GDW Imperium
A modest fix kit by Henry J Cobb
$Id: oldimp.txt,v 1.3 2005/04/30 00:25:55 hcobb Exp $

Some fixes for a few items that annoy me about the GDW edition of Imperium.

Space Combat.

Replace Range Determination with Initiative Determination.

The phasing player has the tactical initiative during the first round of
each space combat and the players roll for the initiative every round
thereafter.

Each ship has a tactical speed for use in space combat.

The tactical speed of freighters and tankers is one.  The tactical speed of
capital ships is two.  The tactical speed of all other ships is three.

The tactical speed of a disrupted ship is one less than normal.

For the initiative roll each player adds the tactical speed of his slowest
ship to the roll of one die.  A player with fewer non-fighter ships than
his opponent adds one to his roll.  The player who had the initiative in
the previous round of space combat adds one to his roll.

If the two adjusted rolls are tied then the initiative passes to the player
who didn't have in the previous round but he cannot change the range this
round, otherwise on the second and later rounds the player with the
initiative can increase the range one step from long to disengage or short
to long or can decrease the range from long to short or he can leave the
range the same as the previous round.

If a player chooses to move to disengage range then he may load his fighters
on any motherships he has in the combat and then all of his jump capable
ships must jump out of the system.

Ship Allocation.

It is the player who doesn't have the initiative who puts out his ships to
be matched by the player who does have the initiative and it is then the
player who has the initiative who declares types of fire first.

Combat Resolution.

Every time an undisrupted ship with a screen factor of 2 or higher suffers
a hit from space combat or planetary defense fire, roll one die and if the
roll is less than the ship's screen factor it becomes disrupted instead of
being destroyed.

High Intensity Missile Fire.

This requires too much record keeping so replace this with the following.

Only the player with the initiative may declare Suicide Attacks (for beams)
or Time on Target attacks (with missiles) in space combat.

Attacks are resolved in the following order.

    1> Defensive fire against suicide attacks.
    2> Suicide attacks.
    3> Normal Beam attacks.
    4> Normal or short range missile fire.
    5> Time on Target Missile attacks.

Apply destruction or disruption effects to each ship at the end of each of
these five steps before resolving any fire in the next step.  (A ship which
is hit multiple times in the same step is of course eliminated because the
first hit would have at least disrupted it, but it defends against all
attacks during each step with the state it had at the start of that step.)

A ship which conducts a Time on Target missile attack is holding back the
first missiles in a launch wave so that all of its missiles will strike at
the same time, which will hopefully overwhelm the target's defenses.
Resolve all other attacks first and then if the ship using a Time on Target
attack has survived, resolve its attack as a normal or short range missile
fire attack but with a +1 modifier to hit the target.

Using a Time on Target missile attack does not affect the ship's ability to
use normal or Time on Target attacks in later turns.

Surface Combat.

Use the same procedure as in Space Combat to determine initiative in
Surface Combat, but range isn't used.  Troops have a speed of 2, fighters
have a speed of 3 and all other units have a speed of zero in ground
combat.

Use the missile CRT instead of the surface combat CRT with each attack made
by one unit against another in ground combat without combining factors
together for a single attack.

Troops attack and defend with their printed strength.  Planetary Defense
Systems and fighters attack and defend with strength two.  Outposts defend
with factor two.  Worlds except for homeworlds defend with factor four and
homeworlds defend with factor six.  Other counters have no effect in
surface combat.

Terminating combat.

Surface combat continues for three rounds or until all units with surface
combat factors on one side are eliminated.

Starships.

The production cost of Scouts is changed to 2 RU each.

The Maintenance number of Missile Boats is changed to 2 and the Maintenance
number of Motherships is changed to 3.

Maintenance.

Overhaul:  Any ship at a friendly world can be given an overhaul during the
Maintenance and Production Phase by spending a number of RUs equal to its
Maintenance number.  An overhaul undisrupts a ship if it was disrupted.

Routine Maintenance: Any ship at a friendly system that didn't get an
overhaul this turn can be provided with Routine Maintenance, up to the
limit of the system.  Each friendly Outpost provides 6 Maintenance factors
for Routine Maintenance and each friendly World provides 20 Maintenance
factors.  Routine Maintenance simply maintains each ship in its current
disrupted or undisrupted state.

For example, the Alpha Centauri system with two worlds can provide Routine
Maintenance for 10 CRs.

Frontier Maintenance: Any ships that were not provided an Overhaul or
Routine Maintenance must roll one die for Frontier Maintenance.  If the
roll is less than or equal to the ship's Maintenance number it is disrupted
and if the roll is greater than the ship's Maintenance number it is
undisrupted.  If a currently disrupted ship rolls a one on the die it is
destroyed instead of remaining disrupted.  There is no adjustment for this
roll.

Interwar Income Phase:  Both players receive a full turn's income for war
preparation.  The advantage of setting up second and attacking first is
sufficient for the loser of the previous war.

Starting the First War:

Instead of the listed setup, the Imperial forces start with the following
worlds and outposts instead of the listed setup.

Imperial Worlds: Dingir, Gashidda, Ishkur, Tau Ceti, Epsilon Eridari and
Nusku.

Imperial Outposts: Shulgi, Kinunir, Shulgiili, Enki Kalamma, Shuruppak,
Markhashi, Zaggisi, Apishal and Dushaam.

Both players start each war with no more than each system's limit of
Routine Maintenance of ships at that system.

-HJC