The Saga of the USS Sulaco

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Initial ideas....

Fatigue becomes "suppression".

Colonial Marines platoon
1 x Lt;
1 x Sgt;
1 x Cpl;
2 x Assault Gunner Specialists;
10 x Marines;
also:
2 x pilots;
1 x AI;
2 x dropships;
2 x APCs;


Organization flexible. Trained to operate in pairs or fire teams each with Sgt or Cpl, AG specialist and 4-5 marines.

Rank 4 (Warlord)
The AI, plus 0-1 other figure in unit may have this status, not necessarily the leader.

Rank 3 (Hearthguard)
Sgts, Cpls and AG Specialists, veteran marines.

Rank 2 (Warriors)
Marines, Pilots, most marines.

Rank 1 (Levy)
Green marines. Typically 1-3 per mission.

Note that the Lt can be from any of these grades.

Marine Battle Board:
Replace Hearthguard activation with: "Fire" - may motivate a group to fire (or rest) only.
Replace Warrior activation with: "Maneuver" - may motivate a group to move, fire or rest.
Replace Levy activation with: "Assault" - may motivate a group to initiate HTH, or fire or rest.
Other common boxes remain as normal.
Specials:
"Burn it!" AG Specialist or any marine with flamer gets double shooting dice this round.
"Sustained Fire" Marine group firing re-rolls missed shots.
"You're an Asshole, Gorman" A marine in HTH can take him and anyone else in contact out with a grenade.

The Aliens:
Count as Rank 4 for melee and take 2 hits to kill per a warlord. Automatically remove a supression at the end of each turn. Do not "rest".

May be singles or groups of up to 3 aliens. Facehuggers are always singles.

Alien Battle Board:
Replace Hearthguard activation with: "Move" - may motivate a group to move.
Replace Warrior activation with: "Assault" - may motivate a group to initiate HTH.
Replace Levy activation with: "Facehugger" - may motivate a facehugger to move or initiate HTH.

Alien Battle Board:
"Game Over, Man!" - per the Viking Loki ability.
"Acid Spray" - for each hit taken in HTH or from missile fire if within 3" of a marine group do a hit to the marine group in contact or within 3". Save as per HTH hits.
"Relentless" -

[The_Beast]

Sorry for being dense, but to which Saga does this refer?

Minigame, one or two rulesets of which I've vague recollection, or...?

I did remember to apologize, right? I get so confused.

Doug

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Sorry for being dense, but to which Saga does this refer?

Minigame, one or two rulesets of which I've vague recollection, or...?

I did remember to apologize, right? I get so confused.

Doug

The Saga skirmish rules from Tomahawk Studios/Gripping Beast. Technically a Dark Age skirmish game, it has some interesting mechanics...

[The_Beast]

The Saga skirmish rules from Tomahawk Studios/Gripping Beast. Technically a Dark Age skirmish game, it has some interesting mechanics...

Thanks so much!

I've heard of, but don't know, the rule set. Alas, while I love a good bug hunt, not familiar enough with Saga to comment.

Hope someone does, as I shall keep watching.

Stay frosty!

Doug

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

The cool thing about Saga is the battleboard concept, which is basically just an area used to plot your actions. It is divided into 15 boxes, 5 of which are common to all battleboards and primarily deal with unit activation. The other ten boxes are unique to each faction and are tailored to represent that faction's traits. At the start of each turn the side whose turn it is rolls their saga dice - which are just dice with three symbols that occur with different frequencies: 1-3 = C, 4-5 = B, 6 = A. The dice are then allocated to the boxes and discarded during play to cause an effect. Dice can be save till a players next turn, or for use during the opponents turn if the ability allows.

For example, the Vikings have a "Loki" box which is essentially a morale effect in that causes lower quality enemy units to disperse when they get down to only a few figures - basically meaning that they have failed morale and fled.

Each ability requires different dice or combinations of dice to be discarded and the really powerful abilites require less common combinations such as A + A or whatever.

Ordinary dice are used for the basic combat mechanics.

I like the system as it makes for a fluid game and seems to really bring out the character of the various factions.

Howard

[LeadAsbestos]

Neat idea!