HCM Roster in Hex Command NOVA
For simplicity sake and the constant requirement to avoid roster at all costs because KIDS WONT PLAY THE GAME IF THERES A PENCIL AND PAPER ROSTER:
1.c Using HCM Damage System
1.c.1 It is true that Hex Command NOVA borrows art and some concepts from BattleTech/CAV, but in an attempt to attract new players into the hobby a visual, albeit not secret damage system is employed. Hex Command Mechanized like other rules in the series uses table markers in the simple rules, to show damage to units.
1.c.2 While this does give away the status of a unit or item, it makes the game vastly easier because there is no roster for Combat hits (red), Movement (green) or Defense (yellow) damage. In this case, Pink will be used for Missile pack damage. Using colored O-Rings is the best method, with a post attached to each mech base.
1.c.3 Each vehicle in HCM has generally one tank gun, but in NOVA mechs could have multiple guns. Therefore, a single value will apply to all Cannons and energy guns regardless of size, and one for all Missiles. So even if a mech has 2 heavy guns and 2 medium guns, the “combat effectiveness” of the mech is shown by the quantity of the single colored rings. So: three Red hits and all the guns on the mech are disabled and until disabled are firing at minus however many hits are suffered so far; the same goes for all missiles.
1.c.4 Effectiveness means degrading the Weight class: Heavy becomes -1 per red hit so they become Medium. On the second hit the guns become Light, then on the third red hit are all knocked out. This would also apply to missiles (pink) regardless how many packs the mech has: Heavy missiles become medium then Light then are knocked out on the third hit.