Lorica Combat Sketch

You've seen three mechs/tanks, now to talk about combat a little.

There are two ways to go about it; one way requires no mini, markers, counters, or anything else physical, the other way requires a battlemat, terrain, markers, minis and a lot of time to discuss the effects of facing on targets accessible my missile attacks.

It almost goes without saying that I'm going to talk about the former method.

When combat begins, it is assumed that the two opposing teams are 20 units apart. This means that only long range lasers can successfully hit from this range. Each mech/tank chooses a tactic and one or more targets (choosing a single target is easier.)

Combat with Lorica occurs in three stages. The first stage is the Tactical Stage. This is the time that players announce their intended action. Some choices include, but are not limited to: Maintaining Missile Range, Charging, Withdraw, Warning Shot and Melee Fighting. These actions provide a bonus of some kind to attack or defense and determine the distance between two individual mechs/tanks. If two mechs/tanks charge each other, add the two movement rates and subtract the total from 20. If other tactics or chosen, the tactic's description will detail how the new distance is calculated.

An opposed roll determines who succeeds. The lowest roll wins and distance will be determined by the winner's tactic.

The second stage is rolling a d12 for initiative. Again, lowest roll wins. The first stage may or may not modify the roll. If there are more than two teams fighting, initiative occurs in the order of initiative rolls from lowest to highest.

The third stage resolve combat. The winner of initiative goes first. Each weapon (if more than one) is resolved with a to hit roll in weapon speed order. Modifiers from the first stage may or may not affect the to hit roll. As is true in the fantasy rules of Andras, a d20 is rolled against a target number determined by AC + Modifiers. A roll equal to or below the target number is a success. On a successful hit, damage is rolled.

The next team does the same process, still in weapon speed order.

I am still working through details for the Tactical Stage. Many of the tactics will be similar to those used in naval combat, air combat, melee combat, etc. Once these are detailed, the rules will inform other forms of combat as well.

Just to provide a couple more mechs/tanks...

Here are Scout units. They are basically designed for speed and evasion.

They are not going to win in a fight, but they will move very, very fast.

The Mard succeeds with overwhelming fire power. It has capable weapons at every combat range, extreme (lasers), long range missiles and short-range missiles. The only thing it is missing is an axe.