It's the year 3050 (approximately) and the first company of Fred Haub's Space Marines have just landed on the planet Sgorblum. Their objective, to clear out the defending beasties of the Evil Empire.
I was Chief Evil Empirist of the defending beast things, and I set up my men... that is, my beasties ... in the remnants of a small village. Units were organized in the following manner:
| One stand (3 figures)... 3 to 4 squads (stands)... 3 to 5 Assault.Groups... |
Defined as a Squad Defined as an Assault Group Defined as a Company |
I had 4 Assault Groups, and the component squads were each hidden, ready to pounce on the Marines. Which means they got first fire.
BAM! WHAMMO! ... and my heavy weapons Assault Group, composed of 2 squads, took aim and blasted away at the approaching troop carriers. Each squad had a 75 percent chance to hit a vehicle... one missed, one didn't.
Vehicle damage is not assessed immediately on Sgorblum, nor, for that matter, in the Evil Empire. Instead, one waits for the draw of a sequence card on which is annotated: "Resolve vehicle damage".
Each side is given 6 sequence cards which are alternately drawn. Each card says something like "Move and fire", or "Move only", or "Move or fire", etc. The cards also designate the distance both infantry and vehicles move; for example, on some cards, troops advance for 6 inches, on others, they run up for 10 inches.
About half the cards also contain the "Resolve vehicle damage" note. The intent of the delay in resolving damage is to permit the troops riding on the vehicles, knowing that a hit has occurred and the thing might blow up under them, to jump off to safety.
Thus when I fired and hit a troop carrier, I placed a hit marker on the vehicle. Unfortunately for me, the card on which I fired did not have the "Resolve damage" notice, and so the immediate effect of the hit marker was unknown.
Fred then drew a card for his Marines, which permitted them to move, but this card, too, didn't say "Resolve damage". This enabled the Marines aboard the carrier to jump off. It was on my next draw that the damage was resolved; here, I also fired again at the vehicle to increase the chances that the carrier would be destroyed. I put 2 more markers on it, for a total of 3.
Each marker counted for 25 percent, giving a total percentage, T, of 75 percent, and the damage chart was as follows.
-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No effect, remove all markers
T --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fire breaks out aboard vehicle, receive another marker, test again next card
1/2 T --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vehicle blows up
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here, T equalled 75, hence a toss of percentage dice below half of T, i.e., below 37, would blow the carrier up.
KABOOM! A low toss and the troop carrier was no more.
While this was going on, the Marines were steadily advancing and firing. Each stand, each squad, when firing anti-personnel weapons, was given an initial 25% chance to hit. The sum of all the squads in an Assault Group was used to see if the target had been hit. Thus when one of my 3-squad Assault Groups fired, the total, T, was 75, and the casualty chart is somewhat similar to the vehicular damage chart:
-
-------------------------------------------------------------
Miss
T -------------------------------------------------------------
Squad receives 1 casualty marker
1/2 T -------------------------------------------------------------
Squad receives 3 casualty markers
-------------------------------------------------------------
Each Assault Group has its own data sheet; hits on the squads affect the entire Assault Group and not the individual squad. A simplified Assault Group data sheet would look like:
| Prior Effect... Morale... |
5 9 |
10 9 |
15 9 |
20 8 |
25 8 |
30 7 |
35 7 |
40 6 |
45 6 |
50 6 |
55 5 |
60 4 |
When a squad in an Assault Group incurs casualties, the Group itself crosses out columns equal to the markers received; the chance, P, that the particular squad is destroyed is:
- P = 10 x Current Markers + Prior Effect
If, for example, an Assault Group had already taken 4 hits, the first 4 columns would have been crossed out, leaving a Prior Effect of 25. If one of its squads took 2 more markers, then the chance that the squad was annihilated becomes:
- P = 10 x 2 + 25, or 45 percent
In all, I gave the Marines a hard time of it; but they did the same for my beasties.
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© Copyright 1995 Wally Simon
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