From: Henry J Cobb Subject: Imperium, 3rd Millennium Unofficial fixkit Imperium, 3rd Millennium Unofficial fixkit by Henry J Cobb Everybody seems to have their own set of house rules for Imperium, 3rd Millennium so here's mine. I'm trying to stay true to the spirit of this game and not try to turn it into the old Imperium game. Each alteration is marked as follows. [Clarify] Clearing up a point in the rules. [Typo] An obvious typo in the rules. [Balance] A game balance fix. 6.0 The Empire [Balance] Skip the Imperial Intervention step and appeals on the first turn of every war because it takes a while for news of the war to get back to the Emperor. 7.3 Connections [Clarify] Some hexes contain two star systems, like Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B and a connection can be traced through either system in a hex. 8.0 Reinforcements. Terran Restrictions [Balance] The Terran player may not produce Heavy Cruisers(CA) until one Terran cruiser of some other type has been destroyed in combat. The Terran player may not produce Battleships(B) until one Terran Heavy Cruiser(CA) has been destroyed in combat. The Terran player may not produce Super Dreadnoughts(BB) until one Terran Battleship(B) has been destroyed in combat. This keeps the terrans from outclassing (pun intended) the imperials before the Emperor has had a chance to ramp up permissions and it also represents the learning process the Terrans went though to produce their capital ships. 10.0 Action Segments. [Clarify] Each activation only covers one star system in a hex. [Clarify] During each action segment a fleet may either move or engage in other activities such as splitting or combining with other fleets or loading or unloading or attacking a planet. [Clarify] A player may activate the same system multiple times (with different activations), but each fleet can only be activated once per Action Segment. 12.0 Space Battle. [Balance] Even a large habitable planet takes up a very small part of a cube that is 50,000 miles on a side. Therefore fleets can freely enter the center hex. Any time a group of ships enters the central area (2-3-3) of a planet that contains hostile planetary defense systems during space battle the planetary defense systems may attack the ships. Select a target ship for each planetary defense system from the ships that just entered the central area and the attack factors are conducted as per long range missile fire with each factor scoring a hit on a roll of six that can be countered with the target ship's counter measures. Defending forces at a friendly planet setup in the central area (2-3-3), while non moving forces for hostile or uncontrolled planets setup adjacent to it. 12.3 Resolution. [Balance] Reverse the sequence of movement so that all ships move on the first impulse and then ships of movement 2 or 3 and finally just the ships of movement 3 so that damaged ships fall behind on the same combat round. Ending a space battle. [Balance] The battle ends after three consecutive rounds when no ships were damaged or destroyed or when the forces of one side have all been eliminated or escaped. 12.5 Battle Movement. Exiting the Display. [Balance] FTL-capable ships in battle near a planet of class A or class N must exit the map by moving off of one of the entry areas to be far enough away from the planet to safely jump. Non FTL-capable ships cannot exit the map unless they are fighters onboard a carrier. Fighters may choose to leave the map (and space battle) by landing on a friendly world or outpost as they move into the central area (2-3-3) but they cannot rejoin the same battle later. 12.6 Bean Fire. Divided Fire. [Clarify] A capital ship may split its beam factors in any way it pleases between the two targets. 12.7 Torpedo Fire. Divided Fire. [Clarify] A capital ship may split its torpedo factors in any way it pleases between the two targets. Counter Measures. [Clarify] "A ship may not use its CM to deflect hits [targeted at] another ship [besides itself]." 13.1 Planetary Bombardment. [Clarify] The hits inflicted by planetary defensive fire and planetary bombardment are torpedo hits and subject to Counter Measures on targeted ships and fighters. Roll the CM for each defending fighter after the planetary bombardment hits are allocated. 13.4 Surface Battle. 5. End of Battle. [Balance] It is far too easy for the Terrans to grab a high production world under the rules as written. If a world or outpost is occupied by hostile troops and has no friendly forces it remains loyal to it's original owner but is treated as a disputed planet that does not block jump route connections for either side, however it does count as captured for the glory index. An occupied planet can be converted into a friendly outpost by deploying an outpost there on any activation after the occupying troops have been landed. At the end of every Administrative Segment after construction roll one die for every occupied outpost (but not world) on a roll of six it switches allegiance to match the occupying troops. If at any time an occupied planet has no occupying troops because they have been withdrawn or destroyed then it reverts back to its owner's control and the glory index is adjusted as if an enemy world or outpost had been occupied. So the result is that outposts just need to be garrisoned for a while but worlds need to be occupied and then a friendly outpost landed and then it can then be redeveloped as a friendly world. In 16.0 Going Home first remove all of the occupying troops of the loosing side then remove any occupying troops of the winning side that can not trace a connection to a friendly world that is free of enemy planets that are not themselves under occupation. Occupying troops of the winning side that can trace a connection remain in place and do not go home. Occupation can continue during peacetime and the planets can be converted as above. An occupied planet counts as friendly towards the occupier for which units can enter its star system during peacetime. 14.2 Scraping. [Clarify] Round down the scraping value of each ship to the nearest integer. 16.0 Inter-war turns. [Balance] The peace lasts until war breaks out again. At the start of each Administrative Segment the terran player rolls two dice and if the total is less than the number of turns of peace then the next war starts. So the peace will always last at least 2 turns and war can only break out on the third turn on a roll of 2. Going Home [Balance] If a player has a connected set of worlds that are cut off from his capital then the forces there "go home" to one world they can trace a path to. For example if the Terrans hold outposts in Nusku and Apishal (by occupation or with their own outposts) then Imperial forces at a world on Amarku remain there. Peace Dividend. [Clarify] The loss of stockpiled RUs occurs only once at the end of each war and not during each of the peacetime turns following. Outpost Upgrades [Clarify] The four turns to upgrade an Outpost need not all occur during the same peace. Scenarios. [Typo] Read MB as TB. Scenario Six: [Balance] Ignore the listed planetary defense systems and simply place one on every friendly world. [Balance] Each player gets one outpost on the secondary planet in each system that lists a world. So Earth gets a world marker and Mars gets an outpost. This means that the Terran total production starts at 33 and the Imperial total production (including budget) starts at 29. -HJC From: Henry J Cobb Subject: Re: Imperium, 3rd Millennium Unofficial fixkit I'm also working on a cost formula for the game. So far it's add up the beam, missile and screen factors on both sides of the counter, add 1/6th the CMs from both sides and subtract the normal maint and half the damaged maint. As you can see it doesn't work yet, but it's getting there. I do agree with the current ratios for picking out winners. The Terrans have better ships for the cost across the board and should build TBs then BBs then CAs and forget the rest. (An Outpost is well guarded by 3 TBs and unlike fighters or monitors they can jump to the attack.) The Imps start out unable to build anything cost effective and of the units they can build the CL is the best of a bad field with the CS almost as good. I'm thinking about knocking beam factors down to a cost of say 2/3rds per point. Terran Units Name List price Calc Price Ratio SC 2 1.17 0.58 DD 5 3.00 0.6 TB 6 7.33 1.22 AT 6 4.00 0.67 CL 8 6.83 0.85 M 8 15.0 1.88 CV 10 1.83 0.18 F 2 3.00 1.5 CV+3F 16 10.83 0.68 CS 13 10.83 0.83 CA 15 15.83 1.06 B 20 20.83 1.04 BB 24 26.67 1.11 Imperial Units Name List price Calc Price Ratio SC 2 1.17 0.58 DD 5 3.00 0.6 CL 8 7.00 0.88 M 8 15.0 1.88 CV 10 1.83 0.18 F 2 3.00 1.5 CV+2F 14 7.83 0.56 CS 13 10.83 0.83 CR 13 12.5 0.96 CA 15 15.33 1.02 B1 16 13.5 0.84 B2 19 17.83 0.94 BB 23 23.5 1.02 -HJC