[NetEpic ML] New Legionnaire System Notes

From: Kenneth <tzeentch666_at_...>
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2000 01:45:14 -0800

I've been working a lot on Shadowrun projects and I haev some ideas on how I
think I'll be doing the next Legionnaire revision. Here are some note.

System Origins
System will combine elements from Shadowrun, Mekton Z, Fuzion, Epic,
Warhammer 40K and Stargrunt.

Legionnaire is an realistic skirmish system primary concerned with
squad-level combat. Vehicles are individuals whereas infantry is tracked as
squads. The primary scale is 6mm individually based Epic minis but scaling
up should be very easy.

Most stats are on a scale from 1-10. Dice used are d10s and d6s.

Basics
Each squad will have a Movement, Morale and Quality stat. In addition they
can possess Skills that affect certain tasks, as well as special notes for
body armor and other gear.

Movement is given in centimeters.

Morale is on a scale from 1 (VERY VERY VERY bad) to 10 (Godlike, never fail)

Quality is on a scale from 1 to 10 as well. But the grade is very steep,
with Quality 10 troops being practically invulnerable. It is a composite
showing skill and general ability.

Body is on a scale from 1 to 10 as well, with most humans having a Body of
1. Think of it as Wounds in 40K.

Initiative
Each squad has an Initiative stat, unless augmented this is d6+Quality. Each
squad and vehicle rolls its initiative and order goes from highest to
lowest. If opposing units have tied initiatives then the player with the
Edge marker goes first (the Edge market is a similar item to the First
Player marker in AT). After all units have gone once, then subtract 10 from
each units initiative. If they have a positive value they may act again.
Subtract 10 again after those units have moved, if they STILL have a
positive value they may perform another action. And so on..

Actions
A unit may perfom one Complex and one Free Action each action cycle. Some
units may attempt one or more Command Actions per turn. You may not perform
additional Command Actions no matter how many extra initiative cycles you
get.

These complex actions include:
1) Firing the units weapons.

Free Actions include:
1) Firing support weapons individually
2) Moving up to the units movement allowance

Command Actions include:
1) Attempting to remove suppression counters.
2) Declaring a Charge or Suicidal state.
3) Calling in support fire.
4) Attempting to rally a broken unit to fatigued or a routed unit to broken.

The units can decide what order it takes its free and complex action. They
can be in either order.

Combat
The unit rolls a number of D6 equal to its Quality plus Firearms
skill+Support Weapon dice. This against a Target Number (TN) based on range,
cover, signature, and cover of the target. A 1 is an automatic failure and a
6 is an automatic success. If the number of 1s exceeds the number of
successes then there is a Botch and the units is automatically suppressed
with 1 SP.

Each success is 1 hit on the target. The target then attempts to resist the
effects. Allocate the hits (this will be done like Stargrunt) and the target
resists with it's Body against a target number of the weapons Power minus
the targets Armor. He then rolls a number of dice equal to the targets Body.
If the target fails to score a success and had a Body of only 1, then he is
Down. If he failed the test by more then 2 points then he is Crippled. If he
rolled a 1 then he is Dead.

Each failure reduces the units Body by 1 (for units with multiple Body).
When they are reduced to 0 Body consult the effects above.

These rolls are all on D6. Command units that are hit can get a "Look out
Sir!" style save.

Supression
Each "hit", even if eventually resisted generate a number of Suppression
Points equal to Number of hits- Target units Quality. With a minimum of 1
SP. Some weapons generate more suppression points then normal. These weapons
are noted in their descriptions.

I'll bulk out the effects of suppression in the full rules, it will operate
in a similar manner to Stargrunt.

Support Weapons
Most support weapons simply add dice to the attack roll. However, they can
be fired individually. in this case the gunner rolls Quality+Heavy Weapons
Skill, but can usually only do one hit (lascannons). Usually this is useful
for point targets (vehicles) that are generally immune to small-arms.

Smart Weapons
Some weapons (notably guided missiles) do not rely on the firing units
skill. Instead they have a Rating that counts as their Quality score.

Close Assault
Units in close assault pair up models, with additional models being assigned
as the player wishes. Each unit then rolls a number of dice equal to
Quality+Close Assault Factor against the other units Close Assault Factor
score. Hits are rolled randomly and resisted in the same manner as for
ranged weapons (noting close combat weapons usually have very high Power).
Note that both sides can take hits in this manner. By sacrificing four
potential hits the opponent can specifically target a specific model, even a
commander. No Look Out Sir is possible.

Morale and Psychology
When units make a morale test they roll versus a target number equal to
10-their Morale value. Some units are so horrifying they require multiple
checks at once. Fear causing units are 1 check, Terror causing units cause 2
checks. Each failed check results in a loss of morale level
(Fresh/Fatigued/Broken/Routed).

Units that Hate the morale check causing unit subtract one check (yes this
means they can be immune to standard morale checks from close combat and the
like).

Vehicles
Vehicles are generally treated as infantry except they always fire their
weapons individually in a complex action (1 weapon system or 1 linked weapon
system per complex action per gunner).

Vehicles usually have Body and Armor stats in the upper range. Some special
vehicle weapons cause multiple "Kills" of damage. That is, if they
successfully hit they cause multiple points of damage each hit. Each hit
must be resisted separately in most cases, but in some there is only one
roll - either they resist or they don't.

Titans are simply VERY big vehicles with multiple hit locations (some very
large vehicle will have multiple locations as well).

Psykers/Magic
This will use the same principles I noted in my previous psyker article.

Depending on how this system works out I'll do a Shadowrun-direct version
for both tactical and semi-strategic scale using similar concepts (would
require minimal changes).

Notes: Why the hell would you need D10's? Well simply put the really big
vehicles will have scores above 6 and use D10s for their weapon effects.
Some very heavy infantry weapons will also use D10s (lascannons, plasma
cannons). Titans would be doable but might be too complex for most people
since they would roll ungodly amounts of dice when they fought. I'm thinking
of having their weapons divisiable by some factor. That way only a number of
hits divisable by the factor would do anything at all. And keep Titan vs
Titan combat on a fair level (their weapons would cause X factor hits on
less-then-Titan scale targets).

Let me know what you all think,
Kenneth
Received on Wed Jan 05 2000 - 09:45:14 UTC