While Interceptor pilots get all the glory, and Grav Tank crews get all the grunt respect, it is the lowly Infantry member that remains the most fundamentally important part of battlefield operations. Interceptors and Grav tanks may clear the way, but it is the women and men on the field itself, on terra firma, who can actually hold the ground. Moreover, as part of the total combat team, a well positioned infantry platoon can wreck havoc amongst the enemy's forces, spotting units and painting shields or launching surprise attacks against lead columns, rearward artillery and supply reserves.

Unfortunately, dismounted infantry continues to be the most susceptible assets on the modern battlefield. While mobility, size, dispersion and first-strike capabilities reduce their vulnerability, they are still very soft targets, especially with the proliferation of anti-personnel weapons carried by vehicles today. Though REMOTEs, heavier mortars and better equipment has begun to improve their survival chances (a harder hit and a faster retreat) much was still needed to be done. Major General Edward Smythe continued to push for new funding into Infantry based projects. Due to the high cost and time involved in manufacturing Grav Tanks, the Commonwealth and Renegade forces possess a lot of infantry units, and count on them heavily. It would be criminal, Smythe argued, not to invest in this vital combat asset, not to mention in the people of one's own realm.

Thus began the Commonwealth Institute for the Research into Infantry Tactics and Technologies, or CIRITT (pronounced 'sih-rit'). The institute's mandate was to look into all aspects of the infantry's operations, devising new assault strategies and, of course, new weapons and equipment. The institute proved a marked success, with their REMOTE design emerging just 8 months after its conception. The institute's second technological breakthrough came 20 months later, with the development of what they dubbed Heavy Infantry Combat Armour.

The team working on the new armour suits were looking for a way to fully augment the power and protection available to the individual soldier, without sacrificing the mobility they already possessed. Their solution was to take an already widely used technology and apply it in an unusual and novel fashion. Borrowing the idea inherent in boosters, the team created what amounts to a powered exoskeleton; essentially, a large, full-body booster wrapped in armour. Of course, the new suit doesn't allow for amazing feats of strength like throwing tanks around with one hand or anything, but the power-assisting servos do allow for much heavier weights to be carried, negating and reducing the added load to manageable levels. With this extra capacity, infantry members with the new HICA suits are able to carry more protection and heavier weapons than they ever could before.

In combat, Heavy Infantry units have many advantages. Foremost, their heavier armour makes them far more resilient to damage. It takes two points of damage (as indicated on the Infantry Damage Table) to kill a trouper in Heavy Infantry Armour. For each point of damage that strikes the platoon, roll 1d10 to determine which infantry member was hit (re-rolling 9s or 0s). The first point of damage is marked as a slash ( \ ) in the infantry member's status box, while the second point kills him. (Blacken in their box) For purposes of determining the strength of the platoon, wounded soldiers perform their duties without hindrance.

The power-assisted nature of their armour also allows the unit to carry heavier weapons. IWF factors are higher for heavy infantry--see the Heavy Infantry IWF table below. Each member of a heavy infantry platoon also carries a TVLG with them. If the platoon is a mortar unit, it carries 2 mortar tubes and two TVLGs. A REMOTE-carrying platoon carries one REMOTE, fitted with 6 TVLGs or three SMLMs, and two standard infantry TVLGs. HICA equipped Engineering Platoon carries 8 charges and 6 ABSs with them, and it takes but two members to set a charge. A Medium Mortar Heavy Infantry platoon still only carries one mortar, but gains more ammo, one TVLG, and it suffers no movement penalties. All heavy infantry units have 3 bounce MPs. There are some disadvantages, however. While the armour suits carry a larger energy reserve, as a whole a heavy infantry unit has less endurance. This could come into play during long operations or in campaign games. As well, the powered nature of their suits make heavy infantry impossible to conceal, unless they shut down. If a unit is concealed like so, they must spend one turn powering up before they can move or attack. During this turn, all units get a free chance to detect them, and do so on a 7 or less on a d10. Lastly, no TVLG reloads can be stored on an APC carrying a heavy infantry platoon.

Heavy Infantry costs 5 scenario points, and follow all other standard rules for infantry.

Testing of the new suits was intensive, but proceeded very smoothly. Within months of its unveiling, the HICA was being mass produced and shipped to units across the Alaric theatre for integration. Heavy Infantry Platoons have already seen action, and by all reports, have been nothing but terrifyingly effective on the battlefield. Furthermore, it appears as though TOG has yet to realize just what they are facing, giving Renegade and Commonwealth commanders a golden opportunity to launch surprise offensives with their new 'super-infantry' teams spearheading the assault.

	Heavy Infantry Effectiveness Table
	Squad Strength Weapons Damage Template Used TVLGs Available Mortars Available 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 12 9 9 7 7 5 4 2 DEAD MDC12 IWF9 IWF9 IWF7 IWF7 IWF5 NPC4 2xIWF1 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 0

TOG employs a system of Penal Infantry Auxilia to deal with disruptive elements in its legions. Those found guilty of a misdemeanour are reassigned to a Penal Infantry Auxilia for 1 campaign. Any that survive are once more reassigned, this time to a completely new unit. Casualty rates for Penal Auxilia vary between 90% and 99%.

Infantry Movement

Penal Infantry are always foot troops with movement of 1.

Mounted Infantry

Penal Infantry are sometimes assigned Aclys wheeled APCs. In this case the whole squad of 10 can fit in the vehicle's single infantry compartment (Penal infantry have lighter armour, less equipment and are expected to be uncomfortable). They are never mounted in a Grav APV. However, they are commonly carried into combat mounted on the outside of their assigned century.

Infantry Heavy Weapons

Penal Infantry are not trusted with anti-vehicle rockets and the stand-off firepower of mortars is not suitable to an assault style unit. Instead they are equipped with tripod mounted Heavy Assault Rifles, known affectionately as 'Kess Crushers'. These weapons have a range of 6, do IWF7 damage and are affected by vehicle shields.

Infantry Damage

Because Penal Infantry are expendable troops and are not issued with standard infantry armour, any anti-infantry fire gets a bonus of 2 on the infantry damage table.

Infantry Morale

Penal Infantry never add their centurion's Leadership rating to morale rolls. They are always counted as regular. However, if a Penal Infantry squad is withdrawing, the TOG Player may fire at them with an MP unit. The result of this is to grant the squad an attempt to rally, with a +1 modifier for each casualty taken! If a penal infantry squad ever rolls a natural 10 on a morale check, the squad stops where it is and engages the nearest MP unit in its most efficient manner.

Scenario Points

A squad of penal infantry costs 1 Scenario Point.

Operational Game

Penal Infantry cannot be taken as part of your core force.

In any scenario when you are the attacker, you may take a century of Penal Infantry, with a Nisus-S MP tank (See below) as support. This costs 18 points. A century may be mounted in a supporting unit of Aclys Ground APCs at an additional 18 points. After the scenario only the vehicles must be repaired or replaced: the infantry is expendable. If a Nisus-S is destroyed or takes any crew casualties, the Penal Legion officers (who are not convicts) refuse to work with you again and you can no longer take Penal Infantry units as support.

Penal Infantry Effectiveness Table
Squad Strength Template Used HARs Active 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 IWF9 IWF9 IWF7 IWF7 IWF5 IWF5 IWF3 IWF3 IWF1 IWF1 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 0 0

Name:                         Nisus-S
Class:                        Light Grav MP Tank
Cost:                         878,650
Mass:                         129
Engine:                       1300
Thrust:                       9
Scenario Points:              9
Infantry Squad:               No
Digging Cannon:               Yes
 
Shields:    Front:            50
            Right:            40
            Left:             40
            Stern:            40
            Bottom:           20
 
Armour:     Front:            50
            Right:            40
            Left:             40
            Stern:            40
            Bottom:           20
            Turret:           40
 
Weapons:    Type              Location           Range           Damage
            50mm              Turret               6                T
            AP Laser          Turret               3                S
            AP Laser          Hull 1               3                S
            AP Laser          Hull 2               3                S

The Kessrith, like all the starfaring races, employ units of armoured bounce infantry in their ground forces. However, their unusual physiology and combat tactics mean that they need to be represented in a slightly different way in the Centurion game. Unless otherwise stated below, kessrith infantry functions in all ways like normal bounce infantry.

Infantry Movement

Even equipped with bounce packs, kessrith are bulky and slightly ungainly beings. This, together with their heavier armour, restricts their movement on the battlefield. A kessrith infantry counter can thus move only 2 hexes per movement phase.

Mounted Infantry

Each unit of kessrith, with its heavier armour and equipment, takes up twice the space of an equivalently sized humanoid unit. This means that an APC with a standard sized infantry compartment can only carry 4 kessrith infantry. If deployed in this fashion, each "demi-squad" starts with 4 troopers but does not count as having taken casualties.

If deployed in and from a larger APC, one infantry squad may be carried for each two infantry compartments. (A Trojan Horse can carry only one squad, the third infantry compartment being assumed to carry spare gear etc.)

Kessrith infantry cannot be carried on the outside of a Grav vehicle.

Infantry Heavy Weapons

Kessrith are known for their dislike of missiles and indirect fire weapon in general. This means that no kessrith infantry squad can carry TVLGs (or REMOTES) or mortars (light or medium). Instead a squad of 8 troopers is equipped with two heavy semi-portable lasers. As these weapons require three crew to operate, use the light mortar column of the infantry effectiveness table to determine how many can fire in any particular turn. Each laser does 4 points of damage if it hits and has a range of 20 hexes.

Infantry Casualties

Kessrith infantrymen are not only larger and tougher than their human equivalents but are also more heavily armoured. The effect of this is to make them more difficult to kill. When shooting at a squad of kessrith infantry, subtract an additional two from the dice roll to determine casualties caused as well as any relevant terrain modifiers.

Scenario Points

A squad of 8 kessrith costs 4 scenario points. A squad of 4 kessrith deployed in a small APC cost 2 scenario points. A squad of kessrith foot infantry (Move 1) costs 3 scenario points.