14 Melee
How melee range is measured depends on the magnitude of the fight. Something like:
| Magnitude | Description | Melee Distance |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Handheld and physical contact | |
| 2 | Classical ballistics (slings to SMGs) | |
| 3 | Classical artillery & modern ballistics | |
| 4 | Heavy rockers & planetary artillery | |
| 5 | Void ambient | Kinda arbitrarily1 set to 10 light seconds, or 1.86 million miles / 0.02 AU / 9.7 \(\times\) 10-8 parsecs |
| 6 | ||
| 7 | ||
| 8 | ||
| 9 | ||
| 10 |
- Melee combat occurs when two (or more) opposing units occupy the same location.
- In melee combat, all sides gain 1 attack-flavored AP that can be used against other units in the same location
- Suppressing an opponent makes them also loose 1 attack-flavored AP next turn (in addition to any APs lost to the suppression).
- All attacks on other location units are +1°
- Flashbacks can miss (i.e., don’t only attack on hits and suppressions). The range is too close for them to fire back in time far enough to know if they hit before firing.
- Movement
- Moving out of the melee location costs +1° AP
- Entire battle scenarios cam be melee (endings can include moving out of melee range), so battles can be D&D-style die rolls back and forth (with the OPs still nudging the rolls). And actions, environment, etc. can be granular enough role play like most battles in most games.
- The +1 attack AP and +1° attacks will also not tax impatient players
14.1 Stellar
The Expanse had it right again. That is what space melee combat would look like (without the ships getting as close as they made for dramatic effect).
- Mass weapons (bullets; AM rockets; heck, I guess even nukes since they need to get physically close enough to irradiate; so anything with a mass chassis) get +2 attack APs
- Defensive APs have a chance to accumulate over rounds of melee combat.
- After any attack misses, the attacker must make a successful all-or-naught recon roll. Success means no AP increases and any accumulation is ended. Failure means the defender gains +1 defensive AP; these APs can accumulate without end for that melee combat (and of course, restricted to that scenario)
- Why, you ask? Because in space, speed kilts. Think about it. Space is big, even bigger’n the Space Monsters. So either you’re going really fast, or you’re essentially just sitting there. And seriously, it wouldn’t take a power energy weapon to eventually wear down an opponent who will intercept your position in how four weeks. If you’re somehow going in an advantageous direction (back lit by radiation, occluded by dust) you’re probably also going that way really fast.
- So yeah, Coursers make this recon roll at +1
- After any attack misses, the attacker must make a successful all-or-naught recon roll. Success means no AP increases and any accumulation is ended. Failure means the defender gains +1 defensive AP; these APs can accumulate without end for that melee combat (and of course, restricted to that scenario)
- Blinkerblasters can leave melee at any time, including to break this chain.
- If any Blinkerblaster not in melee with a target unit hits that unit, then any Blinkerblaster that is in melee with that target unit gains +3° on all attacks next round (including itself if it is subsequently in melee with that target unit. Flashbacks saw it coming.
But not entirely since I’m thinking of making a round 10 seconds.↩︎