From: Alan and Carmel Brain <aebrain@w...>
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 21:24:25 -0500
Subject: Re: Thrust Marines
I recently had an afflatus. That is, what in my not-so-humble opinion is a scathingly brilliant idea. I haven't looked at the archive, but surely somebody else must have had the same idea before.... anywway, here 'tis. THRUST MARINES (TM) A Full Thrust supplement for Skirmish Ground Combat OBJECT The object of this set of rules is to give a simple ground combat module easily integrated into FT, with no need for learning any new rules. It can be used in conjunction with a deck plan for boarding actions, or more usually for small-scale ground combat in conjunction with a FT game. METHOD The basic idea is to transfer the FT rules holus-bolus into a ground environment. All of the usual FT rules apply, for screens, beams, movement etc. RULES Differences from FT: Fighters (infantry) move is halved. Carriers can be of any size, ignore the Dreadnought-Fighter-launch rule. That's it. No more changes to the rules. At all. Infantry. Infantry are Fighters, but move is halved. After 3 turns of combat they run out of ammunition/energy, and must be resupplied from a vehicle or prepared position. Note that you can have: Heavy Weapons (Torpedo) Jump-pack (Fast) Infantry Power Armoured (Heavy) Infantry Heavy (Assault) Infantry Light (Interceptor) Infantry Medium (Long Range) Infantry Vehicles Are (usually System defence) ships. Those with exo-atmospheric capability are Warp ships. When 'going into Warp' they exit the ground combat table and become Fighter-like assault vehicles on the FT table. When landing, they "drop out of Warp" onto the TM table as per FT, after first doing an FT atmospheric reentry succesfully, and being removed from the FT table. Positions: Are as per FT Bases. Terrain Can be given same effects as Dust Clouds, or similar. It is recommended that there be a "speed limit" beyond which damage from minor nuisances such as small hills, towns etc can occur when moving at excessive speed. PSB Vehicles are assumed to be Grav. All infantry and vehicles are assumed to have incredible quantities of multi-spectrum sensors, tricorders etc that make hiding difficult to say the least. But targetting of Infantry at long ranges is impossible. All infantry are assumed to have exoskeletons or personal force fields. These require frequent recharging - so infantry have to scurry back to base, or run out of oxygen/chlorine/methane and energy. ADAFs are mortars or similar area effect weapons. C Beams are gatling lasers or similar, which have some anti- personnel ability. PDAFs are short range anti-personnel weapons. Desert Storm proved that many solid terrain features such as Sand Berms do not impede high-energy weapons much. It's assumed that Buildings, vegetation etc will be at best a +1 shield and chance of failing to lock on. And if a Gravtank hits a building, they may not even notice the thump as it falls into rubble around them, unless moving really fast. Typical Grav APC: 1 Gauss Autocannon ( C beam ) 3-arc 1 automatic multiple grenade launcher ( PDAF) 1 Squad Infantry ( 1 Fighter Bays for LR Fighters) Shield 1 Move 6 DP 7 (Escort) Mass 14 Points 114 (including 1 squad medium infantry) Typical Grav MBT: 1 Heavy Beamer ( A beam ) 3-arc 2 Anti-personnel scatterguns (PDAF) Shield 3 Move 6 DP 9 (Escort) Mass 18 Points 157 Typical BOLO / Mk III Ogre 1 2 MT Hellbore (2 Nova Cannon) 4 Secondaries ( 2-arc A-Beams ) 12 Infinite Repeaters (PDAFs) 2 Missiles Shield 3 Move 2 DP 46 (Capital) Mass 92 Points 631 Well, what do you think? ---------------------- <> <> How doth the little Crocodile