GURPS Tactical Swarms

Australian SASR

One day I felt a need to run a game that involved PCs being in direct command and control of a number of NPCs, two 5-man squads per person. Mass Combat didnt fit the bill and one player controlling 11 characters was unfeasable. So I created my own system, inspired by swarms and certain features of Action. As written, tactical swarms are intended for TL6-8 combat, although with a few tweaks I expect it to work with earlier TLs. Feel free to message me with suggestions on how to improve this for various purposes and make it more general.


SUGGESTION: Create a combined character sheet for your team, noting their Combined SLs and combined attack statistics.

Disambiguation
SL - Skill Level

Team - A tactical swarm that consists of NPC(s) that make use of Combined SLs and Team Maneuvers.

MOS - Margin of Success

CASEVAC - Casualty Evacuation


Combined SL:
When in a team, members of the unit supplement each other and roll against most team activities only once. Take highest SL of skill(s), add +1 per every team member who has that skill after the first and -1 per every team member that doesn't to find the Combined SL. For attacks, use primary combat skills of each team member.

If team member's SL is less than highest SL-2, treat him as if he didn't have the skill.

If you want increased difficulty, make it +2 per every team member.

Example: 4-man Rifle Team is attacking an enemy
Skills: Guns (Rifle) - 13, Guns (LMG) - 13
13+1(rifleman)+1(rifleman)+1(SAW)=16 Combined SL

Example: 1 Spec Op and 3 Militiamen
Skills: Guns (Rifle) - 16, Guns (Rifle) - 13
16-1-1-1=13 Combined SL

A professional team can carry one amateur, but many amateurs will cramp the style of one professional.


Solo Action:
Once per turn, a team member can detach from his unit and perform one skill/ability check separate from the others, using his personal level in this ability. He's excluded from combined SL rolls of the team until next turn. Team member taking Solo Action must still obey Maneuver selected for the entire team. He wouldn’t be able to move and attack if the team took any other maneuver, and would suffer normal penalties for attacking on the move if team took Move maneuver.

Example: Useful for DMRs, Snipers, MGs, Anti-Tank, etc.


Team Attacks:
Team can only attack other teams, never individuals (unless opposing team was reduced to 1 member). To attack a specific individual, use Solo Action. Player characters are considered 1-man teams for this rule.

Weapon Statistics:
When attacking via team maneuvers, the team's weapon statistics are brought to average rounding down. In case of bulk, round to the worse result.

Example: Rifle at 4d+2 and LMG at 5d, avrages to 5d-1. Rifle at bulk -4 and LMG at bulk -5 averages to -5.

Rate of Fire is an exception, simply add up all ROF into one number.  For those interested in a more realistic approach, dividng the combined ROF by 1.5 for maneuvers that allow defenses and automatic reloads. This properly simulates some members of the team being busy reloading/guarding the team's rear.

Example: 5 men with ROF 15 rifles for combined ROF of 75. During attack maneuver, their ROF is 75/1.5=50


Team Maneuvers:
Attack
Movement: 1yd
Defenses: Normal

Team engages the enemy, rolling against Combined Skill Level of ranged/melee attack. Few members of the team watch flank and rear, ensuring defenses.

All-Out Attack (Determined)
Movement: 1/2 of basic move, forward only
Defenses: NONE

Team engages the enemy with full firepower, rolling against combined SL of attack at +1 (+4 for melee). As all team members focus on dealing as much damage as possible, flanks are unprotected and the team can't defend.


All-Out Attack (Suppression Fire)
Movement: 1/2 Forward
Defense: NONE

As written for single characters.


Aim
Movement: Step/None
Defenses: Normal, taking defense spoils aim.

Team members prepare to engage a specific target or area. Apply average Acc bonus and Average targetting aid bonus.

Extra time spent aiming functions as normal, +1 for 2 seconds of aiming, +2 for 3 seconds of aiming.


All-Out Defense (Take Cover)
Movement: Step
Defenses: +2

Team finds defensive positions behind cover, giving them -2 to be hit and +2 to defend. Bonus from cover remains until position is left, Bonus to Defenses must be renewed each second.


Move
Movement: Up to Average Basic Move
Defenses: Normal

Team advances, calculate distance from the side of token closest to destination.


Move and Attack:
Movement: Up to Average Basic Move
Defenses: Normal

As written, see: Move. Apply average bulk of the team to attack.


Ready
Movement: Step
Defenses: Normal

As written.


Change Posture
Movement: None
Defenses: Normal

Team changes posture as written.

Change Formation
Movement: None
Defenses: Normal

Team moves in a different formation, change shape of the Token to indicate new formation. Arrow is the default formation, represented by hex token.


Wait
Movement: Step
Defenses: Normal


Wait maneuver can be turned into any other, effectively granting all team members ‘Battle Drills’ perk and assuming they’re always formed up.


Effects and additional rules:
Injuries:Team's HP is 10*Number of team members. The team has combined HP.

When a team fails to defend, roll against each member's Dodge, parry or block. Worst MoF is hit.

In larger swarms with troopers easily divided by class (machine gunners, riflemen, etc), you can elect to roll defenses for one type of unit, on failure one of them is hit.

Every 5 HP lost, roll against HT. On success, fight continues as normal. On failure, injured team member is stunned and drops on the ground for 15-HT rounds. Success on leadership skill roll by a leader nearby reduces this time by 1 second+Margin of Success.

When team member reaches 0 HP (or when the swarm suffers damage equal or more than 1/x of it's HP, where x - number of squad mates), he falls unconscious. Roll against HT, on failure urgent CASEVAC is required. Team has 10 minutes to stabilize the wounded (First-Aid skill) and 12 hours to get him to a physician (Physician skill+Surgery Skill). Failure to provide both of these results in death of team member.

When 50% of the team falls unconscious, roll against combined Ability Level of Will of survivors. On Failure, Team breaks and takes All-Out Defense maneuver for 25-Will seconds. Success on Leadership roll reduces this time by 1+MOS.


Cover:
To enter cover, team must taken All Out Defense maneuver. In cover, team is harder to hit (-2 to attacks against it), gains +1 to ranged attacks due to bracing.

Note: Weapons with Bipod benefit from bracing whenever they fire separately or when they’re prone.


Reloading:

Teams are considered to be trained in "Talking Guns" drill, with at least half of the team always ready to engage, making reloading unnecessary.

Exception: After taking 2 Attack maneuvers at maximum RoF, the entire team must reload, spending 3 ready maneuvers to do so.


Area Attacks/Explosives:
Area attacks against teams target the team’s center. To find distance of each member from the center of the team, take the length of longest side and divide it by 2, rounding down. This is abstract in order to speed up play. [ACCEPTING SUGGESTIONS ON THIS].

Example: in Arrow formation, 2x2 hex token places each member of the team 1 yard away from explosion. In 4x4 hex token, it’d be 2 yards from center.


Team Spread
As the team spreads out, it becomes harder to assist each other in various tasks. Apply cumulative -1 per every doubling of hex size above 4x4,

Example: Team spread out over 16x16 hexes will receive -3 to all of it’s tasks.

Rear and Sides
A team does not have rear as normal characters have due to the fact that drills stress the presence of rear guard. As such, team has only Front and Flank (behaves identical to Sides as on normal characters). To simulate situations where team focuses on their front and does not watch their rear, use ‘All-Out Attack’ maneuver.


Targetting Aids
Targetting aids that increase the skill level simply have their average bonus (round down) added. A 4-man team all equipped with red dots benefit from +1 to hit, but if at least one of them lacks it, the bonus is not provided.

Telescopic sight functions the same, but it's bonus is recorded after acc just like for a normal character.


Melee Attacks:
For a team to enter melee, it must share at least 1/2 of hexes with opposing team, or 1 hex with opposing character. Make melee attacks as normal and note MOS, then use ROF rules to determine how many hits the team has dealt. Rcl of a melee attack is 1 and Max ROF is equal to number of NPCs in a team + number of extra attacks they can make.

Example: A team of 4 troopers are charging with bayonets. They enter same hexes as opposition and roll against combined Spear SL. They score 1 basic success and 2 extra successes. If the enemy team fails to defend, they land 3 melee hits.