Writing Units
A unit is a pre-built enemy at a specific tier, and this is the biggest departure from the tabletop game's GM toolkit.
No building at the table
In the original, the GM assembles an NPC from a class, optional systems, a tier and templates. That is a fine authoring workflow and a terrible play-time one for a narrating GM — combinatorics mid-fight is exactly where an AI drifts.
So every unit file is already resolved. Its numbers are final. Its templates are baked in and listed for reference. The GM reads the sheet and plays it.
If you want an Elite version of something, that is a second file, not a modifier applied live.
Calibration
Roughly, by role:
| Role | T1 HP | Armour | Evasion | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Striker | 15 | 1 | 8 | speed 4–6 |
| Controller | 12 | 1 | 6–8 | sensors 15+, high e-defense |
| Artillery | 10 | 0 | 6 | sensors 20, FAR weapons, slow |
| Defender | 18 | 2 | 5 | size 2, speed 3 |
| Support | 12 | 1 | 8 | high e-defense |
Tier 2 adds roughly +3 HP, +2 evasion, +2 save target and one damage step. Tier 3 adds the same again. Attack bonuses run +1 / +2 / +3.
Grunts have 1 HP and 1 structure. Elites take two turns per round and get +1 structure and +1 stress. Ultras get +5 HP, +3 structure, +3 stress, two turns, and roll structure and overheating checks taking the highest die rather than the lowest.
Most units should have 1 STRUCTURE and die at 0 HP. Structure is a signal that something is a set-piece.
The tactics field is not optional
tactics is the single most important field on the type, and it is why the bestiary works.
Write it as direction to the GM: what this unit wants, which zone it fights for, what it does when it is hurt, when it runs, and what the players are supposed to learn from fighting it. Two or three paragraphs.
Without it, every enemy plays identically — walk forward, attack the nearest target — because that is the default behaviour of anything asked to run a fight it has no opinion about. @Missing file wants to hold a zone alongside another mech. @Missing file wants a duel and will ignore the objective to get one. That difference lives entirely in tactics.
Give them a reason to be there
A unit that only has statistics is a target. Write the appearance for the moment the players first see it come over the ridge, and give it a faction where one applies. The best enemies in this bestiary are recognisable before their statblock is.