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I don't know about you guys, but I'm really tired of dull beatstick heroes and lords that all they do is provide better leadership and extra punch. The same goes for wizards, specially the low level ones, who do nothing besides carrying a scroll or casting the same spell every turn.

I have a proposal: a selection of basic actions/commands for characters and unit champions.

Rules:
Most characters and champions can only perform a single action per turn, and cannot use the same action twice in a row, unless specifically stated. Actions and Commands do not use power dice and thus cannot be dispelled. Some characters may possess additional Actions and Commands (specified in their respective army books). Units cannot recieve 2 commands in the same turn, nor can they be the target of more than a single action, but can be affected by a Command and an Action at the same time.

Army General
Every army general can issue 5 basic Commands with the restrictions shown above. This Commands require a LD test to be applied, and the target unit must be a aximum of 12" away from the army general (18" if Large Target).
- Fall Back! (can be declared as charge reaction. Add an extra d6 when rolling to flee, discarding the lowest result. The unit rallies automatically afterwards)
- Take Cover! (the unit is under heavy cover until the start of the controlling player's next turn)
- Hold Your Ground! (the unit re-rolls all failed LD tests until the start of the controlling player's next turn)
- Show No Mercy! (models in the second rank can perform as many supporting attacks as the number of attacks shown in their profiles until the controlling player's net turn)
- Be Ready, Men! (can be declared as charge reaction. Grants ITP and ASF for the remainder of the turn)

Battle Standard Bearers
Every BSB can perform 3 basic Actions with the restrictions shown above. This Actions require a LD test to be performed, and can only affect him and his unit.
- Last Stand (can be declared after having lost combat. The BSB becomes unbreakable for the remainder of the turn).
- Heroic Feat (can be declared at the start of any combat phase. For the remainder of the turn, the BSB and his unit always hit and wound on +5 unless they would normally require a lower result).
- Inspire Confidence (declared at the start of any turn. Enemy units must re-roll sucessful to hit rolls against this unit).

Wizard (of any level)
Wizards can use the magic energies to alter their surroundings, represented as 3 basic Actions. This Actions require a LD test to be performed, and can only affect the wizard and his unit.
- Arcane Barrier (models willing to attack the wizard or his unit do so with a -1 penalty to wound. Also applies to ranged attacks)
- Deep Concentration (the wizard can keep casting/dispelling after suffering from Broken Concentration, and can also re-roll a single misscast roll. Lasts until the start of the controlling player's next turn.)
- Arcane Blast (can be declared as charge reaction. The charging unit will fail the charge at the roll of +4)

Heroes & Unit Champions
Every unit champion or combat hero can issue 3 basic Commands with the restrictions shown above. This Commands require a LD test to be applied, and can only affect the champion/hero and his unit.
- Follow Me! (the unit gets Swiftstride for the remainder of the turn. If the unit already has Swiftstride special rule, it also ignores dangerous terrain tests)
- He Is Mine! (can be declared before rolling to hit. The champion allocates all his attacks into a single character/champion/monster in base contact with him or his unit. If the target is killed, his unit automatically fails any Fear/Terror tests it has to make for the rest of the battle).
- Stay Back! (can be declared before the enemy rolls to hit. Models willing to attack any character in base contact with the champion must allocate all their attacks against him instead).



Well, those are just some cheap proposals, but I think you guys get the idea. What do you think about such "Commands & Actions" system? Would it make the game more entertaining or just more difficult?

I kind of like the concept, but the problem is every army has specific weaknesses and this will help them overcome them. So some armies will ALWAYS pick certain abilities and never others. It just becomes an army-specific buff in other words and not really OPTIONS.

Lizardmen will never take Hold your ground and HE will never take Be ready, etc.

Also the BSB and Generals aren't as valuable to each army and don't cost the same. They are horrendously expensive to add a BSB to ogres compared to O&G. And a BSB is fairly useless to DoC.

I think it does make it too complicated and it's very powerful for some armies and very sucky for others. You need to do something REAL basic like:

General can issue 1 order per player turn to one unit in his IP range.
-+1S, -1T
-+1BS, cannot hold and shoot
-+2M, -2LD
-on a wizard: +2 to cast, -1 random spell for a turn

I think that's a lot simpler. Everyone has a General. And they have downsides to useage so people don't have to do them if they don't want to (purists). But it gives a little extra spice.

Sounds good and would be fun to use, but a couple stand out as being potentially OP.

Be ready men! allowing ASF could be a game changer for certain units with low I like ogres who are suddenly hitting at the same time as elves and before chaos warriors.

Maybe allow them re-rolls to hit?

Also Arcane Blast. If I read this right it means the charge auto fails on a d6 roll of 4+? That is HUGE. Some armies depend on the charge to do damage for example bretonnians and their knights.

How about reducing the enemy charge by a roll of D6 inches?

Just my thoughts. I do like the ideas though as they add a new dimension to characters who at the moment are just beatsticks, scroll caddies, spell spammers or BSB'S.

I agree with you guys, those things could end up being OP, but please note that they were just examples. Months of brainstorming and playtesting would be required to come up with something balanced.

The biggest problem I see with this system, is that some armies like O&G could spam cheap mages/heroes to buff most of their units, while others like WoC would be lucky to field more than a BSB and a scroll caddy. This however could be fixed with some army-specific restrictions, like "goblin heroes can only perform the Follow Me! action".

I guess I'm going to be the guy who has to say it.

But I absolutely hate every one of these. They all push well beyond OP and seriously harm the actual strengths and traits of every army.

This isn't adding 'spice', this is adding obvious 'best choices' to a table. There's absolutely nothing tactical or strategic to any one of these choices, as there is clearly best ones for every situation. They outright cancel out many army special rules for no real reason. After all, what does it matter that Elves have ASF when now every enemy, regardless of their type, can have it now as well on an Ld test?

The only tactics this changes is making it necessary for ALL armies to spam low level characters so that they have access to all of these broken abilities.

This concept should be utterly scrapped.

I do quite like the concept, but it does need some work.

Firstly, limit it to only the General and the BSB. You can only ever have one of these, so it stops armies like OnG abusing the system by spamming tons of cheap characters.

Secondly, you need to make sure the bonuses aren't as broken, and are as equally beneficial as possible for every army. It'd be hard to do, and would certainly involve limiting it to only few orders (2-3, perhaps). I think something like "Tactical Retreat" would work for the General. So one unit in his IP range can move directly backwards a number of inches up to their movement value, on the passing of a Ld test. Unlike "Be Ready Men", most armies benefit from this more or less equally.

I think you'd also have to prohibit some armies from being able to use some (or all!) of these abilities, which may help to balance it a little and does make sense fluff-wise. After all, an Empire General will have much more control over his troops than a Skaven one, especially if there are other Skaven characters with their own ideas!

All in all though, it is a great concept, and good work on making a start with it. One great thing about it would be the ability to add army specific orders for certain armies, mainly the likes of Dwarves and HE. I think a "Shield wall" order would work well for Dwarves, denying any enemy unit a flank or rear charge bonus, for example.

Clever concept but dangerously OP in my opinion

I think if anything it needs to be limited to just the general, one command per turn, and each command can only ever be used once. Also the orginal commands you have are way too op.

Little things like a one time per game, after passing a LD test, for a unit to re roll a leadership test is not too op. I think the big thing will be limiting it to the general only, one order per turn, and you can never issue the same order twice in a game.

 DukeRustfield wrote:
I kind of like the concept, but the problem is every army has specific weaknesses and this will help them overcome them. So some armies will ALWAYS pick certain abilities and never others. It just becomes an army-specific buff in other words and not really OPTIONS.

Lizardmen will never take Hold your ground and HE will never take Be ready, etc.

Also the BSB and Generals aren't as valuable to each army and don't cost the same. They are horrendously expensive to add a BSB to ogres compared to O&G. And a BSB is fairly useless to DoC.

I think it does make it too complicated and it's very powerful for some armies and very sucky for others. You need to do something REAL basic like:

General can issue 1 order per player turn to one unit in his IP range.
-+1S, -1T
-+1BS, cannot hold and shoot
-+2M, -2LD
-on a wizard: +2 to cast, -1 random spell for a turn

I think that's a lot simpler. Everyone has a General. And they have downsides to useage so people don't have to do them if they don't want to (purists). But it gives a little extra spice.

This I like more. I'd make the unit take the test without Inspiring Presence or Hold your Ground. So O&G could spam cheap heroes, but would be testing at Ld7.
Add to this:
Arcane Barrier: Discard Power Dice, +1 to a dispel roll next turn for each die discared, chosen after dice are rolled.
Shield Wall: +1 armor save vs shooting, may parry vs all ranged attacks, halve movement. (cannot be used by frenzied units).
Reckless Charge: Gain Swift Strider and -1 to hit (frenzied units only)
Volley: Unit gains volley fire, if it already had volley fire, it fires at full effect in an additional rank.

Some of this is pretty interesting actually. I'll read it more later and comment on it but right now I'm gonna sleep for a bit.