Mercenary enemy analysis

The Mercenaries in Space Infantry Resurgence are an enemy group that consists of all of the various militias and home guard units in the deep ranges of human space that came together for mutual protection and then decided that it might be better to control their own fate. They were supposed to have been put down by the SMC but they have begun to be active again.

Units

The Mercenaries are a more balanced opponent than many of the enemy types in Space Infantry Resurgence. The Type I Soldiers are similar to many other enemies with an F:4 M:4 stat line but the Type II and III units (the Sergeant and the Assault) have 2:3 stat lines with the Sergeant having a F:2 M:3 and the Assault a F:3 M:2. The Sergeant gets +1 AP for either F or M range combat and at Fire range it can quickly generate impressive numbers of wounds. The Assault has one point of Armour and both its F and M attacks are Armour Piercing.

The Mercenaries have a special rule called Reinforcements that comes into play only in Class A encounters. You need to generate an RN for the encounter and if it is a 5+ then the Soldiers in the combat are replaced by Battledrones. They have 2 wounds and an F:3 M:4 stat line. The major complication with Battledrones is that they have a Forcefield that, at Fire range, will cancel a wound. It doesn’t work against AP damage but it can quickly complicate your combat. Happily you get an additional campaign XP when you fight them.

Events

The Mercenary Class A EPT table is all Soldiers. On average you will get 2.75 Soldiers per combat. The Class B table is Soldiers and Sergeants except for the 0 row which is only just two Soldiers. On average you will get 3.25 Soldiers and 1 Sergeant. The Class C table has all three unit types with Sergeants only appearing twice. On average you will get 2.875 Soldiers, 0.25 Sergeants and 1.25 Assaults. There is an Assault unit in every row of the Class C table.

In Class B and C events the Mercenaries will have units that can hit you at any range so you can’t try to use Commands or Skills to put yourself into a favourable range because neither of them are favourable. The Mercenaries Range Table is equally set between M and F ranges with no special events in the table.

Despite it having fewer opponents, I think that the 4 and 5 results on the Class C table are the worst encounter to get because it includes all three types of units. At each range you have a unit with a 2 attack with AP attacks and the Sergeant generating a disproportionate number of wounds.

Author: Zac Belado

Zac is a wargamer from Edmonton, Alberta Canada. When not trying to figure out a new set of rules or cut the corners on counters he is busy building websites.