Dogfaces in Space

Copyright 2002 by Mike Fischer
Last modified: 10/04/2004

I. Introduction

Dogfaces in Space is an individual-soldier-level space combat game for 2 players. Choose the size of your battle, then fight it out. This game can be seen as an extension of my space/land battle game, Orbital Battle.

This is a complete game with counters and maps (you'll need to download my M8 Map System). All you need to provide is a 6-sided die.

II. The Soldiers

Unless a particular soldier's abilities say otherwise, a soldier has 2 move units per turn. He carries a laser rifle with a range of 3, that shoots once per turn and inflicts one point of damage. If stunned, he recovers on a roll of 6. Leadership Benefit means that any soldier within the leader's range (including the leader) can ignore "Retreat" combat results if a die roll comes up 3-6, and can recover from Stunning with the same die roll as the leader himself would need. A soldier in range of more than one leader gets only the highest Benefit, not multiple Benefits. A Stunned leader gives no Benefit to other soldiers.

Team	Name	Ability
1st Squad Alpha	Andy	Andy is the Alpha team leader. He recovers from Stunning on a roll of 5-6, and extends a Leadership Benefit to friendly troops within 1 hex.
	Brett	Brett is nicknamed "Crazy Legs." He can move 3 hexes per turn.
	Chuck	Chuck is the squad's top sharpshooter. He addes +1 to the attack roll of any attack he takes part in.
	Dave	Dave carries the "Slarge," the SLRG (Squad Light Rail Gun). It has a range of 4, shoots once per turn and does 2 points of damage. It can penetrate armor as well.
	Ernie	Ernie likes his grenades. Each turn, he can choose between shooting his laser rifle or throwing a frag grenade. His throwing range is 2, and his grenades do 1 point of damage to the soldier in the target hex, and in each surrounding hex (friend or foe).
1st Squad Bravo	Frank	Frank is the Bravo team leader, and is also the leader of the first squad. He recovers from Stunning on a roll of 4-6, and extends his Leadership Benefit to a range of 2 hexes.
	George	George is big and strong enough to wear an armored combat suit. This suit completely protects him from frag grenades and the splash from flame throwers, and absorbs laser fire and direct flame-thrower fire without damage if a die roll comes up 5-6. It doesn't help against armor-piercing fire.
	Harry	Harry has chipmunk reflexes and is very quick. He can shoot the same target twice in a turn; the second shot misses if a die roll comes up 1-2.
	Inigo	Inigo carries a sniper's long-range laser rifle that gives him a combat range of 4.
	Jack	Instead of a laser rifle, Jack packs a grenade launcher. This lets him shoot a frag or armor-piercing grenade at a target 2-3 hexes away; he can't hit an adjacent foe. Frag grenades hit like Ernie's thrown grenades, while the AP grenades hit just like Dave's rail gun.
2nd Squad Charlie	Kyle	Kyle is the Charlie team leader. His specs are just like Andy's.
	Larry	Larry wears a jet pack on his back. This lets him move 4-5 hexes in a straight line each turn, across any terrain.
	Mark	Mark is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but this means he doesn't know when to quit. Mark ignores all "retreat" combat results.
	Nick	Big Nick wears an armored battle suit just like George.
	Oscar	Oscar carries a laser/launcher, a normal laser rifle with a grenade launcher mounted under the barrel. He can shoot either the rifle or the launcher each turn; the launcher works just like Jack's weapon.
2nd Squad Delta	Paul	Lt. Paul leads Delta team, the second squad, and the entire platoon. He recovers from Stunning on a roll of 4-6, and his Leadership Benefit extends 3 hexes around him.
	Rocky	Rocky is small and quick, which makes him hard to hit. Any attack aimed at him is at -1 on the die roll; this doesn't include frag grenades or flamethrower splash.
	Sam	Sam is big and thick, and hard to stun. Sam ignores all "stun" combat results.
	Tom	Tom packs a light rocket launcher in addition to a laser pistol like Wally's. The rocket launcher comes with two reloads, so it can be used only three times. Its range is 2-4 hexes and it causes 3 points of damage. It can pierce armor. Use the three "Rocket Launcher" markers to keep track of shots; discard one each time you use the weapon.
	Uriah	Uriah is the squad's medic. Any Stunned soldier he is next to during the Stun Recovery Phase, automatically recovers.
3rd Squad Echo	Vic	Vic is the Echo team leader. His Leadership abilities are identical to Andy's.
	Wally	"Six-Gun Wally" prefers the laser pistol to the rifle. A pistol works just like a rifle, but its range is only 2 hexes. Wally carries two of them, and can shoot both each turn, even at two different targets.
	Xavier	Xavier is just plain lucky. Any time he gets attacked, roll the die twice and use the lower of the two rolls.
	Yago	Yago carries an SLRG weapon like Dave's.
	Zack	Zack's weapon of choice is a flamethrower. He has a range of 2 hexes; the flames do 2 points of damage to the target hex, and 1 point of splash damage in one adjacent hex, which Zack chooses. The flamethrower cannot harm armored targets.
3rd Squad Foxtrot	Foxtrot team is composed of vehicles, but treat them as soldiers. All vehicles ignore "retreat" combat results, and give a Leadership Benefit to adjacent soldiers. When figuring the combat odds to attack a vehicle, subtract 1 from the total attack strength.
	LCV 1	The LCV (Light Combat Vehicle) moves at a speed of 4, mounts an SLRG like Dave's weapon, and can carry two soldiers stacked with it, as long as they start the turn in the same hex. It takes no extra move units to move into or out of the hex the LCV is in. If the LCV is Stunned or OOC, any soldiers riding with it are automatically Stunned. Soldiers riding an LCV must leave its hex to use their own weapons.
	LCV 2	This unit is just like LCV 1.
	MCV 1	The MCV (Medium Combat Vehicle) is basically a light tank. It moves at a speed of 3, and only armor-piercing weapons can harm it. It carries a medium rail gun which is like Dave's SLRG, but does 3 points of damage, as well as a normal laser rifle which must fire at a different target. Soldiers cannot ride in an MCV.

III. Starting the Game

Both players agree on which of the six combat teams will be used. Each player should get the same teams as the other. Normally, you don't pick and choose teams, but take them in order -- that is, a 2-team game would use teams Alpha and Bravo, while a 3-team game would add team Charlie. The exception is Foxtrot Team, which is made of combat vehicles and can be added to any game.

I recommend the following map set-ups, using my M8 maps:

1-2 teams: use any four maps in a square.
3-4 teams: use any six maps in a rectangle.
5+ teams: use any seven maps in a hexagon.

Set up your soldiers on opposing sides of the map, filling the edge row before starting to fill the next row.

IV. Playing the Game

Each game turn includes the following phases:

Player 1 Movement Phase: Player 1 moves all his soldiers.
Player 1 Attack Phase: Player 1 resolves all attacks by his soldiers.
Player 2 Movement Phase: Player 2 moves all his soldiers.
Player 2 Attack Phase: Player 2 resolves all attacks by his soldiers.
Stun Recovery Phase: for each soldier who is Stunned, roll a die. If it comes up 6 (or less if the soldier is a Leader or within a Leader's Benefit range), he recovers from the Stunning; turn his counter right-side up.
Victory Phase: see if anyone has won.

V. Movement

Each soldier can move as many hexes as he has move units, subject to terrain. A soldier can move in any direction; the facing of the counters on the map makes no difference. A soldier can move through friendly units, as long as he ends his move in an empty hex.

Stacking

Only one soldier can be in a hex at a time. The exception is soldiers who are riding in an LCV.

Zones of Control

Any unit that moves adjacent to an enemy unit must stop moving for that turn. Some kinds of terrain will negate this.

Overwatch

Each player can have 1-2 soldiers in Overwatch. You can put your soldiers in Overwatch during the Movement phase. Such a soldier must be in Leadership range of a friendly leader, but can stay in Overwatch once the leader moves away. Place an "Overwatch" marker on that soldier.

While in Overwatch, the soldier cannot move, but if an enemy moves into his attack range, he can shoot him during the Movement phase. Even if a fast-moving enemy moves into and out of the Overwatching soldier's range in the same turn, he can shoot him at the point where he was still in range. A soldier who shoots in Overwatch can't shoot during the Combat phase. As soon as he moves, he is out of Overwatch mode; remove the "Overwatch" marker.

Terrain Rules

This game can use any map. Terrain rules are provided for my M6 map system.

Terrain	Movement Cost to Enter	Combat Effect
Grassland	1	none
Desert/Beach	1	none
Swamp	2 (vehicles cannot enter)	none
Forest	1 (2 for vehicles)	-1 on attack rolls; see below
Hill	2	-1 on attack rolls if at a lower height
Water/River	Cannot enter	none
Bridge	1 (other units cannot pass through)	none
Road	1/2 if already on a road	none
Town	1	-1 on attack strength; Retreat 2 becomes Retreat 1

If a shot passes through any portion of a Forest hex, its range is limited to 2 hexes. The combat limits on Forest, Hill, and Town hexes apply only when shooting into such a hex, not to shooting out of one.

If you need even more variety in terrain, I recommend the following web site, which is full of free maps you can download:

http://ludo.iwarp.com/gwm/

VI. Combat

Any soldier with an enemy within range can shoot him; weapons are omnidirectional. All weapons are assumed to hit every time, unless the rules for a particular weapon say otherwise. The attacking player decides which of his soldiers will shoot at which enemies.

Add up the number of damage points aimed at a particular enemy, and find the column of the Combat Table for that number of points. Roll a die and find the number of the roll in the correct column. This gives the combat result. Remember to adjust the column and/or the die roll, depending on the particular soldiers involved. If the die roll is adjusted, it can never be lower than 1 or higher than 6.

If the attack includes frag grenades or a flamethrower, resolve the attack on the soldier in the target hex, then determine if soldiers in adjacent hexes got hurt; damage from an adjacent-hex frag grenade or flame splash does not get added to other attacks on soldiers in those hexes. Two grenade attacks means two damage=1 attacks in adjacent hexes, not one damage=2 attack.

Combat Table
Damage Pts		1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Die Roll	-1-	miss	miss	miss	miss	St	R2	R2S
	-2-	miss	miss	miss	St	R2	R2S	OOC
	-3-	miss	miss	St	R2	R2S	OOC	OOC
	-4-	miss	St	R2	R2S	OOC	OOC	OOC
	-5-	St	R2	R2S	OOC	OOC	OOC	OOC
	-6-	R2	R2S	OOC	OOC	OOC	OOC	OOC

Miss means the attack did nothing.
St means the soldier is Stunned. Turn his counter upside-down. He cannot move or attack until he recovers from the Stunning.
R2 means Retreat 2. The soldier must move 2 hexes away from the units that shot him. If he is surrounded, he can move in any direction. If he cannot retreat because doing so would put him in the same hex as another soldier, or would move him off the map, that soldier is OOC. Leaders, and soldiers close enough to share the Leadership Benefit, may not have to retreat if a die roll goes their way.
R2S means Retreat 2 and Stunned. The soldier must retreat 2, and then becomes Stunned.
OOC means the soldier is out of commission -- dead, wounded, obliterated, totally shell-shocked, it doesn't matter (except to him). Remove his counter from the map.

A soldier who is Stunned, and then gets attacked again and gets a "Retreat 2," will become un-Stunned after he retreats. Stunning someone who is already Stunned does nothing.

Some units can ignore portions of combat results. For instance, if you get a result of "R2S" on the soldier named Mark, who ignores all "retreat" results, then Mark will not retreat, but will still get Stunned.

VII. Winning the Game

Normally, the last player with living soldiers on the map is the winner. A player who is getting badly beaten may surrender.

Here are a few alternate scenarios:

Clear the Road: Use seven maps, with a road running straight across (maps 40, 41, another 40). Play without Foxtrot team. Set up on opposite edges of the map. One player gets an LCV which cannot shoot or carry soldiers. If that player can get his LCV from one edge of the map to the opposite edge, he wins; if the LCV is destroyed, the other player wins.
Bastogne: use nine maps in three rows of three, with a road running straight through the center map tiles from east to west. Use map 046 as the right-center map, and place a 7-hex city in the center of this map tile, on the roads. One player sets up in the three left-hand map sections. The other player sets up anywhere on the map, as long as none of his soldiers are closer than five hexes to the nearest enemy. His mission is to guard the city in the middle. If the first player ends a turn with an un-Stunned soldier in any of those town hexes, he wins; the second player wins by keeping his enemy from doing so for 20 turns.
Air Drop: use any maps. One player sets up his soldiers anywhere on the map. Player 2 then rolls dice for each of his soldiers to find out which hex they will start in; you'll need d10's for this. Reroll for any hex that's already occupied. Then fight to the death.
Anzio: use maps 57, 59, 57, with any six others below them, for a 3x3 map. One player sets up in any of the non-coastal map pages, at least 8 hexes from any shallow-water or deep-water hex. The other player can place any 5 units on beach hexes each turn. Play for 20 turns. Whoever has the most units on the map at the end, wins (count the invading player's vehicles as two units).