SIMPLE COMBAT GAME

CORE RULES| FORCES | EXTRA RULES

I'll have a fully cross-referenced version of the rules up in a couple of weeks.

Contents

  1. Overview and Notes
  2. Units and Weapons
    • Unit Profile
    • Unit Abbreviations
    • Unit Abbilities
    • Weapon Profile
    • Weapon Abbreviations
    • Weapon Abbilities
  3. Turn Sequence
  4. Moving
    • Basic System
    • Terrain Effects on Movement
  5. Firing
    • Overview
    • Basic Sequence
    • Damage
    • Terrain Effects on Firing
    • Modifiers
    • Premeasurement
  6. Examples

1. Overview and Notes

These rules are meant as a simple set of rules for fighting tactical level battles. Becasue of the turn sequence that is used I would say that no more than 20 units aside.

A note on terminology : Whenever I refer to a unit I am refering to a single 'playing piece'. As it stands this game doesn't have any rules for squads, i.e. no coherency rules, no leadership rules etc. These will be added later as I feel these rules are essential for the type of game I want to play.

A note on dice : At the moment all dice used are D6s. This may or may not change as I develop these rules.

A note on distances : This game can be played using any system to regulate movement and firing. As a result all distances in these rules are given in abstract units, which I will call DUs (Distance Units). For example, the longest range for a gun is 6. It's up to you to decide 6 what, hexes, squares, cm, inches etc. You may wish to make the DU for shooting twice the length of the movement DU. I playtested these rules on a 21x21cm grid to regulate movement while using a ruler to measure shooting distances.

2. Units and Weapons

Units

Each unit has the following profile:

Unit Name : Name
Move AllowanceArmourDamage CapacityWeaponsSpecials
x+/- xxNamesNames

Abbreviations
In the rules the various abilities are refered to as :
MA : For Movement Allowance
AR : For Armour
DC : For Damage Capacity
WP : For Weapons
SP : For Specials

What the abilities do
The MA is how far the unit can move, in DUs over open terrain in one turn
The AR of the unit affects the damage roll made by the enemy
The DC is how much punishment the unit can take
The WP is a list of all the weapons the unit carries
The SP is a reminder of any special rules relating to the vehicle

Weapons

Each weapon has the following profile:

Weapon Name : NameSpecial
Range123456Names
To Hitx+x+x+x+x+x+
To Damagex+x+x+x+x+x+
Powerxxxxxx

Abbreviations
In the rules the various abilities are refered to as :
Range : Range is unabbreviated
TH : For To Hit
TD : For to Damage
SP : For Specials
PW : For Power

What the abilities do
I would hope that these are fairly obvious but for the sake of completeness :
The Range is mesured in what ever DU you are using for the game.
The TH is the number you need to roll equal to or above on a D6 to hit target unit.
The TD is the number you need to roll equal to or above inflict damage on the target unit.
The PW is the amount of damage that will be inflicted on a unit damaged by the weapon.

3. Turn Sequence

At the start of each turn each player rolls a D6. The player with the most units adds 1 to his die roll. The player who scores highest has the initiative for the turn. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

Starting with the player who has the initiative each player alternatley moves a unit up to it's maximum move allowance. Units cannot be moved more than once a turn and movement allowance cannot be 'saved' for the next turn.

After all units have been moved, starting with the player who has initiative, each player alternately chooses a unit to fire.

Once all units have fired and casualities removed resolve any effects that happen at the end of the turn.

4. Moving

For each DU that a unit moves it expends a number of points of MA appropriate for the terrain. A unit can expend as much or as little of it's MA during it's turn as the player wishes. MA may not be stored from turn to turn.

Terrain

In this Simple Combat Game there are only two types of terrain.

Open : which costs 1 point of MA per DU.
Impassible : which cannot be moved through.

See the Extra Rules for more types of terrain. This will be a link when I've written some extra rules

5. Firing

A unit may fire all it's weapon systems in a single turn, observing any special rules for doing so.

A unit may pick any target that is in range and in Line of Sight.
I have no hard and fast rules for determining LOS but as a guide I'd say LOS and range should be measured from the centre of the firing unit to the edge of the target. The firing unit should be able to see at least a quarter of the target before being able to fire at it.

Firing follows the procedure outlined below :

  1. Select Unit to Fire with.
  2. Select Weapon to Fire with.
  3. Select Target.
  4. Roll to Hit.
  5. Roll to Dmage.
Steps 2 - 4 are repeated for each weapon on the unit.
Due to the nature of the weapons you must declare all of the weapons that you will fire for the unit and all of the targets the unit will fire at.

To Hit the unit you must roll equal to or over the TH of the weapon after modifiers have been applied.

To Damage You must roll equal to or over the TD of the weapon after modifiers have been applied.

If the TD roll is succesful then Damage is applied to the target immeadiatly. The ammount of dammage a unit takes is wqual to the PW of the weapon that hit it. If this results in the unit taking Damage that's equal or greater than it's DC then the unit is destroyed and immeadiatly removed. Damage is cumulative and is kept from turn to turn.

Terrain Effects on Firing and LOS

In this Simple Combat Game there are only two types of terrain.

Open : Any unit may draw LOS and Fire through Open terrain
Impassible : No unit may draw LOS or fire through Impassible Terrain

See the Extra Rules for more types of terrain. This will be a link when I've written some extra rules.

Modifiers

There are a large number modifiers to the basic rolls for firing. Each is listed below
To Hit Roll
If the firing unit has expended more than half it's MA this turn then -1 to the roll
If the firing unit has not moved this turn then +1 to the roll
Firing multiple weapons in a turn : See weapon profiles.
Extra Rules Terrain Effects No link yet
To Damage Roll
Add or subtract the target vehicles AR from the roll
Extra Rules Terrain Effects No link yet

To premeasure or not to premeasure that is the question

And one that is left entirely up to the players. Although I personally wouldn't allow it. Just to confuse the issue though I may have units that, through the use of additional rules, allow premeasuring as a special ability.

6. Examples

All of these examples will use The Light, Medium and Dual-Heavy Tank from the Forces section.

Due to a bizzare problem with my drawing package there ain't no examples yet. Annoying, eh?

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Page last modified on the 19th of March 1999