Last Updated April 9, 2007

EXPLANATION OF RULES

TURN SEQUENCE - In it's simplest form, there are normally two sides, one side makes all it's moves, both sides get an oppourtunity to fire and then the other side makes all of it's moves and both sides get another oppourtunity to fire. To try and avoid sneaky misuse of the phasing system I shall give examples of use :-

Team A may choose to fire some of it's men to wound kill the enemy. these are declared together, and the non phasing player has the choice to return fire. If so then go to fast draw initiative to determine who fires first.

Team A may then move some of it's characters into hand to hand combat with team B. If this is the case any on team B's side who have AP's left may fire at them on the way in. Note the target may normally shoot or draw hand to hand combat weapon, if elect to shoot they normally have to fight hand to hand with whatever weapon they were shooting with. (see later)
Any of team B who were unable to shoot because they had used all of their AP's already can swap weapons as a free action.

Team A could now use any remaining AP's as they see fit so long as not a cheesy move to try and fiddle system.

Example area effect weapons obviously inflict more damage when target is close together. As such when a team are moving they must all move together before opposing player fires. This is to avoid moving one team A player into range of a missile launcher. Team B fires and kills the team A character. Then all the remainder of team A are free to move at will at no risk to the missile launcher.

WEAPONS FACTOR CHART
Weapon - Skirmish scifi is the realms of many varied and strange weapons. I have tried to stick to the fairly basic types, plus added in Hammers slammers universe specific "Tri Barrels", use the bolt weapons as powerguns. Feel free to add your own weapons types into my framework. They are classified as "Hand", "Shoulder" or Heavy. Hand means pistols etc. Shoulder means rifles and heavy means large cumbersome support weapons, and RPG type weapons.

Get a couple of circular blast radius counters. Games workshop do some nice transparent plastic ones, get one diameter about 3-4 inches and one diameter 6-8 inches. The first is the +1 area, the second is the +2 area. When using an area effect weapon like a missile launcher the left hand figure must be rolled to damage the target you hit. BUT the right hand figure must be rolled to damage any nearby figures under the blast radius. Grenade launchers, flame throwers chain guns and tri-barrels have a small blast radius whilst the missile launcher has the larger blast radius

Max range - The range in inches the weapon can fire to. Realistically these should all be longer, but then a hand gun is effective across most of the battlefield and the game doesn't "feel" right, so you compress the ground scale. Hollywood you fiddle with the facts to fit the illusion!

To hit and penetrate - I used to roll to hit the target and then roll for damage. I have tried to incorporate both into one table. So some weapons have a relatively high figure because they fire rapidly like machine pistols, whilst others have a relatively high figure because they have considerable penetrating power. Fortunately it doesn't all balance out and become boring though, you still get the feel of the weapon. Roll 1D20 and score less than or equal to the figure to damage the target.

The missile launcher is a special case, It has to "Lock on" to it's target to fire. Rolle the L-xx number or less on 1D20 to lock on, big dreadnought suits emitting lots of power are much easier to lock onto than an unarmoured infantryman. If lock on is achieved the missile is fired and damage to target and surrounding targets is resolved normally. note once locked on the missile is very dangerous to heavily armoured targets. Think of it as a future Tow or Milan missile type system, or intelligent RPG. If lock on is not achieved the 2AP's have been spent and the missile is not fired which means no one in the blast radius can be hurt either.

Cost - Optionally whilst kitting out your characters in an RPG type style you can pay for weapons, armour etc. If you take this approach this is the cost of each weapon, it takes into account the real cost of the weapon and the scarcity factor.

AP's - Most weapons cost 1AP to fire, which means you could move 2D6 and then fire once, or move 1D6 and fire twice etc.

Ranged to hit modifiers - Make deductions from the number required to hit. So if to hit is 5 and the target is under cover it drops to 3. Note that assuming you started with a chance of hitting the target (i.e. not X) then you always get a hit on a 1.

Characters have the option to move and fire. Movement is at the rate of 1D6 per AP expended, which makes actual distance moved rather randomn. Each D6 you expend on movement causes an additional -1 modifier to your chance to hit. The exception is that if firing from a moving vehicle that has moved for example 3D6 you only deduct -2 not -3 from chance to hit, this is because vehicles are have cushioned suspension etc.

ACTION POINTS - This is the heart of the game. It can be varied for different characters or vehicles. But basically everyone has a number of action points per turn and everything costs a number to do. Most characters have 3 AP's and mostly move and shoot. 1 AP buys you 1D6" of movement. roll the dice see how far you can move up to, if not enough roll another dice etc until you get where you want to go or run out of AP's Remember that the more AP's you expend on movement the less you have for firing and the less accurate your fire will be. Most guns cost 1AP to fire a burst. So you could stand still and fire 3 bursts with a machine pistol. Most heavy weapons take 2 AP's which mean normally only one shot per turn can be fired. I do like terminator type cyborgs, treat as Humans but probably "LA Light Armour" good weapons, enhanced nervous system, marksman etc and perhaps 4AP's instead of 3. Making them very effective killing machines. I like the look of the new GW - Necrons they's work well in this way.

A wounded character losses 1 AP from their total each turn until they are patched up with a auto medic.

Effects of hit - We differentiate between experienced veteran troops (most of your characters) and poorly trained cannon fodder milita (the bad guys!) the vets have a higher chance of survival.

Duck-Back means the target must spend the rest of this turn cowering behind cover. If currently in the open they may run towards cover but not towards the person who fired at them. The duck back target may not fire any weapons for the remainder of the turn. If the duck back target has already had their turn then it has no effect!

Wounded means a fairly serious wound, character may still move and fire but at a reduced ability, until they have been healed with auto medic. This process takes one entire turn.

Dead - self explanatory, this character is now a Norwegian Blue!

Special SKills - To add a bit of RPG skirmish flavour, your heroes may have special skills, these may be pre allocated, bought etc.

Martial arts - Bruce Lee reborn. Chance to inflict a hit in close combat is increased by +4. If started with an X then no effect

Fast Draw - In a fast draw initiative firefight +4 to your initiative. Spirit of Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday

Marksman - self explanatory, if start with an X then can't improve it

Ambidextrous - Only applies to one handed handguns like pistols, machine pistols etc. 1AP allows you to fire a burst from each weapon, very effective at close range against unarmoured targets if you have 2 machine pistols

Enhanced nervous system - you've taken one too many drugs and no longer have any fear and hardly any nervous system. Never take any notice of duck backs. Ignore the 1st wound you have, but on 2nd wound collapse into coma, can't be revived in length of averae game

Shoot on the move - fantastic spatial awareness, no deductions if either you or the target are moving. Still get deduction if they are under cover.

Character points - Another optional RPG type thing. Can allow your characters to equip themselves with armour, weapons and special skills out of a central pool. Can vary as you wish, but obviously you just don't want every character to be armed with plasma cannon and powerglove in dreadnought armour and every battle skill, very boring and silly game, worse than WH40K.

Drugs - These are optional, basically the plus is they speed you up and give you an extra AP per turn, allowing you to move further or shoot more often. Very useful for heavy weapons as it allows them to fire twice (2 X 2AP per shot). Down side is you become a paranoid psycho, too many and you risk freaking out. Very funny when this happens though counter productive to the fulfillment of the scenarios objectives!

Quick draw initiative - Although the game is basically my turn then your turn for movement etc, whenever two characters on opposing sides are able to fire at each other it becomes irrelevant whose turn it is. The quick draw initiative takes effect. Move all the characters on the phasing side to their final destinations for the turn. If they are choosing to move then shoot then move again carry out all the moves prior to shooting.

At this stage both sides determine who they are going to shoot at. You may only use the number of AP's you have available to shoot, remember to deduct those you have used moving. The non phasing player has all of his normal AP's available. Both sides then roll 1D10 and add the appropriate modifiers. Basically hand guns are faster than rifles which are faster than heavy weapons. Unarmoured characters can react faster than those encumbered with armour, and those with the fast draw skill are best of all.

You then carry out shooting in descending initiative sequence. When one characters sequence comes up they may fire as many AP's as they wish. If they kill or wound a target that has not yet fired then it will not return fire.

Examples - if the magnificent 7, armed with hand guns were lined up in an ambush on a desert world all with fast draw skills, and a bunch of poorly trained mexicans with rifles rushed into the killing zone to attack them, you would roll for the initiatives, probably the magnificent 7 would outroll most if not all of the cannon fodder mexicans and each fire all 3 AP's which means 3 bursts from their handguns and shoot the crap out of them before they got to return fire. I've seen a film that ends like this?

If the corridor was defended lightly armed rebels (flak mesh and power rifles) and a squad of elite star wars storm troopers (Light armour and power rifles + marksman + enhanced nervous system + fast draw skills) came around the corner, some of the storm troopers would probably fire first and kill, wound and duck back many of the defenders whilst those that returned fire would have a reduced chance of killing them because storm troopers were moving and wearing armour. Likely result - acceptable losses to the storm troopers and a rapidly cleared corridor, I've seen a film that started like this?

CLOSE COMBAT - If a character rushes into hand to hand combat, the target being rushed may fire at them normally on the way in. (unless they have used up all their AP's already this phase). Assuming the character is not stopped a round of hand to hand combat is entered into. If the defender was armed with a bolt rifle and carrying a light sabre (force sword) they could either fire the bolt rifle and then fight the hand to hand combat with the rifle (ill advised but they may stop the attacker before they get to them). OR they can put down the rifle and draw the light sabre. They can not fire the rifle and then draw the light sabre for the hand to hand combat. There are 2 exceptions, first is hand weapons. If carrying a pistol in one hand you are free to carry a close combat weapon in other and may then use hand gun to fire at target as they come in and the close combat weapon for the hand combat. 2nd is if the person being assaulted used all their AP's earlier in the phase shooting at enemy before movement took place, they have the option to swap to an alternative hand to hand combat weapon.

Both parties roll normally for damage etc. It is possible though unlikely that both attacker and defender will inflict a mortal blow against each other. It's a tough universe!

Note there is a specific close combat weapons table. It includes specific close combat weapons and "Aliens" with slashing claws. It also generically covers normal ranged weapons by their size, with the implication the smaller the better. You may be able to fire a hand gun in close combat, whereas a rifle weapon will only make a club, and a heavy weapon is virtually worthless!

AUTHORS NOTE - We used to use variants of these rules back in the 80's with 15mm TTG laserburn figures. Then switched to 25mm figures and played a lot of "Aliens" and colonial marines type games during the 90's. Most recently I have painted up some Hammers Slammers vehicles and figures but have had little chance to use them. Basically this game has been used for infantry battles. I haven't properly play tested the vehicle rules sufficiently. I haven't even included rules for real tanks it's just inappropriate, even a Tri barrel armed APC is a devastating weapon aganst a squad of lightly equipped men. I have also always avoided armoured womble warfare, and seldomn use anythig with more than light armour. Not sure I have ever used dreadnought armour.