Galadrin
Member
I was curious, where are we with the Oldhammer retroclone? I definitely support this idea, and can see it being published as a free PDF on DriveThruRPG, Wargame Vault or something similar. We could even use open license art from the Renaissance like Pieter Brueghel's The Suicide of Saul or Albrecht Altdorfer's The Battle of Issus (or even Renaissance etchings of Landsknechte). Is there a project lead at this point? I formally can offer my services for layout (I've done layout and design professionally for about seven years now and I have all the software and tools). It seems there are a lot of younger players dissatisfied with the latest edition so it makes sense to offer them some alternative.
Also, I had some rules suggestions. In generally I am for keeping the game as close to the original as possible, but there are somethings we can clean up a little bit to make it more straightforward for new players. I've been toying around with these ideas in particular:
1) Shifting the movement penalties for armour to the Reserve movement phase. Thus, instead of armour providing oddball .5" or 1.5" penalties, I would have a Shield provide no penalty to movement (it is enough that it uses the model's off-hand and is useless against attacks from the rear) and Light Armour and Heavy Armour would respectively provide -1" and -2" movement penalties during the Reserve Movement phase only. Thus, if a human unit with heavy armour is kept from moving in the Reserve phase by nearby enemies, they would still move 4". If they could move again in the Reserve phase, they would move an additional 2" for 6" total (which is the same difference as moving 3" in each phase). Horse barding would provide another -1".
2) Simplify terrain movement penalties. Instead of halving movement, a unit in difficult ground would simply not be allowed a Reserve Movement phase. Thus if they moved out of difficult terrain in their regular Movement phase, they could continue to take a Reserve Movement phase, but if they originally Moved into or within difficult terrain, they would lose Reserve Movement for that round. Combined with the earlier rule, this makes sure that heavily armoured units are not doubly punished for moving through difficult terrain (which may seem logical, but honestly tends to spoil those units in play if they happen to get trapped on bad ground).
I have also considered adopting the random charge and pursue distances from later editions of the game. This means infantry (units with Movement 5 or less) would charge and pursue 2d6" (minus movement modifiers from armour) and cavalry (units with Movement 6 or more) would charge and pursue 3d6". To adjust for this randomness, failed charges would merely make the unit unformed, but would not entail the unit missing it's next turn of movement.
Also, I had some rules suggestions. In generally I am for keeping the game as close to the original as possible, but there are somethings we can clean up a little bit to make it more straightforward for new players. I've been toying around with these ideas in particular:
1) Shifting the movement penalties for armour to the Reserve movement phase. Thus, instead of armour providing oddball .5" or 1.5" penalties, I would have a Shield provide no penalty to movement (it is enough that it uses the model's off-hand and is useless against attacks from the rear) and Light Armour and Heavy Armour would respectively provide -1" and -2" movement penalties during the Reserve Movement phase only. Thus, if a human unit with heavy armour is kept from moving in the Reserve phase by nearby enemies, they would still move 4". If they could move again in the Reserve phase, they would move an additional 2" for 6" total (which is the same difference as moving 3" in each phase). Horse barding would provide another -1".
2) Simplify terrain movement penalties. Instead of halving movement, a unit in difficult ground would simply not be allowed a Reserve Movement phase. Thus if they moved out of difficult terrain in their regular Movement phase, they could continue to take a Reserve Movement phase, but if they originally Moved into or within difficult terrain, they would lose Reserve Movement for that round. Combined with the earlier rule, this makes sure that heavily armoured units are not doubly punished for moving through difficult terrain (which may seem logical, but honestly tends to spoil those units in play if they happen to get trapped on bad ground).
I have also considered adopting the random charge and pursue distances from later editions of the game. This means infantry (units with Movement 5 or less) would charge and pursue 2d6" (minus movement modifiers from armour) and cavalry (units with Movement 6 or more) would charge and pursue 3d6". To adjust for this randomness, failed charges would merely make the unit unformed, but would not entail the unit missing it's next turn of movement.