Assassins, You're Doing it Wrong

So, GW, I know you want to sell models.  But don't you think that assassins deserve a little bit of special treatment?

I have three weird little rules that might bring assassins back in to fluff alignment:

FOC: 1 unit with the Infiltrate USR may be taken for every 500 points in an adversary's army.

Victory condition:  If all HQ choices are eliminated from opponent's army, you immediately win.

Special Rules:  5th Column - Every unit has the Scouts USR.

Simple.  Fluffy.  Effective.

Codex breakdown of what would be playable:

Units are:
Grey Knights: Vindicaire, Eversor, Callidus, Culuxus; Death Cult
Orks: Commandos, Gretchin
Eldar: Rangers/Pathfinders
Tau:  Kroot, Stealth Squads
Chaos:  Chosen
Necrons:  Wraith
Dark Eldar: Mandrakes
Tyrannids: Yrmmgarl, Lictor
Moar?

Oh yes, moar!

Space Marines:  Shrike, Scouts
Blood Angels: Scouts
Space Wolves: Wolf Scouts, Wolf Guard Battle Leader (Wow!)

Even moar?




So the idea here is to change the victory condition and change the FoC to match.  Balanced?  Not likely.  Suggestions welcome.

Love Can Bloom

Dark Solitaire

	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Solitaire	9	5	3	3	2	8	4	-	3++

Unit Composition:	1 (A Solitaire is a non-unique HQ choice in a Dark Eldar Army.)
Unit Type:	Infantry
War Gear:	Holo-suit; Clone-field; Harlequin's Kiss; Shuriken pistol; The Rive Blade; Plasma grenades; Flip-belt; Webway Portal (+35 points)

Special Rules:	May take Harlequins as Troops choices; Fleet of Foot; Dance of Death; Spiritless; Supernatural Dodge (3+ invul.); Infiltrate

The Rive Blade	is a Husk Blade that allows re-rolls on failed to-hit and to-wound rolls.

Spiritless	A Solitaire has no leadership value, and therefore never has to take related tests.  Attacks that rely upon the Solitaire's leadership value automatically fail.

Basically, I have been searching for a fluffy way to make a Dark Eldar themed all Harlies list. This is the best that I can come up with that keeps it simple, and yet covers all the aspects of Solitaire fluff.

(most of this was inspired by the Tempus Fugitives CODEX: Harlequins .PDF: link here)


***EDIT: Apparently, some folks like to use Lady Malys as a counts-as Solitaire, and just allow Harlies as troops.  There are rules, and then there are rules.

Primarch Sanguinius: Rules in Theory

Sanguinius, PRIMARCH OF THE BLOOD ANGELS

POINTS: 500 + points for HQ models

FORMATION: Sanguinius and an bodyguard of between 2 and 12 BA HQ choices chosen from Codex: Blood Angels.

SANGUINIUS: Sanguinius is treated as a Monstrous Creature with the following profile and special rules.

WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	SV
10	6	7	6	5	6	6	10	2+/4++

UNIT TYPE: Monstrous Creature

SPECIAL RULES

Eternal Warrior, Furious Charge, Feel No Pain, ATSKNF

Angelic Gifts: Foresight, Wings of the Angel, Psyker

Psychic Powers: All from C:BA.

Wargear: Infernus pistol, Spear of Telesto OR Sanguine Sword, Artificer Armor

The Spear of Telesto: Spear of Telesto counts as a master-crafted power weapon that causes Instant Death and grants +2 I.  The Spear also has a shooting attack with the following profile:

Range: Template, S: 7,  AP: 2, Assault 2, Rending (this attack will not affect BA models)

The Sanguine Sword: Sanguine Sword counts as a master-crafted force sword that grants +2 S.  The Sword improves Sanguinius' invul save by 1 in close combat.  If equipped with the SS, Sanguinius may re-roll failed psychic power rolls.

Foresight: May lose 1 wound point to force a re-roll on any roll from any player.

Wings of the Angel: Acts in the movement phase as if equipped with a jump pack.

(This version of Sanguinius is based loosely on the Apocalypse Rules for the Demon Primarch Angron... Reason being that Angron and Sanguinius are two sides of the same coin.  These rules are, to the best of my knowledge the only published rules for a primarch of any kind.  I tried to work interpolatively within C:BA.  This entry may warrant some revisiting based on more C:BA readings.)

Race to Battle! (AKA Dawn of War on the Table-Top)

"Lieutenants debate tactics.  Captains plan operations.  Colonels implement strategy.  Generals manage logistics."


Two opposing forces descend upon a world filled with valuable resources.  The armies race to mobilize their logistics trains while pushing forward in to the enemy territory and defending their own lines of supply.


Rules


Army Selection:  Initial Deployment phase FOC: 1 HQ and 2 Troops, no points limit.  In subsequent deployment phases FOC may not exceed 0-2 HQS, 0-3 Elites, 0-6 Troops, 0-3 Heavy Support.


Initial Deployment:  Players total the points of their initial army selections. The player with the lowest points total their army chooses where to deploy and whether to go first or second.  After infiltrators are deployed and after scout moves are made, roll a dice, on a roll of 1, the player with the higher points total may choose to steal the initiative.  It's simply to deploy cheaper units.


Battlefield:  Table quarters on a 6' X 4' playing surface.  Place five pieces of LOS blocking terrain, one in each table quarter, and the largest in the very center.  Each player may place a Field Headquarters building somewhere in their table quarter.  A Field Headquarters is an AV 14 building with 3 structure that uses the damage tables for Super Heavy vehicles (Apocalypse rules).


Resource Objective:  Players place 6 objectives, placed alternately before the deployment phase.  Each objective must be at least 8" from any Field HQ or other objective.  Each turn after the first, a player receives 200 points from the Field Headquarters and 100 points from each claimed objective at the beginning of their reinforcement phase.  Unspent points are retained from turn to turn.


Reinforcements:  Each player takes a "Reinforcements Phase" directly before his movement phase.  During this phase, players may spend resource objective points on additional units from their respective codex.


Victory Conditions:  Destroy the opposing Field HQ choice.






---Ok, what do you think?  Comments/Revisions welcome... when we settle on something, I'll sticky this to the right-hand column.

Wish List for 6th Edition

Hax here.  As rumour would have it, 6th Edition of WH40k looks to be a game changer.  I have a few items that I really really really hope make it in to 6th Edition.

1) The Boxed Set:  I really hope that this is Dark Angels (DA) vs. (very chaosy) Fallen Angels (FA).  This will bring the cannibals from Caliban back to the fore of the collective imagination where they belong.

What do I want to see in the DA codex?  Why thanks for asking.  For starters: PLASMA!  1) Deathwing Termies with a Special Weapon Choice of Plasma Cannons 2) A special rule that allows for re-rolls on "Gets Hot!" (perhaps character driven) 3) Something Ravenwing Plasma...  I'd also like to see Azrael or Asmodai make DA Vets troops.  Imagine an all hooded/robed army on the board.  Belial should be at least on the level with the likes of the SM Captain... But I actually picture him something Tycho level...

What should be in the Fallen codex?  Well, trick question, actually.  IMO, it should be the new Chaos Legions codex, with a Cypher/Astelan character option to make a FA army.  You see, FA really turns the 40k universe on its head.  It's the best way to play the bad guys who think that they're the good guys; and just might be... maybe.  I have to admit that the Descent of Angels book is so far my least favorite Horus Heresy novel.  However, it really did make me think about the DA.  If you read carefully, you can interpret the massive secrecy and craziness with the orders, combined with the massive time-fudgery in Fallen Angels to mean that the Order was infiltrated by Fallen who were hurtled back in time.  That is to say that the order was infiltrated from at least the start of the first novel.  Ouch - it hurts my brain behind the eyeballs to think on it too hard.  To summarize.  The DA were overly screwed before they were screwed over.  Ye gads, what might that look like?

Updated Cypher rules for starters... make him a Special Libby along the lines of Mephiston (but a pistol specialist vs. crazy sword expert).  There are hints of him being Zahariel from the current HH series.  In the novel he has some pretty well defined Terrorsight psyker abilities... Matter Phasing, Crazy Endurance, and Time Slowing.  Easy peasy in game terms.  Psychic powers: 1) All attacks ignore armor saves and count as rending.  2) FNP.  3) Strike first in combat (Init 10) or move in assault phase.  Twin pistols rule from before...  Lion Sword that he never uses.  Perfect.  So, bring him in line with that.

Oh, Astelan... you are a piece of work, no?  Astelan should be something along the lines of a chaosy version of Shrike/Sicarius - SM captain level at least (he was actually a "Chapter Master" pre-heresy).  Maybe somewhat stealthy and morale boosting.  Perhaps allow Astelan to take allies from Codex: Anything-At-All.  This would represent his (multiple) successful planetary uprisings with strange bedfellows for allies, and bring some form of allies back to the game (missing since DH and WH updates).  Something along the lines of: Must fill required FOC with C: Chaos Legions, optional FOC choices may be taken from any other valid codex.  You want Knights of Lupus, add a dash of SW.  You want grimdark cultists, add DE.  You want Xenos love heresy, add Eldar.  You want a leader for the Blood Axes, add Astelan + Ork Troops.  You want Genestealer invansion, add Tyranids.  You want traitor guard, add IG.  You want SCIENCE!, add Tau.  I really like this flexibility.

2)  Overwatch... See the right sidebar for how we would do it here at LR.  It's a tactical element truly missing from the game.  Although, I think that I would choose to exclude vehicles from being able to go in to Overwatch.

3) Some sort of small points games larger than KT, but < 1000 pts.  A very simple 500 points game like Combat Patrol, but with fewer restrictions and more elegant rules.  Let people scale their way in to the hobby in a defined way.

4) Measure if you have LOS.  I think that it's dumb we cannot measure distances when targets are clearly visible from the model POV.  Rangefinders are pretty simple tech.  Even orks could have a "Ragefinda".  Nids could call it proximity sensing magnetics.

5) Scenarion that switch up the turn phases.... instead of MOVE1 SHOOT1 ASSAULT1 MOVE2 SHOOT2 ASSAULT2, it might be interesting to try MOVE1 MOVE2 SHOOT1 SHOOT2 ASSAULT1 ASSAULT2.  Of course, somebody else needs to playtest this.  Not I.


Some say this is Merir Astelan.

A new low?

So as my first post I wanted to throw something out there that would really challenge the minds here on the "Lower". So carefully take some time and think about how you would set up a game that is based around the final climax of a battle, when both opposing heroes have that game changing epic duel that decides the fate of both sides. What would be the point restrictions? Would you allow an honor guard? How would you structure this game?

One or Two Teensy Little Things that I would like to see altered in Kill Team

It bothers me that squads lose their buffs in KT.  I understand that it is a fundamentally different game than standard; but, the upgrades for the KT lists cost just as much.

I wish that I could enact a fiat to alter the movement phase thusly:  Models join and leave units as independent characters.  That one elegant little change brings FnP back to Nobs, Marks of Chaos CSM, and it brings back the Shadowseer in to the fold for my Harlies, it would let Swooping Hawks and Psyker Battle Squads do their thing, and it would allow an open field for wound allocation shenanigans (not sure that last is a good thing.)

It also brings realistic vehicle tactics back in to a 200 point game.  Again, it would change the dynamic a lot if you had to account for popping vehicles; and I know, it's a different game suddenly when you can hide power fists again.

Also, perhaps something that would account for the purchase price of Fearless and Stubborn units would be nice...  Again, game changing, but instead of a Ld test with a cumulative penalty, I would like to see each unit of the kill team simply have begin taking morale tests once the model count is below 50%.  Stubborn would have an advantage here... being able to ignore the cumulative penalty.  And Fearless would simply ignore the failed morale.

But who am I to screw with the rules?

My Breakdown of what the codices should look like:

LOYALISTS

Codex Astartes:
Ultramarines
Salamanders
Iron Hands
Blood Ravens

Angels of Death:
Blood Angels
Dark Angels
Raven Guard
Lamenters
Sons of Dorn:
Imperial Fists
Crimson Fists
Black Templars
Mentors

Savages of the Warp (Fist and Fang):
Space Wolves
White Scars

Relictors
TRAITORS:

Servants of Blood:
Black Legion
World Eaters
Night Lords

Minions of Desire:
Emperor’s Children
Red Corsairs
Word Bearer’s

Children of Rot:
Death Guard
Iron Warriors

Heralds of Eternity:
Thousand Suns
Fallen Angels
Alpha Legion