by To cut down on my own confusion and to honor the experiences of those who did grow up playing Space Crusade (please be patient with me at the table!) I am laying out a few rules that I think should be clarified before we play... and I plan to host Space Crusade on MOST Fridays (starting again in January, though probably not that first weekend or two as I am visiting family for some late Christmas gatherings) 2-4pm CST (later if we're feeling up to it!) on http://www.twitch.tv/heroquestfans
The Alien/Chaos Player is more like the banker player in Monopoly, an equal competitor and not simply the GM (who can decide to allow the heroes to have an adventure or try to destroy them any way he can short of outright cheating!). So the old "Zargon is the ultimate authority" carries less weight this time! On the other hand, the others are all ganging up on him, so he has to say something sometimes!
1) Moving around corners. It was pointed out to me that normally you can move diagonally (unlike HQ). What happens when you hit a corner, can you "clip past" it? We were thinking it seems better if you have to use your movement to move "around" the corner of the wall, instead of clipping past like a video game. Yes, it uses up an extra square of movement but adds to the tension. Maybe you could say the bulky characters can't always make it? I think technically in the rules there is nothing saying you have to do this, but if this is how people play I am okay with it.
2) Moving "Past" figures. Normally to pass through the square occupied by another figure that figure has to "allow you to pass." When it's your own team, that's no problem, but a Marine player could choose not to allow another marine player's pieces to pass if he wanted to. Aliens always allow fellow aliens to pass. But what if you have two enemies who are on close diagonals from each other and you (as the opponent) want to move one of your pieces diagonally BETWEEN them, do they have to allow you? We decided that the rules don't say you can't move past, and so you can (unless we are talking the huge Dreadnought which wouldn't have room).
3) Plasma Gun vs. the Dreadnought. Some have debated this because in some situations since this creature takes up four squares, it is possible to fire the Plasma gun in such a way as the beam passes through two squares of it. Some say this means it should be hit twice or take double damage. Technically the rules don't say this, so I would agree it is a house rule and we would say it only hits once for normal damage rolled.
4) Eldar hand to hand. There is a contradiction between the Mission book (which includes the rules for this Space Crusade expansion) and the info card showing their abilities. The Commander attacks with 3 light (white) combat dice for melee. But are the other Eldar warriors 3 or 2? One reference says 2, the other says 3. A suggested compromise from BGG forums based on fan feedback is that "heavy weapons" Eldar should use 2 dice for hand to hand, and "normal warriors" (not just the Exarch which is their equivalent of a commander) should get 3.
5) Orders when the Commander is dead. At first I was thinking well of course if the Commander dies, no one can issue orders. But it was pointed out to me that he actually gets the orders from the mothership. So in theory "new" orders come from a radio of some kind to the squad. So while it would make it more strategically interesting to say if the Commander is dead the orders can't be used, I am going to agree that Orders CAN still be used in this case.
6) "New" Orders? This appears to be another judgement call. When an Event card says the Marines can get a new Order card, does it literally have to be a "new" one that was not chosen before the mission began? Here I would say I would allow a previously used up Order could be issued again (it is still "new" just in the same form of a previous order). But I would still limit the Orders to the number of physical cards that came with the game!
7) Close Range Shooting. This was the hardest one for me to notice and accept because of my understanding of this rule in HeroQuest, but Space Crusade is a different game! So it seems the intention of the rules has always been that if you are adjacent to an enemy figure (or orthogonally adjacent, aka close diagonal with the Blood Angel "Close Blades" card in play) you can choose EITHER to engage them in melee combat (in which case the enemy always gets to roll their own melee to see who has the highest, and of course armor is ignored) OR he can shoot at another target somewhere else OR he can shoot the enemy at close range (no special bonus, it works just like any other ranged attack which has to defeat armor to do damage) OR he can choose not to attack the figure at all. I originally thought melee was the only way you could attack someone at close range, but there is no minimum or maximum range of "firing/shooting" and the only dangers are Plasma gun can blast through targets and Missile can cause splash damage, both of which can lead to "friendly fire" incidents.
8) Line of Sight rules for shooting. It seems to me that the clearest intention of the rules is that you can only shoot a target that you have clear "line of sight" to. The only difference is that Plasma can fire through one target to hit another on the other side (doing damage to both based on dice rolls). The only exception to this is the Missile Launcher (rocket launcher) which targets a specific SQUARE. You could (in theory) target a square at the edge of a corner, knowing there is a blip token on the other side that would be caught in the explosion and (potentially) damaged. The question of the rocket firing in a straight line vs. some kind of "lobbed" weapon in a parabolic arc through the hallway or some kind of homing missile could explain how it works if you wish to say you can fire from behind your buddy in a corridor to hit the enemy on the other side. I am inclined to say that the Missile should be treated like other weapons when it comes to targeting. If there is someone else in the way, you risk hitting them with the rocket.
9) Resolving target disputes? The Rules say that if there is a dispute over LOS then both players roll one red heavy weapons die. The highest roll determines who decides if the target has valid LOS that turn. If it is a tie then whoever's turn it is gets to decide in that instance. I read that as saying this doesn't mean it is a binding decision for all time in similar situations. I also implement the house rule of the "uncommon feat." Here one of the Marine players (or vice versa with the alien player to the marines) can propose a plausible (within the game's lore, world and setting) one-off situation as an exception to the rule. This could include "lobbing the rocket over my buddy's head." As with our HQ houserule with Uncommon Feats, there would be a 50% chance of success or failure (roll 1 red die... a number means success, a zero means failure.. so if you fail maybe your buddy gets hit instead!).
10) As when we play HeroQuest on Twitch, the chatters (who are not controlling figures in the game) can use their channel points (still gold coins) to "buy" for one faction or another. They can purchase bonus "Orders" (from the cards not in play), Equipment (ditto) for the Marines/Eldar/non-Chaotic Orks... they can also purchase an "Alien Event" for the Alien/Chaos player, or a Reinforcement Token for the bad guy side. Buyers are encouraged to specify who the reward is for, or "let the GM decide" (the GM being the one hosting the game). If the suggestion cannot be fulfilled at the time, we will fulfill it as soon as it becomes possible to do so (let's say for instance if all the Orders were already in play; or if the queue didn't appear until after the game had ended--it could be put towards the next mission). Other rewards like directions to travel in and such are more like suggestions, and the players still have a final say over whether they will follow that advice!
Any others I should address? Also, I'm open to it being when someone else hosts the game and takes on the Alien player responsibility that we can re-negotiate the rules much as we might do that when someone else is playing as Zargon (even though Zargon is the true GM and the Chaos/Alien player is a kind of lite GM).
