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A friend and I were playing the "This is Heavy, Doc!" mission last night and had some questions.

The mission specifies that movement is reduced by d6" each turn in heavy gravity. Besides the fact that there's no specifics laid out in how to determine this (we decided roll a single d6 at the start of each game turn and this would apply to all movement for all units in both player turns), there's a question about what exactly this applies to.

One stance is that the movement penalty applies only to movement phase movement. So take for example some Genestealers ... if the heavy gravity reduces their movement by 5", they could move up to 1" in the movement phase (if they're in difficult terrain they'd have to roll a 6 to do this!), but fleet and assault normally.

Another stance is that the movement penalty applies to the total movement in the turn. So if the same Genestealers rolled a 3 for difficult terrain movement, the remaining 2" penalty would carry over to their fleet and possibly assault rolls (so if they got a 1 on both fleet and assault they couldn't move at all!).

The final stance is that the movement penalty applies separately to each movement action in the turn. So the Genestealers would need to roll a 6 for their difficult terrain to move 1" in the movement phase, then a 6 in fleet to move 1", and finally their 6" assault turns into 1".

The opposite of course would apply in low gravity (+d6" movement) for all 3 scenarios. So if, for example, you got low gravity with +6" movement, and you think the 3rd stance applies, then the Genestealers get a total of +18" movement between the three separate moves.

Opinions on which stance is correct?

-Polare

It sounds to me like you should roll a seperate D6 for each movement action of each unit every time they move. Rolling once per turn and having every unit affected makes it sounds like there are sudden Gusts of Gravity that are pulling everything down, rather than individual units struggling independently against an unfamiliar environment. Granted that applying it across the board makes it seem more "fair" but it really feels wrong to me. And it certainly must cover fleeting and assaulting as well as movement phase movement. It's not as though somebody's in the back flipping on and off the gravity switch whenever the scoreboard shows "movement phase"

Movement is defined/described in the section of the book called "Movement Phase" starting on page 15 of the rulebook.

Displacements of models through space that do not fit under this description can't strictly be interpreted as "Movement" in game terms.

It's just really sloppy rules writing no matter how you slice it, so both of your interpretations are as valid as the next person.

One thing I would say is that anytime a model moves from one place to another on the table it is "movement", so there certainly isn't any reason this rule shouldn't apply to all types of movement that occur during a turn.

Although you do never know, the whoever wrote this mission may have meant for only movment phase movement to be affected.


I would need to see the actual text for the mission rule to really give my real opinion, but based on what you posted ("The mission specifies that movement is reduced by d6" each turn in heavy gravity"), I would say that you plyaed it as close to the RAW as you can.

Of course, it's pretty hard to remember how much you roll for each unit once you come back to them in the Assault phase, so it's probably just much easier to roll every time you need to move a unit.

Posted By Flavius Infernus on 03/02/2007 12:41 PM
Movement is defined/described in the section of the book called "Movement Phase" starting on page 15 of the rulebook.

Displacements of models through space that do not fit under this description can't strictly be interpreted as "Movement" in game terms.

I disagree. First of all, the rulebook is laid out so that actions are described in one section and then utilized (sometimes without reference) throughout the rest of the rules.

For example: Casualty removal is described only in the shooting phase rules. It is then referenced in the Assault phase rules. Its use must also be assumed anytime a unit takes random wounds (from exploding vehicles or from dangerous terrain tests, etc) because there simply isn't any other alternative written.

So while "movement" is described in the context of the movement phase, I contend that the basic rules for movement are then naturally implied to any other "move" made the rest of the turn.


Also, the word "move" or "movement" is used in the rules when describing other actions that involve displacing models: Assault move,  pile-in move etc, clearly indicating that those are indeed "moves" ( ergo "movement" ).

Agreed with Yak on pretty much all counts.

To maintain any sort of game balance, I would apply that -d6 to just the movement phase. Anything else can lead to ridiculous situations (Give that I know nothing of the scenario you played, my comment may not be valid at all) but if there's no penalty to shooting, the heavy grav enviroment would in that case massively favor the shooty army, and the low grav enviroment would massively favor the assault army. If you apply the -d6 to just the movement phase you have some of the effects of heavy grav, but you dont entirely screw or unduly benefit one army type or the other.
Hows that?

Posted By Sazzlefrats on 03/02/2007 1:17 PM
To maintain any sort of game balance, I would apply that -d6 to just the movement phase. Anything else can lead to ridiculous situations (Give that I know nothing of the scenario you played, my comment may not be valid at all) but if there's no penalty to shooting, the heavy grav enviroment would in that case massively favor the shooty army, and the low grav enviroment would massively favor the assault army. If you apply the -d6 to just the movement phase you have some of the effects of heavy grav, but you dont entirely screw or unduly benefit one army type or the other.
Hows that?

Truthfully though, I think that applying it to all movement is what was intended. My reasoning is that it will force all players to re-think how they play their lists dramatically, while just 1d6 in the movement phase wouldn't be all that bad. I can see someone trying to do a consolidate move and rolling a 6 and not moving anywhere. Besides, it was intended to represent gravity and gravity doesn't shut off after the movement phase.

Regardless how you interpret it, I would play it for each and every movement action. Just sounds like it could make for a fun game.

Kind of off topic, but I wouldn't mind doing a similar game on a low-grav world. How about after each movement you roll a d6 and a scatter die and have to move in that direction. That would be a hoot.

It really is a badly written scenario. I actuallly had a custom scenario at my last tournament a few weeks ago which was similar but a bit better balanced. A battle in a blizzard. All movement distances (including fleet, consolidation, assault, and vehicle movements in relation to disembarking and shooting) were reduced by 1", but there was also Nightfighting to help the assaulty armies a little and represent reduced visibility in the storm. Worked pretty well.