plawolf
02-17-2012, 03:01 PM
I have recently come up with a set of house rules to allow 5 players to play a protracted campaign that involves attrition, as I feel that adding this element would allow for a much more strategic approach to playing, and would appreciate any feedback or suggestions.
This is going to be a bit of a long one, so please bare with me.
Resource pool
The biggest difference is that instead of coming up a 1.5k/2k/2.5k army list, you are required first to select a 6k resource pool, including any and all units, vehicles, weapons and upgrades you may want or need.
You do not need to have 6k worth of models, and you won't need all of them even if you had them all.
The idea is that you have 6000 points on which to spend on anything you want from the codex. No restrictions.
However, for the duration of the campaign, you are only allowed to build your lists from that what is remaining from that original 6k worth of assets you selected.
As you fight and suffer losses, those losses are carried over from battle to battle, and you find that you have a smaller and smaller pool of resources you can build your lists from.
Campaign
The campaign consists of 4 standard 1.5k battles, and a final free-for-all to determine the campaign winner.
Unless you managed to get tabled all four times in the battles leading up to the grand finale, you should have something left to fight with, and thus have a chance at winning the campaign (however slim that chance might be).
The four standard games will have random mission and deployment etc, basically all the standard fair from any tournament. With the caveat that should one side not be able to field a legal army because of attrition, the opposing player gets to choose mission type as a penalty.
The final game is a one objective game. The player with the biggest remaining army start off with his army deployed on the objective, which will be placed at the centre of the board. All remaining players get a corner, and whoever holds the objective at the end of that game wins the campaign. But more on that later.
4 standard games
Casualties
In the four normal games you will play, you will need to keep track of your casualties.
Any models that are instant killed, lost as a result of teleporter mishap, or 'removed from play' by any special rule or power are treated as dead. Any special weapons or wargear they had are deemed as destroyed and lost to all sides.
For the remaining casualties, you get to roll for them. For any models lost while within 12" of a friendly unit, roll a d6, and on a 4+, that model is only wounded and has been medivaced off the field of play.*
For models lost that are not within 12" of a friendly unit, the models are only medivaced on a 6+.*
Similarly, any armored vehicle destroyed or wrecked are lost to all sides. However, any immobilized vehicles are only recoverable by the winning side.
Loot
The winning side may recover all equipment (like jump packs) and weapons it's own troops lost during the battle (that has not been deemed as destroyed) as well as any of it's own vehicles not destroyed or wrecked.
If your opponent fields weapons that appear in your codex, then you may loot their dead for such weapons.
For for example, if an IG army defeated a space marine army, the IG army would be allowed to add any meltas, plasma, lascannons and such weapons to their pool. However, since there are no thunderhammers and stormshields in the IG codex, they would not be able to loot them.
These looted weapons and wargear are not free, you still need to pay for them out of your 1.5k points total if you want to field them, but they give you more things to choose from.
Requisition points
In addition to loot, winning a battle will grant you more requisition points. You get 0 for a Massacred result, and then 25 req points per level up to the result you logged. So Slaughtered will get you 25 req points, Major Defeat 50 and so on.
Requisition points cannot buy you new units for your resource pool, but it does allow you to upgrade the units you do have left into something better, provided you bought at least 1 unit of what you want to upgrade to to start with.
So, for example, if you bought a unit of sternguard in your original resource pool, you will be able to upgrade tactical marines to sternguard by using your requisition points to pay for the difference between your tactical marines and sternguard vets based on your codex prices.
So, using BA as an example, for BA, tacticals cost 16pts each, whereas a sternguard vet is 25pts each. That means for each tactical marine you wish to upgrade to sternguard, you need to pay 9 req points per model.
I do not want to write a detailed list of what is and isn't allowed, as you will get bored and so will I. The point is to be reasonable, so (sticking with the BA for now) upgrading an ordinary dread to Death Company or Furioso is fine, but making one into a Librarian dread is not.
Recovery
After each battle and before the next, all players are given a chance to recover some of their casualties, provided they haven't been tabled. And you do with by rolling a d6.
To make it simple and realistic, all special weapons and wargear are treated as having been returned to the stores and are safe. All you are rolling for are the models, so you can group all models with the same characteristic together and roll them in one. So just roll once for all normal marines, and once for all veterans etc.
Immediately after a battle, models are returned to the resource pool on a 6+, for each 1 rolled, a model has died during care, so remove as many models from the wounded pool as 1s rolled.
Keep a record of the number of casualties left after each roll, as you get to roll for them again after the next battle. To represent the passage of time, ever time you roll for a model again, the requirement is lowered by 1 to return them to the pool.
So for example, if you were rolling after the second battle for casualties from the first battle, they are returned to the pool on a 5+ now, and so on.
For vehicles, it's the same, 6+ to repair a single damaged result immediately after the battle, 5+ the next time you roll and so on. If you roll a 1, treat that as a glancing hit on the vehicle damage chart, and roll to see what happens.
But you get 1 roll per vehicle recovered, but you do not have to spend them all on the same vehicle.
So for example, you might have an immobilized rhinos and an immobilized and weapon destroyed predator. Instead of trying to repair both, you can use both your repair rolls on the predator and leave the rhino as it (but since you haven't rolled for it, the next time if you do choose to try and repair the rhino, if will still be a 6+).
In addition, for every enemy vehicle recovered that you cannot use because it is not in your codex, you can cannibalize them to improve your repair roll. Each enemy tank cannibalized improve your roll by 1. Stacking is not allowed.
So, re-using the previous example, if you also captured 2 IG tanks in that battle, you can cannibalize them, so you will only need 5+ to repair each damaged result on your predator.
Decider
After facing each of your 4 opponents in single combat, at the end of the campaign, all sides will field everything they have left in their resource pool regardless of force org chart limitations in the final free-for-all.
As mentioned earlier, it will be a single objective game, with the player holding it at the end the victor. If the game ends and the objective is contested, the game will be extended for a single extra sudden death turn, at the end of which, the player who has the most number of models on or contesting the objective wins.
At the start of the game, all players will deploy a force no larger than the total points value for the smallest army, with all remaining units held in reserve. So, for example, if the smallest of the 5 armies is 1000pts, no-one is allowed to start on the board with a force larger than 1000pts.
*Note. If a side had been tabled, all it's casualties are counted as having been killed.
-----------------------------
Well, that's it for now. What do you guys think?
This is going to be a bit of a long one, so please bare with me.
Resource pool
The biggest difference is that instead of coming up a 1.5k/2k/2.5k army list, you are required first to select a 6k resource pool, including any and all units, vehicles, weapons and upgrades you may want or need.
You do not need to have 6k worth of models, and you won't need all of them even if you had them all.
The idea is that you have 6000 points on which to spend on anything you want from the codex. No restrictions.
However, for the duration of the campaign, you are only allowed to build your lists from that what is remaining from that original 6k worth of assets you selected.
As you fight and suffer losses, those losses are carried over from battle to battle, and you find that you have a smaller and smaller pool of resources you can build your lists from.
Campaign
The campaign consists of 4 standard 1.5k battles, and a final free-for-all to determine the campaign winner.
Unless you managed to get tabled all four times in the battles leading up to the grand finale, you should have something left to fight with, and thus have a chance at winning the campaign (however slim that chance might be).
The four standard games will have random mission and deployment etc, basically all the standard fair from any tournament. With the caveat that should one side not be able to field a legal army because of attrition, the opposing player gets to choose mission type as a penalty.
The final game is a one objective game. The player with the biggest remaining army start off with his army deployed on the objective, which will be placed at the centre of the board. All remaining players get a corner, and whoever holds the objective at the end of that game wins the campaign. But more on that later.
4 standard games
Casualties
In the four normal games you will play, you will need to keep track of your casualties.
Any models that are instant killed, lost as a result of teleporter mishap, or 'removed from play' by any special rule or power are treated as dead. Any special weapons or wargear they had are deemed as destroyed and lost to all sides.
For the remaining casualties, you get to roll for them. For any models lost while within 12" of a friendly unit, roll a d6, and on a 4+, that model is only wounded and has been medivaced off the field of play.*
For models lost that are not within 12" of a friendly unit, the models are only medivaced on a 6+.*
Similarly, any armored vehicle destroyed or wrecked are lost to all sides. However, any immobilized vehicles are only recoverable by the winning side.
Loot
The winning side may recover all equipment (like jump packs) and weapons it's own troops lost during the battle (that has not been deemed as destroyed) as well as any of it's own vehicles not destroyed or wrecked.
If your opponent fields weapons that appear in your codex, then you may loot their dead for such weapons.
For for example, if an IG army defeated a space marine army, the IG army would be allowed to add any meltas, plasma, lascannons and such weapons to their pool. However, since there are no thunderhammers and stormshields in the IG codex, they would not be able to loot them.
These looted weapons and wargear are not free, you still need to pay for them out of your 1.5k points total if you want to field them, but they give you more things to choose from.
Requisition points
In addition to loot, winning a battle will grant you more requisition points. You get 0 for a Massacred result, and then 25 req points per level up to the result you logged. So Slaughtered will get you 25 req points, Major Defeat 50 and so on.
Requisition points cannot buy you new units for your resource pool, but it does allow you to upgrade the units you do have left into something better, provided you bought at least 1 unit of what you want to upgrade to to start with.
So, for example, if you bought a unit of sternguard in your original resource pool, you will be able to upgrade tactical marines to sternguard by using your requisition points to pay for the difference between your tactical marines and sternguard vets based on your codex prices.
So, using BA as an example, for BA, tacticals cost 16pts each, whereas a sternguard vet is 25pts each. That means for each tactical marine you wish to upgrade to sternguard, you need to pay 9 req points per model.
I do not want to write a detailed list of what is and isn't allowed, as you will get bored and so will I. The point is to be reasonable, so (sticking with the BA for now) upgrading an ordinary dread to Death Company or Furioso is fine, but making one into a Librarian dread is not.
Recovery
After each battle and before the next, all players are given a chance to recover some of their casualties, provided they haven't been tabled. And you do with by rolling a d6.
To make it simple and realistic, all special weapons and wargear are treated as having been returned to the stores and are safe. All you are rolling for are the models, so you can group all models with the same characteristic together and roll them in one. So just roll once for all normal marines, and once for all veterans etc.
Immediately after a battle, models are returned to the resource pool on a 6+, for each 1 rolled, a model has died during care, so remove as many models from the wounded pool as 1s rolled.
Keep a record of the number of casualties left after each roll, as you get to roll for them again after the next battle. To represent the passage of time, ever time you roll for a model again, the requirement is lowered by 1 to return them to the pool.
So for example, if you were rolling after the second battle for casualties from the first battle, they are returned to the pool on a 5+ now, and so on.
For vehicles, it's the same, 6+ to repair a single damaged result immediately after the battle, 5+ the next time you roll and so on. If you roll a 1, treat that as a glancing hit on the vehicle damage chart, and roll to see what happens.
But you get 1 roll per vehicle recovered, but you do not have to spend them all on the same vehicle.
So for example, you might have an immobilized rhinos and an immobilized and weapon destroyed predator. Instead of trying to repair both, you can use both your repair rolls on the predator and leave the rhino as it (but since you haven't rolled for it, the next time if you do choose to try and repair the rhino, if will still be a 6+).
In addition, for every enemy vehicle recovered that you cannot use because it is not in your codex, you can cannibalize them to improve your repair roll. Each enemy tank cannibalized improve your roll by 1. Stacking is not allowed.
So, re-using the previous example, if you also captured 2 IG tanks in that battle, you can cannibalize them, so you will only need 5+ to repair each damaged result on your predator.
Decider
After facing each of your 4 opponents in single combat, at the end of the campaign, all sides will field everything they have left in their resource pool regardless of force org chart limitations in the final free-for-all.
As mentioned earlier, it will be a single objective game, with the player holding it at the end the victor. If the game ends and the objective is contested, the game will be extended for a single extra sudden death turn, at the end of which, the player who has the most number of models on or contesting the objective wins.
At the start of the game, all players will deploy a force no larger than the total points value for the smallest army, with all remaining units held in reserve. So, for example, if the smallest of the 5 armies is 1000pts, no-one is allowed to start on the board with a force larger than 1000pts.
*Note. If a side had been tabled, all it's casualties are counted as having been killed.
-----------------------------
Well, that's it for now. What do you guys think?