A variant for CLOSE COMBAT in

For people who do not like Larry Brom's original melee system.

Note that this is set up for Mark Stevens' and Jay Stribling's The Sword to Adventure, a 20 rules variant which uses 10-man units.

A. Attacker moves units directly towards the target unit. Only attacking figures that can reach the enemy unit may fight. Attacking units cannot fire but takes any defending fire. Test "to close" morale. If this is failed, there is no melee.
B. Defending figures within 4" of line of combat may participate. Defenders test "to stand" morale. If this is failed, the defenders abandon the position and there is no melee.
C. If melee occurs, determine how many D6 each unit can roll:

Start with 1 D6 for every two men in the unit. Add a D6 if there is an odd man.

EXAMPLES: A 10-man unit would start with 5 D6s. A 7-man unit would start with 3 D6s and then add one, for a total of 4.

Add the following D6s:

• One D6 for each officer
• One D6 for each NCO
• 2 D6s for each man armed with Submachine gun
• One D6 for each man armed with Browning Automatic Rifle
• One D6 for each hand grenade thrown and "hit" IN MELEE.
• One D6 if unit is "A" or "D" Class
• One D6 if unit is cavalry making mounted charge

EXAMPLE: An 8-man unit with an officer and one man with a submachine gun, class A, with NO hand grenades, would roll: 4 D6 for numbers, + 1 D6 for the officer +2 D6 for the SMG + 1 D6 for class A - total = 8 D6s.

Subtract the following D6s:

• Two D6s if the unit is "on top of wall or barricade"
• Two D6s if unit had to move through barbed wire to reach defender
• Two D6s if unit is attacking into a building through window or door.
• Two D6s if unit is attacked in rear
• One D6 if unit is "C" quality
• Two D6s if unit is "E quality
• One D6 if unit is artillery crew or other open-order crewmen. Note that this does not apply to machine-gun crews.
• One D6 if unit is moving up to attack unit on higher ground.

Each side rolls the appropriate number of D6 for units involved in the melee and sums the total.

Divide the result by 4 and that is the number of casualties inflicted on the enemy. Left-over fractions can be "confirmed" as a kill by rolling equal to or less than that number with a D6. The side that loses the most casualties, loses the close combat. If casualties total the same for each side, the Defender wins the tie.

When attacking a unit in a good defensive position the attacker must kill at least two more casualties than he receives (or kill all of the defenders) to carry the position when he winds. If he does not, even though he would otherwise win the close combat, he cannot take the position and must fall back as the loser.

An EXAMPLE

EXAMPLE: The 8-man unit used as an example above attacks a 6-man class B unit on higher ground. The class B unit has no submachine guns, no officer, but it has one NCO. The defenders throw two hand grenades at the attackers as they close - both are "hits". The defending dice are: 4 D6 for numbers + 1D6 for the NCO +1D6 for higher ground +2 D6 for grenades = 8D6.

Attackers' dice thrown are 6, 4 , 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1. Dice total = 26. Defenders' dice thrown are 5, 5, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1. Dice total =24.

Divide results by 6 Attacker kills 4 defenders and has a "fraction" left over of 2. He attempts to "confirm" this as a casualty by rolling 2 or less on a D6, but rolls "4" so no extra casualty.

Defender kills 4 attackers with no "fractions" left over. Since the casualties are even, the defender wins the melee and the attacker must fall back as per TSATF.

An ADDITIONAL EXAMPLE

The 8-man unit used as an example above attacks a 10-man class D unit, hitting it in the rear. The Class D unit stands! The class D unit has no submachine guns, one officer, no grenades.

The attackers' dice are: 4 D6 for numbers, + 1 D6 for the officer +2 D6 for the SMG + 1 D6 class A - total = 8 D6s. The defending dice are: 5 D6 for numbers + 1D6 for the officer - 2 D6 attacked in rear = 4D6.

Attackers' dice thrown are 6, 5 , 4, 4, 3, 3, 1, 1. Dice total = 26. Defenders' dice thrown are 5, 4, 3, 2. Dice total =14.

Divide results by 6 Attacker kills 4 defenders and has a "fraction" left over of 2. He attempts to "confirm" this as a casualty by rolling 2 or less on a D6, but rolls "4" so no extra casualty.

Defender kills 2 attackers with a "fraction" left over of 2. He attempts to "confirm" this as a casualty by rolling 2 or less on a D6 and succeeds by rolling a "1", so one extra casualty, total of 3. Since the defender took more casualties, the attacker wins the melee and the defender must fall back as per TSATF

WOUNDED OR DEAD

If the players wish casualties to be broken into "killed and wounded" I suggest that a card be pulled for each casualty. "Kills" are hearts, all others are "wounds". Officers hit on aces, crewmen on face cards - as per TSATF.

If players do not wish casualties to be broken into "killed and wounded", each participant in the close combat rolls a number of D20s equal to the number of his casualties. 15-19 kills a crewman, 20 kills officer/NCO. All other results are "wounded".

NOTES

This system has been tested in our English Civil War rules but not in TSATF. It does work quite well in our tests.

Return to the Jackson Gamers' Home Rules

Return to the Jackson Gamers' Homepage

Angelfire - Free Home Pages
Free Web Building Help
Angelfire HTML Library
htmlGEAR - free polls, guestbooks, and more!

Thank you for visiting The Jackson Gamers' pages at Angelfire. Please come back and visit again!