Battlegroup Size Wargame Rules

ZORCH! 97v1

(draft 1.3.1)

Graham Bevan.

Darren Reid

& the

Game Design Seminar Playtesters

“Let us not hear of generals who conquer without the shedding of blood. If bloody battle is a horrible spectacle, then it should only be a reason for treating war with more respect…”

- Clausewitz
Battlegroup Size Wargame Rules - Abstract.

This set of rules were inspired by Games Workshop’s Space Marine ruleset. During the course of 6 days playtesting and revision a more demanding and flexible game has been developed without a significant loss of speed of play. The game is designed to be played with miniatures but could easily be modified to use hexes. Battlegroup size in this ruleset refers to a group of units between company (10) and Battalion size(30). This doesn’t include support units such as artillery or aircraft.

Content.

Section 1 - Background.

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Play Standards and Definitions

1.2.1 Time Scale

1.2.2 Ground Scale

1.2.3 Troop Representation

1.2.4 Battle Types

Section 2 - Setting up.

2.1 Building an Army

2.1.1 Infantry

2.1.2 Armoured Vehicles

2.1.3 Artillery

2.1.4 Support Vehicles

2.1.5 Air Support

2.2 Terrain

2.3 Building an Orders Deck

2.3.1 Order card types

2.3.2 Building a Balanced Deck

Section 3 - Playing

3.1 Turn Sequence.

3.1.1 Initiative.

3.1.2 Deployment and Re-organisation

3.1.3 Movement.

3.1.4 Direct fire phase.

3.1.4.1 Simultaneous overwatch fire.

3.1.4.2 Assault combat.

3.1.4.3 Movement combat.

3.1.4.4 End turn combat.

3.1.5 Indirect Fire (Artillery).

3.1.6 Air Support.

3.1.7 Morale.

3.1.8 Engineering.

3.1.9 Victory Assessment.

Section 4 - Vehicle Design.

4.1 Vehicle Design Principles.

4.2 Example Designs.

Section 5 - Glossary.

Section 1 - Background.

1.1 Introduction.

These rules are intended to be generic and cover company and battalion sized combat of any period, from the classical ancient period up to and including contemporary science fiction, though it is tailored for combat since the introduction of AFV’s. Due to the broad range of this period, emphasis has been placed on speed of play. We have attempted to retain a sufficiently rich structure for the design and development of different vehicles, allowing for widely disparate technological levels to occupy the same battlefield

Zorch was developed as a teaching tool, because of this and its suitability to sci-fi games we take no responsibility for the feasability of any scenarios that can be played out. The considerable flexibility is a deliberate development as it allows players considerable latitude to experiment with many situations.

Inspiration for the rules has come from many sources, ranging from traditional wargames such as the WRG 1950-2000 All Arms Land Warfare rules, to works of science fiction such as the Hammers Slammers books.

The intended audience of these rules was initially game design students at New Brunswick Community Colleges’ Electronic Game Design Program. With a few exceptions, this group of students had no previous experience with paper or miniature based games. As such we have kept the rules simple. However, extensive playtesting with some experienced wargamers has allowed us to weed out most of the annoying rules that normally cause experienced gamers to discard a game. After its educational purpose, the main intent was that the game should be fun. Whether inexperienced, or the most die-hard grognard, Zorch is intended to fill those afternoons where you wish to have a game thats not too cerebral, have a lot of fun, and turn your best friends to expanding balls of irridescent plasma. Enjoy. Oh.. by the way.. if you don’t like bits of the rules, change them.. that was the whole point of the exercise!

1.2 Play Standards and Definitions.

This section outlines a few standards that will allow you to place the game in context.

1.2.1 Time Scale.

Zorch is played in turns, each of which represents approximately two minutes of real time. During playtesting with battlegroup sized forces (approximately 20 vehicles a side), each turn would take about 20 minutes, though by the time we had gotten used to it and stopped arguing about rules, this could be reduced to 15. When players first started play, this figure rose to between 30 and 40 minutes.

1.2.2 Ground Scale.

The game is intended to be played with 1/285 or 1/300 scale miniatures, and as such we use a ground scale of 1cm = 20m, or approximately 1” = 50m if you are still using imperial measurements (somebody tell them that there isn’t an empire anymore!). In later games we made use of the excellent Geo-Hex polymorphic terrain system. This has hexes printed on them and we simply counted hexes and multiplied by three to give us the cm range. All measurements in the game are in cm’s, including movement allowances, weapon ranges etc.

1.2.3 Troop Representation.

Each model or vehicle represents a single model or vehicle in game terms. Other representations can be used if desired, though this has not been play-tested.

1.2.4 Battle Types.

Battles can be of any type, several broad definitions are given below :

1. Encounter : both sides forces encounter each other with no preparation. Generally the sides are of equal strength.

2. Hasty Attack / Defence : the attacking side has an advantage in numbers, and places forces on the board after the defender. The defender has the opportunity to prepare limited defences (such as artillery delivered minefields) and to pre-position up to 50% of their forces up to a third of the way onto the board.

3. Prepared Defence/Deliberate Attack : the attacking player has at least 200% of the forces of the defender and can have dedicated pre-registered artillery and air support. The defender can pre-place their entire force upto the halfway line, in defensive structures such as behind berms and engineer build dug-in positions. Defenses must be paid for as per the cost in the engineering section.

4. Scenario : The recreation of situations from real world events or works of fiction.

1.2.4 Dice.

The original version of these rules used a six sides dice. It was found that this resulted in reducing the flexibility of the designs of vehicles. After several playtesting sessions it was decided to adopt a 10 sided dice for all situations.

1.3 Game Sequence.

The basic turn sequence is given below, each section is elaborated on later in these rules.

Game Sequence.

1. Design terrain.

2. Determine battlegroup size.

3. Build and organise battlegroup.

4. Build orders deck.

5. Build initial hand.

6. Start Turn Sequence.

7. Draw new orders cards.

8. Each player roll initiative (the player with the highest iniative is the primary player).

9. Deploy reserves (optional, in order determined by the primary player).

10. Declare sections joining and splitting.

11. Air phase.

12. Artillery fire phase.

13. Movement phase (movement by unit in order determined by the primary player).

14. Direct fire phase.

15. Simultaneous overwatch fire.

16. Assault combat.

17. Movement combat.

18. End turn combat.

19. Morale.

20. Victory assessment.

21. End Turn.

Section 2 - Setting up.

2.1 Building an Army

The size of the game is determined by both players and is measures in Production Points (PP). The cost value of different units is given by in the examples outlined in Section 5.1.

Players can choose whatever units they want but it is generally a good idea to have a balanced force of infantry, armour, artillery and support units. After purchsing units they must be organised into sections which can be given a single order. sections can have as few as 1 unit, and as many as 20 or 30, however the grouping should be reasonable and will generally include units of the same type

2.1.1 Infantry

Infantry is the mainstay of your force, it can be used to hold objectives and conduct assaults against fortified positions (with support). Each stand in Zorch! normally represents the number of troops on that stand, but it may just as well represent 50 or 100 troops for larger battles. Normal tactical infantry is good for many missions but can be well supplemented by specialist forces such as assault troops or long range anti-tank sqauds, these give your infantry units additional punch. The primary weakness of infantry is that

they are slow and vulnerable, to remedy this it is recommended that some form of armoured transport is provided for them, either APCs or MICVs. The cost of armoured infantry is considerable but it does give them unprecedented power and flexibility.

2.1.2 Armoured Vehicles

The mainstay of your force will be the armoured vehicles that you possess. Tanks and tank destroyers will dominate the battlefield and deny large areas to the enemy. Tanks do cost a lot and should be used carefully as they are fire magnets for every weapon your enemy can bring to bear. While they are heavily armed and armoured, tanks are vulnerable to assault by humble infantry so never send them into a sitation alone. Scout tanks and vehicles have exceptional mobility and should not be wasted as tanks. Their job is to locate and sometimes harrass the enemy, do not engage the enemy directly as their light armour will not save them.

2.1.3 Artillery

Considered by many to be the god of war, artillery has the ability to rain death upon your opponents with apparent impunity. Many people believe you can never have too much artillery, but again it costs a lot and has its own drawbacks. Artillery is frequently of poor mobility so must be placed with care at the beginning of the battle. Unless your target is in direct line of sight with a spotter, or is on a pre-registered target, artillery fire drifts, this is not important during a preparatory barrage, when you units are in contact with the enemy, artillery can easily drift onto your forces (as experienced by the American army during the Vietnam war in particular). The final problem with artillery is that, unless special ammunition is used, armoured vehicles are relatively impervious to it.

2.1.4 Support Vehicles

Support vehicles are the multitude of other specialised vehicles that add abilities to your force, it includes things such as engineers, anti-air units, light anti-tank forces, specialist anti-infantry units and anything else you care to imagine. Your choice of support units may result in knowledge you have of your opponent, or may reflect your own style of combat.

2.1.5 Air Support

When considering a modern or sci-fi battle it is impossible to regard the ground war without some air support, either fixed wing, or rotary. These forces are very expensive but can carry a large number of weapons, move very quickly and can only be shot at by certain forces. This makes them very powerful but again they do have drawbacks. Aircraft are very vulnerable if hit, using them risks you losing a lot of PP’s in a single shot. Most weapons they carry have a limited amount of ammunition and so they should be used with care to maximise their effect.

2.2 Terrain

The terrain used for a game with depend on whether it is being played with miniatures, or on a hex map. When drawing a map or building terrain it is useful to consult real maps to see how terrain features are formed. In addition it is not neccesary for the map to be balanced, that is just because 1 side of the map has a hill, it doesn’t mean that the other side has to. This may sometimes lead to a game that is slighty unfair but playtesting has indicated that this makes the games more fun to play.

Selecting starting points for each player should be done before the game begins. It can be determined by using a random die roll. In this way the player designing the terrain cannot know where he/she will start and as such will not benefit from any bias.

2.3 Building an Orders Deck

The orders cards are a vital component of the game and are used to simulate planning, command & control and logistics. They allow a commander to place orders on units and to use special abilities. Many games assume that when an order is given, it is automatically carried out. In reality this isn’t true, both morale and problems with communication lead to orders being, lost, ignored or mis-directed. Orders cards are of two types, Orders and Interrupts, Orders speak for themselves, they allow units to be told to move, charge, be placed on overwatch or do nothing. Interrupts give players special abilities, or allow them to conduct special warfare, such as the use of partisans and spys etc. When the game starts each player should select the number of cards given below (note this is a guideline only, you can vary it to represent your own playing style) cards to start with, this represents the amount of planning and prepositioning of supplies before the encounter.

Battle Type Attacker Defender

Encounter units * 2 units * 2

Hasty Attack/Defence units * 3 units * 2

Prepared Attack/Defence units * 4 units * 3

2.3.1 Order card types.

The following is a summary of the different types of orders cards that can be given and what they do.

Move

Move is the basic type of order, it allows a section to move at up 100% of its movement with no penalties, and to fire during movement combat. It can also be used to retreat, a section declaring a retreat may move at 50% of its move rate backwards, if fires, or if any unit fires at it, the to hit roll is modified by -1 to reflect the evasive nature of a retreat ( including things like popping smoke). Note, units with move orders may only fire on flying units that have overwatch orders, unless they are engaging in pop-up attacks.

Charge

Charge is used when a unit wishes to move more than normal. Any section given a charge order can move at 150% of its normal rate, however it cannot fire its weapons, at all that turn. The only combat it can engage in is assault. The charge order is useful for quickly taking an objective, or to assault an enemy unit.

Overwatch

The overwatch means a unit cannot move, can fire during both overwatch combat and the end-phase combat. In addition, units on overwatch can fire at moving air units. No movement is allowed with units on overwatch.

Smoke

Smoke Card. 4 smoke markers within 20cm of the vehicle. This will result in people attempting to fire through the markers having a -5 to hit. This card should be placed with the original order for the unit for that turn.

Blank

The blank orders card is used to give the opposition that you have given a unit orders, when in fact you haven’t. A unit given blank orders cannot move and may fire only during end-phase combat.

Interrupt Cards.

Interrupt cards can be played out of the normal sequence of play as described. They simulate un-expected and unusual events such as partisan action and electronic warfare

Snapfire.

One snapfire per unit per turn. If used on units on overwatch there is no to-hit penalty. If used on units with move orders, there is a -2 penalty to hit and that unit cannot fire again that turn. This card allows a unit to fire out of phase within a turn to engage targets of opportunity.

Lock-On.

+1 to hit a unit. Can be used as a jamming card to remove a Lock-On played by another player.

Spy.

Opponent must place and reveal all orders before you place yours. Can be used to remove a spy card played against you.

Initiative.

Can be used to add 1D10 to your initiative, or to suppress another players initiative by 1D10.

Decoy.

Discard one revealed order BEFORE it is acted upon, and play a new order in its place.

Supply.

Draw three additional cards from your deck.

Partisan.

Take two random cards from another players hand and discard them.

Electronic Warfare.

-1 to hit a unit. Can be used as ECCM to remove an EW card played by another player.

2.3.2 Building a Balanced Deck.

There is a skill to building a balanced deck. The first consideration you should have is what type of encounter will the battle be, is it a hasty attack?, a classic attack/defend? or a meeting engagement? The type of units you have in your force will also influence the deck. Fast moving mobile units will require move and charge cards so that you can take advantage of their abilities, powerful anti-armour and artillery weapons will require overwatch cards so they get the chance to shoot before your enemy can close and engage you. The exact mix is best determined by trial and error, every player has their own style, some like to maneouver a lot, some like to sit back and let the enemy come to them. Your choice of cards will depend on your style, force composition and the situation you find yourself in. One word of warning, during paytesting we found that you can never have too few move cards, it may be tempting to take all the snapfires you can, but rely on the basics of maneouver and fire before you get too fancy!.

While you can modify this percentage, it is recommended that you take at least 80% orders cards in your initial deck and only 20% interrupts. The number of cards we recommend is about 60 for a a decent sized game.

Section 3 - Playing.

3.1 Turn Sequence.

The turn sequence given below outlines the order in which events take place during the game. This sequence is followed until one side surrenders, victory is achieved, or both sides agree to withdraw.

1. Start Turn Sequence.

2. Draw new orders cards.

3. Each player roll initiative (the player with the highest iniative is the primary player).

4. Deploy reserves (optional, in order determined by the primary player).

5. Declare sections joining and splitting.

6. Air phase.

7. Artillery fire phase.

8. Movement phase (movement by unit in order determined by the primary player).

9. Direct fire phase.

10. Simultaneous overwatch fire.

11. Assault combat.

12. Movement combat.

13. End turn combat.

14. Morale.

15. Victory assessment.

16. End Turn.

Each of the phases is described in detail below.

3.1.1 Draw new orders cards.

When a turn starts each player may draw a number of new cards from their deck. This is done blind so that the player doesn’t know what cards they will receive. The design of the deck influences this process considerably, if you have placed a large number of overwatch cards in your deck, then this increases the probability that you will receive more when you draw. The number of cards drawn is 6 + 1 for each unit that neither moved, charged or was overwatch in the preceding turn. The definition of a unit is a group of 1 or more units that are organised into a single unit. This organisation is determined before the game but can be changed during deployment and re-organisation (section 3.1.3).

3.1.2 Initiative.

The Principles of War as laid down in FM 100-1 (29 August 1986) state “Seize, retain and exploit the initiative”. Quite simply put, initiative allows a player to perform advantageous actions first and react to the movement of his opponent. This gives one side a considerable advantage, allowing them to foil the plans of their opponents and force them to react. Initiative in ZORCH! is determined by each player rolling 1D10. The player with the highest roll wins the initiative. This can be modified at any time by the use of an initiative card. Players with the initiative can choose to move their units first or second, and may always retain a unit to move last. When firing (save on overwatch where fire is simultaneous) the player with initiative starts firing first, giving them the possibility of eliminating their opponent before they have the chance to respond. The initiative card is very powerful allowing a player to snatch back initiative at a critical moment and turn the tables on their foe. When rolled, each player should note their initiative, if they roll the same, the die must be re-rolled until someone wins. Unless interrupt cards are played, initiative can only be changed when it is re-rolled at the beginning of a turn.

3.1.3 Deployment and Re-organisation.

The deployment/re-organisation phase allows players to bring on reserves and to re-organise the troops they already have on table. A player can elect to keep up to a third of his force off table as reserves, they are then impervious to attack as they are considered to be laagered in defensive, well camoflaged positions some way behind the front. During the deployment phase these reserves can be brought on all at once or bit by bit. Any units being deployed must be placed upon the players table edge and moved on from there. Reserves may not be brought into battle within line of sight of an enemy unit on overwatch.

Re-organisation takes place when a unit either wants to split to gain tactical flexibility, or to join, to combine their combat power. Re-organisation may only take place if the units involved are not currently engaging the enemy. If a unit has been severly depleted by combat, its remnants may be attached to another unit, although the engagement rule still applies. Units involved in assault combat may not re-organise at all. Re-organisation is balanced by the card order system, if a player splits a unit, he will need to expend more orders cards, if he joins units, he loses flexibility.

3.1.4 Movement.

Current movement rates are in cm’s, this could easily be adapted for hexes, or whatever terrain was used.

Units with move cards may move the up to their total distance allowance, units on charge may move 150% of their movement allowance. For example a light tank with a movement allowance of 30cm may move up to 30cm in a turn on move, or up to 45cm on charge.

Terrain Modifiers.

The following table shows how movement rates are affected by differing terrain types, note that the type of propulsion employed by each vehicle has an effect on terrain. The to-hit column reflects the amount of cover provided by a particular piece of terrain and is described further in section 3.1.5

	To-Hit	Foot	Tracked	Wheeled	Hover	Grav	Flying
Bunker	-4	100%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Building	-3	100%	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Broken Ground	-2	100%	100%	100%	75%	100%	100%
Hills	0	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%
Woods	-1	100%	50%	NA	NA	100%	100%
Built-up	-1	100%	75%	100%	100%	100%	100%
Road	+1	150%	150%	200%	150%	100%	100%
Marsh	0	50%	50%	NA	100%	100%	100%
River	0	50%	50%	NA	100%	100%	100%
Enter/Debuss	+2	50%	0%	25%	25%	50%	NA

Formation rules.

Every stand or vehicle within a unit must remain within 10cm of another stand in that unit. This limitation is designed to maintain tactical cohesion. If a stand/vehicle becomes cut-off from its unit it will ignore the orders given to the unit and move in a direct line to the nearest stand/vehicle that still has tactical cohesion. If a unit is split into two or more groups, the group with the numeric advantage retains cohesion. If the groups are of equal size the player may choose which one retains control. The exception to this rule is airborne units, by their very nature they are sufficiently mobile and/or fast to retain cohesion over far greater distance and thus they are not affected by this rule.

Turning limitations on large vehicles.

Vehicles that are classed as large cannot make a significant change in direction without some associated cost. To reflect this any large vehicle may turn by up to 45 degrees at no cost, for each additional 45 degrees or fraction of, they must expend 25% of their total movement allowance.

An example of terrain modified movement is shown in figure 1.

Figure 1 - Terrain Modified Movement.

Ground Troops Being Carried by Vehicles.

If troops are being carried within a vehicle such as an APC or helicopter, they inherit the movement allowance of that vehicle. The terrain modifier table shows how much a units movement must be used to either enter or leave a vehicle. The vehicle rates for de-bussing and entering are used if vehicles are carried to and from the battlefield in assault transports of some kind, for example, the contemporary LCAC hovercraft, or drop-ships. Figure 2 shows an example of infantry units de-bussing.

Figure 2 - Entering and exiting a vehicle/building

3.1.5 Direct fire phase.

The direct fire phase simulates the use of direct fire weapons against the enemy. The critical issue with this type of simulation is that in order for one unit to directly fire at another, it must have Line of Sight to the target. Figure 3 shows some examples of line of sight (in future referred to as LOS).

Figure 3 - LOS examples.

The rules for determining whether LOS exists are given below :

1. If there is a significant feature between the units (such as a hill) there is no LOS.

2. If less than 100% but over 50% of a unit can be seen it is considered to be in cover, units suffering a -1 penalty to hit.

3. If less than 50% of the unit can be seen, it is considered to be unseen.

4. If a unit is within 2cm of a low feature such as a wall, it is considered in cover to all on the other side of the feature (-1 to hit, -1 to save) unless said units are 1 level above it.

5. If a unit is more than 2cm from a low feature such as a wall, it is considered to be unseen to all units on the other side of the wall, unless they themselves are within 2cm of the feature, or are above the unit, in which case it is considered within LOS.

6. Units that are on the brow of hills may declare themselves in defilade (hull down). This means that the major portion of the unit is below the brow of the hill. Units in defilade are considered to be in LOS but are given a -2 to hit and a -2 to save modifier as this is a deliberate attempt to seek and maintain cover.

Determining LOS occurs when a player intends to fire at another unit. Once LOS has been assertained firing can commence. The normal combat sequence occurs in the following way :

1. Declare target.

2. Determine arc limitations. If a weapon being fired is mounted in a turret it can fire at anything in LOS and range, but if it is mounted in a fixed position it can fire only 45 degrees either side of the weapon facing (usally forward).

3. Determine range to target, if the range to the target is greater than the weapons’ maximum then the shot is wasted, no measurement is allowed before the target is declared.

4. Fire the weapon. Each weapons has a number of attacks, this is the number of d10s that are rolled. The hits-on value is the score (or higher) that the dice must attain in order to hit the target, it is at this point that any modifiers for cover etc are added/subtracted to the score needed for a hit

5. For each hit determine the damage. Most units have a save modifier (those that do not die immediately). To save the hit vehicle you must roll its save score on a d10. This is modified by the to-hit column on the terrain table and the ap-mod column on the vehicle sheet for that weapon. If the die roll is less than the score needed the unit is destroyed.

Each vehicle/stand can attack only 1 target during a turn, even if it carries multiple weapon mounts. The exception to this is vehicles classed as large, it is assumed that they are sufficiently advanced to mount sophisticated multi-target capable fire control systems.

This process is repeated for each combat. The direct fire stages merely order which units can fire and when. Figure 4 shows a typical engagement.

Figure 4 - Typical direct fire combat resolution.

Example based on figure 4.

Given the two partial vehicle specifications below :

	Armour	Weapon	Turreted	Range	Attacks	Hits-on	AP-Mod
Tank	5	Gauss Cannon	no	100	1	6	-2
		Tri-barrel laser	yes	60	3	8	0

APC	8	Light Cannon	yes	40	2	8	-1

The player controlling the Tank has won initiative for this phase so he fires first and goes through the following sequence.

1. Declare target - the APC.

2. Determine arc limitations, the gauss cannon is in a fixed mount, the APC is outside 45 degrees of the weapons arc and so cannot be brought to bear on the APC. The tri-barrel laser is mounted in a turret so it can be brought to bear.

3. Determine range to target. In this case 45cm, the range of the tri-barrel laser is 60cm, so the APC is well within range.

4. Fire at the target. The tri-barrel has 3 attacks so we roll 3d10 and get 9,3 and 2. We modify these scores by terrain and cover modifiers, in this case there are none, so we can now compare the scores rolled with our hits-on score for the tri-barrel. We see that the 3 and 2 are no where near enough to hit, but the 9 is enough to hit (we needed an 8).

5. Determine damage. Having ascertained that the tank has hit the APC once with the tri-barrel we can work out the damage. The APC must roll on a d10 and score higher than its armour score. This score is modified by any cover modifiers (in this case none) and weapon modifiers (again none, see the 0 in the AP-mod column of the tri-barrel laser. This means the APC must throw an 8 or more to save itself. 8!!, miraculously it saves, no damage is done.

The tank has had its shot and must now face the return fire of the APC. If the APC had been hit and destroyed it would not have been able to respond to the attack and the tank would have eliminated it without risking itself. This demonstrates how important initiative and which firing phase your units attack in.

3.1.5.1 Simultaneous overwatch fire.

The combat resolution during overwatch is the same as outlined previously. The difference is that targets are declared simultaneously by all players, and damage is not resolved until all firing has taken place. Only units on overwatch orders can fire during this phase, it simulates the act of conciously waiting for targets of opportunity, or being assigned a sector to cover.

3.1.5.2 Assault combat.

Assault combat is resolved differently to normal direct fire. It is the process of forces coming into close contact with each other, where short range personal weapons and hand to hand combat are utilised. This form of combat is deadly, even when infantry assault armour. Assaults are resolved between any vehicles or stands that are physically touching. The both players throw 1d10 and add their assault score to the rolled score. The player with the higher score wins and the loser removes that vehicle/stand. If a tie results the attacking player can choose to continue until the combat is resolved one way on the other. The attacking player may choose to attack the same stand with several of his, this is allowed as long as all of the attackers stands are touching the defenders, each of these combats is resolved independantly, they cannot be combined (as in 2d10 vs 1d10)

Figure 5 - Assault Combat Example.

The two infantry units in figure 5 have moved in to assault the tank, each of them must take it in turn to try and defeat it. The tank has an assault factor of 2, the infantry, assault pioneers have an assault factor of 3.

The first infantry unit attempts to defeat the tank, they both roll 1d10 and add their assault factors, the infantry gets 9 (rolled 6 + 3 af), the tank gets 12 (rolled 10 + 2 af). The tank wins and the first infantry unit is removed having been destroyed. The second infantry unit engages in combat and rolls 11 (8 + 3 af), the tank rolls 11 also (9 + 2 af) and survives!. The attacking infantry decides to press the attack and both sides roll again, the infantry gets 10, the tank 4. The infantry wins and the tank is destroyed. This also serves to illustrate the weakness of tanks vs infantry in close-quarters fighting. The infantry were able to outnumber and overwhelm a far more powerful (and expensive!) unit.

3.1.5.3 Movement combat.

Movement combat is the standard combat phase. Each combat takes place by unit, the player who wins the initiative is allowed to fire a unit first. It is important to note that each unit engaging consists of all of the vehicles/stands that have the same order. The units that are allowed to fire during this phase are those that have already moved during the turn. Casualties are taken as each shot is resolved, giving a unit that fires first the ability to destroy its target, thus saving itself from any return fire.

3.1.5.4 End turn combat.

During play-testing there were many units that couldn’t fire because they had not been given orders. It seemed silly that they would just sit around twiddling their thumbs so we added the end turn combat phase. This phase takes place in the same way as the movement combat phase, save that the units that are allowed to fire are those that received no orders, or have previously fired in the overwatch phase.

3.1.6 Indirect Fire (Artillery).

Indirect fire groups the fire of weapons that do not require LOS in order to attack a target. This definition includes everything from mortars, artillery, rockets, and even orbital bombardment weapons. Before the game each player must declare what kind of ammunition he is using. The standard is groundburst and this will be assumed if no declaration has been made.

Artiilery fire can be one of four types, Impromptu, Registered, Pre-Planned and Counter-Battery. The latter three methods are considered optional rules.

The sequence for resolving indirect fire is as follows :

1. Declare which units are firing as batteries or individually. Batteries are able to combine their barrage points into a single value giving them a single powerful attack instead of many weaker ones.

2. Determine whether the barrage lands on target. This is determined in the following way

2.1 If the target is pre-registered (see below) it lands on target.

2.2 If the target has been hit before and has not moved it lands on target.

2.3 Roll 1d10, if you roll 7 or more (minus modifiers, see below) it lands on target

2.3.1 if you are using a spotter who has LOS subtract 3

2.3.2 subtract 1 for each turn you have been trying to attack this location

2.3.3 subtract 3 if using artillery locating radar and target is enemy artillery

2.3.4 subtract 2 if friendly infantry are within 20cm of target

3. If the barrage lands on target refer to the barrage damage table below to resolve any hits. All stands or vehicles at least 50% covered by the marker are affected.

4. If the barrage does not hit, roll 1d10 and throw the direction dice (this has arrows on it). Move the barrage marker the rolled distance in cm’s in the direction shown on the arrow. Resolve the barrage damage for any units underneath the barrage marker as described in part 3.

Total Barrage Points	Groundburst To-hit	Groundburst AP-Mod	Airburst To-hit	Airburst AP-Mod	Bomblet To-hit	Bomblet AP-Mod
<=2	10	0	9	+4	10	-1
<=5	9	0	7	+4	8	-2
<=8	8	-1	5	+3	6	-2
<=12	7	-1	3	+3	4	-3
>12	5	-2	2	+2	3	-4

Barrage Damage Table.

To determine hits with the barrage damage table, determine how many barrage points are being fired into the area covered by the template, this is given in the specification for the weapon. If you declared that you firing several weapons as a battery, total the barrage points values of all of the weapons being fired and use this score instead. Cross reference the barrage point total with the ammunition you declared that you were using and this will give you the score you need to roll in order to hit the targets under the barrage. Modify this score by the to-hit modifier column in the terrain table and roll 1d10 for each target. Resolve damage in the way described in the direct fire section using the AP-Mod column in the barrage damage table.

(option rule - pre-registered fire. Before the game, players may wish to pre-register up to 6 points on the map that they have pre-registered. This means that any attack on that point will automatically land on target. These points must be written down before the game in a clear un-ambigous form, i.e. “the south edge of the forest 35cm NW from the farm”)

3.1.7 Air Support.

Air support is as a normal vehicle except that all barrage weapons it carries are considered to be on target and they use the air-dropped template instead of the barrage template. Any vehicle with a speed below 60cm is considered a close support aircraft and as such can maneouver normally and should be treated like any other vehicle and are under direct control of the force commander. These vehicles attack and move in the normal combat and movement phases. Aircraft thar move faster than 60cm are considered to be fast movers and must attack during the air phase.

Altitude and Pop-up Attacks.

Vehicles that have grav or flying (and fly slower than 60cm) can make pop-up attacks if they are placed on overwatch orders. This means that they lie behind a feature, building, hill etc and “pop-up” to attack, sinking down again once they’ve fired, this makes them impervious to fire from any units apart from those also on overwatch. Grav vehicles are always considered to be flying nap of the earth (NOE) and can use cover like any other vehicle. Flying units can declare that they are flying NOE and have the same benefits but they lose the benefit of altitude for LOS. If not declared otherwise, all aircraft are assumed to be at low altitude. This is classed at the same height as a level 1 hill. Therefore they can see over anything at level 0 but any level 2 object will obstruct LOS. Aircraft may change altitude during the movement turn. The only other altitude is medium. At medium altitude only dedicated AA troops can fire upon them, any they can use only barrage weapons.

Weapon Loadouts and Time to Front.

Weapon loads for aircraft cannot be replenished during a game and must be decided upon before the game commences. This information must be written down and adhered to. Because of the fact that aircraft not maintained at the front, and are not under direct control of the force commander each player must write down the turn that each aircraft will arrive in before the game. This simulates the enormous amount of planning required to implement an airstrike.

Air Sequence.

When 1 or more strikes are due the player who wins the initiative may elect to start his strike first, this is done as follows :

1. The attacking player places the aircraft on an edge of the table of his choice facing in the direction of the attack run.

2. The aircraft may make attacks upon dedicated AA troops if it is carrying any defence suppression weapons (such as anti-radiation missiles). These attacks are carried out as normal

3. Specialist AA troops may fire out of phase at the aircraft if it is range. This is treated as a normal combat incident except that aircraft may employ defensive jammers to reduce the chances they have to hit.

4. The aircraft makes its attack run. The aircraft is placed at the location where is wants to fire any direct fire weapons and places its airdrop marker over its target. This maybe anywhere along its flight path but only up to 10cm out from it. The aircraft resolves all direct fire combat, aircraft are considered large and may attack multiple targets with different weapon systems.

5. Air dropped barrage weapon combat is resolved. Aircraft have the option to combine all of their barrage attacks under one marker (dive bombing) or to drop a “stick” of bombs, placing several air-drop markers (level bombing).

6. Any non-AA forces with overwatch orders may attempt to fire at the aircraft with a -3 to hit. They will not be able to fire in the overwatch phase.

7. The aircraft leaves the battlefield.

If the aircraft still has droppable weapons it will return during the next turn and so on until its weapons are exhausted.

Figure 8 - Example Air Combat.

Figure 8 shows an example air combat, the partial vehicle specifications are given below.

	Armour	Weapon	Turreted	Range	Barrage	Attacks	Hits-on	AP-Mod
Aircraft	5	Gauss Cannon	no	100	NA	2	6	-2
		Cluster bombs	no	NA	4	4	NA	-1
		ECM pod	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

SPAA	8	Auto-laser	yes	200	NA	2	7	+3

APC	8	Light Cannon	yes	40	NA	2	8	-1

The aircraft in this case has no saving throw.

1. The aircraft is placed on the table edge in the direction of flight.

2. Defense suppression. The aircraft has no capability.

3. Dedicated AA fire. The SPAA can open fire on the aircraft. It is in range, the SPAA needs an 8 to hit the aircraft (7 - 1 for the aircrafts’ ECM pod). The SPAA throws a 5 and 3 two misses.

4. Direct fire weapons. The aircraft is moved to the start of its attack run and attempts to fire 1 gauss cannon at the two lead APC’s. The weapon is in range, the aircraft throws a 7 and a 5. The lead APC is hit and fails to save so is destroyed.

5. The air-drop templates are placed and resolved. There is no need to resolve the lead APC as it has already been destroyed. The aircraft decides to lay 2 markers, each of 2 cluster bombs. The second APC is under a single marker and so is attacked by an 8 point barrage. Cluster bombs use the bomblet columns on the barrage table and so requires a 6 or more to be hit. The aircraft rolls a 2!, a lucky miss for the APC. The second APC is also under a template, this time the aircraft rolls a 10. The APC must save on a 10 or more! (8 with a 2 modifier to save from the barrage bomblet table), it rolls a 5 and is destroyed.

6. The APC on the hill has overwatch orders and elects to fire at the aircraft. Unfortunately it hits on an 8 normally and must suffer a -3 penalty for attacking an aircraft. This results in it needing an 11 on 1d10!!, the shot is wasted.

7. The aircraft exits the table successfully but may not return as it has expended all of its ammunition.

Air Support Clarifications and amendments. (optional)

1. The major addition is the inclusion of an altitude value for each airborne unit.

2. Air units must declare their starting altitude at the start of the game.

3. If an air unit wishes to change altitude it must expend 25% of its total movement allocation for that turn.

4. Any unit engaged by and airborne attacker may fire upon it if its weapons can be brought to bear, this counts as the direct fire for that unit for the turn.

Altitude Table.

Level Altitude Overwatch Dedicated AA Move

NOE <10m Yes -3 to hit Yes -2 to hit No

Low <150m Yes -1 to hit Yes No

Medium <1000m Yes Yes +2 to hit Yes -1 to hit

High >1000m No Yes No

3.1.8 Morale.

Morale is an important aspect of conflict that is simplified in this rule set to aid play. The main use of morale is that units that have lost cohesion cease to function effectively until it is regained. Due to the quick play aspect of Zorch!, morale checks have been kept to a minimum. Morale checks are taken when any unit loses a stand of troops or a vehicle. When purchasing units their morale rating modifies the cost as given below. In addition, troop types have modified “To Hit” values reflecting their training (or lack of!)

Force Cost To-Hit Modifier

Special Forces + 50% -2

Professional +25% -1

Regular no change 0

Conscript -25% +1

Inept -50% +2

Each troop has rating from 1 - Special Forces, 2 - Professional, 3 - Regular, 4 - Conscript and 5 - Inept

Whenever a unit is loses more than 25% of its unit strength (i.e. 2 stands of an 8 stand unit) it must make a morale roll on the following table :

Troop Type Fail Score Rout Score

Elite 1 N/A

Professional 2 N/A

Regular 3 1

Conscript 4 3

Inept 5 4

If a unit fails it morale score, it cannot be given any overwatch orders, and any movement or charge orders must be used to move away from the enemy. It can fire in the movement segment of the turn.

If a unit routs, it may not be given any orders but must be moved away from the enemy at 150% of its movement rate, it must continue to do so until it leaves the table, or subsequently passes its morale check. The unit may not fire at any enemy, but will respond if attacked in an assault, albeit with a -3 on its dice roll.

3.1.9 Engineering.

Engineering in Zorch! has two parts. The first is pre-prepared defenses which can be bought by a defending player in Attack/Defence games prior to the battle. The second is tactical field engineering that takes place during a game

Pre-planned Defenses.

The following is an example list of defences that can be purchased before a game. There are many that have been left off this list and they can be added as required, the cost being decided between the players.

Defence Type Cost Benefit

Foxhole for 1 infantry unit 25pts -1 to hit

Bunker for 1 infantry unit 50pts -2 to hit

Bunker for 1 crew served weapon 75pts -2 to hit

Prepared Tank Hull Down position 50pts -1 to hit

10cm x 5cm D/P minefield 75pts (see section on mines)

10cm x 5cm Artillery Delivered Minefield 150pts (see section on mines)

10cm length of razor wire 25pts -50% move for infantry

5cm length of tank traps 50pts vehicles can’t pass

Minefields

Minefields play an important part in defensive warfare, for simplicities sake we have only provided two types here, pre-placed dual purpose minefields and an artillery delivered version. Whenever a unit enters a minefield it must suffer a potential attack, the owner of the minefield must throw an 8 or higher to hit the vehicle or troop stand, armour saving throws are taken as normal, with a -1 modifier. Vehicles that are considered skimmers are not affected by these sorts of minefields.

A pre-positioned minefield is placed on the table as a 10cm x 5cm piece of card, for each minefield purchased another 3 dummy minefields are taken to disguise the placement of the original. The live minefield should be marked on the hidden side. Artillery delivered minefields are placed at any time during the artillery phase of a turn instead of normal fire and suffer drift in the same way as normal artillery fire.

D/P Minefields can be cleared by specialist vehicles, or by adding mine rollers or ploughs to the front of a normal vehicle. These ploughs can only be added to tracked vehicles at a cost of 100pts.

Tactical Engineering.

Only a limited amount of engineering can be performed once battle is joined, and we have only described a certain number of modifications to exisiting units.

Upgrading an infantry unit to an sapper unit - +75pts

AFV Engineering Upgrade (inc shovel and demolition gun) +300pts

The following tasks can be performed by engineering units in the time taken, during this time, the unit may not be given any orders.

Task Sapper Shovel Equiped AFV

Structure Demolition 2 turns 1 turn (range 10cm)

Digging a foxhole 1 turn 2 per turn

Digging a Tank position 4 turns 1 turn

Mine Clearance 2 turns N/A

Razor wire clearance 2 turns / 10cm 20cm per turn

Tank trap clearance 2 turns / 10cm 1 turn /10cm

3.1.10 Victory Assessment.

Assessing victory is completely dependent on the game being played. Players should discuss the victory conditions before hand, and these should be written down. As a guideline, any features that must be captured in order to win must be in the possession of one player, with no enemy units within 20cm of the position.

Section 4 - Vehicle Design.

One of the enjoyable factors of Zorch! is that players can design their own vehicles and as such constantly suprise their opponents with new technological “suprises”. Because of the vehicle building guidelines and consistant point costs there is always a balance maintained. For example, a high tech vehicle may cost 4 times as much as a fairly low tech one, so the low tech force has the chance to overwhelm his opponent.

4.1 Vehicle Design Principles.

The Excel spreadsheet provided with the game provides a method for easily building new vehicles. The princples of unit design is very much dependant on a players personal preference. As with the varying western tank design principles, there are three concepts to keep in mind, namely, Firepower, Mobility and Protection. The following section describe the various elements of vehicle design.

4.1.1 Name.

The name of the vehicle.

4.1.1 Cost.

This is the PP cost of buying a single unit of the vehicle. The spreadsheet automatically calculates this cost.

4.1.1 Movement.

This is the distance the unit can move on normal terrain with move orders in centimetres.

4.1.1 Size.

Some indication of the units size, either small, medium, large or extra-large. Small units can only carry a single weapon, medium, two, large and extra-large four. The larger the vehicle the higher the cost, but the more powerful the unit.

4.1.1 Armour.

The armour carried by a vehicle determines how difficult it is to destroy. The lower the score the heavier the armour. The converse of heaving heavy armour is that it costs a lot more and generally makes the vehicle slower. While the spreadsheet doesn’t restrict movement based on armour, this is a fun game and vehicles should be designed with this spirit in mind.

4.1.1 Assault.

Every unit or vehicle has an assault factor that determines how it performs when in close-in fighting. In terms of troops, this means how well they are trained and equoped for hand-to-hand combat, for vehicles it reflects any close in weapon systems they have such as cannister rounds or hull mounted anti-personel mines.

4.1.7 Capacity.

The capacity of a vehicle to carry troops. Being able to carry troops means that they can be tranported to a critical part of the battlefield quickly.

4.1.1 Propulsion.

The propulsion mechanism used by the unit or vehicle. Categories are :

normal

towed

wheeled

tracked

hover : advanced hovercraft propulsion

grav : anti-grav or magnetic levitation drive

flying : Fixed or rotary wing aircraft

different drive systems cost different amounts, towed are cheaper,wheeled, normal and tracked cost no extra, while the hover/grav and flying vehicles cost proporitionally more.

4.1.1 Weapon Systems

Each weapon system (upto four) is described in detail with range / and effects included

4.1.1 Name.

The name of the weapon

4.1.2 Turreted.

Yes or No, if a weapon is turreted it has a 360 degree engagement envelope, else it can engage targets no more than 45 degree’s off the facing of the vehicle.

4.1.3 Range.

The maximum effective range of the weapon.

4.1.4 Attacks.

The number of attacks the weapon can make in a single engagement against a single target. This reflects whether the weapon has multiple barrels/projectors or is rapid fire.

4.1.5 Barrage.

Some weapons have area affect weapons rather than direct fire, this is the number of barrage points that the weapon delivers.

4.1.6 Hits-On.

This is the basic score needed for a weapon to hit a target (un-modified). This score must be equaled or exceeded on a roll of 1d10

4.1.7 AP-Modifier.

Certain weapons are designed to penetrate armour. This is reflected by a negative score in this column. The higher the negative score the better the penetrating power of the weapon.

4.1.8 Shots.

Either unlimited (to all intents and purposes), or a number between 1 and 10. This reflects weapon systems such as guided missile launchers that have a limited number of ready rounds.

4.1.9 Special Abilities.

The special abilities columns reflect other abilities such as mine ploughs, or special weapons effects templates such as those of flamethrowers. The cost of special abilities should be decided upon between the players.

4.2 Example Designs.

The following are example designs for a number of vehicles and troop types that should get you started.

Section 5 - Glossary.

Air - Any non dedicated air assets that are used during the battle.

Artillery - Indirect fire weapons capable of engaging targets that are out of site.

Assault combat - Any units that are touching enemy units may engage in direct physical combat

Battlegroup - The set of units used to fight a battle.

End phase combat - Any unit that has not previously fired and is not routing, or has not charged may fire in during end phase combat.

Initial deck - The initial deck is a designed hand of orders that is chosen by the player as their starting hand.

Initiative - A die roll that determines which player has the iniative (higher the better). A player with iniative is able to decide whether move their units first or last, and to fire first or last.

Morale - The process by which the psychological well-being of a unit is determined. This will decide whether a unit is capable of carrying out its orders.

Movement combat - direct fire combat for any units that have moved.

Orders deck - A deck of cards of between 60 and 120 cards that are used to give orders to units.

Overwatch - Units that do not move can engage in overwatch, this means they are prepared and ready

to fire at targets of opportunity. They can engage twice, once in the overwatch fire phase, and once in the

end turn combat phase.

Preparatory barrage - Artillery fired upon enemy units before an attack begins, intended to soften the defences of your opponent

Production points (PP) - The unit of measurement used to determine the cost of battlegroups and individual units.

Reserves - Units that are part of the battlegroup that are kept out of the battle until needed, while these units are in reserve, they don’t give any benefit to their owner.

Section - A group of 1 or more units that are combined in order to give them a single order. They can be joined or split during play. Each unit within a group must be be within 10cm of at least one other member. If it is not, it is considered to have lost cohesion and will do nothing during that turn except respond to assualt combat and fire during end turn combat. This rule also applies to aircraft in direct support, but the distance is increased to 25cm.

Unit - A single stand or vehicle.