Ruins 2 Ground Combat Prototype

Basic Ideas

The advanced technology Ruins of Aliens Suns II is reflected in the constellations of military equipment, training regimens and doctrines that can be found in known space. An unsteady arms race between the advanced command and control that defined 21st century with the ubiquitous jamming that emerged in its middle half, as well as a lesser argument between rapidly improving armor technology and the relative stagnation of small arms in the same period gradually led to the paradigm that exists now: most infantry are mechanized, wearing powered or semi-powered exoskeletons, armed with either a direct-fire kinetic or direct-energy weapon, plus a host of other gear like man-portable guided mortars, drones and sensors for the benefit of C3. Infantry does not strictly represent human forces- anywhere from 1 in 5 to 9/10ths of a given unit will be bipedal UGVs equipped similarly to their human hosts in order to maximize the firepower at the human infantryman's discretion.

It can be argued that Sol produces the finest ground forces in known space. The conditions of Earth and the inner system colonies designed to most closely resemble it consistently produce superb specimens, who in are inducted into ancient and potent martial traditions. The UN's power over many high-tech research and financial firms in the innermost sphere of human settlement also ensures these troops have the very best equipment imaginable. UN armor is ubiquitously capable of hovering and ground-effect fast-deployment, their troops armed with smart munitions rather than dumbfire kinetics, often disparagingly called 'gucci gear' by their common colonial opponents.

Hardscrabble colonial units of the Verge and the bandit kingdoms typically make do with the technology available to them. While less sophisticated overall, these groups have ease of manufacture and logistics and when fighting on their own home turf, decades more institutional knowledge about their particular conditions.

A pivotal concept in modern warfare is the comparative irrelevance of border zones and the concept of 'held territory' in a geographic sense. Even the oldest human colonies are mostly uninhabited compared to the Earth which was inhabited by modern humans for thousands of years, and colonial territory is typically fairly underdeveloped. Providing a landing site outside the defender's held territory has been secured, insertion to a planet with even contested airspace is reliable. Orbital supremacy is a benefit to these highly mobile forces but provides no guarantee, barring the use of weapons of mass destruction or sustained shelling of the planetary surface- both of which are viewed as atrocities and violations of the norms of warfare.

Paralleling space combat, ground engagements fundamentally happen when the defender resolves to defend an objective, when the attacker has secured an engagement with no immediate egress or when opposing forces 'agree' to engage one another.

Army Lists

Solarian

Solarian forces excel in combat but generally are generally worse at everything other than fighting. They are also expensive to maintain, particular for Verge states. Solarian units are All-Terrain, meaning they never suffer penalties in inappropriate terrain types.

Line Units

Peaceforce Battlegroup [Light]

Solarian mechanized light infantry riding in blastproof AFVs, their main function is as garrison forces, COIN and peacekeeping.

Espatiers Battlegroup [Medium]

Solarian mobile infantry, fitted with advanced powered armor capable of all-terrain movement via skimmer systems and limited flight in lower gravities. Supported by advanced recon drones, hover tanks and armed transport VTOLs. The rivalry of the UN Espatiers and Legions can be traced back to an infamous admiralty ruling around the time of the Solar Reconquista.

Legionnaires Battlegroup [Heavy]

Solarian heavy infantry in fully-enclosed titano-ceramic-clad powered frames mounted up on superheavy hovertanks with extensive artillery support. The Legionnaires see themselves as the successors to the far-older Espatier Corps, pointing to their far lower casualties and triumph on a score of ultimately more dangerous battlefields.

Special Units

Espatier Special Purpose Brigada [Light]

Special forces recruited from multi-decade veterans and augmented to such a degree that their bodies are legally regulated in the same manner as weapons, UN ESPB units wear cutting-edge powered armor with full surface-to-orbit mobility in under 1.5Gs, shaped magnetoplasma boarding charges, radar low-observation coating, thermoptic camo and an assortment of drones and other advanced warfare systems that make them the uncontested finest troops in the Sphere. As long as you don’t ask the Legion, or Vergers.

Legion Sturmzug [Heavy]

Legion ‘Assault Trains’ are the UN’s mainstay tracklaying units, colossal 250m+ long land battleships capable of sheltering thousands of troops in their bays, laying track, fortifications and infrastructure as they move and answering orbital bombardment with atomic firepower including a brace of anti-orbital railguns.

Clique Units

Must be part of the relevant clique or have good relations with them to purchase.

Blue Shield Battlegroup [Light][Reformers]'

International Legion Battlegroup [Medium][Unificationists]

Warmech Battlegroup [Heavy][Wardens]

Arsenal Walker [Heavy][Crusaders]

Genetrooper Battlegroup [Medium][The Kingsmen]

Colonial

Colonial units are inexpensive and situationally effective but specialized. By default national armies are trained in their native planetary conditions, where they might very well surpass even Solarian troops. In other conditions however, they’re

Line Units

Planetary Militia Battlegroup [Light]

Mobile Infantry Battlegroup [Medium]

Indig Mechanized Battlegroup [Heavy]

Special Units

National Units

Nations with the Martial Tradition trait can contribute up to 3 units to the National Units list, gaining a bonus of TBD for each group to borrow their units.

Tempest Forest Sister Battlegroup [Light]

Royal Elysian Highlander Battlegroup [Medium]

Pirate

Pirate units are cheap and effective in a variety of environments, being functionally All-Terrain, but are fragile and poorly-armed.

Line Units

Zero-G Dogs Battlegroup [Light]: Pirate space infantry in the style of ancient space warfare, supported by vac sleds, assault shuttles and light buggies. Typically armed with mining lasers and monomolecular boarding axes.

Birdmen Battlegroup [Medium]: Allegedly a portmanteau of ‘battlearmor hirdmen’ in reference to the viking warriors, the most likely explanation for the name of these pirate drop soldiers is the conical-beaked assault suits that have common origin in a popular open source arms distro. Halfway between espatiers and mobile infantry in size, they have few advantages other than all-terrain mobility.

Technical Battlegroup [Heavy]: A euphemistic term for colonial vehicles like industrial walkers and carryall hovers fitted with milspec weapons, fielded as impromptu heavy assets. Most are armed with mining lasers, though the launch railguns used by mining colonies to put stock into orbit for collection are extremely popular for their straightforward power and resistance to wear and tear.

Defenses

Freefloating

Not attached to a given Territory except for basing purposes, these have built-in roam.

Early Warning Satellite

Roam Area: Space

Provides early warning, can detect Stealth units passing close.

Defense Satellite

Roam Area: Space

Lightly armed and armored, cheap to produce. It can move under its own power but has low delta-V, so can be outmanoeuvred in orbit by most warships.

Coastal Patrol Group

Roam Area: Sea

Light naval units that provide additional coastal security, search and rescue and amphibious movement.

Naval Battlegroup

Roam Area: Sea

Heavy naval units that can provide fire support to ground forces and assist transatmospheric warships in direct engagements.

Naval Carrier Group

Roam Area: Sea

Heavy naval units that can provide limited fire support to ground forces and support XXX aerospace wings.

Road Mobile ISOM

Roam Area: Land

Heavy missile crawlers carrying mobile ISOMs. Due to the large size of an ISOM, these crawlers tend to be somewhat lower velocity than their silo bound counterparts, and if detected are vulnerable to fire, however they are able to go anywhere.

Rail Mobile ISOM

Roam Area: Land with at least Infrastructure 2 (Unmodified)

Using rail or magnetic lift trains, a rail mobile ISOM system allows for extremely fast and cheap mobile missile systems. These systems have the same high velocity as a silo based weapon, though more vulnerable to fire if detected. They are faster than road mobile ISOM systems but can only use areas with established rail infrastructure.

ISOM Submarine

Roam Area: Sea

A large submersible that carries multiple low-delta ISOMs like those deployed by road mobile systems. ISOM submarines are extremely hard to find.

Mobile SASW Battery

Roam Area: Land

Mobile Surface to Aerospace Weapons batteries are used by most armies. Mostly used to engage enemy fighters and missiles, they can also be used to attack starships in low orbits, especially attempting GTO artillery strikes. This can include laser, railgun or missile equipped units.

Anti-Orbital

Built in a Territory, can only strike non-adjacent targets i.e.: in orbit or lacking a direct land/sea/etc connection. Anti-orbital artillery and ISOMs can be reconfigured to strike terrestrial targets but they have a direct blindspot of their build location and surrounding zones.

GTO Railgun

GTO Railguns come in hundreds of designs across the Verge and Core and can be found anywhere with even basic technic society. Can be loaded with nuclear warheads.

GTO Laser

Stronger than GTO Railguns and armor-penetrating, these advanced defenses lack the ability to shoot over the horizon but can be re-calibrated to provide additional missile defense capability.

ISOM Silo

Interplanetary surface-to-orbit missile silos are the gold standard for missile warfare, though they’ve begun to lose relevance thanks to the advent of advanced laser intercept systems. Can be loaded with nuclear warheads.

Regional

Built in a territory and defends itself and adjacent targets i.e.: those with a direct land or sea connection. In the case of sea zones (but not ocean zones), coastal territories attached to the same named Sea are functionally adjacent.

Sensor Emplacement

Detects the presence of hostile Stealth units intruding in territory, and tracks movement of forces in adjacent territories and close orbit.

District Garrison

A regional center both training and coordinating local defense armies. Spawns 1 Light (Line, Clique or National) Battlegroups which remain on the planet and stop regenerating if their Garrison is lost.

Military HQ

A more sophisticated coordination center. Spawns any 2 Battlegroups for planetary defense purposes, and adds an extra Battlegroup to every District Garrison in the same or adjacent Territories. 1 per Territory and the extra Garrison unit benefit only applies once.

Planetary Artillery

Ground-based artillery, it can suppress or destroy ground units in the same and adjacent Territories.

Air Defence Site

Ground-based air defence facilities, either laser-based or using modern SAMs.

ISOM Interceptor Site

Ground-based anti-ISOM facilities, critical in preventing successful nuclear first-strike. Combined ECM suites, GTO laser systems and redundant mesh-networked LIDAR drones allow it to negate decoy, wild weasel or saturation-based MIRV designs typical of current-generation ISOMs and shipboard ballistic missiles.

Territorial

Built in a territory and defends it only.

Barricades

Deployable or prefabricated anti-tank measures, from bollards and toblerones to floating limpets drawn to the gravitational impeller at the front of a hovertank's drive field. Obstructs the movement of Heavy Battlegroups.

Surface/Sea Minefield

Fields of purpose-built or improvised explosives, or other kinds of traps. Obstructs the movement of Light Battlegroups (Surface) and Naval-roam Freefloating Defenses (Sea).

Guard Post

A militarized police precinct or town militia hall. Spawns a single Light Battlegroup. No bonuses from Military HQ.

Bunker

Represents large-scale earthenworks, foxholes, defensive emplacements and other fortuitous geography in the built environment. Functions as ablative lives for friendly Battlegroups, either allowing 2 units to limp away as Damaged or preventing a single unit from receiving any damage at the cost of being destroyed.

Deep Bunker

Deep crust fortifications, prevents up to 3 Battlegroups from suffering any damage in combat, but protected units cannot participate in any fighting. Can be sieged down, blocked off or sabotaged.

Defensive Transport Network

Trench and tunnel networks, allowing military units to transit between connected territories without being subject to attack from forces on the surface.

Ground Combat Summary

The Three Modes of Warfare

In Ruins, while there is obviously many different doctrines and ideas, three basic types of warfare dominate. In Nexus Warfare, favored especially by the UN and forces that ape them, such as Elysium Royal Marine Commandos, combat is conducted directly, or nearly directly by drop ships deploying almost directly on the objective or just short of an enemy force concentration. Known as Nexus Warfare, this concentrates on direct attacks from orbit against contested pionts.

Basic Concept: Fighting from dropships directly

Practised by: UN forces, Elysium Royal Marines, people with lots of drop ships

Bonuses To: Force Concentration

Bonuses From: Espaiters and specialist drop troops

Penalties To: None, but lacks the bonuses to combat statistics from the other two.

Fluid Warfare, which is often conducted by the tank heavy forces of Earth Nations, and by rich, heavily armed and trained colonial armies such as the Tempesti Defence Force, is conducted by fast, heavily armored combined arms groups seeking to cut off, dislocate and destroy the enemy in heavy meeting engagements. While often quite vulnerable to orbital fire, it is perhaps the most powerful form of warfare for pure ground fighting.

Basic Concept: Giant Tank Maneuvers like a 20th/21st century army in a major land campaign

Practiced by: Solarian National Forces, Tempesti

Bonuses To: Manoeuvre, firepower

Bonuses from: Heavy Battlegroups, having nothing but heavy, medium and airborne light battlegroup

Penalties Too: Resisting orbital fire

Finally, Static Warfare is beloved of guerrillas, Lurking retrogrades, and semi-regular forces like Tempesti Forest Sisters, Wildejagd and Voider raiders is usually for from fortifications or ambushes. While it is often seen as the clumsiest form of warfare, it never the less can be very effective, especially against orbital fire and when ambushes are employed.

Basic Concept: Fighting from static positions, fortresses or as low tempo guerrilla fighters

Practised by: Guerrillas, People with lots of stealth units, 100thLurker

Bonuses To: defence, hitpoints

Bonuses From: Light Battlegroups, Fortifications, Stealth units

Penalties To: Manoeuvre

Phase 1: Determine Goals and Parameters

Determine which mode of warfare everyone is using and establish the objectives. If there are two PCs fighting, roll off to determine who gets to pick first, if not, player picks second.

An objective can be anything from 'capture X fortification' to 'seize Y territory', 'penetrate to Y territory' or even 'hold terrain'. The objectives of the participating players can be identical (two players trying to capture the same territory), symmetrical (two players trying to kill eachother), incongruous (one player trying to evacuate a VIP while another one wants to destroy a port in the same city).

Phase 2: Determine Force Ratio in Engaged Sector

Only a certain number of battlegroups can attack one enemy at once.

As a rule, attackers can make greater use of numbers than defenders, so they may count superior numbers automatically as follows:

• Static Warfare: 3 Attackers to 1 Defender Max
• Fluid Warfare: 5 Attackers to 1 Defender Max
• Nexus Warfare: 10 Attackers to 1 Defender Max

Beyond this ratio, only count the hitpoints of additional units.

This may be modified for close terrain. In general close/dense terrain removes 1 from the Attacker's maximum advantage, clear terrain like plains or open sea adds 1.

Phase 2b: Mass and Manoeuvre

Units may also mass and manoeuvre against one another. This allows them to fight a part of the enemy forces, and create a positive force ratio to win combat for the purposes of objective seizure or a breakthrough in fluid warfare.

Phase 2b: Nexus Warfare [Attacker]

If a Nexus Attacker wins an opposed Mobility roll, increase their Attacker's Ratio by 1 per success.

vs Fluid Warfare [Defender]

The Defender declares how many Battlegroups are being sent to engage the attacker. They may attempt to outflank the attacker with an opposed Mobility roll using the worst Mobility value of any Battlegroup on both sides. Winning the roll-off grants the Defender one of the following effects:

• Reduce Attacker's ratio by 1 per rolled success.
• Add 1 extra Battlegroup to the fray (from reserves) per rolled success after mobility is rolled, but before Combat is resolved.
• Remove 1 of the Attacker's Battlegroups from the fray per rolled success after mobility is rolled, but before Combat is resolved.

vs Static Warfare [Defender]

The Defender deploys fronts of 3 Battlegroups, while the Attacker can deploy up to 10 units against them. The Defender supplement their force with any number of Stealth units to represent ambushes.

vs Nexus Warfare [Defender]

In the first round, the Defender can perform an opposed roll using the worst Mobility value of any Battlegroup on both sides to contest landing with their own dropships. Winning the roll-off grants one of the following effects:

• Damage dropships, increasing retreat casualties by 25%.
• Take high ground, halving the Attacker's ratio to 5-1 for the first round.
• Ram the target, doubling all damage inflicted to both sides for the first round.

Phase 2b: Fluid Warfare [Attacker]

vs Fluid Warfare [Defender] vs Static Warfare [Defender] vs Nexus Warfare [Defender]

Phase 2b: Fluid Warfare [Attacker]

vs Fluid Warfare [Defender] vs Static Warfare [Defender] vs Nexus Warfare [Defender]

Phase 3: Resolve Combat

Both sides roll fire power vs. defence. Successes of firepower remove HP from the other side. The side that does most damage is said to have won the combat Support assets and unengaged heavy brigades modify firepower or defence as chosen by the player. Only 5 support assets can be used in any given engagement.

Certain forms of warfare give bonuses to victory or defeat, and to stats.

Bonuses To: Nexus Warfare: No Bonuses Fluid Warfare: +X to Firepower +X+1 to manoeuvre Static Warfare +X+2 Defence +X HP

Bonuses From: Nexus Warfare: No Bonuses Fluid Warfare: +X Firepower and defence if you have a heavy and a medium battlegroup. +X Combat Result if there are no light battlegroups without stealth, mechanised, parachute or drop specialisations Static Warfare: +X Combat Result for every stealth unit +X Defence for each fortifications

Seize Objectives The winner of the fight may try to seize objectives if attacking or if any have been captured. This is done by a maneuevre or firepower check by the one attempting to seize the objective, opposed by firepower or defence of the defender. Excess successes inflict damage as if they were a normal attack roll.

Nation Traits

Traits that involve ground combat.

Positive Traits

Neutral Traits

Negative Traits