Recently I encountered two occasions of seasoned players treating ruins incorrectly. Mostly I chalk it up to erroneously remembering back to 4th edition, but the ruins rules do admittedly require a lot of good sportsmanship and reasonableness. They even contradict themselves in places, for example noting that measurements should be done from base to base although every example and rule in the section measures from anywhere in the model (coherency) or in the abstract along the 2D plane (templates). In any case, it’s worth recapping a couple points about ruins:
- Players should agree beforehand whether the ground floor of the ruin is area terrain or not, particularly if it doesn’t have a base (the rulebook defaults to no in this case). Personally I think it makes the most sense to treat the ruin’s entire base as difficult and area terrain if it has one, but I often encounter players who only wish to treat the area inside the virtual perimeter of the ruin walls themselves as such.
- One of the biggest points of contention or incorrect assumptions I frequently see is whether or not ruin walls are impassable or simply difficult. The rulebook defaults to the latter, but many players and groups default to models not being able to pass through them. This is an important point that should be clarified at the start of any game, as it can dramatically change movement around the board.
- Unless players agree otherwise, when moving in a ruin, you don’t move models the straight line 3D distance to where you want them to go. Instead they move in a sort of z-axis Manhattan distance, over the horizontal component, and then up the vertical distance. This is made very clear on page 83 in the big book. So, for example, to assault a model over two inches looking down on the table top and up a level (three inches), a model would have to make a difficult terrain roll of 5 or better. Levels should be assumed to be 3″ tall unless players agree otherwise.
- Models can only go onto a level in a ruin if they can physically fit there, and even then some models such as beasts and bikes cannot go up levels. However, models can assault models even if they cannot physically be placed in base to base, provided they could otherwise make the distance. For example, if it has the distance to move up the level but does not fit, a model could be put directly under a model on the next level down and be assumed to be in base to base.
- Barrage weapons always hit the highest level under the marker’s center hole after scatter. When firing template and non-barrage blast weapons you must declare a level that they’re targeting. In all cases, only models on that level may be hit by the weapon, though casualties may be removed from anywhere in the unit as usual. With template weapons, you generally may pick the same level or the one above or below the firing model, however, skimmer, jump infantry, and jetbikes may target any level. Note that the rulebook shows a template being measured purely in the 2D plane above the model, indicating that it does not need to lose those precious inches going up or down a level.
- All Independent Characters and Monstrous Creatures have Move through Cover, so they roll 3D6 when moving through ruins on their own (or with units that also have Move through Cover).
Again, ruins require a fair bit of sportsmanship to deal with well but it helps for everyone to know the current rules to begin with, and to talk for a moment at the start of each game and make common assumptions explicit. Cover values, ruin bases, and moving through walls are the three things I ask about first before doing anything else in each match.
A number of people in the local area have come across Matt L’s polar board by this point, given that I borrow it frequently for special events. Some of the larger glacial pieces and ice caves make it really quite striking. We played a short game last Friday playtesting one of the missions for the Combat Patrol tournament, and I thought I would post up a few pics to show the board in its true glory, with his matching IG Valhallan army. One of the many awesome things about Matt’s work is the consistency and how everything really ties together. For example, check out in the background of some of the pics: He’s got ice blue dice to go with this army (and board), just like he has a block of orange dice to go with his rusted orange Legio Apex Nurgle-oriented Chaos Marine army. A small detail, but a serious focus on overall aesthetics!
Our Friday board. We left out a lot of the bigger pieces so I could transport it to the tournament more easily, but it worked well and had a really neat ampitheatre looking piece that fit the mission well.
A mortar team lobs fire on the Kingbreakers from their rear position.
Another angle on the mortar team.
Kingbreakers' Landspeeder slips through the ice spires.
The Valhallan's Sentinel, which paid dearly for his early gambit to take out the Kingbreakers' lead transport.
Sternguard and Tactical 1's Combat Squad stake out a firing position.
Sgt Titus leads the charge through the Valhallan's rear quarters!
The Valhallans' lead charge on the central objective.
Another angle on the Valhallans.
A few more photos are available in the Flickr gallery.
The other week at PAGE we played a quick round of our Obscurus Descendent micro-campaign in progress. It was actually a great night—there were space conflicts at our usual venue, so instead all ten of us met at my house! Fortunately I was in the process of moving, so I had one house pretty much empty of furniture such that we could set up a whole bunch of gaming tables. It did involve several long nights though doing some simple construction to make free standing supports for my boards so that we would have enough tables!
Biggest issues on the campaign were:
- There was some confusion about army construction. We had put out two sets of army composition rules, and everybody was supposed to bring one for each. That worked reasonably enough, but several people assumed that those armies would be combined in the final round, rather than being free standing in their own right. Lesson: Campaign managers need to give their players a solid set of expectations, such that they can construct effective armies. The campaign writeup in turn should help the managers do that, i.e., tell them what to say.
- Boards are everything. The final round is sort of a micro-apocalypse, all-in team gaming pitting good versus evil. We used an excellently done Mordheim board a friend had constructed. It was very thematic, with a ruined manor front leading into a temple crypt behind, but much too clogged with terrain for 40k. The board was very small and had plentiful difficult terrain, so much so that many of the good guys simply could not get into the rule thick of the action. Lesson: There is such a thing as too much terrain, and boards made for one system may not work well for others.
That said, it was a fine time, and we all had a hoot crowding around one board. I think there were three really standout moments in the game:
- After the evil team deployed, it was like one of those goofy scenes from cheesy spy movies where they wish to show you how powerful the bad guy is by panning out on a wide open plateau of soldiers and such covering every available inch of it. In this case, we faced something like 50 guardsman covering the icon at the center of the crypt. They were literally wall-to-wall, loosely spread out in a grid in there.
- On the first turn, Kingbreakers Sternguard entered the board through the graveyard in front of the manor. Silently rushing through the trees, they vault over the low wall and drop to their knees in the road before the manor, taking careful but instantaneous aim through the many chinks and holes in its facade. Meanwhile, Librarian Rorschach lingers in the graveyard, fighting a desperate mental battle with the C’Tan lurking within the ruins, punching through its defenses precisely as the Sternguard let loose with a stupendous volley of fire. Its psychic armor negated and its body pierced by round after round of poisoned bolts, the Nightbringer howled in rage as his physical form came unbound all around him.
- Space Wolves Terminators leverage their hard-won knowledge of the dark leaders’ lair to infiltrate directly into the crypt. They slay corrupted guardsmen left and right, hacking their way through the wall of flesh toward the ruinous icon set in the half-light glow of the ritual pit. But just as they break through and their wolf priest braces to cleave it in two at the last possible moment, they realize the trap that has been laid! Dozens and dozens of guardsmen rush to the scene, pouring in volleys of fire as their officers and commissars bellow them onward, feeding their Warp tainted rage with boxes and boxes of extra ammunition placed in the crypt earlier with a mind to precisely such desperate times…
Long story short, the forces of good did not manage to stop the ritual in time. Intelligence is unclear given the lack of survivors reporting back from the climactic final moments, but all signs indicate that the rebellious undercurrents that had been sweeping the Obscurus Segmentum were indeed successful preparations for a dark menace to breach through from the Warp. Inquisitors dispatched to investigate are overdue to report back…
I’ve just wrapped up and posted a new, recent RocketShip Games project: Alien Altars. It’s a set of templates and a tutorial walkthrough for constructing a simple but fun terrain piece. Beginning terrain modelers should be able to knock it off in short order, and if done up with a little flair can serve as a great centerpiece for a game table. This is part of a few terrain projects I whipped together one weekend to support a larger than usual crowd at PAGE Sunday Night Fights a few weeks ago. Hopefully the templates and walkthrough are of use to others as well looking to get into building their own terrain. Check it out!
RocketShip Games: Alien Altars
