"USA vs ISIS with homebrewed rules" Topic

Hi all, sorry I haven't been terribly active on these boards. I wanted to let you know about a solo playtest I've been reporting on another forum, using my own one-page rules that I just published on that forum.

AAR: link

Rules: link

Good read! Thanks for the AAR! :)

From the AAR it sounds like the Bradley crews entered a BUA known to be hostile unbuttoned. with out close support by dismounts i just dont think thats likely to happen…

Thanks for the comment, trance. You can certainly add rules for being buttoned up if you like. I prefer to abstract that to save time (and I don't have nearly the knowledge of these things that you do, so ignorance is bliss).

And while the Rangers were mounted when they entered the area, I'd say they were closely supported by the Deltas. The first enemy vehicle was nearly totaled by a Delta's recoilless rifle by the time the first Bradley saw it.

I'll admit, most of my scenarios are fantasy due to lack of knowledge and research. I don't even know if ISIS has any BMPs.

josta59, I gave your rules a quick look through and they seem like they'd be simple and fun, I'll have to give them a try.

How many shots do you allow a single figure to make in a turn? I'm thinking something along the lines of elite troops facing off against a horde of poorly equipped troops.

The penalties for shooting at elite figures will help survivability, but I feel like elite units could use the ability to fire at two or more targets per turn (either just by using their activation points or by paying 1 for 2 shots). The note about using a "Fired" marker makes me think each figure can only fire once per turn.

Another possibility would be to penalize the "irregular" side's activation roll so that even with a larger number of figures the amount of effective fire per turn will be similar. This might be more elegant.

Hey, thanks for the interest and for your thoughtful comments, swammeyjoe. I hope you find something you like here. I read here yesterday that some people really hate hit/strength points in wargames, but I've enjoyed them in the past and am really liking them now.

This AAR attempted just what you're wanting to do, putting highly elite soldiers against lots of bad guys, though the baddies weren't so poorly equipped, making it pretty tough. I even increased the DRM to -2 for my highly elite targets. So that's something you could try if you want.

In Showers of Blood, I abstract the firing "action" and pay no mind to actual number of shots fired. I'm only interested in the results so I can move on to the next action. I considered multiple targets and found it easier to use the one shooter, one target rule per firing action. Since there's a lot of back-and-forth with opp fire and return fire, there are plenty of bullets to go around, and there's plenty to keep track of already. I got burned out on another game with arcs of fire and multiple reactions and just wanted something simpler. So yes, the Fired marker means one firing action per turn, though all figures can still return fire, and many can opp fire if they don't have a Fired marker and then can fire again later in the turn.

My thought for multiple targets (with a SAW, for example) was just to take the die result from the table and apply it similarly to grenades. First target gets the full damage, next guy in line gets half, etc. If you wanted to use all three d6 and apply them individually for increased randomness, that's certainly an option too.

But I really like your ideas about applying activation points, too. That could definitely work, and then even a guy with a pistol could fire twice in one firing action. Brilliant.

The irregular side is already penalized on activation a bit because the elites get to roll for activation twice and take the higher result. Unfortunately I found that rule very hard to remember in this playtest (you'd think with such a short set of rules I could remember them all, especially having written it myself!). I might've been more successful had I remembered it. So thanks for reminding me!