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Hi all,

The purpose of this post is to develop a working draft that can be forwarded to the GW rules team - proposing that they develop and release rules for a new Astra Militarum Regiment to reflect the Drop Troop type of regiment. This idea was prompted by Forgeworld retiring the Elysian miniature line, a desire to bring more players to the Astra Militarum, and also support those customers that have collected Drop Troops over the past decade or so. This post uses the keyword ELYSIAN, but it could just as readily be any other name - Elysian is used principally because of how well it is represented in existing Codices and Black Library books.

My first draft below is vastly simplified from the rules found in the Imperial Armour Index and instead mirrors the way Regiments are published in the Astra Militarum Codex. With how new that Codex is, I understand there’s really no possibility a proposal like this could be rolled into an update for the Astra Militarum - but it could very easily be one page in a future Imperial Armour book, White Dwarf, or data-slate.

Please have a read, comment with ideas or suggested improvements or balance ideas. Please steer clear of defeatist 'this won't ever happen' - its a long shot, but providing constructive feedback to GW is a much better way of trying to ensure the Elysian's survive than having a whinge in a forum.

Many thanks for your time, the proposed rules and a changelog are below!



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Reserved for changelog.


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Regiment Doctrine:
"From the Skies”
Elysians are trained to jump directly into battle from their Valkyrie transports, and only make use of equipment that can be deployed by grav chute.
Units with this doctrine may be set up in a high altitude transport instead of placed on the battlefield during deployment. At the end of any of your movement phases, the unit can jump into battle - set it up anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9” away from any enemy units. VEHICLE units may only be included in an ELYSIAN detachment if they also have the FLY or SCOUT SENTINELS keywords.

Warlord Trait (more than one idea):
Grizzled Veteran (mimics the IA: Index Astra Militarum rule “Iron Discipline”)
A veteran of dozens of combat drops, Elysian troops will readily jump into the unknown at the warlord’s side.
ELYSIAN units within 6” of the warlord ignore models killed during the shooting phase when taking morale tests.

Crack Shot (reflects fluff - Drop Troops needing to ensure their limited supplies count)
The warlord enforces strict fire discipline, ensuring each shot counts.
ELYSIAN infantry units within 6” of the warlord may re-roll damage for ranged weapons in the shooting phase.

Unique Order:
Move and Fire! (a copy of the order found in IA: Index Astra Militarum, reworded for clarity)
INFANTRY models in the ordered unit count Rapid Fire and Heavy weapons as Assault weapons until the end of the phase.

Stratagem (more than one idea)
Drop Zone Secure - 3 Command Points (reflects the unique deployment methods of Drop Troop regiments, and somewhat mitigates their lack of mobility once deployed)
Maintaining a secure drop zone to allow resupply and reinforcement is amongst the highest priorities of an Elysian force.
Use this stratagem during deployment. Choose up to three ELYSIAN INFANTRY units to secure a drop zone. After both players have finished deploying, but before the first turn, these units may be set up anywhere on the battlefield that is not within your opponents deployment zone and is more than 12” from any enemy units. This stratagem may only be used once.

Breacher Charge - 1 Command Point (replaces the Breacher Charge wargear option specific to IA: Index Astra Militarum)
Elysians make heavy use of breaching charges in ship-to-ship boarding actions, and have found them equally effective against battlefield fortifications and armoured vehicles.
Use this stratagem when an ELYSIAN INFANTRY unit fights in the fight phase with a VEHICLE or FORTIFICATION. One model may place a breacher charge instead of fighting with a close combat weapon - on a hit, a FORTIFICATION suffers 2D3 mortal wounds and a VEHICLE suffers D3 mortal wounds.

Relic
Accatran pattern powerfist (needed an excuse to use that super cool model)
A lightweight design held in high esteem by droop troop officers, the Accatran pattern powerfist sacrifices some damage output in exchange for ease of employment.
ELYSIAN OFFICER with powerfist only. Replaces powerfist with following profile:
Weapon // Range // Type // Strength // AP // Damage // Abilities
Accatran pattern PF // Melee // Melee // x2 // -3 // 2 // -

Great idea, as you say far more effective that moaning about them discontinuing something!

I don't have my books with me so I can't really do a direct balance review in comparison to other regiments most of the elements look good, I'm not fully familiar with the fluff/previous rules but are they usually so heavily restricted in terms of tanks and other vehicles?

Over all a great job, especially with the little fluff descriptions which really help sell it an make it look more professional which I think is key if GW were to think about using this as a basis of something of even just giving it tacit approval on their facebook page.

 WisdomLS wrote:
Great idea, as you say far more effective that moaning about them discontinuing something!

I don't have my books with me so I can't really do a direct balance review in comparison to other regiments most of the elements look good, I'm not fully familiar with the fluff/previous rules but are they usually so heavily restricted in terms of tanks and other vehicles?

Hi mate - yeah, the only vehicles the rules currently allow are fliers of pretty much any variety, drop sentinels (scout sentinels with the drop rule, without the scout rule), and the Taros variant vehicles. The Tauros vehicles aren't included in the detachment restrictions as they're an Imperial Armour only unit and I thought it best to aim high and try to make it compatible with the AM Codex.

It could be changed so that only infantry units received the deep strike rule, and there was no benefit for vehicle units? Something that would allow vehicles but not incentivise them at all, like: INFANTRY units with this doctrine may be set up in a high altitude transport instead of placed on the battlefield during deployment. At the end of any of your movement phases, the unit can jump into battle - set it up anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9” away from any enemy units. That would be more in line with the Codex, but potentially less fluffy.

Thanks for your kind words!

edit - I should add, the current rules are even more restrictive - Elysian's cannot take Lascannons or Autocannons as they're apparently too bulky, and pay a points premium of about 1pt per model for the universal deep strike rule. Making that the Regiment doctrine and having their points be as in the AM Codex seemed the most straightforward change.

Quick idea for a relic:

Pyros-pattern Grav Chute
Only produced in very limited numbers before the destruction of the Pyros forge world, these Grav Chutes provide a much more accurate drop due to a constant datalink with orbiting Valkyries.
One ELYSIAN INFANTRY unit of 10 or fewer models may be given Pyros Grav Chutes. When deploying with the "From the Skies" rule, this unit must be deployed 3+D6" from enemy units rather than the standard 9".

Thermal Targeter
A recent development in the Elysian arsenal, the Thermal Targeter locks onto enemy heat-wash and body heat, uploading targeting data to nearby units.

This weapon has the following profile.
Range 36", S- Ap- Heavy 1, Target Aquired.

Target Aquired: If this weapon hits an enemy unit, any heavy weapons within 12" of the model with this relic may add 1 to any hit rolls they make for this turn.

Will try to think of some more later.

Great Idea. I would hate to see Elysians go and this looks like a good foundation for GW to look at. Hopefully they take it on board and see people like the army. And if it doesn't continue on FW I hope it is picked up by GW and this is a good place to start.

Looks good so far, been mulling over trying to make rules that bring elysian and dkok in line with gw regiments.

One addition I think will help is make aircraft in elysian only detachments not suffer from the boots on the ground rule, or at least have aircraft count for the purposes of tabling an army. As it is at the moment it is too easy for opponents to ignore air craft and focus down infantry and elysian lack durable ground units to keep them in the game. Downside is you would have people taking elysian flyer wings with other regiments and I can't think of a neat way to word the rule to prevent that