I'm looking at this from a Zulu Wars perspective, but it could also relate to
any high tech vs. low tech SG2 game.
The timescale in SG2 is 1-5 minutes per turn. The British should be
able to shoot horrible numbers of Zulus charging across the open in
that time-- yet vanilla SG2 rules dictate on average:
quality firepower armor casualities
d8 + d12 / d4 = 5 max
This number seems too low for 1-5 minutes of twelve men firing up to 6
rounds a minute. How should I reconcile it?
1) Special rules for mass charges in the open: Extra Firepower
What I'm currently leaning toward-- you'll only get these horrendous
casualties when the Zulu charge the British across open ground. What I'm
thinking is something like when firing into a massed opponent in open ground,
multiply your impact die by four. This would give you up
to, on avg, 8 + 40 = 48 / 4 = 12 possible casualties.
2) Special rules for mass charges in the open: All combat move is a Charge.
Alternately, force the Zulu to start their actual CC charge as soon as they
hit the open. At the end of any double move, target unit may fire at the
incoming Zulu.
3) Lower armor.
What if you said Zulu had d2 armor? For the Zulu, all wounded will count as
kills for gameplay, so this might work.
4) Zulu figure scale.
The easiest way would probably be to say each Zulu figure *actually*
represents several Zulu-- say 4. Also requires you to have fewer
figures. However, I prefer 1-1 scale.
Any thoughts?
(After writing this, I think maybe option 3 is the best.)
> At 06:42 PM 11/16/00 -0600, you wrote:
How 'bout volley fire? If the officer can properly motivate his men, let them
use *both* of the unit's actions to fire their rifles. The unit leader would
have to roll higher than his LV, using his unit's quality die, to make this
happen.
> 1) Special rules for mass charges in the open: Extra Firepower
When firing into a massed target (or, alternatively, across open ground)
reduce the effective range by one band. So if the Brits are Regulars, they
have an effective close range of 16" when firing at those charging Zulus.
Maybe that's not nasty enough. How about this: When firing into a massed
target, *double* the total of the attacker's die rolls. Combine this with my
first suggestion, and there should be a lot of carange.
> 2) Special rules for mass charges in the open: All combat move is a
I'd also be tempted to make that first Zulu charge have a terror effect
Option 4) Instead of dividing by range die type (i.e. 4,6,8,10,12) divide by
(1,2,3,4,5) This prevents option 1's extra multiplication step and subsequent
difficult math division step and keeps the numbers within range of toes and
fingers for the nuckle draggers in your gaming
group. A Zulu, if anything, should shrug off wounds - they can pinch
and suffer and ignore privations with the best of them. Finally, the
abstraction of having 1 zulu figure represent 4 zulus is not aesteticly
pleasing.
In message <OE99GUEj5OOcbRPOJIv0000004c@hotmail.com>, "Peter Mancini" writes:
> Option 4) Instead of dividing by range die type (i.e. 4,6,8,10,12)
Hmmmm...that actually sounds pretty good.
> of toes and fingers for the nuckle draggers in your gaming group. A
Maybe, but Martini-Henry mkI/II rifles (.45 caliber) gave atrocious
wounds. I'm currently running them with d10 impact. I've always considered
SG2's wounded to mean "wounded badly enough that he can't continue." There
were a lot of wounded Zulu in Zulu War battles that died after the battle from
serious wounds. The way I see it, any Zulu that takes a real wound is going
out of action.
They were.45???!!!! Holy Freaking Shoe Shine! I imagine it left many a Red
Coat with a sore shoulder! And many a Zulu village less one Brave.
I reverse myself then - these guns were killers. How many rounds a
minute could one get off? How long did it take to reload?
In message <F4ExvWvqzAoa2JB1ndc00000121@hotmail.com>, "Peter Mancini" writes:
> They were .45???!!!! Holy Freaking Shoe Shine! I imagine it left many
> From the Colonial list on egroups.com (a much fun place), they say the
The South African historian in the list gave an account of a unit's leader
being shot rousing the unit to charge approx. 100 yards through two volleys
and then independant fire to close with the British. (uMcijo and iNgobamakhosi
amabutho) Say, 20 seconds to charge 100 yards, and at least 3 shots off in
succession, so that sounds about right.
I have DEFINITELY got to work on my confidence table.;)
(Of COURSE it was.45!! Go watch Zulu again. "If it was a miracle,
Colour Sergeant Bourne, then it was a forty-five caliber miracle."
"An' a bayonet, too, suh! Wi' a bit o' guts behin' it.")
(Mind you, I saw later M-H models were recalibrated to .303, leading to,
I believe, the great quote from "Breaker Morant," "They were executed
under rule three-oh-three!")
> Andy Cowell wrote:
writes:
> > They were .45???!!!! Holy Freaking Shoe Shine! I imagine it left
I have a recollection that they were rechambered to (I think).22 as training
weapons.
For the Boer war, it would have been Lee Metfords, I think.
.303 bolt action magazine rifles.
In a message dated 11/17/00 3:50:19 PM Central Standard Time,
> peter_mancini@msn.com writes:
> I reverse myself then - these guns were killers. How many rounds a
Five or six aimed shots per minute, but the barrel heated rapidly and there
was NO FREAKING recoil absorption whatever so after some time the soldier
might become unable to properly seat the weapon in his shoulder and so
increase the effects of the hammering at his shoulder socket. In Africa, many
soldiers wrapped a bit of green cowhide around the barrel, carefully cutting a
slit for the rear sight to peep through. Once wet and dried this made it much
easier to actually sustain fire without blistering the left hand.
For years after the war, white missionaires and medical personnel reporte4d
on the ugly scars and wound damage from the .45 Martini-Henry boxer
cartridge round which weighed almost one ounce. It was of course a low
velocity round, but the mass of the projectile made up for it nicely.
In a message dated 11/17/00 4:15:10 PM Central Standard Time,
andy@cowell.org writes:
> (Mind you, I saw later M-H models were recalibrated to .303, leading
The Australians carried the Lee-Enfield .303, though there may well have
been
.303 adptations of the Martini-Henry, but this would require an entirely
new barrel I believe, since by the turbn of the century the British were using
smokeless powder in the Lee-Enfield, and a simple re-chambering would
probably not result in an adequately strong barrle to handle the increased
velocity and muzzle energy.
In a message dated 11/17/00 5:58:00 PM Central Standard Time,
> bcadwgan@fl.net.au writes:
> For the Boer war, it would have been Lee Metfords, I think.
In the time of the Breaker Morant episode, they may already have had the
Lee-Enfield issued, somebody should check it out.
In a message dated 11/17/00 5:58:00 PM Central Standard Time,
> bcadwgan@fl.net.au writes:
> For the Boer war, it would have been Lee Metfords, I think.
Actually all the black powder single shot rifles of 1854-1896 or so had
large caliber rounds. The American Springfield Trap Door was.45 caliber (the
carbines and rifles had different length cartridges however). The French
Rifle was even larger in bore (the Chassepot), The Remington rolling block
rifle was at least.45 caliber, The SPencer was.52 caliber, the Winchester
magazine rifle was chambered in many rounds: .44/40, .45/70 amongst
others. The slower projectile velocities of black powser weapons mandated a
heavier round to provide plenty of "knock down". Later smokeless rounds had
much
higher velocities, so a smaller projectile could deliver equivalent energy to
the target and fire with a flatter trajectory to boot.