Scalene
Vassal
I've just played my first game of 40K in many years with my 10 year old, using original Rogue Trader rules. It was a small skirmish - 11 marines vs. 11 chaos marines with a few NPC zombies thrown in for good measure. I've taken some photos, so I'll try to put a battle report together. Some of the rules seemed pretty odd/needing improvement, or I just hadn't remembered them existing, so I thought I'd post and see what others had found. Perhaps this has been done to death in previous threads, but bear with me:
1. Area effect weapons. They don't roll to hit (or taken into account firer's BS etc.) they just have a chance of deviation based on the burst radius. 1 in 6 for 0.5", increasing by 1 for each additional 0.5". That means that a missile launcher with crack needs anything but a 6 followed by anything but a 1 to kill most things at up to 72". Anything with a larger kill radius becomes rapidly less effective because it is rarely going to hit. I'd expect a missile to have a similar chance of hitting, regardless of payload, so this seems a bit odd.
2. Ineffective hand-to-hand. It's basically WFB 2/3 so when two marines (1 champion vs 1 ordinary) got into close combat, neither with a special close combat weapon they plugged away at each other for ages. We had given marines T4, which seemed fair even if it deviated from the original rules, so one needed 5+, then 4+ then 3 or less = 1 in 12 and the other had slightly more chance with 1 in 8 of getting a kill. They punched and kicked each other for turn after turn until eventually the champion put the boot in.
3. Reserve move faffing. Why not just take it at the same time as the main move - you won't be allowed to fire, so it doesn't matter if it comes before firing. I think this was adopted in 2nd edition, but I'm not sure because I never played it. Strangely reserve moves are not allowed if you are 'in cover'. We interpreted this as meaning behind a bit of cover - i.e. you shouldn't move out into the open using your reserve move. Another interpretation would be that you can't reserve move in jungle because that's soft cover and therefore you are 'in cover'. I don't think this was the intention, but I'm not sure.
4. Moving and firing. We played that this was a -1 to hit penalty, but re-reading the rules, I'm not so sure. Firing from a moving surface, e.g vehicle or horseback is -1, but it doesn't mention ordinary moving at all, with the implication being that doesn't carry a penalty. Is that right?
5. Hiding is really beneficial for slow weapons. If I've got this right, you can do a normal move to the edge of a piece of cover and then hide. The following turn, if you have a slow weapon, you can fire - because firing from hiding doesn't count as movement, which means that having a slow weapon doesn't necessarily mean not getting the first shot.
Have I got these right? What house rules are people typically using to improve playability?
1. Area effect weapons. They don't roll to hit (or taken into account firer's BS etc.) they just have a chance of deviation based on the burst radius. 1 in 6 for 0.5", increasing by 1 for each additional 0.5". That means that a missile launcher with crack needs anything but a 6 followed by anything but a 1 to kill most things at up to 72". Anything with a larger kill radius becomes rapidly less effective because it is rarely going to hit. I'd expect a missile to have a similar chance of hitting, regardless of payload, so this seems a bit odd.
2. Ineffective hand-to-hand. It's basically WFB 2/3 so when two marines (1 champion vs 1 ordinary) got into close combat, neither with a special close combat weapon they plugged away at each other for ages. We had given marines T4, which seemed fair even if it deviated from the original rules, so one needed 5+, then 4+ then 3 or less = 1 in 12 and the other had slightly more chance with 1 in 8 of getting a kill. They punched and kicked each other for turn after turn until eventually the champion put the boot in.
3. Reserve move faffing. Why not just take it at the same time as the main move - you won't be allowed to fire, so it doesn't matter if it comes before firing. I think this was adopted in 2nd edition, but I'm not sure because I never played it. Strangely reserve moves are not allowed if you are 'in cover'. We interpreted this as meaning behind a bit of cover - i.e. you shouldn't move out into the open using your reserve move. Another interpretation would be that you can't reserve move in jungle because that's soft cover and therefore you are 'in cover'. I don't think this was the intention, but I'm not sure.
4. Moving and firing. We played that this was a -1 to hit penalty, but re-reading the rules, I'm not so sure. Firing from a moving surface, e.g vehicle or horseback is -1, but it doesn't mention ordinary moving at all, with the implication being that doesn't carry a penalty. Is that right?
5. Hiding is really beneficial for slow weapons. If I've got this right, you can do a normal move to the edge of a piece of cover and then hide. The following turn, if you have a slow weapon, you can fire - because firing from hiding doesn't count as movement, which means that having a slow weapon doesn't necessarily mean not getting the first shot.
Have I got these right? What house rules are people typically using to improve playability?