Results Of Last Week's Testing

War Machine, Alexander Washington

Caulyndarr and I did our second round of on-table testing last Friday. Here's what we discovered.

First up, let's go over the turn sequence notes that we used.

I.      Starting Phase

a.     Check Army Morale

                                               i.     If army is under 50% units, pass Ld or retreat

                                             ii.     Ld test is taken by army commander

                                            iii.     If Commander is dead, test is auto-failed

b.     Check victory conditions

                                               i.     If unit controls any opposing objective at start of turn, controlling player wins

c.     Rally falling back units

                                               i.     Ld check.

                                             ii.     Units under 25% are dead if they don’t rally.

Not much different here, except that units are only dead on a failed rally if they're below 25%.

II.      Action Phase

a.     Choose an Order

                                               i.     Open Fire!

1.     Shoot With Full Rate-Of-Fire

                                             ii.     On My Target!

1.     Shoot With Full Rate-Of-Fire

2.     Use Teardrop Template pointed away from unit leader to allocate

                                            iii.     Go To Ground!

1.     +1 Evasion

2.     +1 Toughness

                                            iv.     Advance!

1.     Move 6” and Fire

2.     Or Fire and move 6”

3.     1/2 Rate-of-fire

                                             v.     At-The-Double!

1.     Double Movement

2.     Enemy may fire at unit during move (Snap Fire)

a.     1/2 Rate of fire on all weapons

b.     Heavy Weapons suffer -1BS within 18”

c.     Firing unit must not have moved in previous turn

d.     Requires Ld check

                                            vi.     Fall Back!

1.     Double Movement (partial is ok)

2.     Leader may not be moved so as to be closer to any visible enemy

3.     Enemy may fire at unit as per Snap Fire rules.

                                          vii.     Listen Up!

1.     Roll 1 die per Ld point, target is Nv or less.

2.     remove one suppression marker per passed die

b.     If no suppression, order passes automatically

c.     with suppression, Ld check is required.

                                               i.     -1 Nv per marker on unit past first

                                             ii.     Passing check removes one marker

                                            iii.     If failed and not in or within 3” of area terrain or linear obstacle, unit must fall back.

The Action Phase has changed quite a bit. Order points are gone, as the new suppression system was implemented.

The OMT order is the only one using a template for wound allocation. Though we didn't really have any reason to use it because our squads didn't have any heavy or special weapons.

GTG gave units a Toughness bonus.

ATD movement no longer penalized Evasion. Instead enemy units got our version of Snap Fire, which let a unit that didn't move in their last turn take 1/2 shots at the unit either in it's starting or ending location.

Fall-Back moves now offer more control over the direction moved. You just can't move any closer to enemy models. If a unit does fall back, you can snap fire at them.

III.      Movement

a.     Leader moves 6” or 12” as per order

b.     Area terrain or linear obstacles reduces CR by half

c.     CR reduction ignored for area terrain if leader is in it

d.     Cannot place any model with 2” of an enemy unless assaulting

e.     To assault, just move unit into contact.

f.      any unengaged models may shoot as normal.

Movement saw the fewest changes. Troops were still placed within a 6" bubble around the leader.

IV.      Shooting

a.     Area Terrain blocks LoS unless leader is within 12” of target.

b.     Units within or behind Area Terrain are counted as concealed.

                                               i.     +1 Evasion for concealed targets

                                             ii.     +1 Toughness for concealed targets

c.     Shooting Sequence

                                               i.     Roll To Hit

1.     BS vs. Ev

2.     +1 Ev for concealed

3.     +1 Ev for Gone To Ground

4.     +1 Ev for Long Range

5.     6 + 6 always hits

                                             ii.     Compare Shot Strength To Toughness (see chart)

1.     +1T for concealed

2.     +1T for GtG

                                            iii.     Defender Rolls Saves

1.     Rolls of 1 allow attacker to try and roll a 6 to allocate

2.     Defender allocates all other hits

                                            iv.     Defender removes dead models

d.     Shooting Suppression

                                               i.     Add up number of hits each unit receives from shooting

                                             ii.     Units receive 1 suppression marker if either...

1.     They have to roll at least one save

2.     They receive hits equal to 50% or more of their current strength.

                                            iii.     where n is the unit’s starting Nerve value

                                            iv.     Force Leaders

1.     Force Leaders add a +1 to the unit’s Ld value

2.     Leaders within the CR of a unit cannot be targeted individually

Lots of small differences here, but I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

V.      Morale

a.     At end of action phase, all units losing 50+% of starting models must test for morale

b.     failing the Ld test causes units to fall back

Simple enough.

VI.      Close combat

a.     Close combat happens in it’s own phase after move/shoot and suppression

b.     all enemy models within 12” of an assaulting model may shoot in defensive fire.

c.     Snap-Fire rules apply

d.     Attacker may gain suppression markers from DF

e.     Attacker always gets to attack with surviving models in contact

f.      Close Combat Sequence

                                               i.     Roll To Hit

1.     WS vs. WS

2.     6 + 6 always hits

                                             ii.     Compare Hit Strength To Toughness (see chart)

                                            iii.     Defender Rolls Saves

1.     Rolls of 1 allow attacker to try and roll a 6 to allocate

2.     Defender allocates all other hits, starting with models in contact

3.     Defender removes dead models

                                            iv.     Defending units receive 1 suppression marker if either...

1.     They have to roll at least one save

2.     They receive hits equal to 50% or more of their current strength (hits must be able to damage)

                                             v.     Defending units receive 1 more marker if...

1.     They are outnumbered by their enemy

2.     Their enemy causes fear

                                            vi.     Defender must pass Ld check or fall back

1.     If failed...

a.     The unit immediately falls back 12”

b.     Snap Fire rules apply for units not in assault.

c.     Models which can’t get at least 6” from the attacker are destroyed.

d.     Attacker consolidates 4”.

2.     If Passed...

a.     The defender becomes the attacker.

b.     Repeat cycle until one side falls back or is destroyed.

3.     Winner removes all suppression markers

4.     Loser keeps all suppression markers

Pretty much what we discussed, worked out more coherently.

For reference, here's the comparative test chart.

And the chart for the Strength vs. Toughness comparisons. I updated it by capping the number of needed hits at 5. Which keeps Lasguns from being able to take down T7+ monsters.

And finally, the troop stats we used. These are NOT at all final. In fact, they're very un-final. Since I accidentally deleted the original spreadsheet that I was calculating unit odds with, and therefore had to throw these stats together at the last minute.

On To The Testing

The good news is that we finally felt like we were playing a game. The To-Hit/Save back and forth was fun. Suppression also worked pretty well. Though we only had one unit run because of being reduced to 0 Nv.

The Bad News, in no particular order:

1) The Unit Stats Sucked

These weren't balanced anywhere near properly. But that's not really a surprise given how quickly I had to come up with them.

The unarmored infantry squads also clearly need some heavy/special weapons in order to be a threat to the knights. As well as to make targeted template attacks worthwhile.

2) Bubble-Movement Is On The Way Out

Bubble-movement is on it's last legs, if not dead. We just didn't feel like it offered much of a speed increase in a game with 30 or so models on the table. Remember that it was originally conceived when we were planning on matching the size of a typical 2000-point 40K game.

3) The Strength/Toughness Comparison Just Isn't Intuitive.

Not for any of the systems we came up with. Heck, we got tongue-tied trying to explain some of the systems to each other. A total overhaul is needed, which I'll discuss in detail later.

4) The Game Requires More Terrain Than This

Our test table had more terrain on it than your typical 40K setup, even for competitions like NOVA. Yet it wasn't enough to make movement interesting. We tended to just run up in the open and shoot each other instead of making plays for the objectives.

So do we add more terrain, or modify the system? I'm favoring the latter, but we'll need to work it out.

5) Close-Combat Could Be A Lot More Interesting

Not that it was awful or anything, I mean it worked fine. But CaulynDarr got to wondering if we could be a bit more like the LoTR skirmish game. With interesting push-backs, throws, and whatnot for heroes and large monsters.

The more I think on it, the more I agree. It's something that could really set us apart.

Thoughts?