Re: Hammer's Slammers [VERY LONG POST!]

This is really GREAT information!!  Just out of curiosity, is there a
"Galactic Governing Body" like an Empire, Federation, etc., etc. in the
'Hammer's Slammers" universe?  If so, I assume they're as well armed as
Hammer's boys.	And if this is true, do Hammer's Slammers ever mix it up
with them?

Ground Zero Games wrote:

> >Hi all,
> >
> >	   While we're talking Epic 40K conversions for DSII, could any
> of
> >you point me to some info for David Drake's Hammer's Slammers? Source
>
> >material on the web and and your thoughts on DS stats would be
> >appreciated.
> >
> >						   Rodrick
>
> Well, you asked for it...
>
> A couple of years back I rote a DSII/Slammers article for magazine
> publication (Valkyrie, I think) - I honestly can't remember if they
> ever
> published it, but here it is in its entirety. I hope nobody minds this
>
> being posted, but I think it may be of sufficient interest to enough
> list
> members to warrant it:
>
> Jon (GZG)
>
> SLAMMIN' THE DIRT.....
>
> The HAMMER'S SLAMMERS series of novels by DAVID DRAKE  ranks among the
> best
> "Combat SF" ever written - not, perhaps, in terms of literary merit
> but
> certainly in action and "realism". Drake's gritty, action-filled
> portrayals
> of future ground combat are essential reading for SF miniatures
> gamers,
> alongside other classics such as Heinlein's STARSHIP TROOPERS and
> Laumer's
> BOLO series. The SLAMMERS books have already formed the basis of a
> licensed
> Boardgame (by Mayfair Games, now long out of print) and have provided
> inspiration and ideas for many SF miniatures combat rules - the novels
> had
> a strong influence on the style of my own DIRTSIDE and DIRTSIDE II
> rulebooks.
> There are many good SF novels based on infantry actions that lend
> themselves to gaming in 25mm or 15mm scales, but the massed armoured
> battles of the Slammers books really call for the use of 1/300 scale
> miniatures and rules
>
> The details and statistics in this article are suggestions on how to
> classify and use the troops and vehicles from HAMMER'S SLAMMERS using
> the
> DIRTSIDE II rules for 1/300 miniatures games - they should also give
> sufficient guidelines to allow conversion to whatever other system you
> may
> wish to use, such as Wessex Games' "Hellfire", TBA's "OHMU" or even
> "Sp*c*
> M*r*n* "(if you are really THAT sad....).
>
> The Books:
> There are six books in the series so far. The first volume, HAMMER'S
> SLAMMERS, consists of eight short stories interspersed with essays on
> the
> background, technology and organisation of the stories - it is from
> these
> that I have gleaned most of the information presented here; the
> remaining
> books (in order of publication: AT ANY PRICE, COUNTING THE COST,
> ROLLING
> HOT, THE WARRIOR and the latest, THE SHARP END) are basically complete
>
> novels, though  some have an extra novelette included as well as the
> main
> story. Although a linked series, the books do not have to be read in
> sequence - each is a stand-alone episode in the annals of Hammer's
> Regiment. Several of the titles have been published in the UK in the
> past
> by Venture SF, though these editions are now out of print - check the
> second-hand bookstall at your local market! All of the volumes are (as
> far
> as I know) still available in the USA from BAEN BOOKS, and in this
> country
> via SF import specialists such as Forbidden Planet in London - try
> them if
> you have no luck locally.
>
> The Background:
> The SLAMMERS stories (and several other linked works by the same
> author)
> take place in the mid/far future (the "late Third Millenium" is
> mentioned
> in passing), when mankind has colonised many star systems using FTL
> travel
> - referred to here as "Transit". Many of the colonial worlds are
> settled by
> different nationalities and ethnic groups, which leads to the same
> kind of
> conflicts as we see on Earth but with some interesting new
> permutations -
> rival Scottish and Japanese settlements shooting it out is mentioned
> in one
> book!
> Because many of the colonies are small, struggling settlements with
> agricultural-based economies, locally raised forces tend to be little
> more
> than light militia and ranchers with shotguns. When a major dispute
> occurs,
> therefore, some groups will scrape together all the financial
> resources
> they can to hire a decent mercenary regiment for a few weeks, in the
> hope
> of ending the war with their neighbours quickly and decisively.
>
> The best and most respected Mercenary unit in human space is Hammer's
> Regiment, an elite Armoured force raised on the Dutch-settled world of
>
> Nieuw Freisland and commanded by Colonel Alois Hammer - the Regiment
> is
> more commonly known to friends and foes alike as Hammer's Slammers.
> The
> series of stories follow the Regiment through campaigns on many worlds
> and
> for many varied employers, fighting sometimes against local forces in
> "peacekeeping" and Police actions and at other times against rival
> Merc
> units hired by the opposition.
> Most other Mercenary Regiments are basically Infantry units - much
> cheaper
> to transport and maintain than the Slammers' huge Hovertanks, and thus
> a
> lot cheaper for colony settlements to hire. With the Slammers,
> however, it
> is a case of "you get what you pay for" - many employers are prepared
> to
> pay the high cost for the virtual certainty of a quick victory.
> All in all, this series is an absolute must if you are into good "hard
> SF"
> gaming, especially with 1/300 armour.
>
> The Regiment:
> So, what does the Slammers' force consist of? Unlike many SF novels
> which
> contain only sketchy details of military forces, Drake has drawn on
> his own
> experiences as a member of the 11th Armoured Cavalry serving in
> Vietnam and
> has very thoughtfully provided a complete Table of Organisation and
> Equipment (TO&E) in the first book. This covers all the sections of
> the
> Regiment, including HQ/Command, Military Police (Joachim Steuben's
> famed
> and feared "White Mice"), Medical, Intelligence, Transport,
> Engineering and
> even the Field Brothels of the "Recreation Section".....! It is the
> "teeth"
> end of the unit we are really concerned with here, however - the
> actual
> combat elements (though the Recreation Section could give rise to some
>
> amusing scenarios...) .
> Hammer's Regiment is primarily  an Armoured force, but contains all
> the
> elements to make a balanced Combined Arms combat group. The main
> strike
> force consists of four Tank Companies, equipped with huge (170 tonne)
> Hovertanks; supporting them are eight companies of "Combat Cars"
> (open-topped GEVs equivalent in function to the present-day M113
> ACAV),
> four companies of infantry mounted on one-man GEV "skimmers" and with
> heavy
> weapons carried on GEV jeeps, and finally three batteries of
> self-propelled
> GEV 200mm rocket-howitzers as artillery support. The exact composition
> of
> each arm is as follows:
>
> TANK COMPANIES:
> Four Hovertank companies, each of 1 command tank and four line
> platoons of
> four tanks each. [In action, the company command tank is generally
> attached
> to one of the line platoons to form a five-tank unit.]
>
> INFANTRY COMPANIES:
> Four Line Infantry companies, each consisting of four platoons; each
> platoon has four 10-man squads, a command element, two "Gun-Jeeps"
> with
> Tribarrel Powerguns and one Jeep with 100mm mortar. All the Infantry
> squads
> travel on 1-man GEV skimmers - little individual hover-sleds - but
> appear
> to use these for transport only, dismounting to fight as normal light
> infantry. (The published TO&E does not specify a Company Command
> element,
> but I think it can safely be assumed there must be one - probably
> something
> like a Combat car and a couple of GEV jeeps).
>
> COMBAT CAR COMPANIES:
> Eight companies of Combat Cars, each of 1 Company command car and four
> line
> platoons of six cars each - five Line cars and a platoon command car.
>
> ARTILLERY BATTERIES:
> Three Batteries, each of six 200mm GEV/SP Rocket Howitzers, one
> Command Car
> and two munitions vehicles.
>
> Technology:
> The vehicles and equipment in Hammer's Slammers assumes two major
> technological developments - firstly fusion power plants small enough
> to be
> used in vehicles (as the FGP in the DIRTSIDE II design system), which
> are
> used in the Tanks, Combat Cars and most probably other combat vehicles
>
> including the jeeps (the Infantry Skimmers are battery-powered, and
> often
> ride in convoy "hooked up" to the bigger vehicles and recharging from
> their
> fusion cores as they go). The use of compact fusion power allows the
> massive Iridium-armoured tanks to be feasible, even at their enormous
> weight.
> The second development is the weapon system employed in various sizes
> by
> the entire Regiment - the Powergun. This is a form of plasma weapon,
> firing
> directional charges of ionised copper atoms released by magnetic
> fields
> acting on a "cartridge" of copper/cobalt disks sandwiched between
> microporous polyurethane (there is an extensive essay on the theory
> of the
> weapons in the first book, though how much is real and how much SF
> pseudo-science I'm not sure - this is one for the armchair physicists
> among
> you!). The result is a very powerful plasma discharge weapon that uses
>
> discrete self-contained "rounds", described as flat black disks, fed
> from a
> conventional magazine arrangement rather than the "power pack" system
> required by laser weaponry. The Tanks use huge 200mm Powerguns as main
>
> weapons, while a 20mm rotary tri-barrel "Gatling" version is used as a
>
> secondary weapon by the tanks and also mounted on the Combat Cars and
> Gun-Jeeps. Infantry arms consist of 20mm Powergun "rifles" and 10mm
> versions in pistol and SMG formats.
> There are other weapons used in the books, ranging from conventional
> assault rifles to a plasma-accelerated hyper-velocity antitank gun
> firing
> osmium rounds - this weapon appears in the last book, "The Warrior",
> and
> was my main inspiration for the HKP (Hyper-Kinetic Penetrator) system
> in
> DIRTSIDE II.
>
> The overall picture of technology in the books is that while a huge
> variety
> of weapons are in use - hence any of the systems outlined in DIRTSIDE
> II
> are valid for the opposition - the Slammers themselves use Powerguns
> because they are significantly superior to all the rest, and this must
> be
> reflected in the rules for them. It should be noted that, especially
> in the
> later books fo the series, powerguns DO turn up in the hands of other
> forces but generally only as infantry and light support weapons - few
> other
> powers appear to have the money and technical support for the big
> Panzers.
>
> One major offshoot of this is that air power is effectively obsolete
> in the
> Slammers' background; with Powerguns having the range of lasers but
> far
> higher lethality, and given the sophisticated computerised and
> satellite-linked fire control available to Hammer's Regiment, anything
> that
> dares show itself above the horizon will be instantly vapourised. This
> does
> not mean that the opposition should be prohibited from using tactical
> aircraft (they try exactly that in one of the early stories), BUT if
> they
> do then they will not last long....! The Slammers themselves do not
> have
> any airmobile assets for this reason, relying on GEV ground transport
> throughout.
> Interface operations seem to be conducted by actually landing the
> troop
> transport starships on-planet, from which we can infer that they use a
> fair
> number of smallish transports for the Regiment rather than
> shuttling-down
> units from a few big non-atmosphere-capable carriers.
>
> The Rules:
> Hammer's Regiment buys and uses the best equipment and weapons
> available;
> this and the elite nature of the unit means they can and do win most
> campaigns they are contracted for. What this does NOT mean, however,
> is
> that they will win every battle; they are still relatively few against
>
> large indiginous forces, and as the Americans well know sheer weight
> of
> numbers can often give the highest technology army a nasty time
> (remember
> Drake served in 'Nam, actually as an intelligence officer, and his
> experiences are reflected heavily in his fiction).
> The Powergun is a new weapon system to be added to those already
> available
> under the DIRTSIDE II rules. It is strongly recommended that it is NOT
>
> treated as just another option to use in all games, as to reflect even
> part
> of its capabilities in the books it must be just too powerful - not
> much
> will stand against a Slammers' Panzer with its 200mm Powergun! When
> using
> such superweapons in the game, their effects must be balanced by the
> scenario being used - either by opposing the mercenaries with MUCH
> larger
> local forces, or with another merc unit that has some weaponry that
> can
> deal with the big tanks (such as the Hypervelocity antitank guns
> mentioned
> above).
> The books describe the Powerguns (especially the big ones) as being
> line-of-sight weapons with ranges limited only by the targetting
> systems in
> use and the curvature of the horizon - basically the same as Lasers in
> this
> respect. No actual range is discussed for the lighter versions such as
> the
> tribarrels, but as these are mainly manually-operated it seems
> reasonable
> to restrict these somewhat (for play balance if nothing else). All
> Powerguns have one disadvantage, in that they cannot shoot THROUGH
> anything
> - the first object hit by the bolt will receive its full energy, even
> if
> this object is nothing more than a bush. The rules below are just one
> idea
> on how to integrate the Powergun into the Dirtside II weapons
> mechanism; if
> they don't agree with your personal interpretation of the weapons,
> then
> feel free to change them!
>
> POWERGUNS (PGN): Available in all classes; the "tribarrel" used on the
>
> gunjeeps and combat cars is a PGN/1 (it is, after all, only 20mm
> calibre)
> while the 200mm main tank gun version would be a PGN/4.
> Suggested range bands are as follows:
>
>					  CLOSE   MEDIUM  LONG
> PGN/1 				  12"
> 24"		  36"
> PGN/2 				  18"
> 36"		  54"
> PGN/3 				  36"
> 60"		  -
> PGN/4 				  48"
> 60"		  -
> PGN/5 				  60"
> -		  -
>
> Number of chits drawn for damage is as per normal rules, ie: equal to
> the
> weapon class - so a tank gun (PGN/4) draws four chits. All chits are
> valid
> in all cases;, but there is one special ruling: when firing at an
> Iridium-armoured vehicle such as the Slammer's tanks and combat cars
> themselves, treat each chit at face value. When firing at any OTHER
> kind of
> vehicle with less advanced armour (ie: almost everyone else's AFVs!),
> count
> each chit as DOUBLE value, as for close-range DFFG hits.
>
> Infantry: Treat the Slammers' infantry as normal Line units, with each
>
> ten-man squad split into 2 teams of 5; the "skimmers" are used only
> for
> mobility - there is no mention of the troops using them to actually go
> into
> combat. To reflect this in game terms, allow the infantry elements to
> move
> like SLOW GEVs when "mounted up"; they must, however, spend half a
> turn to
> mount or dismount from their skimmers and can only fight when
> dismounted.
> When they dismount, use a marker to show where the skimmers have been
> parked - the element must return to them before it can again use the
> extended mobility. If attacked or fired on while mounted on their
> skimmers,
> treat the troops as moving in the open. IAVRs, called "buzzbombs" in
> the
> books, are issued to elements as required (and often used against the
> Slammers by the opposition).
> The Slammers'  infantry elements always draw THREE chits in combat
> (both
> for firefights and close-assaults) due to the superior nature of their
>
> Powergun weaponry, compared to the two chits of normal troops. When
> fired
> at, however, they count as normal Line infantry units.
>
> Morale and Confidence: When setting up a part of the Slammers regiment
> for
> a game, pick the unit quality markers from a mix of two-thirds VETERAN
> and
> one-third REGULAR; if desired, a very few GREEN/1 markers may be used
> to
> represent freshly raised units under experienced officers, put into
> action
> to gain field experience. Other than this, the Leadership values on
> the
> counters should be an equal mix of level 1 and level 2 - no level 3's
> (Hammer's Regiment has many exceptional officers and some average
> ones, but
> any below-average performers don't make it as far as the
> battlefield!).
> Confidence levels will depend on the scenario; mostly the units will
> start
> at  CONFIDENT (they know full well that they are better than the
> indigs),
> though other levels are quite possible in special circumstances.
> Remember
> that the Slammers are good - very good - but not invincible; they are
> still
> human and will still run if things get really bad!
>
> The are many other aspects of the Slammers' universe that we have not
> been
> able to cover here, such as the use of centrally-directed fire from
> the
> hovertanks as point-defence against artillery fire, the "Calliope"
> multiple
> 3cm powergun vehicles used for AAA defence and so on. The flexibility
> and
> simple mechanisms of DIRTSIDE II should however permit you to fit in
> these
> and any other systems that you may wish to use. Experiment and have
> fun!
>
> VEHICLE DESIGNS for use with DIRTSIDE II:
>
> 1) Slammers' Hovertank, or Panzer: 170  tonne hover AFV, crew of 2,
> 200mm
> powergun in turret with 20mm tribarrel powergun on commander's cupola.
>
> Iridium armour, fusion power plant.
> Slow	GEV, class 4 (large), basic signature = D6, level-1 stealth
> (effective signature D8).
> PGN/4 in turret, PGN/1 in cupola (also functions as APSW). Superior
> firecon. APFC. Armour 5 (Iridium). FGP. Superior ECM.
>
> 2) Combat Car:  medium hover AFV, open-topped, with 3 tribarrels and
> gunners in open fighting compartment. Iridium armour, fusion power
> plant.
> Slow	GEV, class 3 (medium), signature = D8. No stealth. PGN/1 x 3 on
> pintle mounts, enhanced firecons. APFC. Armour 3 (Iridium). FGP.
> Enhanced
> ECM.
>
> 3) Gun Jeep: light, unarmoured GEV with single tribarrel on pintle
> mount.
> Power source unspecified (probably batteries).
> Fast GEV, class 1 (very small), signature D12. No stealth. PGN/1 on
> pintle
> mount, enhanced firecon. Armour 0 (softskinned). Basic ECM.
>
> Other elements:
> The Artillery vehicles are lightly-armoured GEV carriers with RAM
> Howitzers, counting as MEDIUM artillery; all types of rounds are
> potentially available, including Nukes if the situation warrants
> (though
> high-level clearance is required for their use). In most cases the
> unit
> artillery will be located off-table.
> Softskin transport elements are used for support units, presumably
> GEVs but
> possibly "borrowed" indig vehicles (wheeled?) in some cases.
>
> Model availability:
> Although no firm presently makes specific models of the Slammers'
> vehicles,
> there is enough of a selection available in 1/300 scale to provide
> some
> usable alternatives. For the Panzers, any largish turretted hovertank
> will
> do the trick -  there are several good ones in the CMD range. For the
> combat cars, Scotia do an open-topped GEV with several pintle-mount
> guns
> that will serve nicely. Both CMD and Scotia do small open GEVs
> suitable for
> the Gun Jeeps, or these can be easily converted in this scale from
> present-day wheeled jeeps (pick one with a recoilless rifle or
> similar, cut
> the weapon down a little and add a "skirt" from milliput to hide the
> wheels). The infantry "skimmers" are a bit of a problem, as no-one
> makes
> anything really suitable, but they should not be hard to scratchbuild
> from
> scrap - alternatively don't bother with models for the skimmers, just
> use a
> marker to indicate whether the infantry are mounted-up or not.
>
> So, there it is - a brief overview of the Slammers for 1/300
> miniatures
> games. We haven't gone as far as to suggest scenarios, but may follow
> up
> with one or two in the future; for now, reading the books should giove
> you
> ample inspiration for some enjoyable battles!
>
> Jon Tuffley, Feb. 1995.