Cangames - Team Yankee - House Rules Behind the Scenes

Howdy everyone,

 

I hope that the summer so far has been enjoyable for one and all. While my last post was the final battle report from my Cangames adventure this year, I did promise a behind the scenes overview of the house rules that I used for my Team Yankee Tank Aces inspired furball.

 

While I had a number of rules at hand, we didn't get in a position of having to refer or use all of them. Admittedly, without any infantry or gun teams, the rule that I had found regarding the destruction of buildings was not needed. However, I did like how the rule was laid out and how a building could be destroyed in the game. Thanks to MostlyTanks at Wordpress for that rule, the Google AI overview found this one for me - for those interested, you can find the "Building Destruction" rule and more at this link MostlyTanks.

 

OR, you can read the substantive portion of house destruction rule below:

Building destruction/health: (source Mostlytanks.wordpress). Each building has 3 building points:

·         Buildings may be damaged or destroyed by any weapon with a 5+ Firepower rating or better. Weapons with FP 6 cannot damage buildings, neither can weapons with the “No HE” attribute as the shells would pass straight through with no real damage caused.

·         Shooting at Normal and Fortified buildings is simple as they are not designed to be concealed (like a bunker). Any building is automatically hit if within 12″/30cm of the attacking unit. If over 12″/30cm but within the attackers normal range, single storey buildings are hit on a 3+ and multi-storey buildings on a 2+.

·         Artillery can may range in on a building, in which the ranging in roll is a 2+, modified as normal. If a building is covered by an artillery template at all then it is automatically hit.

·         If a building is hit, then then attacker makes an FP test – if successful the building loses 1BP (Breakthrough Guns deal 3 BP damage and therefore auto destroy a Normal Building). Bunker Busters automatically destroy any building they hit.

·         If a building is not destroyed in a single hit, then the occupants will have had a chance to escape when it becomes unstable. Any infantry may make it’s basic save (3+) in order to escape the building. Surviving units from a destroyed building are placed in base contact with the ruins. 

*****

In addition, I also had the "Across the Volga" rule at the ready, with the only change being the name of the river...but essentially the same idea - artillery teams were not on the table, and in the case of this game the idea was to make artillery available through the Green poker chips (Tank Aces tactical edge objectives) that players could capture in their respective drives to their objectives.

 

In this picture, you can see 6 green poker chips representing possible advantages for the player that captures them. Each chip had a number with the details on a separate table.

 

 

TACTICAL EDGE: while this is a standard rule within the Tank Aces framework, I elected to modify and add additional advantages that were possible for the players. As a chip was secured or captured by a player, they could use the advantage at any time, but for only one time. Between phases, any used chips were recirculated back into the battlefield. For anyone interested, here is the table that I used for the game:

 

1	Rock n Roll-ski	For one turn, one of your vehicles may receive +1 to their rate of fire if they have not moved in the movement step.
2	Hard Steel	For one turn, you may increase the front and side armour ratings by +1 for one of your vehicles
3	Hard Core	For one turn, you may increase the front armour of a vehicle by +1, IF they advanced directly towards an enemy tank
4	Burn that Gas	For one turn, one of your vehicles may increase their movement by 4 inches/10cm
5	Sneaky Pete	You may move one of your vehicles to any other place on the table. The designated vehicle cannot within 16 inches of an enemy or placed within 16 inches of an enemy
6	The Boss Called	You can use this to re-roll and one die roll, for yourself or an enemy player
7	Close Call – Lucky 7	You can use this to re-roll an armour save, for yourself or an enemy player
8	Spicey	You can use this to modify your firepower roll by +1
9	Make it Rain	You can use this to initiate an artillery bombardment. Designated aiming point must be within line of sight of the spotting vehicle
10	“Where’d he go?!?”	You can use this to either signal a change in the weather (strong fog has rolled in) or move to nighttime.

 

As you can see, #9 was the only chance to bring artillery to bear in the game. 

 

*****

And, if you look at #10, this was one of the edges that ended up being used with the player electing for movement to nighttime...but I was ready in case they wanted to go with foggy conditions. If they had elected to go with fog, my solution while similar to nighttime effects was to have players with thermal and IR to roll 2 die, and go with the lower value for visibility. My rationale for this was the potential blooming effects and limitations of those sensors and imagery devices seeing through precipitation.

 

Nighttime or Fog Conditions

VISIBILITY TABLE (NIGHTTIME and FOG)
1	4 inches / 10 centimetres	Roll a die and consult, consult 2nd row. The result is the maximum distance that Line of Sight can extend for the targeting teams against targets that did not shoot.
2	8 inches / 20 centimetres
3	12 inches / 30 centimetres
4	16 inches / 40 centimetres
5	20 inches / 50 centimetres
6	24 inches / 60 centimetres
At nighttime, thermal and IR use their normal rules; in FOG conditions, thermal and IR roll 2 die on the visibility table and select the lowest value.

**SCIENCE: the effects of thermal and IR imagery devices can be reduced, scattered, or attenuated by FOG effects. This can lead to reduced image contrast, lower sensitivity, and shorter detection ranges**

As well, for shooting in fog, I also had the following consideration:

Fog shooting: Teams shooting in fog is the same as shooting at night, except that the rolled visibility distance applies whether or not the enemy fired their weapons. Furthermore, fog does not Conceal teams seen through it.

*****

Finally, the rule that did end up being used was the "Overwatch" rule...often sited as a limitation of Flames of War mechanics, the lack of responsiveness or being stuck to the "I go-You go" model, it is often a race to see who can be the first one to shoot first. There is no mechanic for opportunity shooting. So, I used google-fu to see what was out there and found a post from the folks over at NoDiceNoGlory that proposed a way forward...Rob Kelly proposed using the air defense rules as a framework...I like the idea, but ended up trying a different approach.

 

Here is Rob's post at NDNG - Team Yankee Some House Rules  

 

And here is my attempt at figuring this one out...the notes in [ ] and underlined italics are afterthoughts.

 

OVERWATCH: teams can be designated to be on overwatch, they may gain gone to ground if they do not move or shoot and are on overwatch for multiple turns.

·         Overwatch team can only engage targets within their range.

·         Overwatch teams focus on a specific lane of vision or “overwatch lane”. This is an imaginary line drawn from the weapon mounting and/or turret facing of the team. Their overwatch field of fire is limited directly to the front and XX inches either side of the imaginary “overwatch lane”. [in the game this ended up being the width of the rulers that we were using (they were about 2 inches wide). So, in effect, a 4-inch lane of fire centered on a line from weapon mounting projected forward]

·         Overwatch teams must pass a skill test to execute overwatch fire.

o   At the same time, the enemy team must roll their own skill test. The results indicate who shoots first and second; [the intent with this was to eliminate extra die-rolls in anticipation of a ‘roll-off’ scenario. If both players roll for their skill, a pass is a pass, but if they both pass, then the player with the higher die result gets to execute their move or reaction first]

o   if either opponent fails their skill test, then they cannot shoot in this overwatch phase. [similarly, if the targeted player fails their skill test, then they would ‘continue’ with their movement unaware that the opposing player is about to execute an overwatch engagement]

o   If the targeted player passes their skill test, they can elect to shoot back or continue their movement forward if the overwatch player fails to hit. [again, in this scenario, there has to be some mechanic for who reacts first beyond passing skill tests as opposing teams may have different skill levels, so the idea of the ‘roll-off’ came to be]

  

 

 

 I hope you enjoy this behind the scenes bit...and if you try out the rules or have any ideas, feel free to comment. 

 

Take care.