[OC] Rifle & Gun: Fighting & Fun

I threw these rules together for fun. Feel free to use them. Enjoy!

RIFLE & GUN: Fighting & Fun

Rifle & Gun is a squad-level modern military tabletop miniatures game that aims to reward realistic tactics and minimizes math, bookkeeping, and table lookups. Players command fire teams rather than individual figures. Play occurs on a 3' x 3' table.

Inspired by “Force on Force” and “Ranger: Modern Patrolling Operations.”

CORE CONCEPTS

Fire Teams:

Every soldier belongs to a fire team of ~4 figures. Teams fight as a unit. You don't move or shoot individual soldiers. However, when it makes sense, a single soldier can act as a one-man team (such as a sniper).

Team Quality:

Each team rolls a specific die type based on training and equipment:

• Irregulars: d6
• Regular troops: d8
• Elite troops: d10

You'll roll these dice to attack, defend, and react.

Cohesion:

All soldiers in a team must remain within 1” of each other. Teams stay together and cannot split (unless a scenario allows it). At the start of a turn, two or more teams can merge into one larger team. Once merged, they cannot split again. This is useful when teams have suffered casualties and need to regroup.

Line of Sight & Terrain Types:

If at least one soldier in your team can see at least one soldier in the target team, line of sight is established. Draw an imaginary line across the table connecting them. The line cannot pass through blocking terrain (walls, buildings, large vehicles). The line can pass through non-blocking terrain (low walls, trees, lampposts, chain-link fences, window sills, bushes, small objects). Terrain shorter or thinner than a standing figure is always non-blocking. For teams at different elevations (e.g. one on a roof, one in the street), eyeball if any obstacles act as blocking or non-blocking terrain. There is no maximum range limit in this game.

TURN STRUCTURE

Each turn follows five phases in this order:

1. Initiative: Determine who acts first.
2. Unpin: Remove pinned statuses from last turn.
3. Declare Overwatch: Initiative player locks teams in place to shoot only.
4. Initiative Player Acts: Initiative player moves and shoots. The opponent may attempt reactions /interrupts.
5. Non-Initiative Player Acts: Other player's teams move and shoot.

PHASE 1: INITIATIVE

The player with the most unpinned soldiers acts first. If tied, the player who didn't have initiative last turn gains initiative. If this is the first turn and there's a tie, flip a coin.

PHASE 2: UNPIN

Remove all pinned markers from teams that were pinned last turn. They can now act normally this turn.

PHASE 3: DECLARE OVERWATCH

The initiative player announces which of their teams will be placed on overwatch. These teams:

• Cannot move
• Can only shoot when enemies appear in their line of sight
• Can only fire once per turn
• Provide only suppressive fire (see Shooting section)

PHASE 4: INITIATIVE PLAYER ACTS (with Reactions)

The initiative player activates their teams in any order they choose. Each team performs exactly one action per turn. There are 5 possible actions to choose from.

Available Actions:

1. Move Rapidly (up to 12”)

• Fast movement in any direction, including up building stories
• Must go around all obstacles including non-blocking terrain
• Can move through smoke
• Cannot be used if the team has any injured soldiers

1. Move Cautiously (up to 6”)

• Slower, safer movement in any direction, including up building stories
• Can climb over or cut through non-blocking terrain.
• Provides a defensive bonus if shot at (+1 die of the team's quality)
• If movement starts adjacent to a building, can be used to breach into it

1. Shoot

• Aim at an enemy team in line of sight
• Declare regular fire (to kill) or suppressive fire (to pin)

1. Move & Shoot

• Move cautiously first, then stop and shoot at any visible enemy

1. Shoot & Move

• Shoot first, then move cautiously

Grenades:

Smoke Grenades (1 per soldier)

• Deploy before moving or shooting (but not before rapid movement)
• Place smoke up to 3” away from your team.
• Acts as non-blocking terrain when calculating defense dice, but rapidly moving teams can move through it. Lasts until end of turn.
• Can pick up grenades from dead comrades.

Fragmentation Grenades (2 per soldier)

• Use when shooting at targets within 3”
• Add +1 die per grenade to your attack
• Can also be used during a building breach. Immediately pin all enemies inside the room being breached. They cannot react or retreat.
• Can pick up grenades from dead comrades

Reactions:

While the initiative team acts, non-initiative teams can attempt to react if they have line of sight and aren’t pinned. If the reaction is to movement, the reaction might interrupt it.

How reactions work:

1. Non-initiative team declares a reaction (shoot, move rapidly/cautiously, move+shoot, or shoot+move)
2. If the non-initiative team is attempting to react to the movement portion of the initiative team’s action, both teams roll one die (using their team’s respective quality die). If reacting to the shooting portion of the action, skip to step 4. Cannot react to both portions of a multi-portion action.
3. If the non-initiative team rolls higher, they react before the initiative team finishes.
4. If the initiative team rolls higher, the initiative action continues. Reaction resolves after (if still applicable)
5. If the initiative team gets pinned, its action stops immediately and it is forced to retreat towards cover.

Reaction limits:

• Each team can only react once per turn
• Pinned teams cannot react
• Teams on overwatch can interrupt reacting teams with suppressive fire

Overwatch Interrupts Reactions:

If a reacting team comes into line of sight of an overwatch team that hasn't yet fired this turn, the overwatch team immediately opens fire with suppressive fire only (no regular fire).

PHASE 5: NON-INITIATIVE PLAYER ACTS

All remaining unpinned teams that didn't react during Phase 4 can now take one action using the same rules as Phase 4. Overwatch teams can still interrupt these actions, but other teams cannot react.

SHOOTING

Step 1: Declare the Attack

• Announce which team is shooting and which enemy team is the target
• Declare regular fire (cause casualties) or suppressive fire (pin the target)

Step 2: Confirm Line of Sight

You can shoot if at least one soldier in your team can see at least one soldier in the target team.

Step 3: Roll to Attack

Roll one die per soldier in the attacking team, plus these bonuses:

• Roll +1 die if the team includes a grenadier
• Roll +1 die if the team includes a SAW gunner
• Roll +1 die if the target is within 6”
• Roll +1 die if your team didn't move before shooting

Any die showing 4 or higher is a potential hit.

For suppressive fire: Use the same attack dice. If any die shows 4 or higher, the target is pinned. Defenders don't roll. No casualties occur.

Step 4: Roll to Defend

The defending team rolls one die for each factor:

• Roll +1 die per piece of non-blocking terrain between them and the shooter (count each separate piece: wall, tree, trash can, etc.)
• Roll +1 die per smoke between them and the shooter
• Roll +1 die if defenders were moving cautiously or standing still (not moving rapidly)
• Roll +2 dice if most of the defending team is behind blocking terrain

Exception: Non-blocking terrain touching the base of attacking soldiers is not counted (e.g., they're shooting over a low wall they're standing behind). Adjacent smoke IS counted.

Any die showing 4 or higher is a successful defense.

Step 5: Cancel Hits

Match attacking dice (4+) against defending dice (4+) and cancel them one-for-one. Start with the highest attack die and work down.

Any attack dice that aren’t cancelled = actual hits.

Step 6: Assign Casualties

The defender chooses which soldiers are hit. For each hit:

• An even-numbered die means the soldier is killed. Leave the body on the table (assume the body will be retrieved after the skirmish unless a scripted scenario requires otherwise, in which case the team carrying the body cannot move rapidly)
• An odd-numbered die means the soldier is injured. A second injury kills that soldier.
• In either case, if the defending team takes hits, it is pinned (see Pinning below)

Designated marksman: If the attacking team includes a designated marksman, the attacker chooses 1 uncancelled attack die and chooses which defender is hit by it (instead of the defender choosing).

PINNING

Pinned teams:

• Cannot shoot, move, or react for the rest of the turn
• Must retreat behind the nearest blocking terrain within 3” in the direction roughly opposite to where they took fire from or in the direction opposite to their last movement action (pinned team's choice), but never towards the attacking team. If the blocking terrain is too far, they move towards it.
• Cannot complete their planned action/reaction
• If a pinned team is hit again, it retreats again.

CROSSFIRE

If a team is caught in crossfire, even from friendly teams, they may suffer casualties.

How crossfire works:

• The shooting team makes one attack roll (number of dice are figured with the targeted team in mind)
• The closest team in line of sight resolves its defense first.
• Any hits are applied as usual and those dice are removed from the attack dice pool. Dice cancelled by the defense remain in the pool.
• The next closest team rolls their defense against the attack dice pool and suffers hits as described above. This continues for all teams in line of sight.

EXTRA RULES related to snipers, machine gun teams, air support, artillery, armored vehicles, helicopters, IEDs, hidden teams, and drones have been developed, but, for the sake of brevity, are excluded from this post.