CT Only: Striker and Range Bands

[Supplement Four]

Could you see Striker being played without a map, using Range Bands instead?

How would you go about it? How would the Ref keep track of the various units?

I'm thinking the answer might be a rough sketch of the terrain, pencil marks for units, for the Ref's eyes only, and he estimates range bands, reporting that to the players.

All the action takes place in the player's minds. No plotting.

The Ref may need to make quick notes on his rough sketch map to keep his descriptions consistent.

Since Striker is all about command and troops following orders, it might be neat to play the game this way where all the players (who are playing the commanders) see is what is immediately around them and what is reported back via communications (Ref description of the NPC report).

Thoughts?

 

[Vladika]

Like it. Covers "Fog of War" in an abstract way which is simple and a good idea.

 

[aramis]

Could you see Striker being played without a map, using Range Bands instead?

How would you go about it? How would the Ref keep track of the various units?

I'm thinking the answer might be a rough sketch of the terrain, pencil marks for units, for the Ref's eyes only, and he estimates range bands, reporting that to the players.

All the action takes place in the player's minds. No plotting.

The Ref may need to make quick notes on his rough sketch map to keep his descriptions consistent.

Since Striker is all about command and troops following orders, it might be neat to play the game this way where all the players (who are playing the commanders) see is what is immediately around them and what is reported back via communications (Ref description of the NPC report).

Thoughts?

Note that Striker is a 30-second turn, vs CT's 15 seconds (TTB 33), so...

If one uses striker rounds, one of

• use 50m base range band and normal movement...
• Use CT 25m range bands and speed x2
• Use a 10m range band and speed x5 bands (for better fit to the ranges - bands = cm)

If using CT rounds (as I did)...

• Standard 25m bands and normal move
• 10m bands and 2.5x speed (I'd round up. Again, tighter fit to weapons ranges)

I've done this, by the way, in play, on the fly.

 

[Supplement Four]

I've done this, by the way, in play, on the fly.

It played well, I take it? My concern is all the things the Ref must track. You might have, say, three groups of troops in the classic three-pronged attack, where the central group keeps the enemy at bay and the two others move in from the flanks to decimate the enemy.

Did you find this hard to follow without having a map and markers to refer to, in front of you, on the table?

 

[aramis]

I always used paper and pencil to track locations.

I've done it two ways...

Method 1 is pick some starting point. All distances are linear from that. Player advances, his movement is measured by how far he is from it. If the issue is a chase or simple street fight, 0 is where the PC's started. If it's a race to some goal, the goal is 0.

Method 2 is to put the range bands down as a grid (either 1d or 2d), and mark the positions with pencil (or overhead pen, if it's laminated or page protectored), and erase and rewrite after movement.

Method 2A is to make chits. We'd use Car Wars counters from time to time. Front Driver side corner was the indication of where the vehicle was. I hate wide rule paper, except for doing this...

(As an aside, if you find a source for Narrow Rule or Fine Rule filler paper, let me know by PM. I find even college rule too wide for my normal uses. I could print it, but it isn't the same.)

 

[Supplement Four]

Yeah, I was afraid of that. It seems to me that any combat bigger than a few PCs and some enemies is hard to track. With Striker, you can have groups of units never around the PCs, so you've got to track each of those groups.

General eyeballing, range bands, notes on a sketch might be the way to go.

Or, maybe Book 4 Mass Combat is better suited to this.

 

[GypsyComet]

Striker is designed as a tabletop game for miniatures. Stripping that element out by abstracting ranges returns it to pure RPG territory, which is really missing the point of Striker. You are basically incorporating elements of Striker back into Traveller RPG. That's fine, but call it what it is.

 

[Supplement Four]

Striker is designed as a tabletop game for miniatures. Stripping that element out by abstracting ranges returns it to pure RPG territory, which is really missing the point of Striker. You are basically incorporating elements of Striker back into Traveller RPG. That's fine, but call it what it is.

I have no problem calling it as you say.

 

[aramis]

Yeah, I was afraid of that. It seems to me that any combat bigger than a few PCs and some enemies is hard to track. With Striker, you can have groups of units never around the PCs, so you've got to track each of those groups.

General eyeballing, range bands, notes on a sketch might be the way to go.

Or, maybe Book 4 Mass Combat is better suited to this.

Bk4's mass combat is poorly suited to anything but "we're the paper-pushers of the unit. How badly did we lose money?"

If you use 25m grids, striker can instead be a counter and (pick: Hex or Square) grid map wargame easily enough.

Dropping the command and control rules make it far more playable, but far less realistic.

Using 10m bands and otherwise CT rules, it is a very practical replacement for Bk1 and bk4 personal combat.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Please forgive me.

So, since I never did the GDW boardgames I think this means I missed Striker as well. Any chance someone here might like chance to pontificate for a willing noob? I gather it has a different range and timing as is for mins, but what is the big deal about it?

Mostly just curious. Mayday too, since it seems to get good press. If not also cool.

 

[aramis]

So, since I never did the GDW boardgames I think this means I missed Striker as well. Any chance someone here might like chance to pontificate for a willing noob? I gather it has a different range and timing as is for mins, but what is the big deal about it?

Mostly just curious. Mayday too, since it seems to get good press. If not also cool.

If you're a fan of CT bks 1-3 as is, the games to buy are Snapshot and Mayday.

If you want to expand out from Bks 1-8, and be able to handle weapons a little more realistically, AHL, Striker, and Mayday are your "Go To" games.

Striker:
to hit: 2d6+skill vs 8+/10+/12+ (by range - eff/long/ext)
to penetrate and wound: 2d6 +Pen –AV for 4+ (4-7 LW, 8-11 SW, 12+ death)
(This is the same as for AHL) It is thus possible to hit but not injure... but it's rare unless armor is involved. Note that claws are Pen 2... if an Aslan or Vargr hits unarmed against an unarmored foe, they WILL wound them.

Command rules put the Player in the role of the CO, rather than "every officer at once" as is normal. Also, adds a LOT of complexity.

Vehicle and heavy weapon design sequences make for good vehicle design rules for CT.

Scale is 1 cm=10m, 1 turn = 30 sec.

Wider variety of small arms than CT+Bk4.
Less variety of ammo.

Mayday
Essentially, Bk2 ship combat adapted to hex-grid.
Mind you, they rescaled the time and hex size, and thus gave weapons stupidly long ranges.
Has a precursor to SS3.
has no ship design.
Makes one valuable rules addition: gives a rule for breaking up. (Not a good one, but that it has one points the way to houseruling it to be worthwhile.)
Uses Bk2 ships as is.
Scale says "about 100 minutes" - distance is 300,000km. This gives a time of about 129 minutes per turn using 1G=10m/s²

Snapshot
Essentially, Bk 1 combat on a 1.5m square grid.
The action point system means that Joe Average has 14 AP; he can perform a run of 15 squares (22.5m) and a snapshot (at -2 penalty) a run of 9 squares (13.5m) and an aimed shot, a run of 3 squares and two aimed shots, or no movement, and an aimed shot and two snapshots. or a variety of other combinations.

Azhanti High Lightning
Striker combat on a square grid with action points.
Very playable.
No command/control rules.
No design rules.
Does have maps of, and a book on, the lightning class cruisers.

 

[Supplement Four]

So, since I never did the GDW boardgames I think this means I missed Striker as well. Any chance someone here might like chance to pontificate for a willing noob? I gather it has a different range and timing as is for mins, but what is the big deal about it?

Mostly just curious. Mayday too, since it seems to get good press. If not also cool.

Snapshot is Book 1 Combat plus action points. This allows the CT Ref to play personal combat free form, as described in Book 1, or to play just about the exact same system but use action points each turn.

Action points were popular with games back then. FASA's Star Trek used them. Each character gets X amount of points during a round. It takes X amount of points to move, move diagonally, shoot, move through a doorway...etc. When you're done spending points, your character is done that round.

Azhanti High Lightning is an Action point based combat system similiar to Snapshot. Where Snapshot is geared towards running personal combat for the rpg (or as a tactical war game by itself), AHL is tactical combat system better suited to playing battles with more combatants.

Striker is designed to be used with minatures, and it's focus is communication and command. The player plays the commander but does not directly move all pieces. The player, as commander, gives commands that the commander's troops may or may not follow, depending on battlefield conditions.

Where Striker is designed for outdoor encounters, I've seen Refs naturally use AHL for interior comflicts--as when a farm house is swept in a Striker game. The game switches to AHL while in doors, then back to Striker while outdoors.

Mayday is a space combat game designed to accomodate large captial ships as well as Adventure class ships. The game is hex based, and is an alternative to space combat other than Book 2, Starter Traveller, or Book 5.

There are articles in JTAS for combining Mayday with Book 5 space combat.

 

[Supplement Four]

Hmm... Back in 2007, same thought by a different forum member.

Range Band Striker

 

[aramis]

Hmm... Back in 2007, same thought by a different forum member.

Range Band Striker

And you active in the discussion...

 

[Supplement Four]

And you active in the discussion...

Hell, I can't remember what I said yesterday, much less nearly seven years ago.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Thanks.

Thank you, gentlemen for your responses. Looks like I might want to look at these games after all.

Appreciate the time and answers. Again, thank you.