IHMN, Designed to be hard to hit and kill?

[ant1clock]

Just finished playing my second game of IHMN with my mate and one of the comments around the table was "its quite hard to hit and kill anything in this game". Now at my club we are all used to playing the evil empire's 40k and fantasy games where more than one round of combat is an unusal sight to us. But are they right? and is this as designed.

I was using my custom Time Team list and my mate was using a Texas Rangers list. I have discounted the stats for most of my Characters because after playing with them for a second time today they are still over powered as built (even after amendments from the first game) and I have taken that into consideration in my comments below. But before I amend them even further to make them more "killable" Can I have your thoughts on the following.

In todays game the average armour value was 9.

When shooting if both models had moved you were immediately at a -6 modifier, if the target had run then you are at -7. Even with an average SV of +2 and a Weapon SV of +2 you are at a total modifier of -2 to hit. With an armour rating of 9 you are looking at a natural 10 every time, this seems a bit tough.

When fighting if both models moved, you have the -6 for moving plus any speed modifier (the average was +1 today). If you have a standard +2 FV and a weapon of FV +2. You are again looking at natural 10s to hit. This improves next round of combat when the movement modifiers are gone.

Once you hit the target the pluck roll then plays its part in both shooting and fighting phases. Which on a average of 4+ pluck roll with an average weapon modifier of -1 will makes a basic save a good bet.

None of the above has been math hammered so there's probably plenty of holes in my logic. I could even be playing the above modifiers incorrectly it is only my second game. However I come to the conclusion that given that in any real world examples fights are never over in five seconds and shooting never hits first time I think maybe its us that need to adjust to the pace of this game.

Thoughts on the above are most welcome and obviously correction to my interpretation of the rules most appreciated.

Cheers

ant1clock.

[Silbuster]

Unless your protagonist is a crack shot, then trying to hit something while moving yourself is going to need a stroke of luck with the weapons of the period. If stationary, then with Weapon bonus of 2+, SV of 2+ and the target moving modifier of -2 then the total modifier is +2. In which case you would hit target armour of 9 on 7+(40%). It's being stationary which makes all the   difference. You might like to consider having some troops stationary laying down covering fire while the others advance. Nobody has assault rifles here.
Incidentally, pluck 4+, FV 2+ and SV 2+ is a veteran trooper. A lot of my troops are 5+, 1+ ,1+. They seem to fall over quite a lot. Some of my opponents use cultists at 6+, 0+, 0+, armour 7. They seem to find it difficult to stay on their feet for more than a few minutes.

[Craig]

When fighting if both models moved, you have the -6 for moving plus any speed modifier (the average was +1 today). If you have a standard +2 FV and a weapon of FV +2. You are again looking at natural 10s to hit. This improves next round of combat when the movement modifiers are gone.

In reality it is hard to shoot something that is on the move and even harder if you to are on the move. The Bullet to Casualty ration in all modern wars is appalling with most bullets disappearing into the landscape.  That said, look carefully at your figures and determine which ones are best suited to shooting then settle them down into a fixed position to cover your other chaps.

As for fighting, there are no situational modifiers for movement in fighting, only outnumbering or mobbing. So I think you may have been reading that wrong.

[shadowking1957]

can i make my house rule a suggestion a 10 is always a hit regardless on the dice ? it speeds up play alot, we rioll the dice then do the mods etc  but a 10 you can just go to  the pluck roll. my rules only but it does make poor toops better and they can still break ther weapons or go out of ammo on a 1 followed by a 1

[Silbuster]

Regarding the tempus field. If one assumes that the field moves its owner in space and time in order to avoid the bullet, how about the following.
No armour = 7; tempus armour = 12 and is light.
If the shooter scores 8 then the tempus armour wearer is immediately moved 1” directly away from the shooter. This represents the field saving him by moving him in spacetime.
If the shooter scores 9, then the tempus armous wearer is immediately moved 2” directly away from the shooter.
Etc.
The inconvenience of continually being pushed back, possibly into a position from whence the tempus wearer cannot shoot, or possibly being pushed off the board and out of the game, would compensate for the armour being light.
Actually, you could take this further and decide what level of tempus armour your figure can afford. An armour of 16 would be practically invulnerable but, if the opponent scores 15, your figure would shoot 8” backwards…

As regards the temporal rifle, it could be treated in a similar fashion. It would ignore armour and, hence, treat all targets as armour 7. However, when achieving a hit, instead of a pluck test, the victim throws on the following table where E is the shooter’s score minus 7:
1: The victim is immediately moved 4” + E” straight back from the shooter.
2: The victim in immediately moved 4” + E” directly right as seen from the shooter’s position.
3: The victim is immediately moved 4” + E” directly left as seen from the shooter’s position.
4: The victim is immediately moved 4” + E”towards the shooter.
5: The victim is immediately moved 4” + E”downwards. Unless standing on a building at least 4” + E” tall, the victim will not survive this.
6: The victim is immediately moved 4” + E” straight up. He will then move 4” + E” straight down and will have to pass a pluck test. The pluck modifier will be -E.
This would compensate for the weapon being able to fire every turn with no external power source.

[ant1clock]

As for fighting, there are no situational modifiers for movement in fighting, only outnumbering or mobbing. So I think you may have been reading that wrong.

Yeah of course your right. Re-reading the manual it's the bit on Pg 14 about shooting when in combat that I'd got mixed up with in my original post.

Thanks for all the comments as I said I think it's us that needs to adjust ourselves, we are too used to removing 5 guys at a time from one combat in our fantasy and 40k games, even Bolt Action. As I migrate from 40K to smaller skirmish games I'm realising that its not all about annihilating each other (which is where most of 40K ends up) its about a good scenario and an achievable objective. I'm going to make the games more narrative driven and probably end up running an ongoing story driven campaign if I can get some regulars. I think then they'll see the beauty in not killing everything on the field when characters move from one game to the other.

@Silbuster. I'd used a table effect this Sunday and it worked quite well, instead of killing models it removed them for a turn or two and displaced them on the field of play dependant on D10 roll. I'll be working on my Time Team list tomorrow trying to once again balance it up and I'll post it in my other thread when I get the chance.

cheers all.

ant1clock