Hammer's Slammers

Hammer's Slammers Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Organization

Hammer's Regiment

Sec 1: Headquarters Battalion

Except for Artillery and Replacement, all the support elements were grouped for administrative convenience in HQ Battalion. In practice, a large percentage of the strength of these units was parcelled out to line companies according to need.

a) Headquarters Company—Col. Hammer and his personal staff, including battalion officers; satellite launch and maintenance personnel; finance; and a security element. Total: 153 effectives.

b) Maintenance—Capable of handling anything short of full hull rebuilds and internal work on fusion units. Company included 3 tank and 6 combat car transporters, stretched-chassis vehicles with fans at either end; ACVs cannot, of course, be towed. Total: 212 effectives.

c) Communications—Included not only the staff of Command Central, but the staffs of local headquarters with area responsibilities. Total: 143 effectives.

d) Medical—Twenty-four first line medics with medicomps linked to Central, and a field hospital with full life-support capability. Total: 60 effectives.

e) Supply—Included Mess and Quartermaster functions. Total: 143 effectives.

f) Intelligence—Order of Battle was performed mostly by computer. Imagery Interpertation, study of satellite recce, was in large measure still a human function. There were three mechanical interrogation (i.e. mind probe) teams. Total: 84 effectives.

g) Transport—312 men (heavily supplemented from Replacement Battalion) and 288 air cushion trucks for local unit supply from spaceport or planetary logistics centers. True aircraft, flying above the nape of the earth, would have been suicidally vulnerable to powerguns.

h) Combat Engineers—Carried out bridging, clearing, mine-sweeping, and very frequently fighting tasks. Formed in three 16-man platoons, each mounted on a pair of tank-chassis Engineer Vehicles. Total: 50 effectives.

i) Recreation—Field brothels. The strength and composition of this unit varied from world to world. Generally, teams of 3-6 were put under the direct control of company supply personnel.

Sec II: Combat Cars

Eight combat car companies each of a command section (one car) and four line platoons. Each platoon contained a command car and five combat cars, or six combat cars. Company total: 100 effectives.

Sec III: Tanks

Four Tank companies, each of a command tank and four line platoons. Each line platoon contained four tanks. Company total: 36 effectives.

Sec IV: Infantry

Four companies, each of four platoons. Each platoon contained four 10-man line squads; two 2-man tribarrel teams (jeep-mounted); one 2-man 100 mm mortar team (jeep mounted); and a command element. All but Heavy Weapons were on one-man skimmers. Buzz-bombs could be issued for special purposes; but in general, support from the armored vehicles allowed the Slammer's infantry to travel lighter than most pongoes. Company total: 202 effectives.

Sec. V: Artillery

Three batteries of self-propelled 200 mm rocket howitzers. Each battery contained six tubes; one command car; and two munitions haulers. Battery total: 37 effectives.

Sec. VI: Replacements

The training and reserve component of the Slammers, normally totalling 1500 men (including cadre) with about ten tanks, twenty-five combat cars, and a hundred trucks. Because Hammer had no permanent base world, training had to be performed wherever the Regiment was located. Because men were more vulnerable than the armored vehicles they rode, and the vehicle were too valuable to run under-crewed or held out of service while replacements were trained, a pool of trained men had to be on hand to fill gaps immediately. Until they were needed in combat slots, they acted as extra drivers, loading crews, camp police, and firebase security.

Note: As personal weapons line infantry were issued 2 cm shoulder powerguns and grenades. Vehicle and Heavy Weapons crewman carried 1 cm pistols (unless they had picked up shoulder arms on their own). Officers carried pistols or 1 cm submachineguns as they desired.

Rules

Game Components

Rules book
One mapboard
Four sheets of die cut playing pieces
Two six-sided dice
The game box

Game Map

The Hammers Slammers map represents the various battlefields the mercenaries fought over during the later half of the Third Millennium.

The panels are numbered 1 to 6 and are partly geomorphic. The players must consult the scenario to determine how the boards must be setup, as they are arranged differently from scenario to scenario.

There is an arrow above the number on each board which indicates the compass direction (north). When putting the main boards together all the compass directions should point the same way.

Lettered edge pieces are also listed for some scenarios, though others do not include them. Unless otherwise noted, partial hexes at the edge of the board are not playable.

Be aware that starting positions are often on the main numbered boards, not the edge pieces.

Playing Pieces

There are 328 playing pieces in the game. They include two sets of conventional forces (green & tan), one set of mercenaries (red), one set of armored mercenaries: Hammer's Slammers (blue), and game markers (yellow).

Mercenary and Slammers infantry (not conventional infantry) counters are backprinted to show their values when they are mounted on skimmers.

The yellow game markers include rubble, fortress, and turn counters.

Charts & Tables

The Game Scenarios, Combat Results Table (including a Gas Combat Results Table), Terrain Effects Chart, Unit Cost Chart, Counter Description Chart, Turn Chart, and Unit Identification Chart are included in the rules.

Preparation for Play

Hammer's Slammers can be played by 1 to 4 players, who select a scenario and choose sides. The map is assembled according to the directions in the scenario, and forces are placed on the map.
If the players choose to design their own scenario, the players build their own force, choose mapboards and their arrangements, and decide player movement sequence.

Sequence of Play

Each player in his turn does the following:

Rally (moving player).
Paradrops and Counter Paradrop Fire.
Move (moving player).
Ranged Combat (all players).
- A: Indirect Artillery and Counter Artillery Fire.
- B: Direct Fire.
Close Assaults (all players).

Repeat steps 1-5 until all players have had their turn.

Advance the game turn marker.

The player who moved first always fires first in each of the Combat sections. Order of fire is the same as the movement sequence.

Rally

Disrupted units may be undisrupted (rallied) at the start of a player's turn. The morale level for each unit is listed in the specific scenario. In order to rally a unit, roll two dice. If the number rolled is equal to or greater than the morale level of the disrupted unit, then that unit counter is immediately rallied, flipped over to its front side, and treated as an undisrupted unit.

If the attempt to rally the unit counter is unsuccessful, the unit counter remains disrupted. Each disrupted unit counter of moving player, except those in Close Assault, may attempt to rally.

For effects of disruption, see the appropriate section.

Desperation Rally

If your first attempt to rally a unit fails you may roll immediately for a desperation rally using the same procedure as a regular rally attempt. If you are successful, treat the unit as a rallied unit. If you are unsuccessful, immediately remove that unit from play.

Paradrops

Only infantry (Conventional, Slammers, and Mercenary), small guns, armored cars and armored personnel carrier unit counters may be paradropped.

The player picks a hex as a drop zone, unoccupied by enemy units, to paradrop units. More than one drop zone may be designated at beginning of movement for different units.

Once the drop zone is designated, roll 1 die. If the number rolled is a 1, 2, or 3 the dropped unit landed in the drop zone hex. If a 4, 5, or 6 is rolled, the unit landed off course.

To determine the landing hex of off-course units roll a die to determine the direction. The six hexes immediately adjacent to the drop zone hex represent the various directions in which the off-course unit could have landed. The hex to the north of the drop zone hex is hex number 1 and moving clockwise from that hex the remaining five hexes are directions 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

[Diagram: a numbered hex grid showing directions 1 through 6 around the drop zone, with north marked.]

After determining the direction of the off-course unit, roll another die. The number rolled is the number of hexes counted out from the drop zone hex (but not including the drop zone hex), through the direction hex, to the landing hex of the off-course unit. If a unit drops off board simply place it on the first hex of the closest board edge to where the counter dropped off. Consider all off-board hexes as clear terrain.

Any unit which lands in a lake, swamp, or river hex is eliminated. Armored cars, armored personnel carriers, and guns may only land in a clear terrain hex, otherwise they are eliminated.

A unit may move its complete movement after landing unless it is eliminated by terrain or it lands in an enemy-occupied hex.

If an off-course, air-dropped unit lands in an enemy-occupied hex, a Close Assault with special modifications will occur during combat. The paradropped unit does not get the usual Close Assault bonus for the first turn of Close Assault. Infantry, however, still doubles its attack factor.

Overstacking may occur by paradropped units on the dropping zone hexes. If overstacking occurs (at the first movement opportunity) the paradropped units must move enough units to relieve the overstacked condition.

Counter Paradrop Fire (CPF)

Calliopes and Hover Tanks (Mercenary or Slammer) may fire at paradropped units during the movement turn they are dropped (and still in the air).

There is no extended range for Calliopes and Tanks in Counter Paradrop Fire. Paradropped units disrupted or eliminated by Counter Paradrop Fire are eliminated and are immediately removed from play. They may not return fire.

The range of the Counter Paradrop Fire is computed by counting the hexes from the firing unit to the hex that the paradropped unit lands in. Do not include the hex the firing unit is in, but do count the hex the paradropping unit is landing on.

If the paradropping unit is on course, that hex would be the drop zone hex. If the paradropping unit is off course, the hex was determined by a die roll.

Units conducting Counter Paradrop Fire may not conduct other ranged combat or Close Assault attacks.

A Calliope automatically eliminates a paradropped unit on a CPF attack.

Slammer and Mercenary Hover Tanks attack using the normal odds ratio for Direct Fire. The tanks compare their attack factors against the paradropped unit. However, only one unit may fire at one paradropping unit. During Counter Paradrop Fire ignore all rubble results.

Units which fired CPF may not fire again at Close Assaulting Paradropped troops.

Movement

During the movement portion of his turn a player may move any, all, or none of his counters up to each counter's movement factor. Movement is from one hex to an adjacent hex expending movement factors based upon the cost of the hex entered at the following rate:

Conventional troops are equipped with tracked or wheeled vehicles.
Mercenaries and Slammers are hover-equipped troops.
Dismounted Slammer and Mercenary infantry are armed like Conventional troops. However, when mounted on their skimmers they are treated as hover-equipped troops.

Movement factors may not be saved from one turn to another nor transferred from one unit to another. A hex may not be entered if the moving counter has insufficient movement factors left to enter that hex. However, a unit may always move 1 hex, except those units with 0 movement printed on counters which cannot move except when towed.

Conventional armor and mechanized units may never move into swamp or lake hexes. Hover units may move into swamp and lake hexes, but are eliminated if disrupted while on them.

Conventional (non-hover) units and hover units may move onto river hexes and cross rivers, but if they are disrupted while on a river hex they are eliminated.

A counter may move into a hex which contains an opponent's counter, but the unit must immediately stop upon entering that hex and cannot move out while an opponent's counter (whether disrupted or undisrupted) remains in that hex.

If a counter is not on the road and moves into a hex containing a road, the unit must expend the cost of the hex terrain type—not the road movement cost. A unit may only use road movement cost if it has entered the road hex from another road hex.

Units may move through hexes containing other friendly units.

Players can each stack up to 3 counters in a single hex. During a Close Assault it is possible to have 6 counters in a hex (3 from each side), or even 9 counters if it is a three player scenario.

Towing

Any vehicle can tow artillery (guns, howitzers, and calliopes) except skimmers.

The player must announce at the start of his turn that he is towing and the towing unit must start the turn in the same hex as the unit to be towed.

Place artillery piece underneath towing vehicle to show it is being towed.

Movement of the towing vehicle is halved, rounding fractions down.

Artillery may not fire while being towed.

Towed unit suffers the same combat result as its towing unit. Fire is conducted only on towing unit; do not add in DF of towed unit. Towed units cannot be hooked up or set up if towing unit is disrupted. Roll one rally roll for both towed and towing unit combined.

A player may, at the start of his movement turn, declare that a towed artillery piece is being set up. The vehicle that had been towing the artillery unit may then move normally. The artillery piece remains in the hex in which it began the turn. It can fire normally.

Mounted Infantry

An APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) must start in the hex with a regular infantry unit for the infantry to mount the APC. One APC counter may carry one infantry counter. Mounting or dismounting from an APC costs both the infantry unit and the vehicle unit 1 movement factor (MF). Both APC & infantry may fire during the mounting/dismounting turn. To show infantry is dismounted, place the infantry unit on top of APC.

Disrupted APC's may not mount or dismount infantry. Infantry fires as a disrupted unit if the carrying APC is disrupted. If a disrupted APC is disrupted on any successive turns, then both it any infantry unit it carries are eliminated.

Stacking is limited to 3 counters in a hex. Infantry may not ride tanks. An APC carrying an infantry unit counts as 2 units for stacking purposes. Slammer and Mercenary infantry may not ride in a conventional APC. If an APC carrying infantry is eliminated, the infantry counter is also eliminated.

It costs Mercenary and Slammers infantry 1 MF each from its infantry movement and its skimmer movement to mount or dismount their skimmer. One movement factor is taken from the infantry movement and one MF from the skimmer movement.

To show that Mercenary infantry is mounted, simply flip the infantry unit counter over to the skimmer side and use the values printed on that side for combat and range.

For example: A Slammers dismounted infantry has a movement of 2. A Slammers mounted infantry (skimmer) has a movement of 6. A player decides to mount a infantry unit on its skimmers at the start of its movement turn. The unit spends 1 movement factor (MF) from the dismounted infantry and 1 MF from the skimmer's movement. The skimmer-mounted infantry unit could move 4 hexes then spend the last movement factor of its infantry movement and the last movement factor of its skimmer's movement to end the turn dismounted.

Mercenary and Slammers infantry, when mounted on skimmers, are eliminated when disrupted.

Ranged Combat

There are two types of Ranged Combat in the game: Indirect and Direct. All combat results are rolled using 2 six-sided die. Fire is simultaneous, but the moving player conducts fire first. There is also Close Assault combat which is covered in the following section.

Since combat is simultaneous, the blank back of the rubble counters may be placed on top of eliminated unit counters to show which units were eliminated by the first player's fire. After the moving player's turn, the defending player can fire his eliminated unit, then remove both it and the reversed rubble counter from the board.

In ranged combat a unit may attack a target within the range printed on the firing counter, counting the hex the target is in but not the hex the firing unit is in. A firing unit may not split its attack factor by conducting more than one attack.

All counters have extended range capability. This may not be used for Counter Artillery and Counter Paradrop fire. In extended range combat a unit may fire half its attack factor at a target up to twice the unit's printed range.

To conduct ranged combat a unit must not be in Close Assault, must not be disrupted, must have the target in range, and must have a Line of Sight (LOS) to the target or, in the case of artillery firing indirectly, either LOS or an observer with LOS on the target. Any friendly unit may serve as an observer for Indirect Fire.

Every unit may only conduct one attack in a player's turn whether Close Assault, Direct Fire, Counter Artillery, Counter Paratroop, or Indirect Fire.

All players' combat, whether Direct Fire, Indirect, Close Assault, or Counter Artillery Fire is simultaneous. A unit destroyed in Indirect Fire may still fire during the Direct Fire round before being removed from play at the end of the combat round.

The only exception are paratroops destroyed in the air by Counter Paradrop Fire. They are immediately removed from play and do not fire in the combat round.

Counter Artillery Fire (CAF)

Calliopes and Hover tanks may conduct Counter Artillery Fire. This fire is used to knock incoming indirect artillery shells out of the air. CAF can only be used right before Indirect Fire and only against artillery shells fired indirectly. One counter-artillery fire attack automatically destroys incoming artillery shells and cancels the attack of one artillery counter per turn.

To conduct Counter Artillery Fire the Calliopes or Hover tanks must be within their listed range of the target hex fired on by the artillery and have a Line of Sight to that target hex. It also may conduct a Counter Artillery Fire (CAF) for itself if it is the target of an Indirect artillery attack.

A single unit's CAF is only good against the artillery attack of one artillery counter. If only one unit can conduct a CAF and 2 counters are conducting an artillery attack, then the CAF may negate only one of the artillery counter's attack (CAF player's choice). The other artillery attack must be rolled.

CAF may only be conducted at the range printed on the counters. There is no extended range CAF.

Counter Artillery Fire by the defending player occurs after each announced artillery strike by the attacking player. Example: the attacking player decides to have 3 artillery units (units A, B, and C) fire indirectly at 2 hexes (hexes 1 and 2) occupied by the defending player's units. The attacking player first announces that artillery units A & B are firing indirectly at hex 1. The defending player has the option at this time to conduct Counter Artillery Fire on the shells from artillery units A & B. The defending player decides to conduct only one Counter Artillery Fire, allowing one artillery attack to go through. The attacking player then announces that artillery unit C is firing at hex 2. The defending player then has the option of conducting another Counter Artillery Fire at the shells from artillery unit C if he still has units available.

Remember that each unit may conduct only one fire in any one player's turn.

The Calliopes have an S in place of a number for the attack factor to indicate their special attack (Counter Artillery Fire and Counter Paradrop Fire only). In all other attacks, Calliopes have an attack factor of 0.

Indirect Fire

Only artillery can use Indirect Fire, which is conducted before Direct Fire. Any unit that uses Indirect Fire may not attack during Direct Fire.

Artillery is divided into two types: howitzers and guns. Howitzers may only conduct Indirect Fire; guns may conduct both Direct and Indirect Fire.

To use Indirect Fire, an artillery unit must have either a direct Line of Sight on the target or have an observer (any of the player's own units) which has a direct Line of Sight upon the target.

Artillery fires only at the hexes containing an opponent's units—not the individual units in the hex. The attack is conducted using the defense value of the hex (found using the Terrain Modifier Chart) and the Indirect Fire Combat Results Table.

To conduct Indirect Fire, compare the total attack factors of the attacking units to the defense factor of the target hex, not the defense factor of the defending units. The comparison is expressed as a ratio of the total defending factors. The odds are rounded down.

The Combat Results Table is divided into two sections, one for Class A units and one for Class B units. Class A targets are: Tanks, Armored Cars (AC), Combat Cars (CC), and Fortresses. Class B targets are all other targets.

If an attack occurs at greater than 5 to 1 odds when attacking Class B targets, roll the attack on the 5 to 1 column of the CRT. If an attack occurs at greater than 5 to 1 odds when attacking Class A targets, roll the attack on the 6 to 1 column. Attacks of less than 1 to 2 may not be conducted.

If Class A and B units are stacked together in a hex, the same die roll is used for both targets (though not the same odds column).

All units of the same Class in the target hex are affected equally by the results of Indirect Fire. Exception: gas attacks are conducted separately on each unit in the hex.

A player may use Indirect Fire against a hex under attack by Close Assault (his own units in the same hex). However, all units in the target hex are affected.

Remember, any unit which conducts Indirect Fire may not conduct Direct Fire in a player's turn.

Gas Attack (Direct or Indirect)

Any artillery counter that is equipped with gas ammunition may conduct either a gas or a regular attack. Each individual counter conducting a gas attack (whose shells are not destroyed by Counter Artillery Fire) must roll against each unit in the target hex.

There are no combat odds involved. Rather, the artillery attack is rolled against each unit attacked in the target hex under the appropriate gas attack depending on the Combat Results Table: Mercenary (including Slammers), or Conventional and Class A or Class B (see chart). Ignore rubble results when conducting a gas attack.

For example, 1 artillery unit conducts a gas attack on 2 Conventional infantry units in a hex and rolls twice at 1 to 1 odds. The player rolls once against each unit counter, and would need 7 to 9 to disrupt the target counter and a 10 to 12 to eliminate the target counter (see Combat Results Tables).

Direct Fire

All unit counters except howitzers may conduct Direct Fire if they are not in Close Assault, have a LOS on the target, have not conducted Indirect Fire, CAF, or CPF, and are in range.

Each unit counter may fire at only one target each combat round. A target is one or more unit counters in a hex. A player may fire at some or all of the units stacked in a hex.

A player may make as many separate attacks as he has units which can fire on a target; or the units may combine their values in an attack.

The terrain modifier of the hex adds on to the defense factor of the target. Thus, if there are two units with a defense factor of 2 in a hex with a defense modifier of 2, and the attacker fires direct at both units as one target: the defense value is 6.

terrain = 2, first unit = 2, second unit = 2
total: 2 + 2 + 2 = 6

If the attacker fires direct at only one of the counters in that hex, the defense value of that target is 4.

terrain = 2, unit = 2
total: 2 + 2 = 4

A player may fire as many times upon a target as he has units capable of making an attack.

Compare the total attack factors of the attacking units to the total defense factors of the defending units. Add any terrain or fortress modifiers to the total defense factors of the defending units.

This comparison is expressed as a ratio of total attacking factors to total defending factors that is found on the Combat Results Table. All fractions are rounded down in favor of the defender. If an attack occurs at greater than 5 to 1 odds, roll the attack on the 5 to 1 column. Attacks of less than 1 to 4 may not be conducted.

Terrain Modifier Chart

Indirect Fire: Use the defense factor of the target hex's terrain—not the defense factor of the units in the target hex to compute odds ratio.

Direct fire: The following modifiers are added to the defense value of a unit.

Terrain	Direct Fire Modifier	Indirect Fire
Bridge	0	4
Hilltop	+2	4
Slope	+2	4
Swamp	0	2
River	0	2
Road	0	2
Lake	0	2
Clear	0	2
Forest	+2

For Fortress Only: In both Direct and Indirect Fire, do not add in additional terrain bonuses. If rubbled, remove Fortress and treat as a rubble hex.

Close Assault

A Close Assault occurs when units of two opposing players occupy the same hex.

In a Close Assault, all units of both sides must attack each other no matter whose turn it is. Units under Close Assault may not conduct ranged combat. These attacks occur simultaneously. A player may attack one, some, or all of the enemy units in the hex.

During a Close Assault all participating undisrupted units shift their attack one column to the right on the Combat Results Table. In addition, the attack factor of all infantry, whether mounted or dismounted, doubles.

Disrupted units fight without bonuses. But mounted Conventional infantry does not disrupt and receives its bonuses even if its APC is disrupted. Mercenary and Slammers infantry mounted on skimmers is eliminated if disrupted.

The moving player can move additional units to a Close Assault, up to the stacking limit of three units per player.

Disrupted units in Close Assault cannot rally.

If disrupted and undisrupted units of the same player are conducting Close Assault combat in the same hex, they may not combine their attacks, but must conduct separate Close Assault attacks.

Mounted infantry cannot dismount from their carrying vehicle in a Close Assault.

Units cannot leave the hex under a Close Assault until all opponents' units in that hex are eliminated.

Units may not move through a hex where a Close Assault is occurring.

All units in a Close Assault ignore terrain and rubble bonuses. However, defending units receive the fortress defense modifier during the first turn of a Close Assault. After the first turn, surviving attacking units are considered to have entered the fortress and neither the attacker or defender receives the fortress bonus during the successive rounds of Close Assault combat.

Disruption

Any unit disrupted during any player's turn is flipped over after all attacks have ended.

Disrupted units may not fire unless Close Assaulted.

Disrupted units can only move at half movement.

A unit may receive only one disrupted result in a player's turn. Ignore additional disruptions during the same turn.

If a unit starts a game turn disrupted and receives another disrupted result, it is eliminated.

A unit that is disrupted and in Close Assault does not get any Close Assault combat bonus.

Dismounted infantry ignores disruption results unless disrupted on river, swamp, or lake then they are automatically eliminated.

Mercenary and Slammers infantry on skimmers are eliminated when disrupted.

Disrupted vehicles may not tow guns or howitzers.

Any counter, including infantry, disrupted while on a swamp, river, or lake hex is automatically eliminated.

Disrupted units may not move onto river or lake hexes. Disrupted units may not move into a Close Assault.

Rubble

A hex may be turned to rubble either as the result of Direct Fire, Close Assault, or Indirect Fire.

On the Combat Results Table, if an R result occurs because of Direct Fire or Close Assault combat, the hex containing the target is reduced to rubble. Also, if a * result or a R result occurs because of Indirect Fire (non-gas) the hex containing the target is reduced to rubble.

Whenever a hex is reduced to rubble, place a rubble counter on that hex immediately after all combat involving that hex is over whether it was during a Direct Fire, Indirect Fire, or Close Assault sequence.

Hilltop, slope, clear, forest, road, and city hexes may be reduced to rubble. Place a rubble counter on these hexes when a rubble result occurs. When these hexes have a rubble marker on them, add +1 to the movement cost to enter these hexes and add +2 to the Direct Fire and Indirect Fire terrain defense modifiers.

Swamp, lake, and river hexes may never be reduced to rubble and a rubble result has no effect on these hexes. Do not place a rubble counter on these hexes.

Bridge hexes may be reduced to rubble. When a bridge hex is reduced to rubble, the bridge is destroyed and the hex is thereafter treated as a river hex. A rubble counter is placed on a destroyed bridge only to show it is destroyed. There can be no movement over or defense modifiers added to that hex because of the bridge.

When a fortress is reduced to rubble, remove the fortress counter and replace with a rubble counter. Treat that hex as a rubbled hex of its terrain type.

Rubble has no effect on Line of Sight.

Line of Sight

Line of Sight (LOS) is the ability of a unit in one hex to see a unit in another hex. Measure a straight line from the center of the firing unit's hex to the center of the target hex.

If the line passes over any terrain, including the black line of the hex edge, then the Line of Sight may be blocked. Use only the dominant terrain in a hex to determine the terrain of the entire hex. There is always LOS into adjacent hexes.

Each hex is given a value depending on its terrain. The Line of sight value varies depending if the hex contains the firing unit, the target unit, or if it is an intervening hex (see table below).

Intervening hexes are those hexes lying in a straight line between the center of the hex of the firing unit(s) and the center of the target hex. Any hex that is crossed by this line, even if just the black edge of the hex, is an intervening hex, but use only the dominant terrain of the hex to figure LOS.

Line of Sight is not blocked if the values of the intervening hexes is equal to or less than either the value of the hex of the firing unit or the hex of the target.

If any of the intervening hexes has a higher value than both the hex of the target and the hex of the firing unit then LOS is blocked.

Values for intervening hexes are not added together, but each is compared separately to both the firing unit's hex and the target hex.

The hex of the firing unit or the target unit is not an intervening hex.

Line of Sight Table

Terrain	Firing unit	Intervening hex	Target hex
Clear/Bridge/River	0	0	0
Swamp/Lake/: [as printed]	0	0	0
Forest/City	0	2	0
Slope	1	1	1
Hilltop	2	3	2

Line of Sight Examples

A unit on a slope hex (value 1) is firing at a unit on a slope hex (value 1). The line of sight passes through an intervening clear hex (value 0). Since the value of the intervening hex is less than both the firing unit's hex and the target unit's hex, Line of Sight (LOS) is not blocked.
A unit on a forest hex (0) is firing at a unit on a slope hex (1). The line of sight passes through an intervening forest hex (2). Since the value of the intervening hex is greater than the values of both the hex of the firing unit or the hex of the target, Line of Sight is blocked.
A unit on a clear hex (0) is firing at a unit on a Hilltop (2). The line of sight passes through an intervening slope hex (1). The LOS is not blocked because the value of the intervening hex (although greater than the value of one hex) is not higher than the value of both hexes.

[The printed diagrams accompanying these three examples are not reproduced.]

Fortresses

Fortresses are actually a series of fortifications, not a single site. They have a defense modifier of 12 added to each unit stacked in the fortress. Do not add in terrain defense modifiers for fortresses or for units in fortresses.

Units in a fortress are placed underneath the fortress counter. Units in the same hex as a fortress, but not in the fortress itself are placed on top of the fortress counter.

Only one fortress may be placed in a hex. Three units may be stacked in a fortress. Units may be attacked individually in fortresses.

Fortresses may not be placed in city, swamp, lake, or river hexes. Fortresses may only be eliminated by being reduced to rubble (replace fortress with rubble counter), though units in the fortresses can be eliminated normally. Unoccupied fortresses may be used by the troops of any player.

Fortresses may be destroyed by the occupying units at the start of their movement. These units must move out of that hex and not reenter it that turn. No units of that player may enter that hex that turn.

Electric Counter Measures

While most Mercenary and Slammer units were equipped with essentially tamper proof communications (line of sight laser and microwave communcation units), the vast majority of local defense forces were equipped with less expensive and more easily jammed radios.

In Hammer's Slammers a player may, in designated scenarios, use ECM against his opponent's conventional forces. Only hover tanks have ECM capacity. Each tank may jam one unit. after the attacking player announces his attacks, a defending player can decide which of his units are jamming and which enemy units are being jammed. Range is the LOS of the hover tank.

Only conventional forces are affected by ECM. Jammed units may not combine their attack with other units. Jammed units move normally.

Artillery units may not use Indirect Fire attacks if the unit that is observing for it is jammed.

ECM is automatically effective.

Design Your Own Scenarios

Hammer's Slammers scenarios are only a few of the many battles that have occured in the bloody history since makind reached the stars. This section enables you to design your own scenarios. It includes a point scale for the selection of weapons and forces, making it possible for each player to have mix of forces different from the other player.

Usually the attacker has a tougher job than the defender. The attacker (if the created scenario calls for one) should have an additional 20% in number of points to compensate for this. The more experienced player should play the attacker.

A scenario where each side has 750 to 800 points can be normally completed in a few hours. Values under 500 tend to mean very few good mercenary units can be picked. Scenarios where each side has over 1000 points are usually too cumbersome to play.

Unit Point Costs

Mercenaries (Red)

Unit	Points
Tank	31 (35 w/ECM)*
Combat Car	19
Infantry	11
Large Gun	20 (22 w/gas)*
Small Gun	14 (16 w/gas)*
Howitzer	24 (26 w/gas)*
Self-propelled Artillery	20 (22 w/gas)*
Self-propelled Calliope	13
Fortress	24

Hammer's Slammers (Blue)

Unit	Points
Tank	31 (35 w/ECM)*
Combat Car	19
Infantry	11
Self-propelled Artillery	22 (24 w/gas)*
Fortress	24

Conventional Troops (Tan & Green)

Unit	Points
Tank	17
Armored Car	12
Infantry	8
Militia Infantry	3 **
Armored Personnel Carrier	9
Buses	7 **
Large Gun	20 (22 w/gas)*
Small Gun	14 (16 w/gas)*
Howitzer	24 (26 w/gas)*
Calliope	10
Self-propelled Artillery	20 (22 w/gas)*
Self-propelled Calliope	12

* All units must have this specific capacity or none of them.

Paratroop cost: +2 for each unit dropped. Paratroopers may be dropped on any turn including turn 1. Paratroopers to be dropped on a later turn are kept off the board.

** Militia infantry and buses do not have counters. Use conventional infantry units for militia and armored cars for buses to represent these units.

The difference between these units and their superior counterparts are that militia infantry are eliminated when disrupted and buses have a defense factor of 1. If a player picks these units, all units of a specific color must be of this type (You can't have armored cars and buses in the same army.)

Rally Cost

Add points to each individual unit that the rally value is lowered below 9. All units in the same color group must have the same morale.

Cost	Rally
+3	6
+2	7
+1	8
0	9