Stargrunt 2 is a set of Science Fiction rules published by Ground Zero Games, copyright and trademark to same.
SG2 are excellent rules: elegant and producing a believable result quickly.
One problem I have noticed is the order in which topics are presented, people find this confusing and get the impression that the rules are complicated. Everything but armour is simple and uses similar mechanics.
See Learnww2.rtf for a fast track approach to learning the game.
You will need the Stargrunt 2 rules in order to make sense of what follows, it would have been clearer if this document actually explained all the rules together…. But then you wouldn't need to buy SG2 and Jon would be suing me for copyright.
If you do not already know SG2 well, read Learnww2 and then the rules prior to this document.
These rules modifications are definitely not intended to cover mass armour actions across the rolling steppes. We play with a platoon or two of infantry, the odd troop of armour support in fairly close terrain.
The emphasis is slightly different from SG2 in that armour rules are less detailed, thus allowing tanks and infantry a more equal part in the action. Players like tanks, so their mechanics are more like the infantry rules. This in turn makes the rules for tanks lean more towards game rather than simulation. If you don’t like that then either use the sg2 rules for tanks or leave them out. The vast majority of platoon actions involved no tanks.
The emphasis is on producing a result which seems ‘about right’ with the minimal mechanics.
Be aware that in order to avoid reams of stats there’s an assumption herein that the reader knows WW2 weapons and tanks reasonably well.
The rules have been pretty much stable for some time now, but if you feel there’s some suggestion you have for improvement or question on what do you do when… let me know.
I frequently run scenarios and some of these will appear on the web site, as spare time and inclination allows. As and when this happens, stats for all vehicles and weapons used will appear in these and can be consulted for more examples.
Few people had any personal armour to speak of in ww2, so people had a habit of lurking in holes or behind nice thick walls.
|
Colour |
Type |
Dice / Range
band |
Armour |
|
Red |
Elite |
12 |
|
|
Orange |
Veteran |
10 |
|
|
Blue |
Regular |
8 |
Pill box |
|
Green |
Green |
6 |
Heavy cover / emplacement |
|
Yellow |
Untrained |
4 |
None |
Within a turn a given unit may be activated once, reactivated once (only).
At the start of a turn, move routing units first. For the purposes of running, routed over-rides suppression and the unit will still run.
The defending player and the attacking choose the units they wish to activate first, and roll off quality dice. Highest chooses. On a draw the defender chooses. Optionally, if one is moving and the other static, the static unit may choose who goes first.
Invert the confidence chit as each squad or troop’s activation is resolved, the quality is more likely to be referred to later on in the bound.
Hidden units should be allocated the abc chits and their letters marked on the map. The units laid out on a clipboard or in a boxfile complete with quality & confidence chits. As they activate ( often to just sit there ) their confidence chits can be turned over in the box.
One of the psychological effects of battle is that crewed support weapons are much more likely to shoot than riflemen as there’s several people there to give each other confidence.
Support weapon detachments still use the actions of their leader, but no communications test is necessary if all you want to do is shoot. They know they’re expected to blast things, and hence a machine gun ‘nest’ can function or someone in a half track can "shoot their squad in" to an objective.
Some very well organised units such as early war German, or British Paras are an exception to the usual rules and ( as scenario dictates ) may take both a leader action and a squad action for the cost of their first action in a bound, read the redefined list of actions carefully prior to implementing this. It’ll have a big effect so get to know the rules well first.
A squad with no NCO gets a single action. As well as when a leader is lost this covers unusual teams such as poorly trained tank hunters or cooks and bottle-washers manning hasty defences.
Detachments made prior to the game start may be set up this way.
This can also be used to simulate troops caught in unusual circumstances, such as early war artillery men who find themselves in the thick of things, and are inexperienced/psychologically unprepared for the situation.
Fire squad weapons +- a single support weapon. Each soldier may only fire once per bound, but a squad can fire lmg then rifles.
Fire heavy/sustained fire support weapon
Move/combat move. Mostly 6” or d6” doubled if under threat or fire.
Reorganise ( includes medical attention, turning heavy weapons etc ).
Take cover - get into position. ( Confidence test if not in cover )
Set up/take down heavy weapon
Remove suppression
Elect Leader
Deploy crew for Close Combat
Leave cover under fire ( Confidence test )
Get up out of position ( full action, but you can roll confidence tests to move and remain in position )
Aim ( Heavy weapons only )
Deliberate sighting
Rally subordinate
Reactivate subordinate ( NB Must be in chain of command )
Communicate
Man gun ( Following close combat or similar )
Calm Panic ( Takes two actions )
Detach ( Includes sending runner )
A leader may use an action in an attempt to activate another unit under him in the command structure. A given unit may only be re-activated once in a turn, and this may be limited to being prior to their own activation depending on quality of NCOs within the unit. This does not usually give the unit another shot the exception being crew served weapons which may shoot once per activation. EG SFMG, AT guns, tanks, bazooka. Thus excluding flamethrowers, rifles, smg and lmg.
In order to successfully reactivate, a communication roll must be successfully made.
An officer may talk to another or squad within 6” automatically. This does not take an action if it’s just to make a detachment carry out an action. Otherwise an action is required.
Further than this and either shouting, a runner or a radio are necessary.
In all these cases a command roll should be made. This uses the worst number of both leaders involved, the quality dice of the unit he talks to.
In ww2 radios were often unavailable.
Infantry find it very difficult (if not impossible) to talk to buttoned tanks and vice versa, with some exceptions such as open topped vehicles and Shermans with rear mounted telephones. Otherwise either a detachment must be sent to physically contact the vehicle or the leader involved must do so himself.
+1 Radio communication
+1 By voice, per range band distant
+1 No clear LoS between units/target in cover and hence difficult to make out.
+1 Enemy/whatever target is engaged with is out of sight.
+1 Infantry yelling to open topped AFV
+2 Infantry yelling to other AFV
+1 Either unit under fire this bound
+2 Either unit under HE fire this bound
A squad without a leader performs at 1 quality and 1 leadership worse than it’s original, where possible. It may only be activated by itself or a leader within it’s (new) quality range in inches. A special “Elect leader” action is available which does just that. Roll on original quality, if equal or less to original leader’s number then the new one is one worse, if that is possible.
Particularly high quality troops known for leadership from the ranks (eg early German ) have a new leader automatically appears with the same number. See National characteristics, or your scenario designer.
Since a player may choose to make their activation simultaneous with that of their opponent's previous one, there is a decision to be made in whether to interrupt or just fire with the next normal activation. A unit suppressed via an interrupt stops where it is shot at, but the shooting unit only gets one action. A normal activation may claim to shoot "as if" the unit just moved was still in sight and gets two actions, but the enemy unit stops where it was going to get to - even if suppressed.
During games it became apparent that the Interrupt rule is insufficient for games involving any armour, and causes some odd things to happen in infantry engagements taking place in close terrain.
Any enemy move action into or out of LoS of an unactivated unit may be stopped by Interrupt to Op Fire.
As a player is moving their unit the opposing player may ask them to stop, LoS is adjudicated and the activation of the firer used up to give a single action.
If in cover which would not ordinarily allow an automatic sighting, the ‘free’ 2 range band sighting rule may be used.
Optionally, if a deliberate sighting is necessary then this may be carried out but fire is at +1 range band as the target is not clearly acquired and shots are rushed.
With AFVs, the target must be within their 45 / 15 degree arcs to claim this.
In an attack defence game, a defender may pick a line or specific spot which crewed weapons have pre-ranged on and any enemy along this is considered to be at -1 range band. Aim actions may improve this again. Like aim this is an open shift and hence may improve one of the firer’s dice if the target is already on a d4 range dice.
Generally speaking, a rifle is a rifle and all are worth a point. Some ww2 weapons need further fiddling with the mechanics in order to give a reasonable match. Where Q-1 is indicated, this means shift the quality range bands down by 2” per band beyond the first, similarly the quality dice drops by 1 for each beyond the first. If this means dropping below a d4, then the fire would be ineffective.
The following is based on my interpretation of how weapons were used - I feel that most riflemen in a squad didn't fire effectively, hence the undeniable difference between a garand and a Kar98k is too small to be relevant. There are arguments against this, so you could try 1.2FP at short range for a Garand or M1 carbine if you feel this is more appropriate.
Carbines Q-1 I feel that the low power of the m1 carbine is made up for by rounds in a magazine.
Early Pz Fausts have short range only, very late war ones 2nd band also, but at Q-1.
SMG 2 FP, short range only.
Stg 43 Assault Rifle, fp1 each OR FP2 and q-1
Pistols in the hands of experts are FP1 for short range and as a bayoneted rifle in close combat, otherwise are no use except in close combat, where they are equal to a plain rifle.
LMG are defined by ammo feed for weapon dice, effective weight of fire for impact.
Mag fed d6 FP unless less than 30 rounds, then d4. All mag fed are d8 impact.
Belt fed with loader d8 FP, d6 without.
Most belt fed mg Impact d10, SFMG mg42 d12 due to high RoF.
Examples.
BAR d4 support weapon with loader or 2 FP, d8 impact
Bren d6, d8 impact
30cal belt d8, d10 impact
MG34 Drum d6, d8 impact
MG34 belt d8, d10 impact
50 Cal and other HMG/autocannon penetration is such that ordinary walls’ effects are reduced to light cover.
This represents the morale of the units and drops either one or two levels if a confidence roll is failed. Less than half the roll required indicates a drop of two levels. Rallying is possible by a superior officer using an action or as a ‘self’ rally using two actions.
The SG2 mechanism is simplified by deciding on a scenario basis whether to add the test number as well as people lost when casualties are inflicted. Unusually well motivated troops in the advance might disregard dead (only) on the first bound they incur them. Fanatics and those motivated by certain death on retreat/capture may disregard wounded as well, however, be very careful with this until you’re sure of the rules. Soviet human wave assaults with NKVD stopping machine guns shooting people running away still suffered morale failure.
|
Threat Level |
Trigger |
|
1 |
First time unit suppressed |
|
0 |
Unit suppressed, after first time |
|
1 |
Unit takes losses |
|
2 |
More losses in a given bound than are left |
|
1 |
Supporting friendlies move rearwards or rout |
|
1 |
Sees friendly unit withdraw, rout or destroyed. Unaware of, or powerless against cause |
|
2 |
Tank in contact with enemy infantry |
|
+1 |
Per killed this bound |
|
+1 |
Per untreated wounded |
|
+1 |
Per untreated wounded man left behind |
|
+1 |
No leader at present |
|
+1 |
Under HE or artillery attack this bound |
|
+1 |
Fired at by unsighted enemy from out of frontal arc |
|
+1 or Double |
Attacked by terror weapon |
Particularly aggressive troops may ignore (only) suppression triggered tests after the first.
Note, where bound is specified this may mean that casualties prior to this will be added.
Great care needs to be taken in balancing this.
When a squad is ‘safely’ out of the line of fire it will obviously eventually stop running.
To qualify such as squad must be able to draw no line of sight to an enemy, and not been under fire previously in the bound.
It must either have another squad which is at Shaken or better morale in sight or have been safe the previous bound.
Basically, it must feel pretty safe and or have some friends about to reassure it has some support.
This test is at a penalty of 2 along with any other applicable penalties, uses both actions and requires a live leader.
As can be seen from the above, treating wounded is a good idea, even if you do not get the soldier on his feet so long as he’s dead or stops screaming you will be reducing your potential morale penalties.
Also note that once ‘Treated’ soldiers may be left at no penalty.
Think of them as sat against a tree with gritted teeth and a pistol if it helps.
A reorganise action allows each unwounded figure to treat a wounded one. A d6 roll is then made for each.
|
6 |
OK, remove wounded marker |
|
5 |
Treated, but still incapacitated. |
|
3/4 |
Still counts as untreated, you may try again |
|
1/2 |
Dead |
Add +1 for a proper medic and an optional -1 for an officer or commissar on the eastern front.
The rules for these are changed rather a lot, the extra vehicle rules in SG2 are ignored and a more infantry fire orientated procedure adopted instead.
Basically, I don’t like the multipliers mechanic and felt that something a bit simpler and closer to the way infantry work might be practical.
Armoured vehicles are allocated an armour value (d4 to d12) to front and sides. Anti tank guns are allocated an armour impact value.
These are nominal dice, and will require changing when there is any range of difference between armour penetration and armour. The effective range of tank guns and the like is much greater than small arms. The range band is increased by adding a Heavy Weapon Range to the usual quality. An average gun crew are therefore likely to have range bands in the order of 18”.
|
HWR |
High Velocity |
Gun/Howitzers |
|
4 |
Tripod or pintle MMG |
|
|
6 |
Auto cannon /coax mg |
|
|
8 |
Small AT Gun |
Short barrelled / Mortar |
|
10 |
Medium AT Gun |
Long Barrelled |
|
12 |
Large AT Gun |
|
Buttoned up AFVs reduce HWR by 2”
Vehicle moved across LoS in last activation or just came into sight for some other reason, +1 range band unless full auto fire.
Hull down is considered light cover at short range, hard cover beyond.
An Aim action reduces range band by 1.
Shooting as a second action after a move halves range band eg quality 8, medium AT = 18”, halved = 9”.
The radius of command is greater for vehicles than it is for individuals, they can have up to their quality band between the centre of each vehicle in a squadron/structure.
For an effect that disrupts tanks in a similar way to the suppress effect on infantry, we’ll adopt the term Neutralise.
Tanks are suppressed by fire from small arms etc which’d be ineffective, but Neutralised by AT fire which could reasonably destroy them. APCs and open topped vehicles treat suppression just the same as infantry for fire purposes but may still move.
Neutralised AFVs must act rather like infantry in that they must remove the neutralise prior to any move or fire actions.
If hit by enough effective fire, a crew may decide to bail out of an otherwise functional vehicle, when receiving what would be a 4th Neutralise, or any neutralise on a lightly damaged vehicle, the vehicle crew must make a Confidence roll or bail each time they’re hit.
Neutralise effects only the individual vehicle, unless as a result of a vehicle being KO’d in which case the marker is allocated to the troop leader and all vehicles may not move.
Where a troop leader is neutralised, then a maximum of one of his subordinates may fire in an activation.
This will result in tanks sat there and players who feel tied by this may ask why the tank can’t reverse out of line of fire / whatever.
Well, the whole point of suppression/Neutralisation is to frustrate.
My explanation here is that the tank has just been meaningfully hit, the crew are confused, shaken up and there’s minor things damaged. Maybe the crew are slightly panicked, so they’re firing back ineffectually or vacillating. So they ARE doing stuff, it’s just not productive.
Where the troops leader is hit, the rest of his troop are expecting orders and wondering what to do, so any still active are are limited to shooting back at obvious targets.
Admittedly this is a bit artificial, but it’s meant to simulate minor effects without reams of rules.
No occupant of a suppressed vehicle will willingly leave it. Commanders will drop down and ‘button up’.
Once suppressed a commander must make a confidence roll and take an action to ‘leave cover’ to unbutton.
Any close by HE fire, or a suppressive hit by any weapon will make all but confident AFV commanders drop back into the tank and close the hatch - “buttoning up”.
This is a ‘free’ action, and a player may also elect to button up voluntarily at the start or end of their activation.
This has a dramatically bad effect on the vision capabilities of a tank.
The crew has only it’s periscopes and narrow vision slits to see through, vision rolls are impaired by one step and only things directly within 15 degrees of the frontal arc or turret direction may be spotted at all.
Tanks etc are more likely to keep firing - keeping their heads down is not an option and crews have no option to act individually.
On the face of things, one might imagine a tank to race along at far greater than speed than infantry. Real ww2 tanks would generally advance hesitantly, far below full speed. Partly this is because seeing anything from a fast moving tank as it buckets about is just about impossible.
Most vehicles move 8” cross country, +2” on roads, when in combat move they are somewhat more reliable than people and move 2 dice rather than 1 doubled.
Examples:
Churchill 6”/2d6, Sherman 8”/2d8, M18 10”/2d10
Turns over 45 degrees cost 2” if moving at over half speed.
Friendly infantry within 2” of AFV front at any point in turn reduce speed by 2”. AFV will not drive through friendlies, especially not over wounded who are lying there screaming as they’ve been abandoned.
Vehicles must finish the turn facing in the direction they moved unless conforming to a terrain feature or some other logical limit.
Turrets may turn to face any known, reported or reasonably likely direction of threat.
Moving tanks would not usually have the turret facing further than 45 degrees from their front, half move if you want to do this.
Turning a turret over 45 degrees counts as a move action.
Tanks may be ordered to move at 6” constantly, in which case any infantry following behind get the benefit of heavy cover ( even when the vehicle has moved off and the squad have yet to be activated.
The downside is that they have to either be given orders to abandon this at a set point, or be specifically told to speed up.
Note that tanks were often historically on a completely different command net to infantry, so the referee may have to either impose several bounds delay as orders go up the chain of command, then back to the tankers, or (simpler) allow no change in orders.
When hit by a potentially penetrating weapon, roll off Impact v Armour, as an open roll.
Impact is increased by +1 at half short range, reduced by 1 per unmodified range band over the 3rd distant.
Should a major success have been scored, then two impact dice are rolled, and the best result taken..
Double the score is a kill, over is a light damage.
If you want to simulate poor guns firing at good armour, take the worst of two d4 for a minor success, and a d4 for a major success.
Receiving any sort of penetration effect in a tank is a very worrying business for the crew, bits will likely stop working, the turret can jam, optics smash… not to mention wounds to crew members. It was fairly common for tank crew to bail out on receiving such a hit, sometimes they would later get back in when they realised that the damage was not as bad as they thought.
Any light damage result gives an additional suppression to the tank.
Subtract armour from impact, for a difference of:
1 -1 quality step for vehicle
2 No move, -2 off HWR for rest of game.
3 No Firing, -4 off HWR for rest of game.
4 Fire, another impact attack with crew quality v impact at end of every bound until put out by crew doubling impact
5+ Serious damage, tank crew bail out
Once all suppressions are removed an extra confidence test can be attempted in order to recover from effects 1 through 3.
Until this point, the level of damage is added to any confidence test and a serious failure indicate that they bail.
Whilst side or rear hits are probably more likely to produce disabling than frontal hits they’re also more likely to penetrate as armour will be thinner... worry about the reason why move became zero only if the scenario means it matters, or in a linked series of games.
If you have a referee, he can consider whether crews will hang about and act as infantry squads or they can be rallied and get back in later. With no referee, assume a bailed out crew means the tank is destroyed.
Machine guns in tanks can be considered as sustained fire mounts, and thus any tank guns may be fired once per activation rather than just once per bound.
A tank which moves and fires may only use main gun or coax machine gun.
Where the first action of an activation is to fire, or the first was aim and the second is fire, then all tanks in a troop may fire.
Otherwise, only one may fire.
If the first action in an activation is a fire action then any detachment may also fire as well as the rest of the squad activated.
Tanks or guns in a unit may pick different targets if a communicate action is first successful, otherwise the targets are randomised between appropriate available targets. This can be carried out in a previous turn – and represents the commander telling A to fire at the left target, b the middle one etc.
Stationary tanks may fire bow mg or flame thrower at enemy directly in front, at q-1.
If the commander is brave enough to remain ‘up’ he can also fire any pintle mounted mg, but at the risk of being a target for small arms.
Pz Faust 30 and thrown weapons out of close combat range: d4
Mortars and low velocity weapons such as other infantry HEAT or those unsuited to direct fire: d6
Most guns, High velocity guns, tank guns: d8
High velocity large guns with spotter: d10
One of the disadvantages of bunching up is that you can take more casualties from any given shell. Burst diameter and firepower should be specified for a given weapon system.
|
Calibre |
HV Gun |
Gun/How |
Mortar |
|
<61mm |
1 |
2 |
2.5 |
|
<85mm |
2 |
2.5 |
3 |
|
<131mm |
3 |
3.5 |
4 |
|
Bigger |
4 |
4.5 |
5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Impact |
d4 |
d6 |
d6 |
Russian guns/Howitzers count as one step smaller for radius as they have less explosive in the shells.
A failure to beat the defender indicates a complete miss. Unless a referee is running the game, assume that misses have no effect.
A minor success or a major both indicate the HE landed about where the player wanted.
Work out which figures are in the burst area and roll off Impact v Armour for each in turn.
The Impact die is shifted up 1 for a major success, the armour dice is shifted up 1 for being in position.
HE is particularly good at suppressing, and success indicates a suppression as usual, but any wound or kill gives a second additional suppression.
As to the location of a hit – roll a dice to decide a figure which it is centred around, moderate this if you have a referee and the result is illogical. For a major success, roll two dice and pick the “better”.
Optional:
The above radius can be rather fiddly to work out and hence an alternative is to test for 1 through 4 figures with the impact shown, with an additional test if the first wounds or kills a figure.
On the bound a unit routs, any activation is lost and the routed unit loses any activations until it is rallied.
On the positive side, all suppressions are also removed.
At the end of every bound after the first, it will move as fast as it can manage towards a safe ( or apparently safe ) position.
Note that this means an unactivated unit given a rout result will not act in that bound.
If still under fire and surrounded or an unsuppressed threatening enemy is within the enemy unit’s short range, then the unit must pass a confidence test at TL+1 per enemy unit or surrender.
The unit may attempt one self rally once out of trouble.
Routing squads may neither reactivate nor activate, they must rally first.
A successful rally will not normally give that unit an activation that turn. If the CO is within short range, the player may opt to take another confidence test at TL1.
If this is passed, then the unit gets an activation this turn, otherwise it loses it’s leader (who has been shot).
The basic factors don’t take into account that some troops may be in a very bad position to fight close combats.
Further factors:
|
-1 Untrained in infantry combat -1 Unready for close combat -1 Unwieldy weapon, such as rifle without bayonet |
+1 Have grenades +1 Defending obstacle or significantly higher |
Use these to cancel out
Following a close combat, gun crew or similar personnel manning non-personal weapons are considered to need re-organising before they can man the weapon properly.
They could choose to fight on as infantry using personal weapons ( assuming the troops of their nationality and period were suitably equipped. )
Most infantry would only have one or two grenades issued, unless equipped specifically for street fighting or the like. Optionally, the average line infantry would use up their grenades in the first close combat they engage in. Scenarios could also allow for re-supply if this level of detail sounds good.
Once ‘prepared’ gun crew etc down their usual tools and ready personal weapons etc.
Once prepared, they need to re-organise and pass a TL 0 confidence test to return to manning the gun.
Getting in game artillery to work as representative of WW2 is pretty tricky. By far the easiest is to limit fire to pre-game and even to build the effect into the scenario by the referee deciding precisely where fire is to fall prior to an attack – defence game.
This is arguably more realistic in that the time needed to set up artillery is fairly long. Twenty minutes before calling for a dedicated asset to put down map fire and the shells starting to land was considered pretty good by some forces.
The number of artillery tasks available should be limited by the referee or scenario designer.
An extra phase is added to the end of a turn, the artillery phase. This follows rout movement.
To gain the bonus from an artillery observer, the observer must be on the phone talking to the battery all the time. As soon as they start doing something else, the line is potentially dropped and they may have to start again.
Some nationalities and units may attempt to call an artillery task from higher levels ( such as Divisional ).
The scenario designer should be quite careful about allowing this, as generally speaking the unit would’ve had the guns allocated if whoever gave them the task thought that this was justified.
Soviets were notoriously inflexible and they would represent one end of the scale with effectively no chance, whilst US artillery was particularly flexible and so from the point of view of realism would have the highest chance of support.
Realism and game balance are often difficult to resolve, so bear this in mind.
Any asset on table can attempt artillery requests by communicating up the chain of the command. It is strongly recommended that only the CO on table plus any dedicated FOO should actually be able to call and correct fire.
The Observer/etc must first make a successful communication action in the bound, this is at the usual +1 for radio communications and using the quality dice of the observer calling for fire.
Depending on the scenario and nationality
Pre-programmed fire tasks land as long as a successful Artillery roll is made, if they fail in one bound shift the programme along and try again next Pre programmed batteries must switch off for at least one bound between targets as it takes some time to set the guns up. This could potentially be upped to several turns for some forces.
+3 Russian
+2 If not an allocated battery
+2 Only one communicate action used in the turn
+1 if target not a major point easily identifiable from a map
+1 German late war calling other than mortars
-1 British or US late war
-1 Same contiguous request as last turn and FOO concentrating purely on calling this task.
-1 Dedicated observer/FOO/etc
-1 Dedicated or on table support being requested.
At the end of each turn, there’s then an artillery roll made in the artillery phase.
If successful, these achieve the following steps:
1) Contact non-allocated asset
2) Span an inflexible off table level of command
3) Call for spotting round
4) Fire for effect
5) Continue fire task.
The first step is only necessary for artillery not specifically allocated.
The second step is necessary should the person calling not have sufficient influence to call for fire, and is influenced by nationality, unit, type of asset and (by definition) effective level in command chain.
Spotting rounds can be dispensed with, but the artillery task will count as unspotted.
Allocate a quality and score to Artillery, mostly d8 (average) 3.
This plus the above modifiers must be beaten.
A major success indicates a roll for the next level may be made immediately.
Thus, on a successful roll a FOO may call un-spotted fire of allocated assets in 1 bound, 2 if they wished to spot.
Should spotting rounds fall out of sight, then the observer may call for another spotting round.
thing.
Under most circumstances, some sort of generic effect is my preferred way of play. This is a game rather than an academic exercise.
In theory, buildings should be turned to rubble by heavy artillery whilst light mortars should produce only slight damage.
Close support mortars shoot as if they had LoS to target if under activation from a superior/OP who can direct fire.
Called in artillery is largely outside the scope of the games our group play.
Pre-game bombardments are fairly regularly used.
Give the attacker a number of points ( 2 to 4 is a good number ) they pick these once the defender has map deployed, and place markers. They then deploy their forces.
For each marker roll a dice, a d4 or a d6 depending on how accurate you judge the bombardment to be. Apply a minus 1 if the point is on an obviously recognisable point for mapping purposes ( church or cross-roads eg ).
For anything other than a 1 roll that many d6 and a d12 or GW artillery dice. The burst area wanders by the sum of the d6 inches in clock/arrow direction of other dice.
The defender places any unit which is in the appropriate area and wounds etc are resolved.
For batteries of weapons, at least double the HE area. 8” diameter gives a reasonable area on an 8’ x 6’ table.
I quite often referee games which are put together on the fly, immediately prior to the game. Mostly, this works reasonably well and the balance of forces and terrain is close enough so that a reasonable game is enjoyed by all.
Occasionally, I realise that I’ve made a mistake and that patch of open ground or that extra Sherman means one side has a hard job on it’s hands.
There are several techniques I use to keep the game interesting, largely these rely on not telling the players all the scenario’s “rules” prior to starting the game. They know that I deliberately keep them in the dark and accept that this is part of the fun. As an added bonus, I can make it particularly hard or easy for them to get artillery support or some such. Perhaps when they contact the battery they were allocated, it is only to discover that they just had to put down a heavy barrage and are just getting the HE organised… just be a few minutes before we’re ready.
Sometimes counter battery fire may have been allocated at a higher level.
As yet I have not got it SO wrong that significant assets needed to arrive as reinforcements, but that’s the ultimate option to consider. Just don’t do this too much.
If you have no referee, well spending some time to balance a game is absolutely necessary unless you’re just playing for laughs and neither side will take things too seriously.
If you and your opponent want ‘serious’ games then scenario details must be written down in advance.
I would suggest that one player designs a scenario and the other picks which side to play based on a verbal synopsis.
Next game, reverse the roles.
The games will become balanced pretty quick.
I feel planes are outside of the scope of a platoon v platoon fight unless there as more of a scenario effect controlled by myself as the referee.
Infantry moving in the open may be seen by anyone with a clear LoS with the target in frontal arc. Infantry or heavy weapons in cover and camouflaged AFVs hidden in cover, may not be spotted by suppressed infantry or Neutraliseed AFVs who are further than close away. IE anything within quality range band is automatically spotted.
Otherwise, where in doubt, an open roll should be made.
Target uses range bands shifted:
|
Target |
Sighter |
||
|
In Position |
Outside frontal arc |
Under fire |
Moving |
|
In Cover |
To rear |
Per suppression |
Vehicle |
|
Individual |
New target beyond 1st |
Default sighting |
Buttoned AFV |
|
Camouflaged |
|
Per Move action |
|
Sighter rolls quality dice +
|
Target |
Sighter |
|
|
Per move action visible |
Full vehicle visible |
Seen something previously |
|
Firing |
In objective |
Friends firing at target |
|
Firing Hy weapon >40mm |
|
|
A ‘free’ deliberate sighting is available to a leader at the start of an activation, ie you can spot something and then do your two actions.
Once seen, a unit remains visible until it somehow moves out of sight or the spotting unit receives what would have been a 4th suppression.
Any infantry unit unsuppressed at the end of the bound which had LoS to an enemy which shot that bound sights it then, any AFV similarly except only in frontal arc and only if did not move ‘like the clappers’ by issuing a double move.
All this is intended to give a framework to base referee decisions on, if applied in rules-lawyer manner then odd things are likely to happen.
The sniper rules in SG2 do not represent the range of capabilities and approaches taken in ww2. Three different qualities of sniper are introduced.
C: Soldier has been handed an accurate rifle
May shoot individually with d4 -1 FP, or as a group where they get 2FP per shooter.
B: Accurate rifle and a scope, as above but double range bands.
A: Above plus training. D4 FP.
A specialised sniper character ( indicated as such in scenario ) or one in a team and directed by a partner or officer with binoculars or telescope may elect to pick off leaders.
It takes an action and a successful quality roll to identify a unit’s leader.
Where it’s a leader action taking place, measure from the leader. Usually you will measure to the centre of a target squad, an exception is in sighting where you measure to the nearest member of the squad. For passing actions, measure from leader to leader.
.50 Cal mgs, 20mm auto-cannon, HEAT and similar weapons reduce heavy cover to light for hit prob purposes.
If 10 yards is represented by one inch, then those 1/76 scale buildings are way out of groundscale. Another thing is that measuring LoS from the upstairs window of house x, through the hole in y and into the back window of z is likely to result in grief.
Buildings are considered to represent chunks of built up area, figures are measured to and from wherever they physically are.
Each building is considered to block LoS beyond it, regardless of individual height, wallpaper etc etc.
Similarly, a squad in a building may fire out in any direction, and one entering/exiting a building does so from any direction regardless of details such as doors or windows, they’re there just to look pretty.
Subtract 2” for entering a building, 3” for crossing a high wall or hedge, 5” for crossing bocage hedge. Dragging heavy weapon -3”.
If players are allowed to, some will reduce every copse and hedgerow to cinders prior to advancing towards it. This does not make for a good game and hence speculative fire of this sort is made deliberately unattractive.
No injuries may be sustained by suppressive fire, the only effect can be to inflict a suppression.
A piece of suspected cover is selected, roll off an attack at 1 extra range penalty, as an open roll.
If the attacker rolls greater than the target, it is suppressed.
Note that the firer must have some reasonable explanation for picking the cover, this could be pre-game orders, taking fire from that direction and advancing towards it, or supporting another unit which is advancing on the cover. Picking something way over on the other side of the table and out of the line of advance would therefore be right out.
The activations in a bound are not simultaneous. This conveniently cuts down on arguments based on remembering which did what as well as adding to the skill in choosing when to activate a unit.
During it’s activation a unit may shoot at whatever the enemy just activated as if it was at any point in it’s turn.
BUT, this is regarded as hurried fire and is at +1 range band if the target is no longer in sight. Should this also be keyhole shooting ( ie the unit was only in sight very fleetingly, then any cover adopted at the end or left at the beginning of it’s move is also applied.
Usually, this latter sort of fire is unnattractive and hence manoeuveur is encouraged.
Objectives are usually set out in the scenario or by the referee. Should no referee be available, then simple objectives should be set between the players. If this proves a problem then I suggest either another opponent, or one player writes out a scenario and the other picks which side they wish to play.
In attack/defence scenarios the defender should map deploy their forces and explain the dispositions to the referee. If and when they move, the figures should be placed on table. As they are laid out, the player decides whether they are ‘In position’ or not.
The attacker must specify where their units enter the table, it can be interesting if this is planned based on a map without sight of the table. If the map is also subtly different from the table then this matches what often happens in war.
Most scenarios I design the defender must place any entrenched units, who are not in cover, on table prior to the attacker placing any forces.
With artillery, have the attacker place their forces and then work out where it falls. If anything falls within the burst area then the unit must be placed on table and the results applied.
These very broad stereotypes may help you in designing scenarios with what to consider and how I feel mechanics can be twisted a bit in order to match my particular viewpoint. As always, change to taste.
Default NCOs. Unit may be re-activated by superior passing on an action, but only after that squad has been activated.
Inflexible NCOs - If passing on actions by superiors is done prior to activating a squad, it uses up that squads activation for the turn, and may not be repeated.
Flexible NCOs: Unit may be re-activated prior to or after it’s activation by a superior.
Extra NCOs: should squad commander be lost, replaced automatically next activation. Special forces often eligible
Some infantry have walky-talkies, which greatly improve communications between infantry squads.
Break fast, recover fast - lower grade troops, good commanders.
Some units have flexible NCOs from late 1944.
Flexible orders and arty support.
Bazooka attached to HQ squad, half track bourne infantry may also have up to a bazooka per squad. 12 man paper squads often 10 men.
Particularly stubborn in defence - make confident and ignore suppression triggered confidence tests after the initial.
Morale started to wane towards end of war.
Fast arty support but less often available in defence.
Boyes AT may be attached to platoon HQ squad.