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Roll Out the (Gun) BarrelsBy Dave Van Domelen A Cheapass Wargame for 2 or more players So, your RPG has run into a situation where there's going to be some sort of large scale battle. Sure, the players can be involved in their corner of the way, but they'd really like to have some control over the whole fight. What do you do? Pull out that copy of Advanced Squad Leader and put the RPG on hold for a few years? Well, here's a very cheapass way to simulate large battles without having to deal with maps and counters and fifteen hours per turn. Obviously, it can't cover a lot of things, but if you want more detail, get a regular wargame of some sort. Roll Out The (Gun) Barrels (ROtGB) can handle basic combat for any era, with as many unit types allowed as you have types of dice. It uses the same basic mechanic as Button Men (TM), so if you're reading this game, you probably know how the basics work. Each player should have distinctive dice. If not all of one color, at least make sure everyone knows which dice belong to which player. This can get, ah, dicey when you have more than 3 or 4 players, of course. Since you'll probably have more of these types than any other, d6s and d10s will represent whatever the "vanilla" units are. d6's are infantry, destroyers, hovercraft, whatever the genre uses for grunts. d10s represent the standard "pretty tough" unit, be they chariots, mechanized divisions or battleships. Other dice can represent other sorts of units that fill in your forces, some suggestions will be given at the end. Your forces will consist of some number of dice of various types. By adding up the total number of sides on all your dice, you get the point value of your army. Players will usually want to have the same number of points, but need not. Determine who goes first by some random method, then have all players roll their dice. When it is your turn, you try to destroy enemy units in one of two ways: direct assault and flanking maneuvers. In a direct assault, pick one die of yours that shows a number greater than one die of an opponent's. Take the enemy die and put it in your scoring area, then re-roll the die you used. If you want color here, the rerolled die is invigorated by its success if the new roll is higher, and is depleted from bloody combat if the new roll is lower. For a flanking maneuver, choose two or more of your dice whose total equals that of an enemy die. Greater than doesn't work, the total must be equal. This represents the greater finesse required in outflanking an opponent. Additionally, one of the dice used in the flanking maneuver must show a value that is at least half as large as the value shown on the die being attacked. This keeps a horde of d1's from being able to overwhelm any other target, unless that target rolled really poorly. As with a direct assault, you place the enemy unit in your scoring area, and re-roll all of your units involved in the assault. Once you've made your attack, regardless of the type, the turn passes to the next player. Obviously, in a game with many players, the opening rounds will be very bloody as all the low-rolling dice are eliminated. The game ends when only one player has any dice left. Total up the sides of the dice you have in your scoring area, highest total wins. Advanced Rules: Alliances: If you have more than two players, you might want to choose up sides. This limits the number of opponents you can attack (unless you turn traitor and attack your allies!), but also means the game ends when one alliance is out of dice. An alliance can break up at any time, and new ones can form during the game, if you're that sort of player. Fronts: This is NOT recommended for games with more than two players. Establish two or more areas on the table, each of which is a front in the war. Your dice are split among these fronts, by whatever arrangement seems to work (including rolling dice to determine which dice go where, but don't think too hard about that). You get an attack in each front each turn, rather than just one attack per turn. Additionally, instead of attacking in a front, you can move forces from that front to another. Moved forces still reroll as if they had attacked. Once only one player has dice in a front, the war is over there, and the winner may redeploy those forces on his next turn. The games over when all fronts have been conquered. Final scores are multiplied by the number of fronts you won on. Therefore, you could be the last player with any dice on the table, but if you only held one front you might lose the game. Handicapping: Only handicap the results if you have two sides (either two players or two Alliances) of unequal strength. Take the point value of the larger force and divide by the point value of the smaller force. In order to have a total victory, the larger force's final points must be at least this much larger than the smaller force's. For example, if Napoleon has 90 points of units initially and Wellington has 60 points of units, Napoleon's final score must be 90/60 or 1.5 times as large as Wellington's. The smaller force has normal victory conditions. If the larger force wins, but not by a large enough amount, you get that staple of wargames, the Pyrrhic Victory, where the victory cost you more than it was worth. Reinforcements: Set aside part of your army (navy, fleet, etc) at the beginning, and bring in a new unit every few turns. If using handicapping, only count the units that actually came into play (you don't lose points for units that never arrived). Terrain: You've got to be kidding. Okay, you want terrain. Use the front rules, but say that only certain unit types can be in certain fronts. Only small units in the swamp, that sort of thing. If you really want to get tricky, allow one side to hold a pass or bridge or canal or wormhole, and they cannot be flanked against. Examples of Units: Small Fry: These units are unattractive targets, but can get lucky and outflank a big unit that got a bad roll. It's recommended that no more than half of any total army be made up of Small Fry. d1: Saboteurs, mainly. A bunch of these guys might "flank" a larger unit by blowing up a bridge it's on. Can also represent any sort of really pathetic "human wave" force or robotic drones. d2: Coin-flipping. Hastily-assembled militia units, support boats, or severely understrength units of any type. Maybe a single fighter plane that lost its wing. Medium Fry: The meat of any army. d4: Small but fast units. Escort ships, fighter wings, light horse, etc. Can also be undertrained infantry or militias. They're still small enough that your opponent might not bother taking them, but a few of them can usually outflank anything. d6: Standard infantry on land. Destroyers in the sea or in space, light hovercraft units or medium cavalry when appropriate. d8: Oddball units. They're either tough infantry (mechanized, perhaps) or light armor. Fast cruisers fall in this category. They're worth a decent amount of points, but can often be taken by a d6 or even a single d4, so they're often not worth the risk. However, if one takes a d10, it paid for itself. Big Fry: The units that you want to have a few of, but really hope they never roll 1s. d10: Standard armor, or battleships, spacecruisers, etc. These are always mechanized in some way, even if they're just war chariot units. d12: Like the d8s, these are kinda weird units, often a bit overpowered for their armor or too slow to be really useful. Oversized armor units, ships between battleship and dreadnaught, or convoy battlegroups can fall into this category. d16: You've been buying from Zocchi, haven't you? d20: These are the kings of the battlefield. Heavy tank battalions, dreadnaughts, that sort of thing. d100: Hey, the d100 looks like a D**th St*r, so let it be one. Just beware flanking attacks by d4 snub fighters.... Letter from a Fan: Thoughts on Roll Out the (Gun) Barrels Dear James, My compliments to Dave Van Domelen for his interesting wargame. I am writing to you since his game did not include his e-mail address. It seems to me, that the best strategy is to go after the opponents largest die, no matter what. Even if you end up needing 15 dice to do it, it's worth it. Since no attacking dice are ever killed in the attack, There is no down side. Re-rolling 5+ dice will result in a fairly even distribution of numbers afterward, so the risk of losing them in the next attack won't increase. It just occurred to me, that if each side is allowed to customize their army, then the army consisting of nothing but 1-sided dice would win, being able it capture every die except other 1-sided dice. If both armies did the same thing, no attacks could be made, and the game would be a draw. No attacks can occur, because no die will exceed any other die, but two or more dice can never equal the value of an opponent's die. This is all "arm-chair speculation," so I don't know how well this will work as a variant. Instead of re-rolling dice after a flanking maneuver, all dice in the attack drop by two points. Any dice which are at least 4-sided cannot drop below one, unless already equal to one. Those which drop to zero or less are eliminated, and go to the defender's scoring area. Thank you for your time, Roll Out the Gun Barrels: Medieval StrifeBy Tyrino This game plays using the same core rules as Roll Out the Gun Barrels, with a bit more of an advanced ring to it. This game is more strategic and can ultimately be more fun than a standard ROtGB game. What makes this game so much more intriguing, you may wonder? For starters, this game can take place only in medieval times. Secondly, each die has multiple unit possibilities. Explained below are each die's unit possibilities and what they do. d4 RECRUIT - d4 WIZARD - d4 DEFENDER - d4 d6 FOOTMAN - d6 ARCHER - d6 CLERIC - d6 d8 KNIGHT - d8 WARLOCK - d8 d10 CAVALIER - d10 DARK KNIGHT - d10 PALADIN - d10 CROSSBOWMAN - d10 FLANKMAN - d10 d12 CHAMPION - d12 AMAZON - d12 STARGAZER - d12 d16 CATAPULT - d16 BALLISTA - d16 d20 HERO - d20 DEMON - d20 ARCHANGEL - d20 d100 DRAGON - d100 DEITY - d100 SPELLS AND SPELLCASTING When a spell lasts for a certain number of turns, the turn in which the spell was cast does not count. For example, the Shield spell lasts 2 turns. Your turn ends after the spell is cast, and then your opponents go. Your turn comes around. That is considered 1 full turn. When your NEXT turn ends, so does Shield. Shield (3) - Grants the target unit +2 defense for 2 turns. Empower (3) - Grants the target unit +1 offense for 2 turns. Beam (2) - Attacks a unit with a value of 3. Hold (1) - Target unit cannot attack or be rolled. This spell negates any spell that may try to force the afflicted unit to roll. Lasts 1 turn. Pierce (2) - Target unit suffers a -2 penalty to defense. Shift Morale (4) - Target unit must roll. Laser (3) - Attacks a unit with a value of 5. Dismay (2) - Target player's units must all roll (unless under the influence of a Hold spell). Havoc (2) - All units in play must roll (unless under the influence of a Hold spell). Force Field (1/game) - This spell may only be cast once by each unit that can cast it. All of your units cannot be targeted or taken for 1 turn. Split (1) - The unit that casts this spell splits into two d6 Footmen. RULES At the beginning of the game, you choose what each of your dice will be. ALL of your dice must be the same type within their categories. You cannot have 5 d4s, and 3 of them Recruits and 2 of them Wizards. ALL of your d4s must be Recruits, OR Wizards, OR Defenders. The same goes for all other dice. No unit can be enchanted with multiple beneficial spells. i.e. Shield and Empower cannot be cast on the same unit at the same time. One spell per unit at a time. Spellflanking is allowed. For example, if a your enemy has a die showing the number 8, you can have one unit cast Laser, and one unit cast Beam, to equal 8 and take the unit. Roll both of your casters after this. Likewise, if you have a normal die showing 5 and your Wizard can cast Beam for 3, then you can flank this way too. Themed Play Daytime Field Play - A battle in an open field. Archer, Crossbowman, Amazon, and Ballista units get +1 at all times (cumulative with their default bonuses and penalties). Nighttime Field Play - A battle in an open field at night. Archer, Crossbowman, Amazon, and Ballista units get -1 at all times (cumulative with their default bonuses and penalties). Mystic Environment - A battle environment where all spells can be cast twice their normal amount of times before being recharged. A mystic environment can be an alternate dimension, an alternate Plane, or a sorceror's conjured world. Castle Battle - Choose which player (or team) is fighting from inside the castle. All of the units in the castle gain +1 defense. City Battle - This battle takes place in a large city. All units get +1 defense and -2 attack. All spells may only be cast twice before needing a recharge, and spells that could normally only be cast once can not be cast at all. Volcanic/Volatile Terrain - A battle in dangerous terrain with frequent quakes and other severe hazards. After each turn, you must roll all of your units. You cannot recharge spells. Poor Weather - Mud and rain, gusty winds. All d10s, d12s, d16s, and d20s get -1 at all times. Dangerous Weather - Hail, flooded earth, and disorienting winds. All units get -2 to attack. Damaging Weather - Golfball-sized hail, house-tearing winds, ice-cold sharp rains. Any d4, d6, or d8 that rolls a 1 can never roll again. Catastrophic Weather - Football-sized hail, town-crushing pressure from wind, groundbreaking thunder, constant lightning. Any unit that rolls 1 can never roll again. Roll Out the Gun Barrels: Star StrifeBy J. L. Butler Basic Rules: Each player should have distinctive dice. If not all of one color, at least make sure everyone knows which dice belong to which player. This can get problematic when you have more than 3 or 4 players, of course. Your forces will consist of some number of dice of various types. By adding up the total number of sides on all your dice, you get the point value of your army. Players will usually want to have the same number of points, but need not. Determine who goes first by some random method, then have all players roll their dice. Each turn consists of two phases. During phase 1, the first acting player plays and then during phase 2, the second acting player plays. A unit may only act once in a turn. If it conducts a defensive action during the other player's phase, it may not attack. If it attacks in its own phase, it may not conduct a defensive action during the other player's phase. In a direct assault, pick one die of yours that shows a number greater than one die of an opponent's. That enemy die is eliminated and placed in your scoring area. For a flanking maneuver, choose two or more of your dice whose total equals that of an enemy die. Greater than doesn't work, the total must be equal. This represents the greater finesse required in outflanking an opponent. Additionally, one of the dice used in the flanking maneuver must show a value that is at least half as large as the value shown on the die being attacked. This keeps a horde of d1's from being able to overwhelm any other target, unless that target rolled really poorly. As with a direct assault, you place the enemy unit in your scoring area. Note: The presence of attrition units may change who is the victor of an engagement. Should after attrition casualties the defender hold the advantage, he is the victor and the attacker's die is eliminated. The defender then suffers damage as if he were the attacker. In the case of a tie, both sides suffer damage. Damage: Units suffer damage as a result of engagements. In direct assaults, the attacker's die is reduced by half the value of the defender's die. For example, if your D12 with a '10' showing is used to polish off a D10 with an '8' showing, the D10 is eliminated and your D12 is now reduced to '6'. An attacking die which is at least 4-sided cannot drop below one, unless already equal to one. Those which drop to zero or less are eliminated, and go to the defender's scoring area. In flanking maneuvers, those points of damage may be distributed among the attacking units as the attacker wishes. Any attacking die may be reduced to zero and thus eliminated. Catastrophic Damage: Any unit reduced to '1' cannot roll again. Once you've made your attack, regardless of the type, the phase passes to the next player. Obviously, in a game with many players, the opening rounds will be very bloody as all the low-rolling dice are eliminated. The game ends when only one player has any dice left. Total up the sides of the dice you have in your scoring area, highest total wins Attack Sequence:
Units: Note: D1-D3 units regardless of type gain the Attrition tag. Attrition units cannot control, deploy or field other attrition units. Small Fry: These units are unattractive targets, but can get lucky and outflank a big unit that got a bad roll. It's recommended that no more than half of any total army be made up of Small Fry. D1: D1 Battlesatellite/Space Mine (Cannot kill units larger than D6 unless flanking.) (Attrition unit.) D1 Space Combat Drone (Represents a pattern of 1-10 drones. Adds +1 attack, +1 defense to controlling unit; takes up one control channel. Owning player can buy more SCDs than control channels, extras are deployed in space as D1 attrition units until a control channel is freed. Can be targeted separately. A ship can only control D/2 of units in control channels.) D1 Decoy (Cost: 2 pts.) (Adds +2 defense to controlling unit; takes up one control channel. Decoys cannot be replaced in combat. Can be targeted separately.) D1 Interceptors (Cost: 2 pts.) (Represents a pattern of interceptor drones and/or rockets. Attrition. Reaction. Held out of play aboard owning starship until used. Requires an open control channel at beginning of turn of use. Interceptors react into play from their deploying starship and are immediately removed at end of the turn in which they were deployed. +3 defense to controlling unit. The interceptors themselves gain +2 attack when rolling for attrition casualties only.) D2: D2 Corvette/System Defense Boat (Escort. Attrition. Cannot kill units larger than D4 unless flanking.) D3: D3 Heavy Corvette (Escort. Attrition.) Medium Fry: The meat of any army. D4: D4 Fighter Squadron (Attrition. Reaction. Must be deployed from a carrier. Fighters can stack more attack points than their target in flanking maneuvers.) D4 Mecha Squadron (Attrition. Must be deployed from a carrier. Mecha can stack more attack points than their target in flanking maneuvers. If given a control channel, they lend their firepower support to the controlling ship, surrending their own attack. Supported ships receive +1 attack, +2 defense. Supporting mecha provide a die roll towards attrition casualties against enemy attrition units attacking their controlling ship. Mecha receive +0 attack, -1 defense against fighters in open space; mecha receive +1 attack, -0 defense against fighters in bad terrain. Mecha receive +3 attack vs. ships without defending mecha or fighter cover.) D4 Frigate/Patrol Ship (Escort) D4 Gunboats/Heavy Fighters (Attrition. Reaction. -1 defense, cannot drop below 1. May add +1 to attack when flanking or not as owning player wishes.) D6: D6 Destroyer (Escort) D6 Guided Missile Destroyer (+1 attack, only 1 control channel) D6 Escort Carrier (Carrier) D6 Defense Platform (Station) D8: D8 Light Cruiser (May add +1 to attack when flanking or not as owning player wishes.) D8 Light Carrier (Carrier) D8 Base Station/Space Station (Station) Big Fry: The units that you want to have a few of, but really hope they never roll 1s. D10: D10 Heavy Cruiser/Battlecruiser D10 Guided Missile Cruiser (+2 attack, only 1 control channel; can deploy 0 D4 units but gets 2 carrier actions for supporting drones) D10 Fleet Carrier (Carrier) D10 (Station) D12: D12 Battleship D12 Attack Carrier CVA (Carrier) D12 Basestation (Station) D20: D20 Dreadnought D20 Supercarrier (Carrier) D20 Battlestation (Station) D30: D30 Superdreadnought D30 Battlestar/Mother Ship/Command Ship (Carrier) D30 Frontier Station (Station) D60 (D30x2): D60 Warstar D60 Basestar (Carrier) [Note: Basestars can carry as many as 300 fighters.] D60 Starbase (Station) D100 (not recommended): D100 Borg Cube D100 Starfortress/Fortress Station/Asteroid Fortress/Death Star (Station) Unit Type Rules: Stacking: Certain units may launch mass attacks, namely fighters and mecha. Fighters and mecha can stack together more points of units than the die roll of the target die in flanking attacks. Attrition Units: Attrition units suffer casualties when participating in attacks. Attrition units roll their dice and divide by 3 (round down) and eliminate that many enemy attrition dice involved in the attack. Non-attrition units involved in the attack roll their dice and divide by 4 (round down) and eliminate that many enemy attrition dice involved in the attack. Reaction Units: If these units have not already acted this turn, reaction units may be sent in as reinforcements by the defender to bolster a particular battle for his side. Or he may opt to pass. Either way, after this, the attacker is free to send in any reaction units of his to the fight that have not acted to compensate. Or he too may pass. This continues until both players have passed. Then all reaction and attrition units roll their dice and resolve casualties. The survivors add their points to their respective side and if the attacker's total is greater than the defender's then the target die is removed from play; otherwise it is not. Escort Units: Escorts can either attack or defend in a turn. Either counts as an action, and they cannot act twice in a turn. In defense, if your opponent manages to take one of your dice, you can choose to have one or more escorts take that die's place, but only if their total is greater than or equal to the difference between your opponent's die and the die she is trying to take. Example: Your opponent uses a d12 to take your d10. The d12 reads "11", and your d10 reads "8." Her d12 beats your d10 by 3 points. HOWEVER, you notice you have an escort in play. The escort shows 3. You can choose to sacrifice the escort to your opponent instead, and keep your d10 in play. Now lets change that situation... This time, she again has 11 on her d12 and you again have 8 on your d10, but none of your escorts show 3 or higher. But you do have 2 escorts in play, with the numbers 1 and 2. You can sacrifice these two escorts (because their total equals 3 or higher) and keep your d10. Carriers: Carriers are used to deploy fighters, gunboats and mecha. Carriers also gain Carrier Actions depending on size. Carrier Type: Can deploy X D4 units: # of Carrier Actions: D6 CVE 2 1 Certain non-carriers can deploy a limited number of small craft as seen below: Non-Carrier: Can deploy X D4 units: # of Carrier Actions: D6 DD (or smaller) 0 0 Carriers cannot attack and thus their attack strength is always considered zero. They roll as normally to provide a defense number. Non-carriers utilizing Carrier Actions forfeit their attack that turn if they use a Carrier Action. Non-carriers forfeit their Carrier Actions if they use an attack that turn. Carrier Actions: Repair Attrition: Roll carrier die, if even, the loss of an attrition unit in combat is prevented. Rally: The friendly attrition unit of your choice re-rolls its die. Disperse: Friendly D4 attrition unit is dispersed into 4 D1 Attrition units. Coordinate: Grants a friendly attrition unit +1 offense for a turn. Stations: Stations can both attack and use carrier actions without penalty. Only the strategic defender may have 1 station (barring a special scenario) and he may only have 1 (again, barring a special scenario). Stations cannot participate in flanking attacks although they may be the target of flanking attacks. Stations gain +3 attack, +3 defense, +5 defense against flanking attacks. Stations have D/2 (round down) control channels. Stations may make use of decoys. Stations gain the carrier capacity and carrier actions of a carrier of their die. Control Channels: Starships have limited communications and scanner resources; these are represented by control channels. A ship has only D/2 control channels. These channels are used to control drones and decoys or such and/or coordinate close support with mecha squadrons. A single die may conduct a supported direct assault by attacking with drone, decoy or mecha support with only the units that fit into its control channel allotment. Damage incurred in such a supported direct assault may be scored off of accompanying drones, decoys and mecha first. Command Points (optional): At the beginning of each turn, each player rolls a D6 and gains that many Command Points. You may use a Command Point at the beginning of a Phase to reroll a single friendly die. You may expend all of your Command Points to force a single enemy die to reroll (in which case, that player may not use Command Points to reroll.) Terrain Types: Asteroid Field: +3 defense for all units. Attrition units gain +2 attack vs. non-attrition units. Ancient Minefield: Every turn, during their phase, each player gains 5 D1 Basic Space Mines to use against their opponent. |
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