My initial focus for Atomic Africa lay in making an advancement system, which would tell an individual trooper's story. As I developed the game mechanics I realized I was much more interested in making a simple but fun platoon-level game, rather than something more akin to a role-playing game. I really like the concept of experience in wargames, and I especially like when it plays a vital role in the game mechanics. Atomic Africa allows players to follow a platoon through a campaign, as its fortunes wax and wane with victory and defeat.
Recovery and Experience
Whether he performed flawlessly or botched every task given, a trooper gains invaluable experience simply by surviving a battle. The loss of seasoned veterans often offsets this hard-won knowledge however. Add one XP to the platoon and platoon leader's experience track on the Unit Data Sheet at the conclusion of the game. Certain scenarios also include objectives which, when met, grant an extra XP. An objective that offers one additional XP should be difficult to achieve; one that offers two additional should be near-impossible. The players then use the following procedure to determine experience lost by the platoon due to casualties. The procedure applies only to the platoon; a later die roll will determine whether the platoon leader lives, dies, or gets promoted out of a job. Gather all wound counters accrued during a battle. Do not forget to include the wound counters assigned to units removed from the table before the battle ended. Set the counters on the table together and make a Recovery roll using a single d8. Remove a number of wound counters from the table equal to the die score. If no counters remain the platoon escaped the fray with no deaths and minimal injuries losing no XP. If wound counters remain on the table, subtract one XP from the platoon's tracker and make a second Recovery roll, this time using 2d8. Again, remove the number of wound counters indicated on the dice. If no counters remain the platoon loses no further XP; recovery is complete. If any wound counters remain after this second roll, subtract another XP from the platoon's tracker and make a third Recovery roll using 3d8. Continue making Recovery rolls, adding an extra d8 to each and subtracting one XP for each roll failing to eliminate all the wound counters. Stop rolling for Recovery when either no counters remain on the table or the platoon's XP reaches 0. A single die roll determines the platoon leader's fate. The player must exceed both a Survival threshold and Promotion threshold on a 2d12 or lose the platoon leader. The Survival threshold equals the number of wound counters assigned to the platoon leader's element during the battle, while the Promotion threshold equals the platoon leader's current XP (including any earned this battle).
Force Generation
If the platoon needs a replacement after the lieutenant gets pulled up to the headquarters company, or if players just want to generate forces for a one-off game, a simple die roll for XP suffices. I prefer to roll a 1d10-1, resulting in an average Experience Level of Regular, but ranging from Untested to Veteran. Another option is to split a campaign into five periods. XP is determined with a 1d4-1 in the first period, a 1d6-1 in the second, etc., all the way to 1d12-1 for the fifth period. In all cases, I always roll two dice at once and use the lower die for the platoon leader's XP and the higher for the platoon.
Next post will feature hand to hand combat in Atomic Africa. I'm away from home and my game room on a long business trip, but as I've written up these posts I've been play-testing these rules in my mind. I'm happy with all the things I've play-tested for real in the past (the card mechanic, the ranged fire mechanic, suppression rules), but there are other things I already want to change. The movement rules were always wonky, and since the point of this exercise is simplicity, I'll be changing them around slightly. This will result in a modified turn sequence, which of course changes a lot of my previous posts. I've decided not to go back and change my work however; instead I'll leave my posts as they are, as a record of game development. If anyone out there is actually reading my crap, I promise I will indicate which rules are "1.1" and which are old.
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