"Expanding the Basic Dirtside Material" Topic

So, I'm working up a set of 6mm figures in a milieu of my own creation, and my strong inclination is to use Dirtside II as the rule set. It will, however, take a little bit of tweaking to make it work with the background. I'm always reluctant to do this, because systems can break with too much pushing and pulling. So I'm trying to have a gentle hand with it. So I'm asking what changes people have successfully made to the system without throwing the balance out of alignment. The basics of the world are a low intensity war on sparsely-populated colony worlds, fought by and between various Slammers-esque mercenary units. The units tend to be smaller and more tactically diverse than in the Slammerverse, though, and there is also a broader and increasingly powerful insurrection which is the backdrop for it, led off by a more advanced group called the Foundationist Movement. The main items I'm considering are:

Anti-Aircraft Missiles and Radar
Additional Movement Modes (Slow/Fast Grav, Jump Infantry, Motorized Infantry)
Additional Weapons (Starting with the powergun from Slammin' the Dirt," though the system is pretty broad in the spread so far)
Oversized or overcharged weapons
Light and Heavy powered armor types

So that's a pretty broad list, I know, but I'm curious to know whether anyone has done any tinkering in that area so far. I've been looking at the various house rules lists out there, as well, but polling he forum seemed like a good idea, too. Any suggestions? Any cautions? Should I just not do it and leave well enough alone?

--M

I've played games when one force was technologically superior and used powergun style weapons (there was a rationale within the mini campaign being played).

One further idea which was planned but never actually tried out was using the Dark Star range which has some very high tech orbital entry tanks and APCs was for every unused build point to translate into additional speed. Our intention was to have a game with VERY fast orbital vehicles in conflict. Not all that many units on the table, but covering a great deal of ground.

Our group also used Dirtside fairly regular at anything up to brigade level. Took a long time, but we had a permanent table and the leisure time back then. It's an extremely intense, bloodbath kind of game with a lot of units on the table.

Don't make weapons too powerful or armour too strong. If you have a powerful weapon the consider giving it a chance to fail (advanced tech can be unreliable).

As for Jump Infantry and various sizes of PA, one of the homebrew rules modifications mentioned in another thread has costings and rules for those. I've used various levels of PA and troop types for my NSL and OUDF – Heavy PA is quite effective, but the use of Jump Infantry and such is once again like all infantry, it depends on how you apply them tactically.

AA Missiles I tend to apply as ZAD of various levels and that seems to work well enough as is. What effect are you looking for that the rules lack at present?

How might you cost out an ADS based on an anti-aircraft missile? In Dirtside II ranges, I think it'd be like a high-tech Chapparal or Strela and would work like a GMS/H useable only against aircraft, but it would lose its missile-intercepting capabilities, unless it had a gun attached as well… would you size it the same way, given that it would have to have a radar attached? That is highest in my mind, I admit, because all the forces I'm planning at the moment have a lot of aerospace assets that need shooting at, like V/STOLs, Fighters, Bombers and Dropships.

As for Fast/Slow Grav, I basically thought that Slow Grav would work like the equivalent of Slow GEV, costing 80% BVP. At least that's what it looks like. The other infantry types are a bit of a puzzler at the moment, and I have to look more carefully at that.

And for new weapons, they don't strictly speaking NEED to be there for the game, but I'm kind of looking ahead – The broad classes of weapon are pretty good but may be just a tad TOO generic. Although modern warfare is pretty much all HVC and RFAC anyway, so why should I worry, I guess. I just got the Powerguns in my head and wondered what else might be possible without busting the game, or as the Major says above, making things too powerful, lest gun creep enter the fray: "My Super-Duper-New KillGun attacks your Triple-Super Defense Armor…"

Maybe I'm jumping the gun on the latter point.

--M

Simplest way to make an ADS system, if we look at something like the multiple vehicle systems, would be to treat the force as having the radar vehicle as an HQ vehicle with C3, then each missile carrier/launcher vehicle as a separate entity, so that each vehicle firing weapons acts like a single ZAD with overlap for taking on targets. ( Sounds like a new definition of "Simplest" . . . ). The C3 vehicle would under this idea, be the only vehicle that would be visible with the "Targeting Systems On" marker, so it would be a very visible target: If it was hit, the other vehicles migt revert to LAD to demonstrate the lack of long-range targeting.

I'm not sure why you would do this, given that under the current rules, each ADS or ZAD vehicle has all the radar and target equipment on board for tackling air vehicles, and they do so __Very_ effectively – DS2 is strongly biased toward ground combat so all but the fastest Aerospace craft make superb targets. Have you had difficulty in knocking down air threats in your games?