PBOM (Alternate History / Near Future Wargame), Work in Progress
EDIT: When I wrote this the images were way smaller. I'm sorry that Reddit makes all the images super huge.
EDIT EDIT: I made this into a PDF that is easier to read. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eQ5CYTCj7p8FLkBGRQoB5ZIVTbkQoFD4JEgFiYdJMAQ/edit?usp=sharing
Look, I know I'm not actually a chit or counter or whatever that is, alright? The scary voice in the sky says we will get there soon, but he wants me to explain something.
Okay he says to show you this square thing so you can be a bit patient.... Okay I guess?
Apparently this will make you happy? I don't get it.
Okay, so my name is Pyotr. A lot of things about me are not important, I'm just the poor guy stuck trying to explain something to you.
Some really fancy German guy like 200 years ago or something, said that war is "politics by other means", hence the name of this "system".
I'm told this is a "alternate history / near future" system for "people who like geopolitical Tom Clancy thriller things". The original ruleset is from some company, but it has holes in it and you can't patent rules, and maybe the system will be heavily revised, who knows.
He also tells me you only need to read one page of the original system to play and the original rules are only like 15 pages.
Oh wow, Microsoft paint is really compressing and distorting images today... Nevermind that. All you need to know is that in this "system" the average unit is a platoon and the average hexagon is 125 meters end to end.
The voice in the sky says it's for math reasons and something about "I looked at like 7 systems, just give me a break dude".
Now he is telling me we need to move onto the "counters" or "chits".
Okay so first things first, each chit normally, in the most basic version of the rules, can do like one of three or four things a turn. One of them is move and another is attack
You roll 1d10 to attack.
The firepower stat is added to your 1d10 roll and the enemy piece, subtracts their cohesion from that number.
So for example, on average, about half of 1d10s are 5 or better.
Which is 15 vs 15 or more than 15 vs 15
If you die or exceed the enemy's cohesion, you make them "disrupted".
But I think we should just say they are "suppressed", as that's what a lot of people and systems call it.
Suppressed
Disrupted unit can't move, they shoot with half as many attacks, and if get hit again, they instantly die.
The voice in the sky says that he did a bunch of math on a marker board and found that the introduction units in the original system, demonstrate the math quite well, and meet his expectations for what a "wargaming" "system" should be like.
Funnily enough, my platoon actually has very similar, if not identical stats. So let's use me and the boys.
A manpower is about 10 guys and each manpower gets 1 attack.
So you might notice that the attacks and ranges are at "Medium". For me and the boys, that is about 2 hexagons out or past 200-250 meters.
It's because we use 500 meter weapons, such as the AK-74 (effective range).
You might've noticed, that at Medium Range, if we shoot at clone of ourselves OR a counterpart, and they're not in cover, we Suppress them half the time.
Half the time we do nothing.
And here is the crazy thing
Destroyed Manpower
If anyone exceeded our Cohesion by 6, say they somehow got a 21, we lose 1 manpower, or half of the boys.
But, you can't do that on a 1d10, if you're shooting us, at Medium Range, and a clone.
So as long as we don't get hit twice, we avoid getting too close, and avoid being ambushed, we don't just instantly die.
Compared to Voice's (Designer's) Favorite System
In the designers favorite system, let's call it "47", the math for Suppression is the same, but we can't do anything at all if we're Suppressed the next turn, AND at Medium Range there is a 37.5% chance we lose half the boys instantly.
I'm not a fan.
You might be wondering why the Range and firepower for "Short" isn't labeled.
It's because, you see, each hex is 125 meters end to end and our Short Range is almost exactly 125 meters.
And we're a platoon that is spread out over the middle part of a hexagon.
So the distance between one platoon and another is 50% over 125 meters and 50% under 125 meters, and the designer made a call.
Needless to say, we have +5 to our Firepower if we get closer or charge or shoot while running, the next hex.
But we only move 50 meters a turn, because the original wargame wasn't meant to use hexs. The voice in the sky made it into hexs, because of logistical and ease of play reasons.
A lot of wargames would just put our Medium Range at 75 to 150 meters, but this one system with *checks notes* "Imperial guardsmen" has units move 1/4th the distance they can shoot out to.
And I'm told that system has a lot of melee, perhaps too much.
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Designer here, I wasn't sure how to introduce this system or if I should or if it would be a waste of time, but IDK, I gave it a shot.
Worst case, I make this into a PDF and share it with some friends, IDK.
The parent system provided some numbers and charts, and with that, plus looking at the definitions of unit quality levels in like 5 other wargames, I can stat tons of IRL units or stuff from Command and Conquer, or alt-hist or Near-Future games like that.
I honestly wanted to put that forward, but I was torn, and decided to do this instead.
Hope more people like this than hate this format?
