"Rules suited for ship boarding/close actions in terrain" Topic

I've been learning Stargrunt 2, and planning for some eventual close action games (ship boarding, buildings with numerous rooms, etc), and I'm thinking that the rules as written might be a little inadequate for such actions. Imagine a 8-10 man squad trying to squeeze into a small room, lest they be out of integrity, or stringing them down a corridor so they stay in integrity, plus only the first couple can even shoot, etc.

Then there is the question of when to use the close assault rules; say several squad members are on one side of a doorway, trading shots with some aliens on the other side of the small room, etc.

So my question is this: Are there rules mods to make SG2 more usable in such scenarios? As is, it looks to me like they are more suited to outdoor/open area battles. Or am I missing something entirely – which is quite possible? Or would another rule set be better?

Well I like the old Snapshot rules from GDW for closed spaces. Only issues are it used the original Traveller to hit rules which, like D&D, treat armour as a to hit modifier and not a damage sponge. BUT it handled very close combat and the effects of weapon lengths admirably. Azhanti High Lightening did away with any close (0 to 3 meters) weapons handling entirely for Mega-Traveller or Striker combat system.

The other issue, and it may or may not be one to you, is it uses action points for all actions. If you want to replace that with your own system or drop it entirely then go for it. However the action points seemed well thought out and definitely suited the game.

I do have the old Azhanti High Lightning game sitting on my shelf, unplayed. I do vaguely recall playing Snapshot/Traveller in my young days back in the '80s. I had completely forgotten that.

I'll have to break out the rules for AHL and see if I can graft any of those rules over to SG2.

5150 would be perfect for a game like that.

From Two Hour Wargames

SG2 will work you simply have to apply cover dice modifiers (instead of a d10 to hit perhaps a d8 or d6 depending on the cover the figure is behind. Hernanes in small rooms may require a dice modifier the other way.

AL/Snapshot. Both are in DrivethruRPG

I wouldn't use StarGrunt II for this application. SGII is really about platoon to company level actions.

Snapshot and Azhanti High Lighting are very good for for this application. Traveller SRD is another good choice. The units for all three games are individuals rather than teams or squads or whatever, which works out well for small actions.

Enhanced Snapshot, which I have not yet played, is available here:
PDF link

There's also Guncrawl, a free ruleset formerly from Ebbles Miniatures and now available here: genetmodels.com/fun-stuff

"…I like the old Snapshot rules from GDW for closed spaces. Only issues are it used the original Traveller to hit rules which, like D&D, treat armour as a to hit modifier and not a damage sponge".

Apparently, this was changed in a later variant of the rules, treating armor as a modifier for damage, but I can't recall which one(s), since there are so many.

I do recall reading this recently though, when review options for my possible gaming too.

This issue I have with Snapshot, and also with AHL (from what I've read of the latter), are the action points for each figure/character. To simplify that, and speed things along, I'm thinking about just giving the troops 2 actions each/turn, in order to keep things moving.

I haven't played E.Snapshot either, though it does look interesting, but may perhaps be more detailed than I want to consider, and I like "detail", but not when it bogs the game pace down considerably, which I think it might do, at least until you get the hang of the newer rules.

Bill, this is Keith from TravellerCon USA. Email me via our website and I'll send you a copy of Full Metal Anorak – it's Stargrunt II pared down to individual level (1 – 5 miniatures per unit).

Regards,
Keith F.

5150 Star Marine is all about small squad level boarding actions, including rules for zero-G, defensive measures, no atmo, etc.

I did browse over the Azhanti High Lightning rules, and while they look okay in general, I think they are going to be a little too detailed for more than a couple squads on each side.

If I use those rules, I'll definitely pare down actions to two, and allow some "free actions" that could be used in conjunction with one of the two regular actions.

Armor, never was a fan of the armor as a die roll modifier. I think it was the Striker supplement wherein they changed it to weapon penetration vs armor value, etc.

I think that if I modified the Stargrunt 2 rules, I'd change the following:

Use 4-man elements, treat each as a "squad" for activation purposes.
Delete the close assault rules.
Allow stuff like tossing grenades (most likely used to stun/kill defenders in a room before you enter it).
Cover fire (likely used to fire into doorways/hallway entrances).
Borrow and modify the exploding equipment rule from AHL.
Use my homebrewed combat robot/droid rules (not yet tested).

I am also thinking of using the modified morale rules from Stargrunt.ca's website, to make it harder for the men to maintain condfidence after taking casualties.

Starship Marine by Jim Wallman. Those rules are free and have been around for a year or two…

PDF link

link

I second Starship Marine.

Those figures on the cover of Starship Marine – they look suspiciously like the old Minifigs SF Ranges (the first sort of Flash Gordon-ey range and the slightly more "hard SF" humans v's intelligent bipedal bug aliens second range)