Squad Hammer Suggestions

[Tim Snoddy]

One: Infantry armour is rated as follows.  I think this is a very easy system to gauge your models with.

No armour or less than equivalent of current flak jacket damage increased one level.

Flak jacket equivalent damage remains the same.

Sci fi armour damage reduced one step.

Power armour damage reduced two steps.

[Tim Snoddy]

Two: I wondered what your thoughts on activations were.  I like games where about two thirds of initial forces get to activate. 2D6 drop lowest works well but if playing with 3D6 drop lowest getting circa ten activations before your opponent replies is overwhelming. I have started to split the activation roll in two. So if you roll nine activations, you take 5 then your opponent takes half of his activations then it comes back to you.  So you can still do combined arms type things, move vehicles and drop infantry etc but it is a bit more interactive.

[Tim Snoddy]

Three:  In my games the withdraw order never gets used.  Redeploying or regrouping always seeming more attractive.  Another player suggested it should become a compulsory order in the following circumstances.  Attempting to return fire in a firefight and not beating suppression.  Attempting an engage or redeploy order and not beating suppression.

 

[Tim Snoddy]

Four: Unactivated infantry being assaulted by a vehicle can opt to perform an immediate withdraw order.  If the assaulting vehicle still has LOS it can fire on the infantry unit at -1 to hit.

[Retroboom]

That was me 🙂

From my reply on facebook:

” the suppression rules we use (which we did by mistake but decided we like them) are that you must pass a Morale Check, rolling equal or higher than the current damage to Engage or Redeploy, otherwise they fail to activate. If returning fire, pass morale or be forced to fall back. We also, however, say that every unit is killed on 7 damage, and choose weapon stats based on that. Especially resilient units we’ll give armor that reduces the damage roll by 1 or very rarely 2 (and on the other hand sometime units will have armor piercing that ignores that reduction)”

Not my own variant, but I’ll note that I like to use the Trench Hammer variant for things like penalties for 4+ damage (we call it shaken), assaults, and leaders.

I’ve brought up our suppression variant here before, though Ivan noted he was concerned about unit penalties snowballing, which is a valid concern. One reason that hasn’t come up much with us is perhaps that we play with more units than recommended, usually in the 12-18 range, so there are often other units to support when one needs to withdraw and regroup.

 

Richmond, VA. Let's play!

[Ivan Sorensen]

One of the changes I have been using is that instead of rolling, Withdrawing just heals 1 damage automatically, which makes it a more attractive option.

It may still need a slight oomph, but it comes up if you’re in a position where you can’t really harm your enemies realistically and might as well get out of there.

I do like building in some “reaction withdrawals” into the system.

[Retroboom]

Is that not how it’s always worked?

Richmond, VA. Let's play!

[Tim Snoddy]

Sorry for not giving you full credit where I should have Retroboom.

Five:  From previous discussion I hope this has already been decided but just in case it hasn’t.  I really hope we move to 13 damage to destroy infantry and build everything around that.  I think it is so much better than 6 as it allows greater movement up and down the damage levels, there being 8 of those in the last proposition I saw.  The new damage levels push towards a median score where as if you are rolling 1D6 a 6 is as likely a result as anything else.

 

[Tim Snoddy]

Six:  Are there plans for Mega Units in the new version?  I know the plan for vehicles is for them to be knocked out or not rather than take incremental damage.  Don’t know how viable a suggestion this is but could they be like the old version but just able to take more than one killing hit?  I love the way the system allows you to use those huge models you have that never reach the table.

[Ivan Sorensen]

So that’s a great question.

I do agree that I think a 12 point damage scale works better in many ways (particularly with scaling), but I am not sure if it’d be too dramatic a departure. So…uncertain but the option will be in the book for sure.

Mega Units will absolutely be in. though not in Core (which is aimed at just the very basics).
If it all works out right, there’s actually going to be both options for vehicles (binary damage and “normal” accumulated damage, the latter is more for games where each stand is a company or whatever, but I think some people prefer it).
You could have binary units that still have a damage track as well for super-big tanks and such.

[Retroboom]

Ive been wary of changing default HP from 7, as its just so easy to track with single mini dice, but I’ve also never tried it and haven’t observed the conversation. I’ll see about giving it a go this week.

Richmond, VA. Let's play!

[jeff fearnow]

We’ve just been using a Binary Hybrid where if you take a mod to your damage (using _CHARGED_ or the like) then that acts as a mod for the Binary roll.

Just this guy, you know?

[Ivan Sorensen]

That does make it simpler and more consistent.

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