Fluffhammer 40k
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This page is an ongoing project designed for the tweaking of existing Warhammer 40,000 rules to better represent fluff sources.
Save System
The various saves in 40k are one of the areas that most need an overhaul in order to fit the fluff.
Armour Saves
Warhammer 40,000's current armour system seperates armour into 6 levels that are extremely broad, which can cause silliness like power swords doing as much damage to power armour as they do to mighty crisis suits, or riptides and Artificer Armour providing the same level of protection. The proposed changes (see below) are better suited to representing elite armour (such as space marines, grey knights, battlesuit-heavy tau etc.) and avoids silliness such as terminator armour having an invulnerable save without having any kind of forcefield.
- Armour will have a rating 0-10, with the number for the save functioning the same as ballistic skill (i.e. 4=3+, 6=2+/6+)
- Armour Pen will have a rating 0-10, with each point of AP ignoring one point of armour
- Most 40k weapons can calculate their AP rating in the new version by flipping their AP (i.e. AP6 becomes AP1, AP2 becomes AP5)
Most armour would need some changing of it's value, because the point is to better represent the fluff! Terminator armour would make sense at Armour 8 (meaning if they got hit by a melta gun (ap6), they would have a 5+ [almost like it makes sense!], whereas weaker weapons would grant them better saves (such as plasma granting a 5+, or a lasgun granting 2+/4+). Power armour at AV5 would allow for marines much closer to their fluff depiction, shrugging off lasguns but still not immune to them, while being inferior to terminator armour in a significant way. Most current 2+ saves would end up at around 6-7, with especially heavy suits (Calgar's named armour, Cataphractii Armour, Dreadknights/riptides etc.) could reach the upper limits, getting a 9 or a 10.
Cover Saves
A tree WILL NOT stop a lascannon blast under any circumstances. This is an inherent problem with the current 40k ruleset that bears addressing. Cover does absolutely benefit those using it however, and the following rules are possible solutions to this issue:
- Cover will not be a distinct save to take instead of armour. There will be two types of cover: Visual Cover, and Protective Cover
- Visual Cover will have a numerical value (a low one). This number is subtracted from any firer's BS when targeting the unit in cover (to a minimum of one, doesn't apply to blast weapons or enemies within 12") when the unit in cover goes to ground. Otherwise, half the value is used (rounding up). Examples include forests, Night Fighting, area terrain etc.
- Protective Cover will have an armour value. When going to ground, the full value can be added to the users armour. Otherwise, half the value is used (rounding up).
Examples: Guardsman in Area terrain (standard): Visual Terrain 1 Stealthsuit in Forest: Visual Terrain 2+1 (for shrouded/stealth) Aegis Line: Protective terrain 3 etc.
Invulnerable Saves
Invulnerable saves are (usually) meant to represent forcefields and the like, which can absorb almost any hit but can be overloaded by weight of fire. They'll be represented by two seperate mechanics:
- Forcefields and the like will have a value. They ignore a number of hits per game turn equal to this value. This allows you to better represent a anti-forcefield tactics, like overloading it with lasguns before firing a unit with plasma at the target, for example. The value would be cumulative for a unit as the fields overlap i.e. two captains together have their iron halos both absorbing shots, and then they both collapse.
- For creatures with unnatural protection i.e. daemons and sometimes psykers, they would have an invulnerable threshold-a value below which their armour cannot be lowered by AP value.
Examples: A Bloodthirster with Armour 4 and Invulnerable threshold 2 could claim a 3+ save against AP-, but even a melta gun at ap6 couldn't lower it's save below 5+