From: "Hoyt, Mike" <MHoyt@affiliatedhealth.org>
TSubject: [consim-l] Age of Imperialism Alternative Combat Rules

Eagle Games WAOI is a game that seems to lend itself to house rules.  Here
is one we are kicking around, any comments?
 
Give each piece in the battle a die, color coded by the type of piece.  Say
Blue for infantry, Red for artillery, Yellow for Calvary.  Infantry hits on
a 6, Calvary on 5,6 and artillery on 4,5,6.  Roll each side all at once.  Or
even roll both sides at the same time (using a different color scheme, or
separate dice box to keep them separate).
 
Advantages are the fun of throwing lots of dice (admit it, it feels good)
and generating lots of casualties so even big battles get resolved in a few
quick rounds.
 
Issues:  Not sure that the economics still work, with artillery hitting on
4,5,6 are they now underpriced at 20PP?  (Although I note this is the same
as a +2 modifier in the Basic game).
 
What to do about Leaders?  3,4,5,6?  Getting very powerful, but maybe that's
OK.
 
Not sure how to use Forts in this regard.  Way too much to add +1 to every
die being rolled.  Maybe add in 3 dice for the Fort itself, hitting on 5,6?
Or better, given the defensive nature of a fort, allow the defender to
ignore say 2 hits per round?  (kinda like this last one).
 
No idea how to incorporate the improved technology functions, like forts I
think it is too much to add the modifier to each die thrown.  But again, it
might be that technology allows more dice, not lower to hit numbers?
 
For ships I'd leave the regular rules alone, but since we've now got all
these different color dice around the table, let each ship on a side throw 2
of a given color and resolve the entire sides shot with one throw.  (i.e. 3
ships, one throws 2 blue, one throws 2 red, one throws 2 white and there you
have it).  Much faster than resolving each ship at a time.
 
We tried this a little the other night (not allowing forts or technology)
and it certainly speeded things up.  And it is fun to throw a whole fistful
of dice at once.  We even had enough to let both sides throw at the same
time, which also felt pretty good.  And the naval battles went real well.
 
But not sure about the overall effect and eager to hear your opinions.
Thanks Mike