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Usually when I write homebrew rules, I try to aim for "open-ended" rules that add as many options possible for as few rules as necessary; start "open-ended" and gradually narrow down as edgecases reveal themselves.

One thing that I find disappointing about Stratagems is not only are many of them just glorified "flat stat buffs" but they also generally exist in relative isolation from your foe. There's little counterplay or interaction beyond "player a uses stratagem to buff a or hurt b".

Anyway, with the Tyranid codex around the corner, several Stratagems have come out, some shiny, some not-so-shiny. Feeder Tendrils is arguably in the second camp. When you slay an enemy character in melee with a Lictor, Genestealer or Toxicrene, you spend 1 CP and gain D3 CP. Not only is that a bit janky (you only get D3-1 CP), but it only assists your Tyranids in stratagems they already know! Boring!

So, I thought up a more...creative Stratagem, one that is open-ended and potentially abuseable but adds more options for minimal ruleswriting.

Feeder Tendrils (X CP): When a <Hive Fleet> GENESTEALER, LICTOR, or TOXICRENE unit slays an enemy Character during the Fight Sub-Phase, you may select one Stratagem specific to that Character's Faction that your opponent has access to. By spending X CP, where X is the cost to use that Stratagem, your <Hive Fleet> gains access to that Stratagem for the remainder of the game. When using this Stratagem, replace any Faction keywords with TYRANID, and any <Faction> keywords with <Hive Fleet>.

So, slay an enemy Marine Captain with a Lictor, you could spend 3 CP to learn Orbital Bombardment, but only your Warlord could use it. Although you could get Killshot, or Hellfire Shells or other stratagems, you lack the units or Heavy Bolters. However, something like Honor the Chapter or Fire and Flee would be fair game.

And by itself, you have a relatively simple rule that means as armies and codexes gain new Stratagems, your Lictors can learn them by eating tasty brains. Potentially imbalanced? Perhaps. There are other edgecases ("What about oneshot stratagems like Orbital Bombardment?"). However, you now get to use your opponent's Stratagems adversarially.

Note: Whether or not this specific rule is considered balanced or even sane, it demonstrates a fairly open-ended rule that interacts off your opponent's abilties. Similar rules could be made for other armies/units, like Deffskulls gaining Wargear-related keywords, Zanhdrekh using countertactics, a Callidus Assassin subverting stratagems via "A Word In Your Ear" and turning pluses into minuses, etc.

What are your thoughts? Could Stratagems be designed under the assumption that your opponent may have the ability to steal, subvert, disable, or reflect them?

It seems neat. Probably not broken too.

Why not make it a die roll to see which one you get? After all you may absorb a useless strategem as well.

Boss GreenNutz wrote:
Why not make it a die roll to see which one you get? After all you may absorb a useless strategem as well.

Eh, I'd rather keep that part derandomized. More choice, plus random selection from an unusual number of stratagems ("roll a D11?") is wonky. Like how Mob Rule in 7th did "random allocation" to D3 Orks and all.

Problem is that some abilities get suuuper broken when not given to the faction that they were specifically designed for.
For example: Veterans of the Long War.
For CSM, the most that this can buff is going to be the firepower of ten models - This can be strong, but CSM Infantry shooting generally isn't the scariest, and only a couple units can *really* capitalize on it in the assault phase.

On the other hand, imagine 30 Devilgants with that ability, also buffed by a nearby Tervigon - You're getting 50-60 S4 hits that all get that buff, which is VASTLY more than anything CSM can put out except maybe if they get a unit of Khorne Berserkers into assault.

Waaaghpower wrote:
Problem is that some abilities get suuuper broken when not given to the faction that they were specifically designed for.
For example: Veterans of the Long War.
For CSM, the most that this can buff is going to be the firepower of ten models - This can be strong, but CSM Infantry shooting generally isn't the scariest, and only a couple units can *really* capitalize on it in the assault phase.

On the other hand, imagine 30 Devilgants with that ability, also buffed by a nearby Tervigon - You're getting 50-60 S4 hits that all get that buff, which is VASTLY more than anything CSM can put out except maybe if they get a unit of Khorne Berserkers into assault.

Technically, VoTLW can buff Cultists as well. It is entirely possible to have a mob of 30 Cultists redeploy via a Tide of Traitors, and use Dark Guidance and VoTLW or so. Unless they changed it in the codex, Chaos has been able to take 20-man Power Armor units for...a really long time.

It would also be a relatively limited number of Stratagems that would be available. Special Issue Ammo wouldn't be available since Tyranids don't get Sternguard, Hellfire shells since they don't get Heavy Bolters. Certain edgecases do exist: Killing a Salamander Captain will allow you to learn Flamecraft which would work on Pyrovores ("Flamespurt" has "Flame" in its name, and the Pyrovore is Infantry), but in practice why are you taking Pyrovores?

Plus you do need to actually kill an enemy in the Fight Subphase with a Lictor and survive another turn anyway. Realistically, that's a fair few hoops to go through, and if you're already slaying enemy Characters in melee, the game is probably nearly over anyway. In a lot of ways, it's similar to the issues Epidemius has traditionally suffered from: All his buffs did jack to improve Nurgle AT, almost all Nurgle units were slow anti-infantry melee, and by the time you got the tally up, chances are there weren't many infantry left to use it against!

Both generic and faction-specific “Tier 2” stratagems you can only access once you achieve a faction-specific result (like your Lictor/‘Stealer/Toxicrene example)? Would require creating new stratagems but you could also move some potentially OP stratagems to the Tier 2list.

ETA: the Tier 2 list for a faction wouldn’t consider the opposing faction for simplicity and logic, more like “we’ve got the momentum now!” or “Our strike cruiser is finally in place to do an orbital bombardment!”. Also could work it out to also provide a “catch-up buff” for an army that’s behind in VPs, losses, etc.