N18 Enforcers as a "neutral" element and how to balance them

[ten_kage]

Hey everybody!
Due to the lockdown restrictions that still affects my country, I have resorted to start a 2 Player campaign with my brother.

We play on a map that is composed of 12 territories, including the 2 gangs' hideout. We decided, to spice up the thing a bit, to have a patrol of Enforcers moving casually on the map, possibly intercepting our gangs and/or trying to take back control of the territories we have conquered. At the start of each campaign week, after the regular gangs have launched their challanges, we roll a d12 and determine where on the map the enforces will appear. If it is a territory already taken by one of the gangs, the other player will play as the enforcers.

All sounded pretty solid on paper, but we are now halfway trough our second campaign week and both our gang value have already swollen enormously and the cops have not caught us even once yet.
Initially we created a patrol worth 1200 credits, but we fear that, by the time they will be able to catch on us, they will a little more than a nuisance.

My question is: given the premises, can you think of a better way to use the enforcers as a "neutral" force in a 2 players campaing?
Also, what will a good 1200+ creds Enforcer patrol will look like? we have toyed a little with the list, but, since they have yet to come under the spot-light in the campaign, we are still on time to make any amendment to the list.

The two player gangs are Escher and Van Saar if this make any difference.

 

[KA7777]

I use neutral NPC gangs in my campaigns. They're not quite the same as what you're looking for, but maybe you can adapt the system or pilfer some ideas.

Basically, at the start of the campaign the arbitrator creates one or several non-player gangs. Each of these gangs "owns" one or several of the territories involved in the campaign. In order for these territories to become available to the actual human players, they need to challenge and defeat the NPC owner (with the NPC gang being played by any other campaign participant who is available & interested). The NPCs don't issue challenges of their own, or accrue new territories, but they do get the standard post-game income and shopping opportunities that any other gang would get.

I usually start the NPC gangs at a higher credit level than the players' 1000 credit gangs, in order to make them more of a mid-campaign challenge than someone you'd rock up to on game one. Like, say, 1500 or 1750 credits. This gives room for the NPC gangs to have thicc roster size, higher tier gear, and maybe even a brute.

I find this system provides a lot of great qualities:

1. more diverse opponents for the human players in a campaign with small player count

2. a different, more ruthless playstyle for everyone to experience -- whoever is control the NPC gang in a game can go full steam without having to worry about long term consequences. No voluntary bottling here! It's both interesting to wield a gang like that and interesting to try to beat a gang like that.

3. it can slow down every player from rushing to their preferred House territories, since some of those territories might be NPC-gated instead of starting unoccupied

If you want to keep your own system intact but ensure NPC involvement, you could make the Enforcers a persistent element on the map. So, they would spawn in a random location to begin with, but then they would make a "move" after any game is completed, in the direction of the nearest occupied territory. Doing that would mean that they inevitably wind up one of your doorsteps (and I suppose if they're defeated they respawn anew).

 

[Ironside83]

Hey everybody!
Due to the lockdown restrictions that still affects my country, I have resorted to start a 2 Player campaign with my brother.

We play on a map that is composed of 12 territories, including the 2 gangs' hideout. We decided, to spice up the thing a bit, to have a patrol of Enforcers moving casually on the map, possibly intercepting our gangs and/or trying to take back control of the territories we have conquered. At the start of each campaign week, after the regular gangs have launched their challanges, we roll a d12 and determine where on the map the enforces will appear. If it is a territory already taken by one of the gangs, the other player will play as the enforcers.

All sounded pretty solid on paper, but we are now halfway trough our second campaign week and both our gang value have already swollen enormously and the cops have not caught us even once yet.
Initially we created a patrol worth 1200 credits, but we fear that, by the time they will be able to catch on us, they will a little more than a nuisance.

My question is: given the premises, can you think of a better way to use the enforcers as a "neutral" force in a 2 players campaing?
Also, what will a good 1200+ creds Enforcer patrol will look like? we have toyed a little with the list, but, since they have yet to come under the spot-light in the campaign, we are still on time to make any amendment to the list.

The two player gangs are Escher and Van Saar if this make any difference.

Simplest solution would be to generate an Enforcer Gang to roughly equivalent credits when they do run into you.

Alternatively... let them be more mobile, increasing the number of territories they patrol in any given campaign round.

 

[Punktaku]

You could split the Enforcer gang into two patrols so that they check two territory every round. When you encounter one patrol, the other patrol becomes ORB style reinforcements (do these exist in N17 games with sentries? Are there sentries in N17 games?!?) that show up as the game progresses.