Skirmish Campaign, Skirmish Elite, and Flying Lead

I have been collecting 28mm WW II figures, individually based on 1" washers, for some time now. (Note that I have not said that I have been painting any; I have collected all of these through random sales on eBay, at hobby shops, off of forums, etc.) I am now getting around to actually gaming with them. I have played two or three games of Flying Lead with them and enjoyed it enough to keep going with those rules, although there are some things missing from those rules.

I've owned a copy or two of various Skirmish Campaigns and Skirmish Elite books and decided to get more on my last trip to HI (where there is a great hobby shop called The Armchair Adventurer). These books support a number of WW II skirmish rules, but Flying Lead is not one of them (which makes sense considering these books pre-date Flying Lead by a few years). So, I've decided to try my own hand at coming up with conversion factors.

Skirmish Campaigns' System


These books use a system or rating figures in three ways:

1. Six levels of training.
2. Six levels of morale.
3. If a Leader, three levels or leadership.

In addition, they sometimes add "flavor" rules to represent certain historical situations, such as the fanaticism of a unit, the extreme bravery of a particular soldier that won a Congressional Medal of Honor, Victoria Cross, Iron Cross, etc. at that particular action.

Morale


The morale rating in Skirmish Campaigns represents "the ability of an individual to stay cool under fire". I see this as equating to Flying Lead's Quality rating, which represents "the overall willingness and ability of the character to do his 'job'. It encompasses training, morale, and reaction speed."

Note that Quality mentions both Morale and Training, the two factors in the books, but I see Quality more as morale than training as it determines the ability to take action and sustain it. Also, the game's morale checks are based on Quality. What training aspects there are in quality I think comes from the confidence obtained by that training, and that is just another way of saying morale (in my mind).

The books classify Morale as follows:

Morale	Description
A+	Fanatics (Kamikaze, etc.).
A	Top quality, highly motivated troops (SS Panzer Grenadiers, Commandos, Rangers, some Japanese).
B	Veteran troops, troops defending their homeland.
C	Average motivated troops, motivated partisans, exhausted veterans.
D	Reluctant or shell-shocked troops.
E	Extremely unwilling troops, forced conscripts.

Note that the Morale rating in applied to an individual, not to a unit.

In general, I use a Quality rating of 3 through 5, only using a 2 or 6 in exception circumstances, and prefer to use other attributes as modifiers. Here are the conversions that I am going to try:

Morale	Quality and Attributes
A+	3, Fanatic, Eager, Fearless
A	3, Elite, Steady Under Fire
B	3, Steady Under Fire
C	4
D	4, Green
E	5, Reluctant, Green

Feel free to drop some attributes if you do not feel them necessary or pertinent to the scenario.

Training


Training is  reflected in one of six levels, representing "the amount of training a unit has and the amount of time a unit has trained and/or fought together". How that training attribute is used is up to your game system. Note that this attribute applies to all members of the squad. The values in the books are as follows:

Value	Description
T1+	The most elite, extensively trained specialists who have seen combat (Fallschirmjager Engineers or US Rangers).
T1	Elite soldiers with extensive combat experience, very well trained and disciplined.
T2	Well trained combat veterans of quality armies, elite units of lower quality armies.
T3	Well trained regulars with little or no combat experience, regulars of most armies.
T4	Untested green troops with poor training (Russians 1941, Norwegians 1940).
T5	Very poorly trained troops such as civil militia and prison troops.

Given these descriptions I see the training as associated more with the Combat attribute than with the Quality rating of Flying Lead. Combat is described as representing "the character's skill in combat". The values for Combat tends to run from between 1 and 3 so my conversion for Training to Combat is:

Training	Combat and Attributes
T1+	3, Danger Sense, Fearless*, Light, Specialist, Stealth
T1	3, Danger Sense, Light
T2	3
T3	2
T4	2, Poor Shot
T5	1, Cannon Fodder

* Although Fearless affects morale, a very high level of training, as represented by this rating, can overcome the specific effects Fearless cover, so seems appropriate.

Feel free to add or remove attributes as seem appropriate. For example, combat engineers should have Specialist (Demolitions) and snipers should have Marksman, Stealth, and Sniper. These are just general factors.

Leadership


Leadership is rated as 1 to 3 asterisks with 3 being the highest. Again, it leaves it to the game system to translate the values into something meaningful.

Leadership	Attributes
*	Leader (or Second in Command if the second leader in a unit)
**	Leader (or Second in Command if the second leader in a unit), Fearless
***	Leader, Hero, Fearless, Fear

Other common attributes for leaders include:

• Acrobat: good for leaders that seem to survive deadly firefights relatively unscathed.
• Chucker: good for those leaders that take out machine gun nests with grenades.
• Close Quarters Battle Specialists and Dashing: good for those leaders that take out the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.
• Combat Fiend: good for leaders that always appear in the thick of action.
• Marksman: good for leaders that make those fantastic shots (Sniper is good for that too).
• Fear: good for particularly ferocious or scary leaders.
• Hero: good for those leaders that were historically recognized for extreme bravery and heroism, and survived to tell about it.

I would reproduce some of the scenarios, but that would be a violation of the books' copyright and against the spirit of buying such material. However, as I play out the scenarios and write up the battle report, I will list my conversions for the troops.

Tell me what you think and how you might convert statistics in those books for Flying Lead.