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Homebrew Officer Rules and Medical Rules Discussion


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#1 Smokey_Smith

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Posted 07 October 2024 - 09:44 AM

Hello everyone,

 

I was curious if anyone has tried adding any additional home brew rules for officers, sergeant majors and medical staff?

 

Not sure if anyone has played Chain of Command by Too Fat Lardies, but their officer mechanics are quiet intriguing and I was wondering if anyone has tried possibly porting those rules over to Mein Panzer?

 

In case anyone is unaware, officers in Chain of Command are central to the games function and they are able to do things like activate units, remove/alter morale effects, and inspire troops which effect combat modifiers. Currently in Mein Panzer, officers can call for fire, improve morale rolls via proximity, and re-organize a unit. Otherwise their abilities are somewhat lacking I find and there are also no rules for unit sergeant majors. Therefor I was hoping a discussion could spark some interesting additions to officer abilities. Things like more direct influence on troop morale, the ability to inspire or modify specific combat values (i.e. increase a units spotting chance, or roll to hit), or a direct influence in how reinforcements are brought onto the table. I also think it would be interesting if rules for the platoon/company/battalion sergeant-major were brought in, though I understand the administrative role they play is hard to mimic with table top combat mechanics.

 

In the same vein as above I was also curious if anyone has tried inserting their own medical rules into the game? I'm aware in one-off battles, medical rules might not be within the scope of a single engagement, but, at battalion level, it wouldn't be unreasonable to have aid posts on table, and if players are playing a longer campaign style, medical rules would be much more significant. So again, I'm curious if anyone has attempted to bring in their own medical mechanics and how they worked.

 

Cheers!



#2 Phil Callcott

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Posted 07 October 2024 - 12:41 PM

Be careful what you wish for.

 

The more minutia you introduce the slower any game plays.  Wading though treacle should not be a game objective.

 

We mainly play rules based on d10 systems.

 

Roll a 10 and everything is fine, the ammo is good, the gun is calibrated, the gunner is on form, the shell hits that one weak spot...

 

Roll a 1 and it's SNAFU, your powder is damp, smoke obstructs the target, the gunner sneezes trying to find his target...

 

We let one die roll decide results, not reams of tables attempting to cover every eventuality.

 

Just my thoughts...

 

Phil



#3 Smokey_Smith

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Posted 07 October 2024 - 01:03 PM

Not really trying to bog down the game, just interested in possible actions that can be added to broaden the depth of command options. As it stands officers have 5 action options; move, shoot personal weapons, call for fire, take command, and re-organize. They also have the passive ability for morale checks when in proximity.

 

I don't think it would really bog the game down in any significant way to add actions to the officers action pool. Things like; activate a unit that's already been activated, order units to go to ground/run/hide, actions that can be used to effect combat modifiers, actions that can be used to directly effect morale or morale tests, actions to influence the arrival of reinforcements...etc. More actions would really flesh out more tactical options, as well as give more meat and significance to the commanders on the field, making their presence and loss equally felt. I'm curious if anyone has actually tried this in their games at all and what their outcomes have been.

 

Too Fat Lardies did a great job with officer mechanics in Sharpe's Practice and Chain of Command, and I don't really see it being a huge issue to port in similar mechanics into Mein Panzer.



#4 Kenny Noe

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Posted 07 October 2024 - 04:35 PM

Mein Panzer has rules for Command and Morale.   These two "Drop-In" chapters address officers from battalion all the way down to Squad level.  The Morale "Drop-In" chapter expands on the simple Pinned and Suppression rules covered in the Advance Rules chapter to include inspired to routed troops.  

 

I would recommend reading those before trying to adapt another game systems methods to MP.  

 

Medical troops is a bit deeper than MP tends to go.  MP has infantry down to the Fire team level not individual solider.  The best I can think of off the top of my head is the ability to recover troop morale conditions as outlined in the Morale "Drop-In" chapter.

 

All this said, if you want to use your own house rules, by all means go right ahead.

 

Let us know how it goes.



#5 Smokey_Smith

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Posted 07 October 2024 - 07:10 PM

Thank you for the reply. I'm pretty familiar with both the command and morale drop in. I just personally find that the actions available to the officers are pretty lacking. It is also having an effect on the way officers are being used on the tabletop (at least in my games). Rules as written, the only real meaningful action the officer is useful for is call for fire. Taking command and re-organzing are case specific and sporadically come up in game play. Because of that, players are tending to hide their officers because the risk of them getting killed and losing command cohesion far outweighs their ability to call for fire, especially when FOO's and recon are present on the table. Even the passive ability of +2 to morale checks when in proximity is still blunted by the risk of losing the officer.

 

Hence, the reason for this discussion thread was to hopefully brain storm some actions that can be added to the officer action pool to make the officers more valuable to the player. Some examples of officer specific actions to consider;

 

---Pl. Cmd. and above

  • Inspire: an officer uses an action to increases a stands morale level by 1.
  • Adjust fire: an officer uses an action to decrease a stands to-hit roll by -1 (ends immediately after effected stand rolls).
  • Concentrate fire: an officer uses an action to increase a stands Kill Table value by +1 (ends immediately after effected stand rolls).

---Coy. Cmd. and above

  • Stand to: an officer uses an action to order a stand immediately into overwatch.
  • Spot on: an officer uses an action to increase a stands spot number by 1 (ends immediately after effected stand rolls).

---Bn. Cmd. only

  • Activate: an officer uses an action to immediately activate a stand, even if that stand hasalready been activated.
  • Punch out: an officer uses an action to increase the command distance of a unit by 6"/12" (until end of turn).
  • Establish HQ: the Bn. CO uses an action to establish an HQ. The Bn. CO. loses his ability to move, but gains an additional action (permanent or until destroyed/captured).

Some things to consider would be things like troop quality of the officer, and how many actions different officers should have. How does an untrained Bn. CO. rate against an elite Pl. Cmd.?

 

 

Again, the idea is to give the officers significantly more tactical flexibility so they become an integral part of the battle plan at all levels of command.






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