Round of Fire

[sespe]

Much clearer on the suppress. 

As for a name, gotta be something with a wheel.  Wheel of Death?  Rotational Conflict? Timeline Wars?

[Sangennaru]

Much clearer on the suppress. 

As for a name, gotta be something with a wheel.  Wheel of Death?  Rotational Conflict? Timeline Wars?

I need a serious brainstorm about that! I was thinking about something with "paces", or similar.

Anyway, I did the first beta test! and i've to say i'm rather satisfied!
I got a lucky roll at the beginning but it was the only one of the match, for the rest the suppression system works splendidly (and you can literally pin down easily an untrained unit with little effort, or concentrate your fire to neutralize enemy behind cover instead of killing them) and made my rebels army quite powerless against well-barricated elite soldiers, after the first charge.
The combat system worked pretty well. Some time is lost preparing the dice for the roll, but that's all time saved from calculating the modifiers for each die. In the complex, the battle was NEVER too deadly, and the armor-vs-AP and the other modifiers were really useful.
I'll enhance the differences in defence between the units though, for armor 1 is kinda useless, maybe armor 3 is better!

Tomorrow i'll post a Battle Report!

[sespe]

Got to play a couple more rounds tonight, but the game came to a sudden conclusion.

First the good:  The FED heavy weapons team set up on overwatch, knowing a rebel horde was going to approach.  On the Rebel activation, they chose to make a run for it, braving the fire.  That's them at the top of the picture, halfway to their new cover.
The heavy cannon got 2 net hits, taking out 2 guys and bumping them up 4 on the wheel.  The rifleman also fired (medium range for both), and got a lucky 3rd hit. That's another bump up the wheel.  Hmm, crossing a horde in the open doesn't work well against FEDs.


The Bad:  Did I mention hordes should not move in the open?  I should have remembered that.  Another horde, looking at everybody's position on the wheel, chose to move into a gully.  They thought they could get another move before the FED squad on the hill.  The FED squad moved up to a firing position, as expected.  But then that pesky FED Leader used his boost on the squad!  They got to go again before the horde. 
Close range, 5 guys with rifles, hmm, that's 15 dice.  No bonuses for the defender this time, they are caught in the open.
And the squad rolled 6 6 6 6 6 6 5  ...  The horde rolled a 6 5 5 5 4 4 4.  If I'm learning these rules correctly, that's 6 kills for the FED squad.  The 2 remaining members of the horde are left in the gully cowering in fear.
Time for the rebels to back off and try again somewhere else...

[Sangennaru]

Got to play a couple more rounds tonight, but the game came to a sudden conclusion.
[...]
Did I mention hordes should not move in the open?

Heheh, before going in the open you definitely HAVE to do some suppression on the enemy! Afterall, even heavily armoured and covered troops are not immune to suppression (that ignores covers and armors), that's the trick. Otherwise, they will remain pinned in the open field, and will take casualty after casualty.

And the squad rolled 6 6 6 6 6 6 5  ...  The horde rolled a 6 5 5 5 4 4 4. If I'm learning these rules correctly, that's 6 kills for the FED squad.

well. that's luck! But no, it's no 6 kills, it's 5: The 6 cancels a 6. One of the 5 cancels the 5, then only five 6s remain. ..."only"
we had dozens of rounds of shooting yesterday, and i never had such a luck, maximum 3 figures were killed.


my feeling is that the rebel team with the 3x hordes is slightly stronger than the feds, but you must use it wisely, and DEFINITELY rely on the War Cry commander ability to boost the whole team.

[sespe]

Oh, still doing the dice wrong.  Got it now.  Definitely include several examples in the rules!

[Sangennaru]

Oh, still doing the dice wrong.  Got it now.  Definitely include several examples in the rules!

I will!

Cheers
Jack

[Sangennaru]

I've fixed a few stuff, tweaked others.

Version 0.2 is out, maybe i'll add a few minor things!
EDIT: Removed the link as obsolete.

And i've put a Changelog, so people won't have to read it all over again!

EDIT: Removed the link as obsolete.

cheers and good night!
Jack

[Sangennaru]

Battle-Report time!!

We've set the table with a few shanties. The base is a marble table, since i never had the time to build a proper one. That's Feo, waiting for the battle with a proper cup of tea.



The troop order is defined by a random roll of a D8 for each unit. they are placed on the left side of the turn wheel:



The game starts violently: after a few turns (well, there are no turns but you got the idea) of tactical moving, one of the FFS units did a rush in open space, without any covering fire. The MMG of the rebel unit in front of them literally exterminated half of it, and the other half was wiped by the other ARG!s.
Since that was a test game, i tried to advance in mass in open space too.
Unfortunately, Rebel units have many men but a low discipline, and their Suppressed value is pretty high. The remaining FFS unit and the heavy weapon in the far right started a shower of bullets, both suppressing and starting to kill rebels.



This glorious FFS unit (commanded by Feo, not me) remained in position for the whole game, even though risked its life a few times.



And, well... of course sometime the dice were not my friends. This triple-six i rolled was useless against the horde of fours my opponent rolled. Quantity over quality.



I've to say, i had to change a few things after this match, but we had fun and the mechanics seemed to work pretty well!

I'd suggest you to try to read (and maybe play?) the rules, and give me feedbacks about.

Cheers
Jack

[Feo]

the game was great and the combo of suppressive fire and turn wheel is absolutely great. my squad behind the wall was suppressed by the ARGs for enough time to made possible for them to run around my cover while I managed to pin down another of sangennaru's team in the middle of the field slowly killing them without giving the chance to run away to cover!

[sespe]

Got a day off and started a new scenario.  I decided to add some light armor to the rebels and introduce a sniper team for the FFS.  In less than one turn around the wheel I'm already at a great tactical dilemna.  More details here:  https://socal-blood-drive.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log/new-sf-rules



Unfortunately, Songs of Drums and Tomahawks has just been released, so it is time to jump back in time a century or three and fight some other battles...

[Sangennaru]

Got a day off and started a new scenario.  I decided to add some light armor to the rebels and introduce a sniper team for the FFS.  In less than one turn around the wheel I'm already at a great tactical dilemna.  More details here:  https://socal-blood-drive.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log/new-sf-rules

That's was cool to read sespe! Seems you've taken the spirit of the rules!
the only thing i would have done differently was, for the sniper, to put a suppression 4 rather than 1. The sniper shoots, kills a man, everybody stays down.

Anyways, i definitely need a name for this game!

people suggested Spent Rounds, Rounds of Fire, Combat Cadence and similar stuff... any other suggestions?

Unfortunately, Songs of Drums and Tomahawks has just been released, so it is time to jump back in time a century or three and fight some other battles...

awwwwww....
Well, the Andrea's system is really great, you'll have fun with the new SoBH variant!

[sespe]

Okay, does this sound right?  The horde HMG from the above fight is firing on the FFS heavy weapon team who foolishly set up in the open.  It is medium range for the HMG. 
HMG Attack dice:  3,  AP 2
Defending dice:  Start with 3.  Add 2 for armor.  Subract 2 for armor piercing.  Still at 3.  Add 1 die for toughness.
Final adjusted roll:  3 attack dice, 4 defence dice.
Attacker: 4 4 2
Defender: 6 5 3 3

Result:  2 kills on the heavy weapon team.

Am I right?

[Sangennaru]

Okay, does this sound right?  The horde HMG from the above fight is firing on the FFS heavy weapon team who foolishly set up in the open.  It is medium range for the HMG.  
HMG Attack dice:  3,  AP 2
Defending dice:  Start with 3.  Add 2 for armor.  Subract 2 for armor piercing.  Still at 3.  Add 1 die for toughness.
Final adjusted roll:  3 attack dice, 4 defence dice.
Attacker: 4 4 2
Defender: 6 5 3 3

Result:  2 kills on the heavy weapon team.

Am I right?

NOPE!

The defender rolled a 6 and a 5, the attacker a 4 and a 4. In both cases the defender is stronger, no kills for anyone this time


The right flow is:
The attacker counts how many 6 had, the defender does the same. For each attacker's 6 the defender must provide a 6 to counter it. If he cant, for each uncountered 6 there's a kill. Then the 5 are counted. Of course, if the defender had an extra 6 that didn't use to counter anything, he can use it for the 5, and so long for the 4s.

On another perspective: The defender must counter each "dangerous die" (greater than 3, basically) from the attacker, using a dice that is equal or greater.

In your case, the defender had higher dice, so he was safe.

[sespe]

Makes better sense that way.  Seemed wrong to roll high and not get a save...

[sespe]

2 more roll tests to see if I have it yet:
Attacker:  6 6 6 6 6 5 4 4 4
Defender: 6 6 5 5 4 4
This should end with: 6 6 6 6 6 5 4 4 4
Result:  3 hits by attacker.  (it was an awesome roll)

And:
Attacker: 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5
Defender: 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4
This should end with: 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5
Result: 3 hits by attacker (the horde could not miss!)

The overall scenario resulted in a horde clear win, partly due to the great attack rolls they got.

My opinion:
The initiative wheel is an amazing.  I am a huge fan of uncertainty in combat, I hate I-go U-go.  Up until now, my two favorite rulesets were the Songs of... series (you gamble on how much action to take) and Chain of Command (you get varying activation options and have to decide what to do).  This activation sequence is right in the mix, I can't decide which is best.  SoBH is easiest to teach, this would be great in a con-type game.  I'm picturing a big wheel with magnets for each unit...

The hit dice concept requires a ton of dice, which is not one of my favorite concepts.  I love the first half, not so sure about the second.