(TFT) Swords & Sails

[Sgt Hulka <hulkasgt@yahoo.com>]

I received my copy of Space Gamer 24 I won on e-bay, which I was interested in for its Ships & Swords article. I was slightly disappointed that they didn't have actual sailing rules, but also felt "validated" that it was really just a series of boarding actions using cut-up hex sheets as deck plans, much as I had planned to do with Heroscape tiles.

More interesting to me, though, were the scenarios themselves. These were published pre-TFT (using the rules for Melee alone), and were all "historical light", somewhat like the sample combat between Flavius and Wulf in Melee, but much bigger. The final scenario is Ceasar's opposed landing on the sands of Britannia, and it uses 17 figures for the Roman side. 

I was a little bit surprised to see the game being used the way David O. Miller uses it, and the way I've been using it lately, as a miniatures wargame skirmish system (the article's author even recommended 1/72 scale plastic historical models to use in the scenarios) instead of a man-to-man ultra tactical RPG system (like the Death Test series and the other Microquests). 

Are there more published scenarios like these that I've missed? 

Finally, David O. Miller, relevant to your 3-D tiles rules, the article includes a Roman Merchantman that has a raised cabin that's accessible via a ladder. The simple(istic) rule the author suggested was that anyone on the raised cabin couldn't attack anyone on the deck except with thrown and missile weapons. It took a figure's entire movement to go up or down the ladder, and figures higher on the ladder were +1 to hit figures lower on the ladder. Oddly, I'm not sure it's possible, using the rules provided in the article, to even be on the ladder, so it's odd that they included that bonus. And for the record I like your more complete rules better.

When a figure is pushed off the deck into the water, or off the cabin onto the deck below, it saves 3 dice versus Dex to drop prone in its current hex, instead. If I remember correctly Advanced Melee has its own rule that governs this sort of thing.

Finally, the article included an interesting "Leadership" rule to govern morale. Whenever a side's leader falls (including getting knocked down or slipping) all figures on his side must roll 3 dice versus IQ. Those that fail may only defend until they succeed on a save during the plotting phase. Those that roll a 17 or 18 panic, dive off the ship, and are removed. 
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"