Large army rules? lets discuss!!!

[Bill]

Here are my preliminary thoughts. I'd probably borrow a few ideas from Exalted 2's mass combat rules and blend in Palladium's tendency toward excessive specificity. To keep the combats more manageable, a unit acts as a set of modifiers to the commander's stats, taking into consideration the typical attacks and defenses of the unit, as well as its size. The battle is then run as a standard Palladium combat except that all of the numbers for time and distance (not range) are effectively multiplied by 10. Damage is expressed as casualties by percentage. Regeneration and other healing powers only apply if the majority of the unit possess them. The leader may be attacked directly with called shots (representing a commando-style raid) at a penalty based on the size of the force; the bigger it is the tougher it will be to find him or her. This has the convenience of not requiring the addition of a pile of new skills and rules to a game that tends to have plenty of both already.

[Alrik Vas]

I think it's simple to just use contested rolls between commanders, best two out of three. You could use your command skill, larger successes win.

However, you have to make it interesting...so what you do is you take your PC's and each battle turn you have give them two melee rounds to accomplish an objective. If they succeed, the commander gets a bonus to his roll. Multiple PC's succeeding on different tasks give larger bonuses etc.

the objectives can be devised by you guys before the battle begins (as part of your battle plan) or can be the PC's call during a fight (because plans always fall apart when you make contact...).

As soon as one side wins 2 of 3 rolls, the other side has to retreat or surrender depending on their postion as attacker or defender. Of course this could get crazy as sometimes there is nowhere to retreat and sometimes enemies don't accept surrender.

[Warshield73]

There is a really good article in Rifter 23 that has some good rules for mas combat and I think Mercenary Adventure SB has something for it as well.

[Nightmaster]

Handling the big battles
(taken and adapted from a Homepage that I don’t remember the name)

Sooner or later, the PC's will get caught up in a whirling **** of doom. We're talking about robots, mages, dragons, infantry, the whole ******* nine yards. Artillery will be pounding down, magic fire blasting out, golems and other magical constructs duking it out with the big boys, and demonic beings will be wreaking havoc. How the hell do you handle the chaos like that?

How to Tell Who Wins: Take the amount of the enemy, divide it by friendly forces, then add 50%. That's how many each of the PC's will have to kill before the battle is over and they are not engaged any more. For every extra foe a PC kills before the others have accounted for theirs subtracts the amount of troops they had to kill from the enemy force. Once the enemy force is depleted, the battle is over. To tell who wins, take in account the number of soldier in the engaging forces, situation, defenders position, etc. Then subtract or add a percentage to a base chance of 50% for the players side to win. Special conditions and situations can increase or decrease the chance for the player side to win a battle. These conditions and situations are determined by the GM, and will change greatly from battle to battle. A small list of special conditions and situations are given below for reference. Other GMs can modify the existing ones or create others for their own campaigns as they see fit.

Battle Conditions:
Winning Slighting +10%
Winning Easily +20%
Evenly Matched +5%
Losing Slighting -10%
Losing Badly -20%

Battle Situations:
Attacking -15%
Defending +10%
Outnumbered -5% to -25%
Enemy on Defensive Position -15%
Artillery Support +15%
Air Support +10%

Choosing Foes: This is nearly impossible, since the combat will be a swirling chaos, and there will be only 1d6 attacks someone can make on someone else before the swirl of combat will obscure a target. Snipers will have to make a weapons systems roll to stay locked on, while robot jocks will have to make sensor system rolls to keep track. As for standard radars, forget it, they will be little to no help, having been over swamped by the number of objects detected.

The random fire effect: Bullets, shrapnel, missiles, projectiles, magic spells and effects will be roaming around the battlefield looking for likely targets. This is dangerous, since all of it is addressed "To Whom It May Concern", not specifically addressed like the GB shot that puts a PC down in a small melee. A way to handle this is assigning a percentage, depending on the amount and ferocity of fighting going down, of a PC getting smacked by something every melee round of battle. This attack will do a amount of damage based on the level of the battle. The level of the attack will be random and it will hit in a random location. True, a PC may get whacked by this, but hey, shrapnel kills.....

Chance to get Hit:
Minor Battle 15%
Light Battle 30%
Medium Battle 60%
Heavy Battle 90%

Extra Damage Dice per Level of Battle:
Minor Battle +1D6
Light Battle +2D6
Medium Battle +3D6
Heavy Battle +4D6

Attack Level (roll for level):------Damage and Number of Wounds:
01-20------Minor Injury------------1D6x2 MD (3d4 wounds)
21-40------Medium Injury---------1D6x4 MD (2d4 wounds)
41-60------Heavy Injury-----------1D6x6 MD (1d4 wounds)
61-80------Superior Injury--------1D6x8 MD (1d2 wounds)
81-00------Explosion---------------1D6x10
Note: For characters wearing body armor, the damage is always considered as having bypassed the protection that the armor it offers, and so the damage is in S.D.C., instead of M.D.C. For natural M.D.C. characters, the damage is in M.D.C. Power Armors, Robots and vehicles receive damage normaly.

Yes, some PC's will come through without a scratch, others will be badly mauled, or even killed. When fighting monstrous forces, there is a great chance that the demonic forces will tear open damaged robots or power armor to kill and eat the crew. Because of the monsters eating the wounded or dead, there is a smaller chance of arranging so that PC's were merely knocked out. Of course, military forces can definitely use prisoners, and some evil creatures will take prisoners for torture or later use in horrifying rituals.

[jaymz]

There were some optional rules for mass combat in the Rifte that seemed pretty simple to use. Maybe take a look at that.

I think what you have so far seems a bit...more complicated than necessary.

[Nightmaster]

These are the rules that complement the previous one. Its intent to add a sense of caution to players about the danger of geting wounded.

Shock and Blood Loss Rules
(taken and adapted from Contemporary Weapons Guide)


Shock
Getting hit by a weapon anywhere hurts and traumatizes the body. The initial hit will cause at least momentary shock. This means the character who is shot by a bullet, arrow, energy blast or even stabbed by a knife, inevitably looks at and clutches the area that is hurt. He is likely to stagger and probably fall down, even if the damage is not all that bad. Large caliber handgun, and rifle wounds usually knock the character off his feet.
Being in shock means that the character is dazed/stunned for some period of time (seconds, minutes or hours depending on the severity of the injury). His or her full attention is on the wound and pain – the character is oblivious to everything else around him. He/she may clutch or just stare at the wound, writhe and groan in pain, try to stop the bleeding, or even pass out! The loss of consciousness is more typical from large gun wounds, damage to the head or multiple gunshot wounds. After the initial shock, the character recover his wits and can respond or react to his situation, whether that reaction is to counterattack, stop the bleeding, retreat, or surrender.
Characters under the influence of drugs (including alcohol) may react differently. In some instances, the shock duration might be half or virtually nonexistent. This can happen because the drug influences the person’s mind and body. Thus, he or she might not feel or recognize the full extent of the damage they are suffering. This disconnection from reality can give such individuals seemingly superhuman, strength, endurance and resistance to pain, but the damage and blood loss is real and continuing. When reality strikes, it will hit hard and often with lethal results.

Note: Body Armor offers some protection against shock. See the section on Body Armor below for details.

Shock Rules
The reaction to shock is for the average human being. Characters who are in superior physical conditions, superhuman or non-human may react differently (half penalties and duration). Body armor also protects the body and will dramatically reduce shock.

Minor injury and shock: Low level attacks do the least damage and trauma to the body. The .22 to .32 caliber bullets (P.V. 1-2), small arrows and knife stab wounds would have a similar shock effect.
Typically, a character hit by a low level attack will lose 1D4 melee action/attacks for that round as a result of shock. This is usually true even if the damage is minimal. The character recovers from shock within 15 seconds and can continue his attack, flee, bandage his wound, etc., with minimal impairment (see hit location table) and blood loss (light blood loss). System: The character can roll to save vs physical trauma/shock. An 16 or higher is needed to save and P.E. bonuses are applicable. A successful save means the character is stunned only for a moment, one melee action (about 3 seconds), before recovering.
Medium injury and shock: Medium level attacks like .38, 7mm, 9mm, low caliber rifle rounds (P.V. 3-4), crossbow bolts and small size blade wounds (sabers, short swords, etc.) do serious damage and trauma to the body.
Typically, a character hit by a medium level attack will lose ALL of his melee action/attacks for that round and the next as a result of shock. This attack knocks the character on his butt! There is also a 50% chance of dropping anything that he was holding at the time, including his weapon. If hit in the arm or the hand, the character will drop any item he was holding in it at the time.
The character recovers from shock within 20 to 30 seconds and can continue his attack, flee, bandage his wound, etc. However, blood loss will be a problem (normal blood loss), speed is reduced by 20% and skill performance is reduced by 30%. Unless this character gets medical attention he is likely to die. System: The character can roll to save vs physical trauma/shock. An 18 or higher is needed to save and P.E. bonuses are applicable. A successful save means the character is stunned only for half the time, but all penalties and blood loss remain unchanged.
Heavy/severe injury and shock: High level attacks like .41 caliber and higher, shotgun, high caliber rifle rounds (P.V. 5-6) and medium size blade wounds (long swords, small axes, etc.) do extremely serious damage and trauma to the body.
Typically, a character hit by a high level attack will lose ALL of his melee action/attacks for that round and the next four rounds as a result of shock. This attack knocks the character off his feet and there is a 30% chance of losing consciousness for 1D4 minutes! The victim is also likely (75%) to drop anything the he was holding at the time, including his weapon. If hit in the arm or the hand, the character will drop any item he was holding in it at the time and that limb will be barely usable (if not cut off if it was a blade weapon).
The character recovers from shock within a minute and half (90 seconds) and he can continue his attack, flee, bandage his wound, surrender, etc. However, blood loss and pain will be heavy (heavy blood loss). Speed is reduced by 80%, the number of attacks per melee round is reduced by half, combat bonuses are reduced to zero and skill performance is reduced by 90%. Unless this character gets medical attention he will die! System: The character can roll to save vs physical trauma/shock. A 20 (natural or with bonuses) is needed to save and P.E. bonuses are applicable. A successful save means the character is stunned only for half the time, but all penalties and blood loss remain unchanged.
Superior injury and shock: Greater level attacks like the highest caliber rifle rounds and machinegun rounds (P.V. 7) and grenade blasts inflict incredible damage and trauma to the body.
A character hit by a greater level attack will lose ALL of his melee action/attacks for that round and the next 3D4 rounds as a result of shock. This attack knocks the character off his feet and there is a 60% chance of losing consciousness for 2D4 minutes! The victim is also likely (80%) to drop anything the he was holding at the time. If hit in the arm or the hand, the character will drop any item he was holding in it at the time and that limb will be useless (it may even be ripped off).
The character semi-recovers from shock only after several minutes. Blood loss and pain will be severe (severe blood loss). Speed is reduced by 80%, the number of attacks per melee round is reduced to one, combat bonuses are reduced to zero and additional penalties should be applied to strike, parry and dodge. Skill performance is reduced by 90%. Unless this character gets medical attention he will die! System: The character can roll to save vs physical trauma/shock. A 20 (natural or with bonuses) is need to save and P.E. bonuses are applicable. A successful save means the character is stunned only for half the time, but all penalties and blood loss remain unchanged.
Explosive impact, trauma and shock: Getting caught in an explosion causes severe trauma to the body. Assuming the character was lucky and wore protective armor and/or was caught at the edge of the blast, he will be knocked unconscious for 1D6 minutes. When he regains consciousness, he will still be in shock for another 2D6 minutes! Blood loss and pain will be extremely severe (see rules below). Speed is reduced by 95%, the number of attacks/actions per melee is reduced to one, combat bonuses are reduced to zero and the character should have dramatic penalties to strike, parry and dodge. Skill performance is reduced by 95%. Unless this character gets immediate medical attention he will die! System: The character can roll to save vs physical trauma/shock. A 20 (natural or with bonuses) is need to save and P.E. bonuses are applicable. A successful save means the character is stunned only for half the time and all penalties are half. Blood loss and damage remains unchanged.

Blood Loss
Blood loss is the victim’s next immediate problem. When one loses blood he gets weaker and weaker. The loss of too much blood will eventually result in death.
A character loses blood from every attack that has penetrated the body. This includes cuts, stab wounds, and gunshot wounds. Explosions are different and will have different rules. Typically, the injured character will suffer some damage that will depend on the level of every wound, every minute. So three gunshots means a minimum of three points of damage every minute (60 seconds/4 melees).
Only first-aid or paramedic techniques that bind or plug the wounds will prevent further blood loss. Stopping blood loss can be performed by the wounded individual if the wound is not serious or if he knows first-aid.
Yes, a character can live and function without binding his wounds or seeking medical treatment. However, he will continue to lose blood and suffer more damage every minute. The character will also become increasingly slow, weak and disoriented. Eventually, he will pass out (when the character is down to about 5% of his life/hit points). Without immediate treatment and a blood transfusion, he will die. This is exemplified by such film classics as Once Upon A Time In The West and any number of John Wayne movies. It is the classic: “Nobody knows I’m hurt, keep on moving/fighting, and then collapse and/or die.” A common event in heroic fiction.
When a character is severely hurt, down to 15% of his life/hit points, he will suffer from increased hemorrhaging and exhaustion: reduce current speed by half and double the damage from blood loss. Only a medical doctor and surgery can save him. First-aid and paramedic skills can only make the injured character more comfortable and slow the blood loss (even give transfusions), but they cannot save him. Without the appropriate medical aid, the person will continue to slowly lose blood (one point of damage every few minutes). When the injured character’s life/hit points falls below zero, he lapses into coma. He may remain in a coma for hours or days or slip away and die.

Note: Body Armor offers some protection against blood loss. See the section on Body Armor below for details.

Blood Loss Rules
These are the descriptions on each level of wound and it blood loss rating. All of then are assumed to be based on non-energy weapons attacks.

Light Blood Loss: Wounds inflicted by .22 to .32 caliber bullets, small arrows and knife stabs cause light wounds and the blood loss is minimum (one damage point per minute per each wound).
Normal Blood Loss: Wounds inflicted by .38, 7mm, 9mm, low caliber rifle rounds, crossbow bolts, small size blade wounds (sabers, short swords, etc.) and most energy pistols cause medium wounds and the blood loss is considerable (two damage points per minute per each wound).
Heavy Blood Loss: Wounds inflicted by .41 caliber and higher, shotgun, high caliber rifle rounds, medium size blade wounds (long swords, small axes, etc.) and most energy rifles cause heavy wounds and the blood loss is great (three damage points per minute per each wound).
Severe Blood Loss: Wounds inflicted by the highest caliber rifle rounds, machinegun rounds, large size blade wounds (battleaxes and the like), and heavy energy weapons cause large wounds and the blood loss is severe (four damage points per minute per each wound).


Shock and Blood Loss Rules for Explosives and High Tech Weapons

Explosives and High Tech weapons unlike firearms don’t have a round caliber or P.V. value to determine their category for shock and blood loss, instead they have only a damage value that determine its power output. This makes the task of classifying each of then a real problem.
To resolve that problem the best solution is to classify then for the amount of damage that each one will do. The following rules were my solution to that little problem.
Note: Grenades are different due to the fact that although they are explosives, they have a P.V. value to determine its shock and blood loss effects. See the section on explosives below for details.

Energy and High Tech Weapons
High Tech and Energy weapons are classified by the number and type of dice they use for damage. This is a very simple way to deal with the problem of determining the category of shock and blood loss that will affect a character hit by those type of weapons. Some very powerful weapons will have special effects based on the shock and blood loss rules presented before.

Shock Rules
The rules below are the same as for conventional weapons, except that instead of caliber, the category of the injury is determined by the amount and type of damage dice that the weapon does.

Minor injury: Weapons that deal 1D4, 2D4 or 1D6 of damage.
Medium injury: Weapons that deal 3D4 or 2D6 of damage.
Heavy/severe injury: Weapons that deal 3D6 to 4D6 of damage.
Superior injury: Weapons that deal 5D6 to 6D6 of damage.

Blood Loss Rules
The rules below are the same as for conventional weapons, except that instead of caliber, the category of the injury is determined by the amount and type of damage dice that the weapon does.

Light Blood Loss: Weapons that deal 1D4, 2D4 or 1D6 of damage.
Normal Blood Loss: Weapons that deal 3D4 or 2D6 of damage.
Heavy Blood Loss: Weapons that deal 3D6 to 4D6 of damage.
Severe Blood Loss: Weapons that deal 5D6 to 6D6 of damage.

Note: Wounds inflicted by weapons that deal 1D4x10 to 1D6x10 of damage per hit are treated as a Superior injury, but the shock and blood loss effects are the double. Wounds inflicted by weapons that deal 2D6x10+ of damage per hit are treated as a Superior injury, but the shock effect are the double and the blood loss is the triple.

Explosives and Grenades
Blood loss is difficult to define when explosives come into play. The damage of a explosion is not defined by its type, but by it power, much like an energy weapon. Explosives are not mean to deliver internal damage like grenades and other weapons because their power are not focused to affect a single location or area, but the sheer power of a explosion can still cause massive tissue damage to make the victim bleed enormous amounts of blood. This is due to open wounds caused by shrapnel, rendering flesh wounds caused by the concussion blast of the explosion, or by internal bleeding caused by the same concussion blast.
The rules below are a very simple way to determine the amount of blood loss damage that a character will receive if caught by a explosion (of course if he survives the explosion).

Grenades
These small explosive canisters can be a very life treating thing on the battlefield. They all have a blast radius, which determine the total area that are affected by their explosion. Usually the blast radius of a grenade is composed of two distinctive effects: concussion impact and shrapnel, being the shrapnel the most dangerous thing with the regard of blood loss.
Any character caught in the blast radius of a grenade must make a successful roll with fall/impact. A failed roll indicates that the character will receives not only the full damage of the grenade, but the amount of blood loss damage will be greater too. This is mainly because the character will receive impact/shrapnel on near all of his body, creating not one, but multiple wounds (each one counts separated for purposes of blood loss damage).

Fragmentation Grenades: These type of grenades affect larger areas, and the bulk of its damage is based on shrapnel not concussion impact, but their impact are not to be take lightly. The P.V. of a fragmentation grenade is 4 for purposes of determining level of blood loss and it will cause 1D6 wounds. A successful roll with impact will half not only the damage of the grenade, but the number of wounds will be half too (minimum of one wound). If a 18 or more is rolled when making the attack with a fragmentation grenade, the target is not only caught by the shrapnel of the grenade, but by its concussion blast too. The P.V. of the attack change to 7 and the number of wounds are now 2D4.
Explosive Grenades: These type of grenades affect less area than a fragmentation grenade, but its concussion blast is much more powerful. They produce so much impact, that even a soldier inside body armor will take damage because of the concussion impact of the grenade. The damage will be equal to half the rolled damage from concussion impact even if the character make a successful roll with impact. Its like being punched by a boxer on all body, and that impact can make the character suffer from internal bleeding. The P.V. of a Light explosive grenade is 5 for purposes of determining blood loss, and a Heavy explosive grenade P.V. is 7. Both will cause 1D4 wounds to the target. A successful roll with impact will half the damage of the grenade and prevent that the character will take damage even if no damage bypass the armor protective capacity. The number of wounds will be half (minimum of one wound) if the character make a successful save of 14 or more (PE bonuses apply). If a 18 or more is rolled when making the attack with a explosive grenade, the target have received the bulk of the impact of the concussion blast of the grenade, and half of the wounds caused by the grenade will be instead internal. Internal bleeding works like normal bleeding, but amount of blood loss will be light (one damage point per minute per each wound) and to percept it both the character or medic will need to make a check of first aid at –15% because is very difficult to discern if there are internal wounds on a person without special exams that can only be performed at a hospital or medical facility.
Plasma/Napalm Grenades: These grenades work like explosive grenades, but due the fact that their attack are based on heat and fire instead of concussion impact, they will only cause wounds for purposes of bleeding only on a natural 20, and the P.V. of these grenades is only 4. Plasma/Napalm grenades never cause internal bleeding wounds.
Armor Piercing Grenades: These grenades work like heavy explosive grenades. The only difference is that they will ignore the protection offered by body armors, and will do its damage directly to the target body, causing 2D4 wounds (half on a successful roll with impact), being half of that wounds internal ones.

Note: Grenades used in grenade launchers are much more dangerous, since they are treated like bullets instead of explosives. The attack is focused on a single location, causing massive impact damage on the target. They can be used like normal grenades when not aimed on a single target but on a area, and follow the same rules for then. The P.V. of grenades used in grenade launchers is always 7 for purposes of determining blood loss damage when used against a single target, and the number of wounds caused are doubled, being half of then internal ones. Blast area effects caused by these grenades work like the rules for common grenades.

Explosives and Bombs
Explosives and bombs are much variable, both in shape as in power output. Because of that, they follow a single simple rule. That rule assumes that the character was caught in the blast radius of the explosive/bomb, and never with the inner half of the blast radius of the explosive (aka, if a bomb have a blast radius of 60 feet, the rule assumes that the character have been caught between 30 to 60 feet from the center of the explosion). If not, the character must first make a roll with impact of 16 or better, and if successful he was lucky and the rules remain unchanged. If not, he must roll a save of 18 or better (PE bonuses apply) or be killed! If successful on the second save, the character S.D.C. drop to zero, and he will take blood loss damage of 1 point of damage per melee round!

Blood Loss: All explosions does multiple wounds, mostly because of rendering flesh and internal damage caused by the concussion blast of the explosion. All victims of a explosion will receive blood loss damage as if a heavy wound has taken, but the character will receive that damage 2 times per minute (once every 30 seconds). The number of wounds are determined by the size of the explosion, but a successful roll with impact will half that amount.

Note: half of the wounds taken by the character will be as a internal wounds on a failed roll with impact check.

Very small explosions: 1D4 wounds
Example: dynamite sticks, small plastique charges
Small explosions: 1D6 wounds
Example: medium plastique charges, mini-missiles
Medium explosions: 2D4 wounds
Example: large plastique charges, small fusion blocks
Great explosions: 3D4 wounds
Example: small vehicle explosions, short range missiles, medium fusion blocks
Large explosions: 2D6 wounds
Example: medium vehicle explosions, medium range missiles, large fusion blocks, small tank/artillery shells
Very Large explosions: 3D6 wounds
Example: large vehicle explosions, long range missiles, tank/artillery shells


Automatic Weapons and Shock & Blood Loss Rules

Normally speaking, automatic weapons work like any other weapon regarding to shock and blood loss rules when used in single shot mode, but when bursts comes into play, some adjustments must be done. The effects of shock and number of wounds caused by automatic weapons is based on the level of burst mode used.

Shock
When used in automatic rate of fire, the effects of shock can be greatly increased due the fact that not one but several bullets have hit the target. Even if the caliber or power output of the weapon is weak, receiving 2 or more impacts of that caliber in less than 3 seconds can make even a bulky and large character to literally “dance” from so many impacts received. The shock effects can double in duration or even increase in level just because of that.

3 round bursts: Weapons that are capable of making 3 round bursts are the most dangerous of the automatic weapons. This is due the fact that when the trigger is pulled, not one but 3 rounds/blasts are fired in a very fast cadence and all the three rounds/blasts will in 95% of the cases hit the target, acting like one single and powerful round/blast. For purposes of shock, increase the injure level of the weapon by one or double the effects of the shock if the weapon injure level is already heavy or superior.
Short Bursts: Double the effects of shock but the duration remains the same. Save penalty is of -2
Long Bursts: Double the effects of shock and the duration. Save penalty is of -4 and on a failed roll the shock is increased in one level.
Entire Magazine Bursts: Increase shock level and double the duration. Save penalty is of -4 and on a failed roll the shock is increased in one level again.

Weapons that have a fixed burst mode, as machineguns and the like that only fire 20-30 round bursts always have their shock level increased by one and the duration is tripled.
High tech weapons like railguns don’t have a caliber to determine the injure level, so to determine the level of the shock use the average damage of the weapon to find out the injure level.


Blood Loss
Like in the shock rules above, weapons capable of burst fire can be very dangerous when comes to blood loss. That’s because more hits means more wounds and more wounds means more damage per minute due to blood loss. Weapons firing bursts will do an additional number of wounds to the target based on the burst mode used in the attack.

Burst Mode------------------Number of Wounds
3 round bursts/pulse----------------1D2
Short Bursts------------------------1D4
Long Bursts-------------------------2D4
Entire Magazine Bursts---------------2D6

Weapons that have a fixed burst mode, as machineguns and the like that only fire into 20 to 30 round bursts always does 2D4 wounds to the target. To determine the level of the wounds caused, use the weapon ammo caliber or P.V. as a reference.
High tech weapons like railguns don’t have a caliber to determine the wound level, so to determine the level of the wounds use the average damage of the weapon to find out the wound level.


Body Armors

Body armors are used by soldiers to give then a edge on the battlefield. It protects the body and are intended to lessen the treat of explosions, impacts and bullets hitting the soldier. In game terms, body armors will reduce the effects and duration of shock and blood loss received by impacts of bullets/blasts and explosions.
Armors are classified by the amount of SDC/MDC each one gives to the wearer of the suit. This indicates how much of the shock is reduced by the armor and to some degree in some cases will lessen the level of the wound received, reducing the blood loss of the character per wound.

Light Armor: Any armor that gives the wearer a maximum protection of 60 points of SDC/MDC is considered a light armor for purposes of the rules presented here. The armor will reduce the amount of shock received by 20% and the duration of the effects will be reduced by one third.
Medium Armor: Any armor that gives the wearer a maximum protection of 70-100 points of SDC/MDC is considered a medium armor for purposes of the rules presented here. The armor will reduce the amount of shock received by half and the duration of the effects will be reduced by half too. The blood loss caused by the wounds received by the character will be reduced in 1 point per wound (minimum of 1 point of damage per wound). The character will receive a bonus to his roll impact/fall and save vs explosion effects of +1 due to the high impact resistance of this category of body armor.
Heavy Armor: Any armor that gives the wearer a maximum protection of 110+ points of SDC/MDC is considered a heavy armor for purposes of the rules presented here. The armor will reduce the amount of shock received by 75% and the duration of the effects will be reduced by half. The blood loss caused by the wounds received by the character will be reduced in 2 points per wound (minimum of 1 point of damage per wound). The character will receive a bonus to his roll impact/fall and save vs explosion effects of +2 due to the high impact resistance of this category of body armor.

There were some optional rules for mass combat in the Rifte that seemed pretty simple to use. Maybe take a look at that.

I think what you have so far seems a bit...more complicated than necessary.

Perhaps but then again those were rules I made thinking about WAR and real large battles, not little skirmishes between patrols/companies

[jaymz]

The Rifter rules weren't done for patrols/skirmishes, though that is certainly an aspect to use them for......but it's your call to look at it or not *shrugs*