Obviously, I haven't seen every LoS miniature so I may be completely off base here, but I notice that most miniatures (with a few notable exceptions) tend to be armed with a single weapon; such as the UNE Commandos and Nightmares. While that definitely does streamline the playing of almost any wargame, has there been put any thought into incorporating additional personal weaponry into the game?
For example, any infantry trooper in a modern military today will typically go into a combat zone with at least four or five different weapons on their person. Their first and foremost will be their Rifle, followed by a Sidearm (typically an automatic pistol), a Combat Knife, and then topped off with a few Fragmentation Grenades, Flash-Bangs, or even Incendiary or High-Explosive Grenades.
Legions of Steel definitely goes right by including items of equipment like Force Wall Projectors and K Pulse Grenades that are available to even the most basic troopers, but has their been any thought to include more weapons with their own respective stats and abilities? Consider the inclusion of a combat knife that doesn't have the same killing power as a Blaster Rifle but can be used to make silent kills and/or possibly the ability to be thrown a short distance?
Obviously, the more weapons a miniature is equipped with, the more likely it is that the game becomes bogged-down, but I think there is a balance that can be made between giving a player more tactical options during the course of play and having the flow of the game slow done over decision-making.
Again, not wanting to step on toes but if I were to design the weapon/equipment loadout for a UNE Commando Trooper, I'd do something like this:
Weapon Name Weapon Type
Blaster Rifle (x1) Basic Firearm/2-Handed
Blaster Pistol (x1) Basic Firearm/1-Handed
Combat Knife (x1) Close Combat/1-Handed/Silent Kill (2+)
K-Pulse Grenade (x2) Thrown/1-Handed/Explosive
Force Wall Projector (x1) Positional/1-Handed
In retrospect, we could drop the Pistol from the loadout of the UNE Trooper (the argument could be made the that superior reliability of the Rifle makes a pistol as a back-up firearm redundant), but maybe keep it as an option for UNE Commando Sergeants. Might be cool to have an option to allow Sergeants to swap their Blaster Rifle in exchange for two Blaster Pistols which can be aimed at seperate targets.
And obviously there would be the relevant stat lines for each as well. I've got a few more ideas knocking around in my head regarding weapon loadouts, but that's it for tonight.
I think this looks and sounds great. An axe not only seems more practical but would look great attached to the armour. I think in the future we can do a full kit figure. Would be a good move once we introduce close combat rules in the Advanced edition.