APOC-ECLIPSE

War-gaming so big it will block out the sun!

Battle Rule Modifications

Updated: 11/18/2009

The Battle is OVER!

Check out the Gallery, the Time Lapse Video (8MB .avi), and Randall’s video1 (5MB .mov), video2 (5MB .mov), and video3 (5MB .mov).

Results: Game called after Eldar turn 3 due to time. Imperial victory from objectives held.

Conclusions:

Matt P:

1) Three turns is not enough for any game, especially a narrative scenario.

2) We need to start playing before noon. 10 hours is a good target game length. If we can't do 10 hours, we need to revise our plans.

2a) We could have set up on Friday and tore down on Sunday. I take full responsibility to not setting up the tables on Friday.

2b) Simultaneous, timed deployment is crucial. If you are the type of person who would take advantage of simultaneous deployment, then maybe you are playing with the wrong group.

3) -1 on the damage table for flyers seemed to work OK. No one complained about the flyers being impossible to kill, especially since they now can have Penetrating Hits. I think each of my Eldar flyers took a reasonable amount of fire before being destroyed, somewhat appropriate for their point values.

4) It is nice to have a centerpiece model in your army. At least I got to shoot the Star Dragon Grav Tank once.

5) There is an advantage to shooting one unit at a time. If you kill your target with unit #2, then unit #3 can shoot at something else. Unfortunately, this approach also takes a very long time. We need to work on some level of group abstraction for multiple similar units (such as Dreadnoughts, Wraithlords, or even tactical squads.

5a) Same goes for assault, movement, and shooting *at* multiple similar units.

6) Need to remember to print out my Apocalypse cheat sheets like I always have. Turns out I have no idea what a Penetrating, Destroyer 3 is on the super heavy chart...

7) People like Danny's BBQ. Sometimes things just work out.

8) The TechShop got a lot more happy that we were there when we showed them all that was done for our game from their tools. Made for a good tour stop.

Matt J:

9) Infantry.  I'm the most guilty as I have NO apocalypse units, just formations. But I think we all should make sure we're bringing infantry models that we can "handle" in a timely fashion.  I had just about 10k of stuff this time around.  Only about 1200 of that was paying for formations, so the other 8800 was infantry and tanks.  It was too much for me - thank God 90% of it stayed in transports the whole time (I could barely handle THAT!).

9a) I'd like to see more people come up with formations to make good use of their infantry. New vocabulary word for the day - "Boilerplate".  That's taking something existing and modifying it appropriately for the task at hand.  Example: 2 of the 6 Eldar Phoenix Lords have a formation based around them.  Why not take one, sub-in a different phoenix lord and appropriate units, and then 'tweak' the strategic assets/"funky powers" that come with it to reflect that Lord's/Aspect's style.  Another example, there's the Chaos formation with Abaddon, 4 Chaos Lords, and a squad of Terminators (Lords of the Black Crusade?).  Cool formation (used it in the last MB).  Take that, and if you are IG, or Tau, or Orks (or whatever) - sub in your own named special character, 4 ICs, and "Veteran Unit".  Say, for example, take a named Librarian, 4 "Upgraded" Librarians, and a squad of "Regular" Librarians.

Randall:

10) Battlefield Area - As we grow the game from 100k to 120k to 150+ points we need to be sure to grow the square footage of the gaming area. And that growth should be more in increasing the length of the battle line rather than the depth of the field. Other than artillery and super-hvy weapons any figure starting more than 3' from the enemy isn't going to have much impact. Double timing helps, but having 4 or 5 units deep waiting to get to the front isn't fun either. Likewise, lots of deepstriking units isn't a help when the enemy unit density is so thick that there is no legal place to land.

11) Objective Diving - We didn't get that far, but it looked like we were heading towards a last turn where everyone was going to deepstrike or dive as many units as possible onto the objectives in a last turn effort to control or contest. It would be pretty annoying to have undisputed control of an objective for the entire game, just to have a landspeeder contest it by successfully deepstriking within 3" on the last movement phase. We should enforce the rules requiring that all Reserves must be committed by turn three in order to reduce this and look at accumulating victory points to eliminate the usefulness of it.

Steve S:

12) To add more to Randall's #10, Maybe we could devise a forumula or rule-of-thumb that states the deployment area would be x sq ft per 1000 points. Or Something similar.

13) I think in the future it would work better if the deployement zones are positioned better to get folks "stuck in" sooner.  It didn't register as we were looking at the deployment diagrams before the game, and how the scenario was going to work, but what we had were 2 small (for the number of units)deployement zones for the attackers.  Of course we had the "Titan mover", warp gates, and deep strike, but as Randall pointed out, there was no where to deep strike (or infilitrate for that matter), that didn't already have a ton of enemy models on it.  As far as I could tell, all attacking infiltrators deployed in, or right next to their own deployement zone, and there just weren't very many holes to drop deepstrikers in, which caused multiple rolls on the mishap table.

Hindsight being 20/20, an "H" style table would have been good.  Defenders in the middle and attackers coming from both (all?) sides. 

14) Space, no not the final frontier, the area we play in.  We've played our big games in lots of places.  I liked the Techshop conference room really. I think we might have been better served, moving the whole shindig a little further away from the wall to allow better access.  I think Steve W. was stuck in that one spot for a really long time!!!  However, with the vast number of points/models, a larger area may be more beneficial in the future.

15) One other thing I thought of after the event, and it sort of goes along with Randall's "objective jump."  One of the best features of our narrative games in the past was the "personal objectives."  Even if it was something small like get units to a specific point, or destroy a specific type of enemy unit, I always found having that individual personalized objective to be very fun and interesting, and set our game a step above a huge game of WH 40k.   And I realize this was a different scenario, but I agree that maybe cumulative objective scoring would be something to look at again. (OK we lost horribly with only scoring them once, how bad would it have been with the Imperials getting 3 times the score for sitting on the objectives to start with?). 

Imperial	Army	Points	Specials	Super-Heavies	Flyers	SH SP's
Curt F	SM & GK	8000	Battle Company, WW Supp Force, Artemis, Haven CMD Rhino, White Sword			0
Robert	SM	15000	Armored Spearhead, Masters of Chapter, Land Raider Terminus Ultra, Calgar, Tigurius, Telion, Chronus	3 Reaver Titans, Shadowsword		21
Randall	SM	8800	Battle Company, WW Supp Force, Damocles Rhino, Hyperios Whirlwinds, Brother Sgt. Kronos	Thunderhawk	Thunderhawk	3
Jerry	BT	12000		3xWarhounds, 2xShadowswords, Reaver		21
Steve W	Dark Angels	16000	Titanhammer Terminators, WW Supp Force, Masters of the Chapter, Deathknell Orbital Strike, Azrael, Belial, Sammael, Ezekial, Whirlwind Hyperios, Damocles, Mortis Dread, Chaplain Dread	Stormlord, Stormblade, Hellhammer, 2x Paladin Knights		13
	Total Pts	59800			SP Total	58
Xenos	Army	Points	Specials	Super-Heavies	Flyers	SH SP's
Matt P	Eldar	20000	Cloudstrike, Sunstorm, Feugan, Yriel	Phantom, Warlock, Towering Destroyer Knight, Revenant, 2xScorpions, 2xTempest, Cobra, Vampire, Star Dragon Grav Tank	Vampire, Pheonix, 2xNightwing	43
Matt J	Eldar	10000	Karandras, Cloudstrike, Aspect Assault Wave, Shadow Sect, Vortex Grenade, Karandras, Jain Zar, Asurman			0
Jeff	Tau	7000		Manta, 4xTigersharks	Manta, 4xTigersharks	18
Jonnie S	Tau	7600	Hammerhead Squadron, Kroot Mercenaries, Armoured Interdiction Cadre, Long Range Infiltration Unit		Barracuda	0
Scott	Eldar	10200	Ulthwe Strike Force, Maugan Ra, Eldrad Ulthan, Baharroth, Harlequin Solitaire, Avatar	Phantom, 2xTempest		12
Steve S	IG, SM, DH	10000	Defender Sentinel	Guardian Sentinel		3
	Total Pts	64800			SP Total	76

Scenario Brief

o Setting: Large Imperial Military Base
Imperium: When the Imperials first came to this planet they discovered the remnants of an ancient civilization obviously abandoned thousands of years ago. Through the grace of the Machine God, the tech adepts managed to re-activate some of the dormant alien power generators which then facilitated a quick and safe colonization amongst the ruins. Some minor probing from the occasional Tau expedition not withstanding, there have been remarkably few issues. Once the standard Imperial defenses were set up, the tech adepts were even alloted time to continue research on the ancient technology.

o Tau: This planet is a disruption of the Ethereals' carefully constructed plan of expansion. Acting as the hub to the great wheel, the planet must be brought into the Tau Empire. The gue'la forces have dismissed our offers of peaceful unification and must therefore be removed to make way for the next step.

o Eldar: Only the short-sighted mon-keigh would dare to settle on a beautiful maiden world scheduled for colonization in seven or eight short centuries, and they dare to do so in the deactivated control piazza is nothing short of an insult. Worst yet, the primitive creatures are stumbling around the activation nodes for the "shadowed gateway," a massive access point to the web way capable of transporting even the largest war machines of Vaul through space as well as time. The strands of fate have shown that an offer of assistance to the fledgling Tau will be the most efficient route to the cleansing of the planet. Once the mon-keigh are gone, the Tau can be lead down a proper path.

Victory Conditions:

o Imperial: Hold the base

o Tau: Claim the base

o Eldar: Claim the power generators and hold the activation nodes

Deployment:

o Imperial: No titans start on the board. Reserves yet to be decided.

o Tau/Eldar: No titans start on board. Super heavy tanks of 3 structure points or less may start on the table. Any units can be put in reserve.

Shadowed Gateway/Titan Mover:

1. The Eldar can reactivate a node by bringing a psyker within range and passing a psychic test. Once all three nodes are activated, the Eldar can use the gateway (deep in the city area) as a new table edge. The goal is to be able to activate all nodes during turn 1 so the turn 2 reserves can come in through the gateway.

Planetstrike Terrain: Data sheets here.

o Additional Rule: The Imperials are still in the process of linking the power generators into their energy grid. Super Weapon Emplacements with Destroyer strength may fire in turn 1 on a D6 roll of 4+. This roll is automatically passed if there is a friendly “tech” unit in base contact during the shooting phase. (Tech unit = Tech Marine, Techpriest, Bonesinger, Big Mek, etc.)

Rule Modifications/Clarifications:

1. Damaging a Super Heavy:

a. Infantry, Beasts & Cavalry, Artillery, and Bikes are unable to inflict anything worse than a Glancing Hit to a Super Heavy Walker in close combat. Note that this excludes Vehicles, Monstrous Creatures, Jump Infantry, and Jetbikes.

b. Any weapon or ability that causes an “auto-shaken” result instead results in a single “Gun Crew Shaken” result.

2. Ranges: Any ability that has ‘unlimited’ range in a standard Warhammer 40,000 game has a range of 96”. Abilities that have unlimited range in Apocalypse battles retain their unlimited range

3. Claiming Objectives/Scoring Units:

a. Any squad at or above 50% starting unit strength as long as they are not fleeing. Multi-wound models count as whole models regardless of number of remaining wounds.

b. Any vehicle that is not Immobilized or Wrecked.

c. Units that would otherwise qualify as one of the above but are specifically stated as being non-scoring in their codex entry (such as swarms, Death Cult Assassins, Biovores, etc.) are NOT scoring units.

4. Modifiers to Vehicle Damage Table:

a. AP1 weapons get a +1 on the Super Heavy Damage Table. This is cumulative with other bonuses.

b. AP- weapons get a -1 on the Super Heavy Damage Table. This is cumulative with other bonuses.

5. Destroyer Cover Saves: Heads DOWN!: If a unit is in cover and wounded by a ranged weapon with the Destroyer special rule the unit can choose to gain a 6+ cover save vs. the weapon in exchange for being Pinned in the following turn.

6. Flyers in v5:

a. When damaging a flyer, all shots suffer a -1 on the vehicle damage table. This is cumulative with other bonuses. This is in response to them losing the rule that downgraded all hits to glancing. They do not get a 4+ save due to moving “Flat Out.”

b. If a flyer is operating in Hover Mode all rules for fast skimmers (or super-heavy fast skimmers) apply. They do get a 4+ save if they move “Flat Out” and do not get the -1 to the vehicle damage roll. The number of weapons that they fire is affected by the speed at which they move! Super-heavy fast skimmers cannot move “Flat Out.”

7. Direction of Apocalypse Barrage: In 40k5, a vehicle hit by a scattered blast template is hit from the direction of the center hole. For the purposes of the Apocalypse Barrage Template, the ‘center hole’ shall be the number in the center of the appropriate sub-template.

8. Multiple Strategic Assets: You may have multiples of any Strategic Asset that you pay points for. For example, if you have two formations that each come with an Orbital Bombardment, then you can have two Orbital Bombardments. Since having a formation will stop you from getting a ‘free’ Strategic Asset, you will only have assets you pay points for.

9. Deep Strikes: In order to avoid a player’s models being scattered all over the table, some Deep Strike mechanics have been changed.
a. Deep Strike Mishap Table is changed to the following:

Die Roll	Result
1-2	Terrible Accident! (Destroyed)
3-4	Delayed 1 turn
5-6	Delayed 2 turns

b. Deep Striking Formations: Any force that arrives as one ‘unit’ but Deep Strikes separately will not scatter off of the main unit. If any of the units Mishap, they all do.
10. Planet-striking Modifications:

a. Jetbikes may be deployed via Deep Strike.

11. Double Time!! On Turns 1 and 2, Attacking units may opt to Double Time, increasing their Run distance to 2d6". Double Timing units may not move in the Assault phase, even if they have the Fleet rule. Unit's which are Double Timing are concentrating fully on movement and so must re-roll any successful Cover Saves until the start of the next Attacker Turn. This rule may be used in conjunction with the "Move! Move! Move!" Imperial Guard Order - roll two sets of 3 dice and sum the two highest roles from each set.

Compostion:

1. Your army should be of one “force”. The forces available will be Imperial (Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Inquisition, Titan Legions), Chaos (Chaos Daemons, Chaos Space Marines, Traitor IG, Traitor Space Marines, Titan Legions), Eldar, Tau, Necrons, Tyranids, Dark Eldar, and Orks.

2. You will need to come up with a rough point total for your force at least one week before the game starts, within +/- 500 points.

3. Everything must be WYSIWYG and painted to a table-top standard. We’re letting you take whatever you want, but we need some way of being able to identify what you’ve brought!

4. You can bring any Legendary Formation, Apocalypse unit (Baneblade, titan, etc.), or Special Character that you’d want, but you have to announce it to the group before hand. We don’t want two Abaddons on the table! (If you are using a Special Character’s rules, but not the model, paint scheme, or name, then there can be more than one.)

5. If you bring a Legendary Formation, Apocalypse unit, or Special Character you do not get the one “free” Strategic Asset. This is to allow people without “special” units to do fun things as well.

a. You can bring any Strategic Asset that requires a marker as long as you have an appropriate marker. This includes all battlefield assets, Vortex Grenade, and Blind Barrage.

6. Datasheet sources: Anything higher on the list supersedes anything lower.

a. Our web page

b. Any that you submit for your own units/models. These will make the web page before the battle.

c. Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse expansion

d. Apocalypse Reload

e. GW Apocalypse Web Page

f. Imperial Armour: Apocalypse

1. It’s FAQ. Some units are unworkable without the FAQ.

2. The update to Imperial Armour 1: Imperial Guard.

3. The update to Imperial Armour 2: Space Marines & Inquisition.

g. Reaver Titan:

1. If equipped with appropriately massive weapons we’ll use the Forge World Reaver Titan rules at 1500 points.

2. When equipped with Armorcast weapons only a Reaver Titan is 1400 points.

7. There will be restricted Strategic Assets, but that will be decided as the scenario is finalized.

Special Characters: Any unit marked as “rules only” is not using the official model or name and does not claim that unit as exclusive.

Special Character	Army	Player
Prince Yriel	Eldar	Matt P
Fuegan	Eldar	Matt P
Karandras	Eldar	Matt J
Jain Zar	Eldar	Matt J
Maugan Ra	Eldar	Scott J
Eldrad Ulthan	Eldar	Scott J
Knight Commander Pask	IG	Steve S
Commander Shrike	Space Marines	Steve S
Ultramarine Characters	Ultramarines	Robert
Azrael	Dark Angels	Steve W
Belial	Dark Angels	Steve W
Sammael	Dark Angels	Steve W
Ezekial	Dark Angels	Steve W

Formerly-legal Models and Units: A lot of the recent codices have made some models or units illegal. Since this is Apocalypse, you shouldn’t be required to take apart one of your favorite models just because a new book came out and the wording changed. (I’m looking at you, Codex: Chaos Space Marines!) If you have any models or units that fall into that situation, let us know and we’ll list them here. I’m sure that there are a lot of units that changed in Codex: Space Marines, but I’m not an expert in that army.

1. Chaos Space Marine Lords/Sorcerers, Chaos Space Marine Champions, or Space Marine Sergeants with more than one special close combat weapon (A power fist and a power weapon, for example) or weapons that are different than are currently allowed. Pay the points required for each upgrade. (This essentially gives Chaos Sorcerers and Champions access to the Chaos Lord’s weapon options.)

2. A Thousand Sons Aspiring Sorcerer may replace his equipment as if he was a Chaos Space Marine Aspiring Champion (from the Troop squad).

3. Chaos Space Marine Terminator Heavy Weapons were previously one per three models, and are now one per five. Allow them at one per three. Loyal Terminators may have two Heavy Weapons regardless of squad size.

4. A Chaos Space Marine Daemon Prince may take a Daemon Weapon for 25 points (marked appropriately).

5. Space Marine Vanguard Veterans may take assault weapons as per Sternguard Veterans.

6. Space Marine Assault Squads may take two Melta Guns for +5 points each & any model may take Melta Bombs for +5 points.

7. Space Marine Command Squads may be 5 – 10 models. Additional veterans may be purchased at 25 points each.

Timed Turns:

1. Each phase will be timed. We’ll start with 45 minute phases, and will adjust as the game goes on.

Movement Trays:

The purpose of movement trays is to make the use of large quantities of infantry faster and more efficient.

1. Infantry movement trays will be treated as a single model for movement purposes.

2. Shooting will be measured from each individual model, as if they were all different guns on a large vehicle. If it is reasonable to assume that a model would have range or LOS to a target if that model was allowed to move freely in the space occupied by the tray, then they will be allowed to have range or LOS.

3. If half of the movement tray is in cover, then the entire tray benefits from cover.

4. Once one model in a tray is Engaged in assault, the entire tray is Engaged as per 40k5.

5. Casualties can be removed from anywhere on the tray, but effort should be taken to keep the unit as densely-packed as possible. 2” coherency still applies.

6. Any model may change places with any other model on the tray at the start of a movement phase without counting as moving.

Tools:

1. Army tracking sheet. This convenient sheet will help a player keep track of the large number of units that may be on the battlefield.

a. PDF

b. Word Document

Space Marines:

1. Battle Company: The Careful Planning Strategic Asset may benefit other Space Marine units from the same chapter controlled by the same player (i.e. Dreadnoughts, Land Raiders, Thunderhawk Gunships, etc.).

Log of changes:

o 9/24/2009: Modified Scoring Units section.