Arguing when money talks: Der Soldner. A Review

When you've been playing wargames for 30 years like me, you might think that you've pretty much seen it all. Turn-based, IGO-UGO, alternate turns, reaction systems: I've played it all. And then suddenly a ruleset emerges that has a totally new approach: Der Soldner.

Made for playing battles from the mid-14th to the mid-17th century; the era of the colorful mercenary armies of the Italian condotierri and our own 80-year war, Der Soldner was written by veteran wargamer Jan Willem Boots, who based it loosely on the classic matrix wargames. 

Unlike a fixed sequence of turns with standardised events, this system works with one question: "What is going to happen next?".

In this system, the game scenario is a framework for an undetermined number and sequence of events and assumes two armies meeting each other on the battlefield under a certain set of circumstances. At that moment, the game begins and with it the story. Because in Der Soldner, the Narrator decides what happens.

Each player is given a number of Control Dice at the beginning of each turn, of which he can roll as many as he wants to determine whether he will be the Narrator and how long the turn will last. The player with the single highest score becomes the Narrator, and the combined rolls determine how long the turn will last in game minutes: one per 4+.

The Narrator proposes one or a series of events and how they will happen. This does not need to apply to just his own troops, but can also refer to those of his opponent. For example: "My cavalry is attacking his convoy. His escort flees". 

He explains why this event will play out this way ("My cavalry is terrifying and the convoy's escort is poorly paid") and uses the so-called Keywords associated with the scenario (Cuirrassiers, Pay in arrears). 

The rules provide examples for Keywords, but players can add more if they like. In addition to the Keywords, all kinds of historical arguments can of course also be used to argue in favor of - or against-  a proposed event.

These events can be questioned by the opponent and possibly modified ("His cavalry does not pursue my escort but instead loots the convoy and starts drinking!"). Or not, and then the event will usually just happen. 

A game master (or consensus between civilized opponents) determines how likely the event is and therefore how high you have to throw it to make it happen.

If the event occurs as "predicted", it may still take more time than anticipated. A "Time Check" occurs where dice must be rolled for every minute that one thinks the event will last. Every 4+ is one minute. If you roll too many, the event will last longer than you thought it would and will continue into the next round (The looting takes so long that the next turn is still in progress).

If it comes to a firefight or melee, the outcome of this is also predicted, provided with a probability and dice are rolled for that probability. Guidelines are given for a number of standard situations (e.g. cavalry attacks a column of infantry) to help determine the probability. 

The extent to which the roll does not reach or exceeds the required result determines the outcome of the fight. This can easily be read from a table in which consequences such as making a stand, chasing and fleeing are also possible. 

This sequence repeats itself as long as there are players who have Control Dice left. Then a new round begins.

In this way, the events string themselves together until the battle is over and the whole story is told.

The uniqueness of this set makes it ideal for players with a love for stories, history, or a background in roleplaying. And it produces intense and intriguing games in which everyone is constantly engaged. Strongly recommended and an absolute must!

Arguing when money talks: Der Soldner

Jan-Willem Boots, 2023

Available for purchase online at www.boekscout.nl or www.bol.com

Spectre Operations: a review of the 2nd edition

When playing a modern wargaming ruleset my impression always is that the bar for realism is raised just that much higher. After all, while we must always assume stuff when playing historical games (and the further back in time, the more assumptions we need) we can see and know modern warfare from the news, the Internet and, if we know such people, from conversations with veterans and active military personnel. So even when we have not served in active military duty, it just takes that bit more to “feel right” when playing a modern wargame.

When trying to achieve this, the first pit fall for the game designer is to over-detail things and end up with a hyper-realistic but unplayable ruleset of daunting complexity and glacial playing speed. It takes quite some skill and creativity on the part of the designer to avoid this and still come up with a game that answers to our demands for realism and offers a great game at the same time. Spectre Operations is a skirmish ruleset that strives for this. Having reached its second edition recently, I thought it time for a more thorough review. 

Context

Spectre is a skirmish game on a 1-on-1 figure scale set in the present day (which means from the Cold War days onwards to the near future). So the game supports and features the most modern weapons, equipment, vehicles and tactics. Think mini-drones, heat-sensitive gunsights and realtime battlefield communications. All of this of course existing alongside older technology that should also function in the game.

It is obviously also meant to play current conflicts, some of them even going on at this moment. This, I know, is not for everyone, but this review will not address that aspect of the game. I will assume that everybody who wants to play –or plays- Spectre has no problem with that.

Spectre works best when playing scenarios with mission objectives. As it should, since the usual wargaming standard of “pitched battle to the death” rarely features on the real battlefield.

Spectre also assumes that the defining aspect of the modern warrior is his or her training and experience. Troops are divided in quality classes (Levels) ranging from untrained civilians to elite special forces troops. Troop level determines skills, but also generally available weapons and equipment, reactions to events and certain types of behavior. For example, Untrained troops have better morale when operating in units of 10 or more and Elite troops do not have to adhere to Unit Cohesion and may operate individually.

Finally, available actions are severely influenced by Commands given before the "real"action phases. Whether troops are Alert (aware of imminent action) or Unalert (aware of possible action, but not specifically) greatly influences possible commands and actions. 

Mechanics
Spectre is turn based, each turn divided into phases that define a moment to make decisions, take actions or suffer the consequences of those actions. Turns are repeated until the victory conditions of the scenario played are met and the scenario ends. Phases include Initiative, Commands, Movement & Tactical actions and Combat (Ranged- and then Close-) 

Actions and their success are determined by rolling a D6 against a skill number. Skills include things like shooting, agility and command. Environment and circumstances usually cause modifiers to be added or subtracted.

Turn phases
In the first phase Initiative is determined by a die roll plus the highest Command value in each force minus Suppression effects. The highest score starts each phase of that turn. 

The role of commanders and/or highly trained troops comes into play through the second phase of the turn; the Command phase. In this phase Commanders may issue orders to troops they can communicate with if they can test successfully for Command. This enables larger numbers of troops to take special actions in the phases to come, like Overwatch fire (during the opponents movement phase), breaking up squads into smaller squads, Rallying or scanning for hidden stuff.

Players may move their troops in Initiative order and may perform Tactical actions before or after movement like running, sneaking, breaching doors or whatever seems fitting given the situation or scenario. And all these things might be interrupted or enhanced by Command driven actions.

Finally troops may combat by shooting, throwing grenades and fighting melee (in that order). The shoot system is an opposed die roll of Shooting skill plus die vs Defence plus die. Models can be killed instantly or become wounded and more or less incapacitated. This is determined by a roll on a table.  

Virtually any kind of weapon used by Man can be handled by the weapon lists. However this is elegantly done by reducing any weapon to a small number of stats: range, lethality and one or two special rules like Rapid Fire (more shots per salvo) and such.

All kinds of actions can be tested by using the stats given to each figure. Command is used by tests of willpower for example, while Agility is used when performing physical tasks. This prevents the need for extensive skill tables and such and results in an elegantly simple mechanism that can tackle virtually anything.

Suppression
Units gain Suppression points when their members are being shot at. As soon as a Force's point total equals its commanders' Command skill the unit must test against that Command skill. Failure will result in a higher Suppression Level. This has an enormous influence on the game. First, the Level of your units' Suppression counts against your Initiative roll for the entire next turn. Second, Suppression levels severely limit the effectiveness of members of the suppressed unit, as they will lose skill points and movement when suppression levels mount. 

While Suppression points start at zero each turn, Suppression levels stay and can only be lowered by Rally Commands. They must be managed carefully as otherwise they will slowly paralyze your force and make you lose all Initiative until units are pinned or routed.  

Miscellaneous
The rules include the use of all kinds of vehicles and other equipment. Vehicles are equally simple to use, behaving like big models and having a few special rules to handle things like (un)boarding and armour.

Advanced rules are provided to represent special situations like weather conditions or covert operations. 

The 1st edition provides a point value that has been omitted from the 2nd. This might not be to everyone's taste. I understand that Spectre's website will feature a points list in time. It is no problem in my eyes since I tend to write and play scenarios and the book supports that just fine.

The book offers scenarios and how to make them as well as a chapter on modern tactics to enable the less militaristically schooled player to emulate modern warfare in the way the rules are supposed to support them. Brief and enlightening, it is a very valuable addition to the book.

The 2nd edition offers a chapter on Campaign play as well, which is new compared to the 1st edition.

Comparison 1st and 2nd edition rulebook

Both are sturdy paperbacks in full colour. The improvement in the 2nd edition however is MASSIVE.

It sports an extra 40 pages compared to its predecessor and when comparing them the numerous examples and diagrams of play immediately stand out. These were sorely missing in the first book and they are invaluable for making the game more accessible to new players and clarifying the rules. In my opinion the best of the improvements, but not the only one.

The book's sequence now follows more logically the sequence in which one needs the rules to play a game. And there is an Index! Only one page, but nevertheless it was missing from the 1st edition.

The Suppression rules have been completely overhauled. In the 1st edition Suppression was an individual score that influenced the units. Spectre had no equivalent for a Morale/Break test of sorts but oddly I never missed that. Terrified troops "just" being immobilized instead of magically fleeing the table perfectly fitted the scale of the game. This did however require some bookkeeping and Suppression counters or dice all over the table that are no longer needed now.

Finally several rule texts have been cleared up. For example, the 1st edition was somewhat
ambiguous in whether you could perform a tactial action only before or after movement or during as well. This has been clarified quite well. Spectre obviously has taken the feedback from its fans to heart!

What is good?
Spectre is an accessible game, quick playing and able to handle (but not needing) quite large numbers of miniatures and vehicles. It now has an excellent rulebook to support it. It has a very flexible game mechanism that enables it to do anything one would expect to encounter on the modern battlefield.

This results in an immersive tabletop wargame that plays like one feels a modern engagement should play out on a wargames table. Playing time could be anything from an hour up to a day depending on how big you want your game. It scales perfectly up or down.

It covers all known protagonists of the current age as well as all the weapons one might wish to use in a game.

Last but not least the ruleset is supported by one of the best 28mm modern miniatures ranges on the market at this time: Spectre Miniatures. There are of course other producers for this period, but even if you choose to limit yourself to Spectre Miniatures you will be painting and collecting to your heart's content for quite a while.

What could be better?

Well, not much. The Index could be more comprehensive. There could have been a point system for those who want that. Mere details really.

Conclusion

If you want to play Modern Day wargames, buy and play this. It is certainly worth your time and money.

NB: Spectre Miniatures has announced it wil cease supporting Spectre Operations as a ruleset, since it was licensed from its author and that license will expire soon. The author has made it known he is working on a successor ruleset under the working title of Assymmetric Warfare. I refer to the Facebook group for news.  

Triple Osprey Review: Broken Legions, Rogue Stars and MWWBK

Recently I acquired a few new rulesets by prolific publisher Osprey Publishing and this trio offered such interesting contrasts I couldn’t help myself but write the last review of 2016.  All three sets are the standard Osprey format: a softcover full colour quarto format, 64 page complete ruleset.

So without further ado let’s start about:

Broken Legions by Mark Latham

As soon as I saw the announcements of BL I knew I had to have it. And that is not because BL offers a lot of interesting stuff in the games mechanics department. On the contrary: BL’s mechanics are nothing if not very recognizable. But let’s not get ahead of myself.

BL is a skirmish game made for 28mm figures. Players play with teams of 7 to 12 figures. This allows for detailed stats per figure and each figures has a stat line with seven stats like Melee, Accuracy and Fate. Each stat has a numerical value and succeeding in using a stat is a matter of rolling a D10, adding the stat and getting a result of 10 or more (give or take some modifiers). Some dice rolls are opposed, like rolling for damage (Physique vs Armour) after a successful hit in the sense that both players roll and the best result wins. Sounds familiar? It should. Several rulesets of several ruleset producers use the same mechanics, but with small differences in names, die types and such.

A novelty is found in the Fate stat, which is a kind of pool of Luck. When you get down to your last wound, you may roll for Fate in order to survive. The Fate stat gets lower each time you do so, so your Luck runs out at one point…. 

Also, the turn sequence is alternate, so you get to do a lot of fancy tactical manoeuvring in this game, which is a big improvement over the usual straightforward IGO-UGO.

There is magic in BL, called Miracles. Performing Miracles is based on rolls on your Presence stat. And there are lots of Miracles to perform. So nothing new here. This does not mean this is a bad ruleset. Far from it! The system is tried and tested and makes for a good game. But it is nothing new. So why would I have fallen so fast for BL?

The answer is, dear reader, the fluff. 

BL has an absolutely BRILLIANT premise in that during the Roman Empire it was well known by the Emperor and his advisors that there was a lot of supernatural Evil in the world. To combat this, a secret order was founded to fight this hidden war against the forces of Evil. The Soldiers of the Eagle, a kind of commando/legionnaire Ancient Delta Force with magical support troops and sometimes supernatural auxiliaries, battled monsters all over the Ancient world, raided temples, torched dangerous tomes and thwarted sorcerers. They, in turn, were of course assaulted by other secret orders like the Order of Set et cetera. Want to play Ancient Cthulhu? Want to raid the Cursed Black Pyramid of Rama-Tep and brave hordes of undead mummies? This is your ruleset!

The rules offer army lists for Romans and other orders, supernatural auxiliaries like werewolves and centaurs and lists of Miracles and skills to flesh out your figures. You only play with about a dozen of them, so individualizing is no problem and adds to the experience. 

Having participated in the Kickstarts of Zombicide Black Plague, Conan and Mythic Battles, lots of monsters are available to me in addition to the humans that can easily be found in the ranks of figures normally used in Ancient wargaming. There is a lot of fun to be had!

From this very cinematographic rulesets to one that has been directly inspired by movies:

The Men who would be King by Daniel Mersey

MWWBK cites as research about a dozen movies that I not only have seen, but own all of them but one. And on top of that the game is about colonial skirmishing, so I couldn’t skip this one. 

MWWBK is intentionally and deliberately written to play and enjoy fast games with some handfuls of figures (units are about a dozen figures strong) that remind you of the movies they were inspired by. Based in part on Lion Rampant the rules are simple and quick and armies are built out of standard units that perform more or less uniformly but may be fleshed out by giving their leaders (and thus their behaviour in combat) specific traits. Also, they may receive some additional skill by adding points to the standard unit cost. An average unit may cost 6 point, and an average army about 24 points. So army creation is fast and easy as well.

Figures roll a D6 per figure whether shooting or in Melee and hits are kills. Nice and quick. Units may get Pinned by casualties or mayhem in the vicinity and then you Rally them or the run away. Turn sequence is classic and straight IGO-UGO. Fights tend to be bloody and quick affairs.

There are scenarios, solo rules (or rules to enable you to get all players to battle a non-player opponent) and a wink here and there to notorious movie scenes. I tell you, I never realised how terrifying Highlanders could be until I saw Carry on up the Khyber!

The book offers army lists for all the well known colonial forces, be they European or Native and the United States’ colonial wars aren’t skipped either. Even Danny and Peachy’s Kafiristan’s “army” is included. This means nothing to you? Shame on you sir!  Go see “The Man Who Would Be King” on the double!

For quick and fun skirmish games with that typical cinematographic colonial flavour this is a pleasant set, written with love and humour, and completely geared to fast and easy play at the expense of detail.

Regarding detail and complexity, the next game is placed on the utterly opposite end of the spectrum 

Rogue Stars by Andrea Sfiligoi

As you might or might not know, Dungeons & Dragons evolved from a miniature wargames ruleset called Chainmail so  –despite all efforts of purist wargamers and RPGers to keep the twain separated- the dividing line between wargaming and roleplaying can be quite vague at times. In Rogue Stars this dividing line might have disappeared altogether!

RS is basically a miniature Sci-Fi skirmish game. But that is definitely selling it short. For example, the base rules are covered in about 25 pages. The rest of the book is filled with Traits, Equipment, Environmental rules, Missions, Character and Squad creation and Campaign rules. Creating your Squad alone covers a whopping 20 pages!

For a game with such a level of detailing, the base rules are brilliantly simple. Figures essentially have one Stat, called Target Numbers (TN) and may roll 1 to 3 D20s to Activate. The TN for an Activation is 8 but may be modified. Each success means the figure gets an Action. So figures may get quite a few Actions in one turn. However, a Failure means your opponent gets the chance to react! If a Reaction is successful, it precedes your Action or may even take the Initiative from you altogether!  So calculate your risks carefully…

This also means that, apart from determining starting Initiative, the turn sequence may ebb and flow depending on (bad) luck. No IGO-UGO here.

But after the Activiation or Reaction the details start. You can choose from about 20 possible Actions (amongst which are very SciFi things like Quantum Leap or Psi Attacks) and those are just the simple actions you may complete in one go!

The Actions themselves are equally detailed. Combat may target specific locations on an opponent’s body and you may choose various weapons with various effects that may vary even more sometimes depending on atmosphere and environment. There are dozens of Character Traits, different weapons and other equipment to use in one of 20 missions in one of 20 locations, all described and randomly determinable.

It is no wonder that RS games only deal with a handful of figures per side and terrain is very important. Tables are small, about 100x100 cm. These figures are highly individualized and creating your team is a real and rewarding investment in that regard. It would perhaps not be saying too much when I think that the border between RPG and Wargame has disappeared in this game. And why not? Why should that be important, when one can enjoy a challenging and intricate game on a lovely table with great figures?

I am also very curious how the game works out, combining so much intricate detail with such a simple game mechanism. It might play a lot faster than I might expect. An intriguing and definitely recommended ruleset for some new gaming experiences!  I promise a AAR at the first opportunity. 

Tin Soldiers in Action - A review-

People who know me will know that I am a compulsory collector of war gaming rulesets. I own dozens and I never tire of reading new ones. Be it skirmish or big battalion, card driven or IGO-UGO, 70ies style stencils or full colour hardback tome, they can all be divided into three categories; “Oh it’s one of those”, “Let’s play this” and the most interesting of the three: “Hey that’s funny….”

Tin Soldiers in Action, written by the brothers Rüdiger and Klaus Höfrichter, definitely falls fairly and squarely (heheh, just wait…) in the last category. 

TSiA is an attractive quarto sized hardcover book of a sizeable 270 pages in black and white and a full colour centre section. 270 pages!?  Yes. And no, it is not a complex and intricately detailed simulation, it’s actually a rather fast-playing game written with exactly this in mind. It is meant for the late 17^th century up to the start of the Great War.

The game radiates old school classicism. The book opens with a thorough index and explains the motives of the writers and the principles of the game in clear (and to my 50+ eyes) pleasantly large font. As a matter of fact, the book’s athmosphere takes you back to the days of Charles S. Grant when rulesets were books which calmly explained how a game worked to people that had time to read this in rest and earnest. So the book meanders from some gaming philosophy via scales and dimensions to unit organization, weaponry, formations and special troops to game mechanics. Thus pass the first 90 pages or so with few tables, some illustrations and clear text.  

The combat mechanics are well-tried, based on D6s per figure (or gun) and work with range and terrain modifiers that simply divide or multiply the number of D6s rolled. It is in Movement and terrain that the game produces its novelty. TSiA does not use classical ranges and distances, but instead works with a square based grid.

This initially put me off a bit. The advantages were of course obvious: no need for measuring, no discussions about movement ranges or relative distances, no discussions about firing ranges. But what would separate TSiA from a board game? And I really like my terrain; how good could a table look with a grid?

As it turns out that could be just as good as a normal table. As long as you are willing to use coordinates on the side of the table and support the grid with terrain. For example, a wall or a river may form the border between two grids. As the colour pictures in the centre of the book testify, this will result in very attractive table tops!

This extreme simplification of terrain would have had consequences for some of the classic dilemmas of war gaming: moving across or into difficult terrain. When a unit simply moves one square, how about speed and slowing down? This is cleverly countered by causing troops that enter difficult terrain to become disordered instead of slow. Disordered has some undesirable consequences so even on a grid, difficult terrain is not something to take lightly.

Morale also enters into the game under the label of “Tenacity” and is a factor of a unit’s size. 

For the game sequence the designers chose another game favourite of mine: the game is card-driven. Normal playing cards are used. A number of card turns make up a game turn. Each unit has a card upon which it may take action. This may be one or more actions depending on the vicinity of their commander. These actions happen during the phases of a card turn. Actions are ordered (announced) and Tenacity is tested. At the end of a turn close combat takes place and then a next card is drawn, restarting the turn until all cards have been drawn and the next game turn begins.  

All this –having seen it played a few times- makes for a quick and entertaining game that does not seem to suffer at all under the lack of flexibility in movement speeds and firing ranges

Furthermore the book offers tips and rules for terrain, special troop types for all kinds of areas, army lists for the Age of Reason, the Napoleonic and the Victorian Age, alternative forms of organisation (i.o.w. a point system) and several scenarios with extensive description and variations.

Finally the book offers a FAQ and a Quick Reference Sheet which is, despite the book’s hefty page count, a mere 2 pages long.

As stated, I have seen the game played a few times but have not yet gotten the chance to play it myself. Still, games were obviously fast and enjoyable while still employing a rather large number of miniatures. The grid based movement sets the game apart from the mainstream war games and is, in that respect, more abstract. Still. it doesn’t seem to detract from the experience that the players are playing a miniature battle.

Conclusion: innovative, definitely something different and resulting in an enjoyable game: recommended!

Tin soldiers in action
Rüdiger and Klaus Höfrichter
Partizan Press 2016
Hardcover, 270 pages
Price around 30 euros

Vehicular pursuit rules for A Fistful of Kung Fu 1.2 (EDIT May 8th)

The magnificent little ruleset that is A Fistful of Kung Fu has very few flaws, but vehicle pursuit rules are unfortunately not included. Allthough Andrea Sfiligoi is working on an expansion that also includes these rules, I became impatient and wrote my own. These are currently being playtested and will be edited in the future. In the meantime, feel free to try them yourself! 

EDIT May 8th:
Ramming modifier for heavier vehicles added. Turn rules improved and enhanced turn ability for bikes added. 

Pictures of a test game

Rules

Vehicles activate the same way and at the same moment as the driver. The driver rolls 1-3 Activation Dice. A Driving Activation may either be a Move, a Stunt or Hands-off-the-Wheel (HotW). These may be combined in any order.

Stats

Vehicles have a Combat and a Speed stat and a Turn Stat. Vehicles offer 2 points of cover unless stated otherwise. 

Examples:

                               

                               Combat                 Speed                    Turn (max 90 degrees)

Bulldozer                  C10                        Short                      Short curved Move

Truck                        C8                           Medium                 Medium curved move

Car                           C4                           Long                      Medium curved Move

Bike                          C2                           2xMedium             Long curved Move

Movement

Moves:

·         The vehicle may execute a Turn (any Move deviating from a straight- and along a curved line), an Emergency stop, a Start or a move of a maximum of Speed inches in a straight line for 1 Activation.

A turn is any deviation from a straight line up to a total of 90 degrees. Cars may only turn once per activation. Bikes may turn twice. 

Stunts:

·                     Unlike other Actions, a Stunt MUST be announced beforehand!

·                     The vehicle may execute a Stunt for 2 Activations. Should the driver not get the two required Actions, he                 will Lose Control. 
                Examples: 

·                     a 180 Turn (any turn of more than 90 degrees)

·                     a Jump (2x Speed)   

·                     a Wheelie ( half the space width to pass through)

·                     a High speed turn (after at least 2 full straight moves)

A car performing a wheelie on a wheelie stand

HotW:

while driving (which will still cost him at least 1 Activation) the driver may execute one Action for 1 other Activation like shooting out of the window, grabbing a passer-by or opening/closing a door.

Lose Control

Failing a Quality Test by the driver or rolling three Failures means the driver Loses Control of the vehicle. The vehicle will immediately move 1 x Speed in a random direction in its forward 180 degrees and then stop. The engine will falter in any case and needs to be re-started.  

Vehicle combat

Ramming a vehicle with another vehicle works like close combat. Both parties roll 1d6, add Combat and modifiers and consult the Vehicle Combat Table. Buildings and other Immovable terrain features have a Combat result value of 10 (no roll). Treat a collision with an immovable terrain feature (e.g. a building) as an attack by the terrain feature on the vehicle.

Heavy vehicle vs light vehicle always gets a +2 for the Heavy vehicle (i.e. car vs bike). 

 A ramming attack in progress

Vehicle Combat Table

	Attacker wins by:	Target wins by:
1	- Target Vehicle is moved D6 cm away from the attacker - Attacker is immovable object: target vehicle stops and engine falters	No effect
2	- Target driver rolls Q test or Lose Control - Attacker is immovable object: target vehicle is disabled. Passengers may exit in the next turn.	No effect
3	- Target disabled and driver rolls Q test -1 or Loses Control - Attacker is immovable object: target vehicle is disabled. Passengers take a C4 hit. Bikers take a C6 hit.	Target Driver gets 1 Reaction (even an Extra!)
4	- Target car disabled and driver  loses Control - Attacker is immovable object: target vehicle is disabled. 1 Extra is killed. All others take a C6 hit. Bikers take a C8 hit.	- Attacker driver rolls Q test or Loses Control - Attacker is immovable object: target vehicle stops in time and may make 1 free Move.
5+	- Target flips over and crashes into the nearest terrain feature. All Extras are killed. All other car passengers take a C6 hit. Bikers take a C8 hit.	- Attacker car disabled and driver rolls Q test -1 or Loses Control - Attacker is immovable object: target vehicle evades immovable object and may either make 1 free Move or immediately roll for 3 Activations.

Shooting at the passengers of a vehicle works as normal. All covered vehicles except bikes offer -2 Cover unless stated otherwise.

Shooting at a vehicle works as normal. Both the shooter and the vehicle roll 1d6, add Combat and modifiers and consult Shooting At Vehicles Table.

Shooting at Vehicles Table

	Attacker wins by:	Target wins by:
1	Windshield shatters. Target driver rolls Q test or Loses Control	No effect
2	Tire hit! Target driver rolls Q test -1 or Loses Control. All Q-tests are now -1.	No effect
3	Driver is hit! If disabled, passenger must roll Q test to take over the wheel! Or LC....	- Shooter drops his weapon in the car. Takes 1 Action to retrieve it.
4	Target Vehicle disabled. Roll Q test or LC	- Shooters weapon jams. It takes 1 full turn to unjam it. - in a crowd, a bystander is hit on a 5-6
5+	Gas tank hit. Target vehicle explodes and LC. All car passengers take a C6 hit. Survivors may exit the vehicle.	- Shooter startles the attacker driver. Roll Q test or LC - shooter drops his weapon on the street. It is lost.

Moving across the table:

Playing a pursuit demands a large table with terrain that enables a pursuit (i.e. lots of roads, curves and avoidable stuff). When the pursuit moves off table, simply continue play on the opposite (appropriate) side of the table.  

As soon as the first vehicle re-enters the new table edge, roll 1D6 and consult Obstacle Table.

Obstacle Table

Score	Obstacle encountered
1	No obstacle
2	Moving Obstacle appears straight ahead at D6xshort distance
3	Moving Obstacle appears from the right at the first crossing
4	Moving Obstacle appears from the left at the first crossing
5	Stationary Obstacle appears straight ahead at D6xShort
6	No obstacle

Ending the pursuit

As soon as the pursued vehicle outruns the pursuers by more the 1 table length, he has shaken his pursuers and the pursuit is over.

As soon as the pursuers disable the pursued vehicle, the pursuit is over as well.

Traffic

The rules assume a certain quantity of other Traffic on the table. All Traffic on the table will usually -for practical purposes- be static unless moving because of the Obstacle table. All Moving traffic will move 1 Medium per turn (drive safely!) in a straight line before any player Moves. Traffic will never actively collide (these are decent drivers, you know) and always stop before colliding when moving. The same might not be true about players....

Car Gadgets

Under Construction.

Figures in cars

So as to present a good visual spectacle, figures should not be placed on top of or next to driving vehicles. Use an off-table template representing the seats in the vehicle.