Still Here... But... Drained

In case you're wondering where I've been, my Dad is dying of Lewy Body Dementia. The same disease that took Robin Williams. It's progression has been blindingly fast, and in just the last 2 months he's gone from confused, but understandable, to a babbling stream of random words and crazy compulsions. Sometimes he knows who I am, and sometimes he doesn't.

Psychology In WarStrike?

While working my way through the next few assault pages, I've had some ideas on how Fear and Terror might work in the game. Psychology was always a big part of WHFB (in the early days at least), but it's something that really seems to have always been missing from 40K. Should we include something like that in WarStrike?

New Assault Phase, Part II

And here's page 3 of the new Assault Phase section.

New Assault Phase, Part 1B

God! Has it really been 2 months since my last rules post? Been dealing with a lot of crap since then. From my parents' worsening conditions and their moves to separate living areas (with dramas), to a relative dying, a slew of emergency home repairs, and a hundred other little annoying things.

But today was peaceful and quiet (for once), and so I dove back into the assault chapter at last. Reading through what I'd written 2 months ago, I was surprised at how well it seemed to fit together (glaring typos aside), so I didn't go quite as radical with the changes as I'd talked about a few posts back.

Understanding Structural Strengths/Weaknesses

In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to re-outline the WarStrike Assault Phase, with the intention of removing all defensive and supporting fire. This is because after thinking about the game's turn sequence, I decided that both of those mechanics already exist in the Action (Shooting) Phase, and that our double-activation turn sequence would ensure that each side gets to shoot at moving units before the Assault Phase starts. Meaning that the Assault Phase can just be about charges, melee, and fall-backs, without having to repeat actions that normally happen in earlier phases.

Nurglitch has taken exception to this though, and the comments are getting long and detailed enough that I think this issue deserves its own post.

Dealing With A Lot Of Crap This Week

Well, the good news is that all the incorporation paperwork (a couple of large blog-articles worth) has been sent off to the lawyer for review. The bad news is that my Dad's Parkinsonian dementia has drastically worsened since early last week, and he's just babbling incoherently and arguing with everyone around him about whatever nonsense pops into his head. It was so bad last Wednesday that the home actually sent him to the hospital for a stroke assessment (thankfully negative).

Still Here... Doing Paperwork

As much as I'd rather be writing rules and fluff today, I'm busy with incorporation stuff. I have to write up a compelling history of the project/company (which doesn't actually exist yet), answer a bunch of other boring questions like how long board members serve, whether we're succeeding a previous corporation, whether we have more than $250K in company assets (LoL!) and such forth.

At least when I'm done the lawyer will be filing all the papers. :)

New Rule For Casualty Allocation

O_N's grammar correction to a rule that might apply to a combined target unit (because enemy units in coherency are now treated as one unit when shot at), gave me an idea for a new rule to increase the number of allocation dice rolled by the shooter against combined targets. AND... that an officer in a combined unit could be chosen as a casualty in exchange for three 5+ results, instead of the normal 2 for the unit leader.

The New Assault Phase, Part 1

Here's the first 2 pages of the new Assault Phase. It took longer to get started on the writing for this section because I had to re-outline it after the elimination of the separate Overwatch phase. As you can see though, the result is a much simpler sequence. Three of the orders are explained with one rule each. While all that's then left is the explanation of the charge/consolidation procedure, and the final melee combat once every assaulting unit has finished moving or shooting.

The New Action Phase, Last Page

Here's the final page of the new Action Phase. On to Assault!!!

The New Action Phase, Part 6

And here's the rules for removing casualties. Notably, I've removed the burning terrain bits (here and elsewhere), and clarified what happens to a unit that becomes trapped in a building.

The New Action Phase, Part 5

Happy Birthday to me! :)

Here's the next two pages that cover how to allocate (or not) your saving throws, especially when the target units themselves get complicated. The text didn't actually need much work at all, but all the example pics had to be re-shot due to the previous versions showing D10's instead of D6's.

The New Action Phase, Part 4

On to Armor Saves! Here's the first 2 pages, plus a couple of revised pages from the Observation and Action Phase rules. I made some changes to those when I realized that I hadn't covered what happens when you observe/shoot a building section (the section, not the guys inside it) from the inside.

The New Action Phase, Part 3

And... Finally we get past that comparison chart, and on to the next page, where I had room for some nice looking graphics. This is all of the "Rolling To Hit" rules. Next stop... Armor Saves!

The New Action Phase, Part 2c (The Last Revision)

As I was pushing forward, I discovered that I really wanted the rules on cover to be in this section instead of under Observation. So I pulled them over, and that allowed for the space to add an explanation graphic for firing past units.

New Action Phase, Part 2b (Revision 2)

And yet another revision. I was working on some later pages when I decided that the rules for firing through friendly/enemy units really needed to be in the target selection sub-section. Unfortunately, due to the way the sub-sections are fitting together, I had to get rid of the graphics that I had on these pages before, since there's simply no room.

New Action Phase, Part 2a (revision)

Incorporation headaches, parental needs, a house refinance, and one of my boys falling out of a tree have conspired to keep the next two pages from getting from 85% to 100% done. But here's a small revision that I made to the previous page 79, where I added the Hit-Stress rule the end of that page in place of the dice graphic.

Now This Is Just Weird...

For most of this blog's history, the country-view numbers have been relatively consistent. In that the US usually leads the world with 10 times the views of Russia, which usually has 5 times the views of anywhere else. But recently There's been quite the mixup. Greece shot to the top of the chart just above the US a week or so ago, and now as it fades down past an ascendant France, Ukraine has come in with nearly double the US numbers.

The New Action Phase, Part 2

Here's part 2 of the Shooting Action Phase Rules. Notable here is that splitting fire is possible, but it costs a point of Initiative. Which should balance out the advantage of enemy units losing a point of Initiative just for being shot at.

The New Action Phase, Part 1

On to the Shooting Action Phase... With all the visibility stuff removed, this section should go quick.

I've gone with "Action" Phase because 3 of the 5 things that you can do in it don't involve shooting. I also thought up a clever way to eliminate the separate "Overwatch" Phase that I had outlined previously. Instead, Overwatch is an action that basically lets you hold off acting until a lower initiative level – but your unit loses 1 point of initiative every time you hit the pause button. :)

Final Observation Page: Unit Cover

Here's the last page of Observation rules that explain how hard and soft cover work in the game. Mr. Camo-Head appeared in an earlier page, but he's been swapped out there and moved here because he's the best image I have to suggest Hard Cover with.

Observation, Part 7: Spotting The Enemy

Here's the rules for spotting the enemy, plus a nice little composite illustration to go along with it. That leaves just the cover rules to do before this section is complete. Two pages tops.

Observation, Part 6: The Last of the Visibility Rules

Here's the last 2 pages of what could be called "Visibility" rules, which total slightly over 9 pages. Not bad, really. :)

The final 2-3 pages in this section will deal with the concepts of "Spotting" and "Cover". After that, I'll be able to properly write up the new Shooting section.

Observation, Part 5a: Tweaking For Clarity

Same pages as last time, but tweaked for clarity.

Observation, Part 5: Buildings In Just 2 Pages

Well, I promised no more than 2 additional pages of building rules, but I was actually able to keep it to just one. So it's 2 pages total with the FoV rules included.

Observation, Part 4: Building FoV

Here's the next bit on buildings. If the sections on observation out of, and into buildings takes more than 2 pages total, then I'm going to hack, slash, and simplify those rules until they do! I've already assumed that the players can figure out how to measure 45º angles on their own, and have cut a page's worth of explanations that we used to have for that. :)

Observation, Part 3

I've got company coming tomorrow, so I'll be too busy to work on the game for the rest of the day. But here's the Area Terrain section of the rules. There's a few tweaks here and there, but long time readers have seen most of this before.

Observation: Part 2

I'm on a roll tonight, I guess. Here's the next two pages of the new Observation section.

Observation: Part 1

Here's the first 2 pages of the new "Observation" section, so-called because the later rules will tell you to "Observe" a target, etc. Basically, this is where I'm putting all of the old visibility rules (polished up a bit) so that they don't overburden the Shooting section.

Movement Phase Revision: Final Part

Here's the final part of the Movement Phase revision. The bits about moving around the enemy got hacked down quite a bit, since you can't actually move into engagement in this phase anymore. There's some new stuff about moving around in contested buildings, and the ability for a unit to use smoke. Which uses a simple 40K-ish status marker instead of laying down a template.

Movement Phase Revision: Part 4

Yes, the building rules will be back in the main rules sections, but more simplified wherever possible. Especially when we get to the Shooting Phase.

Movement Phase Revision: Part 3

Here's the next two pages. Not much has changed besides a word here or there in the rules, an extra descriptive sentence or two, and the updated layout.

Movement Phase Revision: Part 2

And here's part 2...

Biggest change is that Slow Going terrain causes a model not to be able to move more than 8" if they touch it during their move.

Movement Phase Revision - Part 1

The kids are all off to camp this week, so a blessed peace has descended on the Wyrm-abode. As such, I'm finally able to get some work done on revising the Movement Phase rules to fit the new outline.

Spotting the Enemy

In the interests of promoting movement in the game by making it safer under certain circumstances to move a little bit than stand still, I'm working on a spotting system that would make units easier or harder to see based on their actions during the turn. Using a variation on an early idea that we discarded for our visibility system.

Assaults: Dog Pile, or One Unit at a Time?

So based on our last conversation about how assault should work, I have another question for everyone to ponder. Should assaults happen one unit/charge at a time, or should all of the charging be done before blows are struck?

Should Assault Happen All At Once, Or Persist Over Multiple Turns?

Still From The Movie Kingsman

Hey there. It's been a long two weeks, which included some vacation time in Vegas, but now I'm back  and working on the rules again. As I'm working out an outline of what still needs to be done though, a question popped up that I need some community feedback on. Which is: "How should Assaults work?".

A Glossary of ChoM Terms

I'm currently working on evaluating a new software development package for our uses, but here's a glossary of ChoM terms that lays out a decent (and disturbing) skeleton of what it means to rise through the Church and the Fidelis. Which can be described as one part Masonic, another part Scientology, and a sprinkling of Mormonism on top.

A WarStrike Faction Census: Part III: The Gruin

Here's the population numbers for the Gruin, the great pain in the backside of the Republic.

A WarStrike Faction Census: Part II: The Turids

Aluminum-Cast Ant Nest, Walter R. Tschinkel

Sorry for disappearing again. I had to deal with a LOT of Parental financial issues that I'd been putting off. Like spending 30 hours meticulously re-filing 5+ years of paperwork in a way that makes searching through their records for tax and insurance purposes saner. Plus dozens of tedious phone calls, and a few visits to various banks and insurance agencies. Ugh!

So I'm going on strike taking a break today from all of that to try and catch up a bit on my posting.  First I want to finish up on the "Census" by showing you the Turid and Gruin numbers that I've put together.

A WarStrike Faction Census: Part I

Sorry for the long delays in posting. Been busy with taxes/insurance for my parents, the kids and wife have been sick, and I fell down something of a rabbit hole last week researching Scientology. I swear, the deeper you dig, the more batshit-crazy evil crap that you find on them. Such as a dying woman being eaten alive by cockroaches while being kept in isolation to "cure" a psychotic break. I. Kid. You. Not.

Anyway, while working on a glossary of Church of Mowen (ChoM) terms, and working out a basic structure of 'beliefs' for the Fidelis, I had to figure out how many Prophets there are running around in our universe. Which required O_N and I to work out the population of the Republic as a whole, and then I started breaking down that population (and that of the other factions) by stellagraphic region. Here's what I've come up with.

Scientology & The Church of Mowen

I’ve already discussed this with O_N a bit on Twitter, but having just subscribed to HBO’s new cable-free ‘HBO Now’ service, I ran across a very interesting documentary called “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief”. Which does a very good job of laying out the structure of that organization and how it manipulates its members.

As a wacky mystery religion with degrees/levels, and various off-shoot organizations and corporations, I see it as the perfect creepy Sci-Fi basis for where to take the Church of Mowen (ChoM) in WarStrike. Which I’ve always wanted to be oddly compelling, yet horrifying at the same time.

Looks Like We Struck A Chord Somewhere...

While I was off vacationing over Easter, our daily traffic saw a pretty massive 1700% spike a couple of days ago, and while I don't see any specifically unusual site sources (such as 4chan), I do see a disproportionate amount of interest coming from a particular middle eastern country.

The Creation Myth of the Republic: Part V

And just as the wandering god finds a degree of happiness, the jealousy and betrayals begin. This, of course, will not end well for anyone. :)

The Creation Myth of the Republic: Part IV

Here's the next chapter in our saga of the wandering god, who stumbles across something of great value that's much more familiar to us. Though as always, the pessimistic world-view of the Republic taints their perception of things. But given what's coming, who can blame them?

The Creation Myth Of The Republic: Part III

Here's the next page of the Republic's creation myth.

It's not as easy being a god as some might think. :)

The Creation Myth Of The Republic: Part II

For all the work I've been doing chopping up and re-arranging the rules, I haven't had anything convenient to put up for review. But I have been adding to the first post I did on the Republic's creation myth, as a result of some loooong email exchanges on the game's fluff with O_N and Angus.

Units & Engagement Revision

As I tear chunks out of the old Shooting and Melee Phase rules prior to consolidating them into a combined Combat Phase, I'm finding places earlier in the book to put many of the more basic rules. Here, I've dropped the Engagement definition (which never actually existed before) and the unit engagement rules/example into the Models & Units chapter. Between the model basing standards and the unit types.

Interesting Article On Insect Epigenetics

Sciencemag.org has an interesting article up on some epigenetic research going on with bees and ants. It seems that all ants and bees are identical genetically. They just become whatever sub-type is needed through chemical on/off switching of their genes due to environmental factors and upbringing.

Unit Characteristics: Initiative & Movement

Here's the first 2 pages of the Unit Characteristics section. Showing the introductions for Initiative and Movement.