Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I liked the old 6th edition (or was it 7th?) rule where you could declare a duel in combat. It allowed for awesome boss-fights, but also had its bad mechanics of making the unit hide at the back of the combat, which sucked.

My suggestion:

Declare a Challenge:
1CP to use
If a Character unit is within engagement range of an enemy Character, it may declare a challenge.
If a challenge has been declared, then no hits may be allocated to either of these characters, except by each other, for the remainder of the phase.
If one of the characters is slain during a challenge, then their opponent gains D3 command points. If the slain character was the enemy warlord, their opponent also gains 5VP.

Decline a Challenge:
1CP
Use this stratagem when your opponent uses the "Declare a Challenge" stratagem. Treat the "declare a challenge" stratagem as not having been used - the challenge is not declared, but the opponent does not regain the CP spent. Your character which was subject to the challenge may not allocate hits to the character which declared the challenge for the remainder of this phase.


So it costs 1CP to declare it, and the opponent can opt to pay the CP to decline it, but has to avoid the character. The character can still beat them up, but gets to bonuses for doing so.

If it goes well, you gain D3CP and kill the enemy character
if it goes meh, you both lose 1CP
if it goes badly, you pay 1CP and lose a character, and your opponent gains D3CP!
What do you think?

Not a fan, in general.

If you were to implement it, clean it up. As written, if I get a character Knight within Engagement range of, say, a Captain (let's say the Captain is a Smash, but whiffed and the Knight lived) then, in the shooting phase, I can declare a challenge. Then I can blast them to bits with my guns.

But really, Challenges weren't a good mechanic. They just kinda sucked.

It sounds kind of interesting, the only problem I see is that the usefulness varies wildly with codex.

For IG for example its pretty pointless, since our characters are significantly weaker fighters than those of other codices. The toughest might be Vostroyans with their WL trait and relict or Straken, but those are still nothing compared to a smashcaptain and the like.

Also what about tank commanders? Can they issue challenges and be challenged too?

I feel like the rules you've presented introduce opportunities for undesirable interactions without actually achieving the goal I think you're going for. Normally, if you and your opponent have characters near each other and you, as players, both want to see your dudes fight, they just do that. The charging guy swings first, and if the other guy is still alive, he swings back. If you want a "duel" to happen, it will happen.

Your rules just give the side with better melee characters a way to bully their opponent into spending CP.

SCENARIOS
A.) We both want our characters to fight. They do. Assuming one of us doesn't kill the other before he can swing.

B.) Only one player wants to duel. Challenge is accepted. The reluctant character was probably already going to lose the fight because he didn't want to take it. Now he's forced to attack the enemy character rather than using his attacks to more efficiently clear some non-character chaff.

C.) Only one player wants to duel. Challenge is decline. Both players are out 1CP. This is more detrimental to the player that needs their CP more. The challenged character can't swing at the challenger, but he didn't want to in the first place, so oh well.

Also, there are a few factions/units that get some variation on gaining CP when they kill an enemy character. Making this a generic mechanic, I feel, makes it less "special" for those factions. Space Wolves, genestealers/lictors, and assassins, for instance, all have fluff reasons for being especially interested in killing characters and have strats that reward them for doing so.

It was one of the worst rules back in 7th.

Of course it wouldn't be the same, but I never liked the idea of herohammer where characters are the centerpiece models of the army or the most important ones. Duels would just highlight them and it's not a concept I'd like to see implemented.

When a game is won, or even just remembered thanks to an epic interaction (AKA roll), by a humble grunt's performance the game has reached its goal IMHO.

Maybe something a character can get in a crusade or a WL trait, but not a generic effect for normal games. It was a big part of WHFB, but it doesn't make as much sense with 40k. One thing I came up with for Sautekh Warlords to represent them being full of themselves and crazy I came up with a rule where if an enemy character falls back from within engagement range of the WL you gain 1CP and if your WL falls back your opponent gains 1CP.

For Orks I could imagine it being a Stratagem, maybe not quite like what you suggested, otherwise the concept could be used to create a unique WL trait effect (and not just a boring +x attacks when all attacks are made against a Character). Perhaps a key part to making duelling WL traits thematic is having them grant the ability for the WL to fight after dying if they have not fought yet, because that can create some awesome moments I think, but on its own it does very little.

The "gain a cp if the enemy character runs away" thing is a good idea. Fluffy. Not game breaking. Gets the point across. Captures that feeling of frustration as you're forced to limp away from the foe knowing that you're giving him CP.