Skirmish Wargame Rules [Part 2]

Last time, I talked about my new skirmish wargame project and discussed some of the elements that I want to include in consideration of the game mechanics and rules. I also came to the decisive and irrefutable conclusion that charts are effing retarded. Today I'm going to eat Chex cereal for dinner. I'm also going to go over a few examples of some rules for different parts of the game. First things first... the miniatures.

Let's begin, as they say, at the beginning. We need a system to keep track of what makes one particular race or faction in the game different from every other race or faction. I'll call this the 'stat line,' and its going to encompass the basic strengths and weaknesses of each unit. For the sake of using an example, let's start out with a fantasy setting for the game. We'll think about each race or type of unit and its basic characteristics. So here are some races that might be included.

Humans - your average, basic average-of-the-average troop type. We use these as the 'median' because they're what we know. It's easier to think of each other race as relating to a human, thereby using the human as the 'template,' in a way.
Elves - in my game I want the elves to be of the tall, quick, slender variety, rather than the miniature, pointy-toed North Polish variety.
Dwarves - the robust and stalwart little people; more slow-moving than a human but also very tough and able to withstand more and hold their ground against more difficult odds.
Undead - the shambling hordes of reanimated corpses can take a number of forms. I want to use the classic, and somewhat cliche, example of a thrall of zombies, skeletons and ghouls being led by a Necromancer. So we'll divide these up into several 'races' of walking dead-thing.
Ghouls - these are not actually dead; they are still-living beings and thus they can't be revived. But they move very quickly and have to eat living flesh to survive. I imagine these as being like the infected rage guys in 28 Days Later.
Zombies - slooow, but very difficult to kill.
Skeletons - sort of like humans, but much slower and easier to dismantle.
Necromancer - his job is basically to stand in the back and revive any dead-thing that drops. I'm already envisioning this warband as being a very specialized force, where the Necromancer casts spells on his minions as they fall.
Goblins - I've never liked the GW version of goblins, where they're so incompetent they can barely walk straight. I like the idea of Moria Goblins from LOTR a little better. Still very cowardly and fidgety, but in numbers they can become quite a force to be reckoned with.
Orcs - the larger of the greenskins. Very bloodthirsty and savage.
Trolls - special ability = regeneration. Done.
Vermin - what GW typically terms the 'Skaven' and others would refer to as rat-men. Slight, disease-ridden, and tricksy. Veeeerrry tricksy.

How Fast Do They Move?

So we've got a good selection of basic races here to start. How do soldiers get into combat with the enemy? They move there. Let's make some movement.

Humans - 6

I'm saying 6, rather than 6-inches or 6-squares or 6-hexes, because I haven't gotten to the point of figuring out which movement system I'm going to use. But the basic movement of a human will be 6... whatevers. The rest of the movements I've devised are below.

Elves - 7
Dwarves - 5
Ghouls - 7
Zombies - 3
Skeletons - 4
Necromancer - 6
Goblins - 6
Orcs - 6
Trolls - 8
Vermin - 7

Ok, so we've established which guys are quicker and which ones are not so quick. This gives us a basis from which to work on the rest of their stats. The next thing we'll think about is, how can we make a simple system of 'wounds' or 'hit points' or 'toughness' or 'armor class' or whatever you want to call it, that still offers some variety?

How Tough Is Each Race?

I really like the dual target number system of Mongoose Publishing's first edition of the Starship Troopers game. The way this works is that every troop type has two defense numbers, one higher than the other. The first is the 'to-hit' number and the second is the 'to-kill' number. On a particularly good die roll, then, you can kill an enemy, while a lower but still decent roll gets you a hit. I'm going to use a variation of this system because it's simple and effective.

In a skirmish wargame, keeping track of individual hit points is a pain. Too Complicated. You'll hear me say that often. In fact, it's one of my mottos and it's the two-word trump card I use to dismiss people's ideas about high-level mathematics being used in gaming. Anyway. Every miniature is going to be able to take four 'wounds' before it dies. Why four? The first two just give it damage ratings, to let you know "hey, this guy's been hit" or "this guy here has taken a lot of damage and is about to drop." The third 'wound' actually does drop the miniature, causing him to crumple to the ground; the fourth removes it from the game. Some hits are going to cause one wound, while others will cause multiple wounds. That lets the strong, brutish guys like Trolls and Ogres be strong and brutish, cracking the skulls of the little guys in a single swing, while the man-sized troops will have to duke it out with each other over a few rounds.

Rather than keeping track of wounds on paper (Too Complicated), the wounds will be tracked on the game table itself. How, you may ask? Ahhh. This is the first non-die, non-miniature game element I'm going to introduce to you. It's one of my own inventions, and I call it the Blood Counter. My game is going to use red-colored O-rings from the hardware store. You can get them in any size, but I'm going to use some that are about 3/4" around and can be draped over any 25mm miniature, like a big, bloody rubber necklace.

Now how do we differentiate between who gets hit, how badly they get hit, and what happens as a result? A variant on the two target number system.

How Are Miniatures Dealt Damage?

If I'm standing there on the field of battle, which of these guys is going to be difficult to kill, and which of them will be... easier to dispatch? We'll use two numbers, one higher than the other, but a little different than the Starship Troopers system. Let's go with the basic human-y human as the example.

Human
Move: 6
Defense: 4/2

The defense numbers are shown like this: "To-Hit/Threshold." So instead of the second number being a higher to-kill number, the second number is a measure of the unit's pain threshold, or when he says "ow." You need a 4 to hit him, and then every 2 you score above a 4, (a.k.a. 6, 8, 10, etc.) gives him an additional wound. A human, therefore, is of average difficulty to hit, and is also of average difficulty to wound really badly.

Now let's look at what a zombie's stat block might look like.

Zombie
Move: 3
Defense: 2/4

Zombies are slow, stupid, and all they care about is shoveling warm brains down their gullets. They're a piece of cake to hit, but they don't go down easy. So you've got to roll a 2 to hit one, but a 6 to give it two wounds, a 10 to drop it and a 14 to kill it in one hit! By contrast, a human can be killed outright with a 10.

Each time a wound is caused, the miniature goes down the wound track.

Hurt - 1 Blood Counter
Bloodied - 2 Blood Counters
Dropped - placed lying down, blood counters removed
Killed - removed from the game

Here's the basic idea of this simple four-wound system that makes every troop type somewhat unique, but still offers a tangible measurement of how badly hurt one is. Now you'll notice that the Defense numbers are really low; this is because I'm assuming a D6 system would be used. If that were the case, how would attacks work?

How Do My Miniatures to Beat the Hell Out of All the Other Miniatures?

Everybody hates rolling ones. I think ones are a thing of beauty, and so in my game when you roll a 1 you'll be able to add that onto your dice total. Attacks, I'm thinking, might work like this:

Human
Move: 6
Defense: 4/2
Attack: 2

Zombie
Move: 3
Defense: 2/4
Attack: 2

Ogre
Move: 8
Defense: 4/4
Attack: 5

The attack value is the number of D6's you roll when that miniature attacks. It's a simple representation of just how much skill and/or power the unit has in its ability to knock people the fuck out. When it's your turn, your miniature makes an attack roll with that many D6's. You can then combine attack dice however you want to damage or kill opponents, which eliminates the uselessness of bad rolls. Now at least 1's count for something...

That's All For Now

So we've gotten to the point of creating a pretty good system so far, I think. It will need lots of playtesting, but next time we need to go over the turn order and things like initiative and leadership values of different commanders.