Brian J. Phillips' article "Tuning Up Your Armies" in SHADIS #16 contained a large number of ways in which a game master (GM) could. beef up non-player character (NPC) to provide a challenge to increasingly powerful player characters. It inspired me to come up with a few additional ideas based on gaming experiences. Our local hobby shop owner, used to run micro armor games where each side would have some surprises to spring on an opponent. Would there be Tiger tanks hidden in haystacks? Carpet bombing? How about that guy who could make incredible. shots with a bazooka? Stuff like that makes it really fun, so I offer the following for GMs and refereees for miniatures combat, as special events and capabilities that can be used to spice up a tabletop battle or a role-playing campaign. The ideas are designed to be generic enough to be used for any time period or genre. As before, a deck of cards can be used to make a choice. However, the equipment and miscellaneous categories have been combined. The format includes a new category, Blunders (hearts), since mistakes in war are mor e common than successes. For an RPG, pick one or more cards from diamonds, clubs and spades for the NPCs. For a miniature battle pick one or two for each side. Blunders can be imposed on the PCs or different sides as the GM sees fit More Armies on the March Introduction Diamonds: Tactics Clubs: Equipment and Miscellaneous Hearts: Blunders Spades: Personnel Back to Shadis #21 Table of Contents Back to Shadis List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1995 by Alderac Entertainment Group This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com