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:
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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
|
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4
|
Burn that Gas
|
For one turn,
one of your vehicles may increase their movement by 4 inches/10cm
|
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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
|
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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
|
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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
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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
|
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3
|
12 inches / 30 centimetres
|
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4
|
16 inches / 40 centimetres
|
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5
|
20 inches / 50 centimetres
|
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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.
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.
