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HeroHammer: The Mighty Thirteen

A 40k Game Type

Overview:
-A way to make small intense games of 40k that focuses primarily on the most elite units (and heroes) of the game.
-A very simple ruleset.
-With the addition of "Heroic Strikes", the game gains some flavor from the various "we-go" game systems!

General Rules:

-Recommended for 1,000-1,500pt battles.
-Armies and scenarios are chosen normally except for the following rules:
-No more than 13 models on any one side.
-The player closest to 13 in number of models gets +5vp
-If both players are equally close, or if both are at 13, then neither gets +5vp

Optional Rules:

Heroic Strike:
Each unit in your army is given a “Heroic Strike” token at the beginning of the game. At any time during either your or your opponent's turn you may spend a “Heroic Strike” token to immediately fire all ranged weapons the unit is equipped with, or pile in and attack in close combat. You may not spend a Heroic Strike token if your opponent has already rolled at least one die as part of any action but may do so after that action is resolved.

You may use as many Heroic Strike actions per turn as you wish, and a heroic strike can be resolved in response to a heroic strike. When this happens it might be a good idea to mark down the order in which the strikes took place, so that you may resolve them accordingly.

Some discussion:

So I picked 13 initially as the number as I thought it provided a nice middle ground between big and tiny armies. I happened to create a custodes list with 13 guys in it and dubbed it the "mighty 13" and thought about how I could go from there. Since then I've made a variety of other lists (IG, and SM mostly,) that float somewhere around the 13 number. As a format: it's simple, and it works... but obviously it could be tweaked as well.

The "Heroic Strike" mechanic has been floating around in my head for a while as well. Essentially, I wanted a way that every unit could be nearly guaranteed to do SOMETHING before getting shot off the table. I think that in this context it actually accomplishes that and more, adding in an extra layer of depth for the shorter playtime.

Ideally, I would like it if a 1,000pt game with this rule set only took around an hour to play. Obviously, covid being what it is, I don't think I'm going to get to test that theory for some time. So in that case this is going to remain a bit of a thought experiment for a while.

With that in mind, does anyone have any ideas on how to improve the game-type rules? I would be, ideally, looking for very simple and thematic ways to adhere to the idea of "heroes and heavy armor" mentality that this is built around. To me at least, 40k is a wonderful setting for people ripping tanks apart with their bare hands, heroic duels, and giant robots stomping hubris-prone generals to death... and that is exactly what I would like to see more of for this format!

Small games that shine a limelight on my army's heroes? Sounds like a blast! :O

However, I'm not sure what you've pitched facilitates that goal as well as it could.

First of all, is this meant to be played with Battle Forged forces? You say, "-Armies and scenarios are chosen normally except for the following rules:" So if we're assuming this means battleforged armies, the 13 model limit already has some interesting baggage.

Most detachments won't work for most armies because 3 squads of anything is likely to be more than 13 models. So that leaves you looking at a patrol. A patrol requires a troop unit. For some armies, a troop unit means you're spending 10 of your 13 slots on those troops alone. For others, it doesn't. So an ork patrol must spend 10/13 slots on whatever troop you go with. Meanwhile, my various aeldar and marine armies have 10-man troop units leaving me with 7 slots for a more powerful unit plus 1 slot for an HQ character. The ork player could probably take a couple of runtherders and field a vanguard instead, but then he'll be giving up a bunch of starting CP that the aeldari player doesn't have to just by virtue of the units available in his troops slot.

Or, if you don't intend for people to use the standard battle forged detachments, that's fine but needs to be explained. If you want to let people field a bunch of characters together, that would come with its own issues, but I won't elaborate without knowing if that what you intend.

Also, I worry that this format could easily end up punishing the characters it's meant to encourage. Say I want to take the legendary phoenix lord Fuegan - the burning lance. His fluff is rad. HIs rules let him get stronger as he gets ticked off from taking damage. He's got an axe that hasn't cooled since the day it was forged! He also doesn't have an invul save. My opponent brings some intercessors and eliminators and some sort of HQ. At most, I have 12 models protecting fuegan. It won't be hard for those eliminators to one-shot him after their intercessor buddies kill whatever unit I was using to screen him. Unless maybe I include a wave serpent, and the fact that I might do that while my opponent might not have tools to meaningfully hurt it is a problem unto itself.

So, with all that in mind, a few questions and thoughts:

* If you're more interested in the zoomed-in/small scale gameplay than on the legendary status of the characters in their lore, how do you feel about simply playing Kill Team? Sergeant Jeff may not have the same hype as Chapter Master Fantasticus, but his small team's mission to infiltrate enemy territory and sabotage their assets can be every bit as tense.

* Have you tried out Combat Patrol - sized games of 9th? I've found that characters have a bit more presence when there aren't huge gunlines blasting their forces apart on turn 1.

* My local group occassionally does special events where everyone gets a single character model with a wounds characteristic of 9 or less. You benefit from any set of chapter tactic equivalents you could normally take. Generic characters can take warlord traits and relics. You play with a group (usually of around 10 people).You go around the table taking turns having your one model go through a normal turn of 40k (movement, psychic, shooting, etc.). Each time your character dies, you roll a d6. If you roll equal to or higher than the number of times you've died so far, you get to respawn at the start of your next turn (basically deepstriking 9" away from other models). Maybe you'd enjoy doing a variation on that where each player can also have one or two squads each worth less than X points or power level joining them? You'd probably want to put restrictions on what kind of units could accompany the characters though. Hellblasters might ruin things for the wulfen or incubi unless you play in a confined zone mortalis type environment.