General Striker Revisited?

[mega-striker]

I am an old time fan of the original Striker. Getting back into gaming after about 25 years I am still interested in that game. But, despite the description and perhaps intentions the level of combat detail suits it better for skirmish (say a squad or two per side) games as opposed to company to battalion level. It is also stuck in 1980s game design limitations.

So this thread is multi level.

First I know there are people still interested in Striker to this day. I am but from a different direction and looking for like minded gamers. That direction is making the game work with fire team to squad size units who would make a single roll as opposed to one per figure.

Secondly is; is there a game out there (which I have missed or by passed as I have looked at maybe two dozen sets of rules or games in the last few years) which may suit my interests in game scale as above? I am a strong believer of why make new if something already does the job.

Thirdly I would like to keep the skirmish level of game which original Striker works at but to match a cleaner and quicker combat results system. Preferably one which is fully compatible with one and two above.

Four, still keeping the above in mind I worked up something like a hundred more rules to cover aspects in the original Striker which were missed, glossed over or just plain beyond what any sane person would attempt. I also changed a lot of the rules and many design sequence sections to further detail vehicle designs.

Much more to come but I have to start somewhere. Please keep in mind all this is in my Traveller universe and nothing is cannon. I have to add that part to satisfy the moderators but frankly what I have done and propose is and will be outside the original game.

[kilemall]

I'm big on Striker and I did a deep dive with it in the CT forum.

I don't know to what extent I can help you with your specific issues, as I went the other way, use Striker for the RPG combat and made it wonkier with hit location/armor mixes such that a pistol can potentially do 6D of damage or you might survive a plasma gun hit (likely no extremity left though) but they average to their classic damage levels.



My first thought is roll direct fire weapons as is but apply whatever numbers mismatch to weapons fired vs. targets as a damage modifier, then apply to the personnel wound roll, and the wound roll indicates either numbers down or total unit state.

So if you have 5 shooting against 10, you use the weapon pen vs, protecting cover/armor as normal but apply -5 as well. Or vice versa, 10 against 5 and it's +5 to the damage roll.


You could use wound levels to indicate how many down- Light is 10% down, Serious is 20% down, Death is 40% down. Or, apply the state to the unit as a whole same as an individual.

Units are going to have to have either general status of being recruit/veteran/elite, or some extra fiddly roll to determine if a better rating soldier got damaged in a unit hit. This particularly counts for leaders and the morale rules.



Vehicles are powerful and in the low numbers of 10 or less per side should probably maintain their rules.

If however we are talking serious armor/firepower battles with more then 10 per side, probably best to just simplify and use the personnel wound table again, with light wounds applying negatives as per vehicle crew recruit/veteran/elite state, serious wounds disabling the vehicle, and dead destroying the vehicle.


Int he case of artillery hits, I think you would have to have unit dispersal depending once again on your rating level- recruits will be huddled together in order to stay effective and allow the leader to maintain control/orders/morale. More skilled units can disperse more and reduce the amount of damage any arty hit has.


Speaking of the morale rules and orders, at a larger scale of unit size you as the player/leader are going to have a span of control that goes to the subordinate units you are directing. As such it's going to be very important to determine what state of leadership your units are at to tell how effective they will be in executing and maintaining cohesion, and when it's time to send reserve leaders or yourself to fix a lost command/control situation.

[mike wightman]

MegaTraveller is what you need to look at.

The Referee Companion book includes rules for combining units into larger formations and since MT's numbers are based on Striker you can move between the two.

Keep Striker for the platoon and lower scale engagement, but once you are maneuvering platoons as units of companies or companies as subunits of battalions then the MegaTraveller Referee's Companion is the way to go.

[mega-striker]

Kilemall

I will have to look at your threads(?). I assume you mean the classic traveller section here.

Mike

Thank you. I forgot about that. I have dug out my MT companion and will review that section.

[whartung]

Striker II uses "stands". Each stand is either an individual vehicle, a single person stand (notably a leader or commander), or a unit of 4 men (fire team, basically). It also has larger, "double", ones to represent weapon crews.

This is an example:

Gamma Company, 6th Battalion, 4518th Lift Infantry Regiment, 
The Duke of Regina's Own Huscarles, with:
    Company Headquarters, with: 
        1 operational command stand
    3 JumpTroop Platoons, each with 
        1 tactical command stand
        1 support infantry stand
        3 JumpTroop Squads, each with:
            1 tactical command stand 
            2 infantry stands

So, this Company has 34 stands total, 21 are fireteams. Each platoon is 11 stands each. Each squad is 3 stands each: 2 fire teams and a commander.

It's 97 people, assuming 4 per infantry stand and 1 per command stand.

This may be too high resolution than what you're thinking.

[mega-striker]

Thanks guys. Give me a week now to find and digest what you have recommended.

[mega-striker]

Mike

I looked this up today while waiting for my car to be worked on at the dealer.

All I took with me was the MT ref's companion. Unfortunately combat, especially what is needed to determine and understand large scale, is spread out over 3 books. In addition to MTRC you need the player's and referee's manuals and a lot of the explanations are spread out over combat and tasks so the whole thing is more of a game of search. Annoying but I did get the idea.


I thought combat in MT was based on Striker. To an extent it is bit it is also simplified and complicated by the inclusion of the task mechanic. Understandable but instead of putting it all in one place as I said it is spread over the three books in multiple sections. It can be gathered into one set of rules, and it looks like it might be worth that effort. Except I will review Striker 2 first.

The intended scale is too big for my needs. It seems like it can be adjusted but...

[mega-striker]

I looked at CT and searched for Striker. It returned 18 pages of results. In the first 3 pages I only found one thread started by you. I have pulled it out and will review. Can you please advise me of any other threads which you feel are worthwhile? Thank you in advance.

[aramis]

Originally Posted by mega-striker

I thought combat in MT was based on Striker. To an extent it is bit it is also simplified and complicated by the inclusion of the task mechanic. Understandable but instead of putting it all in one place as I said it is spread over the three books in multiple sections. It can be gathered into one set of rules, and it looks like it might be worth that effort. Except I will review Striker 2 first.

The intended scale is too big for my needs. It seems like it can be adjusted but...

MegaTraveller separates damage from penetration; this allows asymmetric unit sizes, since a unit's fire is average weapon skill, average penetration, but summed damages, of the weapons. So a fireteam of 1 FGMP-14 and 3 9mm ACRs using DS, that's (34+6+6+6)/4 Pen, or 13 pen, and 23 damage on nominal hit....
Note that, at the referee's option, the weapons may be sorted into two separate profiles...specifically,because 13 pen doesn't threaten ships nor APCs... but 34 does, and getting the 14 damage with a low-pen is far better than 23 with no-pen....

Also, the lack of Striker's C&C rules, and several other important bits do make the two rather different in practice.

[TNE2300]

to reduce the number of die rolls
I've been toying with this

each fire team uses a 'common attack die' (of a different color)
and each member uses only one instead of two

each members die has the common die added to it

so instead of 4 separate attack rolls
there is only one
but still 4 separate results

not perfect
the common die can make things a little 'swingy'
a good common roll and everybody hits
a bad one and everybody misses

also, can have different weapon types in the same roll
by using another different color die