Re: Core rules Deep Reading (long)

From: Jarreas Underwood <jarreas_at_...>
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 20:18:43 -0500 (EST)

1) Correct: you can pick A) any two Standard lists, or B) put 75% of your points into a Codex list (and the associated Standard list) and up to 25% into any other Standard list.

The alliance of Space Wolves and Ultramarines is quite possible: The Space Wolves list is composed of the unique Space Wolves list plus the Space Marine standard list, and the Ultramarines are composed of the Standard list. This is situation B) above.

You are correct that the Space Wolves cannot ally with the White Scars - both have unique units available. Ther is no reason why you couldn't run Space Wolves and call some of your units "White Scars" - you just wouldn't have access to the White Scars unique units.


2A) Both "Snap Fire" and "Fire on the Fly" are shooting activations in the movement phase - they've been around since version 3 and I'm not sure what your objection is here.

2B) Transports and carried units on with the same orders are still two activations.


3) I'm in the process of more-or-less going back to the flier/floater differentiation. I've been trying to integrate the two and, despite my earlier arguements, have failed. I'll be posting a few pages sometime next week.


4) A Knight has a much higher mobility and smaller target profile than a titan, and a praetorian requires much more stable ground to move on than a regular vehicle - the Abrams tearing up the autobahn in Europe comes to mind. When I made the pinning table I took mobility, armor and weaponry into account. That's why cavalry and walkers are in the same catagory - walkers have the firepower and armor to ignore a lessar opponent, while cavalry has the mobility to leave in a hurry.

Personally, I'm in favor of removing the Praetorian label entirely - if it's bigger than a superheavy, it's a titan. But that's me and probably won't happen.


5) Light artillery is a gun with a crew around it. Heavy artillery is an armored vehicle with a gun in it. That's why the CAF of light artillery is so low, and heavy artillery has an armor save.

As for the lascannon snap-firing, the answer is "What's firing it?" Worry less about the name of the weapon and more about what type of unit it is - identically named weapons often have vastly different stats, and snap fire is one of those differences.


6, 7 & 8) Good points. I've edited the rules.


9) Regeneration and the Medic ability work on anything that leaves a corpse - things like vortex bombs don't leave anything behind, but a psychic scream does.


10) Origionally, Space Marine II had the Tyranid Hirodule & Heirophant broods - that was it. Outside Net Epic there has never been any other battle group. Net Epic 3 has the Phantom Titan Battle Group (3 Phantoms) but it's absent in both 4 and 4.1 - anyone know why it was dropped?

I wouldn't mind seeing battle groups go away again, though. It's a point of much debate and probably deserves a poll.


11) Good points. The math both supports and denigrates your suggestion, though, as it would make titans immune to all but the highest CAF units. Not a bad thing, but against genre. Perhaps we can make titans "never outnumbered" by things smaller than vehicles (pinning class 3)?

As for the anti-infantry rolls, I'd prefer "half the troops have to make an armor save" over "one in six just dies." But you're right - we need a poll.

As for jump troops and skimmers picking a location, again a poll.


12) Keep in mind that we separated the Command ability (charge move and First Fire shoot) from the HQ ability (targeting protection). Praetorians are Command, but not HQ. And I changed the movement sentence to "doesn't double their move on Charge" - that doesn't put a flat movement onto all Praetorians.


13) Again, keep in mind that Close Combat is not only hand-to-hand fighting, but also involves grenades, satchel charges, plasma pistols and other very deadly weapons. That's why there's no armor save from losing - you've taken far too much damage for armor to help you now.

I applied the same theory to infantry assaulting a building - they have the time to plant charges on the major support braces, target supporting walls with heavy weapons and so on. I decided this was reasonable.

Look at the numbers: Grunt infantry trying to take down a standard house = armor save of 4+ at a penalty of 0 (infantry CAF) = a 1-in-12 chance of doing a point of damage (out of two total). Time consuming but do-able.
Terminators assaulting a wood-and-plaster cottage = armor save of 6+ with a -6 penalty (Terminator CAF) = that cottage is rubble unless it rolls a "12". Sounds right.

Oh, and Howling Banshees special attack only works on targets with no armor save - all buildings have 'em, so it's more "EEEEEEK FALL DOWN DAMMIT! I SAID FALL DOWN!" *grin* Still, remember that it's a high-tech energy pistol and the sword can cut plas-steel like butter - you think it can't do a number on a wall?


And thanks for the complement - it's nice to know that my work is appreciated.
-Yar


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Received on Thu Mar 20 2003 - 01:18:43 UTC