The Swarm - Mechanics - 0.1

The following copywrite Matthew Bongers, 2022
Setting Primer
It was a tale as old as fiction, and one day, it finally
came true. Humanity grew up in it's cradle of Earth, and
eventually found it too small and worn out to sustain them. So,
by great effort, they heaved a small amount of their number
skyward and began spreading across the solar system. Over
hundreds of years they roamed , hopping from rock to rock, until
there was nothing but void ahead of them.
So they grew inward, and as history repeated itself, the
surface of every planet, every asteroid, was covered with glass
and steel. The glint of the sun choked behind billions upon
billions of space stations, and once again a seemingly
inexhaustible environment cried out for mercy. Once again, a
small few were flung outward, further than ever before, to slowly
crawl through the void between stars, for thousands of years.
Most died in the cold sleep, enough made it to start the
cycle again, like your ancestors. 12 ships, no matter how large,
were still insignificant in the face of an entire solar system.
But they were enough.
The Dyēus, Sulis, Ilmarinen, Nyx, Nótt, Ushas, Ormuzd, Shu,

SWARM: A TRANS-HUMAN WARGAME / 2
Hanwi, Oxomoco, Ọlọrun,& Amaterasu. Beasts of a dozen different
sizes, great and small, and all that remained of this particular
fleet. They cleared the Oort cloud of the star called Gliese 667,
by the old astronomers, roughly some 2,000 years after the
present day. What would become the first year of their new
calendar.
The first years were tough. Many ships, their personnel,
supplies, data, had been lost. There was no infrastructure to
piggyback on and each day was a learning experience, and
reminder, that this was a truly alien place.
The first years were simple. All plans for interstellar
voyage took losses into account. The colonists had reams of
information available to them and an entirely empty sandbox to
learn in.
The new years passed by quickly, and slowly. At first they
stayed in their ships, moving from asteroid to asteroid, mining
the easiest to reach minerals, to repair their ancient craft and
build up supply caches. Eventually, they built habitats: O'Neill
cylinder's, Torus', and Bernal Sphere's, and could finally wake
most of their citizens from the long, cold sleep.

Generations on, they started constructing orbital rings over
the system's planets, starting with Kllarn. Eventually, people
were even born on solid ground again, for the first time in
thousands of years. Life brought from home was seeded across the
surfaces and rare minerals were extracted from the depths.
And so it went, for thousands of years, cities spread across
the planets, stations spread through space. Things were inverted,
things were forgotten. Humanity itself changed, and yet remained
very much the same. Gradually, the system and the planets within
gained a new name, no longer Gliese 667, just Gliese. And even if
an answer took an entire lifetime, the skies were abuzz with
conversation from dozens of other colonized systems.
Even as matters changed from one generation to the next, the
general trends seemed fairly stable. If you didn't like where you
were, there were literally millions of other places you could
choose to be, big or small. It bred a kind of calm.
Stasis, however, is something the universe never truly
abides and things continued to change, though at a geologic pace.
Alliances formed and shattered, habitats grew and fell into
disrepair, minerals were dug and slowly depleted, and the most
obvious sign of all was the signals. When the faintest ones first
vanished is unclear, but in an impossibly short amount of time,
the sky outside Gliese was silent of all but the radio pulses of
stars.
-Not sure if I want to keep the part about signals from
other star systems vanishing in, this isn't 40k, the entire
universe isn't a grimdark hell. Bad things are happening in this
star system but that just one place, in one time, in a
incomprehensibly vast ocean. Let there be light year delayed
signals from other systems, communications and incidental
broadcasts. No one is coming, the distances are just too vast.
The only way to flee an entire system is a Interstellar ship, a
massive investment of resources that's also not capable of
carrying more than a small fraction of the people required to
make it. Only seeds leave systems.
People got nervous, people got afraid, people got paranoid.
Rather than a verdant island in the midst of a vast ocean, Gliese
now felt like a sinking ship. Did they need to escape? Launching
even a small exodus to the nearest stars would be a massive
undertaking, requiring the cooperation of thousands of habitats.
Was something out there coming, did they need to batten down and
fortify? But how to protect against a void of information, and
how to unite the innumerable different governments, increasingly

squabbling over shrinking resources?
Roughly 8000 years after humanity first arrived, lines are
being drawn like never before in Gliese. All it would take would
be a few small skirmishes, in stations on the edge of the 'Kea
asteroid belt, to eventually spiral out into the first conflict
that would touch every corner of the system. Clans of asteroid
miners coming together to form The Steel Legion, to fight the
predatory takeovers of their claims by the République. Each side
egged on by a shadowy cabal of geneticists keeping to the
shadows.
From such small sparks, infernos ignite.

Part I: The Game Itself (1st Draft)
Premise
What are the mechanics needed for the most basic iteration
of the game, with just two teams slugging it out
You need:
-Rules for setting up a playboard, even if there are only
pre-configured options to chose from (I want more than that
eventually but one thing at a time)
-Rules for building a team, this can be further sub-divided
into:
-A point cost system for each unit
-Number restrictions for the max of each unit that can
be taken, even if you are under the point limit
-The recommended point limit itself
-Eventually an equipment system to allow some
customization, increasing or decreasing the cost of the unit
-Rules for placing your units on the playboard, who gets to
place in what area's, if you get to keep any units in reserve, if
units are placed all at once or in a back and forth order
-Rules for determining who gets to go first (the unit
initiative scores)
-The unit combat rules: their movement, health, armour,

attacks, abilities, ect
-Some sort of objective or point system to determine
victory, besides just destroying all your opponents models
1. Supplies You'll Need
It is recommended that each player have their own copy of
the supplies, just to make things go faster.
- D12's - The twelve sided die is the most commonly used die
in The Swarm, so it is recommended that you have several
- Other Dice - Mostly used for various weapon damages, a
good idea to have a D4, D6, D8, and D10 on hand
- A Imperial Tape Measure - While this game is made by a
Canadian used to using metric, using inches for movement is very
ingrained into wargaming and trying to use centimetres would
likely be unwelcome and unwieldy. So, inches it is
- A Dice Tray - Or really just anything to keep your rolls
from going everywhere, makes this faster and smoother
- The Rules - Having quick reference on hand makes games
much less frustrating, whether you've printed out the entire
rulebook, or made up little cards for all your units, whatever
works for you
- A Good Attitude - We play games to have fun, if you can't
enjoy them win or loose, then maybe find a different hobby.
#
2. Board Setup
Most skirmishes between the factions take place inside Space
Stations. Torus', Cylinders, Sphere's and more, over 90% of the
population in Gliese 667c lives inside some kind of microgravity
settlement. Combat also takes place in the other places people
live, like on the outside of stations, or asteroids floating
through the void, or on the surface of one of the systems
planets, but those are for later.
Now, while they might be floating through the void in
microgravity, almost every station rotates itself to generate
pseudo-gravity for it's residents, so most combat still takes
place with boots planted firmly on the ground.
To set up a combat area you need to measure out an area of
roughly 24 by 24 inches square, or 2 foot square (Testing this
size). Absolute precision isn't necessary but it's recommended
that you get as close as possible, it will make following the
subsequent rules much easier.
Once you have cleared the area, you'll want to mark the
corners in some way, so you don't loose track of them. This could
be as simple as using some tape or small boxes, or a full on
battlemat, anything will work as long as you can clearly see the
boards limits.
Next, you will need terrain, to create lines of movement and
cover. Unless you feel like recreating the Napoleonic Wars, just
marching at each other over a flat field does not an interesting
battle make. Again, you can use purpose bought or built terrain
pieces: natural features, buildings, vehicles, piles of rubble,
ect. Or you can just grab whatever’s around and make do; a bottle
of shampoo for an apartment building, a tissue box for a car, it
will work just the same. For this scale of fighting you should
try and have at least XX amount of features that can be used for
light cover and XX for heavy, or 'full' cover, though you can
mess around with these ratios if you wish.
When placing your terrain pieces, try not to place them
directly along the boards edge, or to clump them up in one
quarter. You want to give units a bit of room to squeeze around
obstructions and make sure one player doesn't have all the cover
to snipe from. Try to spread it around evenly.
Some scenarios may dictate where a part or all of the
terrain is placed, but mostly, it is up to you, the players.
Then, set up your game's objectives, either based on mutual

agreement or following a scenario (See part 5).
Finally, designate where each players get to set up their
units. A scenario may dictate the locations, but if it does not
then choose two opposite board edges and flip a coin to determine
who gets which one.
3. Team Building
When assembling your strike force, each unit has it's own
cost in points. This cost can be increased by changing their
equipment, it can also be modified by how experienced the unit
is. Each player has a pool of points to buy their team and while
you can have a total less than the games maximum cost, you can
never go over.
Furthermore, certain units have a maximum number that can be
taken in a squad, while some have a minimum number that need to
go together. That fact will be noted on the individual units
card.
For a standard skirmish in The Swarm, the points limit is
10.0
As an example, the 'generic' unit in this system, that every

faction can take and can be used as a yard stick for other units,
is the humble Station Security Officer. Unaugmented, under-
trained, underpaid, people like this can be found in basically
every settlement in the system and they don't vary much from
place to place. They're meant to dissuade drunks, detain
criminals, and guard sensitive parts of the station from lookie
loos. And if a station is boarded, there's probably a few nearby,
if they haven't ran already.
Station Security
H I D A M R H2H Con C
2 1 1 1 6" 7 8 8 0.75
Health (H): Simple to understand, if you're unit gets hit
too much, they're going down. Weapons always have a damage rating
in whole number or range, no fractions
Initiative (I): At the start of a game you roll initiative
(D12) for each of your units to determine their place on the
Initiative Ladder (See pt 4), you also add this number to your
roll. If you roll a number that would put you above 12 with your
modifier (or below 1) then you default to 12 (or 1) with your
modifier acting as a tie breaker in case multiple units land on
the same rank. Can be anything from -3 to +3.

Dodge (D): Certain units, often lightly armoured ones, can
more easily "get their ass out of the firing line", to use a
certain parlance. If a unit has a dodge rating, that number is
added onto the To-Hit number (their Ranged or Hand-To-Hand) that
any attacker must meet or exceed (excepting potential special
weapons rules which would be noted under the weapon stats)
Armour: Armour can represent both the constructed (I.E. a
bulletproof vest) or some form of natural toughness, anything
that would result in an attack that connected doing negligible
actual harm. A characters armour rating is subtracted from the
damage of each attack. (Test note: to a minimum of 1/a fraction
of the total damage or to zero? Do I want to allow cherry
tapping? Without it a unit might become unbeatable at parts of
the match)
Movement (M): One turns maximum movement in inches. (Only in
one straight line? In a segmented line? Penalties for moving in a
segmented line?)
Ranged (R): The number a character needs to meet or exceed
on a D12 roll in order to hit with a ranged weapon. While all
ranged weapons have a maximum effective range, most also have a
minimum range as well, incurring stiff penalties when too close,

this will be noted under each weapons stats.
Hand-to-Hand (H2H): Covers both unarmed combat and melee
weapons, the number you need to meet or exceed on a D12 roll.
Excepting a few special cases, melee weapons can only be used
when your models base edge is within 1" of your targets base
edge.
Control (Con): Represents both a characters ability to
resist fear, as well as things like bloodlust, for more monstrous
units. You want to roll equal to or over your control rating to
succeed. (What triggers a Control roll? A certain amount of units
dying or a certain unit dying, like the commander? Special unit
abilities provoking a Control roll?)
Cost (C): How much of your total point limit this unit takes
out, with their base stats and equipment.
So, this is how the Station Security Officer shakes out by
their stats:
With a Hits rating of 2, and Armour rating of 1 and a dodge
rating of 1, if this officer was facing another, identical

officer armed with their standard subsonic shotgun (see below),
then it would take two attacks to kill him with his armour of 1,
rolling 8 or above due to the officers dodge.
With a 6" movement, on an average 24" square board, it would
take them 4 turns to move in a straight line across the board,
without obstacles. So not the fastest, but not the slowest unit.
A Ranged skill of 7 and a Hand-to-Hand of 8 indicate that
the Security Officer is not an experienced combatant, rent-a-cop
would be a better descriptor. A Control rating of 8 means that,
if the unexpected happens, they're more likely to panic then stay
calm under pressure. They're used to rowdy civilians, not
transhuman soldiers.
Every unit also has certain equipment that they carry into
battle, even if that equipment is permanently attached to them.
It will be laid out something like this:
Equipment Hits Range AP (Armour Special

Penetration) Abilities
Subsonic 2 8" 0 Scattershot
Shotgun
Below the quick reference charts will be more details and a
brief description of the weapon, such as:

Subsonic Shotgun: The most common weapon of peacekeeping
aboard space stations for the simple reason that pellets are much
less likely to punch a hole in the hull than a bullet, and in
cramped corridors, subsonic ammunition won't destroy you're
hearing (as much) as a full powder load. Does leave it with
somewhat gimped ranged and power, but when firing beanbags and
rubber bullets against civilians that doesn't matter as much. For
lethal encounters the standard load is buckshot, though other
shells are available.
Scattershot: When firing at a unit, if there is another unit
who's base edge is within 1" of the targets base edge, roll an
attack against them as well.
With that example, here is the rest of the Station Security
Officers equipment:
Equipment Hits Range AP (Armour Special

Penetration) Abilities
Flashbang 0 6" 0 Stun, Low
Grenade Power, Grenade
Splatter 4 6" 0 Low Power,
Grenade Grenade
Nightstick 1 1" 1 Small Melee
Flashbang Grenade: It makes a loud noise, it makes a bright
flash, the basics haven't really changed in millennia. Any unit
affected by this grenade is Stunned. On their next turn their
Movement is reduced by half and they suffer a -2 penalty to their

Dodge, Ranged, Hand-to-Hand and Control Stats. The grenade is
also Low Power, meaning that units with four (4) or more armour
are unaffected by the weapons, representing advanced armour
systems or robust natural defences. As a Grenade any unit that
has it's base edge within 3" of the targeted unit's base edge is
also affected.
Splatter Grenade: A weapon specially designed for space
station and spaceship combat, its case is completely destroyed
upon detonation, leaving no metal fragments to pierce a hull or
cut vital life support infrastructure. It kills via its pressure
wave alone, which void-going structures are better able to
absorb. Still, don't use it near windows. The grenade is Low
Power, meaning that units with four (4) or more armour are
unaffected by the weapons, representing advanced armour systems
or robust natural defences. As a Grenade any unit that has it's
base edge within 3" of the targeted unit's base edge is also
affected.
Nightstick: A bit more advanced than a chunk of wood with a
handle on it but the use case remains the same, providing
somewhat less-lethal beatings. A built in electric generator
provides a bit of a kick to get through improvised armour with a
smarting sting. As a Small Melee weapon it has no ranged

capabilities.
Finally, units can have additional costs (or even discounts)
applied to them though either bonus equipment or unit profiles.
Unit Profiles represent things, experience or training, that
set the unit apart from the standard attributes. For the Station
Security Officer there are two profiles available, Rookie and
Veteran
A Rookie Profile looks like this
2 0 1 1 6" 8 9 9 0.50
In addition, the Rookie Profile lack the Flashbang Grenade
equipment.
Veteran Profile
2 2 1 1 7" 7 7 7 1.00
Additional special equipment also increases cost and is
purchased per unit. The Station Security Officer has one
additional piece of equipment they can choose to take.
Equipme Health Dodge Armour Hits AP Hand- Range Special Additio

nt (Armour to-Hand Abiliti nal
Penetra es Cost
tion)
Spider 1 3 0 1 0 8 12" Basic 0.50

Drone Drone
(Basic)
The humble Spider Drone, with it's hexapod configuration,
has about as many manufacturers as there are actual bugs in the
system, but they don't tend to have many differences between
them. Station Security generally uses them as light scouts and
distractions.
Basic Drone: As an action, any unit carrying a Basic Drone
can deploy it on their turn, the drone can then move on it's own
up to it's movement rating away from its handler. Basic Drone's
cannot interact with objectives. Basic Drones have no sense of
self and thus do not make Control checks, though if the operator
of the drone fails a Control check and flees, or dies, the drone
stops functioning, unless there is another unit with the same
equipment still on the board, in that case they can take over.
Basic Drones move on the same Initiative as their handler.
4. Unit Combat
5. Objectives & Victory
<<<>>>

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The following copywrite Matthew Bongers, 2022

It was a tale as old as fiction, and one day, it finally

came true. Humanity grew up in it's cradle of Earth, and

by great effort, they heaved a small amount of their number

skyward and began spreading across the solar system. Over

hundreds of years they roamed , hopping from rock to rock, until

there was nothing but void ahead of them.

So they grew inward, and as history repeated itself, the

surface of every planet, every asteroid, was covered with glass

billions of space stations, and once again a seemingly

inexhaustible environment cried out for mercy. Once again, a

crawl through the void between stars, for thousands of years.

Most died in the cold sleep, enough made it to start the

cycle again, like your ancestors. 12 ships, no matter how large,

were still insignificant in the face of an entire solar system.

But they were enough.

The Dyēus, Sulis, Ilmarinen, Nyx, Nótt, Ushas, Ormuzd, Shu,

Hanwi, Oxomoco, Ọlọrun,& Amaterasu. Beasts of a dozen different

by the old astronomers, roughly some 2,000 years after the

The first years were tough. Many ships, their personnel,

supplies, data, had been lost. There was no infrastructure to

piggyback on and each day was a learning experience, and

reminder, that this was a truly alien place.

The first years were simple. All plans for interstellar

voyage took losses into account. The colonists had reams of

information available to them and an entirely empty sandbox to

The new years passed by quickly, and slowly. At first they

stayed in their ships, moving from asteroid to asteroid, mining

the easiest to reach minerals, to repair their ancient craft and

build up supply caches. Eventually, they built habitats: O'Neill

cylinder's, Torus', and Bernal Sphere's, and could finally wake

most of their citizens from the long, cold sleep.

Generations on, they started constructing orbital rings over

the system's planets, starting with Kllarn. Eventually, people

surfaces and rare minerals were extracted from the depths.

And so it went, for thousands of years, cities spread across

the planets, stations spread through space. Things were inverted,

things were forgotten. Humanity itself changed, and yet remained

an answer took an entire lifetime, the skies were abuzz with

conversation from dozens of other colonized systems.

Even as matters changed from one generation to the next, the

were, there were literally millions of other places you could

choose to be, big or small. It bred a kind of calm.

Stasis, however, is something the universe never truly

abides and things continued to change, though at a geologic pace.

Alliances formed and shattered, habitats grew and fell into

vanished is unclear, but in an impossibly short amount of time,

-Not sure if I want to keep the part about signals from

universe isn't a grimdark hell. Bad things are happening in this

star system but that just one place, in one time, in a

incomprehensibly vast ocean. Let there be light year delayed

signals from other systems, communications and incidental

broadcasts. No one is coming, the distances are just too vast.

The only way to flee an entire system is a Interstellar ship, a

massive investment of resources that's also not capable of

carrying more than a small fraction of the people required to

make it. Only seeds leave systems.

People got nervous, people got afraid, people got paranoid.

Rather than a verdant island in the midst of a vast ocean, Gliese

even a small exodus to the nearest stars would be a massive

undertaking, requiring the cooperation of thousands of habitats.

fortify? But how to protect against a void of information, and

how to unite the innumerable different governments, increasingly

squabbling over shrinking resources?