Ambush Alley Games

Vehicle Firepower and Defense

In the Ambush Alley rule book, vehicle weapons and armor are rated as Light, Medium, and Heavy. This shared nomenclature with infantry support weapons caused some players confusion, so we’ve decided to change weapon and armor classes to numeric designations. This should alleviate any confusion of terms and make it easier to compare weapon and armor strengths.

Vehicle Firepower

All vehicle mounted weaponry falls into one of three classes, with Class 1 having the least ability to defeat armor and Class 3 having the best.

Below are some examples of weapons in each class:

Class 1 Vehicle Weapons – Machine guns such as the M2 .50 or DSHK 12.75mm; Automatic Grenade Launchers; “regular” RPGs.

Class 2 Vehicle Weapons – Light auto-cannons, such as the 25mm Bushmaster; AT RPGs

Class 3 Vehicle Weapons – Main tank guns; AT missiles such as the TOW or Javelin

 

 

Vehicle Defense

Vehicle armor is rated in four classes, with Class 0 being the least protection (none, actually) and Class 3 being the best.

Below are examples of vehicles from each Defense Class:

Class 0 Vehicle Defense – Unarmored or “soft-skin” vehicles, such as civilian vehicles or military utility vehicles have NO armor and afford their passengers little or no protection. All weapons roll their full Firepower against Class 0 vehicles.

Class 1 Vehicle Defense – Light armored vehicles, such as M113 or Saxon APCs, provide rudimentary protection against small arms fire and shell fragments.

Class 2 Vehicle Defense – “Medium” vehicles, such as the Bradley ICV, are designed to provide direct combat support to the squads they transport. Their armor provides protection against small arms, artillery, and light anti-tank weaponry.

Class 3 Vehicle Defense – “Heavy” vehicles, such as the M1A1 Abrams MBT, are the kings of the battlefield. Class 3 AFVs are practically immune to any weapon system not specifically designed to overcome their massive armor and defense systems.

Some Defense Dice Adjustments

In the base rules, we assumed that vehicles would most likely only be used on the Regular side, apart from the odd technical, but now we foresee some players wishing to pit outdated equipment against state of the art technology, i.e., Iraqi T-55s against M1A1s. We feel this shift in vehicle use requires a slight shift with regard to what Defense dice vehicles will use.

In the basic rules, we linked specific Defense dice to each class of vehicle. The better the vehicle’s battle survivability, the more and larger Defense dice it threw. This was a generalization that worked well as long as all vehicles represented were based on a contemporaneous norm, but when mixing AFVs from different generations, the argument that “a tank is a tank is a tank” becomes a little strained.

To represent “generational differences,” obsolescence, and just plain old variations in quality, we’ve made the link between vehicle class and Defense die a little more flexible. As a general guideline, obsolescent vehicles suffer a shift down in Defense die type and may also have one Defense die less than an analogous modern vehicle.

Tanks require a bit more adjustment – smaller tanks have one less Defense die than larger “Main Battle Tanks” and tanks with superior armor, such as chobham or advanced spaced armor or have been significantly (and effectively) “up-armored” receive an extra Defense die.

Since Ambush Alley was never intended to be a true “tank battle” game, we’ve drawn the line at differentiating between anti-kinetic and anti-missile defense for AFVs, specifically with regard to up-armored AFVs. A tank that has reactive armor and a tank that has additional bar armor plating are both treated as “up-armored” regardless of what is shot at them.

If you really want to differentiate between kinetic and missile defense, however, we suggest you only give the extra up-armor Defense die for missile attacks vs. reactive armor and only for kinetic attacks vs. re-enforced armor.

Bear in mind however, that much of the new approaches to “up-armor” AFVs are designed to provide additional protection against both shaped-charge and kinetic impact.

 

 

Guidelines for Setting Vehicle Defense

<!–[if !supportLists]–> · <!–[endif]–>Obsolete armor types shift down 1 die type, but never lower than d6<!–[endif]–>

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Vehicles that are smaller than their type or known to be poorly designed lose 1 Defense die.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Advanced composite and spaced armors gain 1 Defense die.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Up-armored vehicles (passive armor, reactive armor) gain 1 Defense die.

 

Guidelines for Setting Vehicle Firepower

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>All Class 1 weapons throw 3d.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Class 2 weapons:

<!–[if !supportLists]–>o <!–[endif]–>Smaller than 25mm: 3d

<!–[if !supportLists]–>o <!–[endif]–>25mm or larger: 4d

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Class 3 weapons:

<!–[if !supportLists]–>o <!–[endif]–>Up to 105mm: 3d

<!–[if !supportLists]–>o <!–[endif]–>Up to 120mm: 4d

<!–[if !supportLists]–>o <!–[endif]–>120mm or larger: 5d