Insurgent Commander

[bigjackmac]

All,

Over the past month I've played four solo games using my rules, which are BKC heavily modified for skirmish.

It looks like hell format-wise, but if you head over to my blog, I've posted my rules, "Insurgent Commander."

The four batreps I played (in "Perplakistan, between French Foreign Legion and Islamist Insurgents) are also there.  Here's the blog:

http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

If anyone looked at the rules, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Not looking for any pats on the back, just looking for any glaring holes, any bad ideas, any new ideas, and any ways of doing stuff better.

V/R,
Jack

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Jack - had a look through, cant see need for 2 sets of columns FP and AT, and I suspect your headings differ from the procedures. It needs a few play examples. It's not clear how many figures make up an element.

It looks to be an excellent set of rules.

IanS

[bigjackmac]

Ian,

Thanks for having a look and some feedback!  I've posted these on my blog and three different forums; congratulations, you're the first to actually comment on the rule! 

1.  Regarding different FP values for Anti-Personnel and Anti-Tank, I'd have to say I believe they are absolutely necessary.  For example, a French rifle team is armed with assault rifles, squad automatic weapons, and grenade launchers.  These do a fair job against enemy infantry (5 dice when at full strength).  However, none of those weapons is capable of defeating anything heavier than civilian vehicles (armor save roll of '6'). 

Whereas the insurgents are armed with assault rifles, squad automatic weapons, and an RPG.  This gives them 5 FP dice against infantry, and 4 against vehicles, though the RPG can engage armor with any save value, meaning it can take out any vehicle on the table.

Similarly, an ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missile, such as a TOW, Milan, Javelin, etc...), has a very poor score against infantry (3, because it's warhead is not designed for that), and can only be fired against solid targets (like a bunker, house, or wall), it is the deadliest AT weapon on the table, with AT FP of 7.

2.  "...and I suspect your headings differ from the procedures."  Sorry man, I don't understand what you mean by this.  Please explain a bit better and I'll get you an answer.

3.  "It needs a few play examples."  Certainly.  I put a couple in, but didn't want to bog the rules down with them, plus it's sometimes difficult for me to figure out what needs an example as it makes sense to me, but I'm sure that's always the case for the guy that wrote them, and the real trick is making sure everyone else does.

Please let me know what you'd like to see examples of, and I'd be happy to write something up.

4.  "It's not clear how many figures make up an element."  I'm pretty easy and flexible (don't you dare call me half-ass  ), and didn't specify a ground-, time-, or figure-scale.  Again, I'm playing games, not simulating anything, but here's what I'll say:

-Ground scale - not real sure, but everyone can shoot across my 4' x 4' table, so I'd say 12" is probably roughly equivalent to 100m.  Roughly, in the neighborhood.

-Time scale - If we talk about the whole turn, that is, both sides phasing (side A goes while side B reacts, then side B goes and side A reacts), I'd say we're only talking about a two or three minutes.  Combat with modern, high-velocity weapons at these very close ranges is very violent and over very quickly.  The activation system of some elements getting no activation all the way through elements getting four or five actions still means time is mostly linear, but, due to the element's combat situation at that time (leader near by, pinned or not), as well as their level of proficiency (right now just French 'free and then 7+, insurgents free and then 8+, but you can see where there's plenty of room to scale up or down, depending on what/who you're trying to reflect), they are able to get more or less done in the same timeframe relative to other friendly and/or enemy elements.

-Figure scale - This is the easiest for me: I'd say my infantry element with five strength points is probably five to eight guys, while the smaller weapons teams with three strength points is three or four guys, and a leader stand with one strength point is probably just an officer, but could be thought of as an officer and RTO or platoon sergeant.

For transport purposes, I've been playing that the Range Rovers and Panhards can carry  about six SPs (one rifle team and a leader, for example), while the helos can carry fourteen SPs (two rifle teams, a weapons team, and a leader).  I throw that out just for guidelines.

I hope this explanation helps, and please do let me know what you meant with #2 and some examples you'd like to see in #3, and I'll get on it as soon as possible.

Thanks a bunch.

V/R,
Jack

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Not saying you don't need different AP and FP values, but you have the 2nd and 3rd columns as FP, AT, with values only for French leaders, and two more columns further over with entries for everyone except French leaders.

IanS

[bigjackmac]

Ian,

Sorry for the explanation of Anti-Personnel Firepower and Anti-Tank Firepower, I misunderstood.  But I'm still having a hard time following you:

"...but you have the 2nd and 3rd columns as FP, AT, with values only for French leaders, and two more columns further over with entries for everyone except French leaders."

The first row is "Leader," for any nation, followed by French rifle team and then insurgent rifle team.  So there not stats for different kinds of leaders, but there are for different rifle teams.  The reason for this is the French rifle teams only have disposable (AT-4 or M-72 LAW-type) AT weapons, whilst each insurgent rifle team has an RPG.

I hope that clears it up, but, if not, please let me know.

V/R,
Jack

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

You are still missing my point - the FP and AT columns are duplicated - the first pair have stats ONLY on the leader row, the others are all on the columns further in actually called AT and FP, in that order.

[bigjackmac]

Ian,

I feel like a total idiot as I just can't seem to figure out what you're talking about.  Here's a cut and past from my blog:

Type                      AP FP    AT FP     Strength              Armor   Notes
Leader                     1          -              1                       -            None.
French Rifle              5          3*           5                       -            *AT vs armor '6' only.
***Can fire one AT volley per game (AT-4/M72 LAW), AT: 6, make sure to track this***
Ins Rifle                    5          4             5                       -             Fire AT or AP per action, not both
MMG (7.62)              6          3*            3                       -             *AT vs armor '6' only.
SMAW/Gustav           5*        4*            3                       -             *AP -1 to save against hard target
                                                                                             (wall, bldg) only, AT vs 4-6 armor only.
ATGM                      3*         7             3                        -            *Against hard target (wall, bldg) only.
SAM                        1           6*           3                        -            *AT vs aircraft only.

I know the format is kind of funky on the blog; I apologize, but I can't figure it out.  Three times I've gone back in, spacing things out so they look right, but whenever I publish it skews them again.  As a matter of fact, I can't wait to see what the table looks like when I post this 

Alas, I'm still not following you: there is not an FP column, an AP column, and an AT column.  There is only an AP FP column and an AT FP column.

V/R,
Jack

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Your blog screwed up the formatting - I suggest removing the FP - otherwise it looks like there are four columns -  AP : FP : AT : FP

Ok

ianS