Shadow War: Armageddon: Difference between revisions
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The game is almost an exact port of Necromunda with the use of many of the currently supported factions in Warhammer 40k (although frustratingly, not all of them, not even the Talons of the Emperor which were released the same month). Each fighter is bought separately and games are typically fought at 1,000 points. | The game is almost an exact port of Necromunda with the use of many of the currently supported factions in Warhammer 40k (although frustratingly, not all of them, not even the Talons of the Emperor which were released the same month). Each fighter is bought separately and games are typically fought at 1,000 points. | ||
A kill team is made up of 1000 points, | A kill team is made up of 1000 points; for scale, a single Grey Knight Justicar with no hand-to-hand weapon or upgrade is 250 points. | ||
Unless otherwise stated, a kill team will have a minimum of 3 models and a maximum of 10. | Unless otherwise stated, a kill team will have a minimum of 3 models and a maximum of 10. | ||
Hits and wounds work differently here compared to [[Warhammer 40,000 7th edition]]. Just because you're wounded doesn't mean you're dead. If a model is shot at and | Hits and wounds work differently here compared to [[Warhammer 40,000 7th edition]]. Just because you're wounded doesn't mean you're dead. If a model is shot at and hit, then it is deemed as pinned for the next turn (even if the shot ultimately fails a wound roll, or is blocked by armor); this means that it can only move 2 inches, can't shoot, and can't charge. To get a guy up from pinned you must have another model that isn't a new recruit within 2 inches (unless you are the kill-team leader), then pass an initiative test, unless the rules state otherwise. Even if you fail the initiative test, your guy will generally get up automatically at the end of the turn anyway. | ||
If you get wounded and fail your invulnerable/armour save then your model is wounded/injured. Instead of just getting up at the end of your next turn, or with the help of a friend, your opponent who inflicted the last wound immediately rolls a die; on a 1 your guy survives the wound, but remains pinned, and is lightly wounded, meaning he loses 1 point in both his WS and BS. On a 2-5 he is "downed" and can only crawl two inches of movement, and you (not your opponent) roll again for injuries during your recovery phase (potentially getting this result again, and thus continuing the cycle). On a 6 your guy is removed from play *but is not necessarily dead* (see Campaign). In hand to hand combat, there is no pinning, and if you get injured, any of the results on the injury table other than a 1 will have your guy removed as his opponent curb stomps his downed and vulnerable body. | |||
If 25% of your guys are downed or removed you must take a bottle test to see if the game ends unless rules state otherwise (some missions it forces you to wait to 50%). <strike>If you're playing something like Space Marines</strike> '''(Everyone can do this.)''' You can choose to bottle out so you don't have to watch as your guys get mercilessly get mowed down (still have to meet the 25% condition before you can voluntarily rout). One exception is the Astra Militarum Special Operative "Offico Prefectus Commissar", which prevents units from bottling out (even voluntarily). Each model has a different movement stat | If 25% of your guys are downed or removed you must take a bottle test (which is just a bizarre renaming of a Leadership test) to see if the game ends unless rules state otherwise (some missions it forces you to wait to 50%). <strike>If you're playing something like Space Marines</strike> '''(Everyone can do this.)''' You can choose to bottle out so you don't have to watch as your guys get mercilessly get mowed down (still have to meet the 25% condition before you can voluntarily rout). One exception is the Astra Militarum Special Operative "Offico Prefectus Commissar", which prevents units from bottling out (even voluntarily). Each model has a different movement stat; running and charging is double your movement allowance. | ||
Shooting must target the closest enemy unless he's fighting in | Shooting must target the closest enemy (otherwise you might engage in tactics, or even worse, strategy) unless he's fighting in melee or downed or is in such position it's easier to hit a more distant visible foe - such as cover. Yep, cover affects your to-hit chance instead of granting a save, so it's not overlapping with armor (realistic!). There can be light cover and heavy cover - depending on the percentage of target's body covered. And models can even attempt to hide themselves. And you can shoot in melee but have a chance of hitting your own dude. | ||
Another significant change is the replacement of AP system with Rends. A bolter is no longer | Another significant change is the replacement of the AP system with Rends. A bolter is no longer AP5, but rather Rend -1, meaning it substracts 1 from the target's armor save (and hence no longer ignores 5+ armor). All weapons have a chance to run out of ammo/jam. | ||
Hand-to-hand is quite complicated ''(if you can't do basic addition)'' essentially, someone charges, both of you roll a number of dice corresponding to your attack value, pick the highest of those rolls, and then add your weapon skill and any modifiers. This is your '''''Combat Score'''''. The difference between the two scores is the number of times that the fighter with the higher combat score gets to hit the other fighter, with ties being broken by initiative scores, or the headbutt skill. Parries complicate the matter, as if you have a guy with a weapon capable of parrying, and your opponent rolls a dice higher than yours, you can force him to reroll it with your parry, unless he has a weapon with parry as well, in which case you cancel | Hand-to-hand is quite complicated ''(if you can't do basic addition)''; essentially, someone charges, both of you roll a number of dice corresponding to your attack value, pick the highest of those rolls, and then add your weapon skill and any modifiers. This is your '''''Combat Score'''''. The difference between the two scores is the number of times that the fighter with the higher combat score gets to hit the other fighter, with ties being broken by initiative scores, or the headbutt skill. Parries complicate the matter, as if you have a guy with a weapon capable of parrying, and your opponent rolls a dice higher than yours, you can force him to reroll it with your parry, unless he has a weapon with parry as well, in which case you cancel each other out. Note that if you have two weapons with parry (i.e. two swords), you can parry his dice twice (just not the same die if he only has one single attack die, as you still can't reroll a reroll). Note that not only can you use pistols in close combat like regular 40k, but you actually use the pistol's damage profile, which makes some of them quite nasty. | ||
==Campaign== | ==Campaign== |
Revision as of 15:13, 18 May 2017
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Openly labeled as the spiritual successor to Necromunda, Shadow War: Armageddon is a standalone boxed game pitting kill teams against each other in skirmish combat in the depths of a hive city. The stock scenario is set in Hive Acheron on Armageddon between Space Marine Scouts and Orks, but there's also extended rules for kill teams from virtually every other faction: Chaos Space Marines, Tyranids, Genestealer Cults, Imperial Guard, Eldar, Skitarii, Grey Knights, Necrons, Tau, SLY MARBO!, pretty much the whole shebang.
The Game
The game is almost an exact port of Necromunda with the use of many of the currently supported factions in Warhammer 40k (although frustratingly, not all of them, not even the Talons of the Emperor which were released the same month). Each fighter is bought separately and games are typically fought at 1,000 points.
A kill team is made up of 1000 points; for scale, a single Grey Knight Justicar with no hand-to-hand weapon or upgrade is 250 points.
Unless otherwise stated, a kill team will have a minimum of 3 models and a maximum of 10.
Hits and wounds work differently here compared to Warhammer 40,000 7th edition. Just because you're wounded doesn't mean you're dead. If a model is shot at and hit, then it is deemed as pinned for the next turn (even if the shot ultimately fails a wound roll, or is blocked by armor); this means that it can only move 2 inches, can't shoot, and can't charge. To get a guy up from pinned you must have another model that isn't a new recruit within 2 inches (unless you are the kill-team leader), then pass an initiative test, unless the rules state otherwise. Even if you fail the initiative test, your guy will generally get up automatically at the end of the turn anyway.
If you get wounded and fail your invulnerable/armour save then your model is wounded/injured. Instead of just getting up at the end of your next turn, or with the help of a friend, your opponent who inflicted the last wound immediately rolls a die; on a 1 your guy survives the wound, but remains pinned, and is lightly wounded, meaning he loses 1 point in both his WS and BS. On a 2-5 he is "downed" and can only crawl two inches of movement, and you (not your opponent) roll again for injuries during your recovery phase (potentially getting this result again, and thus continuing the cycle). On a 6 your guy is removed from play *but is not necessarily dead* (see Campaign). In hand to hand combat, there is no pinning, and if you get injured, any of the results on the injury table other than a 1 will have your guy removed as his opponent curb stomps his downed and vulnerable body.
If 25% of your guys are downed or removed you must take a bottle test (which is just a bizarre renaming of a Leadership test) to see if the game ends unless rules state otherwise (some missions it forces you to wait to 50%). If you're playing something like Space Marines (Everyone can do this.) You can choose to bottle out so you don't have to watch as your guys get mercilessly get mowed down (still have to meet the 25% condition before you can voluntarily rout). One exception is the Astra Militarum Special Operative "Offico Prefectus Commissar", which prevents units from bottling out (even voluntarily). Each model has a different movement stat; running and charging is double your movement allowance.
Shooting must target the closest enemy (otherwise you might engage in tactics, or even worse, strategy) unless he's fighting in melee or downed or is in such position it's easier to hit a more distant visible foe - such as cover. Yep, cover affects your to-hit chance instead of granting a save, so it's not overlapping with armor (realistic!). There can be light cover and heavy cover - depending on the percentage of target's body covered. And models can even attempt to hide themselves. And you can shoot in melee but have a chance of hitting your own dude.
Another significant change is the replacement of the AP system with Rends. A bolter is no longer AP5, but rather Rend -1, meaning it substracts 1 from the target's armor save (and hence no longer ignores 5+ armor). All weapons have a chance to run out of ammo/jam.
Hand-to-hand is quite complicated (if you can't do basic addition); essentially, someone charges, both of you roll a number of dice corresponding to your attack value, pick the highest of those rolls, and then add your weapon skill and any modifiers. This is your Combat Score. The difference between the two scores is the number of times that the fighter with the higher combat score gets to hit the other fighter, with ties being broken by initiative scores, or the headbutt skill. Parries complicate the matter, as if you have a guy with a weapon capable of parrying, and your opponent rolls a dice higher than yours, you can force him to reroll it with your parry, unless he has a weapon with parry as well, in which case you cancel each other out. Note that if you have two weapons with parry (i.e. two swords), you can parry his dice twice (just not the same die if he only has one single attack die, as you still can't reroll a reroll). Note that not only can you use pistols in close combat like regular 40k, but you actually use the pistol's damage profile, which makes some of them quite nasty.
Campaign
The game takes place on Armageddon during the Third War of Armageddon, which, as you may recall was fought between Orks and 'umies exclusively. Nevertheless. Main setting is a place called "The Promethium Sprawl"--a series of maintenance areas and promethium refineries that runs throughout the hive world.
If you're playing a campaign, at the end of the game roll a D6 on the injury table to see if your wounded fighters get back up, advance, suffer serious injury, or die outright. You can then choose one fighter to advance, each unit has certain skill trees he can go down, pick one of these lob a D6 and boom new skill.
You then get 100 points to upgrade living models or recruit new ones. You either spend these points now or lose them. If you win you get D3 "promethium cache" if you lose you get 1. The cache's can be spent to bring a Special Operative to your next game (this is the only way to actually field non-scout Astartes) OR can be traded in for another 100 points. Also, you need them to win the campaign.
Some special operatives offer "Bounty" or "Premium Bounty" these are usually stuff like Terminators. A normal bounty offers 1 promethium cache for killing the unit, a premium bounty offers D3 promethium cache's on top of your whatever you got at the end. Considering that ALL special operatives only cost 1 cache it's worth buying the best SO you can get and running it at whatever your opponent is bringing since you'll probably make a profit and then you can just rinse and repeat. As a final note, this game thrives upon large amounts of terrain, so if you don't have any then you might want to get some if you want to play.
Expect most games to be over in 2-3 turns between the SM scouts and the Orks. This is not necessarily true as it heavily depends on how much terrain you have, how each player plays (do you run at them or move around cover - tip: use cover) and of course, how quickly does stuff die since you might hit, wound, and he fails his armour save but he can then just get straight back up next turn. As a rule of thumb however don't expect any single game to last more than 45 minutes to an hour at absolute most.
Kill Teams
Rules for Space Marine Scouts, Astra Militarium Veterans, and Ork Boyz kill teams are found in the Shadow War: Armageddon rule book, currently only available in the starter box. Updated book is now up for preorder, and contains all the online profiles listed below. The starter box was a limited release; any components will all be sold separately.
Rules for Adepta Sororitas, Chaos Space Marines, Dark Eldar Wych Cult, Craftworld Eldar, Genestealer Cult Hybrid, Grey Knights, Harlequin Troupe, Inquisition, Necron, Skitarii Ranger, Tau Pathfinder, and Tyranid Warrior kill teams are currently available in pdf format through the Games Workshop website.
Space Marines
Imperial Guard
Orks
Chaos Space Marines
Dark Eldar Wych Cult
Craftworld Eldar
Genestealer Cult Hybrids
Grey Knights
Harlequin Troupe
Necrons
Skitarii Rangers
Tau Pathfinders
Tyranid Warriors
Sisters of Battle
Inquisition
What Rocks
- IT'S NECROMUNDA! (sorta)
- WITH ALL THE FACTIONS! (most of them, at any rate)
- Rules turned out to be pretty decent (thanks, Necromunda!) and provide opportunities for diverse gameplay. I mean, come on! Cover makes sense now! And there are no useless stats. It's really not that easy to pick mark for your CSM dudes as you want them all! And even undivided cause ld 10 leader from the get-go is great. Most close games are decided by a failed bottle test.
- Comes with a set of awesome modular Hive City terrain that's begging (and advertised) to be used for standard 40k, and can be built into constructions of truly epic proportions. Even better, the terrain is now separately available for purchase.
- There will be a standalone rulebook released with all the rules and factions packaged together, even expanded to include some of the factions that got left out initially.
- Unlike Kill Team you can include some HQ choices like Autarchs, Ethereals and Fireblades.
- Fully customisable wargear options for different models in your team. Want 3 Genestealer cultists with laspistols and knives, 4 with autoguns and 2 with lasguns? That's do-able.
- Actual fluffy differences between weapons that are the same in normal 40k. The humble lasgun is finally better than the crude autogun.
- Sly Marbo has new rules and
a new modelNope, the "new model" shown on his datasheet is a kitbash from various Cadian and Catachan parts.
What Sucks
- It's not Necromunda. The closest things we have to the hive gangs and mutants of old are Chaos and Genestealer cultists, and that's...just not the same. This is probably because GW, for better or worse, seems to be be on a big kick lately to have their standard model range cross-compatible with all of their specialist games, and is apparently unwilling to make a bunch of new models just for a faithful Necromunda reboot. Far easier to just bring back the Necromunda style of gameplay using the existing factions and models. With any luck, though, Inquisition warbands should provide an easy count as solution for hive gangs if they're allowed to be as varied as they are in 40k.
- The boxed set is a limited release, and initial pre-orders completely sold out within minutes, catching GW completely off-guard with a demand that they hadn't expected or prepared a supply for. Whoops.
- Unlike Kill Team, Shadow War is much more limited in what kind of units are allowed. Rather than bringing whatever you want within a set of loose parameters, you're given a specific set of units for leaders, troopers, new recruits, specialists, and special operatives, and that's it. No vehicles.
- The unit choices for some factions don't make much sense. If Space Marines get a "scout unit" as do the Tau with Pathfinders (but no Kroot!), then surely other factions would have similar fluffy units...what's this? Eldar get Guardians and not Rangers? Eldar are sending what are basically civilians on a scouting/commando raid? (correction: Eldar unit is the Dire Avenger. Any guardians are new recruits, and they essentially become Avengers when they 'level up'. Not that this makes it any less strange, weird or unfluffy given Rangers make no appearance in any form).
- It's really really hard to play a mellee-focused army without at least 60% board covered in dense terrain.
- No word on demons as their own kill team yet, unless we're not counting them as a faction. Guess we'll have to be satisfied with fluffing Chaos HARD (totally, Demon Skin 3+ armor save, and only melee weapons!)