My Own Version of Battle Part 2

In part 1, I laid out the basics of tank combat.  Part 2 will deal with infantry combat.

Infantry should be a bit easier to define.  There is no armor to worry about.  There is, however, terrain, and machine guns, and bazookas, and flame throwers and….well it may be more difficult than what meets the eye.

Before we start, we should probably define what ranges are.  Like Mr. Grant, I think a 10″ scale works well.  unlike him, I want to define 1″ as about 50 yards as he had 3″ as 100 yards or 33 yards per inch.  With respect to tank combat, 2″ is point blank.  10″ is short range. 20″ is medium range.  30″ is long range.  Finally, 40″ is extreme range.  For infantry combat, you can safely say that 10″ is long  range.  Perhaps 5″ short range and 2″ is close assault range.

The original Battle had hit numbers defined by range and cover type.  It works fine but I prefer the hit and save method of Don Featherstone and Tony Bath.  Close assault hits on a 4+.  Short range hits on a 5+.  Long range hits on a 6.  Normally, there will be a save for each hit.  A normal save is a 5+ in the open.  A figure is assumed to be taking advantage cover in the open if it moves a normal move or less, say 3″.  The figure will gain +1 on the save.  Figures that “double time” (6″ move) in the open only save on a 5+.  A figure in light cover (woods, wooden buildings etc) save on a 4+.  3+ if the figure is in heavy cover (entrenched, stone building, bunker etc).   The slow move bonus does not apply here.

Machine guns come in two varieties, light and heavy.  Light machine guns  are those heavy automatic weapons typically mounted on bi-pods.  Instead of throwing 1 die, the light machine gun gets 3 dice.  Heavy machine guns get 5 dice and can hit out to 20″ but any attack over 10″ is only with 2 dice.  Flame throwers shoot out to 3″ and hit anything within a cone that terminates 1″ wide.  Saving throws do apply.  Targets in cover against flame attacks only get a save of 5+, and targets in the open do not get a cover bonus for moving slowly.   Personal AT weapons have a relatively short range.  PIATs and Panzerfausts have a range of just 3″ and hit on a 4+.  Bazookas and Anti-tank Rifles have a 5″ range and also hit on a 4+.  Strike values will vary of course.  Anti-tank rifles stike values will be relatively low, perhaps 2 or 3 while the shape charge weapons strike value will be 7 or more depending on the weapon.  I’ll have to do research on that.