FMA AAAR, ASAP, OK? [longish]

Hey, it's a good day for crypic acronyms, isn't it? Of course, YMMV.

We did a small playtest game of FMA last night, with mixed results. If we'd
gotten started at a decent hour, and hadn't been so tired, it would have

been a lot less mixed -- but I figure that, if nothing else, we did a
good simulation of a late night game at a con.

We had four players, and four sides, with three of the sides being mostly
identical: One officer with assault rifle, Two troopers with assault rifles,
One trooper with a light machinegun. All had full light armor (d8), and a 6"
move. Weapon stats were those listed in the playtest rules.

The fourth force had five men (1 officer, 3 troopers, 1 heavy weapon; all
armed as above) in light armor (d6) with a 6" move.

The figures used for the first three forces were GZG NSL, GZG UN, Denizen
Federation Marines, and the fourth force was made up of LEG's "Future
Warriors".

The scenario was a dead simple one, designed to get us playing as quickly as
possible. At the center of the (very) densely terrained board, little Helga
VonPlütdevice (played by a Rafm figure of a young girl carrying a teddybear)
was placed. Helga, being the daughter of Professor Heinrich VonPlütdevice, is
exactly the kind of leverage that an unscrupulous government could use to put
pressure upon the good professor. And since Helga had managed to elude her
bodyguards, and was currently having a tea party in the center of a blasted
urban wasteland....

Each player started off in one corner of the board, equidistant from Helga.
When the first person came within LOS of Helga, she instantly recieved a 1d6
combat move, directly away from that person. Thereafter, she was moved
whenever someone was within her LOS (moving 1d6 inches each time) as soon as
that person had finished both of their actions. The players had to get into
close combat with Helga (against her d6 quality die); if they won, they had
her in their grip and could drag her off their corner of the board, with

their move reduced to 4" while carrying her. If they lost, she was instantly
moved 1d6 inches away from them. Soldiers who were suppressed

instantly dropped her; Helga herself was immune to suppression.

The scenario was sound (and will probably be a good con game someday
soon....), but the players got impatient after two hours of chasing the little
darling around the board. I've never seen so many bad dice
rolls....
At the end of the game, the NSL had three men left, the UN had two, the Fed
Marines had two, and the Future Warriors had three. Helga was declared the
winner, and we all went home.

The game was enjoyed, and will certainly be played again. The system seemed to
have a somewhat bland feel to it, but this was solely the result of giving
everyone identical forces. It played quickly, and easily, and but
was surprisingly non-leathal.  Most fire was ineffective, probably
thanks to the amount of available cover. The players expressed a prefernece
for ShockForce for "quick and dirty" games, but felt that FMA would work very
well as a more detailed system. It was also thought that the game would

have worked better on my miniscule table if we had used 15mm figures and

measured with cms rather than inches.

A few thoughts: Anyone figured out how to do multiple targets with automatic
weapons? My feeling is that you should drop the firepower die by one level for
each additional target, as long as the targets are within X inches of each
other. What X should be, I don't know.

Multiple suppression would be a good thing, I think. As a mechanism, how about
limiting the number of suppression that can be placed upon a figure to his
motivation level? A highly motivated soldier could then only suffer

from one suppression, while a poorly motivated man could have as many as

three at a time.

> On Sat, 28 Aug 1999 13:43:32 GMT, "John C" <john1x@hotmail.com> wrote:

> A few thoughts:
 My
> feeling is that you should drop the firepower die by one level for each

> additional target, as long as the targets are within X inches of each

Hey, John.

Drawing on my knowledge of other game systems, there are essentially two ways
of doing this: the way you suggested, or the "beaten zone" approach where some
sort of area is marked off, either as a template or as a cone from the firing
weapon.

The "beaten zone" approach is usually done in games of a larger scale.
Conceptually this is, sort of, what SG2 does, just that the beaten zone is
against the entire enemy squad.

In skirmish games at this scale, I have seen your approach done in several
games.

Here's what I suggest, from what I've seen in similar games.

Automatic weapons are divided into two classes: personal automatic weapons
(SMGs, and assault rifles on full auto) and support automatic weapons.

PAWs use their full firepower on one target. They can fire at two or more
targets within 1" of each other, but both targets are fired with one die shift
down in firepower. For every additional inch, there is another die shift down.

SAWs use their full firepower on all targets within a 2" area. That is, one
figure is chosen as "it" and any figures within a 2" diameter of that figure
are attacked with normal firepower. For every additional 2" the firepower die
is shifted down one.

Example 1: We have 5 figures standing shoulder to shoulder (1" apart, as SG2
figures have 1" wide bases). If an attacker fires his SMG at the middle
figure, he can do so with no modifier to his firepower die. If he fires at the
middle figure and the one immediately to its right, both figures are fired at
with the firepower die shifted down 1. If he fires at the 3 in the middle
(total distance separated = 2") all figures are fired at with 2 die shifts
down. To fire at all 5 figures (total spread: 4") would require 4 die shifts
down.

Example 2: Instead of an SMG, the attacker is firing a gatling SAW at the
group. If he fires the SAW at the middle figure alone, he does so at normal
firepower. If he fires at the middle three figures (total of 2" apart) he does
so with no shift in firepower. If he fires at all 5 figures, he shifts the die
down by one firepower die.

This makes automatic weapons, especially SAWs pretty nasty. Welcome to the
lessons learned in WWI. Figure separation becomes a big issue with this. It
also allows a SAW to have a reasonable chance of pinning an entire squad.

As an option, you could distinguish between light and heavy support weapons by
altering the distance up or down. A light MG, for instance, may work more like
a Personal Automatic Weapon, but with a 2" separation instead of a 1".

This is just a thought.

> Multiple suppression would be a good thing, I think. As a mechanism,

The only problem I see is that wouldn't you use the motivation level to remove
suppression markers? If so, you are doubly penalizing low motivation troops
(or giving a double bonus for high motivation troops). Mind you, that might
not be a bad thing... I tend to go with the SG2 limit of 3 for all figures,
myself...

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