Some changes to “Throw me a Six!”

It has been pointed out to me by Austin that Warbands are completely under-powered.  I agree!  There are a couple of tweaks that need to be added to address this and a few other short comings.

Warbands add +2 when they charge.  If they win a melee, the next melee gives them +1.

Speaking of charging, in one of my games, I found that a unit might slide out of contact with a retreating enemy.  This got me to thinking that moving to contact and the maneuver rules in general need a slight tweak.

Units move straight ahead.  As a maneuver, they may turn or move up to 45 degrees to the left or right without changing facing.  depending on the unit this may or may not cost a half move.  They may pivot around the center of the unit for a cost of half a move.  They may then finish the rest of their move straight ahead after a turn.  They may move in any other direction for the cost of half a move.

The latter may seem redundant but some units can oblique for free.   The point here is that a unit can make only one maneuver per turn.

Moving to contact can involve a maneuver but it must be a forward move and must adhere to the rules outlined above.

Another idea Austin suggested was to give units a combat grade as well.  Superior, average and inferior in descending order.  If your combat grade is higher than your opponents, you get to roll an extra die.  This changes the way armor works simply because my original idea rolled both into the same stat.  If you are fighting an opponent who’s armor is better than yours, roll 1 less die.  Note that units that have a charge bonus ignore armor differences on any turn they charge.  Elephants always ignore armor.

Finally, when a unit is hit from behind, attackers get +2 dice instead of +1 die and they still get a first strike if they charged in.

This should go along way to answer some “power” issues with some units.