Monday, December 3, 2012

M42 Quick Reference Guide


We don't have a full rulebook yet (working on it), but I've compiled a Quick Reference Guide to use for testing that outlines everything in the current rules pretty simply. As such, it's the most up to date version of the rules so far, and is probably good enough for anyone familiar with our discussions to sit down and do some simple testing with. Though I still need to re-vamp the mission(s) and work up a proper unit reference sheet. Which will both be coming this week sometime.

You can download the PDF here. There's also a link at right under 'M42 Rules'.

Rules Tweaks/Changes

There are a bunch, as working on a 2-page reference like this is very big-picture. Mostly, I've just tried to keep everything consistent between phases so that stuff like Falling Back isn't different in one part of the game than another. I've also consolidated a lot of very similar things under consistent names so that we only have to define them once.

1) The Reaction Phase Is Back

Interrupting the current player's turn in the middle of the Action Phase for any sort of Defensive Fire is a big downer. We also needed a step where units that aren't getting shot at (because they Fell Back) can remove a suppression marker while both players can still remember who shot at whom.

This way, the current player completes their actions before any Defensive Fire takes place. Then you move into the Close-Combat Phase once it's done.

2) Defensive Fire Changes

Only units that did an Open Fire or a Gone-To-Ground action can shoot defensively, and the latter requires a Ld check. You also can't target models that are on your unit's flank. Giving assault units someplace safe to approach from.

3) Enfilade Flanking Fire Changes

Name change to something less French-y and a little more accurate for the angles involved. There's also only one level of flanking now. After testing, I just don't think the flanking concept can be much more complex than that and gain any sort of traction. As it is, flanking is our most 'out there' feature. But a lot of other cool stuff depends on the threat that flanking provides. So I want to do my damnedest to make it work.

4) More Clarity On Movement Through Difficult Terrain

At The Double is disordered, and no model may move further through Difficult Terrain than their base Mv.

5) LoS through Ruins clarified.

Must have LoS in addition to being within Awareness range.

6) Firing Units Give Their Position Away.

Fire some weapons, and your unit can be targeted as if you're within Awareness range. All Ev modifiers still apply, but at least Knights can't just snipe you without your being able to do something (even if it's just 6+6 to hit) in return.

7) Hit Allocation Changes

Nobody in testing has remembered more than a handful of times to re-roll their 6's. Attacker allocation also needs a bit of a bump. So now you take all your hits and just roll the dice. A six means you get to allocate instead of the defender.

There's just no way to avoid assigning hits before we roll armor saves. Especially if we're using a consistent system for both shooting and close-combat. Will probably say in the rules-proper that all like-models must be rolled together. Else everyone will do singleton saves and the game will crawl.

8) Only 4 Actions Now

Rally served no real purpose except complicating later movement. Falling Back is now not officially an action. It's just what happens when you fail a Ld check.

9) Task Force Morale can be tested on any officer.

Since we have a force org concept now (top-right), this makes sense for the future.

10) Falling Back

If you can't move towards cover, you're dead. Will have a more detailed explanation in the final rules.

11) Assault Changes

Most of the changes are here. The attacker gets a free consolidation move into combat as a reward for getting there. That way we don't have to switch up the melee->shoot->consolidate sequence. Which works fine except in the initial contact.

Since the defender failing all of his morale checks and falling back doesn't necessarily mean that the combat s over (might still be within 6"), we'll just say that the attacker gets to go again.

Pushback distance is a straight 2". Same as normal model standoff. Comparison is to add up all PB for models in that part of the melee. With a +1 for actually hitting something.

When facing multiple enemy Weapon Skills, you use the highest.

Units defending obstacles (walls, sandbags, etc.) get +1 Toughness in melee.

Suppression is massively clarified. All friendly models in the combat are considered to be a separate unit whose markers are added to each unit's markers when Ld is tested. If they run, they get whatever is in the combat pool added to whatever they already had. When the combat ends, the pool is discarded. Meaning that units not running don't get any extra suppression from the combat.

That's it for now. I'm sure the guide will get edited plenty as the rules-proper are written and we get more test feedback. :)

Thoughts?

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