Blood Angels Digital Codex Not New

Well, the title of the post says it all. Looks like the Blood Angels Digital Codex is just a copy and paste from the existing 5th edition codex with added 360 galleries. Wahoo!

More after the break.

Fixing Space Marines

Today's post is going to be a bit different. Normally I focus on things that are a bit more hobby related, but I was inspired by this post over on the Spikey Bits blog entitled Is This The End of the Space Marine Era? I'm not going to rehash JStove's analysis of the rise of the Xenos and the fall of the mighty Space Marine, so it would be a good idea to check that post out first.

Mordheim: Initiative, Climbing and Jumping

In Mordheim, the Initiative stat is used for multiple actions. Spotting enemies that are hiding, who strikes first in close combat, climbing, and jumping. The jumping actions also come into play when initiating a diving charge or when you get knocked down close to an edge on an elevated platform. Today, we are going to focus on climbing and jumping and the issues it brings to Mordheim.

What's the Problem?
The advantages of climbing and jumping are underestimated by a lot of people who play Mordheim. One of the issues we've run into throughout the years are Warbands that have a really low Initiative are at a disadvantage and can get easily out manuevered. More than that though, they can't climb or jump across gaps at all and this could be detrimental depending on the scenery you are using and the scenario you are playing.

How do we fix it?
This is the tough part. Honestly, at this point I'm not so sure. The goal is we want Warbands like Undead and expansion Warbands like Dwarves and Lizardmen to be able to move more freely through the streets (or jungles) of the battlefield. At the same time, we don't want to take away the superior maneuverability of other Warbands and create a shift in power.

The way the rules are now, we run into situations where Skaven and Elves are so good at climbing and jumping that they hardly ever fail and Dwarves and Undead are so poor that they almost never succeed. I know some people are probably thinking, "Yeah, that's the point! Your comparing the most nimble warrior to the clumsiest and that's how it should be."

The problem I have with this approach is that no model should ever be so good that it never succeeds or so poor that it never fails. This kinda came up in my post on fixing parry where someone in the comments suggested we create a chart for parrying. The rational reason being that a warrior with a higher weapon skill should be able to more easily parry an attack from a warrior with a lesser weapon skill.

From a practical standpoint it makes a lot of sense, but when it comes down to feel and how it plays out in a game, it doesn't work because you are creating a gap where the lesser warrior always fails. That type of situation is great when you have the better warrior, but sucks when you don't. Sure, when the lowly warrior gets off a parry against a more skilled opponent or manages to cut him down, we feel great! That's why we play miniature games for moments like that, but Mordheim already has those moments and this isn't the best way to get more of that into the game.

I don't want to go on too much of a tangent, but I had a really long discussion with Jervis Johnson many years ago about Weapon Skill and why you only ever needed a 3, 4, or 5 to hit. In my impetuous youth I told him the system was broken. My reasoning being that a warrior with a Weapon Skill of 10 should be able to hit a warrior with a Weapon Skill of 1 on a 2+. The lowly warrior with a Weapon Skill of 1 would need a 6 to hit him back. Makes more sense right? I don't remember if he told me Warhammer used to be like that (I started with 4th Edition) or if they play tested it like that, but they came to an inevitable conclusion: it was a disaster. The power gap was too great and the game wasn't fun because playing out the battles was boring since you knew who was going to win.

Getting back to Mordheim, I'm all for good positioning and solid tactical gameplay, but when a low initiative Warband like Undead is in a position where they are on street level and Skaven or Elves are raining missiles down from on high, the outcome is a foregone conclusion and they are pretty much dead. Not only are they at a disadvantage to begin with, but attempting to climb or jump to get at their assailants is too much to risk. If they do somehow manage to get closer, they either suffer a diving charge or get knocked off the ledge and suffer failing damage which is going to hurt more than the missile fire!

Proposed Fix
So I'm not settled on a fix yet, but I do have a few ideas. Here they are:

1. Models succeed on a climb or jump check if they roll a 3+. If they fail, they slip but can attempt to save themselves. To see if you save yourself, make an Initiative check. If the Initiative check is passed, the model succeeds as normal. We've been playtesting this for quite some time. It's okay, but doesn't seem like the long term solution. Pros: Gives lower initiative models a better chance to succeed. The mechanic is similar to what is already in the game and is easy to pick up. Cons: Gives higher Initiative models a better chance to succeed. Requires two rolls to resolve one action.
2. Steal the climbing and jumping rules from Legends of the Old West. On a roll of 1, the model fails and falls. On a roll of 2–5,  the model is successful and his movement phase ends. On a roll of 6, the model is successful and can continue with any remaining movement. Pros: It's simple and quick to adjudicate. Cons: It might be too simple. It puts everyone on an even playing field which takes away the flavor that Elves are more nimble than Dwarves.
3. Come up with a new system entirely. This is something I have been working on recently and what I have been leaning toward. The way the system will work is each model will have a climbing/jumping rating. This will be either a 3+, 4+, or 5+ and the model will need to make the roll to succeed. All of the races will be rated on a chart. The preliminary chart will have Elves/Skaven at a 3+, Humans at a 4+, and Dwarves/Undead at a 5+. A model attempting to climb or jump will need to roll that number or higher to succeed. Models wearing heavy armor and carrying a shield will suffer a -1 penalty. Pros: Requires 1 roll to perform the action. Is simple and keeps differences between nimble and clumsy warriors. Cons: Introduces a new mechanic and a chart. :( I don't like charts as they slow down game play. Needs to take into account skills, items, and special rules that use the climbing and jumping rules. Every model in the game would need a climbing/jumping rating including third party Warbands.

Settled on a Fix
I started on this post long before my post on Tweaking the Parry Rules and after letting this sit for a couple weeks in my queue and giving it additional thought, I've decided to go with option 3 above. The additional skills, items, and special rules can continue to work as is. The only issue will be creating the chart which shouldn't be too bad. Again, I don't like going with a chart, but I think this is the best way to go.

Not sure what is on tap for my next Mordheim discussion. I have a few things I have been tossing around as of late. Maybe I'll post a rewrite for one of the Lustria Warbands. The Lizardmen have always lacked in flavor and needed to be taken down a notch, so maybe I'll post the what I've been playtesting recently.

Till next time,

–The Harrower

Mordheim: Tweaking the Parry Rules

This post may come as a bit of a surprise. Why tweak the Parry rule? It works fine as it is. Well, not exactly.

The first problem with parry is that warriors with a higher Weapon Skill are more likely to have their attacks negated. When you have a higher Weapon Skill than your opponent, you hit on a 3 making it much easier for an opponent with parry to roll a 4, 5, or 6 and parry that attack. This leads to some pretty unrealistic situations and doesn't make a lot of sense. 

Secondly, the rules for parry are really fiddly and it is one of the more complicated rules in the game. Let's look at the original rule from the Mordheim Rulebook:

Parry
Bucklers are small shields which offer no increase to the armour saving throw, but allow you to parry attacks. Swords are also used to parry enemy attacks. 

When an opponent scores a hit, warriors equipped with bucklers or swords may try to parry the blow. 

Roll a D6. If the score is higher than the number your opponent rolled to hit, the buckler or sword has parried the strike. Note that it is therefore impossible to parry a blow which scored a 6 on the roll to hit. 

A buckler or sword may only parry one blow per hand-to-hand combat phase. A parried blow is ignored and has no effect. If your opponent scored several hits, you will have to try to beat the highest score (if the highest score is a 6, you automatically lose the chance of parrying that opponent’s attacks). 

If a model is fighting against several opponents, it may only parry the strike from the enemy who makes the first hit(s) (ie, the attacking model with the highest Initiative). In the case of equal Initiative characteristics roll a dice to decide who strikes first. 

If your model is armed with a buckler and a sword, you may re-roll any failed parries once. A model armed with two swords can still only roll once. A model may not parry attacks made with twice (or more) his own basic Strength – they are simply too powerful to be stopped.

Wow. Instead of a simple rule we get one that has conditions built upon conditions and a giant wall of text. One of my other key design goals with Newheim and really any type of design work I do uses the KISS principle: "Keep it simple, Stupid!"

So how do we fix it?

Items which have the parry special rule are good at deflecting an enemy’s attacks. A successful hit against a model with the parry ability can be negated on a roll of 6. The model making the parry attempt can freely choose the hit he is attempting to parry.

When a model is armed with two items which grant parry (such as a sword and buckler), the attempt succeeds on a 5+. A model can only make one parry attempt per close combat turn and may not parry attacks made with double or more its own Strength–they are too powerful to be stopped.

Going from a rule that was 240 words to 103 words is a serious win in my book. Plus, this keeps the game flowing at a quick pace, doesn't penalize warriors with a high Weapon Skill, allows the defender to choose to attempt to parry the more dangerous weapon (as it should be), and fits more inline with the way the mechanics of Mordheim work. One thing that always bugged me about parry is that it used an opposed roll mechanic when the rest of the game uses target numbers.

Try this out in your next game and let me know what you think. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some resistance to this change. My group liked the tension of trying to beat an opponent's attack roll and they weren't thrilled with this at first. They have warmed up to it after a few games though and it has been working really well.

Next time, I'll work on jumping and climbing. This will probably be the most drastic change I intend to make to Newheim and this has been giving me some trouble so we'll try and work through it together.

Till then,

–The Harrower

Mordheim: Revisiting two weapon fighting

Want to start an incredibly long and heated debate? Go to any group of Mordheim players and bring up using two close combat weapons. Back in the day on the Specialist Games Forums this generated a ton of debate and pages upon pages of posts with varied solutions. Looks like this hasn't changed as there is a stickied thread on Tom's Boring Mordheim Forum that has 7 pages and 161 replies. The only topic I recall generating more conversation was Elves, and as the original designer on the Dark Elf Warband, that is definitely something I'll be revisiting in the future.

So what's the problem?
It's a few problems actually and one of the main issues with the game. Armor in Mordheim is too expensive and doesn't offer enough protection. This causes two weapons to become the de facto standard in Mordheim and choices which were better from a historical perspective, like sword and shield, are invalidated.

In order to fix this, we need to do a few different things and this is where this gets really tricky. First, we need to make armour better so its a more enticing choice. Second, we need to make using the classic sword and shield combination better. Third, we need to lessen the effectiveness of using two weapons. There are a lot of options out there and one thing that came up during the rules review was having both attacks at -1. Not a bad idea, but this swings the pendulum in the other direction and penalizes warriors when they get more attacks.

So how do we fix it?

Before we get into that, I just want to mention that my philosophy with doing Newheim isn't to rewrite the ruleset and spin this off into another game. I'd like to keep the changes as simple as possible and use fixes that are either recognizable or keep the game flowing smoothly. So while some of these rule changes won't be statistically perfect, they'll make for a better and more familiar game.

First, let's fix the sword and shield combination. A shield grants a +1 to a warrior's armour save vs. ranged attacks. When used in conjunction with a hand weapon (sword, hammer, mace, club, spear, or axe) the save improves to +2 against attacks in close combat. A buckler used in conjunction with a hand weapon grants a +1 save vs attacks in close combat. These saves stack with armour. Nothing new here.

Second, let's fix armour. In addition to the armour save bonus, a warrior with heavy armour can make a 5+ save against any injury suffered in the post battle sequence. Warriors with light armour can save against injury on a 6+. In addition, there are no longer any movement penalties for using armour with a shield (this will make more sense in a future post on jumping and climbing). Aside from the bit on no penalties to movement, nothing new here either.

Finally, to the task at hand. When fighting with two weapons, a warrior suffers a -1 penalty to hit with the off hand weapon. In addition, the off hand weapon will always strike last. A new skill will be created were a warrior can ignore these penalties.

Why did I go with this?

A -1 penalty to hit with both weapons is too harsh. You shouldn't be penalized for using both weapons as it's the additional attack that causes problems. Rolling at the end of the phase speeds up dice rolling as you are looking for the same number to hit and don't need to use different colored dice to differentiate a sword from an axe. Plus, it makes it less effective and more balanced with sword and shield.

I have been toying around with creating a new weapon property called Off Hand and letting those weapons strike in regular initiative order. This would primarily be for the dagger, but I'm not sure if that would make sword and dagger the preferred combo. Thoughts?

This definitely requires additional playtesting, but I am happy with the results so far. Speaking of playtesting, below are a few pics I took from the Mordheim set up we were using this past weekend to try out some of the new rules I've been working on. Click for a larger image. This scenery is probably over 10 years old and something I plan on replacing in the future, but it serves its purpose.

For the next Mordheim post, I'll talk about the problems associated with climbing and parry and describe how I intend to tackle those.

Till then,

–The Harrower