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So I am running my first escalation campaign, and need some help with the rules. Here is what I've come up with so far.

LIST REQUIREMENTS
500 Point List Requirements
0-1 HQ
1-2 Troops
1 Additional Slot

No saves better than 3+
No AV higher than 33 total
No monstrous creatures
No large blasts
No fliers
No special/named characters
No vehicle armor better than 12
No toughness higher than 6
- until 750

Units can be bolstered, and gear can be changed between matches, but unit choices are permanent.
Each unit has a maximum of 30pts for wargear (unless gained through victories)

AFTER EVERY MATCH
Each unit gains 10 points for wargear.
Add up each unit’s XP, if a level is gained roll for reward
If a warlord is killed, roll for damage result.
Apply effects from map rolls

EXPERIENCE
Units accrue experience after each match, each unit is separate, and gains (or loses) experience in the following ways:
Survives the match 1
Does not survive- 1
Is fleeing- 1
Kills a unit 1
Kills a warlord 2
Wins the game 1
Wiped out the enemy 1
Engages an enemy warlord in challenge 1
Wins a challenge 2

WARLORD BONUSES
Roll 1d10 for Warlordsa when 10xp is reached.
A level is gained for every 10 experience, and a reward is gained. Roll 1d10.
1- gains 15 points of wargear (can be given to any unit)
2- gains 25 points of wargear (can be given to any unit)
3- gains one piece of wargear of choice
4- gains one stat of choice
5-Gain one special rule (up to 2 (fearless, move through cover, lucky, tank hunters, night vision, counter attack, stealth, fleet))
6- Roll twice in next battle for warlord trait.
7-Choose 1 stat of your choice to increase by 1
8- Increase initiatve or leadership by 1 (up to a max of 2)
9- Increase strength or wound by 1 (up to a max of 2)
10-Increase ballistic skill or weapon skill by 1 (up to a max of 2)

UNIT BONUSES
Roll 1d10 for units when 10xp is reached.
1-Gains 10 points for wargear
2- Gains 20 points for wargear
3- Gains one piece of wargear of choice
4-Gains special skill (fearless, move through cover, lucky, tank hunters, night vision, counter attack, stealth, fleet)
5- Gains preferred enemy (choice)
6- Unit gains one benefit of choice (restrictions still count)
7- Increase one of the following by 1= In, BS, WS (up to +2)
8- Increase initiatve by 1 (up to +2)
9- Increase ballistic skill by 1 (up to +2)
10-Increas weapon skill by 1 (up to +2)

UNIT DESTROYED PENALTIES
If an enemy warlord is killed, roll for damage trait.
1- Serious Injuries- roll 1d10 x2, results stack (ignore 1s)
2- Broken Ribs- WS reduced by 1
3- Dislocated Shoulder-BS reduced by 1
4- Broken Leg- movement reduced by 1 inch
5- Concussion- initiative reduced by 1
6- Self Doubt- LD reduced by 1
7- Robbed- wargear reduced by 10
8- Held Up- wargear reduced by 15
9- Lesson Learned- Roll once on warlord benefits table
10- Seething Hatred- unit gains preferred enemy towards whatever killed him
(Injuries last for one game.)

Point Limits Per Week (alot of people who will be playing dont have alot of points, havent played in a while, or are new, hence the low costs)
500
600
725
850
1000
1250
1500

ROLL FOR BATTLEFIELD EFFECTS
Battlefield Traits
Roll 1d6
1-2 nothing
3- Gas = feel no pain +6 all units
4- Fog = night fighting through whole game
5- Tremors = all difficult terrain is dangerous terrain
6- Storm = lightning (at end of each phase roll 1 d6 for each unit, on a 6, squad is hit with 1d3 str 4, ap- pinning attacks

Interesting rules/restrictions there. One thing that jumps out at me as maybe not a great choice to include is: 4- Fog = night fighting through whole game.

This could really hurt some armies while having virtually no effect on others. Maybe having the fog equal night fighting on turn one, and then rolling to see if it remains night fighting on each subsequent turn. This way, an army without night fighting capabilities won't be so handicapped against an army like dark eldar which I think has universal night vision.

Thanks for the input. I've had some trouble with the battlefield traits. I had fog originally, which reduced maximum range for everybody, but figured night fighting was easier.

Any suggestions for another trait? Or do anything else?

You really gimped Tyranids. No special characters and no MCs really puts them at a disadvantage. 1 HQ and only one unit that can kill vehicles.

Honestly, if you are going to ban MCs then you should ban tanks. That rule just screams 'I'm banning MCs because they kill tanks and they are too hard to kill' and then you plop an AV 11 tank on the table and the irony is lost. Ban tanks or un-ban MCs. You still have the T6 and 3+ save caps so bolters are still killing every MC in the game.
Your other two options to make it remotely fare would to lower the AV total to 32 or to ban walkers.

Why did you ban large blasts? If you are going to do then then max out weapon strength and AP. I don't think you realize that some armies are reduced to nothing if you take away MCs or AV33+ tanks while others still preform extremely well because they have access to missiles and laz.

If you aren't playing 40k in 40 Minutes then drop the rules. Those rules don't scale at all. I would never play a 1500 point 40k in 40 Minutes game. It is just too broken. 500 points is barely playable. 2x units of Devastators with Missiles and 3x units of Tacticals with a HQ behind a Defense line, nothing will will be able to stand against that. 3+ saves, 4+ cover, T4 and weapons that beat your Av at long range and mass bolter fire at short range. And to top it all off, you banned everything that can combat that. That sounds like the least fun game ever.

On to your bonuses: For warlords, what is the difference between rolling a 4 and 7?
For unit bonuses, what does 6 actually do? Can I make my benefit be that the unit now costs 50% less points?
And how do the bonus points work? That seems to favor people who play more games to a disproportional amount. How often can players gain that boon? And what happens if a player rolls a boon that he can't uses, either the unit is maxed out for points, upgrades, or USRs?

For injuries, do 9 and 10 last forever or only one game? They aren't injuries. ANd 10 needs to be cleaned up a lot, if an ax wielded by a SM Sergeant killed my warlord, do I gain PE verses units with axes, PE vs SMs, PE vs SM Sergeants, PE verses that one SM Sergeant? Get where I am going?

You points break down and timeline need to be changed as well. I don't know how much your club plays but most clubs play one day a week, maybe two. That gives players one shot to decide how much they like their list before it is possibly rendered obsolete due to a points increase. Give players more time to use their lists. Try making it a three month league and increase the points by 125 every two weeks.

Are you going to incorporate pointing into the league? 500 point start is a great point level to say 'painted models only' especially if players have 2 weeks to paint up an additional 125 points.

For you battle field affects:

Why would gas give FNP to every unit?
Night fighting is fine because it give CC units a chance to get into assault since you literally banned every delivery method aside from outflank/DS, running across the field, or AV10 open topped vehicles.
Earthquakes don't just mess with buildings. The make it hard to move in open fields too.
Thunder storm, holy crap dude. There are 6 phases in a game turn and you want me to roll on every unit each phase? Not a chance.

Finally, what happens if a player doesn't want to use a unit any more? Are all the upgrades and exp lost? Are there any rules for changing you list around? What happens if a player wants to bring back a unit that he hasn't used in a while? Or he shelf's a unit for a game to skip an injury result? Have you looked at you rules and tried to break the system as much as possible just to see what terrible things you can do to make the league not fun to play? Someone is going to show up with a list to take advantage of the rules you posted and clean house and then no one is going to want to play any more.



All in all, I think you have a lot of work to do with the rules to make the league enjoyable. I don't see how a reasonable play would want to play in the league with those rules. It wouldn't be fun and there is nothing to gain from it at all.

First off, thanks for the input. I appreciate it. That said, let me explain myself and see if I make more sense:


Tyranids do have it sort of tough admittedly, but even with a warrior prime and some genestealers they're gonna do OK when nobody can take alot of special weapons, plus they can still take a Carnifex which is scary, and theyre still gonna do work in close combat.

Do you really think av33 is too much? I've played some preliminary games to try out some lists, and it seems like it's not too hard to kill a vehicle or 2... and this was back when i had the av at 12 max.

Also, these rule restrictions are only until 750 points. We've played a lot of low point games and theres just some armies that do really well, or rather, some units that are super hard to deal with at low points. The flying hive tyrant or daemon prince comes to mind. Two small groups of troops and a daemon prince means that your daemon prince runs up and murders everybody, at least in my experience.

The warlord bonuses is an oversight, i ran out of ideas and i guess i repeated one without noticing.
The way it seems to me is that in order to gain one level, a warlord would have to hit all of the xp per game, as well as killing at least 2 units to gain one level per game. I figured then that since the stats are also random, the chances of getting a lot of stats seems unlikely, and then there is a limit of 2 max past base anyways.

With regards to the warlord loss table, i suppose the 9 should be changed to something more negative, and just leave one positive. I'll have to think of something.

Also, with regards to the units, I'm thinking about just having the units gain wargear, and 1 special rule (like tank hunters) after each game. I figure it would be like 1 special rule, up to 2, and you can only have 3 active per army, per game. Less rolling, less complicated? I've also thought about doing something like this for the warlord, but it seems to go away from the campaign side... Your commander is growing and getting better, hell in the books a SM captain is capable of killing whole squads of enemies single-handedly.

The battlefield effects, I can't really decide on any of them. I don't particularly LIKE any of them, but i'm trying to add some more flavor to the matches so that people feel like theyre not just playing an escalation league. At 500 points i have 3 units, plenty of models, but 3 units.... 3 dice didnt seem like a lot to me, but even if i had 10 that would be 10 dice? 20 if EVERY dice hit? Still, i'd just as soon drop the traits I suppose.

My thinking with the units was that they have a profile that persists. A unit can swap out a unit for another unit, but they then have to start anew with the new unit. Both would keep their own wargear profiles/special traits. So if you have a group of veterans, and they all have meltas, you can have a second group and start giving them plasma, and now you have two specialized units.

My thinking is that since I cant get most of the people to give me input, we would try it the first week and see what works and what didnt. If it isn't different playing a regular game, why bother doing a campaign?