SUPER SIMPLE SKIRMISH RULES REVISITED AND The Clockwork Empire vs The Family

In the interest of spending less money on this hobby, I often find myself returning to old projects. This week I looked back at my Monochrome minis and the Super Simple Skirmish game, to see if I could simplify it further and add even more strategic depth. I think I’ve managed that.

WARBANDS, FIGHTERS AND STATS

Players gather a warband each, each warband is made up of a number of figures, each figure is referred to as a fighter.

Fighters have a class and one stat: Might.

An example stat line is as follows:

	Class	Might
Hunter	Soldier	10

There are 10 available classes

Common Classes – Soldier, Warrior, Beast, Drone.

Special Classes – Gunner, Berserker, Sniper, Gunslinger.

Rare Classes – Monster, Mech.

THE GAME BOARD AND DEPLOYMENT

Games are played on a 24”x24” board. Deployment zones are 6” when playing side to side, and 11” corner to corner (measured from the corner in a quarter circle).

Before the game begins roll a die to randomly determine deployment zones: 1-3 side to side, 4-6 Corner to Corner.

Five shrines are then placed, these are locations used to generate Fate and Command (see below). Place a single Shrine in the centre of the playing area. Player’s then place two shrines each anywhere on the board.

Both players then roll a die, the higher roller can choose which of the deployment zones they would like, they then place all of their fighters in their deployment zone. The opposing player then places all of their fighters in the opposite deployment zone. The player that placed their fighters first takes the first turn in the game.

FATE AND COMMAND

Before the game begins each player is given a number of tokens equal to the number of fighters in their warband. Those tokens are split between ‘Fate’ tokens which can be used during the game to modify or reroll dice rolls, and ‘Command’ token which can be used to have fighters perform a second action in a turn. The second action can never be the same as the first action.

A player can only spend fate tokens on their own die rolls and each roll can only be rerolled and/or modified once.

A rerolled result stands even if it is worse than the original roll. When rerolling all dice must be rerolled, you cannot only reroll one die.

When modifying you can spend one Fate token to change the result rolled by 1.

The split of fate and command is determined by each player. So a player beginning with 8 tokens could pick 4 Fate and 4 Command, or 2 Fate and 6 Command etc.

THE GAME

Players take turns. Each of a player’s turns breaks down into three phases – Restock, Activations and Morale. The phases always happen in that order. Only the player whose turn it is can activate fighters during their turn.

During a your Activations phase you can activate each of your fighters and have them perform one action. A fighter can either move, shoot or make a melee attack. Warriors, Beasts, Berserkers, Gunslingers and Monsters can charge, meaning they make a normal move and if they make it into base to base contact with an enemy can also make a melee attack in the same action.

RESTOCK

The player whose turn it is gains 1 Fate or Command token for each fighter they have within 3” of a shrine.

MOVEMENT

Each of your fighters can move up to 2D6” roll for each fighter individually. Beasts and Drones can move up to 3D6”. Fighters cannot move through enemy fighters and should use terrain in a way that makes sense.

RESOLVING ATTACKS

There are two types of attack: melee and ranged. If a fighter is in base to base contact with an enemy or enemies then they must make a melee attack against that enemy or one of those enemies. If a fighter is not in base to base contact with an enemy then they can select any enemy that they can at least partially see and make a ranged attack against them if possible.

All fighters can make melee attacks, only Soldiers, Drones, Gunners, Snipers, Gunslingers, Monsters and Mechs can make ranged attacks.

To hit their target the fighter must pass an attack check, using their Might stat. Compare the attacker’s Might stat to the target’s Might and roll 3D6 on the table below:

If the Attacker’s Might is equal to a quarter of their target’s or less: Kill -18, Stun -16

If the Attackers Might is equal to half of their target’s or less: Kill -17, Stun -15

If the Attacker’s Might is less than their target’s: Kill -16, Stun -14

If the Attacker’s Might is equal to their target’s: Kill -15, Stun -13

If the Attacker’s Might is larger than their target’s: Kill -14, Stun -12

If the Attacker’s Might is double or larger than double: Kill -13, Stun -11

If the Attacker’s Might is quadruple or larger: Kill -12, Stun -10

When making ranged attacks Snipers roll 4D6 and discard the lowest result rolled. When making melee attacks Berserkers and Monsters roll 4D6 and discard the lowest result rolled.

For the attack to be successful you must roll equal to or higer than either of the two numbers listed on the table.

IF the first number is achieved – The target is dead. Immediately remove them from play.

If the second number is achieved – The target is marked with a stunned counter. If the figure already has a stunned counter then they are killed as above. A figure marked with a stunned counter cannot move or attack within their controlling players turn and their Might is halved until the counter is removed.

Mechs and Gunners can opt to attack each other fighter within 2” of their initial target. If they do so they must attack all fighters within 2” of their initial target even if they are friendly fighters.

At the end of the Activations phase any of your fighters that are still in base to base contact with enemy fighters move away 1” also any of your fighters than have stunned counters have those counters removed.

COVER

If the target of an attack was not completely visible to the attacking fighter after the attack is rolled for they are allowed to make a saving throw before any effects are applied. Roll a single D6, if the result is a 4 or higher the attack fails.

DEFENDING

Warriors, Berserkers, Monsters and Mechs can defend as an action. In this case the fighter does not move or attack but their Might is doubled until the start of their controlling players next.

MORALE

During the morale phase if you killed any of your opponents fighters this turn then they must make a morale check:

Roll a D6 and multiply it by the number of figures that they lost this turn.

Roll another D6 and multiply the result by the number of figures they still have in play.

If the result for killed figures is higher that side immediately loses the game. If the result for figures still in play is equal or higher then they pass the test and the game continues.

If the player who failed the morale check has a minimum of 3 fate tokens left and discards all of their fate tokens they count as having passed the morale check.

After the morale phase it is the other players turn. Players alternate taking turns until both players have had 6 turns each then the game ends. If the game lasts till the end of the 6^th turn the player that killed the most total points of enemy fighters wins.

POINTS CALCULATOR

The cost of a fighter is equal to their might value. A standard game is 100 points and you can have a maximum of 16 fighters. Additionally at least half of your total number of fighters must be made up of basic classes (Soldiers, Warriors, Beasts, Drones) and you can have a maximum of 2 fighters with a rare class (Monsters, Mechs).

So on to a short Battle Report…

The Clockwork Empire consisted of:

A Lieutenant – Berserker Class, 20 Might

Four Musketeers – Soldier Class, 10 Might

Two Grenadiers – Gunslinger Class, 20 Might.

100 Might total.

The Family consisted of:

A Momma – Gunslinger Class, 25 Might

A Daddy – Monster Class, 25 Might

Two Uncles – Berserker Class, 13 Might

A Brother and A Sister – Warrior Class, 7 Might

A Kid – Warrior Class, 5 Might

A Bad Dog – Beast Class, 5 Might.

100 Might total.7

The Clockwork Empire spy the shapes of the dead shuffling through the mist…

The Family takes the first turn and begin with 4 Fate and 4 Command. Momma wants to run to the centre and rolls a 3 and so must spend a Fate to do so, this time she rolls an 8 and makes it. Then she wants to shoot so a command is spent to have her perform a second action, she targets a simple Musketeer and fails to damage, reroll a with Fate and fails again. Everyone else shifts forwards. The Family only have 2 Fate and 3 Command left.

First turn for the Clockwork Empire and only starting with 7 fighters meant they could only muster 4 Fate and 3 Command. Their first action however was fruitful. A Grenadier broke from the firing line and move to a nearby fence that obscured his view from the advancing undead. Spending a Command allowed him to shoot, rolling poorly initially was quickly corrected by spending a Fate and he killed the Uncle outright by rolling a 14.

The second Grenadier on the right flank turned his attention to an approaching Kid. Rolling high he also killed the Kid.

Unbelievably then a Musketeer activated and fired at Momma needing a 17 to kill or a 15 to stun. To stun or better is a round a 9% chance, to Kill is a 2%. He rolled a 16, which adjusted using Fate came to a 17. Momma had cover though, but rolled a 3, and so was killed. The chances of killing Momma outright when she had cover even adjusting with Fate was 2%. Madness! I love it!

The rest of the Empire’s turn was uneventful, they fired, mostly missed and held the line.

The Family’s next turn was somewhat successful. The Daddy hit the Empire’s firing line and eviscerated the Musketeer that killed Momma. The Bad Dog also made it into the line but did nothing. The remaining Uncle advanced but failed to make contact. The Brother and Sister hung out at the back holding shrines.

The Family ended their turn by having the Daddy, the Uncle and the Brother use Command to defend. Doubling their Might values until their next turn.

The Empire began their third turn by having the Lieutenant charge the Daddy and luckily stunning him. A musketeer fired and killed the Bad Dog. Low on Fate and Command the Clockwork Empire broke their line and moved outwards, going after shrines.

With the Daddy stunned and the Brother and Sister shrine holding, the Family were in a tight spot. Beginning the turn with 2 Fate and 2 Command and only really an Uncle to use they did the obvious thing and charged a Musketeer in the back.

With a the Uncle being a berserker, a Fate reroll on the attack and an adjustment on the reroll they managed to kill the poor musketeer.

The Empire began turn 4 with a musketeer stunning the Sister by the shrine.

The Grenadier fired and killed the Uncle by rolling a 17!

A second musketeer fired and finished the sister off. The Lieutenant charged and stunned Daddy,

With only the brother to act with the family had him run to cover in the centre of the board.

Turn 5 for the Empire began with the Lieutenant charging the Daddy and cutting him down by rolling a 16. A grenadier repositioned and using the last point you f command shot and killed the final Brother.

A decisive victory for the Clockwork Empire. They did have some incredible rolls though, the dice were definitely on their side.

I had a lot of fun playing this game and the rules were crunchy enough that I had a good few tough decisions to make too. Upon reflection I need to add more ranged fighters to my Family force, having melee units hold objectives isn’t great, especially if your enemy can sit back and shoot you. I look forward to playing more and scouring Irregular’s website for additional warband ideas. I think I’ll be needing some Raymen.