Core concepts: Infantry

+Erik McGrath

This time the focus is on the core unit of play: the infantryman. With his helmet and rifle the regular infantryman is the standard for all other effects in Boots on the Ground.

Stats

BotG uses d12s and when a test is called for you need to roll equal to or under the relevant stat. A soldier is currently composed of 4 stats: Combat, Discipline, Physical & Morale. The regular troops of most nationalities have a rating of 4 in all of these categories. This gives an unmodified base success chance of 1 in 3 whenever a roll is called for. 

Higher quality troops have higher statistics and lower quality ones are lower. Elites haves 5s while many leaders increase their Discipline ratings as well. The most common leader is the Corporal though and they have identical stats to the common trooper of their quality level with the leader trait. its a pretty major addition since it allows them to use the leadership rules without penalty. Most important of these is that they can automatically change the footing and maneuver options of soldiers within their command radius. Without a leader this would require a dice roll and as noted above that means only a 1 in 3 chance of them succeeding. 

Gear

The basic measure of firepower is the bolt-action rifle. For our purposes the Lee-Enfield No. 4, Karabiner 98k, Arisaka Type 99 and Mosin-Nagant M91/30 are equivalent. The M1 Garand with its greater rate of fire and semi-automatic action mainly negates several negative modifiers that bolt-action rifles suffer and creates larger areas of suppressive fire per rifleman. Other semi-auto rifles use the same rules. This simplification is maintained for all similar weapons throughout the rules.

Burst fire capable small arms share the modifier advantages of semi-auto rifles and create much more effective areas of suppression on their own. SMGs have much less range however. A rifle can reach out across the entire table but an SMG is only fully effective within 18" and has a maximum range of 36". The StG44 uses the rules for SMGs but has the range and penetration of a rifle. Due to the relatively low rates of fire of period fully automatic small arms and the training of their operators a regular soldier armed with one can also use them to make direct fire attacks as if they were semi-automatic. Untrained users such as partisans or conscripts may only use them for suppressive fire. 

Another important thing every soldier has is a helmet. While it is not going to stop a bullet and its not likely to actually negate a wound it contributes significantly to the survival chance of an incapacitated soldier. When a battle is decided by victory points it makes a difference what severity a wound was. After the battle every wounded man makes a Physical test. Success on the roll upgrades their wound by one level. Anyone without a helmet makes the roll using the Unlikely rule: they need to re-roll a successful test and the second roll stands. 

Support Weapons

The most common infantry support weapon by far in BotG is the machine gun. German units tend to have at least as many MGs as they have squads and the American Browning Automatic Rifle, while not a true LMG, shares many characteristics with one and thus uses several of the MG rules. Other nationalities have fewer MGs but they remain the most likely support weapon even then.

The main mechanic of any MG is its ability to create large, persistent zones of suppressive fire. A true MG can choose whether to create a long, rectangular zone or a square zone. BotG uses rectangular templates for most area effects due to the ease of making them at home and they are close enough to the correct shapes that their advantage in simplicity more than makes up for not being precisely correct. 

The type of MG (light, medium or heavy) determines the size of the zone it creates. Penetration is typically the same since most MGs use similar ammunition and their classification is mainly due to their rate of fire and the stability of their mounts. A notable exception is the Browning M2 due to its .50cal ammo having superior penetration versus other HMGs. 

Gameplay walkthrough

+Erik McGrath

Before you can get into the details of what you do in play you have to know how to play in the first place. So for this installment I am going to do a walkthrough of the sequence of play.

Gameplay 

Play proceeds in turns which each turn having an active and a reactive player. The first turn goes to the attacking force and is said to be Attacker Turn 1 with the next turn being Defender Turn 1. That is each player gets to the active player and the reactive player in each enumerated turn. This system is used so that effects with a measured duration can be easily handled. Smoke is a common element with time dependence.

Turn Sequence

The turn sequence in Boots on the Ground is divided into four separate phases. The first two phases, Command and Suppressive Fire, are solely for the current active player. The second two phases are blended in that both players have options during these phases though the active player always has more options.

Phases

Let me expand on the quick reference table to the right and briefly explain each step of four phases.

Command

•Establish Command

The first thing you do on your turn is determine who is within each leader's command radius and thus who can benefit from their leadership. Units that are not in the command radius of any leaders often are in for a rough time.  Only the best trained soldiers can operate effectively when cut off from their units and they are usually best served trying to get back to a leader as quickly as possible. 

•Make Rally Tests

After command is sorted out you roll Morale tests for each model with disruption counters. Use model's own Morale only if it is not within range of a leader of their nationality and service branch. This means it is possible to be within command range of a friendly leader but still forced to use your own Morale. Most commonly this is because of Armor and Infantry units operating together. 

•Check Communication

If the force has radios or phone lines now is time to see if they are still connected. Landlines function automatically so long as they are unbroken and a leader is in base contact with the device. Wireless devices maintain contact so long as the operator is not disrupted. If the model carrying the radio is disrupted then they must make a skill test to maintain communication. If contact has been lost previously then this is the time to try and re-establish it. Landlines can only be re-established by repairs, radios make a skill test.

•Emplace weapons or men

This is when you set up support weapons or dig in to appropriate terrain. If the crew of a weapon is not disrupted they automatically succeed in setting up their weapon. Entrenching requires a skill test.

•Make Wound/Panic Recovery Tests

Any model that has been incapacitated or panicked has a chance to recover. The process is the same though the specifics vary for each condition. Both need to test to recover (or get worse) on their own using Endurance for wounds and Morale for panic. And having friends can make a big difference since a model in base contact can apply first aid and an ally within half their command range can try to snap the model out of it. Successfully treated wounds become ambulatory and in both cases a success causes the model to become broken. 

Suppressive Fire

Each part of this phase is similar in that it involves making attacks before (or in the lull between) active attempts to maneuver. This phase is all about cutting off the enemy's options before you try and exploit them. Whether it is with machineguns or massed rifles or bombardment from divisional artillery the rule is the same.

Suppression fire places a suppression zone template on the battlefield and any model under the template when it begins or that takes an action while under it has an attack resolved against them. All area attacks use this process: roll to hit, place the suppression zone (either on target or scattered), resolve effect against those under it. 

The template remains in place so long as the unit placing it chooses to maintain it and is capable of doing so. Being disrupted is a common cause of ending suppression as is the suppressing unit moving. 

Units that attack during this phase may not move during the maneuver phase but they are still eligible to make active fire attacks in that phase.

•Conduct Suppression Fire Attacks

•Conduct On-board artillery and AFV Attacks

•Resolve Off-board Artillery

•Resolve Aircraft Attacks

Maneuver

•Resolve Active Movement

The active player now chooses who to move and how they move. Every model has a base speed (4" for infantry) and chooses to move up to a multiple of that speed. For infantry the options are Crawl, Tactical, Rush, Sprint. Vehicles have Cautious, Cruising and Rapid speeds which correspond to the latter three infantry movement modes in many ways. Vehicles of course can't crawl.

The slower a unit moves the more of a benefit it gets from cover and the easier it is to reduce the effect of obstacles such as mines, wire or rough terrain.

•Conduct Reactive Fire Attacks

This subphase actually takes place simultaneously with Active Movement. At any point during the active player's movement the reacting player can declare reactive fire against that unit. This attack interrupts the moving unit at any reasonable point along the movement.  Most reactive fire is not able to use suppressive fire but some weapons, notably MGs are. 

•Resolve Reactive Movement

No one stands still on a battlefield for long. This subphase allows the reacting player to maintain some degree of response to the changing situation. An infantry model can choose to move up to half its base speed or it can choose to flee. Fleeing units gain a disruption counter and can only move away from the enemy towards a source of cover better than their own. if there are no good choices they may move toward cover even if that brings them closer to the enemy so long as they are closer to the cover they are entering at the start of their movement than any enemy are. 

•Conduct Active Fire Attacks

This is resolved just like reactive fire and may interrupt reactive movement in the same way if you would rather shoot someone where they are rather than where they are going.

Close Assault

Most turns this phase never happens since it requires enemy troops being within very close proximity and once engaged a close assault is usually a decisive moment in the game. Units fighting in a close assault that is not resolved in one turn do not participate in any other phases until the assault is decided.

•Initiate Close Assault and make Assault moves

The active player chooses whether or not to start an assault. Since both forces just weathered close range active/reactive fire this is not a trivial choice.  So long as the active unit outnumbers the reacting one and is not disrupted then an assault is automatic. If there are any inhibiting factors a Command test is required by the leader of the unit in order to attack. If so they active unit must move up to half its base speed toward the enemy and get into base contact if able.

•Conduct Firefights

The first part of an assault is the firefight. Both forces make simultaneous attacks with their small arms. Grenade and other close in weapon attacks will have already been resolved in the active fire phase. Units who are in base contact do not make firefight attacks but can be removed as casualties due to them.

•Conduct Hand to Hand

Provided anyone is left in base contact the fighting continues on in brutal hand to hand fighting with bayonets, pistols, entrenching tools, rifle butts and whatever else is at hand.

•Losing side retreats

If there is a clear winner then the loser is forced to retreat. Units in hand to hand combat do not retreat and most soldiers are reluctant to leave their allies to die so if any units not in base contact can make Morale rolls to stay and fight as well.

•Winning side consolidates

If one side wins they can reposition their troops by up to their base speed. 

Introduction to the game

+Erik McGrath  of +Inspired Press

Welcome to the design diary for what is currently called Boots on the Ground. Its a tabletop miniatures game of infantry combat in the Second World War. A typical game uses a platoon of infantry with attached support elements, though the rules are resilient enough to cover anything from a single team or crew up to a full company.

Design Goals

The purpose of the game is to emulate the final, terrifying moments of an assault on an enemy position. To do this we need a rule system that lets us drill down to the individual warfighter without bogging down and taking too much time or being so complicated it gets frustrating in play.

We want to know how each soldier is doing. So we have several degrees of morale (disrupted, broken, panicked), two types of injury (ambulatory, incapacitated) and three broad categories of ability (combat, discipline, physical) that are further subdivided when necessary to show a particular strength or weakness of  unit.

Rules Framework

The most fundamental decision made so far is that we are using D12s. Half a dozen of them has been enough to quickly resolve a team or squad's actions. Mathematically they are useful since 12 is evenly divisible by 6,4,3&2 so when we need quantities in those ranges we can roll D6s, D4s, D3s and D2s as well. It also let's us add in critical/fumble rules that a D6 would not work as well for. Since we are trying to measure the effectiveness of the individual soldier its handy to know when one member of a team has jammed their weapon and a fumble is an easy way to show that.

Its a roll-under system and the average trooper has a rating of 4 in everything. So they have a 1 in 3 chance (barring modifiers) of hitting a target, passing a morale test or avoiding incapacitation. The basic trooper also has abase movement rate of 4" on the tabletop. This represents cautious, tactical movement where they keep low and use available cover to good effect. Elite troops have higher values, especially in Combat and Discipline while green or conscript troops have lower values.

A single die is used to determine the initiate effect of a single action. That could mean rolling 6 dice when 6 men use their rifles to make direct attacks or it can be a single roll using their NCO's Command rating to direct the team's combined fire when making a suppression attack. The latter is much more common due to the ability of suppressive fire to inhibit movement, but even in that case you might make several rolls for a single squad to represent the fire of its riflemen and also its MG (German) or automatic-rifle (US) team.

The turn sequence uses distinct attacking/defending player turns with several blended phases. The Command and Suppression phases are only available on your own turn as is the choice to initiate a close assault or firefight. The movement and shooting phases however allow both players to participate with the active player having more options. If this reminds anyone of Squad Leader that is not a coincidence. When we originally started this ruleset we used the ASL turn sequence verbatim. It has since evolved to be a better fit for when we want to see happen but the influence is still clear.

On the tabletop soldiers maneuver in teams typically lead by an NCO though some specialists, particularly MG and support weapon teams, can operate without an NCO present but it does limit some of their tactical options. Leaders are absolutely vital to maintaining morale under fire as well. Soldiers withing their command radius use the leader's morale score to shake off disruption counters and there is an additional phase after the general rally subphase where leader's get a chance to remove additional disruption counters from men within their command radius. 

Scale 

The game first started in 25mm then shrunk to 1/72 (22mm). The slightly smaller scale allows form more space to maneuver and makes a big difference when using vehicles. We went with it over the still smaller 15mm due to the difficulty we had basing and using individual models at that scale.

We do, however, use a slightly smaller ground scale of 1" = 10' rather than the strict 1"= 6' than 1/72nd implies. On a 6'x4' table this scale gives a scale playing area of 480'x720' which is well within the effective range of small arms. A rifle with iron sights can legitimately threaten a target across the short dimension and a good shooter can extend that across the long dimension. With a scope things get a lot easier and support weapons have no trouble reaching out across the table.

The Designers

This a joint project between myself and my father, Danny. He served as a Field Artillery Surveyor (82C at the time, 13S under the new system) during the 80s. He plied his trade in Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East and now he's applying his combat experience plotting targets and directing fire to game design. He also designs most of the scenarios with an eye toward authenticity, often using portions of actual battles.

I'm a game designer (mainly card games) with a BS in physics. My job is to make sure the rules actually do what we want them to do mathematically and to convert the effects of explosions and such into scale. And of course to write about it.