Striker

[Dagrill]

Here you go (the engine works fine, see the rules in CT Striker Book 2 page 20 "Air Breathing Engines"):

I've created a thread in the COTI File Library - Misc folder for Striker designs. There is a TL8 light tank as well as this TL7 APC. THe APC is pretty simple, although it does have an intake compressor for the powerplant so it can operate on very thin atmosphere worlds. It only costs Cr 46,697. Just note, the five ammo is actually five 100-round belts for the HMG.

Thank you, exactly what I needed. I have been concentrating on book 1, apart from looking for rules on Aslan and explosives, so missed the .

Would I be able to impose and request a TL9/11 grav vehicle for Aslan Ihatei,
the one in book 3 seems a bit large to me, with a suitable gun as well.

Thanks again

David

 

[tbeard1999]

Hi,

Doesn't combining penetration & damage speed up play?

Kind Regards

David

Yes it does. However, it makes high penetration weapons unreasonably lethal against lightly armored targets. Against an unarmored man, an ACR discarding sabot round shouldn't be more lethal than a .30-06 rifle round. However, the DS round should be far more able to penetrate body armor. Conflating penetration and damage can model one of these conditions, but not both.

For a wargame, it probably isn't such a big deal. But for an RPG, it matters a lot. You either have to have PCs wear armor all the time, or have them pretty much automatically killed when hit by lasers, ACR DS rounds, etc.

 

[Dagrill]

Yes it does. However, it makes high penetration weapons unreasonably lethal against lightly armored targets. Against an unarmored man, an ACR discarding sabot round shouldn't be more lethal than a .30-06 rifle round. However, the DS round should be far more able to penetrate body armor. Conflating penetration and damage can model one of these conditions, but not both.

For a wargame, it probably isn't such a big deal. But for an RPG, it matters a lot. You either have to have PCs wear armor all the time, or have them pretty much automatically killed when hit by lasers, ACR DS rounds, etc.

Thanks I was going to give the TL7 Human Militia Flak Jackets with the high initiative player Cloth and for the Aslan Ihatei I was going with Combat Environ suits for the rank and file and TL11 Combat Armour for the 2 leaders,
ACR's for the Aslan and Assault Rifles for the Humans. For Support I was going to give the Aslan 2 TL9 RAM GL's and 2 TL6 LMG for the Humans.

Based on your experience would this produce a fair fight?

Regards

David

 

[tbeard1999]

Thanks I was going to give the TL7 Human Militia Flak Jackets with the high initiative player Cloth and for the Aslan Ihatei I was going with Combat Environ suits for the rank and file and TL11 Combat Armour for the 2 leaders,
ACR's for the Aslan and Assault Rifles for the Humans. For Support I was going to give the Aslan 2 TL9 RAM GL's and 2 TL6 LMG for the Humans.

Based on your experience would this produce a fair fight?

Regards

David

The humans would need significantly greater numbers, I'd think. At effective (300m for the assault rifle) range, their assault rifles have a penetration of 2 vs 6 armor for combat environment suits. They'd need a penetration roll of 12 to cause a serious wound, or 1 in 36 chance. At close range, the odds improve very slightly (1 in 12).

By contrast, the Aslan, firing ACR-DS at the same 300m range would hit more often (300m is within the ACR-DS short range) and would cause at least a serious wound 56% of the time. (Pen 6 vs armor 5; needs a 7+ to cause serious wound; 3+ to cause a light wound).

The humans are going to be badly outmatched on hardware in this fight. You could even it up considerably by giving the humans ACRs as well. Otherwise, the fight will look more like Zulu Dawn than Vietnam...

One idea might be to give the humans ACRs, but a limited supply of DS ammo. This could be accomplished without bookkeeping by stating that a natural to hit roll of 4 or less means that the stand must use slug for the rest of the fight. An average stand would get 3-4 shots of DS before running out.

 

[rancke]

I remember a con scenario I played in back in 82 or thereabouts. Our referee was not well versed in the rules and neither were any of us players. So when we came up against a bunch of Aslans armed with snub pistols, they shot us to doll rags. It wasn't until well after the game that I realized that the +8 that the snub pistols had received only applied at short range...


Hans

 

[jec10]

Give each human militia fireteam a TL8 LAG - closest thing to an anti-tank rifle in Traveller when firing KEAP.

I'll draft up an Aslan tank.

 

[tbeard1999]

Give each human militia fireteam a TL8 LAG - closest thing to an anti-tank rifle in Traveller when firing KEAP.

I'll draft up an Aslan tank.

Yep, that would be an interesting solution. I'd probably do that *and* give them ACRs with very limited DS ammo.

 

[jec10]

Here is your Aslan grav tank...
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/attachment.php?attachmentid=1158&d=1392017941

 

[Dagrill]

Yep, that would be an interesting solution. I'd probably do that *and* give them ACRs with very limited DS ammo.

Thanks for the suggestions I'm giving ACR's to the Officers and NCO's and a LAG to every other fire team. I'm working on the principle as they are militia the officers/nco's are the only permanent members and I've doubled the number of recruits to represent one platoon on duty and one off normally, giving 72 humans in one large unit vs. 40 aslan in 2 small ones. I'm anticipating 3 players with the only one that has played striker before running the humans.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions and vehicle designs.

Kind Regards

David

 

[jec10]

I hope it goes well, let us know.

Personally, I think playing your first Striker game with a poor quality force is doing it the hard way. You'll find it really difficult to get the militia to do anything meaningful if they are all Low initiative fireteams.

If the Aslan player is smart they'll concentrate on picking off the human officers/NCOs. After they are gone the rest of the human force will be stuck (literally for the low initiative fireteams).

 

[Dagrill]

Game delayed due to Valentine's, I used the time to change the Humans to
a 42 strong Militia Platoon and a 28 strong TL9 LSP Platoon, each squad had a RAM auto GL. I didn't use vehicles as I was concerned the Grav Tank could fire across the entire table with it's 150 cm range. The humans were dug in around a stone farm house with 2 metal outbuildings and some walled, or fenced enclosures, loosely based on a friend's farm from 1980's Devon, but not as steep.

The Aslan crawled slowly forward at 2.5 cm per turn, firing broke out turn 11, the Aslan return fire caused the bulk of the Militia that survived to flee (apart from the Lt.).

After 4 further rounds of combat the Aslan broke off losing one Lt. & 1 Platoon Sergeant and 9 others mainly to Auto GL fire, the humans lost 25 K&W and as many fled.

I found the LAG's ineffective with the -2 at long range and no to hit bonus, I'm thinking I should have based the leaders with the fire teams rather than independently to make them harder to spot. You were right about the Militia,
I'm glad I didn't use the whole force as Militia.

Regards

David

 

[ShapeShifter]

"OK, Tiger One, hold on. I'm on my way. Tiger Leader to all Tigers. Code X-ray. Acknowledge, over." You give a codeword you worked out with the squad leaders before moving out, meaning stop the advance and hold in place. (Striker, B1, p. 14)

I'm new to Striker, but is there a nice list of codes ready-made for use? If not, has anyone come up with some which may cover a wide range of significations?

 

[aramis]

I'm new to Striker, but is there a nice list of codes ready-made for use?

Lots of them - none in striker, mind you, but every police agency has its own. Every military has their own. Every Spec Ops Group will have their own, too.

If not, has anyone come up with some which may cover a wide range of significations?

 

[jec10]

You're only allowed 4 codewords, so make them good ones!

I'm not sure why the example given in the book is a codeword to order a halt - because you can do that without a codeword (see page 20). Bit of a waste of a codeword.

An obvious first one is a codeword that tells the recipient(s) to open fire on any spotted enemy.

Another codeword might tell infantry with small arms to only open fire on enemy infantry (i.e. to hold fire if facing AFVs they can't affect). You'd use this if they could remain unobserved by the AFVs if they hold fire.

 

[Dagrill]

Game delayed due to Valentine's, I used the time to change the Humans to
a 42 strong Militia Platoon and a 28 strong TL9 LSP Platoon, each squad had a RAM auto GL. I didn't use vehicles as I was concerned the Grav Tank could fire across the entire table with it's 150 cm range. The humans were dug in around a stone farm house with 2 metal outbuildings and some walled, or fenced enclosures, loosely based on a friend's farm from 1980's Devon, but not as steep.
The Aslan crawled slowly forward at 2.5 cm per turn, firing broke out turn 11, the Aslan return fire caused the bulk of the Militia that survived to flee (apart from the Lt.).
David

Curses! I have just realised I used the wrong scale for fire combat 1mm = 1m not 1cm, so I should have had ranges of 3 to 5 cm not about 30 to 50 cm, this would have affected support fire a whole lot and I think it means my buildings were 10x the size they should have been as well...

Very annoying, will have to try again, but it'll be mid April now,

Regards

David

 

[aramis]

Curses! I have just realised I used the wrong scale for fire combat 1mm = 1m not 1cm, so I should have had ranges of 3 to 5 cm not about 30 to 50 cm, this would have affected support fire a whole lot and I think it means my buildings were 10x the size they should have been as well...

Very annoying, will have to try again, but it'll be mid April now,

Regards

David

Striker is 1mm=1m as it's 1cm=10m. Almost all in game measures are in cm.