New rules are here

Thanks Terry

Terrain is handled pretty much the same. There is a new terrain chart that includes a column for size category. This is used for line of sight. Line of sight is blocked if it passes through an element of same or larger size than the shooter or the target. I think the size column on the terrain table is intended for intervening terrain to determine if it blocks line of sight or just gives cover. It isn't actually stated in the rules that I can find. Otherwise the terrain table looks pretty familiar with terrain types, unit types, and a resulting Defensive and armor bonus and if the terrain is normal, difficult, or impassable for that type of unit.Artillery fire is similar to the old rules. However barrage points are used slightly differently. In the old rules barrage points affected the size of the template. Now a single temple size is used for all barrage strengths and the barrage strength is added to the D10 roll for each element under the template. I think I like this simpler system.

The next section in the rules is command. This is pretty similar to the old rules and I have already noted that there are additional orders available in the new rules. There is a 5 page section on special rules. These are the special rules that apply to specific units. In the old book they were appended to the unit description. Here they are all pulled together in a single section. Among things of note, Gass weapons now use a separate gas template. And the template stays on the table and affects units moving under it until a die roll causes it to disperse in the end phase. Gas Proof no longer makes the unit immune to gas attacks. It does reduce the power of the attack to 0. Rapid fire still adds that many more dice to the attack, but the unit may target multiple units as well. From the rules, "For example, a weapon with Rapid-Fire 2 fires twice and so rolls two dice. These shots can be at separate targets or the same target." It is not quite clear to me if you get 2 dice at two targets or only 1 die at each of two targets. Tesla shots are simplified. Now if the hit is successful it also rolls to his every element within 10" of the target. With Tow Cables tripods no longer are immobilized. Instead they get shock tokens. Tranporting infantry and towing artillery is pretty much the same.

Buildings are covered in a similar manner as the old rules. Under fortifications we now have barbed wire, tank traps and mine fields.

That covers the basic and advanced rules sections. A quick peek at the rest of the book shows there are significant changes to building armies. There are a couple of new tripod types and some of the old types are missing. Most non-infantry units now have their own damage tables. Damage to tripods no longer reduce armor but hits are applied to "structure points". After I actually read these sections I'll comment more.

Terry

Getting a game on the table is going slow. I am confused by the section on building an army. From Face Book it appears I am not alone. I want to use US troops for the humans and there is a PDF from Abby Normal that gives stats for US. I am wondering if that is a final version. Probably what is going to happen is we will throw some troops on the table and not worry about balance or adherence to the rules on designing armies. Give me 2 or 3 weeks and I’ll post what we find.

Garagebay9, thanks for the info on building units. I thought I had had figured out the Martian process and this confirms it. I think a step-by-step example in the book like this would go a long way towards clearing the confusion. For our test game I will be using US forces. The presentation in the US Army PDF was pretty clear. I had to possibly cheat a bit to get the unit mix I was after. I wanted a tank company supported by an infantry platoon. I made it work but as I said it may not be entirely by the rules. Also, I'm glad to see you are monitoring this forum. This used to be "The Place" for info on activity about the game. I hope it will again become a hotspot for game info, especially as many on this forum say they do not follow FaceBook.

Tell us about the US force

There's absolutely no requirement to use our models in order to play with our rules. In fact, we've been 100% adamant from the start that 1st Edition models aren't just welcomed on the table right next to 2nd Edition ones, they belong there.

This game would not have still been around for us to re-launch it if it wasn't for the loyalty and dedication of the fans who kept the faith, and nobody is more aware of that, or appreciates it more, than those of us at Abby Normal. Your 1st Edition models are absolutely part of the game, full stop.

It's taking us a little bit to dot all our i's and cross all our t's with the updated unit stats and faction rules for the US and UK forces, but they are coming and we have not forgotten those. We are also planning to overhaul the US forces in soon on our roadmap. Even then, 1st Edition models belong on the table. There's going to be some new units that don't have 1st Edition counterparts, but that's already the case with some of the Martian units as well.