"Striker II Quick Reference Sheet?" Topic

I was looking over this rulebook a bit today, and have downloaded the various errata and QRS' for the 1st Edition of Striker, but I didn't see one for Striker II.

There are also some overviews for Striker III, and Striker V, but no mention of Striker IV, so I'd be interested in any development on those fronts as well, since the references to them seem to be a bit dated. Not sure if anyone is working on them actively.

Granted, there are a couple of pages of a QRS in the back of the book, but they don't cover a lot, and aren't laid out the best, so I was wondering if anyone has created a QRS, or has run across a decent one for Striker II?

If so, and you are willing to point me in the right direction, or to share, that will be greatly appreciated.

Forms for troops and vehicles, that just have the minimum data needed for battle would also be useful. Given some of the speeds and ranges, I doubt I will be needing to keep track of radio ranges for the various units, at the tactical level, etc.

I'm especially interested in the D20 To-Hit values for infantry (11 or less at short range for some; 13 or less for others, so I suspect a Tech Level mod is in use for those), at various tech levels, etc., for the high end of the Tech Level scale, e.g. TL 12 – 15, and primarily using energy weapons.

There are some examples in the book, but most seem to be for mid to low tech troops, and/or for Zhodani. I didn't see any for the Imperial Marines, using Fusion Guns, and Plasma Guns, but maybe I just missed them.

Also, any other tips to pull all the scattered info together, to aid play would be appreciated.

consolidated TNE errata
dmckinne.winterwar.org/trav.html

Striker II errata starts on page 43
a QRS is a the end of the doc

Imperial Troops
Striker II pages 138 – 142

How are those rules? I've been meaning to pick them up. I've got an old Snapshot box set, which are the naval boarding rules. I figured there would be some similarities with Striker.

> I figured there would be some similarities with Striker.

From what I have read, NOTHING like the original (never owned Striker 1). They are most like the Command Decision rules scaled down to stands of 4 men rather then platoons.

Snapshot is CT book 1 combat on a grid

Striker I uses Azhanti High Lightning combat
on a larger scale
expanded with command and control

Striker II is Command Decision modified for SciFi

Thanks for the info, and reference links.

I'll check them out.

Striker III looks to be interesting as well. Surprised they plan to go back to the 2D6 model, but know a lot of people prefer 6-sided dice.

Hi,

I'm a dedicated S-II player and fan. That said, you've stumbled upon some of the less good aspects. You are limited to the stats and vehicles in the back of the book unless you also obtain the Traveller TNE supplement "Fire, Fusion & Steel" which will let you design ( in excruciating detail ) everything and anything from pistols to plasma-breathing flying behemoths.

They didn't do spreadsheets back in the day for FF&S, but they really make all the difference. With the spreadsheet I use, it takes a max of five minutes to design anything. By hand with calculator you're looking at hours.

If you're just dabbling, try the scenarios in the back of the book ( corrected with the errata linked to above ) and see how you go. You won't need FF&S. Here is a refight we did of one of the scenarios… link

I fight in 6mm, because it just feels and looks better to me, but you can just as well do 15mm and just put two figures on a normal stand and one figure on a command stand.

If you like it, I can help with designing stuff for you, or provide the spreadsheet if you get into FF&S.

As an afterthought, if you're just playing near-future you could do a lot worse than obtaining the equipment books for GDW's Twilight 2000 v2.2 ( not earlier versions though, as they are a different rating system ) . I have them and they're a goldmine for equipment.

Fire away with any questions.

Thanks for the kind offer.

I really appreciate it, and might take you up on that, should the need arise.

Right now though, I'm just content with trying to get my head wrapped around the rules, and in reviewing some of the vehicle and troop stats provided in the game. With all the details, it seems a bit overwhelming, but no doubt, by just choosing a few troop types and vehicles, that should be reduced considerably.

I'm primarily interested in the high tech levels of the spectrum, so will probably pit Imperials vs. Zhodanis, or others in straight up armored, combined arms, and/or infantry battles at first. Not sure if I will add in any psionics, but might keep that as a rare, occasional event for color, if it can be done without throwing a total wrench into the scenarios.

I have FF&S somewhere, but never used it either.

5 minutes, or so, per vehicle design sounds reasonable for designing them. I'd even go with 15 – 30 minutes too, but don't want to spend hours on them, which is what I think kept the previous editions from being more widely accepted, and used.

Not enough good vehicle examples, and too much time to develop them for the average user.

The spreadsheet aid should be a big help with that.

I can see where 6mm makes a lot of sense, especially given the movement rates of the vehicles. I agree, it's probably the best scale option, for many games.

However, I think some smaller 15mm scenarios can be run reasonably well, given a decently sized table, and by paring down the time scale a little, e.g. perhaps to 1 minute turns instead of 5 minute ones.

I'll take a look at your battle report, and appreciate your sharing that as well.

Ah, I've been on your blog before, and enjoyed all of the various write ups and pics of your 6mm battles.

I do have a question for you, e.g. are the very high tech, rectangular gray, grav tanks shown in the first and fourth pics of "Another Struggle on Denotam" scratch-built, or a commercial models?

If the latter, do you know who makes them, and what they are called?

I really like the looks of them.

Here's a link to the page I'm talking about, that has the pics on it:

link

I think there are at least two of these in your game (possibly three, or more), and they look to me to be heavy, or super heavy, high-tech grav tanks, that may perhaps have been scratch-built out of styrene, sanded to shape, wood, or other materials.

Not sure if they are supposed to be Z-80's, or Imperial tanks.

I really like the design, from what I can see, and would love to see some more closeup images of it/them, if you have any to share, from different angles.

:-) The grav tanks are from the Scotia sci-fi line. They are in the Imperial Star Forces section and are part number MS0001 called "Hyper Speed Tank XT-T1". They are 60p.

Like you, I love the look of them for a Traveller universe TL14-15 grav tank.

Scotia have a huge line of very reasonably priced sci-fi vehicles, and it is a great pity that they do not have photos on their website. A bit like some of the GZG 6mm stuff, I firmly believe they would get better sales if only they put a picture up (even just a single big high resolution picture of all the miniatures lined up). But presumably that is too much trouble.

The stats blocks in S-II seem more complicated than they really are. As you've already worked out, you can safely ignore the comms ranges. And for everything except high tech vehicles for sighting all you have to remember is that short range is 20 inches, and double that for each additional range band out to a maximum of 180 inches (usually the planetary horizon is shorter than this anyway!). For high tech vehicles, a quick cheat is just to assume that all tabletop sighting distances are within the short range band of their optics (unless you are playing on the floor of a gym!).

There is absolutely no reason why you can't run any of the scenarios with 15mm figures. The original game was for much bigger miniatures! As long as you have enough 15mm stuff it will play just the same.

Thanks for the info on the minis.

I really appreciate it.

Do they also manufacture any other, sleek looking, high-tech vehicles like that, which might be useful with them as well, e.g. IFVs, APCs, scout vehicles, missile tanks or tank hunters, fire support vehicles, etc.?

I'm loath to order anything that I haven't seen before, generally, since that can be rather dicey, and lead to a lot of disappointment.

However, in the case of the ones you've shown, it appears there is always a good exception to the rule.

Yea, in re-reading the rules today, I can see where I either need to pare down the turn lengths a bit, or to rent an indoor basketball court (probably can't afford to do that), for gameplay, since at the slow, low level speeds, the grav tank movement is 16.7 FEET per turn (cautious movement, if I am understanding the rules right), and at the more aggressive, rapid advance, they can move 2x that, or 33 feet in a five minute turn.

In travel flight mode, they can pretty much move across my neighborhood block, if I recall correctly, so perhaps the basketball court is a bit too small, afterall.