Fun strategems for a big Epic game.

[Novrain]

Hi guys,

I am organising a big epic game for a few months time (probably about 40k in total) and wanted to spice things up a bit from the GT scenario by co-opting some strategems like those found in Apoc. I have thought of a few and wonders of you guys would look them over to check they are not completely out of whack. Each side gets a random one of each of the pairs.

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STRATEGEMS:

To use an objective the controlling side must have a formation within 30cm
and nearer than the closest enemy formation. Strategems cannot be captured only detroyed. Unless stated any critical hits cause an extra DC of damage.

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Sewer Rats: D3+1 Sewer tokens may be placed anywhere on the map.
Any all-infantry formation moving into contact with them is instantly
transported elsewhere. Roll a D6, on a 1 the opposing player gets to
choose a sewer token, on a 5-6 the controlling player chooses. The
formation must be placed in contact with the sewer token and counts as
having marched.

Demo Charges: D3+1 Demo locations are secretly recorded prior to
deployment. These must be some from of building or other location. The
controlling player can choose to activate them at any point, but must
have at least one formation within 30cm. Roll a D6, on a 1 the charge
token is removed with no effect. On a 5-6 use the small blast template
to apply a MW 4+ hit to all units under it.

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Fuel Dump: Any formation containing AV or LV that starts its move in
contact with this marker may add 10cm to the move of all Av or LV in
that formation. This marker counts as a 3DC, 4+ Reinforced Fearless WE.
Includes a Hydra Air-Defence Platform. Any critical hits cause a MW4+ hit
on any unit within 15cm, and the marker is removed.

Long Range Vox: The controlling player may use this as a Supreme
Commander re-roll on any Spacecraft or planetfalling formations in their
army. This cannot be used with the Supreme Commander re-roll on the same
formation. This marker counts as a 3DC, 4+ Reinforced Fearless WE.

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Tactical Command Centre: The controlling player may use this as a Supreme
Commander re-roll for any formation within 15cm of the marker. This
cannot be used with the Supreme Commander re-roll on the same formation.
This marker counts as a 3DC, 4+ Reinforced Fearless WE.

Ammunition Dump: Any formation containing one-shot weapons in contact with
this marker is reloaded. Any formation containing slow-firing weapons
counts as not having fired in the previous turn. Any formation not
containing either one-shot or slow-firing weapons gains a +1 to any
rolls to hit made when sustaining. These abilities may only be used once
per game each. This marker counts as a 3DC, 4+ Reinforced Fearless WE.
Any critical hits cause a MW4+ hit on any unit within 15cm and the marker
is removed

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Infiltrators: D3+1 formations which only contain infantry may be nominated
as Infiltrators. They count as having the special rule 'Teleport' with all
the usual effects.

Camoflauge: D3+1 formations may be nominated to recieve +1 to any cover
save they recieve in any turn in which they have not moved. This modifier
is cumulative with any other cover save.

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Airfield: The controlling player may choose to have any aircraft return
to this marker at the disengagement phase instead of leaving the board.
Any aircraft that do so recieve +1 to activate in the following turn.
This marker counts as a 3DC, 4+ Reinforced Fearless WE.

Jamming Station: Any formations that teleport within 30cm of this marker
recieve a blast marker on the D6 roll of a 1 or a 2, rather than just on
a 1. Any formation within 30cm attempting to use the 'Commander' special
ability recieves a -1 modifier to the activation roll. This marker counts
as a 3DC, 4+ Reinforced Fearless WE.

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Smoke Barrage: This strategem counts as a one-shot, 2+ activation. If
successful then the controlling player may place a smoke box (10cm x 30cm)
anywhere on the battlefield. This box scatters 2D6cm. Any units within
the box counts as having a LoS of 15cm, and LoS cannot be drawn through
or into the box.

Gas Barrage: This strategem counts as a one-shot, 2+ activation. If
successful the controlling player may place the large template anywhere
on the battlefield. Any units under the template must roll a D6. On a
roll of a 1 or a 2, their formation recieves a blast marker.

[Exitas-Acta-Probat]

its a neat idea and i think youve balanced them well. have you playtested them at all?

[Novrain]

Not at all, these are for a big game i am organising in Oct / Nov.

[shelfunit.]

Nothing seems overpowered, but everything could make a difference, and adds flavour. How big is the table going to be for this monster, and are you going to have a GM? Also remember to take pics

[Daniel36]

And remember to take pics!!

The only thing I am feeling is that each strategem is very Empire minded. Perhaps you could add an ambigious "Holy Symbol" which could be different depending on the army you are using. You know? It could be a shrine for Empire, but a webway thing for Eldar, a pyramid for Necrons, etc.

[Novrain]

Table should be 12' x 4' ( two 4 x 6 laid end to end) with a hopefully(!) around 40k of models. I know it will be crowded but we cannot really get a bigger table. Hopefully a lot will be held in reserve / drop-podding.

If everyone in the club I play at could attend (unfortunately some can't) I think we could do 32k of others (10k All Armour IG, 10k Black Legion, 6k LatD, 3k Baran, 3k Aurora) vs. 30k of eldar (16k, 8k, 3k, 3k). Just my armies could do a 19k vs. 16k battle.

No, GM although I will try and keep things under control! We are all relaxed about it so it should be relatively easy. I get what you say Daniel36 about the Objectives, but given that most of the terrain will be Imperial, I figure that most of the things like fuel dumps will be originally Imperial anyway.

[leaxe]

Just a silly question

"Demo Charges: D3+1 Demo locations are secretly recorded prior to
deployment. These must be some from of building or other location. The
controlling player can choose to activate them at any point, but must
have at least one formation within 30cm. Roll a D6, on a 1 the charge
token is removed with no effect. On a 5-6 use the small blast template
to apply a MW 4+ hit to all units under it."

What happens if you roll 2-4?

SAme with sewer rats? (I suppose there on 2-4 the player marching into the sewers token picks the exit regardless of owner)

[Novrain]

I do not know why, but I must have copied it wrongly. It is supposed to be for the sewer rats:

Sewer Rats: D3+1 Sewer tokens may be placed anywhere on the map, further
than 15cm from any objective and near suitable terrain. Any all-infantry
formation moving into contact with them is instantly transported elsewhere.
Roll a D6, on a 1 the opposing player gets to choose a sewer token, on a
2-3 the formation remains in the sewers for this turn, on a 4-6 the
controlling player chooses. The formation must be placed in contact with
the sewer token and counts as having marched.

On the Demo Charges:

Demo Charges: D3+1 Demo locations are secretly recorded prior to
deployment. These must be some form of building or other location. The
controlling player can choose to activate them at any point, but must
have at least one formation within 30cm. Roll a D6, on a 1 the charge
token is removed with no effect. On a 2-6 use the small blast template
to apply a 4+ hit with Ignore Cover to all units under it.

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I also have a Hydra Flak Platform to use and was wondering which of these strategems you guys felt was the weakest one?

[leaxe]

I will convince the others to try these next wednesday.

(i really liked the MW 4+ attack )

For me the jammind station is the weekest. Could add perhaps a bigger scatter range for teleporting units.

Ammo dump: I suppose you need base contact to reload one-shot weapons.

I hope to see more like these. Perfect for scenario based missions.

[leaxe]

Just some ideas, brainstorming rather.

Repair facility
DC3, 4+, reinforced, fearless, WE
Need to have base contact to repair AV, LV units ONLY
Roll for the formation d6
1: receive 2 BM and remove one AV or LV
2-3: roll 2d6 and remove the higher number of BMs
The maximum number of BMs removed is one /vehicle in the formation
5-6: remove all blast markers but one.
The maximum number of BMs removed is one /vehicle in the formation

I would have a different strategem for WE as they need more sophisticated tech to repair them.

Medical supplies
- just like repair facility but for INF


Mercenary hideout
- could get some weaker units for the formation in base contact
- or a small formation of mercenaries for one turn

Guns of Navarr-ONE
One shot WE, fixed arc, 2x 3+ MW attack, might detonate (roll 1)

[Novrain]

MW on the Demo Charges seemed a bit powerul looking back, thats why I changed it. I will add the hydra to the jamming station I think.

Let me know how they go if you do play with them

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Hmm I am not sure how the Repair Facility would really work out in a game. Removing that number of blast markers from something like a Russ Coy makes it near impossible to break.

I think it would work better for WE (well DC3 and below WE) if on a 5-6 the formation repaired 1 DC of damage.

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I was thinking of buying the FW missile silos and using them as strategems as well, but hadnt planned to buy them for a while. Something like the Guns of Navarre you put up.

[leaxe]

The repair facility could be a one-shot ability perhaps.

We had a 3 way battle, so we did not use any but I will try to do a scenario where these are used.

[leaxe]

We added the smoke barrage and the airfield to our game on wednesday. The smoke did not hinder me too much, I even managed to hide a formation behind it.

We came up with some instant rules about driving into and through the smoke.

Speed freaks orks with full throttle speeding into a smoky territory...

[Novrain]

Sounds great!

I hadn't thought of the possibility of using the smoke screen to cover your own troops, but it certainly sounds like a neat way of using it!

[leaxe]

nothing better than 12 skorchas speeding out from behind the smoke screen and roasting some chaos SMs

[smaul]

yeah, pics, please.

[leaxe]

No pictures this time, but last time I had my camera.

No skorchas yet.

http://epichq.blog.hu/2011/07/14/tuz..._battle_report

Next wednesday there is a new opportunity for me to test 1-2 stratagems.