+ Bloodsong V2 development +
+ Bloodsong, the expansion that provides rules for Eldar and Orks in Adeptus Titanicus, has been out in the wild for some months now, and with plenty of useful feedback rolling in, I thought I'd start outlining what's in the works for version 2. +
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+ What's brought on the enthusiasm? +
Partly notes, comments and feedback from the broader commuinty, and partly some fun Titanicus gaming with the PCRC gang at Warhammer World – Legio Tempestus in their first Walk; alongside Lucifer216's Legio Infernus and facing Stuntwedge's Legio Valorum and Omricon's Legio Sisyphus:
A defeat for the Warmaster's forces, but a good time had by all – except for my poor xenos-loving comrades, who haven't got any official rules for xenos. Bloodsong to the rescue!
+ If you've not heard of Bloodsong, this Adeptus Titanicus expansion with rules for Orks and Eldar is available for free on Google docs here: [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] +
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+ What's planned for Bloodsong v2? +
With official Adeptus Titanicus and Legions Imperialis news and releases a bit thin on the ground at the moment, it's nice for the community to keep up the enthusiasm – and in that spirit, here's what's coming up for the Orks and Eldar in version 2.
- Updates, clarifications and corrections
- Built up over the past few months from comments and emails from users, these will be folded into the text and any particularly notable ones summarised at the end of the book.
- When using the cards and terminals, you'll be able to identify the new ones by the V2 note (currently they have v1.5, as circled in magenta below).
- Background and pictures for ork and Eldar
- To help with conversions and identifying equipment, there'll be a lore section which shows what the various weapons are – which will also help to explain why certain things work as they do mechanically.
- I'll include some sample Ork and Eldar names drawn from old background, to give some help when creating your Titans/Gargants.
- Stratagems and Princeps trait equivalents for Orks and Eldar
- These are currently missing from the rules, and will add some much-needed depth to the project, and opportunities for players.
- Rules and background for two/three War-clans and two/three Waa!-orks
- Fir Iolarion (Eagles Born of Fire)
- Lugganath
- Blue and gold
- Fir Lirithion (Hearts Armoured for Battle)
- Iyanden
- Fir Farillecassion (Watchers Over Ancient Wrongs)
- Biel-Tann
- Fir Dinillainn (Protectors of the Gallen)
- Saim-Hann
- Waa-Gharkhul
- The Great Crusade met a number of extremely powerful ork strongholds, including that of Overlord Urrlak Urg. Gharkhul Blackfang was eventually defeated by the Emperor himself; but his forces were on the verge of defeating the combined efforts of three Space Marine Legions.
- Waa-Morgoth (Ghaslakh Xenohold)
- Inventive and pragmatic, Morgoth Maultoof was an up-and-coming Warboss during the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. His forces were the purported reason for the deployment of both the Ultramarines and Word Bearers – even though the xenohold was not then notable. With the attack foiled from within, Morgoth's forces went on to swell in size during the Heresy period, and became a blight on the recovering Imperium during the Great Scouring and beyond.
- Waa-Shagrudd
- Rules for Supa-stompas/Mekboy Gargants/Steam-Gargants
- A new terminal and background for these.
+ Tell me more... +
+ Terminology +
I've had a few requests for Eldar Craftworld or Ork clan rules, so I wanted to flag why I'm using 'War-clans' and 'Waa-Orks' as Legio equivalents:
- I don't want to force playstyles and colour schemes together – if you want a straightforward aggressive approach for your orks, you shouldn't be forced to paint them as Goffs (for example).
- War-clans and Waa-orks have historical precedence, and I'm including as many references to 'canon' stuff as possible – which hopefully makes it more likely for people to give a 'homebrew' set of rules a go.
- Apart from anything else, digging through old rulesets and White Dwarf issues to find one-off references is fun!
- Using different terminology helps to keep things clear and avoid confusion between background and mechanics.
Happily, while the War-clans have their own schemes and backgrounds, the original designers note that Eldar Titans (and ork Gargants) are frequently painted in Craftworld/Clan colours, so if you do prefer that approach, it'll work perfectly.
I haven't quite decided on which War-clans and Waa-Orks to concentrate on, so if you have particular favourites for one reason or another, do let me know. I'm currently erring towards just two of each on the basis that it'll be a bit more manageable for publishing and playtesting – and a similar model to that of the Adeptus Titanicus sourcebook expansions – but will reassess as I go.
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+ Stratagems and Princeps traits +
Currently the Bloodsong rules suggest using the Blackshields allegiance for the purposes of traits and stratagems, but this is a bit unsatisfactory. I'd prefer to have something more fitting for the xenos while still fitting within the existing rules. Creating something entirely new would be fun, but the further the project strays from the Adeptus Titanicus ruleset, the more likely something shonky will happen – and the harder players will find it to convince skeptical potential players to give it a try.
So, with that borne in mind, I'm looking to have a shortlist of between a dozen and a score of both Eldar and Ork stratagems; some of which will be tweaks to existing Imperial/Traitor ones, and others will be completely new, and aimed at reinforcing the existing design concepts.
The equivalents to Princeps traits are already mentioned in v1.5:
... so these should integrate fairly smoothly, with a couple of faction-specific twists. For example, the old background made it clear that the Boss of the Mob always had to be in command of the biggest Gargant in the Mob, while the sneaky space elves have a bit more flexibility in who's in charge.
The plan is to follow the precedent of the existing rules, so a D6 table for each faction, along with D3 tables for the individual War-clans and Waa-orks.
+ What's not included? +
I've had some requests for Knights, Stompas, squiggoths etc., but they're a lower priority for me – partly for the reasons of time and scope outlined above, but also because the Knights rules in general are rather awkward for Adeptus Titanicus, and they add a further layer of playtesting complexity. Knight-equivalents may come in a future version, but for the moment, don't hold your multi-lung on that account. If you're desperate to field some cool Eldar Knight models or Ork Stompas, I suggest you use counts-as rules with Imperial Knights.
Similarly, I've had questions about, or toyed with rules for, Necrons, Squats, Tau, Tyranids etc.; but want Bloodsong to remain a tighter, cleaner and self-enclosed project – for the sake of time as much as anything.
Expanding things would just make everything take longer and become exponentially more complex, so it will remain just the classic 40k xenos twosome for the moment. However, I'd encourage anyone who fancies developing a project like this to go ahead with their take on different factions, too!
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+ More Gargants +
With that out of the way, I do want to include as much variety as possible for Xenos, and the smallest War Engines for the orks are notable in their absence in v1.5, so I thought I'd pop a brief explanation of why, and what the plan is.
The smallest Gargants first appeared in White Dwarf 152 as Mekboy Gargants – the personal ride of the Mekboy(s) who realised the Boss was going to take the field in the 'proper' Gargant – during Epic: Space Marine second edition (SM2) and included some fun options.
Mekboy Gargants disappeared in the streamlined Epic: 40,000 (E40k) and Epic: Armageddon (E:A) which included Supa-Stompas – described as a half-way house between Gargants and Stompas. These models were roughly the same size as the old Mekboy Gargant, and my suspicion is that they were Jervis Johnson's way of letting players field their Mekboy Gargant models in the streamlined E:A – just check out the colour text at the top.
(As an aside, this was all then made even more complicated by the appearance of Stompas and Gorkanaut/Morkanauts in 40k – as the 40k Stompa is much closer to the Supa-Stompa, while the 'Nauts are pretty close to what Epic had as Stompas.)
... and to round off the collection, here's the Steam Gargant from the Feral Ork list – the biggest and nastiest and steam-poweriest thing that the Feral Orks could produce:
This was in Gav Thorpe's Swordwind supplement for E:A, which provided no small inspiration for the approach I've taken in Bloodsong. Compare the Steam Gargant to the Supa-Stompa, and you'll see that the two are very similar in terms of stats.
So what? Well, trying to squeeze all three into the earler version of Bloodsong as separate entities seemed daft. Not only would you end up with three near-identical Terminals, I wasn't sure at the time whether they'd be best treated as equivalents to Knights or Titans. Since we're leaving Knights out, and the rules on inspection lean towards them being Titans (albeit little ones) it then seemed fitting to spend the time to work out how to incorporate them into the modern game.
+ Brainstorming the new unit +
Having decided to fold these various stompa/gargants into one entry, I wanted to make sure that I'm leaving it flexible enough that you can have a unit that best matches your preference, whatever your vintage – this follows the same logic as the Eldar Phantom being subdivided into the old Spectre and Shade types, so there'll probably be a similar Designer's note to explain this..
I'm leaning towards rationalising the background to explain that these smaller Gargants are created when either time, materials or technology are lacking; and taking a leaf in terms of game mechanics from the Kustom Jobs that are used by the Mega Gargant. These are extra spaces on the Terminal, a little like the Warmaster's Ancillary Subreactor though the ork ones are optional. For the Mega-Gargant and potentially this new Gargant, the Kustom Jobs allow the player to add extras from past versions of the game that otherwise don't fit, like the kustom forcefield or Gaze of Gork/Mork.
Having these as purely optional means that you can take a plain Gargant with two weapon systems – i.e. like the Supa-Stompa; add an extra system like the Steam Gargant's Fist of Gork; or do something more unusual, opening up the space for the Mekboy Gargant.
Mechanically, I think this should be fairly straightforward and add some more character to the Orks. These will be around Warhound scale, but rather than being faster, their battlefield role will be more varied. There's potential for fun with squadrons – I can see that being a good angle for giving Supa-stompas some character beyond 'cheap' – while the Mekboy Gargant can be support-oriented.
The big question, really, is the name – and I'd very much like to hear what term you would use for these mini-Gargants/Supa-Stompas. I'm leaning toward Supa-Stompas
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