+ Choosing an army in The Eightfold Path +
+ Following on from this inload [+noospheric inloadlink embedded+], I've been cracking on with the HQs and the underlying army selection rules. ++ Designer's Notes +
+ The approach I've taken is to remove unit special rules in favour of making the Strategems far more important. This is to (hopefully) introduce more of a sense of personal involvement for you, the commander. ++ It simulates fatigue and battlefield confusion – as you use your Command Points up, your troops will slowly lose their Legion-specific edge: the Emperor's Children will slow down, the Iron Warriors will begin to lose their psychological resistance to shooting, and so forth. +
+ More practically, it keeps all of the relevant rules for your army on a spread or two (including special units), with a handy reference sheet for the Strategems you have access to. This reduces cross-referencing and layering of information. +
+ This is a fairly fundamental change, as it essentially makes all the Legiones Astartes identical once the Command Points run out (barring Legion special rules). However, this is set against the Detachments and army selection rules, which reward those who choose a thematic army – viz. one with plenty of basic troops – without penalising those players who choose more specialist selections. +
+ Anyway, have a (red) butcher's and see what you think. I'd appreciate your thoughts; but please remember this is intended to give a different game experience to standard 40k. +
+ Legion specifics +
+ I've picked the Iron Warriors to start with as they're the army I play – I'll head off accusations of favouritism by holding my hands up: it's a fair cop ++ Joking aside, I'd like to make best use of my time, and so will be prioritising Legions I use or am likely to face. In any case, the IVth are fundamentally a fairly simple Legion, and so they make a nice easy way to start. Coming up next will be the Imperial Fists, Sons of Horus, Iron Hands and Ultramarines; probably in that order. +
+ The Legion-specific detachment is a neat demonstration of how the keywords system removes the need for screeds of text and helps to keep things condensed. By simply noting that all units have to come from the Iron Warriors faction, you remove the need to make that explicit outside of the box-out. A lot of the rules that needed spelling out – the additional compulsory Troops choice, additional optional Heavy Support and so forth – are simply included as icons. +
+ I've tried to follow the spirit of the rules as well as the letter – so have made the first Heavy Support choice mandatory, and removed a Fast Attack option. Compare the Hammer of Olympia Detachment (above) with the Company Detachment (top) and note the difference in units that grant (or reduce) CPs – the grungy trench infantry-led Hammer of Olympia doesn't gain the benefit of CPs for jump-pack Assault Squads or Flyers, but does for Artillery. +
+ Hail of Fire used to be a special rule that layered on top of others; here it becomes an option for you to spend your finite CP resources upon. +
+ I was in two minds whether to include Sheathed in Steel – I think the Detachment would work without it, and I'm loath to introduce additional rules, but it does help to evoke the character of the Detachment, so I kept it in. +
+ A Legion-specific character, which converts the old Shatter Defences rule into a strategem (Pinpoint Defect). I felt this better reflects the intention of the Legion-specific officers – they bring particular expertise and alter the army's abilities. +
+ The more generic Praetor for comparison +
+ And a sample Alternative Detachment – these will replace the old Rites of War; again folding rules together to reduce duplication and make reference quicker and easier. +
4 comments:
Very good. I agree with the approach you have taken of trying to keep the layering of rules to a minimum to prevent the endless referencing back and forth that is a bit of a hassle in 7th edition.
Have you thought about how you will handle terminators? I know you are using Primaris stats as the baseline, so I wonder whether terminators will also need a bit of a boost to maintain the in game difference in performance
Nice! I'm definitely on-board with this approach. :) It's funny, we've now almost come full circle to the old Tempus Fugitive way of rewarding 'fluffy' Heresy armies with 'Legendary Points'. :)
I think the generic Company Detachment could do with a few more Granted Stratagems though, to make it a viable alternative to the Legion-specific ones, rather than a directly inferior choice. Perhaps some of the other generic stratagems from the 8th edition rule book?
One thing I'm not sure I entirely understand though, why do you lose CPs for taking Legion specific units? It's like you're encouraged to take generic units that are characteristic of the Legion, the discouraged from taking specific units that are characteristic of the Legion...
Btw I think you need to remove the <> brackets from around some instances of the 'IRON WARRIORS' keyword in the second image. :)
Cheers. Regarding Terminators, I was sorely tempted to leave them at 2W, but I think I'm going to bump them up to 3W. That's basically enough to differentiate them from the standard marines, without taking them beyond the maximum damage of common D3 Damage weaponry.
There are some Terminators that are currently 2W under 7th, and these will be bumped to 4W in The Eightfold Path – that's basically to keep some consistency with the official rules, but happily only slightly improves their survivability compared with other Terminators.
Cheers – keep an eye out for the Fists later today!
I agree about the Battle Company needing some more generic Granted Stratagems – have you got any ideas? I'm saving Counter-Offensive for Legions like the Emperor's Children and Space Wolves, and figured the auto-pass Battleshock would be good to save for stubborn Legions like the Dark Angels (and Fists?)
Regarding the Negative CPs for Legion-specific units; that's intended to represent the political difficulty of securing such elites to fight alongside your standard Battle Company (or the example Detachments) –
similarly to getting the Praetor-level stuff.
Don't worry though; as other Detachments alter this restriction – most of the Legion-specific ones will give no penalty for taking them, to represent it being easier to convince your superiors that the exemplars of the Legion will be well-used with your Legion's characteristic approach. :)
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