[SG] And you thought I was warped before

Less offensive than comparing cultures, more friendly
than nuclear weapons. . . 

I've been playing around with a reprinted copy of
Space: 1889, and a borrowed copy of the old Soldier's
Companion.  So then it hit me that what the world
really needs right now is a colonial warfare
conversion of Stargrunt.

Well, I was drunk at the time.	What can I say?  Don
thought it was funny.  But that says more about our
sense of humor than whether it's necessarily a Good
Idea.

This isn't even a beta release.  It's not even a
prerelease of the beta release.  This is "I'm bored
and I've got a bunch of books with me, so I'm going to
Do Something."	Havn't added in cavalry, artillery,
Martians, landships, tripods, or anything else cool
yet.

So without further ado, I present: Full Metal Assegai,
Or How To Conquer The World With Less Than 200,000
Troops While Maintaing it is For Their Own Good.

Quality:  Units have two qualities.  One is normal
quality, the other is Fieldcraft Quality, which is
rolled to go In Position or move without removing In
Position marker.  Some units have really good morale
and training, but couldn't fight as skirmishers and
use cover to save their lives (Coldstream Guards, fer
instance).  Other units are crap in a standup fight
but a sneaky little bastards (Serbian militia).  This
allows them to move from cover to cover better.  Plus
there's another modifier, Sharpshooter.  These guys
shoot better (duh).  That's covered in the fire combat
section.  Examples of Sharpshooters include the King's
Royal Rifle Corps and the 3rd Finnish Lifeguard Rifles
in the Russian Army.

Unit Integrity and Formations:	It's 1889.  Many
armies, especially on colonial service, still take up
linear formations.  British are notorious.  Plus many
irregulars (especially those depending on close
combat, such as Mahdist forces) tend to bunch up in
masses.  The available formations are Line, Column,
Square, Mass, Open Order, and Disorganized.  Line
Column, Square, and Mass are referred to as "formed". 
Disorganized is not a formation anyone goes into
voluntarily.

Line is 1-2 men deep, all bases touching.

Column is 2-4 men wide, more figures deep than wide. 
All bases touching.

Square is 4 lines forming hollow box and facing
outward.

Mass is as wide as it is deep and all bases touching.

Open Order is as per normal rules, but no more than 1"
between troops.

Disorganized is anything else.

Troops in 1 formation are treated as 1 unit for
purposes of activation.  If they are part of the same
unit, then they take morale as 1 unit as long as they
are in the same formation and that unit's commander
(or senior surviving officer) is present.  If a
formation is created from multiple sections of
differing morale, the formation as a whole uses the
lowest morale state of its consituent subunits.

Units of less than 6 men may not form formations other
than open order.

Communication:	Requires troops to be in voice range. 
Suggestions as to max range of voice communications on
a battlefield of this time period are welcome.	Except
if there's a musician to relay commands?

Supression:  Formed troops may ignore suppression
placed on them by fire if they are confident. 
However, this converts all minor hits to major hits. 
Example:  A section of Coldstream Guards is being shot
at by some Sudanese ansars.  The Dervishes roll
quality (d6) and firepower (10 rifle-muskets, FP 5, so
d4).  They roll a 4 and a 1.  The Coldstream Guards
player confidently picks up his d10 (3 range bands
away) and rolls. . . a 2.  So the Sudanese adds it up
to 5, doubles for firing at formed troops (see below)
to get 10.  So he inflicts 1 casualty.	Some nameless
private drops dead, but the Guards don't miss a beat
(pass their confidence check), and calmly return fire
by volley, which means the Sudanese player is about to
have a bad day.

Armor:	Only a handful of primitives wear any armor. 
Metal armor of any kind is treated as d6.  All other
armor is ignored.  Shields only affect close combat
and fire from bows.

Weapons:		Firepower   Impact   Notes
Bolt Action Rifle	   2	      d10      
Bolt Action Carbine	   2	       d8
Lever Action Rifle	   2	       d8
Lever Action Carbine	   2	       d6
Breech Loading Rifle	   1	      d10
Breech Loading Carbine	   1	      d8
Rifle Musket		   .5	      d10      1
Rifled Carbine		   .5	      d8       1,2
Smoothbore Musket	   .5	      d10      1,2,3
Smoothbore Carbine	   .5	      d8       1,2,3
Shotgun 		   3	      d8       2
Bow			   .5	      d4       1,2
Revolver		   2	      d6       2,3

1 May not fire from prone (oversimplification, but a
firing action is presumed to be multiple shots over a
period of time and this is not possible from the prone
with these weapons).
2 Close Range Band Only
3 Targets are treated as being 1 range band further
away.

Machine Guns	FP     Impact	 
.5" Gatling	d8(d10) d10 
Mitrailleuse	d8	d10
Nordenfelt 1-B	d6	d10
Nordenfelt 3-B	d8	d10
Nordenfelt 5-B	d10	d10
Gardner 	d6(d8)	d10 
Maxim		d12	d10

FP in parens indicates a higher rate of fire which can
be achieved at the cost of potential jam.  If using
the higher number, roll a crew quality dice.  On a 3
or less, it jams.  It requires a reorganize to clear a
jam.  This needs a reaction check at TV +0.  If there
are no friendly troops between the machine gun crew
and the enemy, then this becomes a confidence check.

Range band modifiers:  Dice rolled by defender is a d4
at close range in the open.  This is modified up or
down die sizes as follows.  All are cumulative.

Per range band away +1
For In Position     +1
In Soft Cover	    +1
Hard Cover	    +1
Target is formed troops -1
Target is in Column, Mass, Enfiladed Line -1
Target is being fired at with bows and has shields +1

Sharpshooters have their range bands increased by 50%
if fighting in open order.  (Yes, that means that the
Rifle Brigade has 18" range bands.  Deal with it.)

A formed unit may use volley fire.   Volley fire or
machine gun fire directed against a formed unit causes
double casualties, ie: Double the number in Step #2 of
the summary on p36 of the SGII Rules.

In Line formation, all soldier may fire to the front
of the formation.  Only the soldiers on the end may
fire to that flank.  In column, only the 2 lead ranks
may fire forward.  Only the soldiers on the edge may
fire to that flank.  In mass, only the soldiers in the
front 2 rows may fire and only forwards.  In Open
Order, all soldiers may fire in direction.  In
disorder, half the troops in the front rank may fire
forwards.

(Summary of firing rules:  It SUCKS to be in a formed
unit exchanging volleys with another formed unit.)

Movement: Formed Troops move at 6" rate.  Squares move
at 3" and may not charge (the square may break up and
the lines charge in their directions, but not the
formation as a whole).	Columns move at 12".  Open
Order or Mass fomrations move at 8".  Disorganized
units move at 8".  Encumbered units (carrying wounded,
ammo, etc) reduce movement by 2" (4" in column).

Line:  May move forward or obliquely at no greater
than a 45 degree angle.  May wheel, cost movement as
per the farthest moving element.

Clear: Open, Light Scrub, Gentle slope
Poor: Cultivated
Difficult: Rough (depends on your rough.  Boulder
fields are impassable), Fords
Impassable: Open Water, All woods, swamp, 

Mass: Straight line forward.  Reorganize action to
change facing.

Disorder: Straight line, cannot move toward enemy.

New Movement Type: Formed Infantry
Clear: Open, Light Scrub, Gentle slope
Poor: Cultivated
Difficult: Rough (depends on your rough.  Boulder
fields are impassable), Fords
Impassable: Open Water, All woods, swamp, 

Melee:	Move formed units into contact until each mini
in the front rank makes contact with the charged unit
if that is possible without breaking formation. 
(Badly worded, but basically I'm saying use the rules
on page 16 of the Soldier's Companion).

Between open order units, handled as per SGII.

Between Formed units:  On first round, front 2 ranks,
only those troops in contact and those directly to
their left and right actually fight.

Between formed and unformed units:  the formed unit
moves into contact with as much of the unformed unit
and only those in the front two ranks directly in
contact or to their left/right actually fight, and ony
against those soldiers in contact.

If contacted on the flank, only 1 rank of troops on
that flank may fight.

Close Combat Values:
Rifle with Bayonet, Spear: -
Shotgun:  +2
Revolver +2
Sabre/Sword: +1
These four are not cumulative, only the best one
applies.  Those following are cumulative.

Officer/Chieftan/Senior NCO (Above rank of Sergeant)
+1
British in Square +1
Higher Ground +1
Behind Cover +1
Defending from Flank -1
Defending from Rear -2

If both units pass their confidence checks at the end
of the first round, then they are both considered
disordered.  They may expand their formation by up to
50% to get more troops into combat, and open order
units may move their troops in to fight.  However,
only the front ranks may fight in second and
subsequent rounds.

Confidence Checks
Situation		     L	     M	     H
First Time Unit Takes Fire   2	     1	     /
Takes Casualties	     2	     1	     /
Takes more casualties than
survivours		     4	     3	     1
Unit leader killed	     4	     3	     2
Modifiers:
Under Artillery Fire	     +2      +1      +0
Untreated Casualty	     +1      +0      NTR
Abandoned Wounded	     +3      +2      +1
Colours advancing in sight   -1      -2      -2
Modifiers and situations that require checks (ie, if
this is the only situation, then use the TVs below. 
If this is combined with another situation that causes
confidence checks, use these as modifiers)
Fired at by volley fire      +1      +0      /
Fired at by Friendly	     +2      +1      +0
Colours retiring in sight    +2      +1      +0
Colours have fallen	     +4      +3      +2

Special Confidence Checks:

If a shaken or broken unit witnesses an enemy unit
falling back due to failed morale, they may rally on
their own.  Roll a confidence check at TV +2/+1/+0. 
If they pass, they become Steady.

If a regular d8 or better unit wins in melee and
passes it's confidence check, roll another at TV
+0/+1/+3.  If it passes, it becomes Confident.	If it
fails, it becomes Frenzied.  Irregular unit and
regular d4/d6 units automatically frenzy.  Frenzied
must pursue a retreating enemy unit or charge the
closest enemy unit.  

Well. . . 

Questions, Comments, or Concerns?

John "Who me, mad as a hatter?"

PS: Next Up, the Byzantine conversion, Full Metal
Armenian. . . 

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send your FREE holiday greetings online!