"Blood Sweat and Tears overview" Topic

I've wriiten the following so I can give a quick overview to any players I manage to convince to try my homebrew set. These fit on 2 sides of A4 -

Ground scale is approx. 1:200

There is no measurement. Everything is done in areas, and eyeballing a ‘Base Width' (BW). A base represents 2-4 men. 3 ‘Kills' removes the base. A Kill isn't necessarily a man dead – he could be wounded, or just too scared to function effectively. Kills subtract from dice rolls where low is bad.

When firing, the effects are resolved when the target activates. Until then the base carries the Fire Points. It can receive fire points multiple times, and they all add up.

Table is divided into AREAS. The smaller the area, the slower the terrain is to move through. Movement is one area at a time.

Range is done by RANGE BANDS. A Rough or Difficult area (up to approx. 15cm a side) is 1 range band – yes, it does mean ranges vary a little depending on line of fire.

Easy movement Areas (approx. 20-30cm a side) are quartered into 4 individual range bands, so firing across a meadow will count as 2, not 1.

Your forces are divided down into individual squads/sections/etc. A group of bases in the same squad is called a UNIT. Each unit has a card in the deck.

You will also have 1 or more LEADERS. They also have a card each. Leaders can activate Units if they are close enough. They also add morale bonuses, and can direct fire.

A Base is ‘In command' if it is a BW from a leader in its chain of command, or a BW from a base in the same chain of command that itself in ‘in command'.

When a Unit's card is drawn, the player states what each base in the unit is doing. Bases then resolve their Fire Points and actions in a set order.

To resolve Fire Points, roll 1d6 per Fire Point. For each result that is equal or more than the ‘To Hit' number of the action, a ‘Hit is scored. For each hit a d6 is rolled, that will give the effects of the hit. 1- No effect, 2-3 pinned, 4-5 Suppressed, 6 – Kill and suppress. Note that the To hit and Result dice are never modified. Modifiers happen to the calculation of fire points to be marked.
 
Actions – Resolve in this order

Hunker Down – hit on 6
After applying results of hits, the base ends its activation – it does nothing.

Rally – hit on a 5+
If no pins or suppresses are caused, it may attempt to rally, reducing pins or suppressions. It may be allowed to fire at reduced effectiveness.

Fire – hit on a 5+
Pinned bases may fire a minus, suppressed bases may not fire.
Calculate fire points and place on targets. Half the Fire points go on the target base, the rest are shared between the target and other bases within a BW. Then apply cover (effects defined by scenario designer)
Undirected fire – Base must fire straight ahead at ‘most obvious' target.
Directed Fire – A leader can nominate a target base for concentrated fire – base may pivot to put target in front.

Move – hit on 4+
Pinned/suppressed bases may not move.
Movement is one area.
Linear terrain between areas may slow or stop movement – effects are described in individual scenario design.

Bases may ‘Reserve Fire' – fire when enemy acts in line of sight.

Units may only Close assault under orders and lead by a leader.

Leaders have two actions – they may give 2 orders, or one order and move (or move then order).

An order can only be given to a base in a BW from the Leader. Other bases in the same unit ‘In command' may carry out the same order. The 2nd order can be to a different unit, or a different base in the same unit.

Units may activate twice – one on their card, one by Leader order.

Leaders a BW from a Base that receives a kill may be killed instead.

When end of turn card is drawn pack is reshuffled, and any units that did not come under fire this turn halve marked Fire Points, or, if none, attempt to rally.

***

And that is really all a new player needs to know.

Some bits of it are so quick, I sit there waiting for the resolution, then realise I need to turn a card! The only thing that can take time is distributing the Fire Points, but often it is obvious, especially with concentrated fire at targets in heavy cover – "It's going to be 1 point each, isn't it"

Last Hussar, I like it!

Using a board divided into irregularly-bordered areas is something I use with my Tank On Tank-conversion gaming, and can be more appealing [and visually more acceptable] than patterned hex or square gridded layouts.

It sounds like the units could scale upwards to be squads or platoons too. (?)

I've used the rule mechanic of "up to an adjacent area" for the limit of HQ (Leader) influence, and this 'range' will automatically scale when/if someone might want to adjust a scenario's ground/unit scale….getting away from base-widths could make your rules more mounting-convention agnostic too.

Perhaps having an optional choice of implementing activations without cards, and therefore IGOUGO by opposing (player selected) units could be a streamlining variant also?

The basing size is really around the fact I am going for a 1:1 ground/figure scale, so they are 6-10mm figures – we've been doing platoon attacks on a 1m square board – about 200m, and this gives you an idea how far stuff really is. 3cm is about 6m (20ft) square, and seems right for 3 men. The idea is you eyeball it, and if not sure you ask your opponent to clarify upon moving.

A big part of firing is the fact that the Fire Points are shared around to 'near' bases, so clustering has consequences.

I went for card driven because I get the impression that combat down at the squad level is short rushes and long pauses, with irregular bursts of action. If the 'End of Turn' card is the first out in a turn, it can be a great help to both sides – that is an entire turn of no one being fired at, so the morale/firepoint reductions happen for everyone. Think of it as one of those lulls veterans tell of, when everybody stops, as they try to work out what is happening. Just because a unit's card didn't come out doesn't mean to say they weren't doing anything – maybe they were just really poor shots for 30 seconds, or the MG barrel needed changing.

What all this does do is make Leadership important – its not just "-2 for being out of radius"; Leaders not only increase the chance of activating, it means some units can activate twice in a turn, and also fire is more effective. The command distance is a base width to simulate the difficulty in communicating more than a few meters in the noise and stress of battle. Also they are the only ones who can initiate close assault, and CA is important.;

Defenders can stop an attack by pinning the attackers, but if both sides are in heavy cover they can fire at each other repeatedly but not get a kill. Firing at someone behind a bullet proof stone wall/earth bank etc at ranges 2-3 , so in the region of 30-90 meters has a 5.5% chance of ending up with a kill result if they are firing back (2.8% if they hunker down, 8% if they try to move).

The tactic that works (like in the training manuals) is to put a LOT of fire onto a unit, in the hope that when they react to your CA, and therefore have to resolve all those FP they become suppressed (1 in 6 chance per Fire Point. Of course, until they react you don't know if they are suppressed…

LH, thanks for this in-depth explanation – sounds solid!

Is a squad LMG factored to be on one base, or are the infantry bases more generic in their firepower (for instance, how would the component bases for a rifle squad be modeled – per 3-4 soldiers each, by fireteams (possibly by maneuver vs. support section)…..?

Hey, would you be able to post a picture or two for us of a game in action?

A base is considered all one kind of weapon, even if a mix (eg a smg and 2 riflemen are a rifle base), thus LMGs are one base: A British section, which is one unit, is 2xRifle bases and 1xLMG.

Found a pic I can link to

link

link

I'm using counters because #1 son has my figures. Bits of hedge divide open stretches into areas, while you can see the smaller felt templates for more difficult/rough going.