More OHW Epic 40K

The other day I posted a report of a One Hour Wargames scenario played using some rules for OHW Warhammer 40K I found on Grid-Based Wargames.

I have been playing with the rules some more, thanks to the author answering my various questions, and being so kind as to post  the army lists from a campaign he ran, giving me an idea of how troop classifications work. Of course I have been using my Epic 40K stuff, but I have found that the game is abstract enough to handle the switch.

Needless to say I have been tweaking and changing the rules as I play, although oddly enough, for me, nothing too radical at this stage. However I didn't bother taking any pictures; the picture above is one I staged after a game to show roughly what a game looks like (with the markers and dice removed, as no-one wants to see those). It's the Control The High Ground scenario from One Hour Wargames, and features Evil Sunz Orks attacking Imperial Guard.

You can find the rules at the second link above, and I heartily recommend that you do. The rest of the post won't make much sense unless you do.

Most of the changes I have made have been to the special abilities. The game seems to work best if all units have some kind of ability, to give them a bit of flavour. But I felt that the list was a little limited; partially, I suspect, because of the author's desire to get the whole thing onto one page. One Page Be Damned, I say. I'm happy to go to two in exchange for a few lines of clarification and some more chrome. So I started fiddling with the abilities, changing existing ones and adding new ones.

These are the lists I used for a couple of runs of the scenario above, for example. After it I will go through the changes to the existing rules. The special abilities are in italics.

Imperial Guard

2 x Guardsmen - 10 Troops, Light Armour, Ground, Tactical Weapons, Heavy Bolters
1 x Elite Guard - 10 Troops, Light Armour, Ground, Tactical Weapons, Veterans
1 x Commissar - 4 Character Points, Ground, Tactical Weapons, Veteran
1 x Gorgon - 4 Armour, Ground, Support Weapons, Shield (Can transport one unit of Guardsmen, Elite Guard or the Commissar)
2 x Leman Rus - 4 Armour, Ground, High-Force Weapons, Heavy Bolters
1 s Shadowsword - 5 Armour, Ground, High-Force Weapons, Armour-Piercing
1 x Manticore - 3 Armour Points, Ground, Ordnance, Barrage

Orks

2 x Boyz - 10 Troops, Light Armour, Ground, Tactical Weapons, Consolidate
1 x Warboss - 4 Character Points, Ground, Power Assault Weapons, Warlord
2 x Battlewagons - 3 Armour Points, Fast Ground, Support Weapons, Charge (Each can transport one unit of Boyz or the Warboss)
2 x Buggies - 2 Armour Points, Fast Ground, Support Weapons, Hit and Run
1 x Gun Wagon - 3 Armour Points, Fast Ground, High-Force Weapons, Unpredictable
1 x Stomper - 5 Armour Points, Ground, Power Assault Weapons, Blade

Veterans and Warlord are unchanged from the rules.

The other abilities are mostly refinements of existing, broader abilities. What I have done is take simple 'Add 2D6' abilities and made them conditional. I hope this offers more variety and increases tactical decisions.

Here we go:

Heavy Bolters - The unit gets +2D6 when firing at Troops at one square range (A lot of tanks and similar things seemed to get an assault bonus. I wanted something similar for armies that shoot as a tactic)

Shield - Ignore all hits from one attack once per game (This is Mechanic/Droids renamed, as the Mechanic abiity is something different I'm working on).

Armour-Piercing - When firing at Non-Troops you may reroll a number of dice up to the original armour value of the target. (This is to cover big, big guns tailored for taking out large opponents.)

Barrage - Applies to Ordnance Weapons only. When a weapon with this ability fires, place a marker in the target square. For the rest of this turn, no unit may enter or leave the square unless activated with a winning roll of 5 or more. (This covers artillery which lays down a storm of fire, or things which affect the ground, such as mole-mortars. You could use Sniper in the existing rules for weapons which ignore cover.)

Consolidate - Once per game the unit may, when activated, roll 1D6 for every hit currently scored on it. On a roll of 4 or more the hit is removed. (This covers units with good organisation who can reform in the face of adversity, or, for Orks, the fact that they may have hordes of Gretchin cannon-fodder following them around, soaking up casualties. It needs a better name.)

Charge  - Place a marker on this unit when it moves into a square with an enemy unit. The next time the unit engages in assault combat, as an activation or a counterattack, it gets +2D6. (This is a conditional variant of the Stomp/Walker ability, which I felt was a little bland, just giving a +2D6 to all Assault combat.)

Blade - The unit gets +2D6 in assault combat against Non-Troops. (Another variation on the Stomp/Walker ability. I have a third - Overrun - which gives a unit +2D6 in Assault combat against Troops)

Hit and Run - Applies to Fast units only. The unit may choose to fire and then move as an action. The movement takes place before any counter-attack from the firing. (Allows fast vehicles to harrass more dangerous opponents)

Unpredictable - The unit rerolls any scores of 6 it gets in combat. On a 4+ the an additional hit is scored. However if any of the unit's original D6 scored a 1, roll a single D6. On a 4+ the unit takes a hit. (I created this specifically for the Orks, who have weapons that can be randomly dangerous, sometimes to the users)

Abilities I haven't tried yet are:

Flame Weapons - If the unit scores any hits in an assault then the target cannot counter-attack.

Steadfast - The unit can always counter-attack.

I'm still working on a Berserk/Fury rule, as well as something for Chaos Blessings.

I dropped Observer as an ability. Instead my rules for indirect fire are:

For every unit you currently have in your force with Ordnance weapons, you get one observer marker. At the start of your turn, you can place these markers on any friendly unit or units. If the unit is destroyed, or is activated, then any markers on them are removed for that turn, but can be used on subsequent turns. When the Ordnance Weapon is activated it may fire on a square adjacent to a unit with an observer marker. The observer marker is then used for that turn.

Ordnance can fire at squares containing friendly units. Ordnance cannot fire into its own square. You really don't want to have your artillery assaulted.

The games I played with the lists above ran very smoothly and were great fun. The Orks failed to take the hill in either of them, but it was a tough fight for the Imperials. The second game saw a Leman Rus tank on the hill holding off assault after assault until the Imperial reinforcements fought their way through a swarm of dodging buggies and battlewagons. It was a close-run thing.