Repairing Road Kill, Part One

Let's face it: Road Kill has some very serious issues. It took my most recent re-reading of the rules to figure out what 'Unwieldy' does. There's no stats for the Assault Rifle, even though models are armed with it. They said there were three Scenarios in the book, but there's only two. And let's not even start on the misspelled words, the repeated sections of text, and whatever else you can find with a glance. But, at the core, there's something salvageable there. So, I'm going to fix what I can, make house-rules that work for me, and even expand the game. Because I'm awesome like that. Or, I have no life.

For this first part of this series, I'm going to start with the basic rules I don't like and the gaps that need to be filled (like Unwieldy and the stats for the assault rifle).

Let's begin...

I always like to start things off with BANG! Hahaha!

Pre-measuring:

I don't understand why games don't allow this. “Your highly trained and disciplined troops, almost ancient beings with centuries of experience, bio-enhanced to combat monsters from across the stars, etc... Have no idea how far their weapons reach, and thus, will make you waste an entire turn by firing at something to watch their rounds drop before their targets.” This. This right here is what I hear in my head when games don't allow you to measure before making an attack. Most people know the rough range for a pistol (10 yards is a good guideline for the average shooter), and if you use the damn gun, you'll figure out pretty damn quick what your range is with it.

So, I say we allow you to measure ranges before a model you have spends any AP.

Initiative:

Let's face it, the initiative system as presented in the book is, well, kind of dumb. And time consuming. And doesn't allow for a lot of strategy. If you deal the cards face-up, your opponent KNOWS you're holding a card, who you're holding it for, and can probably figure out when you're going to use it. The constant shuffling takes time and doesn't allow you to hold cards between turns. It also doesn't feel very dynamic. So, I have a few solutions:

Instead of dealing each card to a model, each player is dealt an 'initiative hand' with cards total to the total of models the player controls (plus any additional cards from Special Abilities). The player then selects what model uses what card when the card comes up in order, holding cards as normal. When the turn is over, players discard any remaining cards in their hand, except for any they are holding, and draw back up to their total number of models in play. A player may hold only one card between turns and for no more than two turns in a row.

The initiative deck is drawn from until there are no more cards to draw. The deck is then shuffled and cards distributed (if needed).

Alternatively, you can have players draw five cards from the deck (plus any additional cards from Special Abilities). The player with the best poker hand activates one of his models first, then the other player activates a model, and players alternate activating models until all of the models have been activated. Then cards are drawn again and the process is repeated.

Seems legit...

Missing Information:

Unwieldy -

Weapons with this Special Trait -1D to CC defense and -1D to defense Agility.

Assault Rifle -

Cost: 32

Damage: 8[1]

Special: Burst Fire

ER: 28”

ENC: 2

I figured out the stats for the Assault Rifle by taking apart Young Clem and the Wandering Brother and found 30-32 points missing. The Special Forces unit provided the range and damage, which I found matched the stats for the Modern Rifle. So, I took the stats from the Modern Rifle, took the higher of the point costs from the units I looked at, and added Burst Fire.

There we go. The most basic fixes for Road Kill. But don't you worry, I've got plenty more planned. Stay tuned!

YEEE-HAAAW!