Pen and Paper Battle Rules for Classic Traveller

With session three of the Traveller Coupbox coming on I smell a battle approaching. Taking the well-honed skirmish rules from Deep Evan and I's Feudal Anarchy (work in progress, yeah yeah) and crossing them with the basic combat rules from Striker yielded an alien hybrid, tongue-in-cheek styled Galactic Anarchy, that just might work in the miniature-less G+ environment (one of the greater losses, really).

All feedback appreciated. For space reasons I left out a few sections on this post (such as the all-important chart for determining actual casualties for team hits). Drop me a line if you are interested in those sections.

Galactic Anarchy

Basic Unit

The basic unit is the "team" made up of five combatants (or a 1-3 heavy or support weapon team). Each team fires, moves and checks morale as a single unit.

The weapon fired in a round is always the majority weapon of the team. A team that is equipped with significantly better or worse weapons in the minority will be given a positive or negative modifier at the discretion of the Ref.

Attack Value

For teams made up of PCs or named NPCs the average weapon skill of the majority weapon (rounded to the nearest whole number) is used. (A Tactics skill of 2+ in the team will add a +1 in all cases).

For other teams use the following:

Raw Recruits/Conscripts/Poor	-1
Trained Recruits/Militia/Green	0
Regular	1
Veterans	2
Elite	3

To Hit

Automatic fire warrants a second roll.

Roll 2d6

8	Effective Range/Melee
10	Long Range
12	Extreme Range

-1 if unit has taken a hit (see below).

Hits

When a unit is hit the attacker rolls below.

Roll 2d6

2,3	No Effect
4,5,6,7	One Hit
8,9,10,11	Two Hits
12	Instadeath

modifiers:

+weapon penetration value (see Striker or Megatraveller tables)

-defensive value (see yesterday's post)

Each team can take a certain number of fights before being "out of the battle" (see actual casualties below).

Raw Recruits/Poor	1
Green or Regular	2
Vets, Elite, PCs	3

Combat Round

Phases in a Round

1. Both sides declare movement and check for spotting of hidden units

2. Both sides move. Opportunity fire.

3. Ranged fire for those who haven't had opportunity fire.

4. Both sides finish declared movement.

5. Melee combat

Morale

When to check:

• taking fire for the first time in a battle
• taking fire from hidden source
• taken a hit in the round
• friendlies routing in eye-shot

Roll 2d6

Raw/Poor 8+

Green/Militia 7+

Regular 6+

Vets 5+

Elite 4+

Morale Results

If failed by 1-2 the team is pinned (goes to ground, can't move but can fire/melee)

If failed by 3-4 the team is suppressed (retreats to nearest best cover, can't move or fire but will melee if attacked)

If failed by 5+ the team routs (run away!)

Modifiers:

+1 in a "secure position" (behind cover)

+1 leader in voice range with Leader or Tactics 1

+2 leader in voice range with Leader or Tactics 2

-1 team is already pinned

-2 team is suppressed

-3 if routing