Reign of Steel Tactics

[Boomerang]

For those of you who have played in or GMed a Reign of Steel campaign: have you planned, used or witnessed any unusual tactics?

[johndallman]

Like most high-tech combat, hiding, stealth and surprise attacks are very important. Humans need to be acutely aware of what robots their weapons can and can't kill.

The most interesting tactic I saw from robots was using "harmless" small flybots as scouts to let a site's controller coordinate attacks. We shot them down.

[Boomerang]

I haven't started GMing my Reign of Steel campaign yet but I have played a short game within the Reign of Steel setting. We started the game as prisoners in a death camp and managed to escape (I forget how exactly). We had limited weapons, only what we could find, so out tactics were pretty basic, stay hidden and take the occasional sniper shot from extreme range then disappear as soon as we were spotted (or preferably bug out before being spotted). I wanted to create elaborate booby traps but we never found enough explosives to try anything really cool. The PCs in my upcoming campaign will be superhuman with access to serious weaponry so I am hoping to see some interesting and unconventional tactics. I am kind of at a loss what to do with the robots other than swarm the PCs with overwhelming numbers and firepower but that will get old real quick.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Boomerang

The PCs in my upcoming campaign will be superhuman with access to serious weaponry so I am hoping to see some interesting and unconventional tactics. I am kind of at a loss what to do with the robots other than swarm the PCs with overwhelming numbers and firepower but that will get old real quick.

We were Zone London SAS, and it was an Action campaign, so we were pretty capable, but definitely squishy. The Flesh Wounds and TV Action Violence options (B417) got a lot of use. RogerBW's write-ups of the campaign (and the other one he was running) are here.

For robot tactics, use Tarantulas. The are smart, mobile, and can be fitted with lots of different weapons. Take advantages of human weaknesses, like sleep and the need to eat and drink. Edit: Don't make the campaign simply about combat with robots. There are too many of them, and they'll get you in the end.

[Boomerang]

That link looks interesting, it's late here and I'm tired so I will check it out tomorrow. Thanks for sharing.

[Boomerang]

That SAS campaign looks immense! What point value did you get to?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Boomerang

That SAS campaign looks immense! What point value did you get to?

Loads character sheet ... my character reached 377, plus 4 unspent. They won't all be exactly the same totals, but fairly close.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by johndallman

We were Zone London SAS, and it was an Action campaign, so we were pretty capable, but definitely squishy.

This was my key consideration in running the campaign: it's very asymmetrical warfare. The robots generally out-number, out-gun and out-armour the surviving humans.

So for humans to survive they need to generate local advantage. Pick robot outposts with minimal defences, make a lightning raid, and scatter before the reinforcements arrive. Instead of trying to armour up to survive robot weapons (which won't work), stay agile and be somewhere else when they hit.

Those two campaigns were a significant influence on Will to Live (taking the form of playtesting even before the book was formally commissioned).

[Boomerang]

@ johndallman, RogerBW and Ransom

That all sounds like good advice thanks. We are just finishing up our soldiers in the Vietnam/America war campaign so I hope that they put all that experience they have gained conducting missions to good use for the next campaign.

We are planning on taking a short break from GURPS to play Pathfinder or maybe D&D 5e before embarking on this one, so I have plenty of time to vet characters, design scenarios, work out standard robot procedure etc.