A mixed weekend of gaming, rules, conversions and painting

I ran out of time to do a post this past weekend. I was happily playing some test games to help finalise some Sci-Fi rule changes before writing up my notes. At the same time while pondering the rules I continued to paint up the 19th Century Imagi-Nations units, and also tried out a couple of conversions for a future Napoleonic project.

Imagi-Nation Painting
The painting of my Imagi-Nation units continues with one more infantry unit completed and a unit of dragoons on the painting table close to completion. In the next week (or two) I hope to start playing a game using rules based around Neil Thomas' One-Hour Wargames and Wargaming 19th Century rules.

Infantry in line

Sci-Fi Rules and Games
A few weeks back I posted about the activation approach I am using with these rules (link). With the activation mechanism settled, this weekend was spent trying to work out the combat rule mechanism.

1. The attacking unit selects the weapon type best suited for the attack. This represents the primary weapon used by the unit in an attack. (Units can carry multiple weapons.)
2. Roll the number of dice for the attack dependent upon the weapon and type of target. The more powerful the weapon or suitability against the target the more D6 are rolled.
3. Select the highest scoring D6
4. Subtract the units armour value (AV) from the highest score. Any remaining value is the number of hits a unit has taken. Lightly armoured troops have an armour value of 2 and heavily armoured troops (and vehicles) have an armour value of 4.
5. Remove models from troop units or place damage markers on non-troop (vehicle) units.

When an attack is declared the defending unit can, if in a terrain square, choose to take cover and use the terrain cover value for it’s armour value. (Soft cover is AV=3 and hard cover AV=4.) 

The downside of taking cover is the unit becomes pinned and will need to use a move action to remove it. 

I did consider adding 1 to the armour value, but prefer this approach as it forces a decision to take cover. As a solo gamer this adds to my involvement in the game by causing me to make decisions (do I reduce casualties at the expense of movement in the following turn?)

As can be seen from the armour value the most hits on a lightly armoured unit (AV=2) is 4 with a roll of 6, and for a heavily armoured unit (AV=4) 2 hits would be sustained. Units have a maximum of 5 models or 5 hits for non-troop units (vehicles or big monsters).

W40K Tyranid forces attack Space Marines

Lightly armoured Tyranid units use cover to advance

As I write this post I am halfway through writing up the rules. I hope to post them with some example pictures to help with explanations next week.

Future Napoleonic Project
As I get closer to finishing my 19th Century armies I will have a number of ACW figures remaining. If I convert these and combine with some plastic Napoleonic Spencer-Smiths, I should be able to field two forces (a mix of cavalry, artillery an infantry) for some One-Hour Wargaming style games with units on single bases.

French Line Infantry - formerly ACW 

Green stuff used to create the shako - the only modification

I will be painting them to represent (as best as possible) campaign style uniforms. These are simple figures with few details so the campaign style dress is the best fit and will be quicker to paint.

Basing will be 3x4 inches