This week's blog post looks at combat. Frankly, this is my opportunity to review Mythras Firearms.

Modern Combat

In the modern world, "combat" typically means "armed conflict," which is synonymous with "firefight."

Mythras Firearms

This title was probably the most - coveted Mythras supplement in 2021.

What does Mythras Firearms teach you?

What do you think are the most useful skills in modern combat scenarios? Curiously enough, Combat Styles are at the bottom of this list.

In order, the most useful skills have got to be:-

- Perception: you need to be able to be aware of your surroundings. Clear those corners. Check those angles. Work out where the vantage points are, particularly in a built up area with overlooking rooftops and windows everywhere.

- Insight: to read the room. You're going to be either in an entirely empty room, which should trigger your suspicions right away if you'd been expecting targets or hostages, or you're going to be bursting into a room full of people who are going to get angry that you're interrupting their poler match or something.

- Evade: Pretty much essential in any firefight, because once the bullets begin flying, you do not want to be standing out in the open.

- Oratory: not only useful in rallying the troops, Oratory is used to communicate tactics to one's subordinates. This skill also incorporates military hand signals for silent communication between teammates in one's unit.

- Knowledge (Tactics and Strategy): Tactics are how you win the current battle. Strategy is how you end the battles and come home. You need this for two things: one, like a generalised large-scale combination of Perception and Insight to work out where all the targets are, and what you think their leader is doing, and also so you can work out what to do in the fight, and how and where to move your teams to neutralise your enemies and come back alive, with any hostages intact if there are hostages in the situation.

Contents of Mythras Firearms

The book goes right into it, detailing new Combat Actions, new and modified Special Effects, and new Spot Rules for firefights. Juicy stuff, followed by a section on creating your own firearms, with rules for new Weapons Traits.

What comes next is a nice set of tables for different firearms, starting with Black Powder arms (you are allowed to stock up on these for Fioracitta, by the way), then modern firearms and a whole load of energy weapons and exotic guns. They're all there, waiting for your characters to grab them up. Use them in the modern game, or in Luther Arkwright, After The Vampire Wars or your own setting.

The book doesn't go into the tactics of fighting against armed targets, nor the hazards of running into a built up area, possibly at night and in pitch darkness. There are books available on the internet which are helpful here.

Source: http://www.thinklikeahorse.org/images3/building clearing raid.pdf

Source: https://ufpro.com/us/blog/itcqb-one-man-room-clearing-tactics

Go and look up these sources. Your characters will thank you for it.

I am assuming that I'm addressing players who've never been in a job which has exposed them to FIBUA or CQB; people who never served. Fighting in Mythras Modern is not like fighting in Mythras Core. You do not ask if you can attack the enemy after spending your AP on a Charge. You don't, because the enemy will have unloaded the mag of their AR-15 into your character and you'll be rerolling a new guy.

Conclusion

This has been a surprisingly brief post for me to write. The most important takeaways from this have been that combat in Mythras Modern is fierce, ferocious, short, and deadly; your characters will need a bunch of non-combat skills to survive, primarily Perception and Evade; and you'll need to plan battles to involve your whole unit fighting together if you want your character team to see the light of day.