Wednesday, March 30, 2016
40k Age of Sigmar: Lootas
Here are the Lootas in their current incarnation. One thing I've been thinking about as I make each warscroll is not only what each unit has done in the past, but what everybody (I don't think it's just me) has always wished they would do. This bring us to the far right ability on their scroll here... "Lootas". Will it come up often? No. Will it be hilarious when it does? I hope so.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
40k Age of Sigmar: Burna Boyz
My next 40k AoS project is Orks. It's a little slower going since they have a lot of diverse weaponry and different flavor from unit to unit. I thought I'd share a warscroll to show how it's going. At their core, the Burna Boyz are basically the pre-existing fantasy orcs warscroll with different equipment options (which is really what a lot of this will be). I wanted high overlap and consistency between fantasy and 40k orks since it makes a lot of sense thematically to interplay them.
They have pretty non-traditional weaponry. The Kustom Mega Blasta of course had to be super silly (as is the Shokk Attack Gun I'm working on). I ended up giving the Burna Boyz, Shoota Boyz, and so forth Cuttas as seen on the Arrer Boyz warscroll for Orcs and Goblins for their melee weapons. I also lifted the Mob Rule ability from pre-existing orky warscrolls, although I'm not sure whether or not I'll keep it.
I've decided to use the Space Orkz keyword for most of the units and the Speed Freeks keyword for buggies, bikes, vehicles, etc. I also have the Boyz keyword on here, which I was originally going to use to create a series of warscrolls that could form up into units however you pleased, but I've ended up scrapping that idea. I'll probably end up keeping the Boyz keyword and using it for something, I just don't know what quite yet.
They have pretty non-traditional weaponry. The Kustom Mega Blasta of course had to be super silly (as is the Shokk Attack Gun I'm working on). I ended up giving the Burna Boyz, Shoota Boyz, and so forth Cuttas as seen on the Arrer Boyz warscroll for Orcs and Goblins for their melee weapons. I also lifted the Mob Rule ability from pre-existing orky warscrolls, although I'm not sure whether or not I'll keep it.
I've decided to use the Space Orkz keyword for most of the units and the Speed Freeks keyword for buggies, bikes, vehicles, etc. I also have the Boyz keyword on here, which I was originally going to use to create a series of warscrolls that could form up into units however you pleased, but I've ended up scrapping that idea. I'll probably end up keeping the Boyz keyword and using it for something, I just don't know what quite yet.
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Regiments of Renown
I was in fact (despite all evidence apparent on this blag) a WHFB player, and my first army to speak of was Dogs of War T.T I only had a few Regiments of Renown, but I decided to make warscrolls for them in all their glory. I didn't assign them to a Grand Alliance instead leaving them as "Regiment of Renown" even though they should really probably all be Order realistically speaking. I dunno, I do what I want.
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
40k Age of Sigmar "Monsters"
I have not yet tackled making warscrolls for "Monsters" (big centerpiece models with damage tables) in Age of Sigmar, but I want to take a crack at it. The balance is a little different from other units since the attacks (and other stats) can change as the model is weakened. It might have seemed prudent for me to start with Tyranids, maybe the Tervigon or something, but I decided instead to start with the quintessential centerpiece, the Land Raider.
I began by calculating the damage output of an Empire Steam Tank. An Empire Steam Tank's damage output looks like this:
0-2 Wounds Suffered
0.32 damage/turn/wound
3-4 Wounds Suffered
0.3 damage/turn/wound
5-7 Wounds Suffered
0.29 damage/turn/wound
8-9 Wounds Suffered
0.27 damage/turn/wound
10+ Wound Suffered
0.25 damage/turn/wound
Since the Steam Tank has a 3+ save and 12 wounds, I figure it's a pretty good guide for the Land Raider. As a more streamlined 40k model, the Land Raider has a lot less going on than a Steam Tank. I began with the baseline of the Predator where it has a primary Turret Weapon that deals D6 damage, and a secondary Heavy Weapon that represents both sponsons. The Land Raider's weapons are all twin linked which beefs up the damage a smidge, and since it has 12 wounds, I had to up the number of attacks from each weapon to hit an appropriate d/t/w value.
At this point, figuring in the Hunter Killed Missile as well, the Land Raider has damage output of:
0-2 Wounds Suffered
0.35 damage/turn/wound
3-4 Wounds Suffered
0.33 damage/turn/wound
5-7 Wounds Suffered
0.3 damage/turn/wound
8-9 Wounds Suffered
0.28 damage/turn/wound
10+ Wound Suffered
0.25 damage/turn/wound
This leaves it just a little more killy than the Steam Tank, however, as I mentioned before, it has a lot less going on. I am continuing to use the warscroll size as a guide for complexity even though GW clearly isn't tied to that design rule. I did cheat a little bit however in that I referenced the "tactical weapons" options without listing them. It's a space saver and I don't think anybody is likely to be too broken up about it since they appear on most of the other Space Marines scrolls. While I'm at it, let me show off the Chaos Land Raider as well. It's a little more killy, but only if it gets stuck in. Basically aside from re-wording things as necessary, I switched out the missile for gross chaos tank tentacle attacks.
These will of course go into their respective Warscroll Compendiums next time I update those. In the meantime, enjoy!
I began by calculating the damage output of an Empire Steam Tank. An Empire Steam Tank's damage output looks like this:
0-2 Wounds Suffered
0.32 damage/turn/wound
3-4 Wounds Suffered
0.3 damage/turn/wound
5-7 Wounds Suffered
0.29 damage/turn/wound
8-9 Wounds Suffered
0.27 damage/turn/wound
10+ Wound Suffered
0.25 damage/turn/wound
Since the Steam Tank has a 3+ save and 12 wounds, I figure it's a pretty good guide for the Land Raider. As a more streamlined 40k model, the Land Raider has a lot less going on than a Steam Tank. I began with the baseline of the Predator where it has a primary Turret Weapon that deals D6 damage, and a secondary Heavy Weapon that represents both sponsons. The Land Raider's weapons are all twin linked which beefs up the damage a smidge, and since it has 12 wounds, I had to up the number of attacks from each weapon to hit an appropriate d/t/w value.
At this point, figuring in the Hunter Killed Missile as well, the Land Raider has damage output of:
0-2 Wounds Suffered
0.35 damage/turn/wound
3-4 Wounds Suffered
0.33 damage/turn/wound
5-7 Wounds Suffered
0.3 damage/turn/wound
8-9 Wounds Suffered
0.28 damage/turn/wound
10+ Wound Suffered
0.25 damage/turn/wound
This leaves it just a little more killy than the Steam Tank, however, as I mentioned before, it has a lot less going on. I am continuing to use the warscroll size as a guide for complexity even though GW clearly isn't tied to that design rule. I did cheat a little bit however in that I referenced the "tactical weapons" options without listing them. It's a space saver and I don't think anybody is likely to be too broken up about it since they appear on most of the other Space Marines scrolls. While I'm at it, let me show off the Chaos Land Raider as well. It's a little more killy, but only if it gets stuck in. Basically aside from re-wording things as necessary, I switched out the missile for gross chaos tank tentacle attacks.
These will of course go into their respective Warscroll Compendiums next time I update those. In the meantime, enjoy!
Friday, March 18, 2016
40k Age of Sigmar: Chaos Space Marine Warscrolls
I just finished my first version of Chaos Space Marines. It went pretty quickly because chaos marines are a lot like loyalist marines, just with less regimented tactics and more rippy melee abilities.
The first change I made was to replace the Tactical Marines "rapid fire" ability with "furious charge". I also added Autocannons to their tactical weapon options (and removed Grav). The final step with them was to add an Icon Bearer option. It was a tough call as to what direction to take the Icon Bearer, but in the end I decided the most flavourful thing the Icon Bearers have done in the past is assist casting in one way or another, so I just went with a simple casting buff. I went simple because I view the spatial constraint of my warscrolls as a sort of complexity constraint. Since the rest of the warscroll was pretty much full of stuff that needed to be there, I didn't have a lot of room to do something really fancy with the Icon Bearer. However, I think that a casting buff channels the fluff and past effects fairly well.
I'd like to share a couple of other units I thought were especially fun or interesting to make. Raptors were neat because I got to roll together two units (Raptors and the newer Warp Talons). I've also been reading the fluff paragraphs about units as much or more than the rules segments to get inspiration for what they should do on the battlefield beyond just recreating what they did in the past. Raptors have (in the past at least) the Daemonkin special rule, and some fluff about how they are so mutated and possessed that they are basically daemons now. So I gave them the Daemon keyword, and a Daemonic Visage ability to highlight that part of their fluff.
Chaos Bikers were a bit of a challenge. Chaos doesn't get attack bikes, so I was losing a chunk of hitting power from the Bike Marines warscroll. I wanted to give them something cool, but I've been steering away from impact hits because they seem REALLY GOOD. Reading some Chaos Biker fluff, I was inspired by the description of them as Dark Harbingers, the forerunners of the Chaos Legions. My Dark Harbingers ability may be a bit much, but I thought some variant of the old Sweeping Advance would be a pretty awesome and flavourful thing for them to be up to.
Lastly, I'd like to show off the Chaos Rhino. While the transport ability on the normal Rhino allows all Imperium models to hop in, I restricted the Chaos Rhino to Chaos Astartes models so that we wouldn't get Daemonettes and Marauders rolling up in Rhinos (it just didn't seem appropriate). The second shift is that the normal Rhino had an ability that let it have a chance to repair itself. I wanted to do something similar for the Chaos Rhino, but in a more hellish bent. So I came to the Possessed Hull ability.
I actually managed to get Possessed Hull, Dozer Blade, and Extra Armour all into various vehicle warscrolls so that if your favorite Predator is modelled with a really cool Possessed Hull, you can easily port the rules over. Because of the constraints of a warscroll, I didn't want to have every option listed on every scroll, but I figure an inventive player with a friendly opponent (they're already letting you use warscrolls some guy on the internet made up!) can recreate their favorite vehicle without too much trouble.
The first change I made was to replace the Tactical Marines "rapid fire" ability with "furious charge". I also added Autocannons to their tactical weapon options (and removed Grav). The final step with them was to add an Icon Bearer option. It was a tough call as to what direction to take the Icon Bearer, but in the end I decided the most flavourful thing the Icon Bearers have done in the past is assist casting in one way or another, so I just went with a simple casting buff. I went simple because I view the spatial constraint of my warscrolls as a sort of complexity constraint. Since the rest of the warscroll was pretty much full of stuff that needed to be there, I didn't have a lot of room to do something really fancy with the Icon Bearer. However, I think that a casting buff channels the fluff and past effects fairly well.
I'd like to share a couple of other units I thought were especially fun or interesting to make. Raptors were neat because I got to roll together two units (Raptors and the newer Warp Talons). I've also been reading the fluff paragraphs about units as much or more than the rules segments to get inspiration for what they should do on the battlefield beyond just recreating what they did in the past. Raptors have (in the past at least) the Daemonkin special rule, and some fluff about how they are so mutated and possessed that they are basically daemons now. So I gave them the Daemon keyword, and a Daemonic Visage ability to highlight that part of their fluff.
Chaos Bikers were a bit of a challenge. Chaos doesn't get attack bikes, so I was losing a chunk of hitting power from the Bike Marines warscroll. I wanted to give them something cool, but I've been steering away from impact hits because they seem REALLY GOOD. Reading some Chaos Biker fluff, I was inspired by the description of them as Dark Harbingers, the forerunners of the Chaos Legions. My Dark Harbingers ability may be a bit much, but I thought some variant of the old Sweeping Advance would be a pretty awesome and flavourful thing for them to be up to.
Lastly, I'd like to show off the Chaos Rhino. While the transport ability on the normal Rhino allows all Imperium models to hop in, I restricted the Chaos Rhino to Chaos Astartes models so that we wouldn't get Daemonettes and Marauders rolling up in Rhinos (it just didn't seem appropriate). The second shift is that the normal Rhino had an ability that let it have a chance to repair itself. I wanted to do something similar for the Chaos Rhino, but in a more hellish bent. So I came to the Possessed Hull ability.
I actually managed to get Possessed Hull, Dozer Blade, and Extra Armour all into various vehicle warscrolls so that if your favorite Predator is modelled with a really cool Possessed Hull, you can easily port the rules over. Because of the constraints of a warscroll, I didn't want to have every option listed on every scroll, but I figure an inventive player with a friendly opponent (they're already letting you use warscrolls some guy on the internet made up!) can recreate their favorite vehicle without too much trouble.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
40k Age of Sigmar: Psykers and Wizards
In Warhammer 40k, psykers are the ideological equivalent of wizards in the Age of Sigmar. When I began working on the Tyranid and Space Marine warscrolls, I realized that I would have to address the difference between psykers and wizards. What I ended up deciding on was that a psyker would be mechanically identical to a wizard, but would use slightly different words. I ended up with the following:
[Model Name] is a Psyker. It can cast one psychic power in each of your hero phases and attempt to unbind one psychic power in each enemy hero phase. It knows the Psychic Bolt, Mystic Shield, and _______ powers.
I kept the wording as nearly identical as possible so that it would be clear (hopefully) that Psychic Bolt is the same thing as Arcane Bolt. Mystic Shield did not need a re-flavoring because it already sounded like a psychic power. Which brings me to the Chaos Sorcerer.
When I began working on the Chaos Sorcerer warscroll for Chaos Space Marines (one of my friends requested CSM, so the Space Orruks will have to wait a little longer) I had originally planned to continue with the Psyker keyword. But I realized something, only Chaos Wizards can summon Daemons. I decided that even though it sets the Chaos Sorcerer off a little from the rest of the 40k warscrolls, I feel like their pre-existing ability to summon Daemons trumps that particular consistency.
The next followup is, the Chaos Sorcerer can attempt to unbind one spell per enemy hero phase. A Hive Tyrant doesn't cast spells, it casts psychic powers, and it can attempt to unbind one psychic power per enemy hero phase. Since Psychic Bolt is a psychic power, and arcane bolt is a spell, can a Chaos Sorcerer attempt to unbind Psychic Bolt? Can a Hive Tyrant attempt to unbind Arcane Bolt? I'm afraid that's up to you players. This will just have to be one of those unanswered questions of Age of Sigmar. Since the wording is pretty clear, I can definitely see where they would not, and since the door swings both ways (by gaining the ability to never be unbound, you can also never unbind), I'm not too worried about players gaining an unfair advantage from something like this.
[Model Name] is a Psyker. It can cast one psychic power in each of your hero phases and attempt to unbind one psychic power in each enemy hero phase. It knows the Psychic Bolt, Mystic Shield, and _______ powers.
I kept the wording as nearly identical as possible so that it would be clear (hopefully) that Psychic Bolt is the same thing as Arcane Bolt. Mystic Shield did not need a re-flavoring because it already sounded like a psychic power. Which brings me to the Chaos Sorcerer.
When I began working on the Chaos Sorcerer warscroll for Chaos Space Marines (one of my friends requested CSM, so the Space Orruks will have to wait a little longer) I had originally planned to continue with the Psyker keyword. But I realized something, only Chaos Wizards can summon Daemons. I decided that even though it sets the Chaos Sorcerer off a little from the rest of the 40k warscrolls, I feel like their pre-existing ability to summon Daemons trumps that particular consistency.
The next followup is, the Chaos Sorcerer can attempt to unbind one spell per enemy hero phase. A Hive Tyrant doesn't cast spells, it casts psychic powers, and it can attempt to unbind one psychic power per enemy hero phase. Since Psychic Bolt is a psychic power, and arcane bolt is a spell, can a Chaos Sorcerer attempt to unbind Psychic Bolt? Can a Hive Tyrant attempt to unbind Arcane Bolt? I'm afraid that's up to you players. This will just have to be one of those unanswered questions of Age of Sigmar. Since the wording is pretty clear, I can definitely see where they would not, and since the door swings both ways (by gaining the ability to never be unbound, you can also never unbind), I'm not too worried about players gaining an unfair advantage from something like this.
Saturday, March 12, 2016
40k Age of Sigmar Warscroll Compendiums
I've left this page up, but this blog has been moved to:
www.hivefleetcharybdis.wordpress.com
All future updates will be there.
This is the complete collection of unofficial 40k warscrolls for use in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. Battletomes include warscrolls for more or less every unit in the army, allegiance abilities, and points. Warscroll Compendiums only have warscrolls and may be missing some of the less common units. I will update this post as I improve the warscrolls and get feedback.
Astra Militarum Battletome V.0 - 11/9/17 (minor changes)
Chaos Astartes Battletome V.0 - 4/19/17 (transport update)
++ Nurgle Astartes (Death Guard) V.0 - 11/13/18 (NEW!)
Craftworld Battletome (Eldar) V.0 - 11/9/17 (minor changes)
Cult of Mars Battletome V.0 - 8/4/17 (added)
Greater Good Battletome (Tau) V.1 - 4/19/17 (transport update)
Harlequins Battletome V.0 - 11-9-17 (minor changes)
Imperium Astartes Battletome V.1 - 11/13/18 (minor changes)
++ Sanguine Astartes (Blood Angels) V.0 - 2/15/17 (flame weapon update)
++ Grey Knights V.0 - 4/27/17 (added Stormraven)
++ Fenryka (Space Wolves) V.0 - 10/14/17 (added Wolf Guard and Dreadnoughts)
++ Unforgiven (Dark Angels) V.0 - 11/13/18 (NEW!)
Kabalites Battletome (Dark Eldar) V.0 - 11/9/17 (minor changes)
Necrontyr Battletome V.0 - 4/27/17 (edited Ghost Ark)
(special thanks to commenter/contributor Momchil Dilov)
Sororitas Battletome V.0 - 11/9/17 (minor changes)
Space Orkz Battletome V.0 - 4/19/17 (added Flyers and new warbuggies, also minor changes)
Tyranids Battletome V.1 - 4/19/17 (transport update)
++ Broodkin (Genestealer Cults) V.0 - 4/27/17 (minor changes, added Goliath Trucks)
Age of 40k Supplement - 10/27/16 (a one page set of optional rules including a Vehicle Damage Table, Flyer rules, and Mysterious Objectives)
A few notes regarding these documents:
1) Version 0 compendiums have not yet been field tested. If you do test them out and feel like leaving me feedback so I can fix mistakes and re-balance if necessary, please leave me a comment, I'd love to hear how they're doing.
2) I'm sure these are riddled with typos. I do my best, but I'll still probably forget to mention that a unit has Combat Blades or accidentally refer to Scything Talons as Rending Claws or something. Feel free to leave a comment if you find something like that.
3) If you decide to print these, I recommend doing them four to a page in landscape, it makes nice little warscrolls that are pretty convenient for use during battle.
4) This is solely a not-for-profit fan activity and in no way intends to infringe on copyrights held by Games Workshop (only to have fun with their awesome stories and models!).
Friday, March 11, 2016
Space Marine Warscrolls - Techmarines and the Brotherhood of Mars
I promised some more warscrolls and discussion of warscroll design, so I'm here to make good on it. I'd like to share my solution for Transport vehicles in Age of Sigmar.
My aim here was to control the functionality of transports without necessarily fully reproducing the mechanics. A whole column of the warscroll is taken up here by the Transport rules. I've restricted the occupants to Imperium models without the Vehicle or Monster keywords. This allows Imperial Guard presumably or Inquisition to use Razorbacks as well since it's kind of a generic transport, usually used by astartes, but available for other factions as well. I'm going to give bikes the Vehicle keyword, which means that they won't be able to embark in transports. This does leave Assault Marines and Terminators who can't normally ride in Razorbacks able to do so, but my feeling is that simplicity is more important than that detail. If someone really wants to load their Terminators into a Razorback, it's not going to break my heart.
The next warscroll on the agenda today is the Techmarine. I was thrilled to discover that Techmarines can finally live up to their fluff of being Priests of the Cult of Mars. I pilfered some Priestly mechanics from the War Priest of Sigmar, and restricted their targets for their prayers to Vehicles and Cult of Mars models. This way, they can repair vehicles with the Blessings of the Omnissiah as well as synergize with Servitors and hypothetically with Adeptus Mechanicus models.
On the note of Adeptus Mechanicus models, here is the warscroll for Servitors.
Nothing too exciting here, but I thought I'd share them just to complete this subset of the Astartes faction. They follow up on the Tactical Weapons theme of the Astartes, but are clearly less impressive with their single wound and low bravery. They also have Mindlock, requiring them to stand next to a (typo) Brotherhood of Mars Hero, which I will change to Cult of Mars before I finalize my designs.
My aim here was to control the functionality of transports without necessarily fully reproducing the mechanics. A whole column of the warscroll is taken up here by the Transport rules. I've restricted the occupants to Imperium models without the Vehicle or Monster keywords. This allows Imperial Guard presumably or Inquisition to use Razorbacks as well since it's kind of a generic transport, usually used by astartes, but available for other factions as well. I'm going to give bikes the Vehicle keyword, which means that they won't be able to embark in transports. This does leave Assault Marines and Terminators who can't normally ride in Razorbacks able to do so, but my feeling is that simplicity is more important than that detail. If someone really wants to load their Terminators into a Razorback, it's not going to break my heart.
The next warscroll on the agenda today is the Techmarine. I was thrilled to discover that Techmarines can finally live up to their fluff of being Priests of the Cult of Mars. I pilfered some Priestly mechanics from the War Priest of Sigmar, and restricted their targets for their prayers to Vehicles and Cult of Mars models. This way, they can repair vehicles with the Blessings of the Omnissiah as well as synergize with Servitors and hypothetically with Adeptus Mechanicus models.
On the note of Adeptus Mechanicus models, here is the warscroll for Servitors.
Nothing too exciting here, but I thought I'd share them just to complete this subset of the Astartes faction. They follow up on the Tactical Weapons theme of the Astartes, but are clearly less impressive with their single wound and low bravery. They also have Mindlock, requiring them to stand next to a (typo) Brotherhood of Mars Hero, which I will change to Cult of Mars before I finalize my designs.
Thursday, March 10, 2016
40k Age of Sigmar: Space Marine & Tyranid Warscrolls
As you may have noticed if you've read any of my other posts, I have played Warhammer 40k for many years. I love the fluff and models. Having gotten excited lately about the newer fare from GW, Age of Sigmar, I thought it would be fun to make some custom warscrolls for 40k armies. I started by doing some research, which led me to this excellent interpretation of what warscrolls for a few Dark Angels units might look like. Since I have a Tyranid army getting dusty on the shelf, and my brother plays Salamanders Space Marines, I figured the Adeptus Astartes would be a good place to begin.
I started by riffing off of the aforementioned work they did on Dark Angels, likening Space Marines to the AoS native Stormcast Eternals, (namely Judicators with 2 wounds & 4+ saves) but with a few important differences. I diverged from their formula for Dark Angels because I felt like to be true to Age of Sigmar, a unit ought to fit comfortably on a single sheet. 40k is a tricky fit for that because of their myriad weapon options, but I feel that I have made it work well through use of special rules.
The first thing I did was to strip down weapon options by warscroll, ending up with a Tactical Squad that can wield Bolters, with a single marine carrying a Heavy Weapon, and all of them being equipped with Combat Knives. The showcase special rule for the Tactical Squad is their Tactical Weapons, which accounts for their special weapon as well as the Heavy Weapon.
By making the special weapon types into keywords instead of full weapons, I can reduce the number of weapons on the warscroll as well as the complexity of the rules while still capturing the overall feel of the unit.
I mentioned before that the Tactical Marines are comparable to Judicators. Judicators with Skybolt Bows have 2 attacks at 24" at 3+, 3+, Rend -1, and 1 damage. I borrowed this bolter profile from the Dark Angels I mentioned before and added a point of Rend to it, but some analysis shows that this Bolter profile now deals the same average damage as a Judicator Skybolt Bow.
To show another side of things, I'd like to also share a Tyranid warscroll.
This was the first scroll I made for the Nids. I used the Daemon Prince as my guide for the Hive Tyrant. The damage output from its attacks is comparable overall. My aim for the Hive Tyrant was to have its ranged prowess be worthwhile, but not the main event. The overall damage output is comparable to the Daemon Prince on a basis of damage per turn per wound.
The units I've examined so far show that damage per turn per wound ranges from .08 for Short Spear Ungors to .66 for Great Weapon Grave Guard. My observation has been that the reasonable range is somewhere around .15 to .4 dptpw though, and I have been using it as a guideline in tandem with comparing similar warscrolls so far.
Some statistical specifics about how I calculate this are that I divide the ranged attack damage output (vs a 4+ save) by 2 and add it to the melee attack damage output to calculate damage per turn, and then divide by the number of wounds the model has. Because of Age of Sigmar's loose mechanical tolerances, it is pretty simple to produce rules that are balanced with existing warscrolls using math and then have fun writing flavorful rules. The only hard part here was making sure that a Hive Tyrant with 'Many Bladed Limbs' was scarier in combat than a Tyrant without.
I still have to playtest to see how it goes, but it should be a powerhouse while also being not too difficult to take down.
I'll be back with more Tyranids and Space Marines, and probably some Space Orks (Space Orruks?) soon.
I started by riffing off of the aforementioned work they did on Dark Angels, likening Space Marines to the AoS native Stormcast Eternals, (namely Judicators with 2 wounds & 4+ saves) but with a few important differences. I diverged from their formula for Dark Angels because I felt like to be true to Age of Sigmar, a unit ought to fit comfortably on a single sheet. 40k is a tricky fit for that because of their myriad weapon options, but I feel that I have made it work well through use of special rules.
The first thing I did was to strip down weapon options by warscroll, ending up with a Tactical Squad that can wield Bolters, with a single marine carrying a Heavy Weapon, and all of them being equipped with Combat Knives. The showcase special rule for the Tactical Squad is their Tactical Weapons, which accounts for their special weapon as well as the Heavy Weapon.
By making the special weapon types into keywords instead of full weapons, I can reduce the number of weapons on the warscroll as well as the complexity of the rules while still capturing the overall feel of the unit.
I mentioned before that the Tactical Marines are comparable to Judicators. Judicators with Skybolt Bows have 2 attacks at 24" at 3+, 3+, Rend -1, and 1 damage. I borrowed this bolter profile from the Dark Angels I mentioned before and added a point of Rend to it, but some analysis shows that this Bolter profile now deals the same average damage as a Judicator Skybolt Bow.
To show another side of things, I'd like to also share a Tyranid warscroll.
This was the first scroll I made for the Nids. I used the Daemon Prince as my guide for the Hive Tyrant. The damage output from its attacks is comparable overall. My aim for the Hive Tyrant was to have its ranged prowess be worthwhile, but not the main event. The overall damage output is comparable to the Daemon Prince on a basis of damage per turn per wound.
The units I've examined so far show that damage per turn per wound ranges from .08 for Short Spear Ungors to .66 for Great Weapon Grave Guard. My observation has been that the reasonable range is somewhere around .15 to .4 dptpw though, and I have been using it as a guideline in tandem with comparing similar warscrolls so far.
Some statistical specifics about how I calculate this are that I divide the ranged attack damage output (vs a 4+ save) by 2 and add it to the melee attack damage output to calculate damage per turn, and then divide by the number of wounds the model has. Because of Age of Sigmar's loose mechanical tolerances, it is pretty simple to produce rules that are balanced with existing warscrolls using math and then have fun writing flavorful rules. The only hard part here was making sure that a Hive Tyrant with 'Many Bladed Limbs' was scarier in combat than a Tyrant without.
I still have to playtest to see how it goes, but it should be a powerhouse while also being not too difficult to take down.
I'll be back with more Tyranids and Space Marines, and probably some Space Orks (Space Orruks?) soon.
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Battleplan: Blood and Glory
I've played some battles using the Clash of Empires (School League) Battleplan and I rather enjoyed it. I had a thought that some similar principles could be applied in a fashion that would yield a more 'retro' warhammering experience.
I have created a battleplan that incorporates a force organization chart as a balancing mechanism just like in the days of old. Each unit is restricted to no more than 20 wounds, so it does use wounds for balance to a certain degree, but with an extra twist. I seriously considered counting attacks instead of wounds, but ultimately decided that wounds were the way to go.
It also uses reserves rules to shift the balance of power during the battle. As your units are slain, your reserve units have a chance of entering the battle. Since your reserve units are also the pool from which you may summon, this helps to tone down summoning somewhat while also bringing back an old mechanic for those who weren't going to summon anyhow.
The battle's victory condition is similar, but not identical to the 8th edition Blood and Glory scenario in that each army has a number of point representing their morale, and you must break said morale to win the battle. Your starting morale is based on the number of detachments in your army and it is depleted as your units are slain and also as the battle progresses.
I have created a battleplan that incorporates a force organization chart as a balancing mechanism just like in the days of old. Each unit is restricted to no more than 20 wounds, so it does use wounds for balance to a certain degree, but with an extra twist. I seriously considered counting attacks instead of wounds, but ultimately decided that wounds were the way to go.
It also uses reserves rules to shift the balance of power during the battle. As your units are slain, your reserve units have a chance of entering the battle. Since your reserve units are also the pool from which you may summon, this helps to tone down summoning somewhat while also bringing back an old mechanic for those who weren't going to summon anyhow.
The battle's victory condition is similar, but not identical to the 8th edition Blood and Glory scenario in that each army has a number of point representing their morale, and you must break said morale to win the battle. Your starting morale is based on the number of detachments in your army and it is depleted as your units are slain and also as the battle progresses.
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
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