Cities of Death Games in Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition
Written by: biztheclown
and yakface
Pictures by: Glaive Company CO and AgeOfEgos
Introduction
Cities of Death is a great expansion for Warhammer 40,000. It was released during the 4th edition of the game, and as such, it contains several references to rules that don't seem quite right when compared to the current 5th edition rule-book.
Games Workshop's policy on expansions (like Apocalypse or Cities of Death), is that they modify the core rules of the game as laid out in the expansion rule-book. That means "officially" you are expected to play Cities of Death games using the rules as written in the expansion even though in many cases changes or improvements have been made to the core rules since the expansion was released (via the introduction of the 5th edition rules).
Games Workshop has published an article on their website on converting the Cities of Death rules into 5th edition.
Even so, there are many players out there who really like to utilize the changes that were made to the game with 5th edition and are interested in bringing all of those changes into their Cities of Death games (even more than GW's article suggests). Therefore, the purpose of this article is two-fold:
- To point out the places in the Cities of Death expansion where the rules contradict those found in the 5th edition core rule-book.
- To give you guidance on how to handle those inconsistencies, both if you're interested in playing the 'Rules as Written' as found in the Cities of Death expansion, and also if you want to convert the Cities of Death rules over to a full 5th edition style of game.
This article is divided into five main sections.
- The Playing a Cityfight section replaces page 3 and the chart on page 14 of the Cities of Death rule-book, and gives you the steps to putting together a 5th edition Cities of Death Game.
- The Cities of Death Rule Changes section, revises or replaces some of the Cities of Death rules and stratagems to work with 5th edition.
- The 5th Edition Cities of Death Mission Objectives section defines the victory conditions of the new, 5th edition Cities of Death missions.
- The Design Notes section has information on the rules changes, and the thinking behind them.
- The Cities of Death FAQ section is a completely unofficial take on few commonly asked questions about Cities of Death.
The 'RAW' Boxes
The main part of this article is written as a guide to give you examples of how you can fully convert the Cities of Death rules into 5th edition. However, ultimately these are just 'house rules' that we have tried and thoroughly suggest if you enjoy the changes made to the game via the 5th edition rules. However, if you are playing a Cities of Death game against someone you don't know (such as a pick-up game) then unless your opponent feels the same way you do about converting the rules, you're going to need to play the 'rules as written' (or 'RAW' for short).
Throughout this article you will find these little commentary boxes sprinkled about. Their purpose is to let you know what the official 'RAW' version is following the Cities of Death rules as closely to the printed word as possible and/or commentary of what the GW conversion article suggests in that situation. Please note that in many cases this means you will be essentially playing with older 4th edition style rules or dealing with situations where the RAW in the Cities of Death book contain references to rules that simply no longer exist in 5th edition (such as 'target priority'). Ultimately it is going to be up to you and your opponent to decide what kind of game you want to play.
Playing a Cityfight
Note that this section effectively replaces page 3 and the chart on page 14 of the Cities of Death rule-book.
1. Choose Forces
Choose a 5th edition force as normal from your codex. Use standard armies, or allow the players to tailor their forces for the city-fighting setting. Scoring units will work like 5th edition, so don't skimp on the troops selections.
Scoring Units
When playing by the RAW, the rules for scoring units are found on page 46 of the Cities of Death rule-book and replace the rules found in the 5th edition rule-book.
As such, RAW Cities of Death games can indeed have scoring units that are vehicles, monstrous creatures, etc.
As suggested in the GW conversion article, this means players should decide before the game which style of scoring unit they want to use.
2. Agree Mission Level and Place Terrain
Choose the mission level based on terrain available and army sizes.
| Alpha: Played on a 4'x4' table with 2-3 city ruins. Players receive 1 city-fighting stratagem. Suitable for games up to about 1250 points.
Gamma: Played on a 4'x4' table with 4-6 city ruins. Players receive 2 city-fighting stratagems. Suitable for games from about 750-1500 points.
Omega: Played on a 6'x4' table with as many city ruins as possible. The more the better – as shown on p28 of Cities of Death. Players receive 3 city-fighting stratagems. Suitable for games 1500 points and up.
|
Players place the terrain as indicated on Cities of Death page 15.
3. Choose a Mission and Deployment style
You can either agree with your opponent which mission to play, or roll D6 and consult the chart below:
| 1 - 5th Edition Firesweep
2 - 5th Edition High Ground
3 - 5th Edition Domination
4 - 5th Edition Maximum Attrition
5 - 5th Edition Urban Assault
6 - 5th Edition Secure the Objective
|
After selecting the mission, select Deployment style:
| 1-2 - Pitched Battle
3-4 - Spearhead
5-6 - Dawn of War
|
Cities of Death Missions
When playing by the RAW, use the Cities of Death missions exactly as presented on pages 42-44 of the Cities of Death book, including all of the rules found there for deployment zones, etc.
This also means players roll for missions from the chart found on page 16 of the Cities of Death book.
4. Roll For Deployment
Roll off for first deployment as indicated on pages 92-93 of the Warhammer 40K rule-book.
Cities of Death Rolling for Deployment
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game you will be using the mission rules exactly as presented on pages 42-44 of the Cities of Death book.
Note that this means, very similar to 4th edition, whomever wins the roll for deployment will not necessarily be player who takes the first turn in the game.
5. Choose and Declare Stratagems
Decide what City-fighting Stratagems to use and declare them as stated on page 33 of the Cities of Death book. Revise stratagems as listed below under Cities of Death Rule Changes.
6. Deploy Forces
Deploy according to pages 92-93 of the Warhammer 40K rule-book, revised below under Cities of Death Rule Changes.
Then refer to the “Seize the Initiative!” rule as described on page 92 of the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book.
Cities of Death Deployment
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game you will be using the mission rules exactly as presented on pages 42-44 of the Cities of Death book.
That means you'll be deploying in a style very similar to 4th edition where each player takes a turn placing a unit until both players have finished deploying their entire armies and then players roll off to see who gets the choice to go first or second.
7. Let Battle Commence
Begin with the first turn and fight among the ruins of the Cities of Death!
Cities of Death Rule Changes
Using City Ruins
Ignore any rules on pages 8-13 of the Cities of Death book that contradict the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book rules, except where noted below.
Defining Terrain
Note that Skimmers may now only "normally" end their move over a ruin if they can physically be placed there.
Defining Buildings and Ruins in Cities of Death
When playing a Cities of Death game by the RAW note that intact buildings are impassable terrain (and therefore cannot be entered) and that ruins without a base still count as having a 'footprint' on the ground floor as shown on page 9 of the Cities of Death book.
Of course, players are also told to define their terrain before the game, so even in a 'RAW' game this gives players a perfect opportunity to nominate enclosed buildings they wish to use the rules for enclosed buildings in the rule-book, for example.
Note that GW's conversion article does suggest that you should use the 5th edition rules for enclosed buildings.
Vertical Movement
The one exception to ignoring the Cities of Death Ruins rules (as discussed in Using City Ruins), is that of vertical movement.
Because so much vertical movement is used in Cities of Death games, ignore the vertical movement rules on page 83 of the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book and instead follow those presented on page 10 of the Cities of Death book (which allows a model to move the same distance vertically as well as moving that distance horizontally).
Also, you may want to remove the limitation on "Beasts" from moving vertically into ruins (although it still feels right for Cavalry and Bikes to be penalized this way), otherwise there are several units (such as Tyranid Hormagaunts) that will have little use in your Cities of Death games.
Of course, if you like how difficult it is to reach models up in tall ruins in 5th edition, then by all means follow the full rules for vertical movement in the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book!
Moving Vertically in Cities of Death
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game, models are allowed to make their movement distance both vertically and horizontally at the same time (so if a model rolls a '6' on their difficult terrain test, they are allowed to move both 6" vertically and 6" horizontally in the same turn). This makes it much quicker easier for units in Cities of Death games to move up and down ruins.
Note that Beasts, Cavalry, and Bikes are not able to move vertically into ruins as described on page 83 of the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book.
Line of Sight
Ignore references to terrain category sizes and the “determining line of sight” section on page 11 of the Cities of Death book and instead use both the "Line of sight" (LOS) and "Building & Ruins" rules found on pages 16 and 77-85 of the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book, respectively.
Cities of Death Line of Sight
The Cities of Death book does not present full rules for line of sight but instead refers back to the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.
As such, even when playing a RAW Cities of Death game you will have to follow the line of sight rules presented in the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book.
Occupying a City Ruin
Ignore the rules for "Occupying a City Ruin" on page 42 of the Cities of Death book. Instead, a city ruin is considered occupied if one ore more Scoring Units have at least one model within the city ruin, and no enemy units can claim likewise.
Occupying a City Ruin
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game, follow the rules for occupying a ruin as found on page 42 of the Cities of Death book.
This means that, unlike in the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book, units have to have the majority of their models in a ruin in order to occupy it.
Scoring Units
Ignore the section on “Scoring Units” presented on page 42 of Cities of Death book (as well as the "City-Fighting Victory Points Table" on page 46). Instead use the definition of Scoring Units contained on page 90 of the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book.
Scoring Units in Cities of Death
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game, refer to page 46 of the Cities of Death book for a list of what units are considered Scoring Units.
Note that in many cases, unlike in the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book, units have to maintain certain criteria (such as not losing more than 75% of their starting strength) in order to remain "Scoring".
Also note that in GW's conversion article they suggest that players decide ahead of time whether to use the scoring rules as written in the Cities of Death expansion or those from the 5th edition rule-book.
Dangerous City Ruins
Vehicles roll an additional Dangerous Terrain dice when passing through a Dangerous City Ruin as explained on page 36 of the Cities of Death book. If either die is a '1', then the vehicle is immobilized. If both dice are a '1', then the vehicle suffers a "Destroyed - Wrecked" result with no saves possible.
Destroying City Ruins
Use the rules for "Destroying City Ruins" on page 37 of the Cities of Death book, with the following changes:
- Ignore the reference to "Size 3" area terrain for the rubble left from a building being destroyed.
- Instead, any model firing across or into that pile of rubble for the rest of the game counts its target as in cover and any vehicle target as obscured.
- Models inside that rubble can fire through up to 2" of the terrain without it conferring cover to their target.
Alternatively, for players who like the idea of a rubble cloud blocking line of sight completely, use the following changes instead:
- This rubble area terrain blocks line of sight completely for the rest of the game, with the exception that models within 2” of the edge of the dust cloud may see out and be seen normally.
- Models within this rubble can see other models within the same rubble, but cannot see out unless they are within 2” of the edge.
Destroying City Ruins
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game, ignore the reference to "Size 3" area terrain on page 37 of the Cities of Death Book. Which means a Destroyed City Ruin is simply a rubble pile that blocks line of sight exactly like any other rubble pile in the game.
Note that models in a ruin that are destroyed become pinned (go to ground) whether or not they are normally immune to being pinned.
Deployment Zones
Use the deployment rules on pages 93-93 of the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book.
Since many Cities of Death games are played on a square table, make sure to read the rules on page 88 of the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book for instructions on how to define the "long" and "short" table edges.
Essentially, the player who picks his deployment zone nominates a which edge is considered his "long" table edge if it cannot be easily ascertained.
Cities of Death Deployment Zones
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game use the mission rules exactly as presented on pages 42-44 of the Cities of Death book.
That means (for all the standard City-fighting missions) players will always set-up in alternate table quarters.
Random Game Length
All missions last a random number of game turns, as described on page 90 of the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book.
Cities of Death Game Length
By the RAW, Cities of Death games last six turns unless playing an "Omega" level mission, in which case follow the rules for random game length as found on page 45 of the Cities of Death book.
Mission Special Rules
Deep Strike, Scouts, Reserves, Infiltrate and Outflank work normally as per the standard mission rules as found on pages 94-95 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.
Cities of Death Mission Special Rules
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game, players must select the "Deep Strike" or "Infiltrate" stratagems in order to utilize those special rules (unless their army contains a unit whose special rules state that their ability is always used regardless of the mission).
Units may not be placed into Reserve unless they have a special rule that forces them to be placed into Reserve or the player has selected the "Deep Strike" or "Sewer Rats" stratagems.
The "Outflank" special rule can only be used in missions that allow Reserves to enter from a board edge (which is only found in some of the City-fighting "Special" missions).
The "Dusk and Dawn" special rule is utilized in "Gamma" and "Omega" level games as described on page 45 of the Cities of Death book.
City-fighting Stratagems
All missions use city-fighting stratagems as presented on pages 33-40 of the Cities of Death book. Revise the following stratagems:
Command Center Stratagem
Ignore reference to "Target Priority". Instead, the command center may either grant "Counter-Attack" as written, or allow one unit within 6” of the command center to split its shooting between two different enemy units. Declare the target for each model in the unit before rolling any dice to hit. If the unit is able to assault in the subsequent Assault phase, it may do so against either (or both) of the enemy units it fired at.
Command Center Stratagem
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game, a "Command Center" may only grant the "Counter-Attack" ability as written. The second option is no longer relevant (as is suggested by GW's conversion article).
Preliminary Bombardment Stratagem
Roll a D6 for each enemy unit (including embarked units) and each section of razor wire, barricades, or tank traps on the tabletop. On a roll of 6 the unit or obstacle is hit.
A squad takes D6 wounds from the shelling. (Take Armour Saves as Normal, units within city ruins may take cover saves, and troops may go to ground) and must roll a Leadership test or be pinned in their first turn—see the barrage section of the rules for details. Place a suitable piece of scenery under the squad if you have one available. A vehicle hit by a preliminary bombardment starts the game stunned (roll for each vehicle in a squadron independently, if half or more are hit, the whole squadron must remain stationary in their first turn).
Units that start the game in reserve cannot be hit by a preliminary bombardment. A section of razor wire, tank traps, or barricades is automatically destroyed by being hit, remove it from play. If a unit is struck whilst sheltering in a city ruin, roll a D6. On a result of 4+ the ruin becomes a dangerous city ruin.
Preliminary Bombardment Stratagem
As explained in GW's conversion article, the Preliminary Bombardment special rule can still be found in the 5th edition rule-book on page 258.
Combat Engineer Stratagem
Replace the first bullet point with: "When assaulting enemy defending a Fortified city ruin (see the Fortifications stratagem), models equipped with breaching charges strike at their normal Initiative value. The fortifications are then lost for the remainder of the game."
Combat Engineers Stratagem
There is no way to play the first bullet point of the "Combat Engineers" completely RAW, but the closest seems to be to allow Combat Engineers who assault a unit defending a Fortification to strike at I10 for that round of combat (meaning they'll almost certainly get to strike first).
Tanks Traps Stratagem
Tank Traps provide 4+ cover save instead of a 5+.
Tank Traps Stratagem
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game, tank traps provide a 5+ cover save, and only ever to non-vehicle models.
Deep Strike & Infiltrate Stratagems
Remove these stratagems, as the missions all allow these rules.
Deep Strike & Infiltrate Stratagem
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game, these stratagems must be selected in order for a player's units to utilize these special rules (unless the unit always gets to use their ability regardless of mission special rules.
Sewer Rats Stratagem
When placing a unit in Reserve, the player must declare whether it will use the Sewer Rats stratagem to arrive on the table. Any units declared this way may not then choose to arrive via a table edge.
Sewer Rats Stratagem
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game, units placed into Reserves via the "Sewer Rat" stratagem will only be able to arrive to the table via a sewer marker unless the mission allows units to move on from a table edge (which only some of the City-fighting "Special" missions allow), in which case the player may choose which when the unit arrives.
5th Edition Cities of Death Mission Objectives
1 - 5th Edition Firesweep
Objective: Plant the Flag
Both forces are seeking to clear the enemy from this sector. This is achieved through occupying city ruins. When a city ruin is occupied, the unit doing so 'plants the flag' in that city ruin, and may move off to do so in more city ruins. The 'flag' remains until an enemy Scoring Unit occupies the ruin, at which point it plants its own 'flag' instead.
The player with the most flags planted at the end of the game wins.
2 - 5th Edition High Ground
Objective: Capture Vital Building
Both players are seeking to capture the strategically vital building. This is the first building placed during terrain set up. The player with a unit occupying the building at the end of the game is the winner. If neither side has units occupying the building at the end of the game, then the winner is the player who has earned the most Kill Points per the "Annihilation" standard mission on page 90 of the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book.
High Ground Mission
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game, use the "Victory Points" rules as described on page 46 of the Cities of Death book instead of Kill Points.
3 - 5th Edition Domination
Objective: Hold Out
Each side is attempting to clear the enemy out of nearby buildings and to hold them against possible counter-attack. The player occupying the most city ruins at the end of the game is the winner.
4 - 5th Edition Maximum Attrition
Objective: Annihilation
Both players are seeking to inflict maximum damage on the enemy, while taking minimum damage to themselves. The player who has earned the most Kill Points per the "Annihilation" standard mission on page 90 of the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book wins the game.
Maximum Attrition Mission
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game, use the "Victory Points" rules as described on page 46 of the Cities of Death book instead of Kill Points.
| If you find that Kill Points seem to be ruining your games, try any of these alternatives:
1) Victory Points: Use Victory Points instead, as described on page 108 of the Warhammer 40,000 rule-book.
2) Fixed Number of Kill Points: At the start of the game, both armies get 6 Kill Points total, which must be assigned one at a time by the player onto his Scoring Troops units. If he doesn't have enough Scoring Troops units to assign all the Kill Points, the player may then assign them to other units in his army as he sees fit (including onto transport vehicles), so long as no unit has more than one Kill Point assigned to it. If this still isn't enough to assign all the Kill Points, the player is then allowed to assign his Scoring Troops units a second Kill Point.
3) Kill Point Ratio: At the end of the game, each player calculates the total number of Kill Points they surrendered, and then divides that number by the total number of Kill Points that he would have surrendered had his entire army actually been wiped out. The result is his "Kill Point Ratio". Both players then compare their Kill Point ratio and whichever player has the lower ratio wins the game.
For example, an Ork player gave up 4 Kill Points out of a maximum 8 total (4/8=.50 Kill Point Ratio), while his Imperial Guard opponent gave up 6 Kill Points out of a maximum 14 total (6/15=.40 Kill Point Ratio). Therefore the Imperial Guard player wins as his Kill Point Ratio is lower.
|
5 - 5th Edition Urban Assault
Objective: Enemy Positions
After rolling for deployment, the player who will deploy first chooses a single city ruin to defend, anywhere outside the enemy deployment zone. Their opponent then chooses a city ruin to defend, anywhere outside the enemy deployment zone. Both players must attempt to get units into the enemy's defended building. At the end of the game, the player occupying the building the enemy chose to defend is the winner. If neither or both sides can occupy the enemy defended building then the game is a draw.
6 - 5th Edition Secure the Objective
Objective: Capture the Loot
After rolling for deployment, the player who will deploy first chooses a single city ruin to defend, anywhere outside the enemy deployment zone and places their loot counter there. Their opponent then does the same.
Both players must attempt to secure an objective being guarded in the enemy defended building. If at any point a Scoring Unit occupies the enemy defended building, they secure the objective and are now the objective carrying unit.
An objective carrying unit that is not locked in combat can pass the objective to a friendly Scoring unit that is also not locked in combat by ending their movement phase within 2” of each other. If the objective carrying unit is destroyed, place the counter in place of one of the casualties of the unit. Unattended counters may be picked up by any Scoring unit moving into contact with the objective while not locked in combat.
Units may not pick-up the objective marker belonging to their army. Units that Fall Back immediately drops the objective. Place the marker touching any of the models in the unit before making its Fall Back move.
At the end of the game, the side carrying the enemy objective is the winner. If neither or both sides are carrying the enemy objective then the game is a draw.
Secure the Objective Mission
When playing a RAW Cities of Death game and a '6' is rolled for Mission selection, roll again or both players can agree to play a "Special" Mission as described on page 16 of the Cities of Death book.
Design Notes
It isn't necessary to read this section in order to utilize and enjoy the rest of the article. Instead it is here to illuminate the thinking behind the various rule changes in this article. I played a lot of Cities of Death games in 4th Edition 40K, and it was always one of my favorite ways to play. The main things Cities of Death adds to a normal game of 40k are: rules for setting up terrain, new missions, and of course, the stratagems.
The terrain set up rules in the Cities of Death book allow for a bit of tactics before the game starts. They're really great as-is for use in 5th edition 40K, so they haven't been altered at all.
I did make some pretty serious changes to the missions. First was to adopt the “roll for deployment style” 5th edition rule, which means no matter which mission you're playing there are three different ways to deploy. This creates and incredible diversity of Cities of Death missions.
Next, I made some changes to the mission objectives, replacing Victory Points with Kill Points and even added a entirely new mission: "Secure the Objective". The overall thought was to keep roughly the same ratio of two objective missions versus multiple objective missions versus kill point missions that are found in the standard missions in the 40K rule-book. I felt it was important to go with 5th edition's notion of what counts as a scoring unit and what can stop a unit from scoring.
I know Kill Points are unpopular with many players, but by incorporating them, those players who have built their armies with 5th edition in mind can continue to use their existing army builds without feeling the need to maximize their units to take advantage of the Victory Point rules.
“Secure the Objective” is a slightly more dynamic version of the 2 objective game, in that scoring units are allowed to pick-up and take the objective (and even pass it to other scoring units). This tends to create less draws than the standard rule-book "Capture and Control" Mission. I also added Kill Points as a tiebreaker to “High Ground” as it frequently turned out to be a draw when I played it in 4th edition. Adding them as a tiebreaker also keeps Kill Points relevant in one third of the missions, which again matches the mission ratio in the 40K rule-book.
The biggest change to the stratagems was removing Deep Strike and Infiltrate and allowing them in all Cities of Death Games. Both of these abilities (along with Reserves and Outflanking) are present in every game of 5th edition 40K and therefore it feels wrong to force players to waste their stratagems on them.
The other stratagem changes were much smaller. Command Center was changed to give it a ranged ability similar to the one it lost when Target Priority was removed from the game. Tank Traps were changed because 4+ cover saves are nearly standard in 5th edition and remembering that they are a 5+ save would be more trouble than they're worth. Preliminary Bombardment is no longer in the main rule-book, and so has been re-printed here. Sewer Rats has a clarification added to deal with the fact that Reserves are now a normal part of every mission.
The last change has to do with Destroyed City Ruins and line of sight. In 4th edition the smoke from the Destroyed Ruin was said to block line of sight completely. I've opted for a couple of different solutions to taste your needs. One version pretty much blocks line of sight completely for the rest of the game (like it did in 4th edition), while the other version plays more 5th edition in that you can shoot through the smoke but doing so provides the target with a cover save.
I hope this article is helpful to those who want to bring Cities of Death out of the shadows of 4th edition and into their 5th edition games. Thanks for reading and have fun!
Cities of Death FAQ
This list of frequently asked questions is completely and 100% unofficial and essentially represents the "house rules" of the authors of this article. Obviously if you feel differently about an answer, play it that way!
STRATAGEMS (Pages 33-40)
Q: Are Stratagems that are placed on a City Ruin lost if it is subsequently reduced to Rubble?
A: Yes [clarification].
Q: Do Stratagems that have rules for “Infantry” also apply to "Jump Infantry", or any other unit type since they all supposedly use the rules for infantry except where noted differently?
A: Only models classified as “Infantry” may benefit from these Stratagems [clarification].
Q: What models may benefit from the “Plunging Fire” Stratagem?
A: Any non-vehicle model in the army [clarification].
