"Cover Me!" Topic

Fooling around with SF skirmish, but the problem is more general. Both sides have multiple-shot firearms. You need one or more castings to move while other shoots at the opposition, trying to keep the Bad Guys from shooting Our Hero while he's in the open. Who has a good mechanism for this, and can you describe it?

[HINT: if you can't describe it in a paragraph, it's not the mechanism I'm looking for, and can go on about its business.]

Thanks.

Sequential moving. One figure shoots trying to get a suppression on the enemy shooter, who I assume is on overwatch, if he succeeds, the other figure(s) get to move unhindered.

Not my idea but…
Each shot intending to pin down the bad guys allows the bad guys two levels of save throw. Bad guys choice for each hit received.

A really good save throw if the figure declares he will take cover and be pinned/suppressed. 3,4,5,6

A bad save throw if the bad guy wants to shoot effectively at the hero. This is because he is exposing himself. 5,6

martin

Two Hour Wargames' reaction system: Defender is in overwatch, one attacker pops his head up to give suppressing fire but the defender rolls for his reaction first: either the defender shoots or not (he might have been distracted). If he shoots and misses, the first attacker rolls for his reaction (either he shoots back or ducks for cover). If the first attacker forces the defender to duck for cover, then the second attacker can move unhindered. If the first attacker gets suppressed, then the second attacker can either try his luck at firing, just sit there or try to move out and potentially take fire. About how you would expect it to play out in real life.

Both sides roll attacks. Covering fire "hits" aren't counted as actual hits, but as "saves" for the hero being "covered." Each "save" prevents a hit on the covered hero, in addition to any other saves he/she might have. (The idea is that the covering fire is distracting and prevents effective aiming by the enemy— which is the point behind cover fire.) If the number of saves exceeds the number of hits on the hero, then the excess save results do become actual hits on the enemy (subject to whatever saves, cover, etc. exists).

EXAMPLE: In a typical "bucket o' dice" game, with hits on 5 or 6, it might flow like this:
Cover fire begins. Covering units roll their attack dice (let's assume it's 6 dice for their attack) and get 6,2,4,4,5,6. The 2 and 4s are ignored, and the three "hits" are set aside. The Hero moves to his desired location, but the enemy gets to shoot while he's in the open. They roll 6 dice: 6,3,5,2,6,6= 4 hits.
The cover fire suppresses 3 of those hits, so only 1 hit gets through on the Hero. He still gets whatever save roll applies (if any).

A 2nd for Two Hour Wargames rules. They work well in a number of genres.

In reading these suggestions They have not covers a bit I would have considered important. To me fire for suppression aims at a high volume of fire but relatively inaccurate. hence compared to aimed fire it would have more chance of suppressing but not killing the enemy.

In our system we actually keep it more simple. The chances of a kill are always low, but suppression chances are far higher. Hence the aim is to suppress the enemy by a lot of fire, after which the fire can be slackened, say reduced to 2 thirds while the assaulting/moving infantry are a relatively low risk. Say suppression on an 11 (D20) and a Kill on 20 if shooting at infantry in a well prepared position with overhead cover.

The real killing takes place at very short (under grenade range) and as is often commented in the manual's against suppressed infantry.

Hence the old adage, "first win the firefight".

@martin goddard
"A bad save throw if the bad guy wants to shoot effectively at the hero. This is because he is exposing himself. 5,6"

your save throw for this problem is what ? refund, goods or small claims court for breach of contract, where you will have judgement against you and have to pay my court fees and the monies you have taken from me but not delivered the goods for ?

link

Takes your money but doesnt send the goods
Martin goddard of Peter Pig is the type of small businessman who takes payment for an order, confirms the order, then doesnt send the order, then says they have issued a refund, then doesnt issue the refund and then refuses to communicate with the customer about what is happening to the point where by the customer has to issue a final demand letter but then still does not issue a refund or send the goods which have been paid for. So off to small claims court we must go.

The way I do it in the "1 stand = 1 squad, 1 vehicle = 1 vehicle" scale set I'm writing up is basically this:

Battlefields can be dangerous places. I like abstraction in wargames. My ruleset is basically

1) beginning of turn – each side rolls some d6s for Initiative /Momentum. I think it's 1d6 per platoon or something. So usually 3 or 4.

2) Higher total means that player has Initiative. Small advantage, can take first action to move a stand, rally a hit off, or fire. Standard stuff. Actions alternate "my 1 stand, then your 1 stand" etc.

3) Keep your dice totals because these are your "action pips" to spend doing stuff.

4) If a unit is moving in the open, the non-active player can spend a pip to try and hit it. The player moving the unit can always choose to "self-pin" the unit and stop in place without getting hit.

That's pretty much what I have for Opportunity Fire at that scale. I think I have a note about expending TWO pips to have the same effect on movement on the edge of terrain features but if so, I haven't tested it yet.

TL;DR: Movement on a battlefield is risky.

Robert P,
Are you asking for a man-man game of two team/squad-sized units engaged in a simultaneous firefight?

Wolfhag

UshCha,
To me fire for suppression aims at a high volume of fire but relatively inaccurate. hence compared to aimed fire it would have more chance of suppressing but not killing the enemy.

On the right track. Basically, there are two phases to a firefight. The initial phase is gaining fire superiority when both sides open up at the same time. It is characterized by maximum rates of fire. The losing side will be more ducking than firing, and their ROF will decrease. The winning side's Squad Leader ensures that the proper rate of sustained fire is being delivered to keep the bad guys heads down and not fire back. Sustained fire is generally 6 rounds AIMED per minute for rifles and 5-7 short bursts from automatic weapons. With 3:1 firepower superiority, that should not be a problem. If the enemy increases their firepower, then the SL has his squad do the same.

The "experts" who scientifically researched the effects of small arms fire suppression concluded that one round every 3 seconds that is within 3 feet of the target is sufficient to keep him ducking, much more than shooting. With 3-1 odds, you can do that. They also stated, "All fire suppresses to a lesser or greater degree, some fire kills."

They define suppression in 10 levels as decreasing the ability for a unit to observe, move, shoot, and communicate.

When you can clearly identify a target you can do aimed fire. Normally with the enemy in an improved position taking cover and concealment that is available all you can do is perform sustained aimed fire in the sector you are to cover.

When I was going through infantry training, our squad was to deliver fire to a treeline. I got down in cover and proceeded to identify a target I could aim at. My SL came over and asked why I was not shooting. He then kicked in the a$$ and told me to shoot into the tree line.

Watch some videos of Ukrainians doing trench assaults. You move at a quick walk and keep shooting even if you see nothing to aim at. Even if the defender is below ground, that racket of 10-12 guys advancing on you doing rapid semi-automatic fire is a morale killer.

Wolfhag