So we all know Twilight Imperium uses a dice system similar to Axis and Allies with the one difference being D10 instead of a D6. This is sort of inspired by Rebellion's combat system with different colors of health and dice as different types of attacks as some units tend to be better against others (black for evasive, red for armored). So with armada we have 3 different dice colors. Black Blue and Red. So for each of the dice colors for each unit type. Black for Ground Forces and Shock Troops, Blue for Fighters, and Red for ships/facilities/mechanical units. For those of you not familiar with Armada dice they are 8 sided dice with the following table.

1-2, blank / 3, Accuracy / 4-5, Hit / 6-7, Crit / 8, Double Hit

1-2, Accuracy / 3-6, Hit / 7-8, Crit

1-2, blank / 3-6 Hit, / 7-8 Hit & Crit

Hit ( Red Dice Double Hit ) : Does 1 damage to a unit of the same health type (defenders choice)

Critical Hit : Does 1 damage to a unit of the attackers chosen health type (defenders choice)

Accuracy : Attacker chooses a unit to be dealt damage first.

Hit&Crit (black dice special) : see Ground Forces below .

Armada dice have 3 symbols on it, accuracy, hit, and critical hit. For the most part for each hit that is one damage to another unit of the same health type. Every critical hit can be one damage to any unit type (like direct hits from Rebellion). For accuracy result rolled the attacker can chose 1 hit result to allocate to a a defending unit while the defender decides the rest. When the defender runs out of units for the damage type he must suffer the rest of the damage if discarded.

Example Carrier and 6 fighters (7 blue) vs Cruiser and Dreadnought (3 red). The Carrier and 6 Fighters roll 2 crits and 1 accuracy and 4 hits. Carrier declares 2 red and 4 blue with 1 of the red hitting the Cruiser. Cruiser and Dreadnought roll 1 hit 1 crit and 1 blank Cruiser and Dreadnought declare 1 red and 1 blue. The Carrier is destroyed and so is another fighter. Also the Cruiser is removed and the Dreadnoughts sustains damage and since there are no fighters all the blue hits are discarded .

So for the units with health type and attack value this is what I have. Sustain Damage = +1 Health

Fighter 1 Blue

Carrier Boarding*

Destroyer 1 Blue

Cruiser 1 Red

Dreadnought(SD) 1 Blue 1 Red

War Sun(SD) 3 Red

Space Dock -

Ground Forces* 1 black (maximum of 3)

Shock Troops* Like Ground Forces with special rules

PDS* 1 Blue 1 Red

Mechanized Unit(SD) 2 Red

Ground Forces have a special rule since on their dice the face that has a crit result also has a hit result. So for ground forces and PDF there are special rules. You can only roll up to 3 black dice for ground forces and/or shock troops. When attacking Ground forces ignore all critical hit results (treating them like a single hit). When defending Ground forces can count up to 1 critical hit for their results. When ground forces are attacking with shock troops ground forces can count 1 critical result for each shock troop token (to a maximum of 3). When ground forces are defending a planet with a PDS they may count up to 3 critical hit results. As for recruiting shock troops whenever a direct hit result is ignored 1 ground force unit can be converted to a shock troop. All direct hits that can be counted will be added to damage and not ignored.

Boarding Carriers have no attack value in space but are not completely defenseless. In desperation or perhaps in attempt to seize a ship a carrier with shock troops can perform a boarding action. Up the 3 shock troops can perform a boarding action. Target an enemy ship and roll a die for each shock troop involved. On a Blank result discard 1 shock troop. On a hit result you may cancel one hit that the boarded ship rolls (showing that the boarding teams are disrupting the ships operation). On a hit & crit result cancel 1 hit from that ship and that ship sustains 1 damage. If more crit/hits are rolled than the ship has hit points (3 for sustain damage, 2 for all others) then that ship has been captured.

Example Mechanized Unit invades and attacks 3 ground forces. Ground forces roll 2 hit&crits and a 1 hit. Mechanized Unit rolls 1 hit and 1 crit. Ground forces can only count 1 crit for defending so defender declares 2 black and 1 red. Mechanized announces 1 black and 1 red. The ground forces suffer 1 loss while the mechanized sustains damage . If the defender wishes to do so the defender may convert 1 ground forces unit to a shock troop for the ignored crit result.

Example 2 shock troops and 3 Ground Forces invade 3 Ground forces with PDS. Invaders roll 3 crit&hit results (a dream roll) Since only 2 shock troops are attacking invaders can only count 2 of the 3 crits. Defenders roll a blank and 2 hit&crits for ground forces and a blue and red accuracy for the PDS. Invaders Declare 1 Red and 4 Black, Defenders Declare 4 hits with 2 accuracy spent on the 2 shock troops. The invaders destroy the defender and lose their 2 shock troops .

Upgrades and Abilities, I have to go through each of the upgrade cards and faction sheet but ideas for items like starting upgrade Hylar Assault cannon When your cruisers or Dreadnoughts roll an accuracy you may change it to a hit result (you cannot spend the accuracy if spent in this manner). For L1Z1X your cruisers gain +1blue to their attack value.

Pros:

• More in depth combat mechanics
• Less dice grinding with higher probability for hits.

Cons

• Does not necessarily match the probability odds with the standard D10 values
• Might be a little too heavy on killing units (I have considered to give all Red units +1 hit so sustain damage is a 3 read health and all other ships are 2 red health.)

So those are my ideas for a house rule. What do you think? What system would you use and how would you set up an alternate dice mechanic for Twilight imperium combat?

I'm gonna be honest and say that at first glance it seems kinda convoluted. But the more I mull it over (and the more I remember about thinking the combat system in Descent also seemed convoluted at first) the more I like the idea...

Of course there's the problem of handling more than 2 "health" on the bigger ships. One hit is easy enough to show by the model flipping but the second? Also, if they, for example, take 2 hits before winning a battle, should they be allowed to become fully repaired instantly or should they require one combatless activation to heal one hit? If instantly, they might become a bit OP imho...

Of course there's the problem of handling more than 2 "health" on the bigger ships. One hit is easy enough to show by the model flipping but the second? Also, if they, for example, take 2 hits before winning a battle, should they be allowed to become fully repaired instantly or should they require one combatless activation to heal one hit? If instantly, they might become a bit OP imho...

Well the main problem is that the 8 on the 8 sided red dice gives 2 hits. So a cruiser could take out a War Sun with a single dice. Also since the black and blue dice has half of the sides (or more) with hits it makes infantry battles and fighter battles where both sides die the most likely outcome. But that is more of a problem with using Armada dice. Now of course having ships that die faster might be a bit better than waiting for those 9 and 8 to show up on a 10 sided dice. The dice rolling in TI does gets a bit grindy.

I have thought of painting over 1 hit on all the dice and a critical hit on the red and the blue as all the technology upgrades are just+1 so make those painted symbols the +1 on the dice. But some have units can get more than +1 (cybernetics and advanced fighters for example) so that idea is on hold. It is hard to test homebrew variants of house rules with Twilight Imperium. Not to mention that some of modular rule abilities add +1. So here are some rule clarifications.

Destroyer Antifighter Barrage . Before combat destroyers may make one attack and ignore all direct hit results with the antifighter barrage.

Warfare II. Primary High Alert Token : Add 1 accuracy result to all your combat dice rolls in a system with the high alert token.

Space Mines When entering a system with space mines roll 1 red dice for each ship entering the system (to a maximum of 3) and suffer all damage.

Here are the revision for all the technology advances that effect dice rolls in combat for use of these house rules.

Hylar V Assault Laser Your cruisers and destroyers can turn one hit to a direct hit

Magen Defense Grid Your PDS can now spend 1 blue accuracy to add 1 red hit

Automated Defense Turrets Your destroyers roll 1 additional blue dice. Also during an antifighter barrage your destroyers may treat all direct hits as hits.

Cybernetics Your fighters can turn 1 hit to a direct hit

Gen Synthesis Your ground forces may count 1 direct hit during Invasion Combat When one of your Ground forces is destroyed roll a blue die on a hit result place the unit on a planet in your home system.

Advanced Fighters Your fighters do not require support of Carriers or Space Docks, may move independently, with a movement rate of 2 and may chose to roll a red or blue die in combat. Enemy ships may not move through a system your fighters occupy. Fighters in excess of a system's Fighter Capacity count towards your Fleet Supply Limit

Maneuvering Jets You Ignore 1 accuracy result from your opponent's PDS (or 1 hit result if the PDS is firing from an adjacent system). In addition you may ignore 1 hit result in all your space mine rolls.

Graviton Laser System Your PDS may make a single reroll on any or all of their combat dice.

I also want to change X-89 Bacterial Weapon to rolling 3 black dice for Planetary Bombardment and remove 1 ground force for each hit and direct hit. That way it can remove up to 6 Ground forces instead of all of them. But since X-89 doesn't roll dice I left it out.

Sorry, it's been a while I need to do a section on flagships giving them all a new attack value. It is harder to do since they all have different firepower and different number of dice.

Also Rebellion just added in green dice so a 3rd dice type, but question is what would that dice be use for so I don't see any units that have "green" hit points. Well that is a discussion for Rebellion.

I think part of the reason TI3 space combat is simple using a simple dice system is very specifically to give it randomness. TI3 is not a war game, combat is filled with uncertainty, but it was designed to be simple and relatively fast which in a game overflowing with rules is a good thing. Not that I think your concept is bad, but TI3 needs more rules like the world needs another nuclear bomb.

On 11/6/2017 at 9:56 AM, BigKahuna said:

I think part of the reason TI3 space combat is simple using a simple dice system is very specifically to give it randomness. TI3 is not a war game, combat is filled with uncertainty, but it was designed to be simple and relatively fast which in a game overflowing with rules is a good thing. Not that I think your concept is bad, but TI3 needs more rules like the world needs another nuclear bomb.

Granted 4x games are not a war game but the one thing I find funny in 4x games is that nearly all moving pieces are military pieces and Twilight Imperium is exactly that.

On 2/28/2018 at 8:22 AM, Marinealver said:

Granted 4x games are not a war game but the one thing I find funny in 4x games is that nearly all moving pieces are military pieces and Twilight Imperium is exactly that.

Of course that's true, but there are a ridiculous amount of cards in the game as well yet it very clearly is not a card game.

Well since we are all moving to TI 4th edition (I'll still keep mine for components, and possibly a lore backstory RPG or narrative). I have started to work on adapting the system for TI4th edition and taking advantage of the new unique upgrade system.

The one thing is that there is no Mechanized Units, I also added a new unit the Bomber (think Anti-Ship fighter). For the Armored Units I use the Mechanized Units from Shards of the Throne, for Bombers I used the old 3rd edition Destroyers since the new ones have wings and look different enough.

You can find it HERE , and yes it looks like I will be making new cards too. At least there are not as many as in 3rd edition with all expansions.