Melt28

I’ve been ruminating on something over the past few weeks, a little project I’m calling ‘Melt28’.

The goal of Melt28 is simple really, fast paced and bloody firefights with a little bit of tactical nuance, and using that bad bag of army men and crap you’ll find in your local discount shop. The sorts of dodgy looking army men that tend not to make it into my Deathzap project, and the very landfillable tat you inevitably end up with buckets of.

I’m also thinking of getting Mordheim-y, or Necromunda-y, by chucking in campaign mechanics, upgrades, downgrades, skills and flaws, for your little squad of Plastic Freaks.

I’m also hoping to make something that pretty much anyone and everyone who wants to wargame should find accessible. Cheap minis, minimal set up, straightforward rules, easy painting. To that end I’ve gone for my former ‘Grimcandy’ style on my two squads.

I’ve covered them in texture goop, that’s wall filler and no more nails combined, then primed them black, and drybrushed/overbrushed everything else. I’m looking forward to doing the same to some bad terrain bits.

I’m currently working on adapting The Simple Toy Soldier Game for this, with a couple of important changes to make things more bloody.

Things are a little rough right now, but you should get an idea:

MELT28

Each figures stats are rolled for:

Skill – D3+2

Initiative – D3-2

Armour – D3+1

A squad/warband/gang is 5-8 figures one of which is a ‘heavy’. The ‘heavy’ is the guy with the biggest gun.

Players roll off to determine who has the first activation during a turn. During a players activation they can activate one figure. When a figure activates they get a number of action points (AP) equal to a D6 roll + their initiative stat.

For 1AP the figure can move 1 inch, or 2 inches if it doesn’t spend any AP on shooting this activation.

The figure can also fire at an enemy figure. For 1AP a figure can roll a single shooting die. A Heavy rolls 2 shooting dice per AP spent.

A hit is scored on a roll that is equal to or higher than the skill of the shooter if the target is in the soft cover. -1 to each die rolled if the target is in hard cover and +1 if the target is in the open. A -1 is also applied to the dice if the shooter splits their fire within a single activation between multiple targets. A roll of 6 always hits.

Each hit puts a point of danger on the target.

Then a save is rolled for the target. Compare the amount of danger on the target to the target’s armour value.

If the target’s armour is double or more than double the danger then they save on a 2+.

If the target’s armour is larger but not double then they save on a 3+.

If the target’s armour is equal to the danger then they save on a 4+.

If the target’s armour is less than, but more than half, then they save on a 5+

And if the target’s armour is half or less than half of the total danger on them then they save on a 6+.

If the save is passed, then the target carries on as normal. If the save is failed then the target is KO’d.

If a figure moves into melee combat with another it immediately fights it in melee. Roll a die for each figure, reducing each figure’s roll by their current amount of danger. The figure that scores highest KOs their opponent, and in the case of a draw the figure that initiated the combat wins. If the figure currently activating survives the combat any remaining AP it had are spent and its activation ends.

A figure can also spend 1AP to cancel 1 point of danger on themselves. 

A figure can also pass, meaning spend all of its remaining AP without doing anything. You cannot retain any AP, it must all be spent before moving on.

Once a figure has spent all of their AP their activation is over, mark them with a counter. That figure cannot be activated again until the next turn.

Once all figures have been activated the game turn is over. Remove all activation tokens from all the figures, but leave any danger, and roll off to see who has the first activation in the next turn. If the sides in a game are uneven, and one player has run out of figures to activate the other player is allowed to activate all of their remaining figures consecutively, until all figures in play have been activated once each.

If a side takes casualties (KOs) during a turn at the end of that turn roll a die and multiply the result by the number of figures on that side still in play, then roll another die and multiply the result by the number of figures KO’d during the turn. If the result for KO’d figures exceeds the result for remaining figures that side routs and the game ends.

I think I’ll need to figure out some simple rules to differentiate weapons – Assault Rifles, Semi-Auto Rifles, SMGs, Machine Pistols, Shotguns, MGs, Bazookas, Flamethrowers… and figuring out how the classic grenade throwing guy fits in.