The Tigre War Mount

[MethosDarkblade]

First attempt, please be brutally honest.

Tigres

Like the Gorehound, the Tigres are animals bio-engineered to work with a human companion. Canines however are not designed for jungle warfare. This made things difficult for some houses living in the jungles but the Great House Espada found a way around this problem. They created the Tigres.

Born and bred for jungle warfare, the design of the Tigre incorporates designs of jungle cats such as the puma, tiger, jaguar, and lions, not to mention a gene or two from an alien species. Even the designs of the two sexes are vastly different from one another unlike the Black Hawks and the Gorehounds. This allows for even more customization between the two sexes. Like the lions of old, the male Tigres possess a massive mane of fur that makes the feline appear larger than normal. It is that mane that makes him dangerous for under the thick fur often lies a cannon of some sort. The librarians of Espada have customized gore cannons, casting cannons, and bore cannons to fit on the shoulders rather than the back. However, this reduces the payload of the cannons but the Pride Lord typically oks this as each shoulder may have a different cannon, allowing for the massive beast to alternate weapons from the safety of the mane. Coupled with massive strength and often covered with defenses, the male Tigre is often the last thing the enemy sees as it charges into the fray.

But as the male is designed for combat, the female Tigre is designed with stealth in mind. Much smaller than the massive males, the female is roughly half the size of the male. This allows the female to navigate through the trees and leap from tree to tree while still stalking their prey. Many female Tigres lack cannons but this is often by choice and not a limitation. As with the males, their design and purpose is often dictated by their Pride Lord.

Tigre (Female stats are in parenthesis)
Class: Troop support war mount
Crew: Typically none, but can accommodate one rider when necessary

M.D.C. by Location
*Front Legs (2): 3D6+60 (2D6+40)
*Hind Legs (2): 1D20+70 (2D6+55)
*Mane: 3D6X10 (none)
**Head: 5D6X10 (3D6X10)
***Main Body: 1D6X10+200 (3D6+180)
* A single asterisk indicates a target that is difficult to hit. An attacker must aim and make a “Called Shot” to hit, and even then is -3 to strike.
** Destroying the head will kill the Tigre. Period
*** Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body kills the Tigre

Speed
Running: 60 mph maximum, but normal cruising speed is only 25 mph. The act of running tires the Tigre at about one fifth the rate of a human and it can run, nonstop, for one hour at full speed before needing 1D6X10+60 minutes of rest to go another half hour before needing rest. A Tigre can romp at a leisurely pace (for it) at 35 mph without pause for up to eight hours straight before requiring rest or 10 hours with periodically pauses for 10-20 minutes every hour or so. Note: do not reduce speed for forests and rocky and other difficult obstacle filled terrain. They are designed for these environments and their bodies react to these environments naturally. This means that they can avoid the problems canines have in these environments. (Females can run at 80 MPH and can run at full speed for 4 hours before needing 1D6X10+30 minutes of rest to go another hour before rest)

Leaping: 10 feet high or across, increase by 50% with a short running start or double when running at full tilt. Male Tigres are not great leapers. (Double leaping distances for female Tigres)

Digging: 5 mph through sand or dirt, but half that speed through clay, rock or stone. Tigres are not great diggers and often require another war mount to dig fortifications for them.

Swimming: 40 mph. Maximum depth underwater is 100 feet

Flying: Not applicable


Statistical data
Height: 6 to 7 feet at the shoulder. 8 feet to the top of the head. 8.5 to 9 feet to top of their mane. (Females are 4 feet at the shoulder, 5 feet to the top of the head)

Width: 5 feet from shoulder to shoulder (4 feet from shoulder to shoulder)

Weight: 1,000 to 1,200 pounds (500 to 750 pounds)

Cargo: Can carry its body weight or pull 1.5 tons (Can carry its body weight or pull 1500 pounds)

Physical Strength: 2D6+30 (Supernatural) (2D4+20 Supernatural)

Production Cycle: 8 months gestation period, plus one year growth time

Operational lifetime: 24-year life span

Trade Value: 3 million credits for a healthy, undamaged unit.

Bio-Regeneration Rate: 2D6 M.D.C. per hour for the main body and 1D6 M.D.C. per hour for all other locations. The War Mount cannot regrow severed limbs or destroyed weapons systems (reduced to zero or less), there must be at least two M.D.C. points remaining to regenerate lost limbs, but such extensive regeneration takes 2D6 days.
Horror Factor: 13, but 16 for a pride of three or more Tigres against humans, no H.F. for machines.

Senses and features: Standard for a War Mount, with the exceptions of #1 Neurological Link and Controls, #4 Self-Destruct Mechanism and #6 Union of Man and Beast (gets numbers 2, 3, and 5)

Feeding: The Tigres is an omnivore, but prefers meat and carrion, and eats 20-30 pounds of organic matter a day

Sleep requirements: as an artificial organism, the Tigre requires only four hours of sleep or rest per day (typically during the day)

Rider: A rider will sit bareback just behind the shoulders.

Other Data (for individual animals): Most Tigres are “unmanned” and used not as a War Mount but as a combat animal for jungle warfare, usually under the control of a Pride Lord or on rare occasions a Pack Master. Thus Tigres usually operate independent of a rider but are directed by the Pride Master and are usually deployed as a pack of 3-6 animals. As a trained attack animal, the monstrous felines use their animal like intelligence and instincts to respond to any given situation. Tigres are effectively Mega-Damage Lions or panthers, so like other pride felines, they prefer their own kind but they have been bred and designed to respond favorably to humans. A Tigre will usually come to a human’s defense, especially against robots and stand guard over an injured master or friend. In fact, they are used for scouting, tracking, patrolling perimeters and standing guard. In the absence of its designated Pride Lord, Tigres will obey strong commands given by only a Pride Lord’s human Pride (IE teammates and close family) but will occasionally obey commands from another Pride Lord (01-25%, +15% if the Pride Lord is at least 8th level)

Alignment: Any; Tigres are prideful animals (no pun intended), the vast majority of Tigres are Principled, Scrupulous, or Aberrant (only 10% and they tend to work with evil Pride Lords) but they are friendly with humans (like a domestic cat) and very protective of humans in general.

Attributes: I.Q.: 1D4+6 (High animal intelligence), M.E.: 1D6+9, M.A.: 2D6+12, P.S.: 32-42 (22-28 female) (Supernatural), P.P.: 1D6+14 (2D6+16 female), P.E.: 2D6+12, P.B.: 1D6+10 (+4 to females), Spd: (See speed above)

Number of attacks per melee: 5

Combat Bonuses (in addition to possible attribute bonuses): +3 to initiative, +2 to strike in hand to hand combat, +2 to parry, +3 to dodge, +5 to auto-dodge (females only, can dodge without using up a melee action), +7 to pull punch/bite (genetic, designed into the Tigre to keep them from causing massive damage to humans during play), +3 roll with punch/fall, +2 to disarm, +4 versus Horror Factor (+5 for males), +4 versus ingested poisons or toxins

Equivalent (instinctive) skills of note: Begging: 60%, Climb: 35%/0% for Males, 85%/0% for females, Detect Ambush: 60%, Detect Concealment: 35%, Identify Plants & Fruits (i.e. stuff it can eat): 80%, Land Navigation: 65%, Prowl: 50% for males, 75% for females, Swim: 95% (Tigres love to swim), and understands the Native Language of the Great House that created it and one other common language at 80% (can not speak or read), Recognizes robots and machines as enemies to be destroyed or chased away

Combat capabilities: Tigres regularly engage in combat play to hone their abilities and engage in close combat with their pride.
Restrained Head Butt: 1D10 S.D.C. damage
Full Strength Head Butt: 2D6 M.D.C.
Pawing Claw Strike with front legs: 3D6+10 M.D.C. (Males) or 3D6 M.D.C. (Females)
Biting Attack: 3D6 M.D.C.
Leap attack: 2D6 M.D.C., +2 to strike and has a 01-80% likelihood of knocking an opponent as large as 12 feet tall off its feet and onto his back (also a 01-70% chance the victim drops whatever it was holding. If knocked off its feet, the target loses initiative and two melee actions/attacks), and the Tigre is poised for a fast bite attack (+3 to strike for the feline’s next attack). A leap attack uses up one melee attack for the Tigre
Running Leap Attack: 4D6 M.D.C. has a 01-90% likelihood of knocking down an opponent and counts as two of the Tigre’s attacks, otherwise the same as Leap Attack

Tigre Bio-Weapon Systems: Standard Tigres are the basic feline with nothing extra, but all Tigres have a Bio-Comms. Those bonded to a Pride Lord can be further modified as described under the Pride Lord O.C.C.

[Witchcraft]

Looks pretty awesome -- that's about as brutally honest as I get. Sorry. Keep up the good work!

[krispy]

Each House would modify the base designs to suit their environment, and that is why I like to see home brew Splicer critters. So keep thinking of new creations for Splicers

If those custom designed gore, cast and bore weapons are to be part of the initial construction, I recommend, when you post the Pride Lord, the initial available Bio-E to personalize the Tigres be reduced.

To keep with the theme of a jungle territory, may I suggest that the lion not be part of the design as they are mainly plains hunters. Other cats such a leopards, ocelots, jungle cats, and lynx would provide a good structural base.
If you wish to keep the difference in roles between genders, it would be a simple variation on the base designs

Feeding /metabolism: instead of omnivorous, the Tigre could be a combo of carnivore and carrion eater

[MethosDarkblade]

Each House would modify the base designs to suit their environment, and that is why I like to see home brew Splicer critters. So keep thinking of new creations for Splicers

If those custom designed gore, cast and bore weapons are to be part of the initial construction, I recommend, when you post the Pride Lord, the initial available Bio-E to personalize the Tigres be reduced.

To keep with the theme of a jungle territory, may I suggest that the lion not be part of the design as they are mainly plains hunters. Other cats such a leopards, ocelots, jungle cats, and lynx would provide a good structural base.
If you wish to keep the difference in roles between genders, it would be a simple variation on the base designs

Feeding /metabolism: instead of omnivorous, the Tigre could be a combo of carnivore and carrion eater

These are actually the things I was hoping for: real critiques with explanations and suggestions (no offense to those who just like it and say so...I'm use to sitting in fiction classes and doing critiques on other's works).

Now, to the comments above

The designer cannons and such are NOT guaranteed with the tigres, it is a house only modification and will be described in the espada information with house only bio-e enhancments.

The lion motif is to design a fearsome combat animal, does a male lion strike fear in humans than say a lynx? Although, now that you mention it, I do see simba tryingto chase rafiki theough the jungle and it doesn't work so much, so I will definately be looking into that as possible design flaw on my part and adjust.

As for the male/female roles, this was partly because of the lion motif, as lions are the only felines that gather in hierarchal societies. I was going off the design that the males do combat but the females are more tracker and huntress oriented. If the lion motif is eliminated, the gender modifications will also be eliminated.

A good suggestion. I was trying to use the gorehounds as an example but I originally though of carnivore metabolism for the tigres.

Anyone else spot any issues?

[ffranceschi]

Pumas (Cougars, American Lions, etc.) are not jungle warfare cats. Dense forests for Pumas at most, but not jungle. Idem with Lions (plains, etc.).

Tigres (spanish word for Tigers) are lone hunters, so the "Lion thing" or the word "Pride" do not match with them.

Both, male and female are evenly matched in a fight, because they hunt style is "Predator the Movie" style. So both will use camouflage systems, otherwise I think the flavor would be lost. It is very important for them to use camouflage at the maximum, more than intimidation.

[The Galactus Kid]

I would say a combination of both. The great thing about EVERYTHING in Splicers is that it uses genetic combinations of pretty much the best parts of everything to get the results they're wanting. It would nopt be out of the question for the agressive nature of Tigers to be programed into animals while also haveing a pride mentality programmed there too.

[ffranceschi]

I would say a combination of both. The great thing about EVERYTHING in Splicers is that it uses genetic combinations of pretty much the best parts of everything to get the results they're wanting. It would nopt be out of the question for the agressive nature of Tigers to be programed into animals while also haveing a pride mentality programmed there too.

I think that the Tigers are a much more efficient killing machine than the Lion and to mix them is not a good idea for jungle warfare (remember the original goal).
But if you want to know what I will add:
1) Chameleon power to improve the already superb native Tiger Camouflage.
2) Cobra Venom weapons.
3) Amphibious capability: Frog-like.
The Chameleon, the Cobra and the Frog are all jungle fauna!

[Premier]

A little correction here:
Ok, First off, lions do very well in dense forests/jungles as well as on the plains.
Asiatic lions are sympatric with Bengal tigers in the Gir Forest of india.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiatic_Lion

With that being mentioned I have conducted extensive research into the dominance and combative prowess between Lions versus Tigers and there is little distinction between them when they have confronted one another. Sometimes tigers win more often than not simply due to their larger scale. There are however other cases where tigers have lost to lions as well. So the lion’s mane offers very little in extra protection or bluff towards these two feline species.

Now I will move onto the purpose of the Tigre design itself:

You stated that:

” Canines however are not designed for jungle warfare. This made things difficult for some houses living in the jungles but the Great House Espada found a way around this problem. They created the Tigres.

”

And thus this warrants the design for a jungle warfare species.

However, Gorehounds are not merely canines and even canines do very well in jungle warfare. Wolves in India as well as dholes are part of the apex predators in these jungles, and dholes have been observed in usurping and even killing tigers via in packs. Not to mention hounds have been used for centuries to hunt big game in jungles and deep forest. Now taking such canines and enhancing them as the Engineers have with claws and elongated tails, let alone grip hairs and suctions not to mention the alien DNA strands and you have the equivalent of a large feline as far as agility, claws and climbing along with the superb stamina, tracking & trainability of the canid and more.

So I would think of the Tigre as more of an aesthetic change or need for more of a larger stalker or larger predator gore species versus being better than a canine in jungle warfare. There are domesticated dogs in the modern world that do defeat and kill wild cats of equal size: Dogo Argentino take South American pumas and an Anatolian mastiff (Kangal) was recorded in killing a leopard in Namibia, Africa.

So I would suggest, going along with a need for a larger Predator type species that the Pride Lord can utilize as you have given stats for with the O.C.C. starting out with 2 Gore Tigre instead of the 3 if they were Gorehounds, particularly a male and a female and grow the pride accordingly. This allows the O.C.C. to learn the benefits, distinctions, pros and cons of the first two and how to enhance his pride accordingly as well as preserves game balance.

I would also suggest reducing the long distance speed of the Tigre (both male and female) and increase & stat out the tigre’s short burst speed. I would also suggest increasing the leaping distance (especially if this is an arboreal styled Warmount). According to this site: http://www.edu.pe.ca/southernkings/tiger.htm
natural tigers spring with ease and can cover 15 feet (4.5 m), so certainly an enhanced bio-engineered feline based warmount would be higher. Felines are more explosive in muscle fibers but have a much higher lactic acid build up, thus preventing them from expending huge amounts of energy for long durations. This is why canids excel in long distance running and coursing prey versus felines which ambush and overwhelm their adversaries. I would also suggest adding the “Righting Reflex” as an automatic ability under the Senses & Features section for this feline inspired Warmount.

I would also think about adding a special section on the defensive capabilities of this Warmount as to how the Tigre might turtle on its back and has the ability to utilize its flailing claws and hind legs to defend itself when cornered against multiple attackers.

I am not sure who all has seen the sneak preview of the Splicers cover at the POH or certain Insider packages of Lemuria, but for those who have they can see that Slappy & I have designed a feline Warmount and these ideas have been thrown about years ago. I think the Tigre could also benefit from our discussions and that is why I have listed the above suggestions.
Hope this helps as I think its a good idea.

[The Galactus Kid]

Chuck wins.

/thread

[ffranceschi]

Chuck wins.

/thread

Very hard to argue with that. The End.

[The Galactus Kid]

Chuck wins.

/thread

Very hard to argue with that. The End.

hahaha. I like this guy. We need to keep him around.

[Kinghawke]

is there a fully formed final stat sheet created for the Tigre War Mount or should I just take what's there & modify it according to the conversation to the best of my ability?

[MethosDarkblade]

Real life issues have been preventing me from updating this fully, however, it is always on my mind.

[Kinghawke]

Real life issues have been preventing me from updating this fully, however, it is always on my mind.

if you could find time in your busy schedule to update the Tigre War Mount, I would greatly appreciate it. I turn games into stories & that would be an excellent addition, with full credit where credit is due of course.

[BookWyrm]

I would also include other Feline breeds as well, like other breeds were included in the Rifter #59 article "The Pack Mentality." Panthers, Jaguars, ect. for example. I would LOVE to see a Sphynx WarMount (if you're unfamiliar with the Sphynx breed, go here.)

[MethosDarkblade]

I actually got Rifter 59 for my birthday and will be doing a pride mentality article for my house espada and will be modifying the Tigres as soon as I can.

[glitterboy2098]

i could see a whole family of felid based alternatives to gorehounds, much like there is now several variations of the gorehound.

a Lion and Lioness for general combat, a tiger for stalking, cheetah for speed, a Liger for sheer size and power, maybe a sabertooth just for fun, etc. assume some spliced in lion/canine genes regardless of what species they are based on, to give them a strong pack instinct (something most felids lack). i could see Felid using packmaster's being night fighting specilists.

actually this could open up things for even more varieties. like say velociraptor-esque creatures (made using DNA from various predatory and ground dwelling birds to replicate the 'fabled' ancient predators), or maybe dolphin/Orca based creatures for aquatic operations.

[Aramanthus]

I like it. I hope you work on more warmounts.