Next up is Snapshot - the old (1979!) Traveller Skirmish box game for combat on board starships. Not really designed for Afghan but we'll see how it goes (think of it as TL8 vs TL7). And having owned it for a while I really wanted to get it out onto the table.
Presentation
I've got the A5 box version, with an A5 Traveller LBB style rule book and a set of deck plans. The core rules probably only take up half a dozen pages and one table. No QRS.
Long out of print, but occasionally on eBay.
Set-Up
The only change to the scenario is that since Snapshot has no concept of "up" (you're in a corridor
dammit) I put all spawn points at ground level, typically wall corners. AK47s and SA80s were treated as Assault Rifles (full automatic), RPG 7 as 4cm RAM, UGL as a downgraded 4cm RAM, and Minimi and PKM as LMG, but without set-up time. Body armour treated as Cloth.
How It Played
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| Sunray down! |
The patrol moved rapidly down the road to the T junction. Cpl Andrews peered round the corner and Wham! the insurgents had rolled again for the RPG7 to be at the first spawn point and Cpl Andrews was blown to bits.
There being no morale or shock issues his team then went into overdrive. His No2 took out both the RPG man and sidekick in a burst of auto-fire. The second Fire team came through and started moving down the street.
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| Clearing the street |
As each insurgent pair spawned the Brits just pre-empted them and in one burst took them out. One other rifleman got hit (unconscious but OK), but otherwise the team cleared the whole street for no further loss!
Rules Impression
Well, wasn't expecting that! I though being an RPG based set the damage model would be quite gentle so my guys could soak some damage John Wayne style. Now it may be that as the insurgents were mostly 777777 goon NPCs they only needed 7 hits to take out, but I was anyway rolling 9+ each time, so most PCs would have been goners too.
The big issues though were:
- Most shots were autohits (i.e. modified targets of 2 or less on 2D6) - short ranges I know but even so
- Most shots got the 7+ to make unconscious first time
- The ability for the higher spec soldiers to pre-empt the lower speck insurgents whenever they tried to activate meant Brit's got first shot, and first shot was 100% on target and 100% deadly - they didn't stand a chance.
I did try and use the "cover" rule (ie watch a hex for movement then fire), but even then as the soldiers were typically only entering arc that was a -3DM, running, so -1 DM and with a 7+ target (as in Cloth armour), had the insurgents needing 10/11+ to hit.
On the plus side at least activation was in reverse ability, so Commanders went last.
And that's apart from no spotting rule!
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| ENDEX |
Overall
I suppose given 1979 this was GDWs first attempt to move beyond the abstract combat rules of the LBB Traveller into something more detailed. The core AP based system is fine, but the hit system includes protection, and has nD6 damage against characteristics, so feels very D&D like.
So overall a bit of a disappointment and really only 1/10.
Will be interesting to see how the following year's Azhanti High Lightning compares!
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