Battles in the Webway

[Path Walker]

With the imminent Harliquin release, my gaming group fancies using them to fight an escalation campaign, with the Inquisition and Thousand Sons trying to break in to The Black Library, some of these fights should take place in the Webway, so, I've thrown up some quick rules to represent that.

Looking for some feedback on them and thought I'd share them if anyone was interest!

Fighting in the Webway

Portals

In the Webway, time and space are mutable, one step can take you to a place many metres away, some of these spaces are stable and almost fixed in entrance and exit, , gateways built around them to stabilise them further, but other times the eddies of the Webway, where the warp brushes against it, can cause people to shift around quickly but seemingly at random.

To represent this, first, when you’re setting up terrain, you can set up D3 pairs of Portal markers, the Harlequin player gets to place the first pair or markers, then the opponent.

Each portal marker is treated as adjacent to its paired marker, so you can move up to one and finish your movement from the second, however, due to the shifting and swirling patterns in the stable portals, they cannot be fired or charged though. Consider them only active while you are moving model, either in the movement phase or while Consolidating after combat.

Flowing Power and Ebbing Luck

For this effect you will need a deck of regular Playing Cards.

At the start of each player turn, shuffle the deck and draw D3 cards, consulting the chart below. Each Card must be given to a unit that fits its Suit and will grant the effect mentioned in the second chart, if you can't give a Card to a unit, then it must be discarded. At the end of a player turn, remove all Playing Cards and put them into a discard pile.



Suit
Unit Type (Troops can use all suits)


Heart
HQ


Club
Fast Attack


Spade
Heavy Support


Diamond
Elite







Face
Name
Effect


2
A place in the Dance
The unit can move an extra 1” in the Movement phase


3
Death Abounds
The unit gains the Split Fire rule


4
A Tumble of Fools
The unit can roll and extra d6 when rolling a random distance to move through cover, run or charge, discarding the lowest


5
The Surprising Resurrection
The Unit leaves the board and be placed into Ongoing Reserves and then can Deep Strike next turn


6
Fury of the Rilletann
The unit gains Rage Special Rule for this turn


7
Focus of Cegorach
The Unit gains +2 I


8
Stare Down the Face of Death
Take a leadership test, if passed, the unit gains Fearless for the rest of the game, if they fail, they fall back immediately


9
The Race Against the Fall
If this unit moves more that 12” in this Player turn, including running or charging, then you gain 1 Victory Point


10
Hidden Amongst The Tides
This unit gains the Stealth Special Rule


Jack
Avatar of the Dance
The unit gains the Counter Attack special rule


Queen
Esdainn's Control
The Unit can place a Portal marker in contact with it and place its twined Portal Marker anywhere within 2D6+6” then discard this card


King
Luck of the Laughing God
The unit can choose to reroll any one dice roll this turn, once you've rerolled a dice, discard the card


Ace
Arebennian Incarnate
The Unit can reroll all misses in the Shooting and Combat phases this turn



(removed the Random movement from the Webways eddies)

[marful]

This sounds really cool, I'm just skeptical about the actual playability. It sounds like the compulsory stuff will take up the majority of the game time. I suggest simplifying and streamlining things to make things quicker. No one wants to spend 45 minutes of every hour doing compulsory stuff, looking up tables, etc. and 15 minutes of actual playing.

[Cleon]

Looks good as long as you are playing smaller skirmishy games rather than pitch battles, but because you know it will come up, what happens if someone assigns an 8 to an already fearless unit - do they get to ignore it?

[Path Walker]

Looks good as long as you are playing smaller skirmishy games rather than pitch battles, but because you know it will come up, what happens if someone assigns an 8 to an already fearless unit - do they get to ignore it?

Well, it was mostly for smaller games, 500-1000 points, and mostly for friendly play so nothing would be unfixable. It's a good point though, realised I've missed the columns with the names for the effects that makes them sound cooler!

But yeah, if you can't assign a card to anyone who would benefit from it, ignore its effects.

I'd say for bigger games the randomised movement could be taken out to speed things up, it's a very rare chance of happening anyway, so can easily be ignored

I liked the playing card idea because it fits with the harlequin theme, which is the main reason I came up with it!

[Lord Manton]

This sounds great. I think I would drop the random movement to 1D6". Just because I think it has the potential to be infuriating when you are gearing up to charge or move through a portal only to be shunted way out of the way. I guess that's kind of the point, but I think a reduction in the distance would keep the flavour while also allowing you to mitigate the consequences.
What happens if you get swept off the board?
Let us know how it all goes

[DarkLink]

I will note that the Harlequins have actually let an Inquisitor in to the Black Library before. Might be something to play with in your fluff.

[Path Walker]

I will note that the Harlequins have actually let an Inquisitor in to the Black Library before. Might be something to play with in your fluff.

Yeah, the fluff is about an Inquisitor slowly going more Radical who wants to further the work of Czevak, he also believes that Soul Stone transference is the key to revitalising the Emperor and is more important than diplomatic relations with the Eldar.

[Path Walker]

This sounds great. I think I would drop the random movement to 1D6". Just because I think it has the potential to be infuriating when you are gearing up to charge or move through a portal only to be shunted way out of the way. I guess that's kind of the point, but I think a reduction in the distance would keep the flavour while also allowing you to mitigate the consequences.
What happens if you get swept off the board?
Let us know how it all goes

If you get rid of the consequences and just keep some flavour then id worry it would just be pointless to have at all. I think i might just get rid of the whole idea of shifting movement, the Portals and the card draw give enough flavor on their own.

[Path Walker]

The Campaign will also let your Characters gain power and have ongoing wounds. As this is for smaller games, there shouldn't be many to keep track of.

Gaining Experience

Keep a log of every time a model with the Character subtype kills enemy models. Enemy Characters killed count as 5 models, 10 if killed in a Challenge. Every time you reach a threshold, you can roll 1D6 on the Experience Bonus chart below to receive an upgrade.

Thresholds: When kill count reaches one of the following numbers - 5,10,20,35,50,70,100



Roll
Name
Effect


1
Webway Channeler
The Character can sommon forth a blade of force while in the Webway, while fighting in the webway, they may, at the start of their combat phase, swap any weapon they are holding for a Power Weapon of any type


2
Portal Dampener
The Character can concentrate their mind on an active Portal and force this to close, in their Shooting Phase, instead of making a shooting attack, the Charcter can remove a twinned pair of Portal Markers


3
Wayward Projection
Subconsiously, the Character uses the Webway to create an image of themselves that is several inches from where they truly are, this makes them difficult to hit and gives him a 6+ cover save at all times, this can be improved in the normal way by Stealth or Shrouded or any other effect that improves cover saves


6
Empowered By The Webway
Being this close to the Webway and outside of the normal rules of the Universe has empowered the Character, boosting them physically , roll a D3, 1 = +1 S, 2 = +1 T, 3 = +1 W


7
Enhanced By The Webway
Being this close to the Webway and outside of the normal rules of the Universe has empowered the Character, making them more skilled , roll a D3, 1 = +1 WS, 2 = +1 BS, 3 = +1 LD


8
Harnessing The Speed of The Webway
Being this close to the Webway and outside of the normal rules of the Universe has empowered the Character, speeding him up when in battle , roll a D3, 1 = +1 I, 2 = +1 A, 3 = +2 to Charge and Run Distance rolls



If you roll a duplicate of a power 1 or 2, you can reroll, all other effects can stack, if you get multiple Wayward Projection then your cover save improves by 1.

Casualties of War

If a charcter is removed as a Casualty in a Game, roll on the table below.


[tr]
Roll
Name
Effect


1
Dead
This Character is dead, you must promote a replacement, create a new Character to use in their place, this new Character had none of the previous Experience Bonuses and kill count is rest


2
Weakened
Remove one random bonus power gained from the Experience Bonus table, if the Character had no bonuses, then treat as Dead and they loses the few kills they had, if any.


3
Injured
In the next battle this Character takes part in, they are at -1 W, after that battler, the effect is gone. If this would take him to 0 then treat this as Weakened, this may still kill any unpowered Characters


4
Shamed
Demolized by their defeat, the Character is at -1 Ld for the next battle they are in, after that battle, this effect is gone


5
Hideous Scars
The injuries sustained have scarred the Character beyond recognition, but they wear the scars as a badge of pride, this Character leads from the front and their troops have their confidence boosted by their presence, the character gains +1 Ld permenantly


6
Near Death Experience
The Character awakens from their injured state determined to prove themselves, taking the lessons learnt and turning them into opputunities to improve, the Character can immediately roll on the Experience Bonus table, regardless of kill count