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(this post is still in draft form, and corrections are still to be made)

Greetings all.

Ever since I received the White Dwarf containing these 12 unique characters, I have adored The Last Chancers. But over the years, the rules are old and unplayable, but I've always loved the concept of a 12-character fighting team and so I have suggested my version of how to play these characters in todays 7th edition. I suggested an idea in the past, and have glimpse some other suggestions, but I want to try again at making these models and rules relevant.
Some of these stats are a little extreme in the context of other characters in the game, but this is to make certain the characters have a fighting chance without going "overboard insane stats".

LAST CHANCERS - 1000 total points (all 12)

1. All Last Chancers have the Feel No Pain (5+), Stubborn, Fighting To The End, Criminal Bond and Stealth special rule.

Fighting To The End: A Last Chancer cannot receive Instant Death by double strength, up to a maximum of Strength 8. This also includes Feel No Pain results cancelled by Instant Death.

Criminal Bond: If a model belonging to the Last Chancers is assaulted, any other Last Chancer model within '3 may also join the fight, but each member is treated as its own unit for combat purposes.

2. All Last Chancers carry Frag and Krak Grenades.
3. Last Chancers count as a seperate force, and can be considered as a section of "Armies of the Imperium" as a force for allies. You can purchase between 3-12 members of the Last Chancers to form an army and each member counts as a Troop Choice (No HQ required), Colonel Schaeffer must always be purchased.

COLONEL SCHAEFFER - 125 points
Profile: Tough, hard-bitten and strict. Will get the job done no matter what the cost.



WS5 BS5 S3 T3 W4 I4 A3 LD9 Sv4+
Wargear: Master-Crafted Plasma Pistol , Master-Crafted Power Sword, Carapace Armour, Refractor Field
Special Rules: Fearless
1. If Colonel Schaeffer is fighting in a challenge, the opponent's character rerolls any successful hits of "6".
2. If Colonel Schaeffer is alive, every Last Chancer is fearless. This power immediately stops upon Schaeffer's death.


SCOPE - 115 points
Profile: A trained sniper and expert marksman.
Crime: Went AWOL, reason unconfirmed, but suspected to be related to the assassination of Chief Arbitrator Abraxtes.



WS4 BS5 S3 T3 W3 I3 A2 LD8 Sv5+
Wargear: Needle Sniper-Rifle, Laspistol, Close Combat Weapon.
Special Rules: Night Vision, Shrouded (replaces Stealth)
1. All of Scope's successful hits with his Needle-Sniper Rifle have the precision shot rule, with a -2 subtraction from any Look Out Sir rolls.
2. Scope's Needle Sniper-Rifle ignores cover and strikes at AP2. He can also re-roll unsuccessful wound results of 1.


OX - 85 points
Profile: A huge ox of a man, and about as bright.
Crime: Killing three off-duty officers with his bare hands in a drunken brawl.



WS4 BS4 S4 T4 W4 I3 A2 LD8 Sv5+
Wargear: Heavy Bolter, Laspistol, Close Combat Weapon
Special Rules: Relentless, Hammer of Wrath, Feel No Pain (4+) (replaces Feel No pain (5+))
1. If Ox is within "6" of Brains, he may choose to Look Out Sir to him from shooting attacks of in the same combat on a roll of a 2+. This cannot be combined with Hero's look out sir special rule.
2. If Brains is killed then Ox will go berserk, increasing his Strength and Toughness by 2 for the rest of the game, and restores all lost wounds to a maximum of 4. In addition he gains the "rage" special rule, and replaces "Fighting to the end" with "Eternal Warrior".


BRAINS - 60 points
Profile: An expert on many forms of technology and all round brain-box. Ox and he are good buddies.
Crime: Hacking into the Regimental accounts system and changing his pay-code.



WS4 BS4 S3 T3 W3 I3 A2 LD8 Sv5+
Wargear: Hot-Shot Las Pistol, Hot-Shot Lasgun, Auspex
Special Rules:
1. Any friendly character belonging to the Last Chancers within "3 may re-roll their Feel No Pain unsuccessful results, including himself.
2. Brains may choose to not shoot this turn to improve the BS by 1 of a friendly character belonging to the Last Chancers within "3.
3. Brains has a built in device to project an almost functional shield. This confers a 6+ invulnerable save.


WARRIOR WOMAN - 75 points
Profile: One of the renowned warriorwomen of Xenan 7, an expert tracker and huntswoman.
Crime: Membership of a banned organisation (ref; Artemis subcult).



WS5 BS4 S3 T3 W3 I4 A4 LD8 Sv5+
Wargear: Modified Lasgun, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol
Special Rules: Furious Charge, Counter Attack, Move Through Terrain
1. Warrior Woman's Modified Lasgun is treated as Assault 3 instead of Rapid Fire
2. Warrior Woman gains an additional D3 assault charge range when assaulting in combat, and instead of the usual +1 bonus attack for charging, she instead gains +D3.


ROCKET GIRL - 100 points
Profile: Master-At-Arms who is proficient with any and all of the heavy weapons employed by the Imperial Guard.
Crime: Murdering a fellow mastersergeant for unknown reasons.



WS4 BS4 S3 T3 W3 I3 A2 LD8 Sv5+
Wargear: Modified Missile Launcher, Laspistol, Close Combat Weapon
Special Rules:
1. Rocket Girl's Modified Missile Launcher has the Armourbane and Fleshbane special rules. In addition she may re-roll missed hits of 1, and may also choose to re-reroll the scatterdice if desired.
2. Rocket Girl may fire 2 Missile Launcher shots in 1 turn instead of once and may choose to fire at different targets if desired, but only if Fingers is still alive and must not received any benefits from the special ammo given by Fingers. This can only be used once per game.


FINGERS - 45 points
Profile: An expert forager and petty thief who can get hold of just about anything for a price.
Crime: Black Marketeering.



WS4 BS4 S3 T3 W3 I3 A2 LD8 Sv5+
Wargear: Lasgun, Laspistol, Hunter Knife
Special Rules:
1. Finger's Hunter Knife is a close combat weapon with the special rule of poison (2+)
2. Fingers must stay within "2 of Rocket Girl at all times unless she is killed and Fingers is able to act as normal. Fingers also carries around specialist ammo which can be used with Rocket Girls Missile Launcher or/and Finger's lasgun. Only one of three options can be used per character:
+D3 strength
Ignores Cover
Ap2 (Ap3 for Frag Missiles)


DEMOLITION MAN - 95 points
Profile: An expert with explosives, and capable of picking any lock and disabling any security system.
Crime: Caught while breaking into a Colonel's personal drinks cabinet.



WS4 BS4 S3 T3 W3 I3 A2 LD8 Sv5+
Wargear: Lasgun, Laspistol, Close Combat Weapon, Meltabombs, 2x Demolition Charge
Special Rules: Tank Hunter, Monster Hunter
1. Demolition Man may choose to throw two grenades or Demolition Charges (or a mix) at the same or different targets. This can also be used instead to throw/attach two grenades/meltabombs in Combat instead.
2. If Demolition Man is killed, he activates his grenade supply before death, blowing up and taking any nearby targets with him. All targets within D6 range suffer a S4 hit, AP -.


SHIV - 85 points
Profile: A stealthy assassin who can sneak up and dispatch a sentry without being spotted.
Crime: Serial murder of over twenty civilians on Lector Prime over a five year period.



WS6 BS4 S3 T3 W3 I5 A3 LD8 Sv5+
Wargear: Plasma Pistol, Mono-filament knife (counts as a power sword)
Special Rules: Fleet, Shrouded.
1. Any non-blast/template shots taken at Shiv is treated as Snap Shots.
2. On the first turn of any combat Shiv charges, he will strikes at I8 instead of I5.


ANIMAL - 75 points
Profile: A schizophrenic psychopath, but reputed to be one of the best all round warriors in the Imperial Guard.
Crime: See sub-file 84 beta, sections 103 to 196.



WS4 BS4 S3 T3 W3 I3 A2 LD8 Sv5+
Wargear: Meltagun, Eviscerator
Special Rules: Rage, Rampage, Fleet
1. Animal has lightning fast reactions which provide him with a 4+ invulnerable save
2. Animal must always shoot and/or assault the nearest enemy target within range and sight, even if it is a target he cannot target/hurt.


HERO - 55 points
Profile: Outstanding officer, top of his class and with a first-class record.
Crime: Refused a direct order to lead his men on a pointless and suicidal attack.



WS4 BS4 S3 T3 W3 I3 A2 LD10 Sv4+
Wargear: Lasgun, Laspistol, Close Combat Weapon, Carapace Armour
Special Rules:
1. Any character that is part of the Last Chancers may use Hero's leadership if within "6. In addition, Hero may "look out sir" any character that is part of the Last Chancers within "6 on a roll of a 4+. This cannot be combined with Ox's look out sir special rule.
2. If Hero is killed, he is not removed straight away. Instead he survives another turn, any further damage results on him have no effect. He is then removed instantly at the end of the next playable turn, as if the target was killed.


GREASE MONKEY - 80 points
Profile: Expert mechanic reputed to be able to maintain, drive and repair any Imperial vehicle in the galaxy.
Crime: Stealing the Eldar grav-vehicle belonging to the Ambassador of Iyanden Craftworld.



WS4 BS4 S3 T3 W3 I3 A2 LD8 Sv5+
Wargear: Haywire Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Haywire Grenades
Special Rules:
1. If Grease Monkey is included in the Last Chancers you may choose to purchase a Chimera or Valkyrie for your army using the points/rules from the Astra Militarium Codex. If this vehicle is chosen it becomes a dedicated transport for which all 12 Last Chancers may be deployed in at the start of the game. Grease Monkey is treated as the drive of this vehicle and cannot leave it until the vehicle is destroyed. This vehicle automatically passes dangerous terrain tests and can move an additional "6 when moving flat out.. If the vehicle is killed, Grease Monkey must take a hit as treated as an escaping passenger from an exploded vehicle, and deployed as normal.
2. Grease Monkey may choose to "hijack" an enemy vehicle within "2 range at the start of his shooting phase if not already driving a vehicle, instead of shooting, on a roll of a 1+. This roll is increased by 1 for every remaining Hull Point the vehicle has, and cannot hijack 6 Hull Points or more vehicles, or Lord of Wars. If he has successfully hijacked this vehicle and is treated as under your control and receives the rules/benefits of above, Grease Monkey is then removed from the board, and returns in the same manner as above. If the vehicle is a transport, any Last Chancer may be allowed to enter it. The vehicle may not act this turn, and will be usable the following turn.
3. Grease Monkey's Haywire Bolt Pistol obeys the normal stats of a Bolt Pistol but the "haywire" special rule is included with it.

I like it. Maybe a little under costed though.

Nice, simple and unique, albeit far undercosted.

Overall great ideas, but as the others have mentioned it's actually quite undercosted, as well as some of the rules being a bit too powerful.

Two things in particular that need a nerf are Ox's berserk ability (as he suddenly becomes immune to bolter fire?) and Grease Monkey, who can potentially hijack a knight or even a titan, and only on a 3+.

In general they're all a bit too durable as well, as the combination of 3 or more wounds, pseudo eternal warrior, stealth and/or shrouded, and FNP makes them potentially more durable than your average marine HQ. Throw in things like Shiv being immune to weapons that can't snap fire (blasts, for example) and it gets a bit silly.

They are nearly a full 1000 point army... I'm assuming they're also a Formation in their own right? Need to assign roles to them though. I suggest;

HQ
Schaeffer

Elites
Brains, Scope, Hero

Troops
Animal, Fingers, Demolition Man

Fast Attack
Shiv, Warrior Woman

Heavy Support
Ox, Rocket Girl, Grease Monkey,

I stopped reading seriously at scope.
He's not far from being as lethal as a freaking vindicare, and I suspect he more durable than one (shrouded, fnp and a level of ID resistance)
For about half the price.

Rocket girl not nearly fair either with her destructive power.
Grease monky...66% to insta-kill any tank in CC range, and gain it for your own side. ANYTHING. a hammerhead. a lard raider. a BANEBLADE.
Demo man..."i got near your team, it dies"
Brains "as if they were not hard enough to kill"
Shivand animal-because chaos lords are weaklings.
"What are sternguard" fingers.

Simple gleaming over the rest sees that they are in general over the top, far more than what is in the end a regular human should be.
Yea, they are good at what they do-but these guys make superhumans like marines, eldar and necrons look bad in comparison.

Forget OTT for what they should be, they also don't pay nearly enough for what they get.

And you can hide any of them, in any squad.
That's just insane.

I don't know what were their original rules, but if this is a loyal translation the original rules were insane, and that's probably whey they gotten dropped.

It's not eve slightly a loyal traslation of the original rules.

Original rules has them as roughly human stat line with a single special rule each, but with a special rule stating that if you use them you can't take anything else.

Slight correction (unless there was an earlier version I missed) Furyou. You could either run them as your army, in which case each model had their own special rules and operated independently, or you could run them as a squad in an IG army, in which case they were a unit and only 1 or 2 kept their special rules (I think it was Schaeffer and Ox).

Bear in mind that their old rules required special missions where you could sneak upto the enemy, taking out sentries silently and then maybe even completing the mission before any of the opponents models became aware (unlikely).
I like the incredibly strong nature of the characters as it would be like playing a game with the expendables. But they are too undercosted and it should have the proviso of being special missions which do not allow you to take any other forces.

Sorry for the delay, been busy. Also let the thread flow a bit

 DoomShakaLaka wrote:
I like it. Maybe a little under costed though.

 Valkyrie wrote:
Nice, simple and unique, albeit far undercosted.

Increased price.

 kingbobbito wrote:
Overall great ideas, but as the others have mentioned it's actually quite undercosted, as well as some of the rules being a bit too powerful.

Two things in particular that need a nerf are Ox's berserk ability (as he suddenly becomes immune to bolter fire?) and Grease Monkey, who can potentially hijack a knight or even a titan, and only on a 3+.

In general they're all a bit too durable as well, as the combination of 3 or more wounds, pseudo eternal warrior, stealth and/or shrouded, and FNP makes them potentially more durable than your average marine HQ. Throw in things like Shiv being immune to weapons that can't snap fire (blasts, for example) and it gets a bit silly.

Reduced Ox's Strength/Toughness gain. When I wrote these rules, I didn't have apolcalypse/lord of wars in mind, have fixed this now. While Shiv not getting blasted/flamed is a bit odd, for game purposes it just makes him harder to hit which is the whole point of his rules.

The Last Chancers in rules ARE stronger than a space marine, but not for fluff reasons obviously. The old rules were fun, but unplayable in any non-limited game. This makes them have a fighting chance against enemies, just don't compare it to human standards.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
They are nearly a full 1000 point army... I'm assuming they're also a Formation in their own right? Need to assign roles to them though. I suggest;

HQ
Schaeffer

Elites
Brains, Scope, Hero

Troops
Animal, Fingers, Demolition Man

Fast Attack
Shiv, Warrior Woman

Heavy Support
Ox, Rocket Girl, Grease Monkey,

Yes, sorry I missed this also, I rushed the draft. Last Chancers are a solo force that can be treated as an ally when mixed with other forces, obeying the Inquisition chart. there is no HQ, just 1 troops which consist of the 3-12 choice.

 BoomWolf wrote:
I stopped reading seriously at scope.
He's not far from being as lethal as a freaking vindicare, and I suspect he more durable than one (shrouded, fnp and a level of ID resistance)
For about half the price.

Rocket girl not nearly fair either with her destructive power.
Grease monky...66% to insta-kill any tank in CC range, and gain it for your own side. ANYTHING. a hammerhead. a lard raider. a BANEBLADE.
Demo man..."i got near your team, it dies"
Brains "as if they were not hard enough to kill"
Shivand animal-because chaos lords are weaklings.
"What are sternguard" fingers.

Simple gleaming over the rest sees that they are in general over the top, far more than what is in the end a regular human should be.
Yea, they are good at what they do-but these guys make superhumans like marines, eldar and necrons look bad in comparison.

Forget OTT for what they should be, they also don't pay nearly enough for what they get.

And you can hide any of them, in any squad.
That's just insane.

I don't know what were their original rules, but if this is a loyal translation the original rules were insane, and that's probably whey they gotten dropped.

You misread the start, twhich explained the point of these (though still certain unbalances). It is overpowered in the sense of regular humans, but the old rules are unplayable and this gives them a fighting chance.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
It's not eve slightly a loyal traslation of the original rules.

Original rules has them as roughly human stat line with a single special rule each, but with a special rule stating that if you use them you can't take anything else.

Above ^

 Happyjew wrote:
Slight correction (unless there was an earlier version I missed) Furyou. You could either run them as your army, in which case each model had their own special rules and operated independently, or you could run them as a squad in an IG army, in which case they were a unit and only 1 or 2 kept their special rules (I think it was Schaeffer and Ox).

Yeah I'm fixing the Independant Character rules, while I knew all the Last Chancers could rubberband together to share the affects, I did not consider this with Allies and other mixed rules. Bit like pseudo-eternal warrior, I will have pseudo-independant character added.

Poly Ranger wrote:
Bear in mind that their old rules required special missions where you could sneak upto the enemy, taking out sentries silently and then maybe even completing the mission before any of the opponents models became aware (unlikely).
I like the incredibly strong nature of the characters as it would be like playing a game with the expendables. But they are too undercosted and it should have the proviso of being special missions which do not allow you to take any other forces.

Well that was just a White Dwarf example, even the game itself pretty much gave advantages to Last Chancers to make certain they had a chance. And yeah, points increased.

I was going to sort out the rules now, but will be updating soon with the changes. I've taken all your notes as well as my own upcoming changes, and while the over-powered human nature of these character will not change, balance will instead be in its place.

Changes:

LAST CHANCERS

- Removed Independent Character special rule
- Total Points overall changed to 1000points.
- Added Criminal Bond special rule:

Criminal Bond
If a model belonging to the Last Chancers is assaulted, any other Last Chancer model within '3 may also join the fight, but each member is treated as its own unit for combat purposes.

- Updated Army information:

Last Chancers count as a seperate force, and can be considered as a section of "Armies of the Imperium" as a force for allies. You can purchase between 3-12 members of the Last Chancers to form an army and each member counts as a Troop Choice (No HQ required), Colonel Schaeffer must always be purchased.

COLONEL SCHAEFFER

- Increased points cost to 125 points (+25)

SCOPE

- Increased points cost to 115 points (+25)

OX

- Increased points cost to 85 points (+15)
- Doubled Strength/Toughness reduced to +2 Strength/Toughness

BRAINS

- Increased points cost to 60 points (+10)

WARRIOR WOMAN

- Increased points cost to 75 points (+15)

ROCKET GIRL

- Increased points cost to 100 points (+25)

FINGERS

- Increased points cost to 45 points (+5)

DEMOLITION MAN

- Increased points cost to 95 points (+10)

SHIV

- Snap Shots are not triggered by blast and/or template weapons

ANIMAL

- Increased points cost to 75 points (+10)

HERO

- Increased points cost to 55 points (+10)

GREASE MONKEY

- Increased points cost to 80 points (+10)
- Grease Monkey's Vehicle Stealing reworked:

Grease Monkey may choose to "hijack" an enemy vehicle within "2 range at the start of his shooting phase if not already driving a vehicle, instead of shooting, on a roll of a 1+. This roll is increased by 1 for every remaining Hull Point the vehicle has, and cannot hijack 6 Hull Points or more vehicles, or Lord of Wars. If he has successfully hijacked this vehicle and is treated as under your control and receives the rules/benefits of above, Grease Monkey is then removed from the board, and returns in the same manner as above. If the vehicle is a transport, any Last Chancer may be allowed to enter it. The vehicle may not act this turn, and will be usable the following turn.

I like this. I actually just got a set of the Last Chancers figures. I figured I'd better while I still can, and yes the ones I just received today are metal - NOT failcast.

Well done.