Homebrew Houserule for civilian crowds

in our gaming group we where discussing about adding civilian crowds to urban thematic themes, for reasons of more immersive and atmospheric effects...
In the result we got some ideas for rules which could go along with civilian crowds to make same somehow more than lifeless scatter terrain.

I would like to share those ideas and get your feedback, ideas and questions.
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In certain urban thematic mission, civilian crowds can add dynamic environmental elements with several impactful mechanics.
These rules create a complex and immersive experience, emphasizing responsibility, strategic adaptation, and the moral dimension within missions.


General principles

Civilians have to be protected and players have to avoid to involve civilians in any fight.
Areas Round civilians are supposed to be treated as demilitarized zones that create limitations for the players in combat.
The protection of civilian groups could be rewarded.
Involving groups of civilians in combat should have negative effects for players.
Civilians should not be able to be targeted.

Base Size and Silhouette:
Civilian crowds use a 120mm base and have a Silhouette value of S4, effectively occupying space and influencing line of sight considerations.

Placement:
Each player places the same amount of civilian crowds in each zone, ensuring their presence across the battlefield

Modifiers & Terrain Type

• Difficult Terrain:
  Moving through a civilian crowd reduces Movement by 1, simulating the challenge of navigating through dense groups.
  
  
• Low Visibility Zone:
  LoF trajecting through Civilian Crowds impose a -3 MOD on BS Attacks and a -1 MOD on Discover rolls, reflecting reduced visibility and detection challenges.
  
  
• Saturation Zone:
  BS Attacks passing through crowds suffer a -1 reduction in Burst, indicating the difficulty of targeting in populated areas.

Interaction, Reaction & Effects (simple)

• target civilian crowds
  Civilians count as team members for both players and cant be targeted by any attack.
  Accordingly, they do not trigger mines and template weapons cant be placed when effecting any crowd.
  
  
• Involving civilians in fights:
  As soon as a fight (bs attacks or cc attacks) involves any trooper in the ZOC of a civilian crowd, the crowd get the panic state.
  A group in panic is removed from the game after end of turn.
  
  
• firelanes (lof)
  As soon as any lines of fire pass through the group, t the crowd get the panic state an flees. A group in panic is removed from the game after end of turn, altering the tactical landscape by potentially opening new lines of fire or removing cover.
  
  
• panic escape (simple)
  A group in panic is removed from the game after end of turn.
  
  
• Security response (simple) // edited after feedback ;)
  when a crowd in panic is removed from game it is followed by guided bs missile attacks coming from automated security systems, targeting all models involved in the panic form every player.

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from here it gets a bit more advanced...

Mission- & Objective Points (optional)

• Safeguard (simple)
  Avoiding the civilians as an objektive and get 1 objective point for having no Modell within 8“ of a crowd at end of turn.
  
  
• Evacuation (advanced)
  Leading the civilians away from combat, by escorting them to a table edge.
  A crowd on the edge of the table is removed at end of turn.
  Get 3 VP for each crowd removed from table this way, while having crowd control.
  
  
• Crowd control (advanced)
  Get 1 VP for each crowd you control on end of turn.

Interaction, Reaction & Effects (advanced)

• Crowdcontrol (advanced)
  A trooper with base contact (or inside a crowd) may spend a short skill and by passing a successfull WIP role, the trooper takes control of the crowd.
  Another way to obtain crowd control is to gain control of communication devices with a hacker.
  Any hacker in hacking area of a crowd can pass a sucessfull WIP role.
  Crowd control removes the scared state of a crowd.
  crowd control is removed as soon the trooper who gained it is not in normal state.
  
  
• Escort (advanced)
  A trooper having crowd control may move the crowd together with the trooper that took control of the group.
  Moving with the crowd is a long skill using only the first mov value.
  
  
• Security Response (advanced rule):
  when a crowd in panic is removed from game it is replaced by 2 armed NPC security forces.
  Each one of those forces will attack the nearest model of each player, providing immediate consequences for reckless actions.
  
  
• panic escape (advanced)
  A group in panic is removed from the game after end of turn and replaced by a small piece of scatter terrain (silhouette S4) in the centre of that crowd template, representing the luggage and equipment left behind.
  
  
• Scared (advanced)
  As soon as a trooper in normal state is in 3“ of a crowd the crowd enters fear state.
  
  
• Fearful escape (advanced)
  At the beginning of each round, each crowd with “fear state“ moves d6/2 rounded up directly to the nearest edge.
  
  
• random roaming Movement (advanced)
  Each crowd is moved at the start of players each turn by 3“.
  This movement is defined by simple w20 role.
  The player who roles higher can move a crowd by 2“ first, the other player moves it by 1“ second.

 

what could that complication for both players look like?

yeah, we all agree that the crowd related objective points should go along with a specific mission specially designed for the crowds.
The evacuation scenario is very obvious, well known and for that also intuitiv I think.

I think scoring points for evacuating crowds and for not being near to crowds at end of turn (in reactive phase) is very on the rewarding site.
I am still struggling with simple and not too disruptive rules, which penalize the involvement of civilians in the events / combat.

The simplest way could be loosing OP and or maybe also all involved models getting attacked buy an automated security force guided missile attack...

 

I updated my post with hombrew rules with some ideas coming from your feedback, thanks!