The Rules in The Expanse So Far

Here are my cheap SF skirmish rules. Some of these ideas I may transport back to my Afghanistan skirmish rules. Apologies for the wonky formatting, I'm just copy and pasting from a Word .doc and had to reformat some stuff that was in text boxes. But it's FREE so quit your griping ya apes!

But I'm going to have to come up with something for the Mad Padre's Space Kitties on jet bikes and grav tank. That will I think involve some of the Padre's port...

SF Skirmish Rules v.3.1

Some Definitions

Light Vac Suits- worn by ships crew, civilians, survey teams etc.

Work Suit- rugged reinforced and protected vac suits for workers

Heavy Vac Suits- reinforced and power assisted suit worn by construction workers and cargo handlers

Combat Suits- heavy vac suit but with added armour, HUD displays, targeting, sensor suit, IFF

Power Armour- heavily armoured, enhanced sensors, targeting, thrusters, built in grenade launchers, enhanced strength and movement

Weapons:

Pistols ROF 1 Range 12”

Automatic Rifles (AR) ROF 1 Range 36”

Automatic Rifle with Grenade Launcher (AR/UGL): usual military small arm

AR ROF 1 Range 36”

UGL ROF 1 Range 12” AP 2

Shotguns/Heavy guns- big gun, heavy round. Lots of hitting power ROF 1 Range 18” AP 1

Squad Automatic Weapons (SAW)- like an AR but bigger magazine, higher ROF ROF 2 Range 36”

Power Armour AR ROF 3 Range 36” AP 1

Heavy Support Weapon (HSW)- carried by some Power Armour think 40mm grenade launcher/.50 cal MG ROF 6 Range 48” AP 2

Rocket Launcher- shoulder fired rocket/missile launcher for anti-vehicle/flyer work ROF 1 Range 48” AP3

Activation/Turn Sequence

Use one coloured chit for each fireteam or vehicle. Red one side, black the other. Or for larger multi sided games use each suit for different factions. Add a third coloured chit for Random Events.

Drawing the special chit activates a Random Event Roll, effecting whichever side /colour the next chit is for

Random Events

1. 1-   Passing craft overhead. Next unit to activate cannot move.
2. 2-   Meteor strike! 4d6” and scatter dice from center of table. Any team within 3” of impact gets AP 5 attack.
3. 3-   Poor visibility. Dust/gas/raining methane reduces visibility for shooting range reduced to 12” for next unit
4. 4-   Crevasse! The last ground vehicle that moved must test. On a 4+ it is stuck in a crack in the surface and can’t move for rest of game.
5. 5-      A pile of cargo or a building catches fire and explodes. 4” range, AP1 attack
6. 6-      Cyber-attack Next unit drawn cannot move or shoot.

When chit drawn, team or vehicle can move fast (bounce), move slow and shoot or shoot with a +1 ROF. Power Armour can move fast and shoot with half ROF, or they can set an Overwatch and reserve shooting until an enemy team is in their LOS

Place chit with team/vehicle to show it has activated.

Movement per action

Power Armour d6+3” bounce 2d6+6”

Other Vac Suits d6” bounce 2d6”

Vehicles slow d6” fast d6+6”

Bots/droids d6”

Flyers 24”

Obstacle 1 full move to cross

Take cover/go prone 1 action

Be sensible. Ground vehicles aren't going to be crashing through rocks mounds or crossing crevasses. That's what the engineers are for.

Low Gravity Troops on foot moving fast can bounce over obstacles add +1 to an enemy spotting roll. But they can also try and spot over any LOS blocking obstacles.

Power Armoured troops can bounce over obstacles and sight over LOS blocking terrain (and give the enemy the spotting bonus), OR they can use their thrusters to stay low while moving fast

Spotting hidden targets or getting a Positive ID on enemies moving in open among civilians

Light or Heavy Vac Suit 5+

Combat Suit 4+

Power Armour 3+

Flyer/Recce drone 2+

+1 if target bouncing (exception see Power Armour above)

+2 if target shooting

-2 if target in thermal or electro-magnetic obscuring clutter (power generator, temperature variation in terrain etc.)

Shooting

Roll 1d6 per ROF

To hit:

Civilians hit on 6

Security Contractors/Pirates/Gangsters hit on 5+

Marines hit on 4+

Snipers hit on 3+

For each hit, the targeted team rolls against it’s Armour Save

Light Vac Suit –no save

Work Vac Suit 6+ save

Heavy work Suit 6+ save

Combat Suit 4+ save

Power armour 3+ save

Cover adds to the Armour Save

Obscured +1

Hard Cover +2

Trench +3

Any weapon with an AP factor reduces the Armour save by that amount.

Heavy Weapons (big rail guns and missiles) will ignore Cover

Other weapons

Power Armour launched grenades can be fired while moving

8” indirect attack 5+ to hit, no cover save or can make smoke screen

Shoulder fired missiles

Cannot move and shoot 4+ hit AP 3

Gunship

Railgun 3+ to hit AP 5 Popup attack from cover -1 to hit

Missile Pods 3+ to hit 3” blast area AP 4

Gunbot

No move and shoot. D6” move.

3+ to hit ROF 3 AP 1

6+ Armour Save

Missilebot

No move and shoot. D6” move.

3+ to hit ROF 1 AP 3 2” blast radius

6+ Armour Save

Hand to Hand

When a figure moves into contact resolve hand to hand.

Each figure rolls a dice.

Civilians d6-1

Marines/Security/Pirates d6

Power Armour/Heavy work suit d10

High roll wins. Loser moves away fast move. If player declares before rolling attempt to capture then loser is captured.

High roll doubles loser, then loser dead.

Anti tank

Weapons with anti-tank armour penetrating ability have an AP value

Roll to hit.

Vehicle gets Armour Save based on Armour Value of facing hit minus AP value of weapon attacking.

A 6 on an Armour Save roll is always a save.

If the Saving Roll is failed then roll for effect.

D6

1. 1-      Mobility hit, no fast move
2. 2-      Immobilized
3. 3-      Weapon hit -1 to hit roll
4. 4-      Weapon hit knocked out
5. 5-      Vehicle disabled crew bail out
6. 6-      Vehicle destroyed, crew killed

Imp IFV

Move d6” Fast d6+2” can carry up to 4 Marines

Front Armour 8

Side 6

Railgun 3+ to hit ROF 3 AP 1

Missile launcher 3+ to hit ROF 1 AP 3 2” blast radius

Paladin MBT

Move d6+2” Fast d6+6”

Front Armour 10

Side 8

Railgun ROF 1 3+ to hit AP 5

Secondary Gatling laser ROF 3 3+ to hit

Ferret Scout Car

Move 8” Fast 12”

Front Armour 8

Side 6

Railgun 3+ to hit ROF 3 AP 1

Gunship

Move 24”

Armour 7

If behind cover can make pop up attack

Railgun 3+ to hit AP 5 Popup attack from cover -1 to hit

Missile Pods 3+ to hit 3” blast area AP 4

Fliers vs Missiles

Roll d6 to hit

Under 12" 4+

12-18" 5+

Over 18" 6

1-3 evade off table come back after 1 turn

4-6 roll AT attack

Damaged flyer will withdraw

Destroyed flyer will crash, impact area is full m