Given that all board and miniature games are inherently flawed because a player can see everything -when the desire is to have a sense of realism for what commanders could actually know and see- there are only a few practical ways it can be implemented for fog of war and birds eye view effect: 1. All components (brigades at the minimum) of a force must have an objective, else they are on "hold," or else immobile and in "reserve," until a senior officer activates them by personally moving to the hex next to a leading unit of the group, or that groups commander who is in proximity of the group of units in question. 2. All arriving forces must have a stated objective point to reach and that location can only be changed by the senior commander sending a physical miniature courier figure -regardless if that courier is bearing any actual written order in secret or not- to the recipient's neighboring hex. Obviously if the objective or location cannot be achieved the recipient force stops, deploys for defense and waits for further orders. 3. Arriving at road forks/intersections: randomly roll to see which road is taken (other than backwards).

2025 HCG Rules will be updated for this subject. Note: refer to the HCG Napoleonic, AWI and HCAncients rules for skirmisher considerations. What Use are Skirmishers in Not Small Battles e.g. 2-4 brigades or more per side. Is the use of skirmishers simply a distraction? Do Skirmishers come from and return to a home unit? Can they operate anywhere as far from the rest of the army as they want? Can entire regiments be represented as skirmishers? • Skirmishers cannot be contacted by anything other than mounted cavalry. Do cavalry skirmishers fire from the saddle, or dismount/mount again after firing? Is there any cost in time to mount/dismount? Do they get fatigued doing so? Is there any dice change or modification to combat when firing skirmishers? Is one dice rolled per stand, or is there a quantity of stands needed before a dice can be rolled in firing? • One concept is that a single skirmish stand cannot possibly hope to cause any hits, but more than one can. One rule of thumb is roll a dice for each two skirmish stands that must be next to each other.

The following living document has been created and will be maintained going forward. Hcn post mortem game test 2025.docx

2025: Note: It should be noted this entire adventure game, though fantastic and fun, is an "old school game system" of roster tracking and so on, and that the VAST majority of these rules and concepts are likely to be much simplified and reduced to reference materials.  The great majority of gamers no longer have time for games lasting longer than one hour, so the streamlining will continue even more than it already is. Subscribe to the iimm website and watch the forums for developments.

The concept of LR is that at the beginning of a game with units in place or arriving, for each unit (or brigade in larger battles), a direction and speed is die rolled to see where it will go. The opponent’s forces are not influencing any die roll but this can be done as we shall see.   1.1        Upon Activation After a side becomes activated, each unit or group rolls appropriate dice for these decisions and does this each time it is activated.  1.2        Non-Physical Dice Non-physical dice aka a Phone App might be better than physical dice, because some situations may have odd numbers e.g. 3 choices, 7 choices, etc. 1.3        Direction Direction is a die roll determined by looking at the unit and deciding how many directions are open to it: Left, Center, Right or none (does not move).  Moving Backward does not necessarily need to be decided and can be at the discretion of the judge/player.   1.4        Speed Speed is simply even/odd: odd the unit moves full, even moves half normal speed. 1.5        Artillery In the case of artillery moving, an additional die roll is needed to see if it unlimbers when it gets to the conclusion of it’s move, but obviously not if there is nothing to fire at this turn or in the coming turn. Artillery will automatically unlimber at the end of its move ONLY if the opponent is half range or closer of the guns. There is no die rolling to see if any unit fires: if a target is in range it is assumed the unit fires. 1.6        Combat Once a unit fires at another, the options for movement would naturally be less numerous; essentially move to melee or withdraw and generally speed is not a question; it would be the maximum automatically.

Regardless of era, it should be noted that the roster posts being applied via Sticky-Tack to unit bases, can just as well be applied to commanders and the o-rings made to represent various conditions of a brigade and division. Yellow: Each regiment routed. For each routed -1 pip on initiative White: Each failed CVS change attempt. At 3 rings he can make no more change attempts. Red: Each time it is rolled to see if he is hit. At 3 rings he is automatically removed as "exhausted" but equally, at any red indicator is +1 combat and +1 morale (sphere diameter). Green: Each time he pushes his regiments faster than normal speed (forced marching). At 3 rings the brigade is "exhausted" and must not move for one full turn else -1 combat and -1 distance move until rested. Blue: Each time one of his regiments has a success. At any blue ring +1 to morale (sphere diameter).

As more and more emphasis is being placed on smaller game tables, for us at least with the advent of our new service called Battlefield Design Services and our 4x3 maps (larger are available), it may be required for most situations, that the owner of a moving unit take the time to write the number of the destination hex for a unit's movement ... hence the fact the hexagons are numbered. The reason for this is that on this small a table with these larger figures, unless you reduce all movement to just one hex per turn, units are going to get into firing range very quickly and games are going to end very quickly too. On 6x4 and 8x5 maps and game tables however, there is less concern.

Targets in "cover" e.g. in a forest, only get the benefit of being in that "cover" when fired upon, not when melee'd, UNLESS that cover is some kind of fortification or works.

12mm is the scale of choice for operational-level scenarios. 1. One vehicle is still one vehicle, and one stand a squad (though this may change to platoon in the coming tests). 2. Up to three items can exist in a hex or maximum 2 if any item is large footprint artillery or ATGs. 3. Mortars are integrated and not visually shown in any infantry stands. Range (12 hex). 4. Only heavy mortars (100mm+) miniatures will be a separate stand of "artillery" (full board range). 5. All infantry stands will now have designations for the following: AV/AP: AV. Anti-Vehicle Value (bazooka, PIAT, panzerfaust etc.)/AP: Anti-Personnel Value (mortars)        C/M/E: C:Combat Value/Morale Value/Engineering-Mines ability (y/n) Hit marker concepts and roster damage recording remains unchanged at this time.

The nuance of using smaller scale miniatures requires the following changes to HCM (the intention is NOT to change from the existing 2.5 inch flat to flat hexes) 1. Items in a hex: The visual appearance of a single 12mm vehicle in a hex hints that more than 1 tank is likely to exist in a hex, but again, not likely more than 2. This is also true of all other items such as infantry squads, and now, entire batteries of anti-tank guns might be seen on the table as opposed to the normal 1/72 scale of seeing only 2-3 ATG for the entire game. Large guns from 88mm and up occupy more real estate so no more than 1 per hex is likely the norm, but in this case WITH their limber/transports in the same hex. 2. Items in a hex: If in 1/72 infantry squads are based on 1.5 inch round stands, with for safety reasons no more than 2 per hex, then either the same will be done for smaller scale figures or else the figures might be mounted to 1 inch round; hence, up to 4 squads might exist in a hex without violating any principles of space and safe operating distances. Ergo up to 4 with a vehicle etc. is possible. 3. Ranges: Hex Range Bands will be adjusted such that the appearance is kept within standards; 2 hex for all cannon fire and 1 hex for all small arms thus 1,2,3,4,5,6 hexes; for cannons Automatic 2 hexes, Color (blue) 3-4 hexes, Code (red) 5-6 hexes and CnC (Star) 7-8 hexes, with an additional CnC band for special range items (HMGs etc). 3 hex bands might be possible but until testing is completed 2 seems to be correct. 4. Indirect Fire Ranges. Regardless of the scale, maximum indirect fire would still be the entire visible battlefield (4x3 or 8x5 table size), but mortar ranges should be stipulated: 20 hexes, with heavy mortars being 36 hexes maximum. Note however that reports of mortars being accurate of effective at their farthest range are debatable. 5. The use of 12mm does not obsolete 1/72: in fact, 1/72 can still be used for focused-actions, e.g. if 12mm results in a battlefield of several villages, 1/72 might be used for detailed gaming for just one village.

The rules have been completely re-organized and combat has been tightened.

The combat and missile system has been updated and simplified. Armor deflects damage in degrees of damage, missiles are either LRM20 cause 4 hits, 15 cause 3 hits or 10 cause 2 hits. SRM are either 6 cause 4 hits or 4 cause 3 hits. See the rules for full descriptions for this much easier and faster system.

Rules are updated as follows: 5.c Missile Firing Note: Planet atmosphere can affect effectiveness, range etc. of all missiles. Generic effect: -1/4 quantity. 5.c.1 Each modifier reduces hits by ¼. 5.c.2 Targets that are in neighboring hexes cannot be affected by LRMs. 5.c.3 All missiles (unguided) are either Medium (LRM) or Heavy (SRM) weight. 5.c.4 LRM: 4 hex per band with an extended CnC band; SRM: 3 hex per band. 5.c.5 LRM: At CnC range bands, ¼ of LRM pack quantity are lost due to dispursal e.g. LRM-20 becomes LRM-15. 5.c.6 LRM: Every 4 missiles comprise 1 damage hit die to roll. 5.c.7 SRM: as fired (SRM6 = 6 hits) 5.c.8 Damage Severity Process 5.c.8.1 Compare Missile weight class to target weight: • if same weight, hits as described above. • If target is greater weight, roll special per final hits to actually count: • Code (red) from auto hit range to the first CnC band • CnC at CnC bands. • If target is lesser weight, add 1/4 of the total hits per salvo (missile pack).

The rules are updated for missile and all combat; the straw idea and the reduction of the weight class due to Defence hits is now deprecated. HCN.pdf

It is necessary to place colored dots (regiments of each brigade) on units in order to make putting them on the game table faster.

Is now available for the Kenosha event and Adepticon Milwaukee 2025