Big bastard robots with festooned with lasers, guns and missiles. Be it a a piloted rig, a drone, a robot, some sort of armoured amniotic case, a drooling organic beast with acid for blood or a shielded frame with an exposed pilot, anything that stalks the battlefield on legs and fits into the above category is a ‘Walker’.
Let’s be clear, ‘Walkers’ are a stupid idea. They have a massive profile, are lightly armoured (relative to the sloped armour fo a tank), easily knocked over. They have ZERO practical value as a weapon of war.
But they as also amazingly cool.
Now, Four legged or Two legged? Do my giant Velstrine beasts count as walkers? or just a vehicle?, you need to decide that. These rules define walkers as anything that walks and is relatively agile (compared to a vehicle), it can be hard to define the difference, but use your best judgement (and imagination, what the model supposed to represent?).
Titanic Walkers will be covered in the advanced rules.
8.0 – Platoon (Walkers) Coherency
Based upon the rules concept that 1mm = 1m, we will allow all Walkers (elements) in the Platoon (formation) to be required to remain within 4cm of each other.
Use 2.0.1 Out of Coherency, when units are no longer coherent.
8.1 – Visibility
Based upon our understood limitations, we are determining the visibility of a Walkers at 200cm (2m) on the tabletop. (same as vehicles)
Any interruption to this, Buildings, Woods, other Vehicles, blocks the LoS. We operate that if the Vehicle can draw line to it, it can see it.
We currently DO allow Walkers to draw LoS though friendly Walkers, (this represents the agility of these machines)
Paragraph
(ADD IMAGE, few LOS Examples)
8.1.1 – Elevation
This is important for all shooting and LoS issues. The higher up you are, the rather you can see (see the first paragraph in visibility). But, we want to avoid all sorts of complex calculations for this, so in the basic game, elevation provides NO bonus to sighting distance, BUT, elements above another element can ALWAYS trace a LoS over them.
8.1.2 – Terrain
As it states above, all sorts of tings block your LoS, Buildings, Woods, Vehicles, Hills, Clouds of deadly toxic fumes, etc. Most types of terrain allow you to move through them (Woods, Hills, etc), but how far can you see into them?
In the basic rules, we will simply state that you can see 1cm INTO AND OUT OF any area terrain such as Woods, Buildings, etc. Simple.
8.2 – Orders
As with Infantry, you can give your Platoons some orders (1 per Platoon) at the start of your turn.
You may also issue no order if you wish. (optional, ONE no order may become an Advance order?)
Your choices are as follows
Advance
You may move you Platoon in any direction, maintaining Platoon coherency and fire at any eligible Non-Friendly formation. This is the standard ‘move and shoot’ order, you may NOT shoot and move, but you need not move OR shoot if you do not wish to under an Advance order.
Assault
You MUST move towards the nearest visible enemy unit, maintaining Platoon coherency, fire at your ‘reduced’ rating and engage enemy Formations. This is the only allowed method of getting into base-to-base contact with enemy units. You MUST move your full movement allowance (plus dice, minus terrain), you need NOT shoot.
The shooting occurs at any point in the assaulting players move, but before they reach base-to-base contact.
You may not issue an assault order if you cannot reach your opponent (based on your maximum potential movement)
Fall-Back
You MUST move your Platoon in towards your table edge with a plus 5cm movement bonus, maintaining Platoon coherency and fire at your ‘reduced’ rating at any eligible enemy Formations.
Engage
You may not move your Platoon. You MUST fire at any eligible non-friendly formation, and deduct 1 from your base target number for Heavy Weapon AND Firefight. You may NOT choose not to fire when an Engage order is issued, you MUST use all your Heavy Weapons points. NOTE, the bonus to both represents the perceived ability of these machines to be usable weapons platforms for all weapons.
Reform
You may only move up to 5cm + D5cm (Normal penalties apply). You may NOT fire. You may remove the ‘damaged’ status from one Walker, and check the others to remove the ‘damaged’ status (See under Shooting 2.5.4 – Repair)
8.3 – Movement
Our basic principle is that a Platoon moves its movement statistic, plus 1D10 cm.
8.3.1 – Optional Rule – Fast, Fast, Faster. You MUST move. You can 1D10 to your movement by surrendering 1 point of armour. You may fire at your ‘reduced’ rating at eligible enemy Formations, Essentially you encourage your Platoon to run faster and ignore potential dangers and fire control to gain and additional movement dice.
8.3.2 – Terrain
This is a lot more complex for Walkers. We presume they have a high degree of agility and manoeuverability, so we allow them a lot of leeway here, only a few things impede their movement
Simple Linear Obstacle, a ’small’ obstacle, sandbags, domestic fencing, hedging, field walls on an enclosed field, ‘small’ streams/brooks (these are ignored)
Complex Linear Obstacle, a ‘larger’ obstacle, high walls, razor wire, bocage, industrial wire fencing, large streams
Road, an actual road that is kept clear and passable, somewhere you can see more easily the dangers, and worry less about your balance!
Description | Cost in Cm | Notes |
Simple Linear Obstacle | 0m | Domestic Fencing, Field Walls, Hedges |
Complex Linear Obstacle | -1cm | High Walls, Razorwire, Bocage |
Rough Terrain | Half | Moorland, Desert, Snow, Swamp, Ploughed Field, River |
Impassible | N/A | Volcanoe, Lake, Cliff, |
Fall Back Order Issued | +5cm | see Orders |
Fast, Fast, Faster. (optional) | +1d10 cm | See Movement – Optional Rules |
Road | +5cm | The whole move MUST be on road |
8.4 – Shooting
Walkers will use the vehicular shooting rules found in 2.6 – Shooting
8.5 – Morale
Walkers use the vehicular morale rules found in 2.7 – Morale
The profile
This is the core of the game, here are determined everything that an element can do, broken down into some attempt at an explanation.
Description – What this element represent, Regular Infantry Squad, a Phalanx Main Battle Tank, a Hellbent IV APC
Type – Infantry, Vehicles, Walkers and Aircraft
Movement – How far can you move on an Advance order (+1D10 cm)
Firefight – How effective are their Plasma Rifles, Bolt Casters, HV Rifles, Laser Carbines, Sonic Disruptors or whatever personal weapons the grunts are armed with.
Heavy Weapons – How good are their Atomic Destabilisers, Plasma Cannons, Metal Storm Cannons, Chain Guns, Missile Launchers, HMG’s or Laser Gatlings, whenever constitutes Heavy Weapons in your force.
Close Combat – How many pathetic little meatball humans can you stomp on in one round?
Damage Capacity – How many serious holes can they sink into you before you stop working.
Armour – How good is your hull armour?, Cold Pressed Steel?, PolyCarbide?, A slice of Edam?, this number helps work that out
Notes – Any special abilities go here, none are officially in play yet, but consider Ablative Armour, you ignore your first ‘reduced’ status, others are under consideration.
Points – How many point is this element worth
Description | Type | Movement | Firefight | Heavy Weapon | Close Combat | Damage Capacity | Armour | Notes | Points |
Cricket | Walker | 25cm/15cm | 2/1 | 1/0 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 15 |
Aguileon | Walker | 20cm/10cm | 3/1 | 3/1 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 30 |
Kreigshammer | Walker | 15cm/10cm | 4/2 | 4/2 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| 50 |