(198X) Lupar Scenario Units

Here's some that I don't intend to post in advance; if you're not here, they'll be a surprise inclusion come 1.0.

As you may already know, the New Rygolic Host's army book includes three "bonus" units, in the form of human auxiliaries from the Petty States: 

(Slightly old page images with some errors--mortar teams, for instance, are a team and not a squad. The Rygolic red has also slightly darkened since these were taken.) 

I wanted strongly to include the human people of Rygos somewhere in their army book to provide context for where and why the construct troops were fighting; and, furthermore, I feel that they offer plenty of flavor themselves. The problem was that they were not really applicable to the faction's roster. The New Rygolic Host would be unbalanced by the inclusion of cheap human troops, since one of its main drawbacks is its high unit costs across the board.

The most ideal solution would be to simply offer them their own small book with an appropriate list; but I have a game to finish. Maybe in the future that's what I'll do. For now, I picked three units for them to provide a minimally well-rounded force (infantry, indirect fire support, and a tank that can also double as a basic personnel carrier) and tacked them to the end of the Rygo army book. They are segregated from the rest of the roster as "scenario" units: available for reference and for use in whatever scenarios you might write, but not really part of the list. This also helps (partially) dodge roster bloat: I don't have to worry about finding ever-smaller niches for them to fill when they're essentially there for thematic flavor and can be ignored in a standard game.

For a video game equivalent, the original Dawn of War comes to mind. In the campaign, your Space Marines occasionally work with the Imperial Guard. This was not the full faction featured in Winter Assault and later expansions; only a skeleton set of three units (infantry, tanks, and a command hero). Guardsmen can be commanded by the player once found, but you can't recruit more of them. They aren't really crucial to the gameplay or really even the campaign narrative; but it's right for them to be there, and they're an interesting light infantry adjunct to a force that otherwise has none.

Naturally this got me and my collaborators thinking about scenario units for the other factions: again, those that were thematically proper but which didn't really have a place in the existing rosters and would be best reserved for scenario games. In some cases, this would entail a simple recolor and mild arsenal switch: Santagrine tanksknecht driving imported Razorbacks comes to mind. For others, I'd need to create new unit art altogether. Fortunately, that's exactly what I find fun.

The three lupar scenario units are all clan militia or adjacents. Obviously the Rygoles already have theirs (in the form of Petty Staters). For the Federals I'm looking at doing armed citizenry and private security (to include obsolete tanks), and for the Santagrines the aforementioned tanksknecht and maybe something else. That makes for three scenario units per faction all told. There's no particular need for them to follow specific themes like this--if I added more I certainly wouldn't be constrained by it--but they felt like natural avenues for expansion and lorewriting. I'll keep you all posted accordingly.