A bit more Swarm Wars

Just a quick 'sort of'  terrain and troop placement....

Many years ago terrain in wargames was set up and 'fixed' by whoever organised the game. In Ancients at the Nationals this consisted of 5 terrain layouts. You had to chose 1,3 or 5 - if you chose 1 and your opponent chose 3, you played 2, etc. The board itself was split into 6 sections. For an internal Liverpool league in around 1976 I used this 6 section board to allow for more variation in terrain using dice. This was further modified by me as an option for the Ancients games in the 1978 North-West Regional Finals for the National Wargames Championships, then others modified it for use as the terrain system in the 1981 Nationals themselves.

So naturally I'm looking back to this system for future use in Swarm Wars.

Terrain, currently it's fixed by me for each game.At some time I'll use the system if I ever decide to do a 2 player version, for now I'm quite happy.

However, as already seen, I do use for Swarm placement - initially for saucer/rocket landing sites:

Determine chance of a saucer/rocket landing and dice for each one. 3 or more, for example, would give a 50% chance of each one landing - decide for yourself or simply say they all got down safely!

Divide table or whichever part you want to use as a landing area into 6. A 3x2 grid is the best option. Allocate a number 1-6 for each square, dice for each saucer/rocket. The number on the dice determines which square that saucer/rocket lands in. If you like, each square could itself be subdivided and diced for again to further restrict choice in the landing zone.

This where it could be fun if you want to use them - personal choice:

Land in a 'build-up area' - dice to see if saucer/rocket crashed/topples over...
2 saucers/rockets land on same subdivision - dice to see if they crash into each other...
In both cases saving throw for each swarm machine would be an idea.

Frankly, at the moment I simply put them next to any obstacles or each other, but it does allow for a bit more interest.

Swarm Wars initial rules.

 For the last few days I've trying to put my MS Publisher initial version of the Swarm Wars  onto the blog - with little success. This is about my 4th attempt and it's still not going to plan! I finally had to save the tables in jpeg form and insert them as pictures.

Movement

Infantry                              2”

Light Armour                    6”

Medium Armour                4”      Medium armour includes standard troop and missiles GEVs

Heavy Armour                   3”       Heavy armour are tracked

Swarms                              6”

Rocket/saucer                     -        Assumed to just take off and land

Aircraft etc                                  To be arranged

Weapons (to hit, includes initial save)

1) Human—note swarms count as Light Armour, Troop and Missile GEVs as Medium Armour. A single cell artillery vehicle also has a 4/5/6 saving throw—only half as many firing!

2) Swarms

3) Weapons Range

Saving Throws

Some saving throws are already   included in the hit factors—for example, it might be easy for  infantry weapons to hit heavy armour, but the hit would have no effect so what’s he point in going through an extra saving throw routine?

Standard Missile GEVs are double celled weapons. However, models are available for single celled GEV units or single cell missile units. As these only fire half the missiles, an initial saving throw of 4/5/6 on single units allows for any hits to have been made by the ‘missing’ cell. This roll is made as part of the ,to hit’ phase.

Saving throw in all cases is 4/5.

For units in hard cover saving throw is 3/4/5

Morale

Human units are usually formed in 3s—Infantry 2 infantry plus 1 A/T, GEVs and tracked vehicles in squadrons of 3.

Therefore morale is rolled for each third lost.

1/3 lost  1 = retreat/rout,  2 hold, 3/4/5/6 obey orders

2/3 lost 1 rout and don’t stop, 2/3 retreat, 4/5 hold, 6 obey orders

3/3 lost you’re dead...

Players have the option to reroll in any subsequent move except on the ’don’t stop’ result—they’ve gone. Thus at the start of any move a unit retreating can attempt to rally on the same basis as the original retreat.

Notes

These rules are, firstly, a work in progress and will be both extended and amended in future. They are also rump rules, intended for personal use so subject to random interpretations!