Wrap Up: Our Underlying Assumptions

Star Wars Concept. Ralph McQuarrie

Ok, so it looks like we have a consensus on the following as the most basic elements of 40K that we wish to keep as the foundation our game:

1. Each Turn Has 3 Phases: Movement, Shooting, and Assault
2. The Game Uses 6-Sided Dice
3. The Game Uses A Comparative Stat Table For Most Tests
4. The Game Uses Traditional Fantasy Archetypes In a Sci-Fi Action Setting 
5. The Game Has Core Rules Which Are Supplemented With Faction Rules
6. The Game Is Played With 28mm Miniatures
7. The Game Is Squad Based
8. Each Model Is Moved Independently In No Particular Formation.
9. The Game Will Model Company Sized Battles (at least for Imperial Guard)
10. The Game Will be Played On A 6x4 Table (Added 10/10/11)

There was a lot of discussion on the turn structure we should use, but the consensus seems to be that we should follow the same Move, Shoot, and Assault phases with the player turns interleaved to decrease the time that each player spends waiting on the other's turn. Such that the basic order becomes I Move, You Move; I Shoot, You Shoot; I Assault, You Assault. The players will roll off at the beginning of each phase to determine who goes first. Race/Faction bonuses could affect these rolls.

Two possibilities exist for how to resolve the actual fighting in the assault phase:

In the first, each player does their attacks when they assault. The other player then gets to attack after they make their assault moves. Turn initiative, and not model initiative, would determine who gets to move and attack first.

In the second, each player makes their assault moves separately. The actual fighting is then done in a combined phase that would work much as combat in 40K does now. So individual unit initiative still matters.

(So far I favor the second approach, but we'll leave both possibilities open for later discussion.)

The primary concern about interleaving the turns appears to be whether it will cripple the ability of assault troops to get into combat with a target.

Some ideas for adressing that include:

1. Limiting units to half-movement within 12" of an opponent.
2. Adding a Pinning mechanic to the game that could stop units from moving away during the movement and shooting phases.
3. Making certain types of long-range infantry weapons less effective within 12".

But in any event, we'll have to pay particular attention to balancing assault.

BTW: This is the first page of finalized notes. It will appear to the right as a permanent blog link for later reference. 

Contributing Discussions:

The First Broad Strokes Of A New 40K
Taking Turns: I Go, You Go?
What Table Size? (Added 10/10/11)

-SandWyrm