Ground troops "working project"

[BlueRabbit]

One of the biggest difficulties of adding rules to an existing rule set is to make it as: playable, tactically interesting and as integrated as possible. I hope my initial proposal meets those criteria. The units proposed are based on what I have.

+++ These rules are a V1 to be improved upon +++

General Rules:
°All ground troops have an Altitude Value of 0.
°One of the great things about this game is the three phase card system. Which for me covers the notion of «*Initiative/reaction time*» to the game mechanics. The dilemma I have is that certain ground troops have a much higher «*initiative/reaction time*» than anything else on a battle field. So with that in mind I feel that certain units should not use the three card system and be able choose their Maneuver cards freely each turn.
°All Ground troops are counted as «*objectives*» for a Tripod. (T&T pg10, Destroy Objective) Which I find an interesting concept, the human player may add as many ground troops as he/she wants, but that will add more potential energy for the Tripods.
°Just like Tripods I propose Action Cards for certain units, that follow the same rules (T&T rulebook: pg10).
°If a Damage Card with the explosion icon is drawn, simply remove the unit. This reflects the devastating level of martian fire power.


Unit : Infantry

My thoughts.
° I can’t imagine that WW1 standard infantry weapons would do anything against the Tripod shield technology so a damage deck without the T&T «*Smaller special damage icon*» in the upper right corner makes more sense to me. This also means a shorter effective range.
° Considering how «*light*» infantry is, it should have a 360° Firing Arc, a very low Damage Resistance and have a 360° Movement Arrowhead.


Movement : Deck : TA 3/15 : TA 14/15. Choose each phase.
Damage Deck : Wing of Glory, Deck B
Wounds : 1
Firing Range: airplane ruler. Short Range, using one hidden Damage Card.

Action Cards:
° Take Cover! May only be used if the unit chooses a «*stationary*» Maneuver card. Reduce any damage taken this phase by 1 point. The unit may not Fire.
° Double Time! May only be used if the unit chooses a «*Movement*» Maneuver card. Once the first movement is completed move again, following all normal rules. The unit may not Fire.
° Take Aim! May only be used if the unit chooses a «*stationary*» Maneuver card. The player of the target draws and reveals one damage card: if it is a 0, the player draws a second card (this time without revealing it).

Unit : Heavy Machine Gun

My thoughts.
° Used the same rules as the Machine guns on the planes, notably the single gun on the Nieuport 16.
° Needs a special maneuver to «*pack up and move out*» to show the speed it would take to redeploy/ deploy. But should have the same level of initiative as infantry. So with that in mind I feel that HMG should not use the three card system and be able choose their cards freely each turn
° Needs a reload mechanism. Use the «*recovery*» counters as «*ammo*» counters. An ammo box has 5 counters before it needs to use a «*Re-load*» special card.
° It should have a 90° forward Firing Arc, a very low Damage Resistance and have a 360° Movement Arrowhead.


Movement : Deck : TA 3/15 : TA 14/15. Choose each phase.
Damage Deck : T&T, Deck B
Wounds : 1
Firing Range: Airplane Ruler.

Action Cards:
°Pack up!/ Set Up! : May only be used if the unit chooses a «*stationary*» Maneuver card.
- Place a counter on this unit, it may now choose to move as infantry. The unit may not Fire.
- Remove the counter on this unit to face any direction. The unit may now fire.
°Re-load : May only be used if the unit chooses a «*stationary*» Maneuver card. Add up to a maximum of 5 ammo counters to this unit.
°Fire : May only be used if the unit chooses a «*stationary*» Maneuver card. Remove a single Ammo counter, then follow the normal rules for firing.
°Take Cover! May only be used if the unit chooses a «*stationary*» Maneuver card. Reduce any damage taken this phase by 1 point.
°Change Facing : May only be used if the unit chooses a «*stationary*» Maneuver card. Pivot the unit to face any direction.


Unit : 75mm Field Gun

My thoughts:
° due to the size, weight and time needed to deploy it should not have a movement value. In terms of game play it should be able to pivot.
° I am a bit at a loss as to the number of phases needed to re-load, one phase minimum that is for sure but I am tempted to put two, which means one shot per turn.
° The effective range is around 6000 meters which at 1/144 scale is around 42 cm, I feel a range of 40cm with half range at 20cm would be a good place to start.
° The T&T damage deck D (same as the rockets).
° Forward Firing no «*Arc*» , use the tape-measure the same way the as Airplane Ruler directly ahead and if an edge of the tape can reach any point of the enemies base, the shot hits.
° a low damage resistance that takes into account the defense provided by the gun itself.

Movement : -
Damage Deck : T&T, Damage Deck D
Wounds : 3
Firing Range: Tape-measure, 40cm.

Action Cards:
°Fire! : May only be used if the Unit no longer has any recovery counters active. Once fired place two recovery counters next to the unit.
°Re-load : remove a single recovery counter.
°Take Cover! : Reduce any damage taken this phase by 1 point.
°Change Facing : Pivot the unit up to 90°.

Unit : Renault FT «*light tank*»

My thoughts:
° two choices of weapons here (from Wiki) either a 37mm gun or a Machine gun, both of which we already have rules for.
° The «*Light tank*» is a vehicle and has the same level of Initiative/Reaction Time as planes and Tripods, so it should use a console and the three phase card system.
°The turret gives the unit a 360° Firing Arc.
°The damage resistance needs to be high thanks to the armor, but not as high as a plane due to the units’ much lower speed.
°This unit should have a «*base*» like the airplanes.


Movement : Deck TA (remove 11/15)
Damage Deck : T&T Damage decks. 37mm gun; Damage Deck D. The Machine gun; Damage Deck B
Wounds : 5
Firing Range: Airplane ruler

Action Cards:
°Change Facing : May only be used if the unit chooses a «*stationary*» Maneuver card. Pivot the unit up to 90°.

[OldGuy59]

Mixing ground movement with Wings of Glory has issues. Within current rules, all infantry and gun emplacements are static.

What ground would walking/running infantry cover in two seconds (one phase of a Wings of Glory turn) and a 1/900 ground scale? I can see the infantry movement being as described. How much distance they would move would be pretty small per turn, let alone per phase.

Machine guns, unless hand carried (I.E. squad Leiws Guns) would take time to break down and set up. Dragging mounting frames and ammo boxes would slow movement even more than infantry foot travel. I would think moving a heavy machine gun from one position to another would be outside the timeframe of a short Wings of Glory engagement. Reloading, with a trained and experienced crew would take a phase. If they were stressed or trying to cover at the same time, perhaps two phases? Someone with infantry experience would know better. Good crews would do reloads, and even barrel changes, very rapidly. If the emplacement was intended for Anti-aircraft, it would be a 360 degree mounting and be able to fire 360 degrees per phase. Trench emplacements could have been tripod or fixed mountings, and 90 degree changes would take time, if possible at all should it be in a sandbagged emplacement. So, two different types of MG cards, one having a restricted arc but more damage resistance?

Changing the arc of fire for a field gun would be an effort. Perhaps a phase per 90 degrees of angle changed? AA guns in the game take three turns to reload. I think fuse-setting for altitude is considered in here somewhere. This is 18 seconds. A light field gun wouldn't need to set an altitude while loading, so it should be faster. Perhaps two phases (eject spent casing, reload next round, re-aim the gun at the 'moving' target). Changing the arc of fire would take the entire crew, so reloading would not be possible while moving the gun.

PS: AA guns were on 360 degree mountings, but no gun shields. Field guns would sometimes have shields, and could be dug-in. Changing arc on a dug-in gun would be difficult to impossible, or would reduce the protection of the emplacement.

Hmmm... Keep the guns as a seperate unit. Make emplacements possible, restricting arc of fire, but giving lots of protection. This would work for MGs and Guns. Also, allow up to 25 degree arc change on fixed guns, as there was a bit of traverse adjustment even on fixed gun mounts. Keep the tape field of fire, though.

[flash]

I'm also thinking the movement is too great. A stall card for a plane is roughly about 40-50mph. The TA card selected is much quicker than that, so these soldiers would be superhuman in the mud of the trenches. We've used the width of a ruler for truck movement in past, often once per turn so at best the infantry might be half that.
For shooting you could utilise the trench fire rules - draw a card and only scoring with special damage. Use the T&T decks though as their weapons are the same calibre as MG.
For the arty you could utilise the AA reload phasing - firing every two - four seconds as suggested was possible but not sustainable, something between the steady fire of 3-4rpm and flat out may be more workable.
There are mission cards for the FT17 that you might find helpful: https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/do...p?do=cat&id=19

[OldGuy59]

I'm lousy at math.

Average walking speed, or loaded/encumbered movement speed: 8 km/h
Distance covered in two seconds: Approx 4.5 meters.
Distance covered in one Wings of Glory phase at 1/900 ground scale: 0.5 cms?

So, some measurable distance per turn. However, it wouldn't be enough to get clear of a template of Black Smoke, if it was dropped on a stand of troops, or a gun emplacement.

I can see why trenches or guns are static in Wings of Glory.

[BlueRabbit]

Hiya,
great feed back. Idea bouncing...
The scale on the ground is 1/144, Ares clarified this in one of their Q & As. Thanks for the link to the FT17

Infantry: Even if the movement for ground troops is a bit too fast, making them slower will either mean making a set of new cards or adding a "tape measure" to the game mechanics...I'm not against either option.

Hmg: remove the option to move.
75mm field gun: remove the option to "pivot". but give the gun a 25° fire arc.
FT17: make it 10 wounds. I thought the Damage deck A was for a vehicle with Two HMGs?

Add a deployment option to entrench all units... I was thinking this could be a scenario option, it all depends if the humans are defending or attacking, if defending they have the time to "dig-in".