Shooting: Target Selection (Ver. 0.52)

Here's the rules covering Target Selection, the basic visibility levels, splitting fire, etc. Have a look!

Line Of Sight: Example Diagram

Here's a diagram that sums up some of the LoS stuff I've been talking about.

Graphics For The Rules Diagrams

I thought I'd show you all a peak of some of the 2D graphics elements that will be replacing the potentially IP-infringing pictorial diagrams that we were using to illustrate the rules. They're resolution-independent, and fully scalable. They also only took a few hours to make.

Gotta love Photoshop. :)

Shooting Overview (Ver. 0.5)

Here's the updated Shooting Overview from the rulebook.

Cleaning Up Our Line Of Sight Terminology

Fallout NV (Fan Art), Randall Kite

I'm working on the Line of Sight Rules Today. As part of that, I'm cleaning up the language for LoS states a bit, so 'Concealment' doesn't mean 2-3 different things.

Mission Concept: Hostage Rescue

Since the last 'Gate' mission was pretty popular, here's another. This time the Attacker is seeking to rescue a captured Hostage as they're about to be taken by their captors through a Transit Portal.

Testing The Bridgehead Mission

I went over to Games 2D4 this afternoon and played a test game with ScottyDon't, who's an old 40K hand. I gave him the choice between Exfiltration and Bridgehead as missions, and he chose Bridgehead.

Weapon Types, Shot Types

Here's part 2 of my ideas for the Ranged Weapon Special Rules.

General Shooting Stuff, Unit Rules

I'm currently working on a lot of spreadsheet stuff, in order to set up some comparisons for balancing. As part of that I'm generating a list of ranged weapons and their rules. I'll break these up into multiple posts for comment. Here's the first one.

Concept: 'Sustained Fire'

'Flanking fire', using unit arcs, is dead after poor testing. But that doesn't mean that I don't want it to matter how bunched up a squad is in front of a Machine Gun. So I've come up with a 'Sustained Fire' special rule that handles this instead.

Second Exfiltration Test

I managed to get a game in at the Game Preserve North tonight. At least until my wife called to say that one of my boys had cut his chin open and had to go to the hospital. :(

Mission Concept: Bridgehead

So... You're the brand new owner of a slightly um... ancient... dimensional portal that allows you to walk across the galaxy in your slippers anytime you want. Which is cool and all, but what's to prevent pirates, opposing armies, or annoying relatives from stepping through and trashing YOUR planet? I mean, when you think about it, security for this thing is a real bitch.

An Interesting Faction Idea?

Lord of the Flies, by Greyflea

It's not that often that you run across a novel human social structure. But I recently ran across a couple of articles that describe the Ik people of Uganda. Whose social organization might make for an interesting sub-faction of humans/aliens.

Testing The 'No Man's Land' Mission

CaulynDarr and I did another test game today. We tried out the Exfiltration mission last week, and found that it worked really well. So this time we decided to try the 'No Man's Land' mission. Here's how it went.

Unit Stat Cards Are Done (For Now)

Here are the final Unit Stat Cards that we'll be using for testing later today (more after the jump). I've also linked to a PDF of the cards under 'M42 Rules' at the right of the blog. That should make it easier to load and flip through them on a phone or tablet.

We've Got A Problem. Want To Help?

I've identified a problem with our model strategy that's going to require some creativity to solve. Fortunately, it's a problem that most anyone reading this can easily help the project with. All you need is some simple hobby skills and a little time. :)

Unit Stat Card: New Folding Design

Here's a new design for the card. This version folds in half. With the unit stats/options/rules on the front, and the weapon information on the back. Instead of listing a reference for every weapon special rule, it instead has more detailed composition and cost/upgrade information for the squad itself.

Unit Stat Card: Font Change

How's this font? Any better?

I've now got the card design fully linked to an Excel spreadsheet of data to fill in the unit info automatically. Next I'm going to attempt to re-design the layout so that the card can be folded in half, with the general info on the front, and the weapons (probably without the special rules descriptions) on the back.

Unit Stat Card Prototype

Here's the prototype layout for our unit reference cards. To make printing easy, it's sized for standard 6" x 4" photo paper. It also fits the iPhone's screen perfectly. Though it'll be harder to read at that size, you could set up a folder of these and page through them quickly during a game.

Quick Idea For Rapid Fire Weapons

I'm currently working on the graphic design of our unit reference cards. Which is coming along quite nicely. As I've been working on it though, I've had some thoughts about how we might handle 'Rapid Fire' weapons in our game.

Testing The Exfiltration Mission

CaulynDarr came over yesterday and we did some testing using the Exfiltration Mission. Which, given it's nature, ensured that we got in enough Close-Combat to finally test the system decently.

Here's what we found...

Rules: The Turn Sequence (Ver. 0.51)

Here's the updated Turn Sequence Introduction. I took out most of the item-by-item outlines, as those are better addressed in each sub-section. Plus they were really more of a way for me to plan out the sequence at the earlier rules stages. Now that we have them more locked down (and in a quick reference guide), I think it best to keep the introduction more friendly to new players by not drowning them in details.

So... What's Up?

I'm currently working on the updated Movement Rules. But I wanted to take a breather here and ask you, the readers, about something that's starting to bother me. Which has been the general lack of feedback lately.

Rules: Comparative Tests (Ver. 0.5)

Here's the rules description for Comparative Tests. Where one stat is compared to another to find out what the required roll for success is.

Mission Concept: Broken Arrow (Ver. 0.2)

Kroxigor raised some good points in the comments to my first version of this mission. So here's a new version with the deployment zones further away from the objectives. I also cleaned up the language/sequence a bit to make it easier to follow.

Rules: Rolling Dice (Ver. 0.5)

I've almost completely re-vamped this section of the rules. Before, it had been a hodge-podge of describing every type of roll that we could think of. But now that our mechanics are getting locked down, I've concentrated on the types of rolls that we actually have in the game. Including how to roll multiple Leadership/Toughness tests together. As well as introducing the Pass-One and Pass-All labels to describe them. Have a look and tell me what you think.

Mission Concept: Exfiltration

Alert! An enemy force has infiltrated our lines and has kidnapped (insert important person or enemy prisoner here). They must be stopped before they can get away with their hostage!

Mission Concept: Broken Arrow

Somewhere near the battle lines, a light cargo lifter from your side has mysteriously crashed. Unfortunately, it happened to be carrying a highly dangerous strategic weapon prototype, and the crash site is accessible to both sides. This weapon of mass destruction cannot be allowed to fall into enemy hands! Your mission is to find the crash site and secure it before an enemy force can do the same.

Mission Concept: No Man's Land

This is the second of the mission concepts I'm working on. It's more complex, in that it lets both sides put down a bunch of obstacles prior to the start of the game. Which will require appropriate terrain such as barbed wire, sandbag (or similar) walls, rocks/trees, and possibly minefield markers of some sort.

Concept: Terrain As A Part Of Your Task Force

As I've been writing up the next mission concept, I found myself getting off on a tangent that I've decided requires it's own post. That being the idea of including terrain as part of a player's army. So that during deployment, you can put down some smaller, tactically important bits to modify the play field; instead of simply being at the mercy of whatever the table layout + mission does to you.