Close Combat

Reach
This is an indication of how long a close combat weapon is, or from how far away the unit can be to make an attack. The longer a weapon’s reach, the harder it is for an enemy with a shorter weapon to defend against it. Weapons with a reach of 4 or more may be used to attack when the combatants are at arm’s length (see Stepback for details of arm’s length).

Damage
This is the number and type of dice rolled to determine damage, plus additional modifiers. For every 10 points of Strength over 50 that a mobile suit has, add 1 point of damage to a unit’s close combat attacks. An unarmed attack inflicts D3+1 initial damage.

Parry Penalty
Some weapons are better at others for blocking, parrying, and counter-moves. The parry penalty reduces a unit’s chance of parrying an attack and launching a successful counter-move.

Power
Aside from the most basic types of weapons, most use energy to power their destructive force. This number is how much Power is drained whenever an attack lands a blow. If the number is in brackets, it denotes how much Power must be committed for the weapon to work.

Hardpoints
This is the number of Hardpoints that a weapon potentially takes up.

Initiating Close Combat
To initiate close combat, a unit must declare a charge Action. A charging unit makes a run Action until they are within range of the declared enemy and then makes one close combat attack as part of that run Action (this does not count as a combined Action). A unit armed with a reach 4 or greater weapon can stop once they are within 3 paces of their enemy and fight at arm’s length (see Stepback). Units without such weapons must get within 1 pace of their enemy to initiate combat.

Aside from the close combat attack itself, this charge action is treated as a run in all respects, even if the charge is only from a few paces away. During a charge, the attack suffers no penalty for moving or combining an action, and in fact gains a +10 chance of hitting.

A unit can change weapons or draw a close combat weapon as part of a charge, but doing so negates the +10 To Hit charge bonus.

Continuing Close Combat
When two units are within 2 paces of each other, they are said to be in close combat. Once a character is engaged in close combat, the Action sequence is altered slightly.

A unit which in is close combat does not have to declare all of his Actions at the start of the turn. Instead, he may declare an action after the last action has been resolved. This means that a unit who declares a charge as an action while partway through a turn does not have to declare any other actions for that turn just yet.

At the start of a turn in which a unit is already in close combat, roll the unit’s Action dice as normal to see how many actions he can perform that turn. Then declare his first action and resolve its effect, then the second and so on.

The unit who is taking his Actions is known as the attacker while the other unit is the defender.

Attack
The unit makes a move to damage the defender. If the unit is carrying two close combat weapons, he may attack with both as part of one action, though his chances of hitting are reduced by -20. A unit who is at arm’s length can only attack with weapons of reach 4 or greater.

Circle
The unit steps to move towards the defender’s side or rear. A unit who circles may be moved up to 4 paces to their left or right but may not move further or closer to the enemy (hence, a circle). It is easier to hit an enemy when attacking from the side or rear. Note that this is a sole Action and cannot be combined to make an attack.

Advance and Attack
A unit who is at arm’s length can bound forward to get within striking range. When the unit advances and attacks, the unit closes in 2 paces on the defender and may make another attack as part of a single Action with no penalty. The combatants are no longer at arm’s length.

Step Back
The unit step back to put space between him and his opponent. This is useful for firing light firearms or making a break from close combat. When a unit steps back, move him up to 3 paces directly away from the defender. Also, a unit may dodge when being attacked, in which case the combatants will end up more than 2 paces apart. If the units are 3 paces apart or more, they are still engaged in close combat but are too far away to attack each other except with light firearms and weapons with reach 4 or more. They are said to be fighting at “arm’s length”. Stepping back does not end close combat. The only way to end close combat is to make a specific break from combat Action (described later).

If the unit’s are at arm’s length, the attacker may either break from combat, circle, fire a weapon, attack with a weapon of reach 4 or more, or advance and attack.

Fire a Weapon
When fighting at arm’s length, a unit may fire one of its weapons into close combat. Light firearms are small and dexterous enough to be fired in close combat without penalty. Instead of using the pilot’s BS, however, the pilot uses his WS.

If the unit wishes to use a basic weapon, his WS is divided in half and must suffer the normal range modifiers. If a unit wishes to fire a heavy weapon, his WS is divided into 1/4th and must suffer the normal range modifiers. It is important to note, especially when dealing with heavy weapons, that blasts are likely to also damage the wielder. If the weapon is a spray type, the firer will suffer an automatic hit from blowback.

The defender may only parry using a dodge, moving left or right by 2 paces instead of away from the attacker. The defender gains the +20 dodge bonus to his parry (see later), but no other modifiers are applied for weapons, higher ground, etc. There are no placed shots in close combat.

Break Off
A unit may spend an Action breaking off from combat. To do this he must pass a Speed Test with a +20 if the combatants are at arm’s length. If the unit passes, he makes one run action out of combat.

If this break off move is used to take the unit within 2 pace of another enemy (or 3 paces if the enemy is armed with a reach 4 or greater weapon), it is treated as a charge and he may make an attack against this fresh enemy just as if he had charged.

If the test is failed, the unit fails to find an opportunity to get away and the action is wasted. If the test fails by 20+, the defender gets a free Action just as if it had made a counter-move.

A defender can always allow the attacker to break from combat without a test once the opposing player has announced his intentions.

Facing and Positioning
The attacker can automatically turn to face his opponent as part of an Action without penalty. A defender will turn to face the unit who last attacked him after the attack To Hit roll is made. A unit who is prone must use an Action getting to his feet before he can make any attacks. A unit who is prone at arm’s length may still fire a firearm.

Making Close Combat Attacks
A unit can make one close combat attack for each Action he spends using his Weapon Skill as his base chance to hit. He can only make attacks within his 45 degree visual arc or within his 180 degree arc at -25 to WS. A unit holding a close combat weapon in each hand can make one attack with each weapon as part of a single attack Action with a -20 penalty.

Automatic Hits and Misses
As with shooting, a roll to hit, regardless of modifiers, of a 1-5 will always hit and a roll of a 96-100 will always miss.

Charging
If a unit is charging into combat, his chances to hit are increased by +10 unless he drew or changed a weapon as part of his charge Action.

Weapon Reach
For every point of reach which the attacker’s weapon has over the defender, he gains a +10 to hit. For every point an attacker’s weapon has under the defender, he deducts -10 to hit.

Positioning
Being higher then your opponent affords you a greater chance to hit. If the defender is prone, the attacker gains a +20 to hit. If the attacker is at least 1 pace higher then the defender, he gains a +10 to hit. These modifiers cannot be used together.

Two Weapons
A character that wishes to use both of his weapons as a combined attack suffers from a -20 to hit to each weapon’s attack.

Unarmed and Improvised Attacks
A unit who is not holding any kind of weapon or is not armed with combative manipulators is considered unarmed. All unarmed attacks have a reach of 0. If the unit attempts to parry normally, the parry penalty is half of the unit’s Mass (so heavier units are less nimble). If the unit succeeds at a parry, the attacker still rolls for damage, but must halve the damage roll before deducting for armour. Work out damage before the unit can attempt a counter-move, if a counter-move is even possible.

Example: A unit is parrying without a close combat weapon. His WS is 60 and his Mass is 50, giving him a parry penalty of -25. To successfully parry, he would need to roll 35%. Since the unit has a reach of 0, an enemy with a reach of 1 would drop this number to 25%. It doesn’t take long before an unarmed defender would not be able to counter-move except if he were to roll a 1-5%.

A unit that is carrying a basic weapon or another similarly solid object can make an improvised attack. Similarly, a unit with a weapon of reach 4 or higher who is fighting closer than arm’s length and is not fighting in the first round of combat (i.e. the charge) counts as fighting with an improvised weapon. A unit using an improvised weapon has a reach of 1 and a -30 parry penalty.

Enemy Size
As long as the defender is roughly the same size as the attacker, there are no modifiers for size. As a rule of thumb, if the defender is about 10-50% the size of the attacker, there is an -30 to hit. Conversely, if the target is over 50% bigger than the unit, the attacker gains a +30 modifier.

Critical Hits
If the attacker hits with a success equal to or less than 10% of his required to hit number, he has struck a critical hit. Critical hits do double damage (calculated after the damage is rolled and modified by Strength and the weapon’s own damage, but before deductions like those from armour). Critical hits cannot be scored if the attacker is only capable of an automatic hit.

Parrying
The chance that a defender can parry an attack is equal to his WS for the first parry in a turn. The defender’s basic WS is then halved again for each successive parry in that turn. This parry is further modified by a weapon’s parry penalty. If the defender rolls equal to or less than his target number, the attack is parried and has no further effect.

Automatic Parries and Misses
Any unmodified parry roll of 1-5 automatically stops an attack. Likewise, a roll of a 96-100 automatically fails to stop an attack.

Parry Penalty
All weapons suffer to some degree from making a perfect parry. As such, every weapon has a parry penalty that deducts from a defender’s roll when attempting to parry an attack.

Reach
with hitting an enemy, a unit attempting to parry gains or loses 10% for every point of difference between the reach value of his weapon and that of the attacker’s.

Positioning
A unit who is at least 1 pace higher up than his attacker gains a +10 to parry. A defending unit who is prone suffers from a -20 to parry.

Defending unit’s have the advantage of having a normal parry within a 90 degree arc in from of him (instead of the normal 45 degree). A unit who has to turn before parrying is at the disadvantage. A unit who is being attacked outside of this 90 degree must turn to defend himself and suffers a -20 to parry. If the defender must turn further than 90 degrees to defend himself (such as turning completely around), he suffers and additional -20 for a total of -40 parry penalty.

Dodging
A unit can elect to dodge as part of a parry in which case the procedure for parrying is followed as normal except that the defender does not use the parry penalty for his weapon and gets an additional +20 modifier to dodge. Each subsequent dodge is at -10 parry (note that this stacks with its original +20 modifier, so the second dodge gets a +10 total, while the third would gain no bonuses, and the fourth would be at -10)

A unit that dodges is moved 2 paces directly away from his attacker and may not make a counter-move. If the defender is prone, he rolls 1 pace to the left or the right. If a unit dodges while at arm’s length he is moved 2 paced to the left or right instead of away but must remain within 3 paces of the attacker.

This movement takes place whether the defender avoids the attack or not. If the unit successfully dodges, he does not technically count as parrying the attack.

Parrying with Two Weapons
A unit wielding two weapons has a choice of how to parry. If he wants to use both weapons at the same time, he gains a +20 to his parry roll using the best reach and parry penalty for determining the parry chance and the best counter-move chance.

Alternatively, the unit may use one weapon at a time, in which case he makes a normal parry. However, in this case count the number of parries made by each weapon in the turn rather then the character to determine what proportion of the defender’s WS is used. For example, if a unit uses one weapon to parry for one attack, he can still use his full WS to parry the next attack with the other weapon.

If the unit elects to parry with one weapon against one attack and both weapons against the next attack, both weapons count as being used the same number of times that turn using the highest number of uses. So for example, one weapon is used to parry the first attack and then both weapons are used to defend against a second, but are both at half WS (+20 for a two weapon parry).

Shields
Shields have their own profiles which include how much their WS is reduced from successive parries and their parry penalty for purposes of counter-moves.

Counter-Move
The chance of making a counter-move is equal to the parry roll with the weapon’s parry and -10 for every counter-move, which is cumulative until the start of the unit’s next turn. So a unit’s first counter move would only be at -10 for its first counter-move and at 3 counter-moves the unit would be at -30. Counter-moves are determined in the same roll as a parry. A successful counter-move affords the defender with a free close combat Action, so he can attack, fire a weapon, advance and attack, step back, break from combat, and so on.

Ending Combat
Close combat ends when either a unit disengages or is defeated. When combat ends and a unit has Actions remaining, he must spend his next Action as a pause for breath.

If the combatants end up more than 3 paces apart, the attacker has the choice to end combat and break off or charge.

Multiple Combats
A character who is attacking can divide his actions between any of the other combatants and so might choose to attack one enemy with his first action and then another with the second and so on.

To count as being at arm’s length, a character must be more than 2 yard away from all the enemies he is fighting. However, he can attack an enemy at arm’s length with a weapon of reach 4 or more even if he is within 1 yard of another opponent. Remember that the attacker faces towards the character he last attacked.

Similarly, when being attacked by more than one unit, a defender follows all of the normal rules. This means that he can only parry or counter-move if he is the target. It also means that he counts the number of parries that turn for working out his parry chance, not the number of parries against a particular opponent.