From: Thomas Heaney <Thomas@k...>
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 14:18:02 -0400
Subject: Solo Stargrunt
Here's some ideas I've came up with for solo SGII. Any comments.
Solo StargruntII.
Having been impressed with GZGs rules Dirtside II and Full Thrust, I decided
to Id buy Stargrunt II and see if they came up to the same standard. Without
going into a full review, SGII exceeded the standard set by the two previous
releases, and I would advise anyone who is
interested in SF skirmishing(or even Modern/WWI) to give them a go. The
following are some ideas I came up with for solo play using SGII, trying to
use as many of the mechanisms in the rules as possible. Ill also explain the
thought behind some of the ideas I came up with, so that they may be of use to
non SGII players.
The scenario used was one set someplace/sometime in NW Europe in late
1944. A British infantry platoon, with a Sherman Firefly in support
were to locate and destroy a German Anti-tank gun known to be in the
area. The Germans had a single 75mm Pak40 AT gun plus crew but no limber. To
defend this, they also had two infantry squads and a light machine gun. Mabey
not the most balanced of scenarios, but I was more interested in developing
solo rules and learning the SGII rules themselves.
Each German unit was given three counters, and these were placed about the
table in places that I thought the units would be likely to hide. As an extra
rule, the AT gun could only be represented by a counter that had LOS to a road
running up the center of the table. The AT gun would only become active when
spotted or the tank came under fire(explained below).
The main idea behind these rules was that each unit the player (British) had,
would have to roll a dice each turn at the start of their activation to see if
they came under fire or not. The chances of coming under fire increased the
closer they moved to the German table edge, and the units quality(green,
regular, veteran etc.) would also have an effect, to represent better
fieldcraft, camouflage etc. of the higher quality troops. This test was only
taken if at least one enemy counter had line of sight to the unit.
Once a unit came under fire, an enemy unit was chosen(in this case at random),
ready to be put onto the table. Next, one of the counters that had LOS to the
unit was chosen to be the position of the enemy. In SGII, each unit has a
number of range bands represented by a type of dice(D4, D6, D8 etc. relating
to close, medium, long etc.), and the quality of the unit determines the
distance of each band. For example, for a green unit, each band is 6 inches,
so close would be up to 6 inches, medium up to 12 inches and so on. A reaction
test was taken, and the unit placed on the table according to the results. The
idea, in a nutshell, behind this test(for non SGII players this test
determines a units reaction to an event depending on the units quality and how
much of a threat they are under), was to try and simulate higher quality units
waiting until their target was closer before opening fire on them,
with green units more likely to panic/ misjudge the situation and open
fire earlier than veterans.
These are the two main rules that I came up with, other situations such as
spotting hidden counters are already covered in SGII(or probably in what ever
set you use). They are very much a first draught and could still do with quite
a bit of work. Below is the actual SGII rules I came up with, plus some ideas
for the future. If anyone has any
comments/improvements I would be more than happy to hear them.
Chances of a unit coming under fire.
Each unit throws 1 quality die at the beginning of its activation. To
remain unnoticed, exceed the following -
Friendly third of table - 0
Middle third of table - 2
Enemy third of table - 3
Modifiers
Unit fired last turn +1
Unit stationary -1
Unit in cover -1
If no counters have LOS, do not test. If a unit comes under fire, throw a D6,
and on a 5 or 6 another enemy unit opens fire. Repeat this until no more
counters in LOS or no more enemy units.
Calculating range band of unknown enemy firer.
The enemys LV and quality must be known in advance.
Take a reaction test for the firer, but do not apply the threat level yet.
Threat level Range band used
3 D4 2 D6 1 D8 0 D10
-1 D12
The fire comes from within the shortest range band which would allow the firer
to pass the test. For example a firer has an LV of 2 and is a regular unit. To
fire at D4 band, the dice roll(D8) would have to exceed 5 (LV of 2 plus the
threat level of 3 listed above for that
range), at D6 more than 4 (LV + threat level of 2) and so on. If there
are more than one counter within that range band from the target, select at
random, if there are none, use common sense.
For the future.
Possibly dividing the table up into risk zones for chances of coming under
fire, not necessarily related to enemy and friendly table edges. Any ideas
welcome.