"Battlesuit" by Steve Jackson: w' Tweaks

Who Is Supporting Whom?

^© Steve Jackson Games

Took longer to get to this replay than I wanted, but that gave me time to do a couple more drafts of my QRS and fine-tune a few decisions about what I was looking for in this playtest.  The BLUF is that I wanted to stay as faithful to the fluff and key mechanics as possible, while giving more room for maneuver in the same battlespace - the original game board.  Ergo, changes are:

- Scale changed to 20 sec turn, 50m hex [point], 1Movement Point=9kph

      [originally 10sec, 37.5m, 1MP=16kph]. No change to elevation levels @2m each.

- The range bands of Fire penalties went from every 10 to every 5 hexes.

- The Combat Results Table [CRT] was made slightly less lethal, about the equivalent of a "-1" to Firing on the 2d6 to resolve.

- Bomb Drones were made a bit more powerful against hard cover and Units. They only hit about as hard as a Holy Hand Grenade and and they are supposed to be mini-nukes!

- The Heavy Weapon rules were fine-tuned a bit. One critical issue is that in the Rules As Written [RAW] you can only operate a HW with an undamaged suit. This makes their use a bit fragile and also to tactics where the HW is surrounded by suits to replace any damaged wielder.  I made it so that a 'suit could take a full hit of damage but still Fire, and after that could not.

- I admit to streamlining the Jumping/flying rules a bit... at least I think I did. I may just have clarified the original intent which was a bit hazy on the edges.

The net effect is that one can fight _across_ the battlespace with some maneuver room, instead of being obligated to fight up/down the length over the same valley and be cramped for maneuvering end-to-end. It has a secondary effect of needing units to be a bit closer together for mutual support, but there's still plenty of ways to range the board, with the right tactic and weapon. It's just not quite as lethal.

The scenario I made up was an aggressive patrol to clear out some bunkers along the main Line of Resistance. Red Paneuropean force has been detailed to secure the valley to deny enemy movements - three bunkers are the key.  

The interestingly pink/mauve board is below, and the center Bunker 2 [white counter] is on a small level 2 hill in the valley which runs NE / SW. The supporting bunker 3 to NE is not only on a higher level 3 hill but overlooks the valley running SE from it. To the far left is bunker 1 on a level 6 hill. Out in front a Ranger 'suit is maintaining a listening post in a ruined building [hard cover]. 

I randomly placed two counters in each bunker - 5 Standard 'suits and one HW. Also, one of the bunkers [secretly] is the area Command Post, and the CP functions like a Command Suit until destroyed, allowing a re-roll of one Morale Check per Turn.

Closeup of board left:

Closeup of board right:

Encroaching into the Battlespace is the Combine patrol - three Assault and one Command 'suit, and two Standard 'suits each with a HW. Also, one of each drone type - Recon, Attack and Bomb [OK...basically, I just wanted to try them all out!].

So, the 'suits are even in number, but black has a small edge in quality, one additional HW and the three drones.

Observing the battlespace, I decided that the best plan was to keep my force concentrated, advancing from the only board edge with cover [reducing vulnerability to Indirect Fire - IF] and take out each position sequentially with overwhelming firepower.  Sounds good!

Below, Combine Turn 1 starts as a Recon Drone enters that Targets the Ranger suit in the ruined building. Ranger doesn't have an effective shot against it due to its strong ECM value.  Next, a Standard 'suit with a Heavy Weapon enters, survives Reaction Fire [RF] from the Ranger, then takes a moving shot on him, damaging him for a level.

In Battlesuit, all 'suits can take up to four levels of Damage, D1-4. Interestingly, altho they start out with slightly different stats, they all have the same stats as they take damage and you replace them with a counter that has an image of the damaged suit. The alternative would be to have counters with -1, -2, -3, -4 I guess. A quirk of the game I enjoy.

Combine Turn 1 continues, and the rest of the force enters, fanning out to left in the woods. To right, in the center woods, the Bomb and Attack Drone's advance in cover. They have the ECM to take care of themselves as well as threaten any Paneuro suits that decide to maneuver against the Combine.

Paneuro 1. Hot roll from the Paneuro Shocks one of the HW wielding 'suits. Generally, the Combine force is protected enough by distance and Soft Cover that RF is either impossible or weak, and Fire is only hopeful with Targeting.

On Combine 2 the HW recovers a bit Shaken then rolls boxcars to wipe out the Ranger.  Touche!

The rest of the force has some hot dice and manages to Shock all the 'suits in Bunkers 1 & 2 - turns out 1 has the suit with HW.

This could easily have been "the turn" in which the Paneuro force was overwhelmed and nearly wiped out. However, there wasn't enough additional firepower to push that sort of result - instead, the Shock results have to fall under the category of "good fortune" and anyway they require bad Paneuro Morale Checks to exploit.

The situation in the central woods - Drones sneak up on Shocked Paneuro defenders...caught buttering their baguettes!  With limited capability to exploit the situation, only the Drones are an option.

The Bomb Drone advances out of the wood and along the edge...Paneuro has no means to interdict its advance...

...closer it creeps...out of the Line of Sight of the supporting bunker due to the woods and the 2 level hill, it can't be stopped by Reaction Fire.

...But fortune does favor the Paneuros in one respect - it's movement doesn't allow it to plant itself atop the bunker and instantly destroy everything!  Instead, it gets close and must Detonate there...

with my tweaks, the Bunker is destroyed on a '2', but both 'suits survive on 5s!  Unbelievable!  They would have been dead on a 1-4...

The situation at the start of Paneuro Turn 2 - not very promising! 1 dead, 3 Shocked, only 2 'suits in operation, this could be the end!

But hey, let's hear it for hot dice!  They don't just fall to the Combine...the Paneuro HW man Fully Recovers on a '5' and then rolls an '11' against the Command Suit, inflicting D3 and pretty much trashing the team's Commander!

Morale rolls don't go quite as well at 'former Bunker #2' and one 'suit remains in Shock while the other Panics on a '1'!  

Should be noted that I have the Ogre Dice...unfortunately, the symbols are on the '1' spot in games where it is best to roll high!  Ergo, I switch them out and if you roll the opposing symbol they intervened and botched your attack / morale / whatever.

In the Panic Morale Phase, the D3 suit dashes for closest cover [the Bunker being destroyed] and hides in the woods.

With things looking rough at both bunkers, I ponder the desirability of Maneuering the two Standard Suits in the right-most Bunker out and towards the woods to their South. It would look like the below. However, a quick calculation reveals that between the IF of the HW and the Attack Drone maneuvering against them, they will not likely be able to have a significant impact before getting shot up badly enough that they are useless.  The Bunker is the key to their defense!

As the Combine rolls into the end of their first minute, the Paneuro force is at 50% effectiveness! One additional D3 suit is in the woods, and can Target.

Combine Turn 3. The Recon and Attack Drones light up almost all the remaining Paneuro force, and the Combine kills the Shocked Standard Suit. Paneuro is down to three 'suits capable of continuing the fight. Combine losses are negligible.

Paneuro Turn 3. The Panicked 'suit in the woods fully Recovers!  Big deal, he's badly damaged...

Paneuro Turn 3. Far supporting Bunker 3 Targets a Combine Assault Suit - the HW in Bunker #1 vaporizes him - Damn! Nothing else of note occurs.

Checking the Math, on Combine Turn 4, the withdraw from DF of Bunker #1, which has a Heavy Weapon. 

...it's time for Combine to beat down Bunker #3 with long range HW fire. Still, they Maneuver an Attack Drone closer, but with a faithful Combine symbol appearing, nothing is gained against the Drone from Bunker #3.

On Paneuro Turn 4, the HW 'suit fires on a HW wielding Standard Suit, but despite good odds, blows both Fires thanks to handy Combine symbol '1s'!!

Enough is enough! says the [damaged] Combine Command suit!  They rush the Panueuro Bunker #1 on Turn 5 with all they have - he can't Fire at everyone, right??

Paneuro Turn 5. They max their Targeting capacity and shoot what else they have. They manage to trash a Standard 'suit wielding a HW!

Combine Turn 6. They rush Bunker #1 and dogpile it, severely damaging the 'suit to the point where the HW can't be used.

Still, on Paneuro #6, the damaged 'suit manages to Shock an Assault 'suit!

Also, the other HW 'suit is Damaged and Panicked!

Combine Turn 7. Meanwhile, the Assault 'suit wipes out the 'suit in Bunker #1. The Command suit works to help to rally the Standard 'suit that has been damaged. 

The Combine work to return Assault 'suits to man the Heavy Weapons.

With these, they batter the remaining Bunker...Shocking both 'suits...

...and the undamaged 'suit panics and Jumps High! He is wiped out by Reaction Fire from the Combine force. Game Over!

But to count the cost... after a tough mid-game, the Combine lost one each of an Assault and Standard 'suit. The Bomb Drone, blew up...but is that really a loss?  The Command and one Standard 'suit were both D3 [heavily Damaged]. Two Assault suits were intact, each wielding one Heavy Weapon. The Recon and Attack Drones also survived.

Meanwhile, the entire Paneuro force is wiped out. Two bunker's survive, but they will either be destroyed by the Combine or occupied...

Overall, this was a pretty wild scenario, and the Combine's slender advantage was almost negated by the Paneuro Bunkers. While the Combine got to choose the time and place, and they also prevented any Paneuro maneuvering through significant firepower threats. This - barely - allowed them to overwhelm the toughest bunker that had the Heavy Weapon which also prevented the most dangerous threat to the Combine force.

A few things worthy of note:

- the game mechanics of individual Unit activation v. Reaction Fire pretty much result in a carefully balanced situation of Actions v. Reaction Fire. 

- This does result in a somewhat 'choppy' feel to the Action. This may be suitable for Skirmish games, YMMV!

- true coordination and coordination feel is somewhat lacking.

- most situations are tense with tactical decisions. If you want this in a game, then this is for you!

- if you want to emphasize the 'make a plan, decide on the plan, execute the plan' aspect of warfare, then a game with Phases may be a better choice for you.

- I love the old-school graphics; the old-school mechanics of a 2d6 [added, so 2-12] CRT and a buncha modifiers is occasionally wearisome with math. But with play one gets a pretty good feel for what is a right decision, and you don't need to 'pre-add' or constantly calculate to make tactical choices most of the time.

The changes I made worked great!  Totally satisfied that I have slightly adapted a classic 80s game to the 2020s and it has the best of its design with a bit of streamlining.  

The only thing I want to try out is to divide activities into Phases, a la Team Yankee and the First Battle design by Frank Chadwick.  I think there is a bit of a sweet spot with using Phases while retaining a jump'n flying feel to the game that is futuristic.

We'll see!

"Battlesuit" by Steve Jackson: Another play...

AArrrgh!  Bad day to be in a battlesuit...

^{© Steve Jackson Games}

Another playtest of the Training scenario... with some lessons learned applied. Red - do not be too aggressive with Jump at start; take a methodical approach. No major rules changed, but I'm thinking along those lines, trying to give the RAW [Rules As Written] the maximum benefit of the doubt...after all, Steve Jackson is a famous game designer and publisher, while I'm a not famous game designer and publisher - so let's show some humility!

This time, Red entered keeping low and out of sight. If Black entered the board in Line of Sight with a Jump High, then Red would get Reaction Fire first, as the 'suit entered. As it stands, I didn't want to risk it with Black, so I entered in three teams of two, all of which utilized hill or woods to avoid Line of Sight. This made most Fire and Reaction Fire ineffective.

Red's plan is to use the woods on the North side of the hill to give him Soft Cover against Black across the valley. Support from the Heavy Weapon will be from off to the side where hopefully it will be safer as Black will be engaged to front. This left team has two Standard, one Assault and one Ranger suit, a strong team.

Black and Red continue their advances into Soft Cover, from which the fight will be fought. Red's team of four is entering the wood, like Black's team of two to right - an Assault and a Ranger suit. Black's left team - two Standard 'suits - is already in the larger northwest corner wood.

Black's teams are separated but this does give them better Line of Sight angles. To right is the Heavy WEapons team - two Standard 'suits.

Above, Red Heavy Weapons team - two Standard 'suits - can hide behind the 3-level hill, but are not in Soft Cover, which ultimately was a bad choice - they should have been in the Woods to the left. Below, Black Reaction Fire damages a 'suit.

By Black Player Turn 3, the Team has achieved Fire superiority, largely due to the damage inflicted on the Red Heavy Weapons team. Leaving them out of Soft Cover [if out of LoS behind the hill] gave Black just enough edge to damage both suits, rendering the Heavy Weapon useless.  Red attempts to shift Standard 'suits over to that team or move the Heavy Weapon to them result in more damaged and Shocked men, and any chance of a Red win.

Above, the yellow-ish circles mark Targeting Units, the smaller orange circles the Targeted enemy Units. Targeting gives a significant bonus to shooting, effectively negating the Soft Cover bonus.  And if you have no Soft Cover, you are looking at even IF having a good chance to Shock or Damage 'suits.

By Red Player Turn 4, three Red 'suits are destroyed and the last three are damaged. Black just has one suit damaged.

Obviously, I - again - didn't play Red well. I should have kept the entire force closer and used the two woods on the north and south ends of the 4-level hill to provide Soft Cover. The Heavy Weapons team sustained some damage by moving closer and using open ground out of Line of Sight as a position is not a good idea - you need the additional bonus for Soft or Hard Cover.

The rule that only allows undamaged 'suits to use the Heavy Weapon is pretty tough. I'm tempted to change it to 0-1 level of Damage. OTOH, it does put a limit on them dominating the battlefield, and who is to say that such a technical limit won't be part of a future weapon system?  Still, my take is that the military likes common support weapons to be very tough and durable, easy to deploy and use.

The game scenario basically plays like this:

- approaching force enters the battlespace under fairly effective Reaction Fire from the Defender, even fighting down the long end and staying out of LoS.

- the entire board becomes a shooting gallery with no safe place, and little need to maneuver except to get into Soft Cover.  Once there, it is a dice-rolling event until one side gets some advantage.

- it is still pretty reasonable to not maneuver even then, and just continue dropping dice and shooting, hoping to turn the Fire superiority into a decisive advantage.

In short, unless it is required by the scenario, there is nearly no reason to maneuver.

This reminds me a bit of a naval game on the open ocean.  

So I will shorten the Range penalty from 10 hexes to 5 hexes, adjust the CRT and put some more terrain out, including Hard Cover.  Aside from that, the rules play fine with plenty of man-to-man firefight tension. The Ranger 'suit provides a Unit with additional defense capability for maneuver, and the Assault 'suit provides that little bit of extra firepower that makes a difference at long range.  The Standard 'suit is a bit weak, but makes for a good body to man the Heavy Weapon, with a backup buddy.

The game is flavorful, with Jump and Drones adding the futuristic elements, while everything else is pretty much a variation on what we have now [Heavy Weapon is a grenade launcher]. Play is a bit like a bunch of attack helicopters using Nape of the Earth tactics to snipe at each other, except that all forces can use Indirect Fire, and actually be IN cover, which of course reminds you that they are men not 'copters.

All this to say that with some flavorful scenarios, the game can easily refight famous skirmishes from any war you like from 1916 to 2016 [say, from an Afghanistan memoir you really enjoyed] to more futuristic conflicts in the Arctic or even the moon.

As the game comes with plentiful bunker and hard cover [buildings] counters, you can model any scenario against a fortified line or village, using any scenario system you like.

"Battlesuit" by Steve Jackson: Several Plays Later

Yee-haw!  It's a great day to be in a Battlesuit!

^{© Steve Jackson Games}

I reviewed this re-issue of "Battlesuit" previously here [CLICK], with the summary of "buy it!" because I dig the retro components altho the map is a bit lightly colored. While I found the rules a bit scattered and needing better organization, I wrote up a QRS of my own that summarized them for me. Overall, the game is very tactical but the mechanics are a bit slow if used as prescribed.  I streamline the Line of Sight rules a bit and don't use the handy chart provided.

The game requires a larger space than Ogre, but is still faster to set up than a full miniatures game, and takes about an hour to play a small scenario of 4-5 Units per side. With familiarity, one can double the force to 8-10 Units without much added time.

In getting back to the game after a bit of an absence of almost a year, I did a quick run-thru of the 9.01 Training scenario. Just to try and get Reaction Fire dominance against the Black team, Red entered the south edge with all men at Jump High level - only being within Soft Cover would avoid a Line of Sight. The drawback is they can all be seen also. What I was gambling on is that Red's Reaction Fire would damage a few key suits right off the bat, as Black entered the North edge, and before Black could Fire at Red.

The Actions and Reaction Fire mechanics produce a set of individual confrontations between Units - this makes the activity choppy compared to a game where all Units perform the same activity in a given Phase, e.g. Move Phase, Shoot Phase, Close Combat Phase.

This left Black with few options. The high Level 6 Hill on the north half of the map doesn't block Line of Sight from Units that in a Jump High status.  So if I entered as below, each man would take Reaction Fire as he entered, until all Red's Units had Reaction Fired. By the Combat Results Table [CRT] about half would Hit for a Shock result or Damage, and the Heavy Weapon was almost guaranteed to badly damage a battlesuit.

Instead, I had to leverage the Reaction Fire mechanic that allows the Phasing side to Fire or Jump Straight Up and Fire before taking Reaction Fire. Ergo, Black snuck quietly into the battlespace using the only cover available, the woods at the northwest corner. By being in Soft Cover and out of Line of Sight, the Reaction Fire was almost negated - only the Heavy Weapon had a good chance [>60%] of getting Shock and/or a Damage result.

Goes to show...do the CRT math before you choose your game tactics!

The plan worked out well!  

Black was able to get shots in against Red on the next Player Turn, achieve some Fire superiority, and ground Red down thanks to their Soft Cover and some better rolls, also, resulting in quick kills on a couple suits and the Heavy Weapon.

Black had one destroyed Standard 'suit, two badly damaged Standard 'suits, and one badly damaged Assault 'suit.

NOTE: Without some hot dice, Black would have just barely won as the Soft Cover is helpful but not a strong modifier like Hard Cover or a Bunker.

Red was wiped out, except for one lone badly damaged Standard 'suit. Even their Heavy Weapon was destroyed by Fire!

The aggressive "Jump High" tactic for the Red Team didn't work out. They should have landed everyone on Red Player Turn 2 and then been methodical in their approach to engage Black. Also, Red should have kept everyone closer together, which makes it easier to keep the Heavy Weapon in Action after there is battle damage [damaged 'suits can't man the Heavy Weapon]. 

My other takeaways from this practice game is that the CRT is a bit too deadly. There is very little space to maneuver when Range penalties only come into play in 10-hex increments starting at 11+. The entire board is only 30 by 23 offset points [hexes, effectively] so not much penalty for shooting across the entire board. I would like a bit more maneuver on the field. One solution would be to double the ground scale and inflict Range penalties in 5-hex increments, about every 250 meters. This seems pretty reasonable.

Also, I think the CRT needs to be a bit less lethal - again, assuming that Range is longer per hex, it makes sense that there will be some areas of the board that it is safe to maneuver in and only a Heavy Weapon is a threat. This makes the game map more useful and I can play across the narrow side also.  

Overall, the game produced a lot of tense moments as 'suits popped up and Fired at each other, while the powerful Heavy Weapons supported the effort through Indirect Fire [IF] mostly. Black was able to get some Direct Fire [DF] in with theirs, which helped them to achieve Fire superiority.

While the mechanics are a bit detailed / less abstract for modern tastes, they do produce some real granularity in tactical decisions that makes for an intense experience. With just a bit of tweaking, I will satisfy my nostalgia itch fully!