Scale Concerns

+Erik McGrath

Scale is one of those things that makes or breaks a game for me. Both the size of the models and the approximate ground scale have to fall in a pretty narrow range or I'm not going to play it more than a few times and I certainly won't be investing in it.

Then there's the issue of time as well. It does me no good to have everything the right size but then too fast or slow. If a turn is 5 min long then a tank could deplete most if not all of its ammunition in that time period given enough targets.


But once that's all set you don't want to be rolling so many dice that it takes 12 hours to play the game either. I think the sweet spot for game length is 3-4 hours when playing a 'standard' sized game which I usually consider as having 5-10 units per side. Depending on the game scale those units could be companies or single individuals.

Model Scale

The goal here is to use a scale that is large enough to easily handle individually based infantry without them constantly getting knocked around while being as small as they can be so they don't seem to be moving in slow motion across the table.

Originally we went with 25mm and it felt a little big. 15mm was a little too small on the individual infantry metric but looks great in play. The compromise candidate is 1/72 since its basically interchangeable with 20mm.

Ground Scale

There's no way around this issue. The ground scale is always going to be smaller than the model scale if you want to have meaningful ranges for modern weapons. 1/120 is the current winner in this race. It turns my 4'x6' table into a battlefield 160x240yds for a total area of 7.9 acres. It makes 1"=10' which I like because a 2" move is the rough 7yds at which melee combat becomes likely.

Infantry have a base speed of 4" in this system with options to move on the double on their active turn and also to adjust by half speed on the opponent's turn. So despite being more than 1.5x smaller than the model scale it works in play.

Time Scale

I think of time as an emergent property of the other scales rather than a dial that is set on its own. The main reason I look at it this way is because once the movement speed and ground scale are set then you can solve distance = rate x time  and see how long it takes. There is some elasticity in the precise time reached since while the speeds of men and machines are well known there are abstractions of the actual movement.

Infantry don't move in one smooth motion from position to position. They stay low and sprint some portions while diving for cover and waiting for an opening at other times. Even in a heated, close engagement there's a significant amount of nothing going on.

The turn also needs to make time for fire. Firing while moving tends to hit nothing, especially when tanks do it. This means punctuating movements with halts and finding your target. The players of course can see the entire battle but the actual participants have very limited awareness. Without resorting to complicated rules or a referee the only way I've found to handle this is to just abstract it.

To that effect the time scale of this project is loosely defined as a minute to a few minutes for a final, in game, elapsed time of 5-30 minutes.

Unit Scale

Rounding out the scales is the playing piece(s) that get the focus. In this case its in the name of the game: man to man combat.

I've talked about it already in this design diary so it should be no surprise that I'm focused on the individual rifleman as the basis of the rules. But individuals don't fight battles so the smallest maneuvering element is the team.

Teams can be pairs, crews, or half squads under normal circumstances. Under less normal circumstances they can be larger such as full squads or a single soldier who has been cut off or left behind due to circumstances. Vehicles, when they appear, operate individually because in reality they are full crews already.

Keeping Things Simple.

+Erik McGrath

One of my main design principles for this project, perhaps the core idea, is to use as few distinct rules as is practical. This means that when two subsystems are similar the rule that governs each should be the same.

Following this principle has lead me to some interesting places and today I'm going to share them.

Additionally I'm making progress on play aids and though its hard to read you can see the front of the most recently concocted quick reference sheet to the right.

It has the turn sequence listed to speed up subphases and ensure nothing gets missed as well as the most referenced tables in the game: Suppression, Direct Attack and Wound Results along with the common modifiers for terrain and when to apply those modifiers.

Strange Companions

The most striking result of keeping the rules simple is what it has brought together under one heading. And of those the one I like the most is that machineguns and minefields are resolved the same way against any model in their area of effect. In both cases there is an area effect template on the board and any unit wishing to enter it must make a morale test to do so. Any unit already in one that does anything except stay still and under cover rolls on the Suppression Fire Results table. 

The SFR table mainly inflicts disruption counters and shows how its unnerving to be under heavy fire or stuck in a minefield. It can result in wounds on a fumbled roll (usually a 12 on the D12) and that means rolling on the Wounded Results table. Anything but a crit on the WR table means you are wounded with the options being one of: maybe able to fight, out for the game, and KIA.

Of course just because they are resolved the same way doesn't mean they are identical since different modifiers apply to each and they are placed in very different ways and cleared in different ways as well. You can end an MG's suppression zone by having another unit suppress the MG and you can clear a minefield by cautiously picking a path through it. One way that does work on both is artillery. HE is great at clearing ground no matter what is on it.

The Basic Process

Everything that needs to be rolled in BotG is a D12, roll under. This applies to morale, shooting, radio communications and aircraft approaches. Additionally most things have 4 possible results from the roll: critical, success, failure, fumble. 

Critical occurs when a 1 is rolled on the die and after modifers the action would succeed on a 1. If it would not normally succeeds, say because your relevant stat is a 4 and you have a -4 modifier then its still a  success. 

Success is when you roll equal to or under the relevant stat. For most units this is a base rate of 1 in 3 but with modifiers it ranges considerably. Typically attacks are made at a penalty and morale tests at a bonus provided the target is smart enough to stay under cover. For a direct attack a success is a hit or very near miss depending on the wound result. Area attacks almost always scatter even on a success but its usually a small amount.

Failure is rolling over the relevant stat. For a direct fire attack this is normally no effect and you move on. For explosives and other area attacks though its a high degree of scatter instead. Due to the random nature of scatter (roll 2 dice, on a failure use the higher, success uses the lower) it is still possible to hit.

Fumble is when a 12 is rolled on the die and the action after modifiers would fail. If the action would still succeed mathematically then the fumble is downgraded to a failure. This is the worst possible result and when attacked it generally means you have been killed outright. For a weapon that scatters it means that you add both scatter dice together for the distance and the opponent can choose to place the template anywhere up to that distance from the point of impact.