Normally we play skirmish games every other Saturday, sometimes board games. As it got cancelled this weekend, and I had thought to bring Traveller Snapshot, I decided to try & play by myself.
First, I had to refresh myself with the rules, which are not really that complicated. And basically an extension of the Classic Traveller rules. And it really harkens back to THACO: there is a matrix of weapons, ranges and armor letting you know what you need to hit:
And it is interesting in that some weapons can be automatic hits - the VRF Gauss Rifle does both a lot of damage and at most ranges you find in a starship, can't miss. Not sure how well the hull will hold up though! Except that personal weapons, even fairly high-powered ones, are not going to damage a starship hull.
Once I familiarized myself with the rules, I decided a small ships troop complement of 5 soldiers in cloth armor were on board. A small 6-person group was going to break in via the cargo bay and try & take over the bridge to steal the ship. I ended up using a spreadsheet to keep track of everyone. And still got confused!
Turn 2: the invaders exit the cargo bay. One very speedy person (21 action points so they have a lot of options!) actually gets to the bridge level, to be met by the locked doors. The troopers, knowing that the central drop shaft is covered by the invaders, use a forward access point to get to the main level from the lower decks.
Turn 3 is where a lot of action took place! Our intrepid invader actually rolled a 12 and managed to get past the bridge security system (in hindsight I should have established the goal a bit better, but ad libbed the roll a 12 to get past security and dang if I did not do that the 1st roll! Invader #2 moves and shoots at a trooper who thought he was behind a bulkhead, and gets wounded. Trooper 3 moves and gets off 2 quick shots (-2 DM) and wounds invader 1. Who turns around to shoot at short range and somehow misses. Trooper 4 attacks invader 4, and as the laser rifle does 5D damage, hits him and takes attacker 4 out of the picture. Attacker 2 makes 2 quick shots against trooper 5 and wounds him but does not take him out. Attacker 6 takes an aimed shot at trooper 2 and hits, taking him out of the action. Finally, trooper 1 attacks invader #6 and automatically hits.
2 comments:
I'd always taken the "to hit" matrix in CT to mean the chance to land an effective hit i.e. rounds on target and armour defeated rather than just a simple "did I hit them" roll. In short, a method of speeding up combat to keep the game flowing.
If I understand what you are saying, yes, that matrix is whether you hit them or not despite shooting an entire clip, but needing a 10+ against cloth armor means most are not effective.
Where the skills really help.
Whereas later editions used the base 8+ to hit, and armor absorbed the damage. So you may hit them more often, but your 1d6 pistol against battledress is not going to do anything. In CT, if you had pistol 6 you may actually be able to do damage: it is abstracting out that you know exactly where to hit with the pistol.
In the end they are all abstractions. I did not like CT combat initially but it does have a bit of a draw to it. I may do another solitary skirmish but use At Close Quarters as the combat rules. And have fewer people - 1 on 1 may be enough!
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