House Rules

As promised the thinking cap went on as I wanted to customised the rules to make the game more to my taste.  This is not to suggest that the rules are not fine as they stand I just prefer a fast flowing game with a few tables as possible and rules you hold in your head.

Initiative

This was far to clunky for me.  Each squad had to roll to be activated and makes combat a "Fastest gun in the west" affair.

Instead I propose that the units with the highest Initiative are moved first.  This is the Unit Initiative plus the Officer Grade, if they are still alive.  In the case of tie the player that activated a unit last loses out to other player.  Thus activation will alternate between players.

I did consider rolling three dice and placing them on the centre, left and right wing of the board and adding that dice to the units on that section.  Then I rejected that as too clunky.

Movement

This too involved rolling dice for what should be a simple process.

Instead the player has four options per unit.

No movement:   The unit may be placed on "Stand to" (overwatch).

Tactical Movement:  The unit moves 3 inches, counts as moving for small arms purposes but gains a  soft cover bonus.  This represents the units slowly creeping forward, hugging each tiny part of cover on the field.  They are able to fire.

Normal Movement:   The units moves 9 inches.  They count as moving for small arms resolution and may fire.

Rapid Movement:  The unit moves 12 inches.  The unit counts are running for small arms resolution.  They may not fire.  I also choose to ignore the rule that units can only run every other turn.

Small arms

I'll ignore the pistol and shotgun rules.  The sniper rifle and HMG can remain as written.

All ranges is now counted as up to 6 inches short range and up to 12 inches medium range.  Anything over 12 inches to maximum range is long range.  The maximum range for rifle becomes 24 inches and there is no maximum for long range for SMG's.

Small arms and melee table

 The SMG section should read "SMG each".

Instructions:

Look up the column number based on the number of shooters in the unit rounding up to the nearest number.

Adjust the column number to the right for positive traits and left for negative traits.

Roll an average dice.  A low score is 2 and a high score is 5.  

The number indicated is the amount of casualties inflicted.

I think this keeps within the spirit of the game but speeds matters along.  It does mean that all small arms creates casualties but also stops the wipe out effect.

I have rejected the rule about the poor showing of vehicle firing.  All mounted weapons gain a bonus (vehicle mounts and fixed weapons) but it is countered by movement so the player is still encouraged to brake before firing.

Grenades were available but rare.  The unit can use its allocated grenade to gain an advantage.

All firing is simultaneous.  You can work out the damage in your head.  The average is the number of  firing figure divided by 3 dropping any remainder.  A low roll subtracts one and a high roll adds one.  Each bonus adds one and each disadvantage subtracts one (or two).  This, broadly speaking, is correct but consult the table if possible as there is a few quirks,

Derivation

Currently all high explosive damage automatically deviates via a derivation dice.  To avoid that I have added to "HIT" sides to the dice.  I also forgot to half the deviation distance as I had shrunk the templates.

High explosive fire that is moving is no longer limited to 10 inches.  It just has double the derivation distance.

Morale

Can pretty much stay as it is with the difference that it is required when a unit receives damage and not just when fired upon.

These are my initial thoughts and I must stress they have not been play tested.  Let me know what you think