Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey everyone, since I'm finally buying a house, I decided that I want to have an inaugural apocalypse game. The only problem is, I'm not sure what types of restrictions I want to put in place (points, super heavies, etc.).

The way I want to have it set up is my 6x4 table, with two 4x4 tables connected with a bridge opposite of it. I plan on having 4-6 people at this, and everyone I asked has at least two 2k-3k points armies.

Here are the rules/restrictions that I wanted to use:
Three teams (xeno vs. chaos vs. imperium), someone suggested to just use chaos and imperium though...
5,000 points on each side
One super-heavy per player
No restrictions on formations
No restrictions on allies
No restrictions on fortifications

If anyone has any advice, I would greatly appreciate it, since this is the first apoc game I have planned and I want to make it epic.

Thanks,
B

Apoc games are my favorite part of playing 40k, and I've been lucky enough to play a lot of them in the past 2 years. So here are some things that I've learned over time:
1) 3 team apoc games are a HUGE pain to run. The problem is that it forces teams to sit for 2 turns waiting and getting shot to bits. I would highly recommend that you play 2 sides, as it will get people more involved and prevent a lot of head aches.
2) Limit restrictions as much as possible. The point of apoc is to field everything you have and have fun. The only things I typically limit in my games are special characters. Our house rule is that you can only have one version of the SC; that way we don't have 4 Calgars running around on the Imperium side. Balancing super-heavies is also nice, but not necessary. I typically only find problems when you get big titans, as they are always under priced for what they can do. But to each their own.
3) Switch up the board. It can be fun to just line up the 2 sides across from each other and then go at it. But it's really nice to have some interesting boards that you normally wouldn't have. I like the idea that you have with the bridge connecting the smaller tables.
4) Create a story behind the game. I cannot recommend this more. Games with background are so much more enjoyable for the gamers. Why are the armies fighting? Why are blank and blank allied? What are the objectives? Make it interesting and bring the players into the game. In my experience, unique objectives and cool fluff are always worth it, even when it makes the game a little unbalanced.
I hope this helped. Apoc games are a blast to play, whether you win or get crushed. Good luck and get smashing!

*Edit* I just noticed you are from Cincinnati. As a fellow Cincinnatian, I hope to catch a game with you at some of the FLGS! (Eastside is my favorite)

Agree with Frey, Make it a two team event...

Encourage each team to meet once , even if by telephone to plan who does what and is bringing what.

A board fills up fast with in an APOC game so do not overdo the terrain.

That being said have objectives, it really does make it even more fun.

A Bridge Too Far is always a favorite on really big APOC games that has 3 or more players on a side.

The big guns swapping fire from one end of a long board to the other, the defenders fighting off the more lightly armed troops dropping from the skies, and the balancing act of where to send reinforces in later turns to keep or take all the bridges...

Damn, time to plan another big APOC game....

1) Make a schedule and enforce it. X minutes per phase (move/shoot/assault), if you haven't finished it within X minutes you don't get to do it. If you fail to finish resolving an assault you declared your unit is wiped out and removed from the table (so no charging and then hitting the time limit without your opponent getting to swing back). Do not grant any exceptions to this rule. The hardest part of running a successful Apocalypse game is keeping everything moving. If you don't have a clear schedule and time limits then you get bogged down in dice rolling and half your players will pack up and leave by the end of the first turn.

2) Bring lots of superheavies. Superheavies are great, the more of them the better. They do lots of damage with a relatively small number of dice, which keeps the game moving quickly. If you limit the number of superheavies you make the game take a lot longer or everyone will consistently fail to move/shoot/assault with all of their units within the time limit and have to leave stuff unused (which sucks).

Limit global effects to a bubble. Like the Necron Lord guy that can turn off/on nightfight. We usually make it a 36-48" bubble depending on board size. Global efects like that become really stupid in APOC.

Also bidding for first turn is always fun....you do a blind bid. Each team writes down the lowest time they think they can deploy in and whoever has the lowest gets first turn and has to set up first. You time it and anything not set up in that time automatically goes into reserve. The 2nd team (losing bid) has as much time as they need.

Another important point: don't give up.

I have a set of friends who have been trying to schedule an Apoc game since the day the new edition was released. People's schedules, the availability of a room, unexpected surprises, a car accident, etc have intervened.

Hang in there, it will happen.

 quickfuze wrote:
Limit global effects to a bubble. Like the Necron Lord guy that can turn off/on nightfight. We usually make it a 36-48" bubble depending on board size. Global efects like that become really stupid in APOC.

Oh yeah, that reminds me: ban night fighting. The Necron character with the lightning is just stupidly overpowered (and time consuming) in Apocalypse, and limiting ranges to 36" on a huge table isn't fun for anyone.

 Peregrine wrote:

 quickfuze wrote:
Limit global effects to a bubble. Like the Necron Lord guy that can turn off/on nightfight. We usually make it a 36-48" bubble depending on board size. Global efects like that become really stupid in APOC.

Oh yeah, that reminds me: ban night fighting. The Necron character with the lightning is just stupidly overpowered (and time consuming) in Apocalypse, and limiting ranges to 36" on a huge table isn't fun for anyone.

^ this completely.
We had a necron player who is a good friend of mine bring that character to an apoc game. It was absolutely miserable spending the first 10 min of the shooting phase waiting for him to role for every single fricken unit on the table. If you are going to use night fighting, make it part of the story (an attack at dawn, the defenders have to hold until nightfall, etc.). And the typical limit for unlimited range (like Hunter Killers and abilities) is 72". Though it is up to you on how far you want to set it. I would at least give the weapons lascannon range or better.

1. Keep a point limit. That's a good idea. How many players per team, though? If it's 2 players splitting 5k points, that's only 2500 each. That's not a lot of toys on the table.
2. (xeno vs. chaos vs. imperium) Maybe it's just me, and my idea of fun isn't the same as yours, but don't do it. 2 teams are plenty.
3. Table size: don't play a 10k point per side game on a 4'x6' table. Put a lot of large tables together.
4. Table wide effects, like the Necron dude that can make everything night fighting should be restricted. Either don't allow it at all, or restrict it to a 4'x4' area.
5. WYSIWYG as much as possible. In a 1500 point game, sure I can remember your flamers in squad A is actually a melta gun. In an Apocalypse game, I'll never remember that, and neither will you.
6. Don't get too attached to anything. You're favorite unit will die on turn 1!
7. Have fun!

Recently, we played an APOC game with the following rule set:

Two teams (chaos vs. imperium, 2x4 players)
4,000 points per player
One super-heavy per player
No restrictions on formations
Only battle brothers
No restrictions on fortifications

Start: 8 am, start of the game: 9:30 am
End: 8 pm.
Played 6 rounds!
It worked quite well.

Thanks everyone. Right now it's going to look like Necrons and Chaos vs. Imperium, with the restrictions as follows:

0-2 named characters per player
1 superheavy per player
No restrictions on formations
An hour (possibly more or less) per side

I'm thinking about adding in some objectives as victory points, but idk. Anyone have any other thoughts?

Congrats!!

I have run and particpated in many apoc games...here are few things what have worked well for my groups.

1 - Balance superheavies by max points per side, and take them out of the side total.
For example:
Each side gets 7,000 point, up to which 2,000 can be super heavies.
This does two things;
a - One super heavy per player does not work - you might bring a baneblade, I might bring a reaver. balance it by points.
b -if you have points left over, it can go for normal stuff.

2 - Have as many points controlled by each player as possible.
Have them borrow, share, what ever.
If players have too few points, they start to get in the mindset of "what is competitive' or..." is this thing worth the points".
Or if they buy some really expensive deathstar unit thats one third their points, and it gets wasted in the first turn...they are almost out of the game.
Apoc is about blowing stuff up, and having fun.
You don't want players concerned about being competitive.

3 - Don't bother with shaken, stunned, etc. Really, there will be a ton of things on the board....dont even mess with it. It will just slow things down.

4 - Have players play the units near them for their team.
Have the players manage the stuff near them. Who cares if the other player on their team owns the models....it just works better to have the guy on that side of the table run the model - you don't want to have to wait for the guy to walk around the table to move his outflanking unit, then walk back to roll saves for his other units. etc. which leads too...

5 - You are gonna want a bigger boat....er...table!
We try to run a 6'x8 for small games, or a 6x12 for bigger games. Over 6' across, and its not easy to reach the middle.
Have room on the sides for models to be set, drinks, rulebooks etc. Have ample walking space around the table.
Get some chairs...it will be a long day.

6 - Have teams and players pick the mission and strategic assets BEFORE THE GAME. No really.
This helps.
Set up the table the night before if possible, have players drop off and unpack armies before hand as well, if possible.

All the other advice here is quite good (create a story, terrain, etc) as well.

Oh, one more thing....
Try it with no house rules.
There is a lot of stuff missing form the new rules....and my group really debated about putting stuff back in, or tweaking some things. However, we decided to give our first few games a "straight from the book" go, and it turned out, it was just fine.

The most important thing:
Remind players this is about having fun and blowing stuff up.
They cannot have ANY emotional investment in winning, or keeping alive a specific "favorite" model - because it won't happen.

best of luck, and have fun!!!!