Ground Zero: Helicopters
JTAC: “Deuce 31, Broadsword 11, 5-line, Type 2 control, BOT,
rockets and guns, my position is checkpoint 295 marked by IR strobe, northwest
200, single technical vehicle marked by IR SPARKLE, make all attacks over my right
shoulder, left pull, keep all effects of fires west of MSR Clovis.”
A/C: “Deuce 31 copies over your right shoulder, left pull,
keep all effects of fires west of MSR Clovis, pushing.”
JTAC: “Deuce 31, CONTINUE.”
A/C: “Deuce 31 and flight, VISUAL, TALLY, IN.”
JTAC: “Deuce 31 and flight, CLEARED HOT.”
Today I have mainly been thinking about rotary wing close air support (RW CAS). To you and me that's choppers! Here are the first thoughts.....
Helicopters: Helicopters
have special capabilities and vulnerabilities. These rules modify all relevant
sections above. Helicopters have three activation dice. On an odd d6 result
they may only move (they cannot rally, go into Overwatch). A helicopter may not
discard an odd d6 result.
A helicopter may be subject to anti-aircraft fire as
opportunity fire from enemy units in Overwatch in any hex that it starts in,
passes through or ends its move action in. A helicopter that does not move at
least three hexes in a move action becomes a sitting target and enemy units
firing receive a fire bonus when firing at it.
Helicopters ignore terrain restrictions. They may only land
in clear hexes that contain no vehicles (or wrecks).
Unlike other units, helicopters may fire at more than one
target if they have more than one even d6 result. They may also make an intense
attack on a single target if they have more than one even d6 result.
Special actions available to helicopters include: Landing,
taking off, embarking or disembarking passengers (this includes allowing
passengers to disembark by rappelling) and lasing targets for air strikes.
And, yes, I'm nicking ideas off Peter again!
Next problem to solve is that helicopters don't roam around shooting stuff up for fun. The air response must be proportionate and avoid collateral damage (as well as friendly fire) and enemy anti-air assets. That's the job of the JTAC who must have eyes on target, at least for a type 1 weapons delivery (visual contact with both target and A/C). How do we represent the JTAC and their interaction with the CAS? I have a few thoughts, they make for good scenarios!
work in progress!
I
suppose it says something if I have gone to the trouble of designing a logo for this game. My enforced absence from blogging and game related activities has spurred my enthusiasm.
As usual, I blame Norm and Peter for ideas which have lurked for many months. This game represents, at long last, my attempt to model squad level modern combat in a simple way and in a way that I actually want to play.
I even have a blurb (of sorts!):
A nameless small town somewhere in the war zone. This game
is played on a six by nine hex grid, there is no scale but each hex represents
an area sufficient for the footprint of a small house, back yard or street.
There is no timeframe other than that each battle is
concluded in a day. Each turn may represent anything from a few minutes of
violent combat to several hours of desultory gunfire. Units are activated by
random card draw and unit actions are dice driven.
The troop types reflect what you see on You Tube videos,
small groups of men, of varying commitment and training, largely fighting in
built up areas. Weapons are light small arms with heavier weapons in support,
with the ever present HMMWVs and improvised armoured vehicles.
Scenarios reflect the reality of modern combat, often
mundane tasks fraught with risk and unexpected dangers.
Nuff said at this stage but progress has been excellent. This time I will blog test games to show the mechanics in development.
not that I've been anywhere of course!
After a blistering few weeks of work I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. Not easy when my thought processes generally resemble a plate of spaghetti!
What's new?
Now, I like a bit of Firestorm and it's great to see the Team Yankee folks starting up a Cold War version. Fulda Gap here I come!
What's next?
My first task is to complete a longstanding development project which has unfortunately lapsed over the last few weeks. Once this is done and dusted my list is:
- Ground Zero: Modern squad combat - my latest attempt to finish Desert Eagle.
- Ground Zero: Modern platoon combat - I have recently become very interested in the Lock n Load Nations at War and World at War system. As I have said before, I'm also very interested in the Tiny Battles Platoon Command game system. First thoughts are to adapt these ideas for the Turkish assault at al-Bab, Syria, in December 2016.
- Arras, 1940 - Time to finish the scenario map (it is nearly done!).
- 5Core Sandbox: Also time to play with some toy soldiers using this squad patrol campaign game system from Nordic Weasel.
- Pikeman's Lament: Finally, I'm doing something with the rules as written. However, I have come across this chap (Roll a One) using 6mm figures to play GNW games. Very nice! Even I could paint up enough little chaps to do this!
