WW2 game: Fireteam '44

[bpmasher]

So I got to thinking about my figure collection and Hero System. Naturally I want to use my figs as much as possible, so I thought up a game of super-powered airborne infantry invading France in 1944. The characters will be under 5th ed. revised, 250-300 points worth of superpowered individuals, but with human weaknesses to bullets, strangulation and other "natural" means of dying. Think of the Godlike RPG when imagining characters.

 

So the player characters drop into Normandy in the first session, and have to link up with their HQ. Combats will be handled with miniatures on terrain, and other stuff will be ToTM.

I will be designing the characters for this, so ideas are welcome. So far I have a super-strong "brute" with a BAR rifle and a nasty disposition, a private who can fire armor piercing laser from his eyes (though the power will probably have the "Burnout" limitation), and one soldier who can turn into a beastly form to tear into the Nazis with claw and fang.

The PC powers will probably be "raw" talents, so they will require an activation roll, and will have some limitations (EGO roll to prevent beast form guy from losing control of himself?) , but they are still super powers. The nazis will also have superpowered troops, but I haven't come up with concepts yet.

 

I have a battle-mat and terrain for the combats, and a couple of tanks (if I grok the vehicle rules) for variety.

The games theme will be some form of gritty, down-to-earth warfighting and the consequences of human superpowers (hubris anyone?) combined with wargamey concerns and some roleplaying and storytelling to round out the experience.

[sinanju]

For the Germans...Storm Trooper. He can summon winds, rain, lightning, etc.

[Tjack]

Now you need a hero with sonic powers...the Howling Commando!

[bpmasher]

Came up with a campaign skeleton where I create a number of maps with my warmat terrain, and things will develop naturally from the outcome of the battles the characters will face. I also decided to let my players create their own super powers.

 

I am going to give one or both player characters junior leadership, where they can command a number (squad) of men, and I will run the squad following orders as best they can. I have this vision of the battlemat being set up where I give the players a tactical map of the situation with no enemy troops on the map, and they have to decide where to send their men, where to set up support weapons etc. Sometimes they might have tank support available as well (I have a couple of painted Sherman tanks).

 

Might have to come up with morale rules (EGO rolls?) for the NPCs and ze Germans they will be facing. I don't know how to deal with that yet. Maybe a loss of a man will have the rest of the squad or fireteam have to roll morale, and see if they freeze, go beyond the call of duty or flee. A morale table might come in handy, where 1-2 is flee/rout, 3-4 is freeze, and 6 is a beyond the call of duty result where they gain a bonus to further morale rolls.

 

I'll call this campaign Fireteam '44 - Normandy. When I paint up my 20mm collection some more we'll get to the Soviet bear versus Nazis in Ukraine or something. 

 

Some Normandy -specific stuff: 

1. Bocage acts as heavy cover for men, so -4 to -6 to OCV versus infantry in bocage. Use the upper body (High Shot) hit location chart to generate results when firing at troops in bocage.

2. The Germans are Osttruppen (low morale, low training captured Soviets and other nationalities) so they have low OCV/DCV but they're armed like regular German troops, so MG42s, Kar 98ks and Panzerfausts will be available to them. Later on in the campaign the foe will be much more fierce in a fight, when facing Fallschirmjaegers and panzer divisions.

3. The initial air drop scenario will have random scatter directions with a scatter diagram roll on d6s. The jump itself is resolved as a skill roll, where a  fumble (natural 18) results in injury and the character will have to be recovered by other squad members. A normal success is further rolled on the scatter dice, just with less deviation than a failure. A critical success lands you on the spot you chose.

 

 

[Barton]

I have seen many photos and films of the Bocage area. -6 to sighting rolls is IMHO is low. I would do -8 unless on the actual top of the earthen mound then lower it to -4. The Bocage is very hard to see through, and hard even for people to move through [movement penality]. Remember the roads and fields are sunken.

German troops learned quickly to pre-register mortars to fire at crossroads to force troops away from using the sunken roads.

[starblaze]

On 5/21/2020 at 7:03 PM, Tjack said:

Now you need a hero with sonic powers...the Howling Commando!

A flying superhero with sonic powers, Screaming Eagle!

[bpmasher]

Might do this project now that it got bumped

 

Gotta paint up some Allies first. Germans got done first.

[bpmasher]

Not really in the mood for supers these days. I think I'll try to write up a campaign for one of the Allied "factions" (I play Company of Heroes) that's semi random, might work on a campaign map with different skirmishes resulting from working through the campaign map.

 

For minis, I have Allied commandos, paratroopers and Soviet infantry. Of course I have tons of Germans.

 

Skirmish battles, platoon level possibly with a vehicle or two thrown in once the campaign progresses.