From: Beth Fulton <beth.fulton@m...>
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 11:45:16 +1000
Subject: [DS] daleks (long)
G'day guys, Played another game of DS with my Daleks on Friday night - got beaten again (so much for being the master race). Basically I think its going to come down to going in hard and fast before the opposing masses can react (and resisting the temptation to see figs on the board and buy some ortillery instead). VERY Basic AAR: Marine Daleks and Strider move up river valley with strider killing everything it hit - until it got Firer's systems down and then it became a fire magnet... (dropping from D10 to D4 target die HURTS) Daleks on foot (and Emperor) move into local village and put down roots. Heavy Weapons Daleks and engineers etc move to and take cross roads. Smaller walkers, hoverbouts and tanks try to take further-most positions (objectives) briefly and then get swamped by the masses. The fact that walkers could see over intervening terrain is very helpful when you've got long range weaponary, unfortunately they are not shown the respect they deserve when the opponent gets in close...;) For those who're interested here's the rules I ended up going with (below): Cheers Beth > [quoted text omitted] Unit Quality and Leadership: The 'coloured' Dalek units (imperial, red, blue, black and gold) may only be Regular or Veteran with leadership value of 1 or 2. There is no restriction of the quality or leadership of the other units, but they will primarily be Regular 2s. Confidence Levels: Daleks rally as humans do, but they only drop a confidence level if they roll half or less of their required score for the confidence test - this is because Dalek confidence levels are different to those of humans - they only have 3 levels: CONFIDENT, as arrogant as ever, they are ready to take on the universe, thus the unit acts normally at all times SHAKEN, still sure they can takeover the universe, though not quite sure it'll all happen today, the unit still acts as normal ROUTED, it has been decided that it makes more sense to retire and try a different tack... must withdraw to own baseline, but may return fire. Confidence/Reaction Test Modifiers: Daleks never panic, but they do cause panic. Daleks never check in BIOCHEM/NUKE attacks as they're unaffected by these events. In addition, Daleks never suffer any effects of being under fire - they roll on relentlessly. If the Emperor Dalek is destroyed all units must be given a marker (use the PANIC marker for convenience) and they must spend their next activation performing a confidence test (this removes the marker), if they fail they immediately fall to ROUTED and must withdraw to their own baseline. If successful they may continue as normal from the next turn (a new C-in-C must be designated at this time from the remaining unbroken units). If a Dalek unit is required to change objectives a successful communications roll must be made. Roll the unit's Quality Die; to pass, the roll must exceed the sum of the appropriate reaction threat level (see below) and the leadership values of the units sending and receiving the change in orders. Dalek psychology differs to that of humans so use the tables below for confidence/reaction tests: Event (Confidence Threat Level) Unit has taken 50% or more casualties in ONE ATTACK (+0) Unit has taken TOTAL 75% casualties in battle (+1) UNIT LEADER element is DESTROYED (+2) EMPEROR is DESTROYED (+4) Defending against POWER ARMOUR in Close Assault (1st test) (+3) Defending against LINE in Close Assault (1st test) (+2) Defending against MILITIA in Close Assault (1st test) (+1) <50% casualties in close combat (2nd+ test) (+1) > = 50% casualties in close combat (2nd+ test) (+3) Event (Reaction Threat Level) Changing objectives, NO casualties suffered and objective NOT taken (+2) Changing objectives, casualties suffered, but objective NOT taken (+0) CONFIDENT attacking in Close Assault (+1) SHAKEN attacking in Close Assault (+3) Combat Characteristics: Have 5 damage points, draw 4 chits in firefights, but only 2 chits in close combat (damage dealt as normal - i.e. use standard chit validities). Movement/Terrain effects: Daleks on foot have a base movement factor of 6" with the following terrain modifications (assuming they have grav-like "attractavon" to allow them to move over the ground/up stairs etc): Easy = Roads Normal = Open, Light Scrub, Cultivated, Urban, Hills, Light Woods Poor = Rough, Swamp Difficult = Dense woods, Mountainous, Rivers/Streams (crossing only) Impassable = Open Water (unless marine) Marine: Essentially small submersible Daleks. Cost +5 per team and allows for Easy movement in Open Water, Poor in Rivers and Difficult in Swamps, all other terrain types are impassable with a base movement factor of 15". Marine Dalek vehicles/individuals use conventional boat mobility costing, but they may have armour=size-1, except for size class 1 (Heavy Weapon Marine Daleks) which may have class 1 armour. If submerged then water = soft-cover. Hoverbouts (individual grav sleds): Cost +40 per team and give the unit the same mobility as a VTOL. Heavy Weapons Daleks: Class 1 vehicle, with mobility costed as for slow GEV, but have movement the same as for all other Daleks. Suicide Daleks: As their action for the turn a unit of suicide Daleks may detonate themselves. The player must declare that this is occurring and then anything within a 2" blast radius (measured from the centre of the squad) is said to be affected. Infantry elements take damage as if under HEF artillery attack, while vehicles take damage as per direct fire attacks, with RED/YELLOW chits being valid as are any "special" damage chits. 4 chits are drawn regardless of whether the target element is infantry or a vehicle. Pyro-Daleks: Cost +50 per team. As their action for the turn the unit may set fire to a building/vegetation/other flammable materials, to do this place a fire/smoke marker up to 1" from the unit - 2" of smoke extends downwind from that point. On each subsequent turn, unless extinguished by weather or engineering teams, the smoke from the fire increases by 2" (up to a maximum of 6"). These weapons may also be used to fire at infantry and vehicles, though they have little real effect against the latter. If attempting ranged fire the range is 3" and they pull 2 chits and the damage validities are: Target Element Chit Validity Normal Infantry RED and YELLOW Power Armour RED chits only Vehicles "special" damage chits only When these weapons are involved in close assault, they draw 4 chits and use the damage validities as per infantry close assault: Target Element Cover Chit Validity OPEN RED, YELLOW and GREEN SOFT COVER RED and YELLOW DUG IN or URBAN AREA RED chits only Direct Weaponry: Daleks use Power-guns (PGN - based on those from Slammin' The Dirt), these have the following breakdowns: Class Cost Close Med Long PGN/1 18 12" 24" 36" PGN/2 36 18" 36" 54" PGN/3 54 36" 60" - PGN/4 72 48" 60" - PGN/5 90 60" - - Chit Validities are Target Damage OPEN at CLOSE/MEDIUM ALL count DOUBLE OPEN at LONG ALL SOFT COVER at CLOSE RED+YELLOW, count DOUBLE SOFT COVER at MEDIUM RED+YELLOW SOFT COVER at LONG RED+YELLOW, count HALF DUG IN or URBAN at CLOSE RED only and count DOUBLE DUG IN or URBAN at MEDIUM RED only DUG IN or URBAN at LONG RED only and count HALF Against Infantry only Red count. 'Special' damage chits count against vehicles as normal. APSWs: Daleks do not use the same kind of APSWs as humans rather they use a smaller version of their main vehicle weapons (PGNs), these have the following breakdowns: Cost Capacity Range # Chits PGN/APSW 10 1 8" 5 During ranged fire, damage validities as per infantry firefights: Target Element Cover Chit Validity OPEN RED and YELLOW SOFT COVER RED only DUG IN or URBAN AREA YELLOW only When used in close assault, use the damage validities as per infantry close assault: Target Element Cover Chit Validity OPEN RED, YELLOW and GREEN SOFT COVER RED and YELLOW DUG IN or URBAN AREA RED chits only Vehicles: If a Superior system will fit then that must be installed, back-up systems are mandatory (i.e. best of everything as these are super-high tech kinda beings) <I can post the designs if anyone's interested>