BODY ARMOR

One of the strange things about Phoenix Command is the way it goes to extreme lengths to provide detailed game stats for firearms, but then treats their countermeasure (body armor) as if it isn't important — in the Small Arms Combat System rulebook, eighteen types of armor occupy only slightly more space than three firearms…

The tables at the end of this page give expanded ratings for 20th century body armors. Note that some values are different than those on the Armor Table on page 9 of the Phoenix Command Small Arms Combat System.

Weight: The armor's weight, in pounds.

CA In & CA Out: The time, in Action Counts, necessary to put on (CA In) or take off (CA Out) the armor. For helmets, this assumes the chip strap is fastened; all helmets can be put on or taken off by spending only 3 AC, but in that case the chin strap is not fastened and the helmet can fall off the head in case the wearer is thrown prone.

Some body armors can be worn open, which is indicated by two "In" times. The first is to put it on without closing the fly, the second is for putting on the vest properly. Taking off a body armor worn open requires half the AC listed on the table.

When a character wearing body armor worn open is hit from the front, there is a 50% chance the shot misses the body armor altogether, even if it falls into a Hit Location normally protected by the armor.

Hit Locations: The Hit Locations covered by the body armor, for different systems. After rolling the Hit Location, check if it is protected by the body armor, and if so, roll for glancing (table 6D). The Front column is used if the target is attacked from the front, the Rear column if from behind. This is because many body armors, mainly helmets, provide more protection from one direction than from another.

Note that there are different sets of Hit Locations for the different Phoenix Command systems, identified by the following abbreviations in the System-column:

• SACS: Small Arms Combat System (Table 6A, the Open column)
• ADT/f: Advanced Damage Tables, Front/Rear (Table 1A, In The Open column)
• ADT/o: Advanced Damage Tables, Oblique (Table 1B, In The Open column)
• ADT/s: Advanced Damage Tables, Side (Table 1C, In The Open column)
• HTH/b: Hand-to-Hand System, blunt damage
• HTH/c: Hand-to-Hand System, cutting damage
• HTH/f: Hand-to-Hand System, flange damage
• HTH/s: Hand-to-Hand System, stabbing damage

PF, BPF, and Armor Class: The various armor ratings of the body armor, which follow standard PCCS rules for the most part. An addition is that armor PFs noted with an asterisk are hard armors, subject to the Hard And Soft Body Armor rule, below.

Body armors can be divided into "soft" and "hard" types. Soft armors are made from flexible materials such as silk, nylon, or kevlar, hard armors from inflexible materials like metals or ceramics. Hard armors offer better protection, but have the distinct disadvantage that they tend to deform bullets, so that it causes more damage should it penetrate, whereas soft armors slow down the bullet without significantly changing its shape.

For hard armors, that is those PF ratings marked with an asterisk on the armor table below, add 1 to the Glancing Roll on table 6D (treat a result over 9 as 9). Also, if the EPEN is more than the armor PF, after accounting for glancing, add 1 to the Damage Class.

Example: Jeff is wearing a Titanium/Nylon Composite vest and is hit in the stomach (Hit Location 29) by a round from an RPD light machine gun. The PEN is 11 and the DC is 7. Jeff's armor has a PF of 6*, and the Glancing roll is 1, but 1 is added because the Hit Location is protected by hard armor. This gives an effective armor PF of 8, leaving an EPEN of 11 – 8 = 3, applied on the DC = 8 column and leaving Jeff with 600 PD.

Had Jeff been wearing a PASGT vest, which counts as soft armor, he would have used the Glancing Roll of 1 and had faced an EPEN of 4 on the DC = 7 column, for a total of 400 PD.

Because the Effective Protection Factor (EPF) Table (6D) in PCSACS has gaps in it, and the armors in the tables later on in this chapter have Protection Factors that fall into those gaps, the table needs to be expanded. The revised Effective Protection Factor Table below does just that. The values in the lines 2, 4, 6, 10, 16, 20, and 30 are identical to those in the standard table 6D, the others have been calculated by averaging between the known values above and below.