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I was reading the Apocalypse battle report in WD #333, and marveling over the genius simplicity of their ordnance blast markers.

It got me to thinking, these Blast markers could have a minor, temporary in-game effect.

Such things as:

• Size 3 Difficult terrain for models wishing to move through it. They cannot end their movement inside such markers.
• Or size 3 impassable terrain...
• 4+ cover saves for units obscured by such markers
• Glancing only as for smoke launchers for vehicles obscured by the blast markers
• Last until the beginning of your next turn.
• Replaced with craters at the beginning of that turn.
• etc.

I am not sure if this would be overpowering, as I could see possible abuses with this, but I think it might make a nifty house rule that would add a lot of strategy to the game that isnt already found.

Its somewhat realistic as well. I imagine this as a huge plume of smoke and debris that makes visibility and movement through such areas very difficult. It makes sense that such hardcore artillery be able to actually provide covering fire.

This could work both for and against the army initiating the fire.

Any thoughts on the matter?

I like this idea a lot. If Black Templars could take Whirlies, I'd use them as a cover-saving screen for my troops.

Maybe variable cover saves would be a good idea as well? Turbolasers are going to kick up a lot more dirt and debris than a mortar round. It might be a good idea to extend the difficult terrain portion of this idea, insofar as to say:

"roll a d6. Add this distance to the edge of the blast marker - all models wishing to move into, through, or out of this region counts as moving though difficult terrain on a 4+ as they are pelted with debris and kicked up soot, causing disorientation and poor visibility."

Cool idea otherwise.

CK

Nice idea but could be difficult to execute,
also means that models with blast markers will be even better than before, people already run scared when they see 3 defilers or 3 bassies,

If you wanted it as a house rule,
i would suggest on the scatter dice roll (if you roll a 6 on the distance it scatters - IE not the hit and arrow dice) a random and exciting effect happens.

IE: Make the table above into further D6. (you may have to fill it out)

Would be really fun but not a huge strategic advantage for taking pie plates.
:-)

Posted By Makaleth on 10/01/2007 7:45 PM
Nice idea but could be difficult to execute,
also means that models with blast markers will be even better than before, people already run scared when they see 3 defilers or 3 bassies,

Therein lies the double edged sword of blast markers used this way.

if you fire off all of your ordnance, then the rest of your army might not be able to fire nearly as well... see what I mean?

I will have to try this out.

The big problem here is in the accounting of all the blast markers. Back in 2nd edition there were all kinds of blast markers that stuck around and did wierd things on the board. Plasma missiles from missile launchers were persistant and you rolled every turn to see what they did (stay put, move around, get bigger, get smaller, wink out). Vortex grenades did the same thing along with a slew of other weapons. It could get overwhelming when you have things like 2 squads of dark reapers and every member of both squads was laying down a template every turn.

If you can figure out a way to limit the number of them on the board though, it would be fun and add some interesting tactical dynamics.