Northern Army and Cityscape Terrain Update

Not really a southern update specifically but I did finish my Northern OpFor force that I plan to have face my primary southern army in any demos. The exact make up of the squads as well as the squads themselves is still in flux but pictured here is the initial loadout I worked on. The following are full Blitz sized Veteran GP, Strike, and FS squads with an infantry platoon for variety. I got the army mostly painted except for a few figs that I had to match to the existing scheme (as well as fix dozens of paint chips, breaks, and simply missing parts that the guy didn't include). Thanks to Azure Devil on the dp9 forums for helping me out with some AGMs bits that were missing!  I'll likely never know why the guy removed the MFM bits from all the Grizzlies as he didn't actually model a different variant but they were missing as well and I had to get them from another source among other bits.

Picture below is part of my cityscape cardboard terrain set dressed up with a few extras like trees and roadblocks. I recently commented on HG terrain density so figured I'd post here and see what people thought about this. The set below is a 3'x4' table using 4/5 of the buildings included in one cityscape set (and 1/2 the floor tiles as it comes with 4'x6'). I like the density below except for right in the front of the pic (and it's mirror spot on the other side) but feel it would be a bit too sparse on a full 4x6 table (basically double the space below). I do plan on adding a few n-scale plastic cars as well to liven up the city additionally.  I feel 3x4 should be an adequate play space for up to 1000TV which can go a long way with my fire team smaller squad house rules.

Mass Battle Trial Rules

So far, all the houserules I've presented in my Flash! blog have been to (hopefully) make the game quicker and easier to play at the skirmish level as I feel the current rules fit best in that model count type game. That said.. there will always be people who prefer playing larger games of Heavy Gear (including myself frequently) and I hope that the following will help with that at least partially. One of the strengths of Heavy Gear is the incredible freedom it gives to players compared with other games like Warhammer 40,000. Unfortunately, that freedom also invariably leads to bogging down the game partly at 1000TV+. Any effort to try and streamline the game beyond the already presented rules already presented in the blog will reduce that complete freedom.

Previous FLASH! Rules:  Do NOT use the fireteam squad building variants but rather build your army exactly as presented in your Field Guide; otherwise continue using the other rules like datacards as presented in previous chapters.  The rules below may also be used independently of the previous FLASH! rules as noted below.

Squad Coherency: If a non-infantry squad consists of more than one model, they must be within 3" + 1"x EL (minimum 3") of another model in the squad at the end of the squad's activation. Use the highest EL stat of the models involved. If casulties result in a model becoming out of coherency, you must move that model back into coherency on its next activation. If you are not using my variant stats, you must be within autocomm range of another model in the squad.

Moving/Firing: Upon squad activation, you declare one speed for the entire squad instead of individually per model and each model in the squad must be capable of moving that speed. Use a single movement indicator next to the CGL (or other model if the CGL is dead) instead of one per model. When the first model in your squad is ready to fire, you must declare a single enemy squad as the target for your ENTIRE squad's firing. You may choose any model in that squad as the initial target and your activated models in that squad must fire on that target until it is destroyed. Once it is destroyed, you may select another model in that target squad as the next target until you run out of models in the target squad or your own squad's actions.

Split Fire! (NEW ACTION): If your CGL (or 2iiC if the CGL is dead) declares this action, you may instead declare two speeds and/or two squads as targets of your squads fire. In this case, you must mark the movement individually per model in the squad as per the normal Blitz rules.

ECM: Electronic warfare is tablewide in the mass battle rules and not directed at countering a single enemy action. A model with the ECM trait may declare it is using it as an action. Roll the EW skill (modified by EL) versus a TN 6. If successful, you may add your ECM rating to the target number of any enemy EW tests made. The ECM penalty is cummulative and multiple models may add them together. If no test is required for an EL action due to another rule (like being within a number of inches equal to size to detect an enemy), this penalty has no effect. You may also as a reaction or even pre-emptively declare an action to use defensive ECM as well. In this case, you make the same EW test above and subtract it your ECM rating from any enemy ECM during that turn. If you are not using my variant stat card rules, you instead roll your EW (+/- Comm) to use the table wide counter measures and add your ECM rating for offensive actions or ECCM for defensive actions.

Take the above with even more grains of salt that previous entries as I haven't tried them yet in a real game but rather only in preliminary solo games.  If you try them out, feel free to post the results and your thoughts in the comments.

New Flash! Wargame House Rules coming up!

Hey guys and gals, just a quick update here.  Sometime in the next week, I'll be starting a new chapter of my Flash! houserules dealing specifically with larger games of Heavy Gear (1000TV+).  So far, my variant rules have dealt with making the game quicker and more fun on a smaller skirmish scale but the next few posts will deal with doing the same on a larger one.  Some of the ultimate freedom inherent in Blitz will fall by the wayside but that same infinite selection of choices is a large part of the slowdown commonplace in larger games.  The upcoming wargame rules will use standard Blitz squad formations instead of the skirmish specific Fire Teams in my Flash rules but will streamline some of the mass combat rules and options for quicker and (hopefully) more fun large scale games.  I've had the ideas stirring for quite a few months and look forward to some feedback on how they play.

On the hobby side, I've recently picked up a painted Northern army as my OpFor in demo games.  They're not unfortunately ready for close up pics though as the padding/packing on the army was suboptimal to say the least.  Over 40 individual parts broke and another 5 bits were just missing.  On the plus side, the seller was very good with communication and quite the gentleman in making amends which made up for most of the frustration of getting a box of loose bits instead of a completed army.  I've got some unexpected hobby work to do with the force but I hope to put up an Interpolar War battle report complete with pics after the wargame houserules are published.

Finally, it was brought to my attention by a fellow blogger that it's difficult to sign up to follow the blog so I've connected the blog to Google Plus and added the follower widget to the site (as well as RSS links).  Just click on the widget and choose the "follower" circle if you'd like to go that route.