The desire to have some sort of amphibious rules was mentioned a few times on the "The Future of E-A after Initial Rerelease?" thread and a lot of people (including me) think it would be cool to be able to do Normandy/Tarawa/Solomons/(Insert Amphibious operation name here) type scenarios, especially since the Orks did amphibious type raids during the Armageddon campaign.
So...I got to thinking about it to consider exactly what additional rules would be needed. It's not an exhaustive list at all and like so many things depends on what level of detail you want to get into.
Anyhow, here some stuff, please add you own and thoughts.
Offshore firepower (naval bombardment support)
- Treat exactly as per artillery strikes. The presence of multiple units could be represented as separate strikes e.g. a cruiser and two destroyers offshore in support are represented by a 3 BP bombardment and 2 x 1 BP. Range limited to say shoreline +50cm to abstract the ships' ranges, and this way we dont need extensive rules and stats for naval vessels.
Fortifications and Obstacles
- Obviously an essential part, haven't they been raised before?
Amphibiousity
- We will need a list of what vehicles (e.g. Chimeras) are amphibious and can "swim" themselves to shore. Others will need landing barges (think LST) or something to cross the wet stuff. Swimming vehicles will have to have a separate speed, say 10cm, to represent them being slower in the water.
- I imagine establishing a "surf zone" say 10cm from the water's edge. If a landing craft is sunk in deeper water than that its cargo is destroyed/drowned. No save. If lost in the surf zone, they get a save.
"Bloody Omaha" effect
- There is no cover in the surf or on the edge of the beach. Nowhere to hide. Units being fired upon in this area suffer a +1 to hit penalty (i.e. its easier to hit them). Nobody said this would be easy!
Scenario Construction
- Not dissimilar to the old SM-era "Assault" scenario. Defenders get half the points of the attackers and may buy fortifications. Attackers cost normal points, can't garrison units, but may deploy orbital units from say turn 2 onward. Normal army list restrictions apply (and now I just HAVE to make a model of a Warlord waist deep in water wading ashore!
)- That's it for now...of course, there are lots of other more detailed bits that could be factored in or which could be optional.
Over to you guys...
