Post by Makarova (M.I.A) on Dec 13, 2009 3:53:21 GMT -5
And now it's time for my remake to be published! Every single part of it isn't complete yet, but I'll post them as a finish them. It does take quite some time to re-write most aspects of the game as well as all armybooks.
Intention and Reasoning:
I've been playing WHFB for about 5 years now, starting with 6th edition. I'll admit I didn't know very much about medieval warfare back then, but I still enjoyed the game. It was easy going, fun and simple enough. Later on I become more disgruntled with unrealism and stale game play, but I shrugged it off. Then 7th edition dropped like an a-bomb and changed everything. I don't mind the basic rulebook, but what they did to the armybooks under the edition needs to explanation, anyone who was there knew how horrible it was. I left WHF for 40K, 1,5 years ago. Since then I've been tempted to get back into fantasy at occasions, mainly for the models, but I was so unhappy with the game system that I just couldn't do it. During this time I had also studied feudal weapons, armour and combat, and was pretty damn angry when I realised nothing in WHFB actually worked like it should. Sure, I can live with some unrealism for the sake of a smoother game, but when units that should've slaughtered others are worthless against them, and a sword and shield is the best infantry weapon in the game, things are seriously frakked up. GW probably didn't know more about warfare than their players when they wrote the system, and are too stubborn and dumb to change it, even if no one ever uses spears or halberds if they have a choice.
I've been working on the remake for about 6 months now. Obviously it's a large project, and it took some time to plan it all out and properly get working on it, but I've come to the point where the game is able to playtest. Both me and my brother have enjoyed our test games immensely. Fun, not frustration.
This game is intended for experienced, responsible players who enjoys realistic warfare and puts fun before winning.
An important addition I'm going to make to the game is weather effects. These were often fundamental in historical warfare and offer random advantages or disadvantages for some units or equipment. For example, cold ones grow dormant and slow in cold weather, ranged weapons are harder to fire (and composite bows may break), blackpowder weapons are even more vulnerable to rain etc.
FAQ:
Q:It's so unbalanced that units can choose between so much more equipment than normal!
A: No, it's not. Look it up again. Do you see anything that's out of place, anything that the specific soldier wouldn't have access to? I didn't think so. And do note that some things are Rare, meaning they cost double the amount of points. Besides I care little for game balance if it comes in the way of realism.
Q: Everyone will just use super elite units and crush everything! It's horribly open to exploit!
A: Is it? My aim is to make everything realistic and logical. If I've succeeded, there is no such thing as exploit, only realism. I can only try to represent the laws of science and technology, I can't and will not alter them. And every armybook is in the same boat. Sure, your High Elf opponent might field an army of elite soldiers in full plate and greatswords. But there are always ways around such things, unlike in the real game. Think logically. If you were a Warhammer general, what would you use against heavily armoured elite soldiers? Crossbows and arquebuses is a good idea, for example. Because equipment work realistically, the options are almost endless and I promise you that there's a counter to every situation, just like in real warfare. If all else fails, hire some mercenaries, that's what they did.
Q: It's too complicated!
A: It's more complicated, yes. But I've tried to make it as simple as possible without compromising the ground realism. We've had several test games, and the changed rules didn't affect their simplicity. It's obviously worse for new players as the vanilla rules are more simple, but when you do learn the changed rules things become just as quick as a vanilla game. The only thing that takes significantly more time is to write army lists, but it's also more fun in my opinion.
Q: Your weather rules are unfair! I have a gunline and rolled a "Flushing Rainstorm" and none of my units could shoot!
A: Tough luck. That's one of the reasons to why an all-firearms army wasn't very useful until the percussion cap was invented. Add more elements to your army or ask your opponent for a re-roll. Don't be a whiner, you know what you got into. Or should've known.
Q: My 700 pts Chaos Lord fell of his horse and died! I HATE YOU!!!
A: If you liked him that much, you should've modelled a version of him on foot. Unlike GW, I take no responsibility for your stupidity.
Q: It isn't realistic with elves, dwarves and magic!
A: When I say realism, I mean realism from the point of the Warhammer world, how it would've actually looked if it had existed. Because by all logic and technical knowledge, it wouldn't look anything like GW wants it to, and that's especially true in the game on the battlefield. I detest the D&D logic of "it's fantasy, anything goes!". People who stand by that probably just don't know better.
And now for the remake. I'll be working on it in chapters.
Part 1 - Global Changes
This includes changes to game mechanics and the basic rulebook.
Part 2 - Armoury
This will include the global armoury of weapons, armour, mounts, barding, shields, war machines and war equipment. As of now it's finished except for the war equipment, and some mounts that I'll add once I get to work on more armybooks.
This also includes various formations.
Part 3 - Armybooks
Armybooks, remade from scratch. I've finished the Empire and Bretonnia as of now, and pretty much Vampire Counts. These are only basic versions, and they'll get more advanced as I keep writing.
- Unit choices.
- Possible special rules.
- Magic items and enchants.
- Hero traits.
I'll do an overhaul of the magic items for each faction, removing cheese ones and restoring a few older ones. Enchants is a new system that replaces common magic items, and work similar to the dwarves rune magic, you may choose from a variety of simple enchants for your weapons. All old common items will be included here, for example Might Enchant. Also, weapon retain their basic profile in addition to other bonuses, it's absurd that they loose their normal traits simply because they are magical.
Note that thanks to my changes to weapons and armour, magic items won't be a necessity to make heroes useful anymore. They will be less mandatory, but you still get what you pay for, if you want to spend 100 pts on a magic sword it's not my problem.
The hero traits will be a bit like HE honours, Bretonnian vows and VC powers, I intend to make a number of these available to all factions, including several that are shared between them. These won't have a huge impact on the game.
Part 4 - Magic
I'm going to do a light overhaul of the magic system. I'm pretty happy with it as it is, so my changes will primarily be a bit of balancing and to make raw damage spells more powerful to compensate for the increased armour available.
CHAPTER 1 - GLOBAL CHANGES
PHASES: The phases are now made up by Movement, Magic, Shooting and then Combat. The first three phases work like normal, except that you may not declare charges in the Movement phase anymore, but you may still march as normal. Charges are instead declared in the beginning of the Combat phase, with the normal rules applying. This means that a unit of Bretonnian Men-at-Arms may either march up to 8" in the movement phase, and then may not move anything at all in the Combat phase, and so may not charge, because they marched. If they wanted to charge they'd have to move no more than 4" in the Movement phase, and then be free to make a Charge move of up to 4" in the Combat phase. If the unit being charged is out of range, the charge fails and the charging unit doesn't move, and may not declare any new charges during this turn.
CHARGING: It is allowed to shoot a ranged weapon in the Shooting phase, or cast spells in the Magic phase, and still charge in the Combat phase. However, you may only do this with throwing or pistol-type weapons, and if you Charge after having thrown or fired the weapons, you may only charge the same unit you targeted with the shooting. Additionally, your Charge move doesn't need to be in the same direction you moved in the Movement phase, it's perfectly acceptible to move 4" straight forward, then use the Charge move to pivot and charge a target not in front of you in the Combat phase. Note that you still need to charge a unit with your front rank, and so will need to pivot or turn if necessary, which costs movement as normal.
The reason behind these changes is to make combat more dynamic and fun, and to allow units to throw javelins (or maybe axes), or shoot with pistols before a charge (a very common occurrence in historical warfare).
CHARGING BONUSES: Charging a target now gives your troops +1 Attack during that turn, rather than allowing them to strike first. This represents trained and cordinated attacks to gain momentum and attacks of opportunity, raging ferocity, blunt impact or other factors. This does not apply to cavalry capable of causing Impact Hits.
Reasoning behind this is to still make charges viable and positive, as well as an attempt on realism (it's rather hard to properly represent a charge in rules). Striking first isn't horribly retarded, but fairly stupid. You know, striking first with great axes as you charge a spear wall... Please read the armoury before you spazz out, greatswords and cavalry spears/lances are realistically represented.
CAVALRY IMPACT HITS: Unless otherwise stated, all cavalry models cause one Impact Hit each on the basic Strength of the mount, as long as they move more than their basic movement on a roughly straight line. This means you will not cause any impact hits if moving a unit of High Elf light cavalry 9", and then pivoting 2" and charging 7", because you only moved 7" on a straight line before contact with the enemy unit. You would need to move at least 10" on a straight line before making contact to cause impact hits, if your mount have 9 movement as in the example. Additionally, if a cavalry unit contains more than one rank, the Strenght of the impact hits are increased by 1 for every model the first has behind it. For example, a unit of 8 Empire light cavalry ranked 4 in front, will cause 4 impact hits on S4 when charging. If they loose one model, the ones still with a model behind them will cause S4 impact hits, but the "lonely" model will revert back to its original S3 impact hits. Note that if a cavalry unit causes impact hits, the mounts may not attack normally that round as they're busy slamming into things as hard as they can! In subsequent combat rounds they may attack normally.
This is to make cavalry more realistic. When a horse charge you, does it bite you in the head? No, it runs you over, and it hurts. Cavalry have an incredible mass and momentum when they charge.
CAVALRY CASAULTIES: When cavalry models take hits from any source, whether it be close combat, spells, missiles or anything else, roll a D6 for each hit. On a 1-3, the horse is hit, on a 4-6 the rider is. Roll to wound as normal, and take saves if possible. If the rider is killed, the horse panics, flees or is otherwise incapable of partaking in the battle, and is so removed as a casaulty. If the horse is killed, the rider falls off and automatically takes a wound. This will kill, stun or otherwise incapitate most ordinary troops outright, but heroes or other troops with more than one wound may continue to fight on foot. Any models that fall off and survive will automatically leave the cavalry unit they belonged to, forming independant units. Characters may join another unit as normal. You will need an appropiate miniature on foot with the same equipment and looks (you may model them with less weapons or equipment if you choose, then it is assumed they lost them in the fall) to represent them. If you don't have one, they landed on their head and died (yes, that was your 600 pts Chaos Lord). Proxy models are not acceptable, unless you agree with your opponent about it. When attacking cavalry in close combat, you may choose to direct attacks against the rider and/or the mount, just like with monsters.
Let's see... sitting on a horse makes you... more durable? Since when? This is for realism and should be straight forward and explain itself. I still think it's simple enough to allow for a smooth game, it has been during our testing.
COMPANION WEAPONS: If a model carries two or more one-handed weapon, they may fight with one in each hand, giving them +1 Attack. If a mix of weapons is carried, such as a flail and a handblade, you may at the start of each combat choose which weapon the soldiers wield as their primary weapon. The other is assumed to be wielded in the off hand and mainly used for defense or to create openings for the main weapon, and is refered to as a companion weapon. This also applies with any bonus attack for charging. In effect this means a soldier makes all of their attacks with the main weapon, and the off-hand companion weapon only serves to grant an extra attack with the main weapon. For example; a Soldier of the Empire charges into battle wielding a handblunt and a handblade. He/she chooses to use the handblunt as the primary weapon for this combat, and is allowed 3 attacks with it (1 on profile, charging, companion weapon) that will all benefit from Armour Piercing. If he/she had used the handblade as the main weapon, they would fight with the same number of attacks with with +1 armour save instead of armour piercing as normal.
This is to allow using a weapon in each hand that isn't just a sword or axe, as well as to account for the differences between handweapons, handblunts and handbldes.
UNIT RECRUITMENT: All choices are gone, troops are split in Heroes and Soldiers, both of which have no restrictions unless otherwise specified.
Can I hear a scream? This actually works. While you may choose to use a super elite army, the changes to equipment and above all the cost for such equipment is a huge drawback. This is also realistic, if you really wanted to, you -could- make an entire army out of knights and experienced mercenaries, but it'd be stupidly expensive and you wouldn't be able to muster as many soldiers. Just like in my game.
RANGED ARMOUR PENETRATION: On a short range, all ranged weapons except throwing knives and axes gain an additional -1 to the enemy's armour saves. This is in addition to Armour Piercing.
Yes, this makes ranged weapons good at penetrating armour. A longbow can penetrate mail at 50 yards, and plate at 25. They damn well should be.
FAST CAVALRY: Fast Cavalry now move as skirmishers, with all the rules for doing so in addition to the fast cavalry rules themselves. Unless a unit is stated as being fast cavalry to begin with, any unit that buy horses counts as fast cav if they're also skirmishers. Basically, to be fast cavalry you need to either have the rule from start (as with warhounds and wolves), or be able to purchase skirmish for your unit (most infantry units can). Also there is going to be a restriction on how much equipment they can carry, and possible a simplification of the rules.
Light cavalry moving in formations, waiting for someone to shoot them down? I think not.
COMMAND MODELS: The unit commands are split into Standard Bearers, Musicians (who may be Hornblowers or March Drummers) and Champions (who may be Veterans or Marksmen). If a unit has access to full command, it may include any of these models, but only one Champion. Some units are restricted in what command models they may purchase, this is clearly stated in their profiles. You may buy one hornblower and one march drummer if you wish. The normal rules for how command models are treated apply.
Standard Bearer (10 pts)
+1 Combat Resolution.
Hornblower (5 pts)
+1 LD when rallying, to a maximum of 10. If a combat is tied, the unit with a hornblower wins by 1. If both units have one, it's a draw.
March Drummer (5 pts)
Units may reform and turn at half the movement than is normally required. This means reforming only costs half your movement, turning 90 degrees cost a quarter of your movement, and turning 180 degrees cost half of it.
Veteran (10 pts)
Has +1 Attack on his/her profile. They may issue and accept challenges, as per the core rulebook. However, they may also carry individual equipment. While in normal units weapon are decided by majority, a champion may always purchase individual equipment.
Marksman (5 pts)
Has +1 Ballistic Skill on his/her profile. They may issue and accept challenges, as per the core rulebook. However, they may also carry individual equipment. While in normal units weapon are decided by majority, a champion may always purchase individual equipment.
WYSIWYG: Simple as that. If your unit is clearly equipped with medium armour, spears and handblades, that's what they have. If you don't want to purchase extra weapons that you might not use, you better remove them from the models. Otherwise you're stuck with them. There is no such thing as counts-as in this game (except for proxy games, obviously) and equipment should be as clear as possible. However, sometimes there is a choice. For example, High Elf spearmen could have heavy armour (mail skirt, breastplate, helmet) or half-plate if you decide that they also wear mail under their breastplate, and that it's made of steel. This needs to be kept on a reasonable level. There is reason to believe a High Elf warrior could have a mail hauberk, as it's simple a case of the skirt "continuing" upwards and covering the torso and parts of the arms. A Bretonnian peasant could probably hide a light chainmail under his padded armour and robes, but that's just pushing it. At least model some small chainmail parts at the bottom of the robes, or at the arms, indicating that he wears a haubergon under it.
These are the changes I have now. Comments, questions and opinions are welcome, but please make sure to read up on my other changes before criticising.
Intention and Reasoning:
I've been playing WHFB for about 5 years now, starting with 6th edition. I'll admit I didn't know very much about medieval warfare back then, but I still enjoyed the game. It was easy going, fun and simple enough. Later on I become more disgruntled with unrealism and stale game play, but I shrugged it off. Then 7th edition dropped like an a-bomb and changed everything. I don't mind the basic rulebook, but what they did to the armybooks under the edition needs to explanation, anyone who was there knew how horrible it was. I left WHF for 40K, 1,5 years ago. Since then I've been tempted to get back into fantasy at occasions, mainly for the models, but I was so unhappy with the game system that I just couldn't do it. During this time I had also studied feudal weapons, armour and combat, and was pretty damn angry when I realised nothing in WHFB actually worked like it should. Sure, I can live with some unrealism for the sake of a smoother game, but when units that should've slaughtered others are worthless against them, and a sword and shield is the best infantry weapon in the game, things are seriously frakked up. GW probably didn't know more about warfare than their players when they wrote the system, and are too stubborn and dumb to change it, even if no one ever uses spears or halberds if they have a choice.
I've been working on the remake for about 6 months now. Obviously it's a large project, and it took some time to plan it all out and properly get working on it, but I've come to the point where the game is able to playtest. Both me and my brother have enjoyed our test games immensely. Fun, not frustration.
This game is intended for experienced, responsible players who enjoys realistic warfare and puts fun before winning.
An important addition I'm going to make to the game is weather effects. These were often fundamental in historical warfare and offer random advantages or disadvantages for some units or equipment. For example, cold ones grow dormant and slow in cold weather, ranged weapons are harder to fire (and composite bows may break), blackpowder weapons are even more vulnerable to rain etc.
FAQ:
Q:It's so unbalanced that units can choose between so much more equipment than normal!
A: No, it's not. Look it up again. Do you see anything that's out of place, anything that the specific soldier wouldn't have access to? I didn't think so. And do note that some things are Rare, meaning they cost double the amount of points. Besides I care little for game balance if it comes in the way of realism.
Q: Everyone will just use super elite units and crush everything! It's horribly open to exploit!
A: Is it? My aim is to make everything realistic and logical. If I've succeeded, there is no such thing as exploit, only realism. I can only try to represent the laws of science and technology, I can't and will not alter them. And every armybook is in the same boat. Sure, your High Elf opponent might field an army of elite soldiers in full plate and greatswords. But there are always ways around such things, unlike in the real game. Think logically. If you were a Warhammer general, what would you use against heavily armoured elite soldiers? Crossbows and arquebuses is a good idea, for example. Because equipment work realistically, the options are almost endless and I promise you that there's a counter to every situation, just like in real warfare. If all else fails, hire some mercenaries, that's what they did.
Q: It's too complicated!
A: It's more complicated, yes. But I've tried to make it as simple as possible without compromising the ground realism. We've had several test games, and the changed rules didn't affect their simplicity. It's obviously worse for new players as the vanilla rules are more simple, but when you do learn the changed rules things become just as quick as a vanilla game. The only thing that takes significantly more time is to write army lists, but it's also more fun in my opinion.
Q: Your weather rules are unfair! I have a gunline and rolled a "Flushing Rainstorm" and none of my units could shoot!
A: Tough luck. That's one of the reasons to why an all-firearms army wasn't very useful until the percussion cap was invented. Add more elements to your army or ask your opponent for a re-roll. Don't be a whiner, you know what you got into. Or should've known.
Q: My 700 pts Chaos Lord fell of his horse and died! I HATE YOU!!!
A: If you liked him that much, you should've modelled a version of him on foot. Unlike GW, I take no responsibility for your stupidity.
Q: It isn't realistic with elves, dwarves and magic!
A: When I say realism, I mean realism from the point of the Warhammer world, how it would've actually looked if it had existed. Because by all logic and technical knowledge, it wouldn't look anything like GW wants it to, and that's especially true in the game on the battlefield. I detest the D&D logic of "it's fantasy, anything goes!". People who stand by that probably just don't know better.
And now for the remake. I'll be working on it in chapters.
Part 1 - Global Changes
This includes changes to game mechanics and the basic rulebook.
Part 2 - Armoury
This will include the global armoury of weapons, armour, mounts, barding, shields, war machines and war equipment. As of now it's finished except for the war equipment, and some mounts that I'll add once I get to work on more armybooks.
This also includes various formations.
Part 3 - Armybooks
Armybooks, remade from scratch. I've finished the Empire and Bretonnia as of now, and pretty much Vampire Counts. These are only basic versions, and they'll get more advanced as I keep writing.
- Unit choices.
- Possible special rules.
- Magic items and enchants.
- Hero traits.
I'll do an overhaul of the magic items for each faction, removing cheese ones and restoring a few older ones. Enchants is a new system that replaces common magic items, and work similar to the dwarves rune magic, you may choose from a variety of simple enchants for your weapons. All old common items will be included here, for example Might Enchant. Also, weapon retain their basic profile in addition to other bonuses, it's absurd that they loose their normal traits simply because they are magical.
Note that thanks to my changes to weapons and armour, magic items won't be a necessity to make heroes useful anymore. They will be less mandatory, but you still get what you pay for, if you want to spend 100 pts on a magic sword it's not my problem.
The hero traits will be a bit like HE honours, Bretonnian vows and VC powers, I intend to make a number of these available to all factions, including several that are shared between them. These won't have a huge impact on the game.
Part 4 - Magic
I'm going to do a light overhaul of the magic system. I'm pretty happy with it as it is, so my changes will primarily be a bit of balancing and to make raw damage spells more powerful to compensate for the increased armour available.
CHAPTER 1 - GLOBAL CHANGES
PHASES: The phases are now made up by Movement, Magic, Shooting and then Combat. The first three phases work like normal, except that you may not declare charges in the Movement phase anymore, but you may still march as normal. Charges are instead declared in the beginning of the Combat phase, with the normal rules applying. This means that a unit of Bretonnian Men-at-Arms may either march up to 8" in the movement phase, and then may not move anything at all in the Combat phase, and so may not charge, because they marched. If they wanted to charge they'd have to move no more than 4" in the Movement phase, and then be free to make a Charge move of up to 4" in the Combat phase. If the unit being charged is out of range, the charge fails and the charging unit doesn't move, and may not declare any new charges during this turn.
CHARGING: It is allowed to shoot a ranged weapon in the Shooting phase, or cast spells in the Magic phase, and still charge in the Combat phase. However, you may only do this with throwing or pistol-type weapons, and if you Charge after having thrown or fired the weapons, you may only charge the same unit you targeted with the shooting. Additionally, your Charge move doesn't need to be in the same direction you moved in the Movement phase, it's perfectly acceptible to move 4" straight forward, then use the Charge move to pivot and charge a target not in front of you in the Combat phase. Note that you still need to charge a unit with your front rank, and so will need to pivot or turn if necessary, which costs movement as normal.
The reason behind these changes is to make combat more dynamic and fun, and to allow units to throw javelins (or maybe axes), or shoot with pistols before a charge (a very common occurrence in historical warfare).
CHARGING BONUSES: Charging a target now gives your troops +1 Attack during that turn, rather than allowing them to strike first. This represents trained and cordinated attacks to gain momentum and attacks of opportunity, raging ferocity, blunt impact or other factors. This does not apply to cavalry capable of causing Impact Hits.
Reasoning behind this is to still make charges viable and positive, as well as an attempt on realism (it's rather hard to properly represent a charge in rules). Striking first isn't horribly retarded, but fairly stupid. You know, striking first with great axes as you charge a spear wall... Please read the armoury before you spazz out, greatswords and cavalry spears/lances are realistically represented.
CAVALRY IMPACT HITS: Unless otherwise stated, all cavalry models cause one Impact Hit each on the basic Strength of the mount, as long as they move more than their basic movement on a roughly straight line. This means you will not cause any impact hits if moving a unit of High Elf light cavalry 9", and then pivoting 2" and charging 7", because you only moved 7" on a straight line before contact with the enemy unit. You would need to move at least 10" on a straight line before making contact to cause impact hits, if your mount have 9 movement as in the example. Additionally, if a cavalry unit contains more than one rank, the Strenght of the impact hits are increased by 1 for every model the first has behind it. For example, a unit of 8 Empire light cavalry ranked 4 in front, will cause 4 impact hits on S4 when charging. If they loose one model, the ones still with a model behind them will cause S4 impact hits, but the "lonely" model will revert back to its original S3 impact hits. Note that if a cavalry unit causes impact hits, the mounts may not attack normally that round as they're busy slamming into things as hard as they can! In subsequent combat rounds they may attack normally.
This is to make cavalry more realistic. When a horse charge you, does it bite you in the head? No, it runs you over, and it hurts. Cavalry have an incredible mass and momentum when they charge.
CAVALRY CASAULTIES: When cavalry models take hits from any source, whether it be close combat, spells, missiles or anything else, roll a D6 for each hit. On a 1-3, the horse is hit, on a 4-6 the rider is. Roll to wound as normal, and take saves if possible. If the rider is killed, the horse panics, flees or is otherwise incapable of partaking in the battle, and is so removed as a casaulty. If the horse is killed, the rider falls off and automatically takes a wound. This will kill, stun or otherwise incapitate most ordinary troops outright, but heroes or other troops with more than one wound may continue to fight on foot. Any models that fall off and survive will automatically leave the cavalry unit they belonged to, forming independant units. Characters may join another unit as normal. You will need an appropiate miniature on foot with the same equipment and looks (you may model them with less weapons or equipment if you choose, then it is assumed they lost them in the fall) to represent them. If you don't have one, they landed on their head and died (yes, that was your 600 pts Chaos Lord). Proxy models are not acceptable, unless you agree with your opponent about it. When attacking cavalry in close combat, you may choose to direct attacks against the rider and/or the mount, just like with monsters.
Let's see... sitting on a horse makes you... more durable? Since when? This is for realism and should be straight forward and explain itself. I still think it's simple enough to allow for a smooth game, it has been during our testing.
COMPANION WEAPONS: If a model carries two or more one-handed weapon, they may fight with one in each hand, giving them +1 Attack. If a mix of weapons is carried, such as a flail and a handblade, you may at the start of each combat choose which weapon the soldiers wield as their primary weapon. The other is assumed to be wielded in the off hand and mainly used for defense or to create openings for the main weapon, and is refered to as a companion weapon. This also applies with any bonus attack for charging. In effect this means a soldier makes all of their attacks with the main weapon, and the off-hand companion weapon only serves to grant an extra attack with the main weapon. For example; a Soldier of the Empire charges into battle wielding a handblunt and a handblade. He/she chooses to use the handblunt as the primary weapon for this combat, and is allowed 3 attacks with it (1 on profile, charging, companion weapon) that will all benefit from Armour Piercing. If he/she had used the handblade as the main weapon, they would fight with the same number of attacks with with +1 armour save instead of armour piercing as normal.
This is to allow using a weapon in each hand that isn't just a sword or axe, as well as to account for the differences between handweapons, handblunts and handbldes.
UNIT RECRUITMENT: All choices are gone, troops are split in Heroes and Soldiers, both of which have no restrictions unless otherwise specified.
Can I hear a scream? This actually works. While you may choose to use a super elite army, the changes to equipment and above all the cost for such equipment is a huge drawback. This is also realistic, if you really wanted to, you -could- make an entire army out of knights and experienced mercenaries, but it'd be stupidly expensive and you wouldn't be able to muster as many soldiers. Just like in my game.
RANGED ARMOUR PENETRATION: On a short range, all ranged weapons except throwing knives and axes gain an additional -1 to the enemy's armour saves. This is in addition to Armour Piercing.
Yes, this makes ranged weapons good at penetrating armour. A longbow can penetrate mail at 50 yards, and plate at 25. They damn well should be.
FAST CAVALRY: Fast Cavalry now move as skirmishers, with all the rules for doing so in addition to the fast cavalry rules themselves. Unless a unit is stated as being fast cavalry to begin with, any unit that buy horses counts as fast cav if they're also skirmishers. Basically, to be fast cavalry you need to either have the rule from start (as with warhounds and wolves), or be able to purchase skirmish for your unit (most infantry units can). Also there is going to be a restriction on how much equipment they can carry, and possible a simplification of the rules.
Light cavalry moving in formations, waiting for someone to shoot them down? I think not.
COMMAND MODELS: The unit commands are split into Standard Bearers, Musicians (who may be Hornblowers or March Drummers) and Champions (who may be Veterans or Marksmen). If a unit has access to full command, it may include any of these models, but only one Champion. Some units are restricted in what command models they may purchase, this is clearly stated in their profiles. You may buy one hornblower and one march drummer if you wish. The normal rules for how command models are treated apply.
Standard Bearer (10 pts)
+1 Combat Resolution.
Hornblower (5 pts)
+1 LD when rallying, to a maximum of 10. If a combat is tied, the unit with a hornblower wins by 1. If both units have one, it's a draw.
March Drummer (5 pts)
Units may reform and turn at half the movement than is normally required. This means reforming only costs half your movement, turning 90 degrees cost a quarter of your movement, and turning 180 degrees cost half of it.
Veteran (10 pts)
Has +1 Attack on his/her profile. They may issue and accept challenges, as per the core rulebook. However, they may also carry individual equipment. While in normal units weapon are decided by majority, a champion may always purchase individual equipment.
Marksman (5 pts)
Has +1 Ballistic Skill on his/her profile. They may issue and accept challenges, as per the core rulebook. However, they may also carry individual equipment. While in normal units weapon are decided by majority, a champion may always purchase individual equipment.
WYSIWYG: Simple as that. If your unit is clearly equipped with medium armour, spears and handblades, that's what they have. If you don't want to purchase extra weapons that you might not use, you better remove them from the models. Otherwise you're stuck with them. There is no such thing as counts-as in this game (except for proxy games, obviously) and equipment should be as clear as possible. However, sometimes there is a choice. For example, High Elf spearmen could have heavy armour (mail skirt, breastplate, helmet) or half-plate if you decide that they also wear mail under their breastplate, and that it's made of steel. This needs to be kept on a reasonable level. There is reason to believe a High Elf warrior could have a mail hauberk, as it's simple a case of the skirt "continuing" upwards and covering the torso and parts of the arms. A Bretonnian peasant could probably hide a light chainmail under his padded armour and robes, but that's just pushing it. At least model some small chainmail parts at the bottom of the robes, or at the arms, indicating that he wears a haubergon under it.
These are the changes I have now. Comments, questions and opinions are welcome, but please make sure to read up on my other changes before criticising.
