Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

This bunny gives me the creeps. Slideshow here.

"Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance." -- Bede, De temporum ratione (Wallis, trans.)

There's your Old English religious trivia for the week.  More gaming posts soon.

Army Complete! Free Martian Cities

I've finished painting up my test models for the free Martian cities. (Here's a link to my organization articles, to my original test models.)

These models are from Warlord Games' ancient range, and are about 100$ worth of models from three boxed sets.  (You can read more about them here.)

Completed, they make 2x squads of ten for each troop type, command, and some support weapons.  That makes about two platoons worth:

2 Platoons of infantry, with some support weapons.

A close up from eye level.

More eye level.

Elevated view.

Another elevated view.

A free Martian platoon typically consists of three squads of ten, plus a command group.  Each of three squads has three manuses of three soldiers, and a decanus (sergeant).  Each squad has different weapons. The venatores (hunters) have carbines and "grenade launchers." The scutatores (shields) have close combat weapons and extra strong sheilds.  The lanceatores (lances) have long range guns, and sometimes man support weapons.

The command group.

Venatores. Every third model has a launcher.

Scutatores


Lanceatores

 

These Lanceatores have swapped their normal guns for support weapons.



 

I modeled this support weapon differently so it can represent an AT gun.

The platoon commander can intermix the individual manuses any way he desires.  Typically, this results in one of two configurations.  Each squad may be composed of a "pure" formation of like armaments.  Or, each squad may be "mixed" with one manus of each type.

Platoon in contubernia pura organization.

Platoon in contubernia mixta organization.

Woot! So one major project down.  Next up: finish my colonists so the Martians have someone to fight.

Thinking about RoF

No RoF Penalty for Moving and Firing

I am considering changing the way I handle the penalty to moving and firing.  Right now, a moving unit suffers a -1 to hit.  I think I may change the penalty to a reduced RoF instead.  Here's why.

In my last posts, I discussed the math behind shooting and saves.  I noted that under my current system, a moving unit needs 7+s to hit a superiorly-skilled target in concealment.  7+s are a pain when playing, so I'd like them to come up less often.  I considered changing the base to-hit number against a superior target to 4+, making moving and concealment a 6+.

It occurs to me that if I instead assess a penalty to RoF, it will make targets harder to kill or Suppress, without increasing the to-hit score needed.   What if I rated each weapons RoF with a slash: before the slash is moving, after the slash is stationary.  So a rifle might be RoF 1/2.

Such a change would also allow movement to affect different types of weapon systems differently.   Some heavy weapons might not be able to fire at all when moving RoF 0/X.  Others might not be affected by movement at all: RoF X/X.  I'd been wondering how to handle heavier weapons, like artillery, and this gives me an option.

Should I also replace the penalty on Suppressed weapons with an RoF penalty?  This is what FoW does, and I begin to see why.  (FoW is extremely well-designed.)  So all Supressed weapons might fire at the moving RoF.  On the other hand, I may keep the to hit penalty.  It is easy to imagine a gun that might not fire at all moving, but which once set up, could fire in a limited manner when Suppressed.

Even More Math

Fortifications are always handy.

Suppression, Saves and Casualties


Suppression (not casualties) makes the game interesting, because turns it into something more nuanced than a turkey-shoot. Suppressed units remain in play, but temporarily become less of a threat.

The first variable governing Suppression is RoF (and secondarily, to-Wound). The following chart shows the average number of hits a unit is likely to achieve at different RoFs and to-hit difficulties. 

	7+	6+	5+	4+	3+
30	0.83	5	10	15	20
20	0.56	3.33	6.67	10	13.33
10	0.28	1.67	3.33	5	6.67

RoF 30 represents a typical unit of 9 rifles and one HMG, and is thus our baseline.  (We're going to just assume all hits wound for purposes of this chart.  If the target is a 10-strong unit, then 5 wounds represents the threshold needed to Suppress a target.

As you can see, a typical 30 RoF unit achieves this threshold relatively easily.  On the average, it should usually Suppress its target on 6+ and will almost certainly do so at a 5+.

A unit will largely require 7s only if it is Suppressed AND suffering some other penality.
It will require 6+s if it suffers Suppression OR a combined penalty such as Moving or firing through Concealment.  And it typically will need 5+s if suffering a simple penalty such as Moving.  Thus, most of the time, a full and active unit will Suppress its target.

Cover Saves also form a key aspect of the game, because the ratio of wounds to saves determines the ratio of Suppression to casualties.  If there are lots of wounds but few saves, then lots of models will die. Conversely, if there are lots of saves, then units will be Suppressed but not destroyed.

The frequency of Suppression, however, depends only on to-hit.  Given a to-hit value, it is invariant regardless of save. So, a unit with a better save is more survivable, but no more immune to Suppression.

Tactically, this means that fortifications and cover will prevent Suppression slightly (-1 to hit for Concealment), but reduce casualties by +1 or +2. Units in cover will need to higher RoF to Suppress and will survive for longer.  Players will need to use movement, RoF, Supression and cover cleverly to seize objectives and win games. 

I suspect most of my play-testing will envolve tinkering with the ratios of RoF, to-hit, to-wound, and save.

Math Time

Players shouldn't need one of these.

As I have been painting and working on background, I have continued to think about the basic mathematics of the game system. A six-sided die can only accept a few modifiers before they start to accumulate above 6+ or below 1+.  Naturally, we want some chance in the game, and so such extreme modifications are undesirable.

So buckle up, it's time for the Math Ride.

To Hit Math
 
My game system, as currently proposed has many modifiers.  Perhaps too many.  To summarize in the form of charts:

	Inferior Target	Same Target	Superior Target
7+	-4 or more	-3 or more	-2 or more
6+	-3	-2	-1
5+	-2	-1	Open
4+	-1	Open
3+	open

 

-4	Firing unit Moving, AND target Cowering AND Concealed
-3	Firing unit Suppressed AND Target Concealed. OR Target cowering AND Firing unit Moving OR Target Concealed.
-2	Firing unit Moving AND Target Concealed. OR Firing Unit Suppressed
-1	Firing unit Moving AND Target Concealed.
-	open

As you can see, in normal circumstances, two evenly matched units will be hitting on between 4+ and 6+, depending on Cover and Movement. The firing unit's to-hit chance will never rise to 7+ or above unless one of the units is Cowering or Suppressed.  I think this is desirable, since a 7+ only hits if a player can roll two 6s in a row.  (That's more or less the same as saying it's nearly impossible.)

I am less pleased, however, that against a superiorly-skilled unit in Concealment, a Moving and Firing unit will need 7+s. Effectively, then, a Moving and Firing unit will never be able to pin a superior opponent at a distance, but will need to delay in order to be effective.  (Or move quickly into Firefight.) 

So I'm considering changing the rules so that the base chance to hit a superior opponent is 4+.  The chart would then look like this:

	Inferior Target	Same or Superior Target
7+	-4 or more	-3 or more
6+	-3	-2
5+	-2	-1
4+	-1	Open
3+	open

I could also lower the basic to hit by 1 for all skill levels, but this seems really rough on an inferior opponent.

Cover Saves

I am more pleased with my system of saves, which fits naturally into a scale between 1+ and 6+.  Most infantry will save on a 3+ in the open, and gain +1 or +2 due to terrain. In chart form, it looks like this for Shooting:

Shooting	Infantry	Vehicle
1+	Hard Cover
2+	Soft Cover
3+	Open	Hard Cover
4+		Soft Cover
5+		Open
6+
None

It looks like this in Firefight:

Firefight	Infantry	Vehicle
1+
2+
3+	Hard Cover
4+	Soft Cover
5+	Open	Hard Cover
6+		Soft Cover
None		Open

The 1+ save isn't as big a problem -- it only protects against small arms.  Anything with an Explosive Trait will reduce the save. As one might expect, you'd want mortars and artillery against targets in fortifications. Blast them out of their holes!

More Radical Changes Yet?

I have also been playing about with some more radical changes.  In my current system, the relative skills of the two units forms the basis of to-hit rolls.  What if, instead, it formed the basis of the Target unit's Cover Save?  (You could rationalize that the superior target is better able to use Terrain to protect itself.) Something like this:

	Infantry	Vehicle
1+
2+	Superior Target
3+	Equal Target
4+	Inferior Target	Superior Target
5+		Equal Target
6+		Inferior Target

Or perhaps this, if  want to avoid situations where a 1+ save becomes normal for Soft Cover:

	Infantry	Vehicle
1+
2+
3+	Equal or Superior Target
4+	Inferior Target
5+		Equal or Superior Target
6+		Inferior Target

Shooting would have a simple 4+ base:

	Any Target
7+	-3 (worse combinations)
6+	-2 (Concealed AND Moving OR Suppressed)
5+	-1 (Concealed OR Moving)
4+	open
3+

I might remove the to-hit penalty on a Cowering unit and fold that into the Cover Save.  So a Cowering Unit would treat its Cover as one category higher - No Cover would become Soft Cover. Soft Cover would become Hard.

Under this system, it would be easier to Hit targets (and thus Suppress them) but harder to kill superior ones.