ScrapYard Armory

I’ve played quite a few games of A Time of War.  Granted I use it solely as a infantry skirmish ruleset.  The finer point of roleplay (or roll-play as the case may be) are lost on a simple wargamer such as myself.  Regardless there is quite a lot to enjoy from A Time of War.  Who wouldn’t want to command a squad of Blazer wielding 31st century soldiers in a fight to the finish against your buddy?

I’ve been struggling with an issue with the core mechanics.  It seems to come up in almost every game and for the longest time I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until now.

Movement is too darn fast.

Why bother staying at range when you can easily race into medium or short range, negating the effectiveness of long range rifles and the lot.  I’ve seen the most average of stat’d soldiers cover massive distance in a single turn and still have the spare actions to pop off a shot.  In a nutshell the games I’ve played just don’t seem to be very “shooty” which is a shame considering the backdrop of the BattleTech world.

To start off I have to make the following assumption.  Weapon ranges are ok.  With this in mind lets evaluate movement rates.

There are three items that affect movement rates in A Time of War.

• Attribute: Reflex
• Attribute: Strength
• Skill: Running

Reflex and Strength are attributes that all characters have.  The average joe is assumed to have a score of 4 in each while an exceptional individual can max out at 8 each (10 for clanners, but lets not go there right now).

The running skill is an added bonus, which maxes out at 10, that affects running and sprinting and can add up to 10 meters of movement per turn.

So how fast can a foot soldier move in the 31st century?

A Foot Platoon of about 2 dozen persons in the BattleTech board game moves 30 meters in a 10 second turn or 3 meters per second.  Not a bad pace while hauling around a full military kit in combat boots across unpaved terrain while shooting and being shot at.

How does this match up with real world examples?  Surprisingly well actually.

• From Yahoo answers the average human walking speed is 3.5 miles per hour or 1.5 meters per second.
• The average human running speed is around 10 miles per hour  or 4.5 meters per second.
• The current olympic record in the 100m dash is 9.58 seconds or an average speed of 10.4 meters per second.

To put a personal spin on my analysis I crunched the numbers for my own running speed at various distances.  I’m by no means an olympic athlete but I do consider myself above average in a foot race.

• 5km in 20 minutes or 4.1 meters per second.
• 800 meters in 2 minutes or 6.7 meters per second.
• 400 meters in 56 seconds or 7.1 meters per second.

Please note that these times are my personal best under ideal conditions.  I wear light running shoes for my 5k road races while my 800m and 400m times were on a fast track (the surface is a bouncy rubber which helps return energy to the runner with each step) with proper track shoes with spikes.  Hardly representative of a combat situation.

A Time of Running

Here are the average and elite movement rates using the A Time of War system ordered by speed.

•   1.6 m/s  Average Walking
•   3.2 m/s  Elite Walking
•   3.6 m/s  Average Running
•   5.2 m/s  Elite Running
•   7.2 m/s  Elite Running with max running skill
•   7.2 m/s  Average Sprinting,
• 10.4 m/s  Elite Sprinting,
• 14.4 m/s  Elite Sprinting with max running skill

Just to recap here are those values in a table.

Ok then, I’ll grant that an elite runner in the 31st century can run as fast as the fastest human being alive today…  He just can’t do it with combat boots, carrying a gun, gear, ammo, grenades and doing it over real terrain ( not a track designed to be run on ).

To put that in perspective, an Elite Sprinting with max running skill could run the 100m dash in an astonishing 6.9 seconds (remember that the Olympic record is 9.58 seconds).

The ScrapYard Movement Modifier

So whats a 31st century tactical infantry enthusiast to do?  For me, I’ll be reducing all movement by one third (multiply by 0.66).  I’ve yet to extensively test it, but (while using a very simple formula) it seemed to produce the best looking movement rates when compared to quartering or halving.

More playtesting is sure to be in my future.  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!

Here at the Scrapyard we are quite fond of the Succession Wars board game.  We have been playing in a few games and have cooked up an interesting tool to help us gauge the risk/reward associated with particular moves.  Do you press your attack or leave sleeping dragons lie?

Check out the Combat Simulator at Saxywolf’s site.

Introduction

The Succession Wars is the Risk version of BattleTech.  In the board game, The Succession Wars, an attack occurs when combat units enter a region controlled by another House that already has units there.  They automatically engage for the first barrage (a single exchange of fire in the combat phase), although after each barrage they have the option to retreat if they have a friendly jumpship in the region with them (the jumpships could have dropped them off and then moved back to a friendly region).

For your strategizing needs, we have created an Combat Simulator to help you better understand what the results may/probably will be.  This simulation, however, assumes nobody retreats and that only two Houses are engaged in the combat. “Two man enter…”

Instructions

1) Select the method of applying the ComStar Interdict and Star League bonus.  I.e. do they apply before or after the combo(s) are made? (The default selection is how the ScrapYard Armory is programming the web version.)

2) Select the strength of your units in the first two columns.  The second column is used to combine units with the adjacent unit in the first column (SW rules p.9).  If you are have a Tech ability to raise the strength of ‘Mechs, input the ‘Mech’s strength as it would be with the increase.  Note that you do not need to put your strongest units first as the default kill order selected is from the weakest to the strongest unit.

3) List your leaders’ combat abilities in the third column.  The order is not entirely important, but since the leaders are used if the combination is less than 10, a combination of 9 and a Leader of 2 will add up to 11 and waste 1 point worth.  For better results, try changing the order of your leaders if you have some 1’s.  Alternatively, you could put your weaker units/combos at the top of the list as the overall kill % remains the same no matter who gets the Leader bonus.

4) Do the same for the enemy units & leaders.

5) Select Comstar Interdict and/or Star League bonus if they apply.

6) (optional) Change the Number of Simulations.

7) Press Submit.

If the simulation is taking too long, reduce the ‘Number of Simulations’.  If it doesn’t finish, please let us know.

Try different combinations to see what maximizes your chances (or for the enemy minimizes).  Keep in mind that every time you run the simulation, the results will be slightly different and so will show different results as this is a simulation and not a calculation.

Results

‘% chance you Win’ is the chance all the enemy units will be eliminated before yours.  You will keep/gain control of the region.

‘% chance you Lose’ is the chance your units will all be eliminated before the enemy’s.  The enemy will keep/gain control of the region.

‘% chance you simultaneously wipe each other out’ is the chance you and the enemy will wipe each other out in the same barrage.  Whoever had control of the region before will retain control AND gain control of any dropships and leaders remaining.

‘When you Win, % Chance of AT LEAST this many of your units lost’… Ok, so you might win, but at what cost?

‘When you Lose, % Chance of AT LEAST this many enemy units killed’… If you lose, how many of the enemy can you take down with you?

‘Average # rounds taken to finish an attack’  This is the average number of rounds it will take to complete the combat in the region.  This is important because the greater it is above 1, the more likely either side will be able to retreat.

Tips

If your units are under a ComStar Interdict, always combine as many units as you can to reduce the penalty by up to half.  By default, the Interdict affects the roll and not individual units.  Effectively, a combo of two units will only suffer a single -2 penalty (reducing the possible penalty by half).

If you are out numbered, avoid combining units.  Yes, even if you have weak units.  This is because there is a chance of killing 2 units rather then a better chance of killing only 1.  Unfortunately, you may be outnumbered and/or interdicted…  see the first tip.

Conversely, if you outnumber your opponent, you should combine at least all the way down so that you have the same number of combos as they have total units.  Doing so will eliminate the chance that you’ll have a wasted kill, but more importantly reduce the effectiveness of any Interdicts coming your way.  If you are hoping to wipe them out in a single barrage, watch out for creation of ‘Mercs via card, Contract Ends, or bribes.

Avoid combining units to be over a combined value of 10, unless you are combining for a number of guaranteed kills equal to the number of units they have or if you are interdicted then go for 12 max to counter the interdict’s -2.