Winter War Rules...

  Digging around I found some pretty cool (pun intended) rules for winter warfare right on the GW website.
So I added them into our campaign rules.  Chances are they may come into play in only a couple of battles for the campaign, but it will add variety to those games.

  Here is how they will work.

  During setup, after the map is made but before the buildings are placed, roll a scatter die by the map.  The arrow points to the "North Pole" and the "Top" of our map.  Use your best judgment and select two tiles on the "Top" of the map for the "North Pole".  Then choose the two tiles that are on the "Bottom" of the map directly opposite of the North pole, this is the South pole.  For the purposes of the campaign the are the Polar regions of Acadia and will always have Winter like conditions.  Yes, there is a chance one or both City tiles will end up in a Polar tile.  Unlikely, but possible.

  Polar tiles provide a -1 to the takeover the tile roll at the end of the turn.

  A Polar tile also offers up different Stratagems to the players to use in Planetstrike and Cities of Death Games.  They have no impact on regular 40k, Battle Missions, or Spearhead games.

  The rules are there for Winter War Apocalypse, but it is extremely unlikely that all the defenders would possess their own polar tile, by defenders I mean people that lost the choose which type of game to play against your opponent roll.  Course now that I mention how unlikely it is...It will happen in the first couple turns.  So the rules are there, and if all parties agree go for it.

  I've place the link for the Winter War rules over in the "Helpful Campaign Links"  as well as below.
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=cat420001&aId=4400101a
Stay frosty...

What the Structures mean...

  After you have worked out the point values for each battle, but before you build your army, you and your opponent will compare tiles/assets to see if you have battle bonuses. Compare the points you have against the points your opponent has. Refer to the charts below for detailed army specific assets.

• Power Stations modify the die for Picking the table edge, Who goes first and Reserves!
• Command Bastions give out Universal Rules, so Howling Banshees with Furious Charge could be on a table against you...or Sternguard with Feel No Pain...or Melta Vets with Tank Hunter.
• Shield generator is for the end of the month roll to resist taking a tile.  So you are adjacent to an imperial guard players Hive city tile and you have beaten him in an omega level cites of death game.  End of the month comes around an you roll to take the tile,  Being adjacent is a 3+, but there is a -5 from the Shield generator, and another -1 for it being a Hive City, so you will need a 9+ to take the tile.
• Manufactorum, simply adds to the point you build your army with.  If you have 3 times the Factory points as your opponent, you get an extra 150 to build with.
• Tiles.  This work opposite of how you would think.  The player with the fewer amount of tiles gets the extra points.  This is to because the player with more tiles has to spread his forces out more to cover all his tiles. 
• The maximum bonus for Power Stations, Command Bastions and Manufactorums is 3x.  So if a player has no power stations, and their opponent has one power station, their bonus is the 3x row on the chart below.

There are two ways to add points to your army build.  One through Manufactorums, Two through having fewer tiles than your opponent.  Now spending those extra points are handled in a slightly different way...

Spending bonus points
Bonus points can be used to either add units to the player's army list, to allow the player to take mercenary units from a different list, or to ask for help from another player in the form of allied units.  For example, a Space Marine player with a bonus of 150 points could either add 150 points to his army, or use 150 points worth of units chosen from another army list (Imperial Guard, for example, or Eldar), or ask another allied player to help out with 150 points worth of allied units.

Mercenary and allied units take up force organization slots on the player's main army. In effect the units count as part of your army, even though they may have been chosen from another army list or lent to you by another player. For example, if you took a mercenary Heavy Support unit, then it would take up one of your Heavy Support slots. Note that any further restrictions that apply to taking mercenary or allied units in their own army list are waived.

Design Note: Mercenary units are included to allow players to use models from other armies in their collection. It's also a cool way of starting to collect a new army.  Allied units, on the other hand, allow you to include models from another player's army with your own - they can be controlled by you, but really they should be commanded by your ally!

To take a tile...or to build/swap a structure.

So here are the proposed rules for the end of the turn (Month).

For each battle you have won you may attempt to take a tile from the opponent you have beaten.

The person with the most tiles goes first.  If there is a tie then the the person with the most victories that month goes first.  If still tied, person with fewest losses goes first.  Roll off for ties after that.  The person rolling will roll for all their victories before the next player rolls.

The Planetary Empires rules mention about building additional structures after the map has been built.  After reading through the rules four times, damned if I can find those rules for adding buildings during the campaign.
So to make things as simple as possible, we will treat building creation just like taking a tile.  Same die roll, same modifiers.  You may, rather than attempting to take a tile, add a structure to one of the tiles you already own.  Having a tile adjacent to the tile you wish to build on is important, as you will need a 7+ base to build on an isolated tile that you own.  Yes the modifiers apply to the building attempt (tougher to build with spaceport traffic, opponent shield generator disrupts construction security, etc).  You may only attempt to build or swap one structure per turn, but you may attempt to do that at any point of the end turn phase (before, after or between your attempts to take tiles).

Each tile may only have one "Structure" on it.  Spaceports tiles are not considered "structures" so you may place a structure in one of those tiles.  Hive City tiles already have all the structures in them so may not take an additional structure.

You may also attempt to swap out an existing structure.  Say as an Imperial Guard player you want swap a power station for a shield generator.  You may attempt to do this using the "swapping" modifier on the table below.

To take a tile or add a structure, select the tile you wish to attempt to take or build on.

Roll 2d6.

• If the tile is adjacent to a tile you already own 3+ to succeed.
• If the tile is not adjacent on a 7+ to succeed.

Modifiers to the die roll:

-2 if it was a minor victory.
-1 if tile has ruins, defense lines or swamp
-2 if tile is a Spaceport
-1 if tile is a Hive City
-1 if the tile is in a polar region
-(#) if the tile contains or is adjacent to an opponents shield generator (# determined by army)
-1 for each additional attempt after the first.
+1 if you "tabled" your opponent
+2 if swapping a structure (only one attempt per turn but may happen any time during end turn attempts)

*These modifiers are stackable (Yes, multiple shields stack)

*Spaceport tiles are considered adjacent to all other Spaceport tiles.

* Scenarios/rulesets that do not define minor / major victory will be considered major victories

* Roll of a 12 always succeeds

* Roll of a 2 always fails

That's all for now...

Forging Acadia (Building the map)

So, here is the draft of how we will be building the map for our 40k campaign.

1) Randomize the tile build order of the players there.

2) Draw a tile from the box.  The tiles are double sided, so be sure to have one side up and one side down.  the side up will be the side we will use.  The player may swap their tile with either a Hive City tile, or a Spaceport tile and place that tile instead.  After the first tile, all tiles must be placed so they touch two other tiles.  Spaceport tiles may not be adjacent to other spaceport tiles.  Hive City tiles may not be placed within two tiles of another Hive City (must have at least two tiles between them).  Continue until all players have placed 6 tiles.

3) Roll a scatter die near the map, the arrow points to the direction of the "North Pole".  Choose 2 tiles on each (4 total) the "North" and "South" poles.  These areas will be considered the "Polar" regions for the campaign and have freezing temps and winter conditions.  Winter War rules may be used in battles over these areas (Only impacts Planetstrike, Cities of Death and the extreamely rare Apocalypse games).

4) Randomize the building placement order of the players.

5) Each player in turn will place a "Structure" on a tile if they wish.  The structures being Command Bastions, Power Stations, Manufactorum and Shield Generators.  Each have a different impact on either actual battles or the roll after the battle to see if you capture an opponents tile (A hive city tile has the abilities of all the tiles combined).  The players continue around unit one player says they don't want to play any more buildings.  The remaining players may if they wish place one more building until it gets back around to the player that didn't want to.  The impact of each of the buildings is different depending upon the army you are playing, meaning Imperial guard get more use out of a Manufactorum, where Eldar get more use out of a power station.  Hive City Tiles may not have a structure placed upon it. (They are good enough as they are and the shield generator would just get confusing) 

6) Randomize the player order for Tile selection.

7) The first player will select a tile, placing their flag on that tile.  then the second, etc.  We will do a flip flop order like a fantasy draft where the last player will select a tile then the order of selection is reversed with the last player picking another tile, and back through all the players in reverse order.  The flip flop will continue until all players have selected 6 tiles.  When selecting a tile you MUST select one that is adjacent to a tile you already own if at all possible.

Now the map is complete.

For a prettier version of what you just read only with pictures...follow the link below.



http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=cat200190&pIndex=0&aId=15900004&start=1

Getting Started...Ground rule ideas.

Ok here we go with another blog. This one will attempt to coordinate a 40k campaign in the central Maine area.

1st up here are some of the ground rules I would like to try....in no order, just random thoughts at this time.

1) We will use the Planetary Empires rules for the campaign. Just the standard set with 2 Hive city tiles.

2) We will add in the rule so our battles could come from the 40k rulebook, Battle Missions, Planet Strike, Cities of Death, Spearhead, or Apocalypse.

• The two players setting up the battle will roll a d6, winner will choose one of the 5 options...

1. to roll using the roll using the ultimate challenge table on pg 6 of the Battle Missions book.
2. If it is the very first battle of the campaign between two opponents the winner may choose to make this a Spearhead battle.  Spearhead rules in White Dwarf #366.
3. If the winner owns a spaceport tile they may fight use the Planet Strike rules as the attacker.  If the defender has a tile in a Polar region, the attacker may choose for both sides to use the Winter War rules for Planetstrike.  If the attacker wins the battle, and has used the winter war rules he must attempt to take the polar tile.
4. If their opponent has a ruin tile or a hive city tile, they winner of the roll may fight a Cities of Death battle, choosing the level (Alpha, Beta or Omega) of the battle.  If the city/ruin tile is also in a polar region, the attacker may chose to allow both sides to use the Winter War rules for Cities of Death. 
5. If their are 4 players, and the other pairings winner agrees, the two winners may team up against the two losers in an Apocalypse battle.  Yes, this may make some unusual and normally illegal pairings (Chaos Marines and  Imperial Guard vs. Space Wolves and Eldar)

• In order to attempt to take a Hive city tile, you must beat your opponent in an Omega level Cities of Death battle.

3) Each round will last one month, they will start on the 1st of the month and end on the last day of the month. The Campaign will kick off June 1st, with the map building and tile selection taking place at the next game night (which may not be until mid June) You can play any opponent / anywhere.  You may play as many times as you wish in any month.

4) We will each start with 6 tiles. First player to 10 tiles wins, if they have played at least one game against every other player in the campaign.

5) Additional players may join the campaign after it has started. They will get 6 random tiles to create a "Moon" which may only be attacked by those controlling a spaceport (Planetstrike).  Likewise the moon player can only attack the main planet with Planetstrike rules, until they control a tile on the planet itself.


6) The minimum point value of any army will be 1000 points, they maximum before modifications for tiles / factories will be 2000.  meaning pick battles with your opponent of 1000-2000 points.  Apoc battles will have an army limit of 1500 per army.

7) Special / Named characters may be used, but if they are a casualty in one game, they are not allowed to be part of the army build for that armies next battle.  Ex: I take Eldrad as an eldar player, and he dies in a fight against Fabby.  I would not be able to use Eldrad in my next campaign battle, but I could in the following one.

How do these sound?  Do you guys like them?  further suggestions?  My goal is to keep it very simple.

That is all for now...I'll be sending invites to this campaign / blog.  I'm looking for an online mapping tool to display the current map of the planet.