So, it's Wednesday night and I'm bored (and spent the last few days reading lots of posts on the subject). So thought I'd throw another twist on the subject.
A couple of points I'm aiming for:
- Keep it simple, or at least limit complexity
- Don't nerf capability too bad, but not overpowered
- Better flavor/crunch, less homogenization
Organization has a few changes. Foot and jump stay the same, with full platoons of 28 and 21 respectively. They can use squad deployment rules if desired. Motorized infantry goes away (sort of - it's now "light" mechanized). Mechanized is built and deployed in squads, with all applicable rules (+1 to hit, stacking, etc.). Only light mechanized infantry can enter buildings without causing damage (but take no damage), unless the building is designed for vehicles to enter e.g. hangars.
Construction is a bit different. Mechanized infantry has a new motive type "light", to replace the motorized type. Standard, support, and disposable weapons are tracked separately rather than combined. Mechanized types, except for light, reduce crew requirements for support weapons by one (2 becomes 1, 1E becomes 1, etc.) to a minimum of one. Light mechanized may not carry support weapons. A specific support vehicle may be assigned, otherwise the generic MPs for the different classes stay the same.
Combat handles weapons differently. Two attacks can be made each round, between support and either standard or disposable. Standard weapons have no effect on Mechs and vehicles. Damage to battle armor is normal, in 5-point clusters. Roll for number of troopers that hit against BA and conventional infantry, or use the 9 result for quick play. Damage to ProtoMechs is 1 point for 5 points or less max damage (without rolling), 2 points for 6 or higher.
Support and disposable weapons are treated much the same as battle armor weapons. Roll for the number of hits, or use the 9 result for quick play. Damage is similar as well, although it requires some potentially new values or conversions. For example, the Bearhunter cannon is treated the same as the battle armor version; the heavy support pulse laser (Clan) is a Clan medium pulse laser. A foot platoon with 1 SRM per squad is treated as an SRM4. Some of the support machine guns/cannons need to grouped as BA light/medium/heavy machine guns.
Based on the number of support weapons, a certain number of blocks on the infantry platoon/squad sheet are highlighted/greyed out starting with the top/left-most trooper. As these troopers are marked off reduce the support weapon count. This works much like the grey boxes on the ProtoMech hit table. And yes, this reduces the support weapons after the first trooper is marked off. Doing it the other way around seems a little too resilient.
