"GURPS Mass Combat" Topic

Over at the Steve Jackson Games website, I found this product link and thought it might be of interest to TMPers:

GURPS Mass Combat … presents a powerful abstract system that lets you resolve land, sea, and air battles at any tech level. Features include:

* Rules for logistics, movement, reconnaissance, and many other things that matter to a military force even when no enemy is in sight.
* Integral treatment of air superiority, amphibious assaults, airborne troops, sieges, and everything else that's important when the enemy is in sight.
* Round-by-round resolution that puts the commander in control, letting him choose his strategies and instantly see the results of his skill and cunning.
* Equal attention to the aftermath of battle: pursuit, casualties, looting, recovering losses, and more.

Does anyone have this product? Does it sound like it might make a decent wargame on its own?

GURPS has had mass combat rules available since the Horseclans sourcebook… I wonder if these derive from the same or are something new… looks kind of cool.

Sounds like a major expansion of the rules since the Horseclans days (and I ought to know!).

Gurps Compendium 2, had an expanded mass combat beyond that which was included in the horseclan Supp.

I am ordering this title this morning. I'll let you know what I think by the end of the day.

My hope is it is an expanded version of that which was available in the CII, which basically was the resolution of battles with a half a dozen die rolls. That is how I remember it anyway. It was not a miniature game by any means.

The "Gurps mass combat" is an update from Compendium II. It appears to be well done, logical and a thorough treatment of warfare at any tech level up to the near future. It could easily be adapted to higher tech levels.

"Gurps mass combat" uses mathematical abstractions coupled with a handful of die rolls to resolve battles. Overall it is a nice, light product for resolving RPG conflicts or a system that could be tweaked to better handle battles such as ones represented in "Empires of the Middle Ages", "King of Kings" or other games in which combat is secondary to political intrigue or empire building. There are many tactical decisions that affect the outcome, so intelligent player input and strategy is rewarded.

Unless its changed radically from 3E, be aware that its not a tactical system at all. It simply addresses what happens to the battle and the characters. Given the forces, circumstances, leaders, and character choices it tells you who won, if and how badly the characters were hurt, and whether they were conspicuously brave and were noticed, and so on. It has a great set of inputs and outputs, so the battle will be exciting and interactive in that sense.

I find it very cool, but its not a tactical game, in case that's what anyone was hoping for.

Andrew

I always wondered why sj never did a mass combat minis game for GURPS.

Inquisitor Thaken,

My guess is that there was no upside financially in it for him…His company has lasted because it is one of the few RPG companies that has always adapted to the times. He was always the first to lay people off, (friends included) get lean and mean when times called for it and go where the market led him.

RPG's are down so he now focuses on all Muchkin games etc. He has lasted longer than most gaming companies I know of because unlike most RPG gaming business leaders, he treats it like a business, with a constant eye on the bottom line. Name another company that has been around 30 some odd years? You gotta admire his tenacity and business acumen.

Love em or hate him….he is a survivor.

Inquisitor Thaken: They didn't create one for GURPS, but SJgames was working on a generic miniatures game for a while called Hot Lead. They never released it because Steve couldn't get it to his standard of quality. :/

They also have the decency to hire proper editors for the books. An area where a lot of gaming companies tend to not bother