Round of Fire

[Sangennaru]

EDIT 16th Dec 2017: after an incredibly long developement, the manual is officially on wargames vault!
http://www.wargamevault.com/product/227996/Round-of-Fire--Core-Rules






Hi everyone!

after Iron Clouds and Zanshin i've now written the pre-Alpha version of a sci-fi skirmish game, with activation and combat mechanics that are substantially different from the other games i've played.

Disclaimer:

• Different doesn't mean better, just... different. I don't see why writing another ruleset when the mechanism are basically the same.
  
• I've played some games and read many more, but definitely not all the games around. feel free to tell me where i involuntarily copied

Well, i'd say take a look on the rules! Only a couple of images, not much fancy work yet:


EDIT: I removed the link, since obsolete. The current rules can be found on wargames vault, please take a look at the fb group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/roundoffire


Any impression, opinion or brute critic is warmly welcomed. Expecially because we are not on FUUK! so thinks are... milder.

cheers
Jack

[sespe]

Okay, I'll try.  I just started learning Gruntz, and have played a scenario twice.  So I ran the exact same scenario with these rules.

Basic idea:  2 squads of weak 'federation' guards and a leader are defending a facility in the middle of nowhere.  A single (but much superior) rebel squad and a leader stage a surprise raid.  The rebel force is stronger, and both times I played pulled off a narrow victory.

Here's the starting layout (still used to bigger scales than 15mm, I need to tighten up the terrain a bit).  One fed squad is on patrol, the other with the leader in the central building (the objective).  The rebel squad approaches from the far edge of the table.


And here is the wheel at the start (Okay, okay, I can't draw lines for crap...)


Pros:
Loved the wheel concept.  I'm a fan of random activation, not i-go u-go.  I have not tried the alternate Gruntz card activation rules yet.  But the wheel idea was great.  Do I risk that double-move and wait a long time for my next activation?  Do I take one short action now, knowing I can get another in before the other guy goes?  That was fun

Cons:  Combat seemed way to deadly.  I didn't see a way to represent the different skill levels of the troops.  Using the bucket-o-dice approach caused massive casualties early.  Basically, my rebel squad got shot to pieces after one move.  They made a run to get into cover, then got shot to bits before their activation came up again.  Both sides had the same weapons, but the rebel squad was supposed to be much harder to hit (higher guard stat in Gruntz).  You need a way to represent the "harder to hit veteran" such as the guard stat in Gruntz.

And here's the aftermath:
Not even once around the wheel


And all that is left is 2 guys from the squad and a leader wondering what he just stepped in:


Keep it coming!  I think I'll start using the wheel activation concept with the rest of Gruntz rules...

[Sangennaru]

WOW! I love you man, that's awesome!

I'm glad you liked the wheel, we've been using it for gruntz too and it works pretty well!

For the combat: can i ask you the stats you used for the units, both the weapons and the armor?

Because ...erm... i did not write any stat so far on the public rules, and using the stat's ive done the combats are usually really non-lethal, usually max 2 kills after a whole broadside. I've also done some computer simulations with a bit more than a million fights to see how deadly it was!
So... i'm not sure what stats you used!

[Sangennaru]

About the skill level: a +1 or +2 dice in the armor does change the dice bucket result quite a lot... if you add a better weapon, well that's it!

Moreover, with the unit stat's I'll do, a shooting action for an elite squad might require 3 steps, for a green rookie squad maybe 5 steps.
Basically, there are several ways to power up a unit!



From the realistically point of view: once a figure is hit, is hit. Armor will reduce the damages, but you can be a super guy and still be hit.
One option, for tough guys, should be a "natural armor" or "toughness" that cannot be removed with AP weapons.

[sespe]

Rebel Squad (7 figures)
5 Shoot
5 Assault
12  Guard
13  Soak
9 Mental
5 Skill
normal weapon: projectile rifle
SA weapon:  Medium projectile
Perkz:  Melt Away

Federation squad (2 squads of 6 figures each)
3 Shoot
3 Assault
12 Guard
12 Soak
6 Mental
4 Skill
Normal weapon:  projectile rifle
SA weapon:  none
(basically just armed rent-a-cops)

[Sangennaru]

Thanks, but i was referring to the unit stats used in my rules, to understand why the combat was so deadly...

[Sangennaru]

As a simple example, here i present the first example of two small armies:


The rules for the various skills are in the updated ruleset, the link is in the first post and i will re-post it here:

EDIT: Removed since obsolete.

EDIT: I've removed the pics since outdated. You can find the two armies on the bottom of the document.

[sespe]

Oh, I get it now.  The first set of rules I downloaded didn't have that level of detail.  Off to try again!

[Sangennaru]

Oh, I get it now.  The first set of rules I downloaded didn't have that level of detail.  Off to try again!

Thanks!

Yet, i'm curious to know what stats you did use for your men while playing!

cheers! ^_^

[Froggy the Great]

I love the wheel - mind if I try to integrate it into FUBAR?

[Sangennaru]

I love the wheel - mind if I try to integrate it into FUBAR?

I'm sending my lawyers to sue you. 

Of course you can! We used for several games, it simply WORKS FOR EVERYTHING, which is pretty cool! ^_^


Yet, i'd love to have people testing this rules as well, i implemented the wheel not only to "do actions" but also for suppression and, in general, it's deeply connected with the other rules! =)

[Sangennaru]

I've added the robot test army too! I'm really not sure how the gameplay will be, but it's worth a try, i think!

EDIT: Removed this one too... obsolete indeed.

[sespe]

Starting another playtest, this time solo as my wargaming partner has school tomorrow.

A question on suppression using the wheel:  Using your force lists, I have a Fed heavy weapons team taking shots at a horde.  The horde doesn't like this much.  For the fed heavy weapon, it says "suppress 2" for every hit.  For the horde, it says they move 5 when suppressed.  So does that mean every time the heavy weapon scores a hit on the horde, one guy dies AND the horde gets bumped forwards 10 spaces on the wheel?

Really loving the wheel mechanic, and the leader bonuses.  Okay, I guess that's another question.  What's the difference between battle Cry and Boost unit?  Just different names for the same mechanic?

Thanks again!

[Sangennaru]

Starting another playtest, this time solo as my wargaming partner has school tomorrow.

A question on suppression using the wheel:  Using your force lists, I have a Fed heavy weapons team taking shots at a horde.  The horde doesn't like this much.  For the fed heavy weapon, it says "suppress 2" for every hit.  For the horde, it says they move 5 when suppressed.  So does that mean every time the heavy weapon scores a hit on the horde, one guy dies AND the horde gets bumped forwards 10 spaces on the wheel?

Well, i acknowledge there is a bit of overloading about the "suppressed term":

Suppressed X - is the number of steps to be moved when the enemy uses a suppression, as explained in the Suppression section:
Suppressing units
Units have often the Suppression ability. When using that ability, an opposed roll is done between the attacking and the defending unit.
Bonuses and maluses are counted as for the fighting, except for Armor and AP bonuses.
For each successiful hit during the suppression action, instead of having casualties the defending unit is moved forward in the turn wheel of a number of steps equal to its Suppressed value.
But it might be a bit too strong. I have to test it, but it might be a game breaker! However, you still sacrifice a shooting round for this, so... it might be reasonable.

However, for the weapon ability:
Suppression X per hit: When attacking, move the defending unit X steps forward whenever a successiful hit is performed.


Which means that the unit Suppressed value is not relevant here!

Really loving the wheel mechanic, and the leader bonuses.  Okay, I guess that's another question.  What's the difference between battle Cry and Boost unit?  Just different names for the same mechanic?

The difference is that one applies to one unit within range, the other to any, so you potentially can activate the whole army!

Thanks again!

Thanks to you! You're being really helpful!

Cheers
Jack

[Sangennaru]

Added Sniper ability.

Any suggestion for the name, by the way?