitute up totwo Mercenary elements from the mercenary pool for existing elements of equivalent AP value. One or both Mercenary elements may be of the 2aP variety, but only one Mercenary element may be costed at 3AP or greater.

In the event that both armies wish to field the same Mercenary element, both players roll a die; the player who rolls higher gains the use of that Mercenary element for the game, while the other player may opt to use regular forces for his army, or use another Mercenary element costed at 1AP greater than normal. Example: both Darkhost and Punkrabbitt planned on using the Dwarf Spear Mercenary Element for 2AP. They both roll a die, DH rolls a 5 while PR rolls a 3. Darkhost gets to use the Dwarf Spears. Punkrabbitt may field an element from his own army worth 2AP, but instead decides to field the Amazon Blades Mercenary element. Normally blades are costed at 2AP, but PR must cost them at 3AP, and must drop at least 1AP from his existing force list to properly field them.

Back to Punkrabbitt's HotT Spot!