We are back from our trip out west (for daughter Liz’s Wedding and a short vacation). I’m slowly getting back up to speed, caught a bug and have been a bit under the weather since we got back, thus the delay in posting and order processing.
After the wedding festivities, we took a drive north to Oregon for a couple of days. One of my reasons for the drive north was to visit with Lance and see what he has been up to. I got a look at some of his recent painting projects and a look at his new 25mm Russian Napoleonic figures. The new Nappies are very nice, these will be worth the wait. Besides chatting about this, that and some other things we played a quick game using his Quick Sci Fi rules. The game played well, and was indeed quick playing. We fought our game to a draw.
Lance’s game is very easy to learn and flows well. It isn’t a game for everyday, more for when you want a quick game that doesn’t take a lot to setup or memorize. After reading the rules I’m sure you will pick out a dozen things the rules don’t include/account for; if these are important to you, feel free to add in your own Optional Rules. For today’s post I’ll leave the formatting much as Lance has it (a four page MS Word Document), and I’ll add in my one optional rule that I felt was needed…
Quick Sci Fi (Rev 7.1, 8/25/14)
All rounding is up for the first mathematical operation then down in the same calculation. All dice are D6.
Creating Units and Armies
Agree how many units each player will have
Unit = six Infantry or six absorbable hits on a vehicle. A unit is Heavy, Medium or Light, it uses the movement rate and range of its type. In addition to it’s base weight class half of the units in an army may have a special attribute marked *
CARDS
Cards = total number of units per side one side is red cards the other black. Shuffle all cards together turn face down
When your color card is turned any of your units may move or shoot. In an extreme case this means the same unit might be the only unit to do anything in a turn but it does a lot.
MOVING
Each unit has a movement rate expressed in inches. That is how far that unit may move in one move. Members of a unit must touch bases in a continuous chain at all times.
Half speed in slowing terrain
No movement in prohibited terrain
- Heavy = 6”
- Medium = 12”
- Light= 18”
SHOOTING
Each unit may throw as many dice as it has figures. Or at least one die as long as a unit has any figure left in it. Half dice and range into cover. A hit is scored on a six or better or if a pair of 5’s is thrown. By electing to not throw a die 1 may be added to another single die thrown. The dice of a firing unit can be split among as many different targets as dice are thrown. Targets and dice on them must be declared in advance.
Direct fire into or through cover terrain is at half dice and prorated half range. Example: 2” of LOS/LOF Traced through covering terrain = 4” less to the base range of the shooter.
Ranges are
- Heavy = 18”
- Medium = 12”
- Light = 6”
Specials
- Jump = Move 24” unaffected by slowing and impassable terrain but may not land in impassible. May not move more than half if move ends in woods or rocks. No Penalty
- Marksmen = Rang = 24” no penalty.
- Rapid Fire = Double dice when shooting. Range is cut in half.
- Special Tactics = Army gets an extra card in the deck. The unit has only 4 figures
- Fearless = never checks morale no penalty.
- Horde = double figures in unit. Movement halved, Range halved.
- Smart Munitions = May shoot at targets it cannot see, gets half dice when shooting targets they cannot see. Ignores Range restrictions from terrain when firing half dice.
- Monsters = Must be in physical contact with target to attack it. Opponents get only half dice when shooting at Monsters.
Morale
Once all cards have been played for a turn; Morale is checked for all units that were fired upon. On a result 1 or less (-1 per figure lost) the unit becomes pinned. A 1 is always a failure a 6 is always a pass. A pinned unit may not move or fire while pinned. Instead it may rally returning it to normal if a card is played for it. It may subsequently perform as normal if another card is played on it.
Unit Destruction Bonus
Every time a player completely destroys an enemy unit that player then gets to rally one of his units for free. This means when a card is played on a pinned unit it both rallies and moves or shoots. Free rallies can be accumulated from turn to turn but each may only be used once.
END TURN
Once morale is completed the cards are shuffled and a new turn is begun.
How to Win
An army has been defeated at the end of a turn that it has suffered hits = to or more than half its original hits. A draw is possible if both sides hit 50% losses in the same turn.
By agreement there may be geographical objects that while occupied = X number of hits against the opponent.
Optional Rules
Activation Cap: Allow no more than 2 or 3 activations of the same unit in one turn. (3 seems to work best.)
Hole Card: Once per turn a player may choose to pass when his card is drawn he then holds rather than discarding that card. Then once per turn he may interrupt when an enemy card is drawn. He may then activate one of his own units before the enemy activates the unit for the card he has just drawn. An Interruption may not be interrupted.
Base Types
| |
Light |
Medium |
Heavy |
| Move |
18”
|
12”
|
6”
|
| Range |
6”
|
12”
|
18”
|
Specials
- Jump = Move 24” unaffected by slowing and impassable terrain but may not land in impassible. May not move more than half if move ends in woods or rocks. No Penalty
- Marksmen = Rang = 24” no penalty.
- Rapid Fire = Double dice when shooting. Range is cut in half.
- Special Tactics = Army gets an extra card in the deck. The unit has only 4 figures
- Fearless = never checks morale no penalty.
- Horde = double figures in unit. Movement halved, Range halved.
- Smart Munitions = May shoot at targets it cannot see, gets half dice when shooting targets they cannot see, ignores Range restrictions from terrain when firing half dice.
- Monsters = Must be in physical contact with target to attack it. Opponents get only half dice when shooting at Monsters.
The Melee (Mike’s optional rule)
- Melee occurs at the discretion of the moving player. To initiate a melee the player moves to within 1″ of the opposing unit and announces this as the melee point of contact. All figures of the opposing units are moved into contact and are involved in the melee.
- Infantry count as 1 (figure) cavalry as 2 (figures)
- Each player counts figures involved in the melee
- Each player rolls a number of dice equal to his number of figures involved in the melee.
- A hit is scored on a 6 or if a pair of 5’s is thrown.
- The unit losing the most figures loses the Melee
- In the event of a tie, fight another round
- If tied after two rounds, the melee is considered a draw
- The remaining figures of the loosing unit will retreat a double move and must pass a morale check or become pinned
- Should the melee result in a tie (after two rounds) remaining figures in both units will retreat a single move and must pass a morale check or become pinned
No friendly or enemy units may fire into a unit which has fought in a melee (current turn).
I have a few pages of notes for possible changes or additions to the rules. Once we have had a chance to play test these I’ll post them along with a freshly formatted PDF version of the rules as they stand at that time.
We will close this post with a quick picture of some ‘Power Armour Guys’
You might even recognize some of those US Marines pictured on the cover.
