nrropuction DUG-IN" UT: 20 CASUALTIES 10 MOUNTED INFANTRY: 36 misopucrion 2. errtcrs oF wooDS 20 FIRING INFANTRY ROM TRANSPORT. 38 DeneNerr NOTES: 2 CHAPTER 5: CONFIDENCE AND REACTION CHAPTER 9: ARTILLERY SING TES AUN Foe 3) UNITQUALITY AND LEADERSHIP RATING: 27 TYPES OF ARTILLERY BATTERIES: 7 ae EES DE COR RITIONE: 2 CONFIDENCE LEVELS: 21 LOCATION OF ARTILLERY BATTERIES, 7 THE COUNTER SHEETS 4 Serects OF CONFIDENCE LeveLs 22 ARTILLERY MUNITION TYPES: 3 SOMES LS OD DREPRTIOMS: 4 CONFIDENCE TESTS: 22. ARTILLERY FIRE MISSIONS: 38 LINE OF SIGHT AND LINE OF FIRE: REACTION TESTS: 22 BEATEN ZONES FOR ARTILLERY FIRE: 38 THE COUNTERS, CHS AND MARKERS 5 TaRiNG CONFIDENCE TESTS 22 REQUESTING ARTILLERY FIRE 2 ER: FORCES AND TECHNOLOGY LonFioP cs AND AEACTION TESTS DRTILeRY Hat RESOLUTION 8 Eunrano, contROL IRCUMSTANCES AND THREAT LEVELS: 23. ARTILLERY HAE DAMAGE PCTs 3 ‘AND COMBIUNICATIONS: 6 panic 3 AMMUNITION SUPMY AND RSSUPELY: aD ovehview oF WEAPON SYSTEMS UNTCEADERS LOSS AND REPLACEMENT: 23 COUNTER BATTERY ARE ° “TecHnowoGy 6 UNE iNtecRrTy 3 onmteny: o FORCE ORGANISATIONS REGROUPING. ae CUAPTEN 40; AEROSPACE OPERATIONS AND ORDERS OF BATTLE 7 TUONDER FRE MaRKeRs: HATER AEROS RC ESORRTIONS CHAPTER 2: VERICLE DESIGN LOSS OF COMMAND UNIT 24 AEROSPACE UNTT ACTIVATION SEQUENCE, 1 ‘Vericue St CLASSES 8 AI VEHICLE WEAPON EPECTS n ‘Wearon size classes: 2 CHAPTER 6: MOVEMENT DEADFALL ORDNANCE DikECr FRE WEAPONS SYSTEMS 3 MOVEMENT 25 PHRFTACE RESOLUTION 4 ERICLE POWERPLANT SYSTEMS: wo Tenet Tees 2 aw outence 2 Vericte anwour 10 TERRAIN EFFecis ON MOBILITY 26 iNewwAcs LANDINGS 3 Vehicle SGRATURES AND BVA MOVEMENT 8 Dror moor 2 ‘STeatra tevets 11 AIRBORNE Vet TERIA i ABBRIOHAL AWS SysTEM QUALITIES AND LEVELS 11 WalkER venicLe MOVEMENT by CHATTER 1: ADDS ARCS OF FIRE 1} ivetine wovenenr Fr uy QRTIONAL RULES a WEAPONS FIT LIMITATIONS: 1) CHAPTER 7: FIRE COMBAT MINEFIELDS: a4 INFANTRY ARD CARGO TRANSPORT: 12 SUAPTER TZ: xy MOS 4 AITILLERY VEHICLE DESIGN: 12 WEAPON RANGE TABLE: 28 CLEARING MINES: 45 INFANTRY FORCES: 12 STAGE 1: HIT RESOLUTION: 28 ABANDONED VEHICLES: a5 ‘RVERINE CRAFT 13 STAGE 2: DAMAGE RESOLUTION 29° BACKUP SYSTEMS: 45 RIVERINE CRAFT DESIGN. 13 DAMAGE EFFECTS: 30 ENGINEERING UNITS: 45, AIRBORNE VEHICLES: 14 SLAM SYSTEMS ~ MULTIPLE TARGETS: 30 FORTIFICATIONS: 46 ‘AIR VEHICLE DESIGN: 14 GUIDED MISSILE SYSTEM (GN) FIRE: 30 BUILDINGS AND URBAN AREAS: 46 AEROSPACE WEAPONS: ‘14 INTERCEPTION BY AREA DEFENCE SYSTEMS: 31 COMBAT IN URBAN AREAS: 46 COMBAT WALKERS: 1a MISSILE HITS AND ARTILERTEIRE AGAINST URBAN AREAS: 43 COMBAT WALKER DESIGN: Z POINT-DEFENCE SYSTEMS: 31 NUCLEAR MUNITIONS: 47 WALKER ARCS OF FIRE: 1 MULTIPLE MOUNT WEAPONS: 32. BIOCHEM MUNITION EFFECTS. a OVERSIZED” VEHICLES 13 Shop Ups artacks. 3 easevae ae MODULAR” OVERSIZE VEHICLES: 35 ANGLE OF ATTACK: 32 WEATHER CONDITIONS: 43 a a 2 REPAIRING SYSTEMS FAILURES: 32 EXOTIC ENVIRONMENTS: 48 are AUEN RACES IN DIRTSIDE [I 48 HAPTER 8: INFANTRY COMBAT AreMsonS ump aisteus NC yg Rrantny steronts 33 CHAPTER 12: SCENARIOS AND INFANTRY CLOSE ASSAULT we OAERGROUNDS (CHAPTER 4: SEQUENCE OF PLAY COMBINED ACTIVATIONS THESCENARIOS ® SEQUENCE OF PLAY pReLIINARIES: 17 MOR CL oserassauLT 35 SCevamto 1 BORDER RAD 3 TERCERA ER BATTLES 12 OVERRUNS AND FOLLOW-THROUGH ‘SCENARIO 2: SPACEPORT DEFENCE 49 AT SE RSIEPENCE BATELES n ATTACKS: 35° FURTHER SCENARIO IDEAS: 30, Cee rweNT BE 17 ANTI-PERSONNEL SUPPORT POSSIBLE BACKGROUNDS: 50 ‘SEQUENCE OF PLAY — THE GAME TURN: 4 WEAPONS (APSWS): 35° CAMPAIGN GAMES: 50 NITACTVATIONS; COMBATSEQUENCE: 1B ay! PERSOMNEL FRAGENTATION AOTURE nIsTORY 2000 218300 3 YRERTANKS® CHARGES (APES). » 5 THe TURN END PHASE 1s eGR cnpren 1: appenpices oo TARGET PRIORITY: 1g "ROCKETS (IAVES): 36 St " SOME TYPICAL VEFICLE EXAMPLES GRAS Sante SSCLE ee re TERRAIN AVAILABILITY AND MODELLING: 53 [AREA DEFENCE SyST#M#S AGAINST ae, se TERRAIN AVALABILT 3 GROUND TARGETS: 19 INFANTRY WEAPONS FIRE BIBLIOGRAPHY: ts AIBDENUNITS. BD ASANST vEMES 38 Glossary OF Temas: s Coven ad CONCEALMENT: 32 NFANTRY TRANSPORT: 38 THE RECORD CARDS 2 Witten by: Jon M Tuttoy systems Development, Mike tot Background Development: Jon Tutfey and Steve Blease Stenatios: Mike Eliott Technical Military Advisors: Paul Allcock, Bruce Wier Graphics, Layout and Typesetting Paral and Sion Panel Smut Graphics 2e igh eee, Neecham ane, atone Countersheet Design: Tin Parsi! Printed by: Alsarman Pring, Rusell lad, Ipewer IPt 2N “inhouse” Paytesting and Development Tue. Mike Eliot. Tm Perel, Orwid Gama sternal Paytestng Teams: Sruce Wiles and “De Kregepelen”Rametein Af, Gomary ictal Se Seve Tos sn Clchester Gunes Chi Stee Tye and ‘end Noro, Dave rer, Wei tacGurk a Json ayer, Sete “Artwork: Barre Quin and Peter aries Photography: Jahn Teesdawoy and Kein Dalenore Exstdtop fr prape photo nly soppaed by Alan Marques. Model Painting: For clout photos (covers: Vehicles by Kevin Dallmore Speci Fees, tel'091 059 809), Dullngs by Jr Langer For intemal photo: PR Gray {GropoutsParting Servi, tl 6262 12538), fon Tutey, Penny Tay Terrain Suppled by: Keiran Rohan, GEO-HEX. ‘Aditona thanks or texting, eas, inspiration et) fo Sion Burroughs Jones ay, simon Evans lee Steuart foul Lets nares Fech Jy Webies, Mig Sahucsa, Ce Denman, Pas Deaton, Michas Mokonm and of couse ‘htiyone wh has purchased and payed he origina DIRTSIDE lease Note Mos of he Compan, Names rd Ranges retoned are ‘esteormaton purposes ony ana should not many way be conseued Siachallenge tothe Madera ats at any Name or Bode"The drop on Mhung‘Du was the only hot-zone drop | ever di. Normally Carimand reckons they're too expensive — much berter to land everyone in a nice quiet bit of back-country and then mount an ordinary averiand assault. That takes time though, and en Mhung’Du they needed resuits fast a Cure reel Torce was supposed to be on its way and the brass wanted everything sewn up nice and tight before they got there, \We were in the second wave, the big landers with all the armour and support. The PBI went down in the fitst wave, in the litle ingerface boats iots of ‘em to make the ground defences have to work at it We heard that the Brockford dropped thirty boats all of Delta battalion, and only si made it dirtside. Typical Command) serewup, they told us that most ofthe defences had been “neutralised” by the Fleet bombardment. All can say is thata let of them must have ur neutralised themselves by the time we got there. My Great-Great-Grandad used to tol me about the time he was pparajet dropped on Ria back in the Americas War. He was in the Raval ‘Marines — five strike groups went in, he and about twenty others were the only ones to come out. That was back in ‘064; they gave him a pair ‘of eyberiegs to replace the ones that some Geek burned off with a plasma grenade, He always used to say that was the best thing that ‘ever happened to him ~ reckoned the tin bits reduced the strain on his hear, and the old boy lived tll he was 118 and decided he didn't want any more patch-up jobs Yeah, sory, rambling again... Anyway, we were lucky enough ta hit dirt in one piece. # and D Squadrons got down Ok too, but Charlie ‘Squadron's lander took too much triple-A about a thousana metres up ‘and just fell apart — den’ think anyone got out of it. We groundet ‘about a lick outside the city and got al dozen tanks out in two Iinutes, just lke a drill. We must have done it by the book, ‘cause Captain Travis was actually sounding pleosed for once when he gave us the Tac briefing old man Travis was that ser of officer, the by-the- ‘les no:matter-how bloody stupidt-is type (ney, You DID say you ‘were going to edt this, didn't you??) 50, next thing we're rolling into the town with ne goddam Infentry to Support ust Yes, know everything was a mess by then and there ‘weren't enough of the Pongoes left to go round, but any Tankie will tell you armour car’ fight in aa Urban Zone without backup from the footsloggers ‘The Captain was leading in Able One-One, siting up there in the turret just like he was on same Binoy parade! Never even saw the monofilamery across the road that took his head at. From there on things just went davenhill -we were taking incoming and even our Als couldn't give us any targets to shoot back at The last thing remem: ber was this Eurie gook jumping out infront of us with a buzzbomb, than all of a sudden the turret wasn’t there any mare and Fé got 3 faceful of splinters and liquid osmium Dunno what happened to the gook — guess | peabably ran him over. | ‘woke up on the C-Vac on the way back here, with some cute-sounding Tittle QA nurse trying to tell me why | coulzn’t see. These new eyes are pretty goad ance you get used to them hey, | know guys back home that were paying fifteen kay for a par, and the Army gives me mine for nothing! 8y the way, anyone ever tell you hove good you look on InfraRed? (Cranscript of interview witn Trooper Driver Daniel M. Kassel, *A" Squadron, 17thi2Ist New Anglian Lancers. Filed 12/09/2167 at Catecion Base MediRahab facility by Margaret Nakai, Confed News Service) DIRTSIDE Ils 2 ries system for playing combined-arms ground ‘combat games with miniatures, in a science-fiction setting. The rules thermelves are written asa gener’ system, intended for use within ‘virtually ary SF background or setting that the players desire. This book is 2 evelopment of the original DIRTSIDE rules test published several years ago, and during this rewrite we have tried to remain tue 1 the concepts and ideas that made the fist edition so well accepted anal likes! by many SF namers. On the other hand, we deeded early on that a major revision of the actual mechanisms of play was required to rmake the game flow faster, ond to allow battles with larger sized forces; thus although these rules pear itle resemblance to the frst, DIRTSIDE jn torms of game mechanics, we hope that we have kept enough of the “flavour” of the original game that this new edition ‘will apne to “old hands” and newcomers alike. Basically, this @ game about armoured wartare - hati, battles using tanles and mechanised Infantry As such, ti really an extrapolation of present-day warfare into a future sotting, which ' the way combat is Usually presented in most SF films and books. We have tried to recreate the style of batles trom the kind of literature listed in the bibliography, books like David Drake's "Hammer's Slammers", Robert Heinlein's classic “Starship Troopers", Gordon Dickson's "Dorsai” series ‘ond 39 0", This DIRTSIDE it reflezs the ‘popular view of SF combat ‘Yooper in powered armour suits, huge hovertanks, lasers anc railguns, No-one knows what warfare will REALLY be lice in the next ‘ifty years, let alone the nest two or three centuries in all probability it wil be as different trom today’s actions as the Gulf War was from the Boer Wr, Perhaps tanks and Infantry will survive in some form, perhaps they won't; here we assume they will, cause a game terrain full of nicely painted! figures and APVs i much mare fun than an empty battiefield with a couple of robot drones flying over it ‘When we frst embarked on rewriting DIRTSIDE for this new version, swe hed to set @ number of basic goals: 1) the system had to be as ‘generic a¢ we could make i, without leaving too mary gaping holes that the players would have to fill in themselves 2) it had to be simple and flowing in play, without the need for endless reference back to charts and tables, nd 3} it had to be able to cope with iarge ferces up to, say, Battalion sized) while stil remaining playable in 2 reasonable space of time. Above allthis, the game had to be FUN! ‘That ie what we sot out to achiave; we think that we've managed to ‘get pretty close, But we iwon't know for sure until YOU try it out an ‘tellus what you think! Looking at point 1), writing @ truly generic game is abit of a minefieleé or any designer So often, games ciaum to be generic but then fall nto the tap of tying their own background so tightly ints the fabric of the rules that trying to use them in ary other setting requires a major hatchet-job. Having already provided a fair'y well-developed (though optional) background for our FULL THRUST’ Starship Combat rules, itwas a great temptation to expand on this timeline to the extent that it ‘ook over” DIRTSIDE tl and made it just another backgrounc:- specific rulebook with the word "generic" thrown in a few times to confuse people. sve sincerely hope that, in the end, we've avoided doing that - ‘9s with FULL THRUST, the background IS there in the appendices, but itis presented purely &s an option for you rouse if you wish the ‘design and points cost systems will enable you to classify and use virtually any equipment that you wish, and combined with the notes ‘on unit erganisations should allow almost any desired “Tuture history to be used as a game setting. Of course, some compramises have to be made somewhere -a good example being naming the weapon systems. Jus because we've called fone sjstem a "High Energy Laser” daesn't mean that you can’t call it something elie entirely if that fits your own background better! {ste goal 2), it was obvious that the mechanisms of the fist ection DIRTSIDE were somewhat slow and cumbersome, and something ‘much "siecer” was needed for the rewrite. after 3 great deal of ‘thought and testing, we came up with a combination of concepts which, although individually not original, have not (to the Dest of our knowledge) been used together in a single game before ‘The end results the system used here — heavy on the harakvare (ll the polyhedral dice so beloved of the dungeon-bashers lus that fancy set ff coloured counters that you've been looking 3t and wondering what the hell it was doing in a miniatures game!) but WITKOUT the need to constantly look up results in myriads of charts and reference sheets: basically the dice and the counter chs take care ofall the variables, leaving you tree to get 02 with your tactics. At its sight, some of the mechanisms may seem unusual ~ probably because they ARE unusual for a game af ths sort ~ but spend afew minutes reading through the rules and exampies, we think youl be as surprised as we (intially) were at just how well and easily hey work! Now to point 3) this eally Grew naturally from the second goo in that if you make the sytem simple an fas laying then i naturaly becomes easier to han lrger forces. The rules function wel for forces of up to roughly battalon-evel (up t, 5a en 10 Twelve platoon ized ‘nits persice}, anc will ane more if time, space and Payers allow. The most practical size of ae is probably short Battalion, which referred 10 nthe unit organisation notes 2s a "Combat Group" ~ the equivalent of, say, a couple of Companies plus extra support elements. Finally, but certainly the most important: MAKING IT FUN. There is litle point in writing what may be technically the best rules system in the known world, if does not grab players’ imaginations and make them actually want to get the toys out on the table We put alot of ‘ought into this right from the start, and eventually came up with Set of mechanisms that we liked: the sequence of play ensures that ‘zoth (oral) players are ACTIVELY involved throughout the tura (no sitting back for half an hour or more while your opponent makes his move and blows away half your forces, without you being able to lift a finger to protect them). In addition, the “oppased rolls” used in much of the fire-combat mechanism actually give you the feeling of being able to “defend” you units against the ineaming fire. Most of the basic rules are logieal extensions of just a few very imple principles, ‘and thas ate easy £0 pick up and ts remember in the heat of battle. ‘Above all, don’t forget that ANY rules system iano more than a framework for your own ideas -nathing in this Book is cast in tablets ff stone, and you should feel frae to add, delete and modify as much for as litle as you wish (provided, of course, that you agree it with your ‘opponents first) Read the rules through, then use them as you will —just remember 10 enjoy it . When writing this rulebook, we have tried to cover all the major topics {and rules in sufficient detail that most events occurring in the game will be covered in some form. in order to do this, most of the sections hot only give you the RULES to cover certain situations but also contain ‘notes and discussions on WHY the rules work as they do. ‘The entire book should be read through once: when this done and you have grasped the basic principles behind the rules then all you ‘Should need are quick reminders of the most important points ~ these are highlighted in BOLD type throughout the rule book for ease of reference ‘Once you have played a couple of basic games and got used to the systems the Vehicle Record Cards for your forces should be all you need for play. DIRTSIDE Il departs from the entirely D6 based system af the original DIRTSIDE and makes use of a range of “polyhedral” dice from four sided through to twelvesiced — thus giving ive diferent dice types, commonly referred t0 as D4, D6, BB, D10 and D12 according to theie respective numbers of faces. While this selection of dice may be unusual at frst to some new players, anyone who hos had any involvement with the Roleplaying side of gaming should be familar with them and will almost certainly have access to 3 full set of such dice: in any case, they are readily (and inexpensively] avilable from virtually any games shop or mailorder supplier, either individually or asses. {Asa bare minimum you will require one ful st ofthe five dice to play DIRTSIDE 1, at many times during play, however, it will be hecessary for both players to roll dice simultaneously hence it will be much simpler and quicker if each player involved has his or her own set of| dice {when a full set costs about as much as a couple of tanks for your army, it isnot shat big an outlay). you can also provide a small pool” of extra dice for use in certain circumstances then so much the better Whenever the rules call for a die roll to be made, the TYPE of die to be used will be specified. When 9 rule tells you to use "1 Die Tyne", this daes NOT mean ralling the die and adding 1 to the score what it means is that you should select the NEXT DIE TYPE Up, 9: if the usual die for that roll would be a DS, then "+1 Die Type’ indicates that a D8 i elled instead. Similar, if *-1 Die Type" iscalled for then use the next LOWER vie eg’ a DS drops to a DA)