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I have been on and off working on making a 40k ruleset (well really just converting) using the Bolt Action Rule set.

For those that dont know, Bolt Action is a ww2 ruleset thats very similar to 40k (except, well vastly better in my opinion). Now while I say similar its actually very different at the same time. It shares nearly no similarities but it feels very 40k. Its defining feature is the random activation. For every unit you have you get one dice. Both teams put their (different colour per team) dice in the bag and shake it up. 1 player takes out a dice, the player who owns the dice gets to nominate one of his units to use with a selection of orders.

With this in mind, part one for me is doing the psyker rule add on since there are no psykers in WW2. So how would ideal psykers work?

Unlike 40k, psykers wont be everywhere, there will simply be a psyker character (if you wish) and some psychic heavy armies may have some minor ones as well. But we arent talking more than a couple in standard games.

Would it be better to:

Have a psychic phase
Have the psykers do their powers/abilities during their activation
Have a mix of the above (buffs/abilities done at beginning of the turn and offensive powers during the unit activation)

The psychic phase to me sounds the least appealing, because of the alternate activation. However the phase provides a fair chance at both sides getting to use their psykers.

Complaints about 40k Psykers are how random they can be when generating powers + dice and the imbalance they can create when one side has 25 dice while the other has 3 for example. I plan on eliminating this by having no random power dice (set power dice a turn, commit dice to certain actions and selecting abilities before the game). So a psyker would have 8 dice, and may commit 4 of those dice to deny, 2 to an ability and save 2 for the offensive. But the details cant be worked out until I can work out what the best way to go about psychic phases is.

How do other alternating activation games use magic/powers?

Also if anyone is familiar with the bolt action rules and wants to help me out with this 40k expansion then let me know. I have seen interest a lot when google searching but all attempts fall through, so I will give it a shot.

Cheers guys.

I would absolutely make it part of the psyker's normal activation. I'm not familiar with the Bolt Action rules, but I would make it so when you activate the psyker's unit, the psyker immediately casts any of their abilities they want to use (any buffs/debuffs will last the rest of the turn, and if the psyker casts a weapon type ability they gain that weapon profile for the rest of the turn).

I also like your idea about setting aside defensive dice. Anytime your psyker or their unit is targeted by an enemy attack, they should have the option to use their defensive dice to activate any defensive powers they have (like Sanctuary, etc) or to dispel an enemy psychic attack or debuff. That way you can decouple defensive abilities from the psyker's activation, so you can still defend yourself even if you didn't activate first.

A number of friends at our club play BA so be interested in this - although I think you can download the Gates Of Antares rules set by the same compnay which is more sci-fi, newer and might include psyker rules.

One of the worst things IMO about the new version of 40k was the introduction of a psychic phase - - it was fine before - even if individual powers were not (and are still not - see invisibilty)

Ok, so no psychic phase. Easy. I suppose the less "phases"in a phaseless game makes sense.

The Gates of Antares rules are free on the Warlord site:

http://store.warlordgames.com/collections/beyond-the-gates-of-antares/products/free-antares-public-beta-pdf-download

http://www.warlordgames.com/beyond-the-gates-of-antares-building-rules/

http://www.warlordgames.com/beyond-the-gates-of-antares-mounted-units-rules-and-reference-sheets/

http://www.warlordgames.com/beyond-the-gates-of-antares-slow-fast-models/

http://www.warlordgames.com/downloads/pdf/antares-large-models.pdf

Cheers man, I actually really like the Bolt Action rules so I might keep going forward with it.

Ok, currently on the thought of flyers.

Bolt Action does not include actual flyers, instead, through the use of a radioman and so on an air strike is called down and works almost like an off table bombardment.

Personally I prefer it this way because even at slower speeds aircraft would find our tables at 28mm scale nothing to fly over.

Do people prefer a game without aircraft or should I simply have an optional way to shoehorn some rules in for them?

Aircraft models at 28mm - 32mm is really impractical. BA represents if better as is.

Yea I thought so too.

I guess the next step then is getting the rules laid out for skimmers, jet/jump infantry and multiwound models such as monstrous creatures.

After that I am fairly sure its onto the army books for the 40k factions.

 Swastakowey wrote:
Cheers man, I actually really like the Bolt Action rules so I might keep going forward with it.

Ok, currently on the thought of flyers.

Bolt Action does not include actual flyers, instead, through the use of a radioman and so on an air strike is called down and works almost like an off table bombardment.

Personally I prefer it this way because even at slower speeds aircraft would find our tables at 28mm scale nothing to fly over.

Do people prefer a game without aircraft or should I simply have an optional way to shoehorn some rules in for them?

No worries - I thought the GOA was just Bolt Action with some Sci-fi rules - not had a chance to read through yet

The Air /Artillery strike is an interesting option - as well as Orbital Strike now?

I see your point about flyers but what about transport / assault flyers dropping troops into a combat zone akin to Vietnam etc?

I like when the psychic phase can be a bit of a bluffing game. Having to set aside defensive dice from your supply at the beginning of each turn in secret sounds like a decent way of doing that.

 Mr Morden wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
Cheers man, I actually really like the Bolt Action rules so I might keep going forward with it.

Ok, currently on the thought of flyers.

Bolt Action does not include actual flyers, instead, through the use of a radioman and so on an air strike is called down and works almost like an off table bombardment.

Personally I prefer it this way because even at slower speeds aircraft would find our tables at 28mm scale nothing to fly over.

Do people prefer a game without aircraft or should I simply have an optional way to shoehorn some rules in for them?

No worries - I thought the GOA was just Bolt Action with some Sci-fi rules - not had a chance to read through yet

The Air /Artillery strike is an interesting option - as well as Orbital Strike now?

I see your point about flyers but what about transport / assault flyers dropping troops into a combat zone akin to Vietnam etc?

In Bolt Action we have artillery and aircraft, both have down sides and so on. I was going to group artillery as a generic long range support, so it could count as artillery, space bombardment, demon spit or whatever. Keeps things simple as all will have the desired effect.

I was thinking it could be a form of accurate drop in of troops with the chance of minor weapon support. However the downside is certain weapons have a chance of preventing airdropped troops entering the battle. The alternative for some armies could be the safer (non transport deep strikes) but less accurate drop. But I gotta see how the prospect of dropping troops on the field will effect the rules first before I have a solid answer.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Slaanesh-Devotee wrote:
I like when the psychic phase can be a bit of a bluffing game. Having to set aside defensive dice from your supply at the beginning of each turn in secret sounds like a decent way of doing that.

Yea I tried to turn it into a a bit of a mini game. I always liked the idea of psykers battling each other constantly trying to get an edge. Soon I will put up a draft of the 40k expansion and you can let me know what you think.

At the beginning of the round before any unit is activated, generate warp charges as per normal.

Psykers use powers when they are activated after movement, before shooting.

Deny the witch comes from the same pool used to cast powers. If you feel there are not enough charges up the dice used to generate charges. 2d6 or 3d6.

The choice of which unit to activate becomes tactical. The choice of which psyker/when is more so.