Play testing Ghost Legions

Christmas has been extremely busy and I’ve had little to no time to get to the desk, however I have managed a lot of theorising and some play testing.

It’s all very much in the early stages, but I’m figuring out a solid core system for expansion:

SETUP

The game is played on a 60x60cm board. There should be a roughly even spread of terrain, across the board: hills, rocks, trees, ruins etc.  Players roll off and the higher roller picks a side and then places all of their units within 10cms of that side. Their opponent then takes the opposite side and places all of their units within 10cms.

D3 objectives are placed on the board. If there is only one objective, the objective is placed in the centre. If there are two objectives each player places one objective each anywhere on the board that is at least 10cms from an edge and another objective. If there are three objectives one is placed in the centre, and the other two are placed in the same way as there being only two objectives.

WINNING

To win the battle you must be the first to score 6 points. 

You score 1 point for destroying an enemy unit, or having an enemy unit rout.

You also score 1 point for having a unit within 8cms of an objective and no enemy units within 8cms of the same objective at the end of a round.

UNITS

Figures should be organised into units. A unit is 3-10 infantry or cavalry figures, or a single vehicle or single gun/cannon/trebuchet (referred to as Guns from now on). A figure in a unit should stay within 1cm of at least one other member of their unit, and 1cm away from other units. Guns will have crew figures, but for the purposes of the rules they are purely decorative, measure all ranges and attacks to and from the gun itself.

ROUNDS

The game is played in rounds and during each round players take turns activating one of their units. Roll off at the start of each round and the higher roller goes first. When one player has run out of units to activate their opponent can activate all of their remaining units.

Once all units have been activated each unit with hits over 6 remaining will make saving throws to reduce its hits down to 6 (see resolving hits), and then the round ends and a new round begins.

ACTIVATING A UNIT

On your turn, select one of your units that has not yet been activated this round and roll a D6. The result rolled is the number of AP (actions points) your unit gets.

If the unit is half or below half it’s starting strength on a roll of 1 the unit routs, remove them from play.

Before carrying out any other actions, if your unit has hits on them, those hits must be resolved.

RESOLVING HITS 

For 1AP you can remove 1 hit from your unit. Any hits not removed in this way causes a saving throw. Each failed save results in a casualty and removes a hit. Each successful save removes a hit. Vehicles and guns have damage points and so are able to fail multiple saves before being removed, mark how many failed saves a vehicle or gun has so you know when it is destroyed.

MOVEMENT

For 1AP the unit can move 2cms. If the unit is cavalry or a vehicle for 1AP the unit can move 4cms. If the unit doesn’t shoot any enemies this activation they can move 1 additional cm per AP. Guns cannot move.

SHOOTING

If the unit is armed with ranged weapons it can shoot for a number of AP. Select a target unit the shooting unit can see, and then calculate your unit’s Fire Power (FP) using the table below. For the sake of simplicity a unit cannot split fire.

The table below lists a weapon, followed by its range in cms, followed by its FP against Infantry, Cavalry and Unarmoured vehicles, a slash, followed by it’s FP against Armoured vehicles.

Rifle – 30, 1/0

Musket, Bow, Sling – 15, 1/0

SMG, Shotgun, Blunderbuss – 15, 2/0

Flamethrower – 10, 5/5

Machine Gun – 45, 5/0

Pistol or Thrown Weapon – 10, 1/0

Bazooka, PIAT, Panzershreck, Panzerfaust – 15, 1/5

Mortar, Catapult – 60, D6/D3

Cannon, Ballista – 60, 3/3

Heavy Machine Gun – 60, 8/0

Heavy Cannon – 60, 5/5

Then average the FP generated with the AP spent to determine the number of dice rolled to hit (round up halves). For example:

A unit with 10 Muskets 10cms from their target (10FP) spends 3AP to shoot. (10+3)=13. 13/2=6.5. 7 dice are rolled.

The value needed to score a hit on the enemy unit is based on their cover:

3+ if in the open.

4+ if half or more of the target unit is in soft cover (bushes, trees, wooden structures etc).

5+ if half or more of the target unit is in hard cover (stone, thick metal, trenches etc.), or you are shooting through a friendly unit.

Place a die on the target unit showing the number of hits scored. If the target unit has hits on them already add the totals together.

MELEE

The unit must be in base contact with their target unit to fight them. You can only ever have 2 units involved in a melee. Calculate the Melee Power (MP) of both units:

1MP per fighter.

A fighter is worth additional MP if any of the following apply:

One single handed melee weapon +1 (includes rifles/ muskets with bayonets attached, pistols and thrown weapons)

Two single handed melee weapons, or single two handed melee weapon +2

Armoured infantry or cavalry +1

Shield +1

Cavalry +1

A vehicle or gun has whatever MP it is designated, usually between 5 and 10 for a vehicle, and 1 to 5 for a gun.

The side with the higher MP rolls 2 attack dice per figure (or 6 if it is a vehicle or gun).

The side with the lower MP rolls 1 attack die per figure (or 3 if it is a vehicle or gun).

Each side scores hits on a 4,5 or 6. The side that initiated the melee also scores hits on 3s.

The side that has the most hits after the melee falls back from the enemy unit 8cms and counts as having activated if it hasn’t already this round. In the case of a tie the side with the higher MP wins.

If a unit falls back and ends off of the board it is destroyed.

I’m working on scenarios, a points system to balance what I have, as well as how to expand the rules beyond the core above. Any ideas or rules queries, let me know in the comments.