Measuring
To measure the distance between units take the closest point of on a vehicle’s hull to the closest point of another vehicle’s hull.
Using Dice
Armour Battles uses similar game mechanics for all actions (command, movement, combat and rallying).
Success Rolls
When determining whether an action is successful or not, between one to ten dice are rolled. Each dice needs to score the Target Number or more. The Target Number is referred to as TN.
Most rolls start with a 4+ TN and are adjusted up or down from there. With a 4+ TN each roll of 4, 5 or 6 is a success; rolls of 1, 2 or 3 are failures. If the TN was 5+, then only those dice that score 5 or 6 are successes.
Opposed Rolls
Most rolls are opposed. Which means that your opponent rolls dice at the same time as you and the results are compared.
With direct fire combat, you roll to hit your opponent’s unit, and then he rolls to see how it reacts. If he gets the same or more successes, his unit isn’t hit.
When calling an artillery mission, you roll your Artillery Response Dice against dice rolled by your opponent. If you achieve more successes than your opponent, your artillery immediately fires for effect.
Sliding Dice
Sometimes adjustments to TNs can result in a player needing to roll 7 or more. The sliding dice system adds or subtracts dice depending on the Target Number.
If the TN is greater than 6, it remains at 6, and a dice is deducted for every TN over 6. With a 7+ TN, you roll one less dice and the TN becomes 6. If your unit has 5D and needs a 7+ TN, you lose one dice and the TN is reduced to 6. No dice are rolled if a unit is ever reduced to zero dice.
TN>6+
Lose –1D if 7+ TN
Lose –2D if 8+ TN
Lose –3D if 9+ TN
Also, if the TN becomes less than 2, it remains at 2, but you gain one extra dice for each TN below 2.
TN <2 = 2
Gain 1D if TN =1
Gain 2D if TN = 0
It is still possible to score successes, but the number of possible successes is reduced. Also it avoids the sure thing of letting you hit on a 1 but increases the number of successes you can can achieve.
Next Post
In the next post I get down to the nitty gritty with a look at unit statistics.
