The BUNKER Answers!

L7.11d Infantry cannot damage or destroy a bunker except by close assault. All kinds of units (except HW or GWV) can shoot at a bunker normally but a "destroy" result stuns one unit inside (no damage to bunker); any other result has no effect. Heavy weapons units (HW or GWV) can fire at the bunker and produce a destroy (the bunker) or damage (the bunker) result or a stun result (which stuns a unit inside the bunker).

L7.11b: Any unit inside a bunker which is stunned counts as one of the limited number of units able to fire out of the bunker in the direction the attack that produced the stun came from.

L7.21a: Indirect fire (GWV or HW) cannot damage or destroy a bunker but can be fired at a bunker. Such fire can stun the troops inside. A "destroy" result stuns one unit inside; any other result has no effect.

L7.26A3 Unitary transporter artillery) can damage or destroy a bunker.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 20, 2021 - 07:27 pm: Edit

L7.14a: Fighters are the ONLY units with a "turn mode". Gunboats and shuttles do not have one.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 20, 2021 - 07:29 pm: Edit

TRANSPORTER ARTILLERY

L7.26c: This clearly says you can only use one shot per game turn. This overrides E20.111 which is an abstraction.

L7.26a: Transporter Artillery does NOT get the -1 bonus for a range one attack.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 20, 2021 - 07:32 pm: Edit

SHIPS

L8.4: Ships in orbit cannot fire into an SFM scenario. (If you were willing to do that, you never sent the Marines. If the Marines fail and you want to nuke the site from orbit just to be sure, you cannot do so until all of your Marines are removed from the map. Captured Marines are assumed to have been escorted off the map 10 turns after capture.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 20, 2021 - 07:51 pm: Edit

MISC

L5.12 Units can spot during the shooting phase and then move during the movement phase.

On the Terrain Table the road should have the * for wheels and hover.

Truck passengers are "internal" even though the vehicle probably has an open top.

L7.12: Every andro unit is consider a HQ for purposes of the benefits but is not consider militia.

Vehicles cannot harm anything just by movement. They have to shoot at it to hurt it.

"A Battle Raider flew onto the map and broke the scenario because the Marines had no way to hit it." This was never true, either side of rules (the one on the chart or the real one) allowed attacks on ships.

If two "ships" are on the map they fire at each other using SFB rules including directionality of shields and weapons. (You're really going beyond what SFM was designed for.)

Anything that can receive a damage result is killed by the second damage result (unless another number of damage results is given in specific cases).

L7.13d4: The rules treat all shuttles equally (3 damage results destroy them). You could argue that it should be 2 for shuttles, 3 for fighters and GAS/GBS shuttles, 4 for heavy fighters/shuttles, 5 for bombers of either size but changing the published rule doesn't seem worth it. Call it an optional rule if you want. Both players would have to agree.

L7.27 applies to anything (vehicle, building, shuttle, gunboat, ship) that isn't a bunker (which have their own rules)_so four stuns equal a damage and several damage results equal a kill.

L5.23 A result of 0 or a negative number is counted as "1" unless the cell of the Combat Table has such a result listed, e.g., armed truck vs armored vehicle.

L4.3 is supposed to say the same thing as L7.27. If that isn't clear, L7.27 is right, L4.3 needs fixing.

L7.21: Snipers do not have an extended range capability.

L5.17 can indirect fire within normal range be supporting fire. Yes, but not for a close assault.

L7.21b To control counterbattery fire, the HQ must be within range of the unit conducting the counterbattery fire; It does not have to be in any particular range of the enemy unit that did the original attack or the friendly unit that was the target of the original attack. GWV can perform counterbattery fire. Counterbattery fire that is indirect fire has the +2 penalty in addition to the +1 penalty. Counterbattery fire that is direct fire does not have this penalty.

L7.21a All extended range fire by heavy weapon/GWVs is indrect. Non-extended range fire by heavy weapons/GWVs is direct fire if the HW/GWV can spot its own target and is indirect fire (even at normal range) with that penalty if it cannot spot the target itself.

L7.25 Vehicles in VBPs do not get the double bonus for covering terrain.

L9.32 Buying Romulan platoons of 4 squads costs 1.5 not 3.0 points.

L5.4 units can start the scenario with opportunity fire markers from "turn zero".

If you are dumb enough to use a HQ for a close assault it is a militia unit just like it says.

Marsh is not covering terrain for hover vehicles. Other vehicles cannot be in marsh.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 20, 2021 - 07:55 pm: Edit

There was a question about a walled city but no rule number. I think it's in one of the scenarios but I don't know for sure.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 20, 2021 - 08:08 pm: Edit

GUNBOATS
The combat table uses the original/earlier playtest rule for shooting at ships/gunboats. This was replaced later but the replacement chart (which was on the website in 2013) somehow went 404 years ago.

The gunboat/ship column is this:
=
Marines: 1-3 damage, 4 stun, 5+ miss
=
Heavy Weapons, GCV: 1-4 damage, 5 stun, 6+ miss
=
Tank, GAV, GWV: 1-5 damage, 6 stun, 7+ miss
=
GB shuttle: 1-4 damage, 5 stun, 6+ miss
=
GS shuttle: 1-3 damage, 4 stun, 5+ miss
=
Admin Shuttle: 1-2damage, 3 stun, 4+ miss
=
Fighter: 1-5 damage, 6 stun, 7+ miss
=================
One could argue that gunboats should take 8 hits to kill but during the original design we deliberately decided to make it 6 just to encourage gunboat drivers to LEAVE when they get hit 4 times. After 4 hits they have no weapons so they may as well.
=
As for what specific systems are destroyed in SFB terms, I am going to spare you four pages consisting of one special rule for every gunboat in the SFB system and just tell you to use the PF-DAC from SFB except that you must take one weapons hit per four SFB damage points and can only take one weapon hit per four SFB damage points. So if you rolled three times the fourth one is a weapons hit, and if you got a weapons hit on the 1st or 2nd or 3rd then you re-roll any further weapons hits.

By C. Cox (Theletterc) on Monday, June 24, 2024 - 03:30 pm: Edit

Hey friends,

I recently bought Marines: Assault and finished reading the rules. Before jumping into play, I have a couple questions about the Combat Chart, notably regarding shuttles and fighters.

1) What are four the double daggers (‡) on chart indicating? I don't see an obvious note for them. They are two listed in the shuttles and fighters column, one on the admin shuttles range and one of the fighters, gunboats, and spaceships range.

2) Rule L7.13d1 says that shuttles have a range of 15 in aerial mode and 5 in hover. On the combat table, however, admins are listed as "10‡" Does this mean they have a shorter range not listed in the rules? Are they range 10 and unable to fire while hovering?

3) Fighters, gunboats and spaceships are also listed as 10‡ for range. I know fighters can't hover or land, but gunboats can and are listed as a having a range of 5 in the rules (L7.15d) so I'm again confused if they're 15/5 like shuttles and if so what does the 10‡ mean on the Combat Table?

I hope this make sense. I'll be happy to clairfy my confusion further if necessary.

Thanks!

By C. Cox (Theletterc) on Sunday, July 21, 2024 - 07:20 pm: Edit

Additional question about spotting: What is the point of being able to spot units at distances beyond the firing range? Does this only matter when using indirect fire from heavy weapons or shuttles?

For example, a regular marine squad as a spotting range of 5 and firing range of 3 (or 4 with extended range), what if anything can it do against a spotted target at range 5?



Another spotting question, rule L5.12c says that a unit on a hill has a spotting range of 1 plus its firing range, but a regular marine squad already has a spotting range of 5, which is one plus its maximum firing range of 4? Does it have any spotting advantage for being on a hill?
A regular marine squad already

By Simon Duggan (Gamegater) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 10:20 am: Edit

Proposal about the Command Post Vehicle, the rules say its basically a APV, but carries the HQ.

In modern warfare, a command vehicle usually has better equipment, better sensors, etc. Think awacs for example.

And HQ has a sensor range of 6. My Proposal is: if the HQ is mounted in the CPV, then make sensor range 7 because they are using the better equipment.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 10:52 am: Edit

That kind of HQ vehicle is a battalion command post that never goes into combat if it can help it. So even if it had a hex of extra range, it would never get to use it.

By Simon Duggan (Gamegater) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 11:10 am: Edit

A battalion command post vehicle, ok that changes thoughts. Thanks for the clarification.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 03:10 pm: Edit

FIREBASE; Here is what I have.

140 OP FIRE markers in 7 colors.
40 altitude markers in 4 colors
10 Damage-1 counters (black)
6 Damage-2 counters (red)
10 stun markers (blue)
4 extra passenger markers (black)
7 destroyed markers (fire)
5 civilian markers (blue)
10 bunker markers (five colors)
10 building markers (black)
12 vehicle position (3 colors)
18 battle position (3 colors)
6 turrets (3 colors)

I could just stop and ship that, or I could do some shuffling (fewer opfire, more others) then spin up a second sheet with totally different colors.

Thoughts?

By Simon Duggan (Gamegater) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 03:32 pm: Edit

I think that covers 99% of the scenarios, if people want more, they can print more. Though I would almost add a second color for stun markers, just to differentiate between us and them. Not sure how you layed it out, so will leave that up to you.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 04:52 pm: Edit

I am thinking of going to two sheets, each with 100 OP FIRE, or of three sheets, each 30.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 05:21 pm: Edit

One consideration is that all markers are white counters and I want it to stay that way.

By Simon Duggan (Gamegater) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 05:36 pm: Edit

I agree with keeping the background of the markers white. Need them to stand out.

As for 2 or 3 sheets. I don't think it will matter. As long 1 sheet has a good selection of the counters, a person can always print more if they need more. Assuming we are still talking a PDF, if not, then 2 sheets for sure.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 06:33 pm: Edit

PDF, yes, we sold the previous Marines PDF things in packs of 3 sheets. I think the last sheet we did was the WYN so we went three sheets to the WYN.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 06:38 pm: Edit

If Kzinti and Gorn counters are also white, what about making marker counters white with blue elements?

By Simon Duggan (Gamegater) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 06:40 pm: Edit

Yes they are three sheets each, with two empires per sheet. So if you want to keep it the same, then three sheets of Markers is the way to go.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 06:42 pm: Edit

I am at home now and so this is harder to do...

BLOCK ONE
20 Opfire 20 altitude

BLOCK TWO
20 opfire 20 altitude
If we go to three sheets I think we could just have 20 altitude per sheet, freeing up 20 counters for something else.

BLOCK THREE
20 opfire 16 damage 4 extra passenger

BLOCK FOUR
20 opfire 10 stun 5 civilian 5 destroyed

BLOCK FIVE
20 opfire 10 bunker 10 building
I was thinking to move the opfire to other sheets and add 20 bunkers here. Then we could have 9 sets of 10 bunkers/colors

BLOCK SIX AND SEVEN
40 opfire, three sets of position/turret
I think I will kill the opfire and provide more sets of positions/turrets. We could get four sets of 10 on a sheet meaning 12 different colors of battle positions and turrets.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 06:44 pm: Edit

I think three sheets, but get all the empires on them as each empire would only need about 40 counters. I will have to think about how to handle sets of conflicting colors like Kzinti/Gorn and Romulan/Tholian and Klingon/Vudar and Fed/Orion.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 06:48 pm: Edit

Star Fleet Marines: Counter-Strike has empire-specific counters for the Interstellar Concordium, Orion Pirates, Hydrans, Andromedans, Lyrans, and WYNs.

Star Fleet Marines: Counter-Attack has empire-specific counters for the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Kzintis, Gorns, and Tholians.

Star Fleet Marines: Counter-Punch has empire-specific counters for the Lyran Democratic Republic (LDR), Vudar, Paravians, Seltorians, Carnivons, and Jindarians

By Simon Duggan (Gamegater) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 06:49 pm: Edit

@Jeff, good catch, though I don't see the Kzinti, but I do see two others in Counter-Punch.

From what Steve has said above, he is already using different color elements.

Hopefully the elements of the counters will be different enough to tell if Empire Counter vs Marker Counter.

We shall just have to see.

Wow!!! Steve types faster than me!!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, August 20, 2026 - 06:56 pm: Edit

Federation Black on blue
Klingons white on black
Romulans black on red
Kzintis black on gold
Gorns red on white
Tholians. white on red
Interstellar Concordium
Orion Pirates, white on blue
Hydrans, white on green
Andromedans, black on green
Lyrans, green on yello
WYNs. red on yello
LDR green on white
Vudar, yellow on black
Paravians, gold on red
Seltorians, brown on white
Carnivons, gold on green
Jindarians black on gray