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.

Hi —


I am currently developing two board games based off of the Heroquest rule set.

One based in Warhammer Fantasy and the other based in W40k universe, with some own elements I’ve added in.

It’s for my personal use, as I’ve been building with my boys who are young.


I am nearly finished with the rules for “Battle Maze” (set in Warhammer Fantasy) and the other “Space Maze” (my sons named it!). I say nearly finished — but as I am constantly having new ideas and wanting to add stuff it’s difficult to ever get these rules locked down!!!


So I am currently trying to come up with a rule about the impact of getting weapons thrown at you or fired at you. This rule could have application across both games.

It started with me thinking about Throwing Knives. They use only 1 combat dice and are fairly useless, but what if they, regardless of whether the attack is successful, could impact a characters movement? Then they could potentially be more useful?
For example, whilst attacking an enemy in front of your character, another enemy could potentially be positioned to come up behind you and attack from behind. I have a rule that attacks from behind enable + 1 combat dice! Therefore, you could throw the Throwing Knife at them and stifle their movement potentially stopping them from moving into melee range of your character on their next Turn…?


It then got me thinking of the wider applications. What about Bow and arrows, firearms. IF shot at with anything, would characters receive a movement penalty? What about Space Maze? Could a rule like this add depth to the combat there too? Maybe penalties could stack if more than one character were shooting at the same character, would movement penalties stack? Be more effective?
Maybe the character being shorter might receive further penalties, for example -1 to their defence dice, or -1 to their attacking dice.??


Perhaps if one character on an enemy, that enemy sees a 50% penalty to their movement. Then thinking about stacking, if another character fires on that same enemy, they see a further movement penalty, and a penalty of -1 dice to both defence and attack dice? Such a rule, might allow for then flanking manoeuvres.

But I’m just thinking of W40k — I’m thinking of the scenario where space marine is looking down a corridor with a gene stealer bearing down upon him. I’m just wondering whether such a rule would unbalance things? Be overpowered. Could make Melee only characters in the W40k setting board game be too weak???


OR Would a rule like this totally stifle combat? And how would it work???


Any feedback or thoughts would be appreciated!

I feel this rule could have potential, to add a tactical layer to combat. But it also could be a hindrance??


Not sure…




Automatically Appended Next Post:
This is what I have so….


IMPACT OF RANGED FIRE/

If a ranged weapon is used, whether thrown weapons, bow or rifle, it potentially can negatively impact the targets movement. Further penalties to their defence and attack dice will also incur IF more than 1 character is shooting at the same target/character.

It will be as follows:

1) A character is attacked by a ranged weapon – IF any skull is rolled for the attack, the attack is considered on target, regardless of whether the attack is successful, the character will receive a 50% reduction to their movement on their next turn.

2) IF another character carries out a ranged attack on the same character, following the same rule above, the character will incur a further penalty to their movement -2 spaces, and also incur -1 to both their attack and defence dice.

# IF no skull is rolled, but only shields for the attack, the attack is considered a complete MISS.

You could give the model a status effect, something like "Staggered", which is added whenever they are hit, regardless of whether they are wounded, which would be removed at the end of their next turn.

Without knowing all your rules specifically I would say you're better off saying that a model has -2 move or something, rather than losing half, otherwise the impact to faster moving enemies is far greater than to slower enemies, potentially making the ability overpowered. Only testing can really tell though.

I don't know if you need to keep stacking further penalties on to an enemy after the first hit, again it might end up being overpowered. As before, only playtesting will really tell you the impact.

The advantage of a status system is that you could potentially add other statuses such as "On fire", "Poisoned", or "Entangled" depending on the use of spells, traps, or fancy weapons.

 Zethnar wrote:
You could give the model a status effect, something like "Staggered", which is added whenever they are hit, regardless of whether they are wounded, which would be removed at the end of their next turn.

Without knowing all your rules specifically I would say you're better off saying that a model has -2 move or something, rather than losing half, otherwise the impact to faster moving enemies is far greater than to slower enemies, potentially making the ability overpowered. Only testing can really tell though.

I don't know if you need to keep stacking further penalties on to an enemy after the first hit, again it might end up being overpowered. As before, only playtesting will really tell you the impact.

The advantage of a status system is that you could potentially add other statuses such as "On fire", "Poisoned", or "Entangled" depending on the use of spells, traps, or fancy weapons.

Hey thanks for the feedback…

I have been play testing.


I think it became slightly overpowered, so I have revised it to

Shot by 1 — penalty of -2 from your total move.

Shot by 2 — penalty of -4 from your total move + -1 attack dice on the targets next turn.

Going to try that.

Tell ya — it’s a nuanced thing making rules. my sound great on paper, but playtesting it might reveal actually, doesn’t quite work as well as you would like.

I think the new rule is A little bit more balanced.

But I was looking at some other board games/ wargames.

Looking at the different shooting mechanics.


And wondering how to develop the rules then one result of getting shorter might mean that the target is pinned. Not able to move on their next turn.

I’m trying to think about what would be the conditions that type of firing at the target? The amount of people at target.