Presentation
Real old skool - it was our go-to set WW2 skirmish rules in the 70s. 16pp A5 with card cover and very rusty staples!Set-Up
Standard, rules are in cm, so used 1 hex = 5cm as made the maths easier. Just a short game as I knew they weren't really a contender.
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| Wounds mount up but he won't die! |
How It Played
Cpl Hore got to his favourite corner and insurgents opened up from the roof of one of the buildings, and in what would prove to be quite a lucky shot gave him a serious leg wound. He scurried back into cover whilst his fire team, supported by LCpl Wall and his Minimi man. It takes three turns and first magasines running out and four UGL rounds to just take out one of the two gun men (and then only 2 x serious, not dead), with the other escaping unscathed. Wall has sent his grenadier and #2 round the RHS of the building in front to try and get to a higher vantage point, but they get shot at by the PKM team which completely misses them!
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| Gunman on the roof rains fire, but no hits, on the flanking team! |
Rules Impressions
First off, this is meant to be a "write your orders for each man and then move simultaneously" (well it was the 70s). I ditched that for side turns by random initiative. There are very few DMs in use, and as you can see getting hits is hard, kill harder (need 11+ on 2D6 AFTER you have you hit - usually 6 on 1D6). Morale is primarily per man - a roll for almost every action, on movement you go slower (or perhaps faster), on firing you get a -1 or -2 DM, or possibly a +1. Very few DMs on the morale role itself.
On the plus side, the hit location mechanic was simple and not only gives nice extra flavour but can be important (eg Hore being hit on unprotected legs, not on his body armour). Also it does have ammo tracking, but on a magasine=3 bursts/rounds of shooting, rather than per bullet. Both of which I want in my rules.
Overall
In some ways not as bad as I expected, once you rip out the written rules! Overall only 4/10 as written though.
hit location mechanic sounds interesting.. anymore details? Other rulesets have tried this but usually put it on the back end, where after the game you find out it was a leg wound and now he is -1 to move etc.
ReplyDeleteIt's a simple extra D6 role, 1 for each bit of the body, with a second die for the extent of damage - and gets a +DM if the hit location is the head or a -DM if protected. Lower body wounds then impact movement, upper body ones firing.
ReplyDeleteFor my rules I'm toying with the idea of firing at a human size template, then doing hit location, and then applying personal protection AND cover after that - so for instance if you're at a window you might get a hit on the body shape (think Figure 11 target), but if you then role location as legs the legs are actually behind hard cover so you're probably safe. Might help add to the narrative and also all sorts of "is he in or out of cover" arguments!