[SG2] PBEM AAR - Valley of Death - Playtest Rules - 3 of 5

We tested a few new rules with this PBEM game. That might seem like a
lot,
playing a blind game _and_ testing rules, but it seemed not to be too
much for
the players to handle.

EW

This isn't so much a new rule as an interpretation of the EW rules. The
HyperBear EW rules were not used. I'm still not happy with the EW rules
on my
web site, so I wanted to try out a new variation. 

EW units can go _active_ for free (i.e. they do not need an action). If
an EW
unit goes active, it will be unhidden if there is another EW unit on the
board
(active or inactive) and a Detection Roll is made. A Detection Roll is
an
opposed roll by both players. The player going active rolls his EW die.
The
other player rolls his EW die, shifting down one if the EW set is
inactive.
The player who went active _can_ spend EW counters to shift the opposing
die
down. 

The EW unit is considered inactive when all EW chits are used. An EW
unit
becomes inactive as soon as it is activated (i.e. it loses any chits
left over
from the last activation). The Detection Roll is made each time the EW
unit
goes active.

The reason for this rule is an interpretation of the EW rules. The act
of
going active not requiring an action is sort of implied in the rules
(sort of,
because this section is still ambiguous). The detection roll was added
to give
players a reason for being inactive. Otherwise there was no reason why
an EW
unit wouldn't always go active. The reason for it not costing an action
is an
interpretation of the rule written in the rulebook, and to make some of
the
TO&Es in the rule book viable.

(Another option is to just ignore the references in the rules to
"active" and
"inactive", and give the chits for free every time the unit with an EW
set is
activated.)

HILL CRESTS AND MILITARY CRESTS

All hills in this scenario have a white line on the top of them. This
represents the actual crest of the hill. 

Units behind this crest (that is, the white line is between the target
unit
and the firing unit) are considered to be behind hard cover against
enemy
units on the same elevation level or higher, and are out of Line Of
Sight to
units below this level.

Units in front of the crest line are said to be on the military crest.
Units
in front of this line (that is, the white line is _not_ between the
target
unit and the firing unit) are considered to be behind hard cover against
enemy
units on a lower elevation, but are _not_ considered to be behind cover
for
units at the same or a higher elevation.

Note that if a hill has additional cover, the best cover is used (the
cover is
not cumulative). For instance, if a hill is covered in bushes, a unit on
the
military crest gets the hard cover die shift for units at a lower
elevation,
and a soft cover die shift for units at the same elevation or higher.
Likewise, on the same hill, if the unit is behind the crest line it is
given
the hard cover die shift for units on the same elevation or above, and
still
can not be seen (or see) units on a lower elevation.

For the purposes of using this rule with miniatures (as opposed to a
PBEM with
a virtual map), the rule would be slightly modified. If the unit was on
the
highest elevation of a hill but _not_ touching the edge of the hill
(assuming
flat topped contour-line style hills), it is behind the hill crest. If
it is
on a lower elevation, or it is on the top elevation and touching the
edge of
the hill, it is considered to be on the military crest.

HEAVY WEAPONS VS. PA

Heavy Weapons have a choice when targeting PA troopers. They can fire at
one
individual trooper as though it were a point target, or it can fire at
the
squad in general using the rules for dispersed targets in the rulebook
(i.e. a
D8 impact die).

When missiles fire at PA, I gave the PA a Basic (D6) ECM die. The
assumption
is that PA don't have the space for bigger ECM suites (and you could
argue
they should have none, but I thought that was a bit too nasty.

Heavy Weapon Range Bands
Heavy Weapons use a new method of figuring out range bands. Instead of
the
range band being 12" x target size class, the range band is now Quality
Die in
inches x target size class x 2. 

Example 1: Regular quality RFAC/2 firing at a size 3 APC. The range
bands
would be 48" long (D8 quality gives 8" x size class 3 x 2). 

Example 2: Regular quality RFAC/1 firing at a squad. The range bands
would be
16" long (D8 quality gives 8" x size class 1 x 2).

HEAVY WEAPONS AND COVER MODIFIERS

Treat cover modifiers to heavy weapon fire as an Open Die Shift. If the
range
die is shifted beyond D12, keep the range die as D12 but shift the
Firecon die
down. If a Firecon would go below D4, the weapon can not fire at the
target.

COMBAT MOVE

A combat move shifts the range die down 1. This gives players a reason
for
doing a combat move other than just to have a way of getting somewhere a
little faster. For instance, the most common use of a combat move is
when a
unit wants to move 8 to 10 inches. Instead of spending two actions doing
a
regular move, players tend to do a combat move on the first action,
hoping to
get there in one shot. If they don't, they usually follow up with a
regular
move. By giving a die shift, players have a reason to move most of the
time
using a combat move.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

"We come into the world and take our chances
 Fate is just the weight of circumstances
 That's the way that Lady Luck dances
 Roll the bones." - N. Peart