This Means War! A mass-combat system for the GAMMA WORLD(R) game by Dan Kretzer In a world as unstable and hostile as that of the GAMMA WORLD(R) game, large-scale battles are unavoidable. Rival Cryptic Alliances like the Purists and the Mutationists, or the Restorationists and the Seekers (or the Red Death, which fights everyone) guarantee enough warfare to keep an entire continent in conflict. But there's more mass combat where that came from. You also have rival tribes, cities, races, bandits, and religious fanatics. War itself is what made the Gamma World possible, and it stands to reason that it would be a part of any campaign. The incorporation of mass-combat rules into GAMMA WORLD games can provide new challenges for those characters who have come to a higher level of play. Some of the campaign goals listed in the GAMMA WORLD rule book could directly involve the characters as leaders in a war. Uniting barbarian tribes, defeating tyrannical lords and their followers, and taming the wilderness are all goals that suggest the necessity of some form of mass combat. The following system takes the GAMMA WORLD third-edition rules and uses them to create a way of simulating mass combat in the game. Battle rank Each force of combatants is assigned a battle rank (BR) by the GM. The BR is calculated in the following way: 1. Find the average Rank of each soldier, not counting leaders, by finding the average hit dice of a typical soldier. For example, 20 hoops (HD 15) and 40 badders (HD 6) make up a force. Add all their hit dice [(20 x 15 = 300) + (40 x 6 = 240) = 540] and divide the total by the total number of soldiers (540/60 = 9). The result is a base BR 9. Treat each vehicle the battle force has as one soldier and average its hit dice into the BR; do not count drivers or gunners as soldiers in this case. (This latter rule applies to ships in naval battles, too.) 2. Modify the base BR according to the leader's abilities. Treat the leader's Rank as an ability score on the Ability Modifiers table on the back of the third-edition rule book, and add its modifier to the BR; do the same with the leader's charisma. Add 5 to the BR if the leader has military genius capability. For example, the leader of the hoop/badder force mentioned earlier is Rank 7 (- 1) and has a charisma of 16 ( + 2). The BR of the force after this modification is [(9 - 1) + 2 = ] 10. If the leader has military genius capability, the BR is 15. If the leader is a mutant, use his hit dice instead of his Rank to determine the force's BR modifiers. 3. Determine the Tech Level of the average weapons and armor used by the soldiers, using the following table: Tech level Modifier I - 5 II - 2 III 0 IV + 2 V + 5 To determine each soldier's individual Tech Level, average the Tech Levels of his weapons and armor, rounding fractions up toward the figure for weapons. If a soldier has a laser gun and wears either chain mail or no armor, he is Tech Level III; the use of Tech Level III or IV armor would make him Tech Level IV. For example, let's say that the hoops in our example all have rifles (Tech Level III) and the badders all have crossbows and morning stars (Tech Level II), with appropriate armor for their Tech Levels. The average Tech Level comes out to be [((20 x 3) + (40 x 2)) / 60 = ] 2.33, which we round down to Tech Level II, so 2 is subtracted from 10 for a BR of 8. If the hoops all had Tech Level IV gear, the average Tech Level would be 2.66, which becomes Tech Level III for no penalty. If a battle force's soldiers have no weapons, subtract 10 from their BR unless they have claws or other such innate weaponry (treat these as Tech Level II). If the soldiers have ranged combat mutations (radiation eyes, hands of power, etc.) and no weapons, treat them as Tech Level III. 4. Find the average number of beneficial offensive or defensive mutations the average soldier has, and add that number to the BR; subtract the average number of defects. For example, the empathy of badders would be fairly useless in a battle ( + 0), but hoops have transform metal to rubber and leap (the abilities of telepathy and mass mind would not be particularly useful in mass combat). Thus, the average number of combat mutations is 0.66, which is rounded up to 1. Based on this figure, the BR goes back up to 9. 5. Modify the above BR figure for the army using modifiers for various combat situations, including terrain, unusual combat conditions, strategy, artillery and seige equipment, fatigue, hunger, morale, health, and troop ratios. These modifiers are listed in Tables 1-4, respectively. Table 1 Terrain and Special Conditions Condition Modifier Terrain is favorable for specific force + 2 Terrain is not favorable for specific force - 2 Force is attacking from a covered area (e.g., a forest) or down a hill + 3 Force is attacking into a covered area or up a hill - 3 Force is landing on a beach + 2 Naval force is attacking land force + 2 for naval force, - 2 for land force Force is airborne + 5 Force is on sand, snow, or mud - 3 Force is in a radioactive zone and is not immune to radiation - 2 Force is wading through water or fording a river - 3 Force has cover during a firefight + 3 Entire force has infravision or ultravision during a night battle + 4 Naval force is in very shallow water - 2* Naval force must manuever in reefs - 4* * Applies only if the majority of the ships are large or are submarines. Table 2 Strategy, Artillery, and Seige Equipment Condition Modifier Force has laid an ambush in terrain making it easy for the force to hide + 4 Force is defending a fortified position + 3* Force is attacking a fortified position - 3* Force is armed with artillery or explosives + 4 Force charging through open terrain at an immobile enemy - 3** Force is bunched together + 3 Force is attacking from more than one direction - 2 Force is attacking with surprise + 3 Force has enemy's accurate battle plan + 4 Force is attacking enemy while the enemy is camping + 2 Naval force has one or more submarines with torpedos + 3 Naval force is attacking through minefield - 4 Naval force is attacked by air - 5 * These values are negated if proper seige equipment is used by the attackers against the fortified position. ** This value is negated for flying forces. Table 3 Fatigue, Hunger, Morale, and Health Condition Modifier Force is fatigued - 4 Force is suffering from hunger or thirst - 3 Force fought another battle within 24 hours of the current battle - 2 Morale is below 4 - 3 Morale is above 12 + 4 For every 5% of a force that is injured - 1 Troops are heavily burdened on the average - 1 Troops are unburdened on the average + 1 Table 4 Troop Ratios Ratio Modifier 1:1 + 4 10:9 + 2 5:4 + 4 10:7 + 6 5:3 + 8 2:1 + 10 5:2 + 12 10:3 + 14 5:1 + 16 10:1 + 18 More than 10:1 + 20 Fighting the battle When the BRs of the two engaged forces are finally modified, the troops are ready to fight the battle. Battle is conducted by rolling on the ACT Table on the back of the third-edition rule book, referencing the modified BR on the top column. The result is that force's battle result. The players commanding each force roll dice on this table. The result factors (RFs) are then compared and read as follows: RFs equal: If RFs are equal, the force with the higher BR wins a Pyrrhic victory (see below). If both the forces have equal BRs, the fight is a draw (see below). RF + 1: If a force's RF is one higher than the other's, that force wins a marginal victory. RF + 2: If a force's RF is two higher than the other's, that force wins a tactical victory. RF + 3: If a force's RF is three higher than the other's, that force wins a minor victory. RF + 4: If a force's RF is four higher than the other's, that force wins a major victory. RF + 5: If a force's RF is five higher than the other's, it has achieved complete victory. RF + 6: If one force rolls Red and the other rolls Black, the Black-rolling force is put to rout. Battle result descriptions When a force loses soldiers, 75% of them are dead, 20% are captured (or killed, if the winner doesn't want prisoners), and 5% flee and never rejoin their force. Draw: The two forces both lose 30% of their soldiers, 15% more each are considered injured, and both forces must retreat from the field of battle. Pyrrhic victory: Both forces lose 40% of their soldiers and 20% are injured, but the Pyrrhic winner does not have to retreat from the field. Marginal victory: The winner loses 30% of his soldiers and 10% are injured, and he holds the field. The loser loses 35% of his soldiers and 20% are injured. Tactical victory: The winner loses 25% of his soldiers and 15% are injured. The loser loses 40% of his soldiers and 30% are injured. Minor victory: The winner loses 25% of his soldiers and 10% are injured. The loser loses 50% of his soldiers and 40% are injured. Major victory: The winner loses 20% of his soldiers and 10% are injured. The loser loses 60% of his soldiers and 35% are injured. Complete victory: The winner loses 15% of his soldiers and 5% are injured. The loser loses 75% of his soldiers and 25% are injured. Rout: The winner loses 1% of his force and 5% are injured. The losing force is completely destroyed. Those not killed are captured or flee in different directions. Other combat results Identity of soldiers: Casualties from a battle are assessed in proportions equal to the number of soldiers in the force and their hit dice. Using the hoop/badder army example, suppose that 50% of that force is lost in a battle. Since badders have fewer hit dice than hoops, they should have suffered more casualties in proportion to their comrades; multiply the number of survivors in the army by the ratio of badder hit dice to hoop hit dice [(30 x (6 / (6 + 15))], rounding to the nearest figure. The same is done for the hoops [(30 x (15 / (6+21))]. This leaves only nine badders and 21 hoops. Similar proportion equations can be worked out for forces composed of many different types of soldiers and vehicles. Holding the field: Unless the battle was a draw, the winner stays on the field of battle. The loser must move at least one mile away from the winning army in the opposite direction from which the attack came. Injured soldiers: Injured soldiers heal in one week. If the force has many medical artifacts, injured soldiers can be healed in one day (at the GM's discretion). Vehicles: If any vehicle is lost, it is considered to be destroyed and useless. If a vehicle is "injured," it remains damaged unless there is a specialist mechanic in the force. Prisoners: Each force leader should decide if his army takes prisoners. If it does, 20% of all the soldiers that the losing force "lost" are taken prisoner. Prisoners do not try to escape except in isolated cases, and they can be made to carry supplies and do manual labor, such as building bridges, hauling heavy artillery, or chopping down trees. Prisoners must be fed in order for them to do work. PCs in combat: PCs are never killed as a result of a battle dice roll. If 90% or more of the PC's force is injured or otherwise becomes a casualty, the PC is also injured, but only at the GM's discretion. PCs can be captured or become lost if the GM wishes. Troop morale: The morale of a force is equal to the average morale of its soldiers. For every victory, morale climbs 2 points; morale drops 2 points with every defeat. If the army is hungry or tired, morale drops 1 point. Mixing forces: If two or more forces are mixed, do not bother with recalculating a BR for the entire mixed group. Instead, treat them as separate forces, and divide the opposing force into as many groups as there are forces in the mixed army. For example, a force of 100 jagets (BR 9) and a force of 50 mutated humans (BR 12) join together to attack an army of 100 androids (BR 15). The player controlling the androids decides that 40 will fight the humans and 60 will fight the jagets. This gives you two different battles even though the forces may be hopelessly mixed together. The GM should use a similar system when two mixed forces fight each other. Battle time: The time elapsed during a battle is determined by finding the average number of soldiers in the two conflicting forces. The battle will take a number of minutes equal to that average troop number (see also "guerrilla war" under optional rules). Fortified positions: A fortified position is any place in which a force remains immobile and has some type of fixed defense set up. The fortified position described on the modifier table represents a lumber wall. If the fixed defense is made of stone, defenders get a + 5 bonus and attackers get a -5 penalty. If the fortification is made of a metal alloy other than duralloy, the bonus/penalty is + 8/ - 8, and siege equipment only deletes the attacker's penalty, not the defender's bonus. If the structure is made of duralloy, the bonus/penalty is + 10/ - 10; in this case, siege equipment reduces the penalty to - 5. Firefights and melees: All of the rules above assume that the battle is waged exclusively with either ranged weapons or with melee weapons. If one force has ranged weapons and the other has only melee weapons, however, the force without ranged weapons must take a - 2 RF penalty on its battle roll, and the number of soldiers lost or injured rises by 25 percentage points per category (or as many of these 50 points as can be allowed). The melee-weapon force is routed if 100% of its soldiers are lost or injured. If there is no way for the melee-weapon soldiers to get at the ranged-weapon soldiers (say that the melee-weapon soldiers are on a boat), then the melee soldiers can cut loses by retreating immediately, for a loss of only 2-20% (ranged-weapon soldiers take no losses). If retreat is impossible, the melee weapon soldiers are automatically routed with no roll made. Example of a battle The hoop/badder force from our earlier example (BR 9) is marching through a grassy field when it is set upon by an army of 100 hawkoids (BR 5, average leader, Tech Level I weapons, two combat mutations). Assume that the hawkoids are attacking from the air ( + 5) and have surprised the hoops/badders (+ 3), but have no other advantages. The hoops/badders were marching in tight formation and were bunched together when the battle started (+3). The troop ratio is 100:60 or 5:3, for a + 8 modifier for the hawkoids. Modified BRs are now 12 for the hoops/badders and 21 for the hawkoids. The dice are rolled, and the results are 64 for the hawkoids (a Yellow result on the ACT) and a 26 for the unfortunate hoops/ badders. The hawkoids have won by 3 RFs, so they gained a minor victory, with 20 hawkoids lost and 10 hurt. This leaves 80 hawkoids with 12.5% of them injured; the injury figure is rounded down to 10% injured, and a - 2 modifier for all upcoming combats is applied until all are healed. The hoops/badders lose 60% of their soldiers, so 36 of the 60 are lost. Likewise, 35% are injured, leaving all the remaining soldiers, save three, hurt. To add to all this, the force must retreat from the field in any direction (as the attack came from above). Maintaining an army Movement: Armies travel at the same speed a party of adventurers would travel unless the entire force is traveling by vehicle. If every soldier is riding a vehicle, they travel at the vehicle's speed. Fatigue slows a marching army to 75% normal speed. If more than 30% of the soldiers are injured, marching speed is slowed to half the usual value. Any force with prisoners or without pack animals to carry supplies will travel at half speed, too. Supply lines: If there is a route from the army to a friendly base with access to massive amounts of supplies and means of transporting them, the force can maintain a supply line. This prevents pack animals or soldiers from having to carry as much, leaving soldiers free to fight and move quickly. Guerrillas who are in areas where foraging is impossible can make small hits on existing enemy supply lines. If the guerrillas do so, they will not be able to take amounts of supplies sufficient to hurt the main force. Morale: If a force's morale ever drops below zero, and there are still enough soldiers in the army for it to be considered a force, it will automatically dissipate and cease to exist as a unit. If morale rises above 25, there is a 75% chance that other men from surrounding areas will come to join up for either payment or patriotism. Each day that the force's morale is above 25, it will gain 1-6 soldiers who will have Rank, equipment, and mutations so as not to change the force's BR. Payment: A mercenary soldier usually charges 1 gold piece per day per Rank. If situations are extremely dangerous, he may charge more. PCs who raise mercenary armies must be able to handle such financing. Once soldiers cease to be paid, they leave, with but one exception: If the force is that of a city, tribe, Cryptic Alliance, or similar group of individuals, it will fight without pay as long as the soldiers believe they are furthering their group's cause or defense. A PC can always count on people to resist if their homeland is invaded or raided. Encampments: As a general rule, a force must rest for 12 hours and can travel for 12 hours each day. An eight-hour stretch of rest is made at night, with an hour devoted to setting up camp and an hour devoted to breaking the camp down. Such camps are vulnerable to enemy attacks but are necessary. A midday rest of two hours requires no camp, only immobility. Optional rules Tactics: A force using specific tactics receives a + 4 BR bonus if the opponent is not using tactics. If both forces use tactics (encircle, strike and move, charge blindly with force, etc.), then both get a + 2 bonus unless the GM decides that one tactic is exceptionally effective or ineffective; the force with the weaker tactic then gets a - 2 penalty while the other force gets a +2 bonus. For example, if one force is attacking blindly against another force with no tactics, the first force will get a + 4 bonus. But if the second one was trying to encircle the first, then the GM might decide that the charging soldiers will run deep into a jam. The GM then gives the encircling group a + 2 bonus and the charging force a - 2 penalty. Guerrilla warfare: If a force has a lot of terrain to defend, it may wish to fight another force with guerrilla tactics and so becomes a guerrilla force. Guerrilla forces are most effective against conventional forces, though two forces can fight with guerrilla tactics against each other. The advantages of guerrilla war are as follows: 1. The guerrillas do not subtract from their BR for their own Tech Level. 2. Mutations that would help in a guerrilla war but not in a conventional one (such as camouflage) will be counted as battle relevant mutations for guerrilla troops. The GM must decide which mutations are useful ones in this case. 3. If a guerrilla force is native to the combat area, it gets a + 5 modifier to its BR. 4. The number of soldiers lost and injured is cut by half for guerrilla forces. 5. The troop-ratio advantages are each cut by half. However, guerrilla warfare has the following disadvantages: 1. There can be no positive modifier for the leader's abilities except for his Rank. 2. For each day of combat waged, a guerrilla force suffers a - 1 BR penalty due to fatigue and exposure. 3. Supply lines (see below) cannot be established. 4. The guerrilla force is always split up into groups of 10 or fewer soldiers, so communication suffers. Specific tactics cannot be used by guerrillas, and orders to move or attack take three days to get to all of the troops in an area. 5. No guerrilla force can route any other force, but guerrillas can be routed by conventional forces. The requirements for guerrilla war are as follows: 1. The guerrilla war can only be waged in mountains, forests, ruined cities, jungles, or rocky areas. Flat, open terrain makes guerrilla warfare impractical. However, if both forces are waging guerrilla war, then any terrain will do. 2. The guerrillas may not use vehicles except for small cars or motorcycles. If at sea, guerrillas can use small boats. 3. The guerrillas must have some way of getting food and water. If they are native to the area, they can get these things easily. Otherwise, they must carry supplies or forage any food. If the area does not have any natural food sources in it or the enemy does not have supply lines to raid, the guerrillas will run out of carried rations and the guerrillas will suffer from starvation. The battlefield covers a much larger area in a guerrilla war than in a conventional one. The GM and players roll separately each day to find how many soldiers on either side are lost or injured, subtracting that amount from the army totals and modifying BRs as necessary. A fatigued guerrilla force may chose to rest a day by not engaging the enemy; this is called evasion. If the guerrilla leader elects to evade, conventional forces spend the day hunting the guerrillas and will kill 1-6% of them. If both forces are guerrillas, nobody will be caught on an evasion day. Evasion days do not count for actual battle days, and they allow complete rest for guerrillas. Remember that it takes three days for a guerrilla force to receive orders, so if a leader elects to evade, he will not be able to do so for three days. At any time, a guerrilla force can elect to gather together as one large force. This takes three consecutive days of combat time to get the orders out and three consecutive evasion days to gather at a designated place. Playing out a guerrilla war can take hours of real time. There are many exciting adventures that PC guerrillas and leaders can have during this time while the large-scale fighting rages on. If PCs manage to do something on their own that affects the enemy's BR, the BR should be lowered for the next day's roll. Commando raids, sabotage missions, and spying make good guerrilla-war adventures. The GM should have a good idea of the general locations of conventional forces while a guerrilla war is on. The guerrillas will be scattered around, but knowing the location of a large force will help guerrillas create logical tactics, such as blowing up a bridge before a conventional force can cross it (or while a conventional force is crossing it) to buy more time for the guerrillas. Conventional forces may move around the combat area and split into smaller groups while waging war normally. Even if a conventional force is split up, combat rolls are still treated as involving one battle. If a conventional force wants out of a guerrilla war, it simply leaves the area. If the guerrillas want out, they must take three days to notify their troops and one day to leave. Special effects on soldiers: The GM should use his best judgment in administrating any special problems or effects that might occur during a war. For example, if a force (for whatever reason) is struck with a widespread illness, look up "Sickness" on the referee's screen. It states that a PC gets a - 2 CS in combat and moves at half speed, for 1-6 days. Thus, the entire force receives a - 2 to its BR and moves at half speed for 1-6 days. Boarding actions: The previous game rules easily accommodate naval battles in which ships attack each other from a distance. Sometimes two ships move closely enough for marine crews to attempt boarding actions; in such cases, each ship is given a BR determined by calculating the BR of the combatants on the ship, not counting the ships as vehicles. The winners get control of the other ship, and the losers have to bail out in life boats and hope for the best. No retreat: Whenever this command is given by the leader of a force before the battle starts, the GM must check the force's morale. If the morale check is passed, the force will not retreat from the field if beaten by the first set of dice rolls. The victorious force must fight the loser in a second round of fighting, but at + 1 to its BR. If the "no retreat" force is beaten again, its leader may order "no retreat" again, and if the morale check (now made at - 1) succeeds, the force fights again (but the previous victor now gets a + 2 to its BR). With each subsequent defeat, the victor gains a + 1 to its BR and the loser gets a - 1 on its next morale check; these penalties are cumulative. Note that both sides in a battle can declare "no retreat" and thus fight down to the last mutant. Experience and Status levels: To determine the experience points gained by a leader during a battle in which he is victorious, add up the total number of all the enemy soldiers that were lost or injured, multiply this number by the enemy's average Rank, and subtract a value equal to the number of the leader's soldiers that were lost or wounded multiplied by their average Rank. Leaders who lose a battle gain no experience. If a character leads his community's army to victory or defends his town against invaders, he gains two Status levels. if he loses such a battle, he loses two Status levels, if there's still a town left to make the reduction mean anything. Long-range missile strikes and bombing. Some forces, usually the dishonorable or smart kinds, will get access to fiendish weapons like surface missiles or bombs. If missiles are launched at a force, the victims cannot do much about it. Each non nuclear missile that hits will kill 1d10 + 5 soldiers and injure twice that many, or destroy one vehicle and wound 2d10 men (firer's option as to which). A Red attack result means that the attack did double damage, and a Black result means the missile exploded before being launched. Bomb-droppers are another story. If there is a skywatching lookout for the target force, that force will be able to fire on any bombers flying overhead. Bombers must fly lower than 100 meters in order to have any chance of hitting their targets under "eyeball guidance," unless they have some advanced targeting mechanisms. Antibomber fire should be allowed for five turns before a bomb may be dropped (remember to subtract for range and target movement). Bombers must roll dice to hit their targets. A colored result means the bombers managed to get the same effects as a missile strike (see above). A Red result means that the bomb did double damage, and a Black one means the bomb exploded before being dropped. Fission bombs are another story. If a plane or dirigible manages to get directly above a force and drops a fission bomb, it will wipe out 90% of the force, with the other 10% receiving major injuries taking two weeks to heal; any PCs will survive, but just barely. Aircraft carrying fission bombs must maneuver for 10 turns before having position and must be below 100 meters in altitude; this gives the victims of the bomb a fair chance to scatter or shoot it down. If a force is ordered to scatter during a bombing or missile strike, the damage sustained will be halved. Dirigibles, because they cannot move quickly to escape the bomb's effects, have a 90% chance to be destroyed on the bomb run. Mixed-up forces: Sometimes a military force has soldiers of all races, Ranks, and Tech Levels. Determining the BR for such a force is impossible; instead, just use a BR of 10 for mixed-up groups of this kind (assuming a mid-level Rank, some mutations, and a Tech Level average of III), then modify this by the abilities of whoever is leading the force. Conclusion Mass combat can be a useful, challenging, and exciting part of a GAMMA WORLD campaign. You may choose to use the rules as they are presented here or change them to your liking. However you use them, they can be of tremendous value when running an ongoing campaign world. Copyright TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Do not repost. ÿ