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I'm rather bored while at work, and after my game last night, I started thinking even more about the annoying rules conflictions and inconsistencies in 7th edition. So, I figured I'd start working on a revision for "8th edition" as a fun project during my downtime at work. This isn't meant to be official, this is just sharing what I think a lot of rules should change to.
So, let's get started. At first, this isn't going to follow a certain order or anything, though I may update it later on to do so.
- So, Deployment. The Scout rule, as it currently stands, allows units to make a move before the game starts. You are also not allowed to charge if you have first turn. As long as you go second, those Khorne Dogs can move 12" after their 6" Scout move and charge whatever they so choose.
But then we have Infiltrate. You're allowed to deploy anywhere on the board, so long as you're 18" away from enemy models, 12" if you are completely out of sight (hard to pull off most of the time). You are then not allowed to charge Turn 1. Period. Considering you might only move slightly up the board in some deployments, you wouldn't be much further up than some Scout moves.
I think the rules are currently fine for the most part, however I would allow It so that if you Infiltrated, as long as you didn't have first turn, you may charge freely. You're opponent would still have a turn to react, which is good, but it would also put the heat on. Currently, anything that infiltrates just kinda gets shot at and that's that. Easy First Blood, with little reward for the Infiltrating player. Change it to this ruling, and Flayed Ones, Striking Scorpions, Genestealer/Lictors all become rather scary if played right.
- Assaulting from Reserves. GW went the direction of disallowing this because it was quite powerful. However, now most CC units can't do next to anything, and shooting rules Supreme. I think they should bring back assaulting from reserves. First, Outflanking. You're literally walking on the board, and theoretically the opponent can see you coming, you're just "not within range to fire upon yet", or some other Forge the Narrative excuse. But it would be the same as a unit walking up to you and charging. Therefor, you should be able to charge from Outflank. This would be powerful, but not without it's drawbacks/counters. You're opponent sees you Outflanking something scary? Move inward. Now, Infiltrating and Outflanking become scary, and you can use that to force your opponent to tactically position their army. Also you would still have to roll for which table edge, which is unreliable as far as planning which units you're going to charge, so it could backfire in general.
Next, Deep Striking. Deep Strike assaulting would actually be rather deadly, so I have to be careful in attempting to bring that back. My proposal is this: you are allowed to assault the same turn you Deep Strike, as long as that unit rolled a Direct Hit on the scatter die. If a unit did not roll for scatter, then they count as having rolled a Direct Hit. Why, you ask? Well, since this game is simplified with a "Forge the Narrative" attitude, I figured this: If you land exactly where you anticipated landing, the unit is prepared and ready to charge. If they scatter, the unit is thrown off for a second and must adjust to their surroundings and therefor may not charge. This would make combining Teleport Homers and Terminators actually scary, as well as Lictors. Then you have Icons with Daemons. And then other things still have a 1/3 chance of being able to charge, while still at risk for the usual Deep Strike mishaps. I personally think this would be a decent balance, and would help to bring back assault without making it too powerful.
*Also, as a side note, any unit assaulting from Deep Strike counts as making a Disordered charge.And of course if you walk on from your board edge, you can charge normally that turn.
(Edit)* You may only assault from Deep Strike if you arrive on Turn 2 or later.
- Movement/Charges. The glorious Movement phase. Some simple changes, first off. Moving through difficult terrain is a flat -2 inches. Boom. Less chances to be screwed by dice by rolling double 1s and being stuck for a turn. Having Move Through Cover negates that, obviously. Simple, effective. Running would still be the same as is.
- Charging. All units, as long as no models in the unit would count as charging through difficult terrain, have a charge distance of D6+6 inches. If the unit would have any models that would be charging through difficult terrain, the charge distance is the normal 2D6. Move Through Cover would grant the unit the D6+6 charge distance.
- Shooting stuff. Overwatch in particular. Overwatch should stay mostly the same to how it is currently, with the exception of one thing. I believe Overwatch should have to be more of a tactical choice. So, if you are being charged, you may declare that you will fire Overwatch. If you do, you receive the same penalties as you do now, but you also will not be able to shoot in your following shooting phase. My reasoning behind this is to be on par with Interceptor. You can shoot out of sequence, and the next turn you can't shoot. Overwatch should be the same way. Why would you be able to shoot, then their turn shoot again, and then shoot normally again on your turn? That's one of the many reasons why shooting is superior. Yes, this would nerf Tau. But it would also nerf pretty much all of our problem units, such as, but not limited to:
*Wraithguard - The fact that their not Slow and Purposeful still bugs me, but now they can't 5D3 D Flamer your ass and then shoot again the next turn. It would really bring them in line and make them more manageable for most armies.
*Tau in general - Again, it would affect Tau the most, but I personally think it would be a good change, as Overwatch would become a tactical choice. Supporting Fire would still be good, and should only be used in dire circumstances, not as a free Shooting Phase.
*Scatbikes - They would still be ridiculous, but charging would be more effective against them.
*Any unit with massed Flamers - This should be self explanatory.
Now for unit types.
Spoiler:
- Gargantuan Creatures. These guys are so point 'n click it's not funny, mainly due to Stomp. My change to Stomp would be this: you get a single Stomp after Initiative step 1, but before combat resolution. You still use the small blast, and can center it as you choose, as long as it's touching the base of the creature stomping. Roll a D6 - 1: Nothing happens. 2-5: The unit suffers S6 AP4 hits per model under the blast. 6: The unit suffers S10 AP2 hits per model under the blast. This can hit Invisible units. It's also the same chart for vehicles.
- Super Heavy Walkers/Vehicles. Same as Gargantuans. Stomp needs to be tones down. And in general, GCs have resistance to Poison and Sniper weapons, which are designed to kill scary things like them. Yet SHVs have no resistance to Haywire? BS, if you ask me. So, Haywire only effects SHVs on the roll of a 6, and does not count as a penetrating hit. If you're going to make all these things scary, you have to make them equally scary.
* Also, as an overall rule, they may fire all (and I mean all) of their weapons at different targets. However, they may only charge a unit if half (rounding up) of their weapons were fired at that target unit.
- Walkers. They all gain the Smash special rule.
- Assault Vehicles: Work the same as they are. However, if a vehicle does not move in the movement phase (pivoting is allowed) then is becomes an Assault Vehicle until the end of the turn. Meaning you can disembark from Wave Serpents and Rhinos and still charge as long as the transport did not move. This also means no assaulting from Drop Pods or any other transport that Deep Strikes, as that counts as moving.
- Open-Topped vehicles: still adds +1 to the vehicle damage chart, but may not be taken above the roll of a 6 unless the weapon fired was AP1/2. Also, explosions from an Open-Topped Vehicle only count as S3, instead of the normal S4.
* Vehicles count as WS1 in close combat. A vehicle that moves Flat Out or Turbo-boosts counts as WS5 for the first round of combat. A vehicle that is Fast counts as WS10 for the first round of CC if it moved Flat Out or Turbo-Boosted.
* Also, Monstrous Creatures, Gargantuan Creatures, Vehicles, and Superheavy Vehicles all must be obscured 25% or more to claim a cover save. (No more sticking toes in cover)
Now for the Special Rules...
Spoiler:
- Smash: As is, save for one change. You may forgo all attacks in CC, to instead make a number of S10 attacks equal to half of your base Attack characteristic, rounded up. You receive no additional Attack bonuses while making a Smash attack.
- And They Shall Know No Fear: When making a Morale, Pinning, or Fear check, a unit with one or more models with this special rule may reroll failed Leadership checks. They may also reroll failed Regroup checks, and if successful, may move and act normal that turn. If a unit every Runs from combat and they are caught by a Sweeping Advance, they stay in combat and pile in, instead of being completely destroyed. They ignore penalties when charging a unit with Fear. (Edit: They also always regroup on full Leadership, regardless of squad size.)
- Fear: As is, with an addition. When charging a unit that has one or more models with the Fear special rule, the charging unit must make a Leadership test. If passed, the charge is resolved as normal. If failed, the charging unit is treated as having made a Disordered Charge.
- Precision Hits: A model that is allocated a wound from a Precision hit may not Look Out, Sir!. Precision hits (a To Hit roll of 6, obviously) gain the Ignores Cover special rule.
- Pinning: A unit that is hit by one or more weapons with this special rule, emergency disembarks from a destroyed vehicle, or is force in some other way to make a Pinning check, does so at the end of each phase, and must make a single check.
- Poison: Returns to the old rule that if your Strength value is equal to or more than the targets toughness, you may reroll fail To Wound rolls.
- Eternal Warrior: As is, but with one change. If a model is hit with a Strength D hit, they suffer 1 less wound, to a minimum of 1.
- Destroyer Weapons: As is, but the chart is slightly different. 1 - Nothing. 2-5 - D3 wounds/Hull Points. 6 - D3+3 Wounds/Hull points, no saves of any kind allowed.
- Ordnance Weapons: If making a To Wound roll against a unit consisting of 1 or more Monstrous Creatures, then you may reroll failed To Wound rolls. If making an Armor Penetration roll, you may roll an additional die and take the highest. In either case, every wound or hull point taken counts as 2 instead of just 1. Than, if fired by a vehicle, the model may fire the rest of his weapons normally (suffering penalties, if any, such as moving and Snap-Firing all but 1 weapon).
I will be adding more as I go along, as this is a Work in Progress. Feel free to share your ideas, as I'm up for suggestions.
Again, this isn't official, and it's just a revision of what I think some of the rules should be changed to, for the better of the game. So leave some feedback, let me know what you like/dislike.
Cheers!
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2016/02/11 18:42:53
So far I like the vast majority of it. The Overwatch change isn't as big a nerf as it looks - a good chunk of the time, that unit will either still be locked in combat during their next shooting phase, or else destroyed. That said, the big difference between Interceptor and Overwatch is that Overwatch is (usually) BS1 Snap Shots. Still, I think this is a fairly decent change, and even as a Tau player it wouldn't faze me too much. But it should be tested in combination with d6+6 charges, just in case.
A few clarifications I might recommend: let ATSKNF always permit Regroup tests on full leadership (like in 30k). Drop Pods are Open-Topped, so you'd still be able to charge out of them, unless you specifically disallow that.
jade_angel wrote: So far I like the vast majority of it. The Overwatch change isn't as big a nerf as it looks - a good chunk of the time, that unit will either still be locked in combat during their next shooting phase, or else destroyed. That said, the big difference between Interceptor and Overwatch is that Overwatch is (usually) BS1 Snap Shots. Still, I think this is a fairly decent change, and even as a Tau player it wouldn't faze me too much. But it should be tested in combination with d6+6 charges, just in case.
A few clarifications I might recommend: let ATSKNF always permit Regroup tests on full leadership (like in 30k). Drop Pods are Open-Topped, so you'd still be able to charge out of them, unless you specifically disallow that.
Ah yes, I didn't even think about regrouping on Full LD. That would make a lot of sense. I'll definitely add that in there.
I also completely forgot Drop Pods were open-topped, and that kinda sucks. Assaulting from Drop Pods would be super powerful, probably OP level. Turn 1 precision Deep Strike Assaulting, eeewwww.
