Mechanically, when a Hammer/Anvil/Forged Lord needs a vehicle or group of vehicles that isn’t on his sheet, does he or she just get it at the appropriate level for their affiliation (1D, 2D, or 3D)?
Using the Circles benefit to get you minor functionaries in the first 8 LPs might get you some Anvil sleds, but not Hammer craft as far as I can figure. Presumably a Hammer Lord will have his own craft, but if he needs more is he owed the support due to his station or does he have to Circle up some fellow Hammer Captains?
You’ll need to circles them up if you don’t have a Gang-or-Crew relationship with them. The first 8 Hammer LPs and the first 5 Anvil LPs get you everything needed for a basic combat fire team. To have attack sleds and cruisers and stuff will need a circles roll or the afore mentioned Gang-or-Crew relationship.
The “free stuff for free” bits that Lords get is so you can quickly put together anything that you’d need for a basic combat force. Not being able to get a Hammer Captain or LP Hammer without a (fairly easy) circles roll mostly has to do with the logistics and work needed to bring cruisers to bear. The assumption is that you can snap your fingers and have a FireCon Tech right there, whereas captains are busy with their ships and have politics to deal with.
That works for me, I just felt like I might be missing something and I don’t want to screw the players (or the Vaylen) out of something they are supposed to have access to. It’s a little hard to wrap your head around the idea that you’re in charge of the Hammer for a planet but you need to make Circles and Resources tests to bring arms to bear. But I can definitely see the balance perspective and all it can bring to the story to have more NPCs enter the fiction and possibly affect the direction of the story in interesting ways.
Exactly. And it’s not that hard of a circles test as well, if your Hammer Lord has a good affiliation and reputation with the Hammer, you’re looking at something like 8 dice against a test of around ob 3 (base plus Higher/Lower station and probably Competent). The other thing that making it a circles test does is let you know how the guy likes you. Pass and he’s totally loyal to the Hammer Lord, fail and you can emnity clause it so that while he is available, he wants your position, or is unhappy about something. Makes it interesting!