S.A.B.O.T.

Copyright 2004 by Mike Fischer
Last modified: 10/04/2004

Table of Contents

I.   Introduction                    VIII. Winning the Game
II.  Vehicles, Soldiers & Weapons    IX.   Game Tables
III. Map Terrain                     X.    Scenarios & Optional Rules
IV.  Setting Up the Game             XI.   Extra Unit Types
V.   Playing the Game                XII.  Designer's Notes
VI.  Movement                        XIII. Revision History
VII. Combat

I. Introduction

S.A.B.O.T. stands for Simple Armored Battle in Oversized Terrain. It's a fast-moving futuristic land battle, meant to be played on a big game map. Each player spends his/her build points on various vehicles and soldiers, sets them up on map tiles from my M8 Map System, and fights until his/her foe has been wiped off the face of the earth.

This game's movement and combat rules are set up for large-scale battlefields with dozens of vehicles and soldiers. Ever want to fill a ping-pong table with game maps? This is your game. Got a door-sized folding table for game day? Play with a wide front and a shallow battlefield. Better yet, make a big square table from two folding tables. You can play this game on a small map, but it won't be as much fun.

S.A.B.O.T. is a complete game, with counters, markers, and maps. All you supply is a couple of d10's (ten-sided dice). I've finally learned some international manners -- the counters and markers will print on an A4-sized sheet, as well as the usual letter-sized page.

II. Vehicles, Soldiers & Weapons

Soldiers are bought in platoons of four squads -- two Infantry, one Heavy-Weapons, and one Jump Troops. Special tracked vehicles are bought in platoons of four, one of each type. All other vehicles are bought in platoons of four of the same kind of vehicle.

Some vehicles have special rules for movement or combat that are different from the "regular" rules. In all such cases, the vehicle's rule takes precedence.

General rules for vehicle types:

Each vehicle has the following characteristics, which are spelled out in the Vehicles & Soldiers Table:

Name:Main Battle Tank (MBT)
Type:Tracked vehicle
The MBT is your basic tank. It resists damage well, and can dish out quite a bit in return.

Name:Heavy Tank (HVT)
Type:Tracked vehicle
This tracked vehicle is the slowest thing in the game (aside from foot soldiers), but it's also the heaviest-armored, and has one of the most powerful guns.

Name:Missile Tank (MSL)
Type:Tracked vehicle
Missile tanks carry four big GP (general-purpose) missiles instead of a cannon. They can launch these missiles one per turn. The missiles don't have to have a line-of-sight to their target. They benefit from laser designation. If firing without line-of-sight and not laser-designated, the missiles scatter just like artillery shots. An MSL can't move and fire in the same turn. The problem with MSL's is that, once the missiles are gone, the tank is close to useless. You can reload them from a missile-reloader vehicle, though.

Name:Infantry Combat Vehicle (ICV)
Type:Tracked vehicle
The ICV allows foot soldiers to keep up with the tanks. It can carry one squad of soldiers in relative safety. It also carries an auto-cannon and a single anti-tank missile, which it can fire into any hex, not just the front three.

Name:Self-Propelled Artillery (SPA)
Type:Tracked vehicle
The big guns of the artillery can shoot further than anything else in the game, and they don't have to have a line-of-sight to their target to do it. Their shots are prone to scattering, though, and don't fare well against armored targets. If the target is within 5 hexes and in a clear line-of-sight, SPA shots don't scatter. They cannot move and fire in the same turn.

Name:Recovery Vehicle (RRV)
Type:Tracked vehicle (special)
The "special" tracked vehicles aren't combat tanks, but support vehicles that earn their keep without fighting. The recovery vehicle is a tank body with cranes, jacks, tools, and spare parts. It can repair one disabled vehicle each turn if it ends its move next to that vehicle, if neither vehicle gets shot at during that turn, and if a die roll comes up 5-10.

Name:Bridging Tank (BRV)
Type:Tracked vehicle (special)
If a bridging tank enters a river hex and stops there, other vehicles can treat it as a bridge across the river, starting on the following turn. It can fold itself up and move on as long as no vehicles have crossed it in the current turn. Treat it as an amphibious vehicle for movement purposes in river hexes. Units cannot pass through friendly units in a hex where a bridging tank has deployed itself.

Name:Engineering Tank (ENV)
Type:Tracked vehicle (special)
The engineering tank carries a large-bore, low-velocity demolition cannon, which gives it some emergency fighting power. Its real value is its bulldozer blade, which lets it make a prepared position for any unit. It takes two move units to make a prepared position, after which you put a "Prepared Pos'n" marker in that hex. Prepared positions help protect a unit when it gets attacked. Only your own units benefit from your prepared positions, since they will be facing the wrong way to help the enemy. Prepared positions can be made in Grassland, Desert/Beach, or Hills, or in roads running through such hexes.

Name:Missile Reloader (MLV)
Type:Tracked vehicle (special)
The missile reloader can completely reload one missile tank in one turn (up to 4 GP missiles), as long as the reloader ends its move next to that missile tank, and as long as neither vehicle gets shot at in the current turn. The MLV never runs out of missiles.

Name:Scout Car (WSC)
Type:Wheeled vehicle
Scout cars are fast, lightly-armored, lightly-armed vehicles. Their main function is to identify enemy units. They can't move as well as other scout units, but they're inexpensive, they add +1 to their scouting die rolls, and they're very, very fast when moving on roads or in towns. They are also amphibious, so they can cross rivers by themselves.

Name:Hover Light Tank (HLT)
Type:Hover vehicle
The hover light tank is similar in concept to the scout car, except it's a hovercraft instead of a wheeled vehicle. It has all the advantages of hovercraft (high speed and the ability to ignore most terrain), and all the disadvantages (light armor and vulnerability to damage). It adds +1 to its scouting rolls.

Name:Hover Tank-Destroyer (HTD)
Type:Hover vehicle
The only effective way to put a big gun on a hovercraft is to fix it so it's firing forward. This is a tactical drawback when attacking, since you have to turn the whole vehicle to aim the gun. Hovercraft make poor defensive weapons, too. But when you need to move some heavy firepower a long distance in a hurry, you'll appreciate the HTD.

Name:Hover Personnel Carrier (HPC)
Type:Hover vehicle
This is the same big hovercraft body as the HTD, but left open inside so it can carry two squads of soldiers. It can't protect them as well as an ICV, but it can move a lot faster. So when your troops absolutely, positively have to be there now, send them by HPC.

Name:Agrav Tank (AGT)
Type:Anti-gravity vehicle
Take a main battle tank, replace its engine and tracks with an anti-grav system, and you've got the ultimate mobile-warfare weapon. Fast, well-armed, well-armored, and able to move anywhere, the only real problem with AGT's is that you can't afford to buy many of them.

Name:Scout Copter (RSC)
Type:Rotary-winged vehicle
This helicopter is the fastest thing on the battlefield. Its machine gun is effective against light units, and it carries two anti-tank missiles for the bigger stuff. It also has a laser designator to assist the missiles of other units. But its vulnerability to damage means it's not meant for a pitched battle. It adds +1 to its scouting rolls.

Name:Infantry Squad (INF)
Type:Foot soldiers
Grunts. Dogfaces. Tommies, GI Joe, Poilu's, call 'em what you will, but when the glamorous tanks have come and gone, it's the humble foot soldier who takes the ground and holds it. Their firepower isn't much compared to a battle tank, but there's a lot they can do, including using their laser designators for other units' anti-tank missiles. Their low cost means you can have a bunch of them.

Name:Heavy-Weapons Squad (HVY)
Type:Foot soldiers
The heavy-weapons squad is an infantry squad armed with machine guns and four shoulder-launched anti-tank missiles. They're a tanker's worst nightmare, because they can't be "disabled" and because the battlefield will often be crawling with them. An infantry squad's main contribution to battle is often just keeping the enemy HVY's at a distance.

Name:Jump-Troop Squad (ABN)
Type:Foot soldiers
These are foot soldiers with jet packs on their backs. They can't attack while in the air, and they can't fly and move on land in the same turn. But there are times when even a small unit can be worth its weight in platinum if they can get to a trouble spot fast enough, and jump troops excel at this. If you air-drop them, they will always land exactly where you want them (no scattering).

Name:Anti-Tank Missile
Type:Weapon
These missiles are carried by several types of units. They enable a small vehicle to take on a much bigger foe. But, unlike the GP missiles of a missile tank, these missiles cannot be reloaded. Once used, they're gone. They are much more effective if used in conjunction with a laser designator. They take a -1 penalty on attack rolls when fired at flying units. They can't be aimed at soldiers. Unlike GP missiles, a vehicle can fire more than one in a turn.

Name:Laser Designator
Type:Weapon
A laser designator does no damage to its target. Instead, it "paints" the target so that a missile has a better chance of hitting. A unit that uses a laser can't make any other attack in that turn. A missile aimed at a laser-painted target adds +2 to its attack roll. The effects of more than one laser are not cumulative. Soldiers cannot be painted.

III. Map Terrain

The following terrain symbols are used on the M7 maps: Entering a hex with a friendly "Prepared Position" marker takes only 1 move unit, regardless of terrain.

IV. Setting Up the Game

Print and mount at least one sheet of counters and one sheet of markers. You'll probably need more than one of each, unless you stick to small games. The counter sheet gives each player two platoons of MBT's and ICV's, three platoons of soldiers, and one platoon of each of the other unit types.

Print the M8 map tiles you want, and lay them out to form the battlefield you desire. A good map will have varied terrain, with a few "choke points" that will have to be fought over. Each player chooses an opposing side of the map on which to set up.

Here are two sample map layouts. The first uses seven tiles to make a mix of terrain, with a road and a river meeting in the middle. The second map uses ten tiles to make a very hilly landscape. All have a set-up depth of 3 hexes. Set these up with the corners, not the flat sides, facing the players:

-040027--- -- -004006009-
009028009-- -- 006009005004
-027040--- -- -005004006-

Now, each player buys his/her vehicles and soldiers. Agree on a build-point limit, which should be a multiple of 100 or 250. Consider these three relatively small armies, each built from 100 points:

Assault ForceCavalry TroopDefensive Force
1 platoon MBT (25)2 platoons HTD (25 each)1 platoon HVY (30)
1 platoon WSC (15)1 platoon HST (20)1 platoon MSL (25)
2 platoons ICV (20 each)1 platoon HPC (20)1 platoon SPA (30)
2 platoons Soldiers (10 each)1 platoon Soldiers (10)1 platoon Special Vehicles (15)
16 vehicles, 8 soldiers16 vehicles, 4 soldiers16 vehicles

Now imagine what a 500-point army could look like!

Set up your troops on your side of the map. For each tile of map depth, you get 1 hex-row of initial starting depth. In other words, if your map is 5 map-tiles from your side to the enemy side, each of you can set up in the first 5 rows of hexes. This allows you some depth in your initial set-up. Using the first example map above, player 1 would set up in the first three rows of maps 040 and 027 on top, and player 2 would set up in 027 and 040 on the bottom.

If you bought a platoon of special vehicles, you can create four prepared positions for each Engineering Tank you own. Soldiers can start the game inside personnel-carrier vehicles. Each unit with limited shots gets a numbered marker stacked with it, to show how many shots it has left. For example, missile tanks (4 shots) get a "4" marker. Use the same markers for missile-tank missiles and for AT missiles. Keep these markers under the counter to conceal them.

Turn every counter upside-down, so the enemy won't know what they are. Make sure to keep them facing in the desired direction. I strongly recommend putting a yellow or blue mark on the back of each counter, so you can tell who owns which units.

The counter sheet includes four blank counters. Each player gets two of these, and can put them on the map as decoys to deceive the enemy. They cannot move, and once scouted, they must be removed from the map.

V. Playing the Game

Each game turn goes through the following phases:
  1. Player-1 Determination Phase: roll a die to see who is Player 1 this turn.
  2. Reinforcement Phase: if playing with reinforcements, buy new units and place them on the map.
  3. Player-1 Movement Phase: player 1's units move. Scouting takes place during this phase.
  4. Player-2 Movement Phase: player 2's units move. Scouting takes place during this phase.
  5. Player-1 Attack Phase: player 1's units attack.
  6. Player-2 Attack Phase: player 2's units attack.
  7. Special Action Phase: special vehicles on both sides can repair disabled vehicles, unfold into bridges, make prepared positions, or reload missile tanks.
  8. Victory Phase: see if one player has won the game.

VI. Movement

VI-a. Basic Movement

Each unit can use some, none, or all of its move units each turn. The cost (in move units) to enter a map hex depends on the terrain. Units can pass through friendly units while moving, as long as they end their move in an empty hex. Unused move units cannot be saved from turn to turn.

VI-b. Zones of Control

Every unit exerts a zone of control (ZOC) in the six hexes surrounding it. Any unit that enters an enemy unit's ZOC must stop moving for that turn, regardless of how many move units it has left. A unit that starts its turn in a hostile ZOC cannot move into another hex in the same enemy unit's ZOC unless it first moves out of that zone. The only exceptions are flying units, which have no ZOC and ignore other units' zones.

VI-c. Stacking

Units cannot end their turn in the same hex as another unit. The only exceptions are described in the section on Loading and Unloading Soldiers.

VI-d. Facing

A unit can move only in the direction its counter is facing. A counter can turn one or more hex-faces during a turn, depending on what kind of unit it is: A unit can turn at any point in its move, unless it is in an enemy unit's ZOC.

VI-e. Loading and Unloading Soldiers

Personnel-carrying units can take squads of soldiers into themselves. Such soldiers must be next to the personnel carrier and have one move unit left, and the personnel carrier must be in a hex that the soldiers can enter. The carrier can't come to the soldiers. As soon as a soldier enters a personnel carrier, that's the end of the carrier's move for the current turn, whether it has moved yet or not.

To remove soldiers from a carrier, the carrier must done with its move. The soldiers leave the carrier and enter an adjacent hex which they are capable of entering. This ends their move for the turn.

Jump troops must be moving on the ground to enter and leave a personnel carrier.

VI-f. Flying Units

Flying units ignore all terrain and can enter any unoccupied hex. They can pass through (that is, fly over) hostile units as well as friendlies during their move.

Jump troops can move on the ground, or in the air, but not both in the same turn. They cannot attack while flying. They are not considered flying units while on the ground. The player must announce whether a jump-troop squad is flying or walking each time it moves, takes off, or lands.

VI-g. Camouflage and Scouting

All units start the game upside down, to conceal their identity. The counter goes right-side-up under the following circumstances:
  1. The unit moves while in the line of sight of, and within 8 hexes of, an enemy unit.
  2. The unit tries to attack an enemy unit.
  3. The unit is successfully scouted.
  4. The unit's owner chooses to reveal it.
Just attacking a unit won't tell you what it is. To scout an enemy unit, you must bring one of your units within 4 hexes of it and roll a die. Some units can add to their scouting rolls. If the roll is 5 or higher, the scouting is successful and the enemy's counter goes right-side-up. A unit can scout multiple enemies in the same turn, but can scout each unit only once per turn. It can scout enemy units that fall within the four-hex limit at any point during its move, not just at the end of the move. This means a scout copter could fly down a line of concealed enemies and scout every one of them in one move.

Soldiers who get out of an infantry-carrier vehicle can turn their counters hidden if they don't meet condition #1 (above) when they disembark.

VII. Combat

VII-a. Basic Combat

No unit ever has to attack during a combat phase. Units that carry multiple weapons (such as AT missiles) cannot fire them at more than one target in the same turn.

Units can attack enemy units that are within the attacker's range. Also, most units must have a clear line-of-sight (LOS) from the center of their hex to the center of the target's hex. The following obstruct line-of-sight if halfway or more across that line:

An anti-grav vehicle's line-of-sight is not broken by friendly vehicles. The only thing that breaks a flying unit's line-of-sight is a building.

Most vehicles can fire in any direction, regardless of which way they are facing. Exceptions:

If a unit enters a hostile unit's attack range and then leaves it again in the same turn, the hostile unit cannot attack it. The target unit moved too quickly to draw a bead on it. A unit that did not move in the current turn can ignore this rule and attack the moving unit during the movement phase; put the moving unit back in a hex where it was still in range, resolve the shot, and if the moving unit is unharmed, it finishes its move. This is called an overwatch attack. A unit that makes such an attack cannot fire during the combat phase.

Artillery, and GP missiles fired without a line of sight, may miss the target hex. For each such shot, roll a d10. If the roll came up 7-10, it hit the target. If it comes up 1-6, it hit an adjacent hex, as determined by the Scatter Table (use the attacker's facing as the reference point). If that hex is empty, the shot missed everything; if a unit is in it, that unit becomes the target. This can be a friendly unit. Missiles will never hit a friendly unit; such a shot would hit nothing.

Units with a weapon Damage of 4 or higher cannot attack flying units. Neither can GP missiles.

The attacker rolls a d10 and adds the attacking unit's Damage. The defender rolls a d10 and adds his/her unit's Toughness. Add the following modifiers if applicable:

If the adjusted defense roll is greater than the adjusted attack roll, the attack missed or did no damage. If the rolls are equal, the defender is Disabled. If the attack roll is higher, the defender is Destroyed.

Disabled vehicles cannot move. Soldiers ignore combat results of "Disabled." Flying units that get Disabled are Destroyed, since the effects of hitting the ground are often worse than the weapons damage. If a personnel-carrier unit is destroyed with soldiers on board, roll for each soldier squad. An odd number means the soldiers were also destroyed, while an even number means they got out in time; they must exit the carrier immediately. Put a "Disabled" marker on each disabled unit.

Destroyed units get a "Destroyed" marker on them. All weapons fire is assumed to be simultaneous, so if a destroyed unit hasn't already attacked, it can still shoot its weapons when it's that player's turn.

Once a unit with limited shots has fired, replace its marker with a numbered marker showing how many shots are left. When all shots are gone, use a "0" marker, both to remind you that you used all your missiles, and to keep the other player from knowing at a glance that your missile tank is out of ammo.

Remove all "Destroyed" units from the map at the end of combat, or immediately if the unit has already fired its weapons.

Sample Combat:
Two Scout Copters get into missile range of an enemy Heavy Tank. One of them uses its laser to paint the target, and the other fires both its missiles. The laser painting means the attack rolls will be at +2. The attacker rolls a die for the first missile, gets a 2, and adds the anti-tank missile's Damage of 4 and the laser bonus of 2, making an adjusted attack roll of 8. The defender rolls, gets a 5, and adds his tank's Toughness of 6, for a defense roll of 11. This is higher than the attack roll, so the first missile did no damage. The second missile's die roll is a 5, plus the same modifiers, gives an adjusted attack roll of 11. The second defense roll is a 3; adding the toughness of 6 gives a defense roll of 9, which is lower than the attack roll. The Heavy Tank is destroyed.

VIII. Winning the Game

The simplest game is a fight to the death. When one player has lost all his/her units, the other player is the winner. If you make up scenario rules, then the first person to meet their victory conditions wins.

IX. Game Tables

Vehicles & Soldiers Table
SymbolUnit CostType MoveToughRangeDamageSpecial
MBT Main Battle Tank 25Tracked 35 6 5-
HVT Heavy Tank 30Tracked 26 6 5-
MSL Missile Tank 25Tracked 33 9 44 shots; see text
ICV Infantry Combat Vehicle 20Tracked 34 3 31 AT missile; carry 1 squad
SPA Self-Propelled Artillery30Tracked 33 12 5shots scatter
RRV Recovery Vehicle15Tracked 22 2 2see text
BRV Bridging Tank Tracked 22 2 2see text
ERV Engineering Tank Tracked 22 2 5see text
MLV Missile Reloader Tracked 22 2 2see text
WSC Scout Car 10Wheeled 41 2 2-
HLT Hover Light Tank 20Hover 52 3 3-
HTD Hover Tank Destroyer 25Hover 53 6 5limited arc of fire
HPC Hover Personnel Carrier 20Hover 52 2 2carry 2 squads
AGT Anti-Grav Tank 35Anti-grav 45 6 5-
RSC Scout Copter 15Rotary-wing 80 2 22 AT missiles; laser
INF Infantry Squad (x2)10Soldiers21 2 2Laser
HVY Heavy-Weapons Squad Soldiers 21 2 34 AT missiles
ABN Jump-Troop Squad Soldiers 41 2 2moves=2 on ground
- Anti-Tank Missile - Weapon -- 3 4single shot
- Laser Designator - Weapon -- 4 +2see text

Scatter Diagram
       Facing
        >---<
       /     \
  >---<   1   >---<
 /     \     /     \
<   6   >---<   2   >
 \     /+-^-+\     /
  >---< |   | >---<
 /     \+---+/     \
<   5   >---<   3   >
 \     /     \     /
  >---<   4   >---<
       \     /
        >---<

X. Scenarios & Optional Rules

  1. Reinforcements. At the end of each turn, each player who has destroyed at least one enemy unit gets 10 replacement points. You can spend these immediately or save them from turn to turn. A unit's replacement-point cost is the same as its build-point cost. Buy a new unit or units, and place them at your edge of the map during the Special-Action Phase. An army that has just been wiped out cannot buy reinforcements. Fight to the death.

  2. Clear the City. Set up maps with a city (at least 3 urban maps) in the middle of the battlefield. As soon as each player has at least one unit in the city, the real battle begins. After this happens, the first player to have exclusive ownership of the city -- at least three of his own units in urban map tiles, and no enemy units in urban map tiles -- is the winner.

  3. Airborne! Soldiers and scout cars don't have to be set up at the start of the game. Instead, at any point in the game, you can airdrop them. To airdrop, choose the hex where you want that unit to land, and roll a d10. Scatter the unit as if it were an artillery shot. (Jump troops don't scatter, but land exactly where you want them.) Their facing is whichever way you want. You can drop none, some, or all of your droppable units each turn. Units that land in forest, a town, a building, or any kind of water (including swamp) are lost, as are units that land adjacent to an enemy unit. All this happens during the Special Action Phase.

  4. Special Objective. Use one or two of the special add-on hexes from map #000 as a goal for one or both players. Can Player 2 keep Player 1 from blowing up his ammo dump for 12 turns? Can Player 1 steal Player 2's nukes (bring four empty personnel carriers to the Nuclear Silo and then return them to his starting position) before Player 2 does the same to Player 1?

  5. Clear the Map. Set a number of turns for the game to run. At the end of the battle, whoever holds the most map tiles is the winner. To hold a map tile, you must have at least one of your units (decoys don't count) entirely in that map tile, with no enemy units (decoys do count) in that tile.

  6. Team Play. If you have more than two players, and the number of players is even, then each player gets an even fraction (half, 1/3, etc.) of an army. The players represent field commanders of equal rank, and they have to coordinate their efforts without giving away their plans to the enemy. If they resort to written notes, the enemy can try to read or steal them. This can add a very different flavor to a battle!

XI. Extra Unit Types

The units defined in the rules and tables above give you a good variety of types and abilities, without making the game too complex. If you don't mind a bit more complexity, and want even more variety in your units, you can use the optional units that come with this game (SaboXtra and SaboXtrB). The new units include missile hovercraft, personnel-carrying helicopters, and other combinations of weapons and movement types. Also included are combat walkers and monster cybertanks, which are strong enough to take on an armored division by themselves.

XII. Designer's Notes

This game started life as a semi-generic WWII-era armor battle called EasyArmor. The need for accurate artwork kept me from pursuing the project very far, but I still liked the idea of large-scale armored battles. Then I read about the classic sci-fi games OGRE and GEV, by Steve Jackson Games. The idea of acquiring enough miniature tanks and troops to fight a big battle appealed to me, until I started adding up the cost. Uh-uh, not on my budget. But what if I combined the futuristic concept, the EasyArmor rules, and some generic-looking sci-fi counters that would be fairly easy to doodle up? Hey, it just might work!

I don't know if there's much interest in a large-scale game like this. So what? This was one of those rule sets I just had to write. If you enjoy it, or have some suggestions for improving it, I'd love to hear from you. If you think the game stinks, and if you can explain why you think that way in lucid, non-profane words, I'd still like to hear about it.

(For those who don't know, "sabot" is a kind of armor-piercing ammunition.)

XIII. Revision History

10/04/2004: v1.2 -- vastly simplified the combat system.
05/17/2004: v1.1 -- fixed some errors and ambiguities, added sample maps.
05/03/2004: v1.0 -- initial release.