Rules for flying units

[Francisco Duarte]

Hi, people!

I have been building small armies of units to use in my games, given that me partners seldom have time or parts to build their own sets. Recently I have been trying to make true flying units for the game, in order to spice things up. At first I had a very simple change in mind for the build rules, but after posting my idea in the FaceBook group Mr. Joshua AC Newman himself intervened and came up with a few ideas of his own. Below I will present the current version of this attempt at make rules for flying units - which I called Aerospace units.


Aerospace models must always move during their turn.
Aerospace models have a minimal number for their movement action. If the dice assigned has a lower number than the minimal movement, use the minimal movement; if the dice has a greater number, use that number instead. Keep in mind that you can still move only 1 unit during your movement action, but you will be consistently swifter than other units.
Aerospace models without movement systems have a minimal movement of 2 units.
Aerospace models with at least a movement system have a minimal movement of 3 units.
Aerospace models cannot use cover and ignore cover for their movement.
Aerospace models have 0-4 systems in addition to the white dice. They also have a single Aerospace System (AS - provides 1d8G), which is located between the two white dice.
Aerospace models are thus built like the following: 1W+1AS+1W+Systems
When an aerospace model takes damage it will lose the systems first, then the first white die, and then the Aerospace System.
When the Aerospace System is destroyed the aerospace model will crash at the start of its next turn.
When the aerospace model crashes it will move forward at its minimal speed. Also, roll the dice it still has (either one white and one green d8, or simply one green d8) and chose the higher result. If there are any units or cover in the path of the crashing unit, the number you rolled represents hits against those models (roll them as hand-to-hand combat damage). Spend as many hits as possible against the first model (unit or cover) in the aerospace model’s path. If the model is destroyed and there are still hits left and there’s still another model in the crashing model’s path, then that second model takes the hits. Repeat the process until all hits are spent or there are no more models within range. Now the crashed aerospace model is considered destroyed.


Please let me know what you think.

[Vitoria]

Most interesting!

Are the "hits" from crashing damage dice or direct flawless hits? If the latter it sounds a bit OP.

[CmdrRook]

There's a lot going on here, but I could see these rules working mechanically. I'm always a fan of fewer special cases to remember, but I think you've got a minimal amount to really sell the flavor of flying. I worry that docking a single white die* for a minimum movement value is not balanced against frames, which get no such benefit.

If you're interested in seeing other ideas around the same issues, I invite you to compare against my flyer rules found here: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=5630

I'm eager to see how your ideas evolve through testing and development. Thanks for sharing!

*Corrected in later post.

[Vitoria]

In my book the minimal movement can be pretty harsh on vehicles, not necessarily an advantage, they can't hold stations and stuff, so I guess it's a fair trade off.

[CmdrRook]

That's fair, but I don't see why you couldn't simply circle around a station with your movement instead of breaking away, should you want to hold it.

Edit: I should also correct my earlier comment: it doesn't appear that you are replacing a white die with the aerospace system, simply adding it and using it as your sixth health point, instead of the last white die.

[Mantisking]

[Vitoria]

[Francisco Duarte]

[Mantisking]

[CmdrRook]

[Francisco Duarte]

[CmdrRook]

[Francisco Duarte]

I got thinking about these rules lately, and I thought they could use some trimming to simplify how they work. I came up with the text below. How do you think it compares to the version on the first post? Better? Worse?


Construction:
Aerospace models have 0-4 systems in addition to the white dice. They also have a single Aerospace System (AS - provides 1d8G), which is located between the two white dice.
Aerospace models are thus built like the following: 1W+1AS+1W+Systems
When an aerospace model takes damage it will lose the systems first, then the first white die, and then the Aerospace System.

Defense:
Aerospace units can only be damaged by rolls of 6 when rolling damage dice against them.

Movement:
The direction aerospace models are facing is always relevant. Aerospace models can change direction (and thus facing) only once during their turn.
Aerospace models without additional movement systems must always move two distance units in the direction they are facing at the start of their turn, and then turn if they have enough movement remaining. If they have one additional movement system they must move one distance unit before turning. If they have two movement systems they can turn immediately.
If for some reason the aerospace models cannot move during their turn, they will crash (see “Destruction” below).
Aerospace units cannot take stations.

Attack:
Aerospace units cannot perform nor be targeted by hand-to-hand attacks.

Destruction:
When the aerospace model is destroyed, it will still move at the start of its next turn. Roll the dice accordingly (or use the ones you have if you have already rolled) and assign to the movement. The aerospace model will then crash, moving in the direction it was facing the distance assigned. If there are frames or cover in the way, roll a number of damage dice equal to the movement remaining for this obstacle. The aerospace model will then continue moving, hitting any other obstacles in the way in this fashion if there is any. Resolve each obstacle separately, and always starting from the one closer to the crashing aerospace model. When the movement of the aerospace model reaches zero, then it will be considered destroyed. If for some reason you cannot roll movement for the destroyed aerospace model, then it will be considered destroyed on the spot and won’t crash.


Please, let me know.

[Vitoria]

[Blorf]

[Francisco Duarte]

Humm...

I wanted to keep the rules simple, so I'd say I have two options:

Remove the limitation entirely,

Aerospace models can only be targeted by hand-to-hand attacks from models with at least one green die.

Ideas?

[Alexial]

Maybe aerospace models can only be attacked hand-to-hand by other aerospace models?

Not sure about how that would balance, but lore-wise I think it makes the most sense.

[Francisco Duarte]