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Old 12-14-2015, 05:43 AM   #1
GodBeastX
 
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Default GURPS - Almost-Mass Tactical Combat

Alright,

Thanks to a bunch of my Table-Top crew being X-COM, Mordheim, Valkyria Chronicles (and more) players, we thought it'd be cool to have a campaign where everyone commands a squad as players and has to do tactics that way.

Note, this is NOT Mass Combat. Each player would probably have between 5 to 12 characters.

I'm looking for any information on streamlining things a bit for such a play style. I could just use normal rules, but to make turns a bit faster, thinking of doing some rewrite of a few rules that'll help speed it along.

Maybe use Phases and sequences. Get certain leader skills worked in that normally aren't used too often...

Stuff like that.

So really wondering if anyone has done anything like this or has some cool ideas to add to the play style.
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Old 12-14-2015, 11:52 AM   #2
johndallman
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Default Re: GURPS - Almost-Mass Tactical Combat

Look carefully at the Leadership skill in Basic and the extended Tactics rules in Martial Arts. Those give leaders influence over a fight where the rolls for individual fighters are being treated as average or otherwise simplified.
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Old 12-14-2015, 01:19 PM   #3
Christopher R. Rice
 
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Default Re: GURPS - Almost-Mass Tactical Combat

David Pulver wrote up "Tactical Mass Combat" in Pyramid #3/44: Alternate GURPS II.. If I were you I'd start there. That's what I use when I need to go for large combats, but don't want to break out Mass Combat completely. It works surprisingly well.

That said if you don't like that, the easiest way to know do this sort of thing is to prepare everything you can in advance. So if each PC has five or six characters then they need to know what those characters do. Also, lots and lots of preparated actions "Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie aim. Delta and Echo lay down cover fire." That's really it - lots of prep and you can pull it off pretty easily. One thing I also did was use a single roll for attacks (average skill of all involved) and check the margin. Each point of success means another attack landed beyond the first. So if you have five guys in the squad and all are attacking then you'd need to succeed by 4 or more for all to hit. Do the same for Active Defenses and things should go pretty quickly.
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Old 01-04-2016, 09:39 AM   #4
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Default Re: GURPS - Almost-Mass Tactical Combat

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghostdancer View Post
David Pulver wrote up "Tactical Mass Combat" in Pyramid #3/44: Alternate GURPS II.. If I were you I'd start there. That's what I use when I need to go for large combats, but don't want to break out Mass Combat completely. It works surprisingly well.

That said if you don't like that, the easiest way to know do this sort of thing is to prepare everything you can in advance. So if each PC has five or six characters then they need to know what those characters do. Also, lots and lots of preparated actions "Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie aim. Delta and Echo lay down cover fire." That's really it - lots of prep and you can pull it off pretty easily. One thing I also did was use a single roll for attacks (average skill of all involved) and check the margin. Each point of success means another attack landed beyond the first. So if you have five guys in the squad and all are attacking then you'd need to succeed by 4 or more for all to hit. Do the same for Active Defenses and things should go pretty quickly.
I thought about using margins after the One Man Army rules and GURPS Zombies talked about it. The math doesn't equal up, but it can work.

I dug in the Tactical Pyramid you mentioned, and I was looking to stick with character sheets.

Essentially I was looking for players to command squads like a Mordeheim or an X-COM or similar games. I suppose everyone knowing what they're doing can make things fast enough.
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Old 01-04-2016, 11:20 AM   #5
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Default Re: GURPS - Almost-Mass Tactical Combat

When I did this for a low-tech game, one of the things I did was make "Grunts" and "Heroes".

Grunts, while generally being of a lower-point value, were also limited in maneuvers to a pre-genned list of manuevers(usually around 6-10) they could select from when attacking. I didn't allow grunts to specifically target hit locations, instead their attacks were wither torso hits, or random hit locations.

For example: Swordsmen have the following Manuevers: Lunge(All-Out Attack, Thrust with sword), Thrust(Defensive attack with sword thrust), En Passant(All-out attack with sword swing), Shield Bash(Shield bash), Defend(All-out defense, +2 to block OR Parry), Feint(Obvious), Wrestle(Grapple attack or attempt to break free), Sword Swing(a regular attack) and Shield Rush(Shield slam).

Heroes were able to use any manuever options the player decided.

I also used the same "margin of success" rule that Ghost Dancer uses for multiple attacks and defenders.
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