Along with the Storm Hearths, Vorl Fire Hearths are at the core of a Leading Claw force. Their arms and equipment is similar to that used by the command hearths led by a Nest-mother or War-chief, and their primary weapon – the Vorl plasma projector – is used by Mist Hunters, as well.
Hearth: Vorl maintain strong family and clan ties and a ‘hearth’ is an approximation of their term for a squad. All the members of a hearth live together (around the same ‘hearth’), are related and, mostly, grew up together.
In line with Vorl outlook and philosophy, their plasma projector is designed to be more powerful the more Vorl there are linking together to shoot. On its own – its diffuse mode – it packs a short-ish ranged, SV2 attack. In coalesce mode, multiple Vorl can join together in Fire Teams to produce a single, more powerful strike with an SV of twice the Vorl combining together and at a greater distance; in effect, the teams pour power into the weapon carried by one of their number.
The implications of this are that a Vorl Fire Warrior squad acts as both an infantry squad and a weapon team, depending on what it wants to do at the time.
Fire Team: Some shooting modes allow two to four Vorl in a squad to merge and fire a single shot from one of their number. A squad can split into multiple Fire Teams, so allowing (perhaps) two more powerful shots from one member of each Fire Team. A squad of six Vorl, for example, could form two fire teams of three each (a total of two shots at SV6), or one of two and one of four (giving an SV4 and an SV8 shot), or even three teams of two (giving three shots at SV4).
Normal rules for modes still apply: all troopers firing the same weapon in a squad must use the same mode and at the same target, even if their weapon has the Choose Target rule.
All Vorl warriors also carry an s-sling and nebuliser shells, The s-sling uses suspensor technology but it otherwise similar in effect to a panhuman’s x-sling. The difference is that it fires nebuliser shells, a grenade that combines fractal technology with a ferocious biocide. Hits from nebuliser shells are at SV1 Blast (Breaching SV3) but compound like other grenades and can also be laid as mines.
In close combat, Vorl can fight with all four arms, generating up to two attacks each. Whilst their lower (torsite) arms are strong from the torsite’s brachiation, their upper (cephalite) arms are weak. Furthermore, hitting multile targets is difficult even for Vorl so whilst two attacks are unwieldy (-1 Str) their average Str is 6 (used in full if only one attack is made). However, they often use nebuliser shells, making the attacks deadly (except against Concord troops when they ignore the nebuliser shells due to the hyperlite armour’s excellent resistance to Blast effects).
Vorl armour fields are also designed to be more effective the more Vorl there are to use it. A Vorl’s base Res is the same as a panhuman’s, but their synthesis armour adds a +1 Res bonus per Vorl in the hearth up to a maximum of four. This means that three-strong hearth’s are Res 5(8) whilst larger hearth’s are Res 5(9) – at least until casualties are suffered and the armour field is weakened. This means that Vorl are tough at the start of a battle but after receiving a few hits, they degrade quickly. Indeed, Concord tactical manuals recommend early, high-impact (SV4+) weaponry be used against them from plasma lances and weapon teams!
Hearth leaders, commanders and veteran Vorl in each squad also carry kinetic dampeners and combat arrays. The former projects a weak armour shield like a batter field (only -1 Acc), but only a single dampener field can be used at a time. Combat arrays act much like spotter buddies, allowing a reroll from a single shot in the squad or allowing for OH patch sighting (useful with their s-slings).
A command hearth is similar to a Fire Hearth but has veteran Vorl (Acc 6 and all can take dampeners and combat arrays). A major difference is that a Vorl Nest-mother has the Tough rule, allowing Res rerolls, whilst other warriors and leaders lack such capability, and the bodyguards may sacrifice themselves to save their nest-mother with the Loyal Bodyguard rule.
Stl’s and Assembly
The Fire Warrior .stls will be available on the Nexus (link to location and guide TBA here) for you to download and print off. We recommend fine detail.
Antares Nexus 
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