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Author Topic: A hypothetical alternative to capping Reserves: rework Overwatch  (Read 1945 times)

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Offline MagicJuggler

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8th edition Reserve Rules mean that "null" armies are effectively illegal for matched play. While this means that certain armies (the dreaded Warp Spider Army of Doom) are just illegal, this also hoses anyone that wants to do a "from the skies" or any "null" army, be it Farsight Tau, Elysians, Black Legion Spearheads, etc. Add the fact that you need to have a special rule to be explicitly allowed to reserve on top of this.

The problem with this solution is that rather than creating core rules to develop a viable counter, it simply takes away an option altogether. ("Dear Games Workshop, Please nerf Paper. Scissors are fine. Signed, Rock."). It's this same mentality that leads to debacles like the MC02 Wargame Challenge, where nobody wins the game in the long run.

Given that 7th edition also has the issue that assault is either "go big or go home" (meaning either a null-melee army like Genestealer Cults/Death Guard Raptor Talons, or a Cabalstar/Barkbarkstar/etc), why not kill several birds with one stone?

Let's merge Interceptor and Overwatch into a single mechanic:

Any unit in 40k can Overwatch unless specifically noted otherwise. A unit that forfeits shooting, running/flat-outing, or charging may enter Overwatch; Overwatch lasts until the start of your next turn if it's otherwise unused.

During the opponent's turn (meaning Overwatch attacks cannot trigger counter-Overwatch attacks), when an enemy unit wishes to shoot, charge, or manifest a Malediction/Witchfire, the Overwatching unit may immediately interrupt the opponent's game turn to shoot that, provided the enemy unit either:

A) Is within 12" of the Overwatching unit.
B) Is targeting or would otherwise affect either the Overwatching unit, or a friendly unit within 6" of the Overwatching Unit. (This means even non-targeted powers like Beams and Novas would trigger Overwatch.

Overwatch is resolved at -1 BS to a minimum of BS 1, and is based on the movement you took in your previous turn. Flamers are treated as normal, or they have the option to perform Wall of Death against units charging the Overwatching Unit, which is modified as follows:
-Wall of Death does D6 hits, but may only remove models within 12" of the flamer.

Any abilities dealing with Interceptor, improved Overwatch BS, Grim Resolve, Supporting Fire, etc, are replaced with the following USR:

Sentinel: Ignore the -1 BS penalty to Overwatch.

I feel the system is simple enough (more streamlined than 2e's "overwatch past the blind grenade" stalemates that could occur) and promotes combined arms support. Plus, there are some cute tricks that you can still do with it that could be promoted, like conga-lining a Guard blob up the field, with Wyverns on overwatch to protect the advance as an abstraction of rolling barrage tactics 101 (Note: This could technically also be done with a Barkbarkstar, but that's another issue for another "alternative rule proposal").

Add in an extra footnote that says that Warp Spiders cannot Flickerjump during the Eldar player's turn to round it off.
« Last Edit: May 20, 2017, 03:30:30 PM by MagicJuggler »

Offline Fenris

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Re: A hypothetical alternative to capping Reserves: rework Overwatch
« Reply #1 on: May 21, 2017, 01:26:42 PM »
While you seem to have spent a lot of thinking on this idea I do not see how it would be fun IMHO.

The null deployment was not meant to work, but was still a blessing against some alphastrike/leafblower lists. I can understand the problem with "o big or go home lists", but it's all a matter of balancing the spam. I think "go big or go home" lists should be viable, but not to the current degree, they should have an uphill battle against allcomers list, but be able to crush some other spam lists. (rock still crushing scissors while pure rock paper or scissor lists should be the underdog against a well balanced list).
I hope stratagems will be GW latest attempt at this.

The overwatch mechanic is interuptive by it's nature and is part of the reason "go big or go home" is so good. Because the best weapon against interupts is redundancy, and redundancy in it's most extreme form equals spam.

I can see how using overwatch as a delayed shooting could work, but it would still get units stuck in trenches, maybe if there was a roll-off.
Each time something moves into range of a unit on overwatch, both players roll-off if the overwatching unit wins, he can fire at full BS.

Same thing could be used for Warp spiders, when flickerjumping they need to win the roll-off or be shot normally. (a draw could mean they both get shot and moved)
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Offline MagicJuggler

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Re: A hypothetical alternative to capping Reserves: rework Overwatch
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2017, 07:33:19 PM »
It was something I thought of when I read about 8th would have "overwatch vs Deep strike" and "n overwatch vs n number of chargers", and felt that anything that artificially increased rate of fire in that matter was too gamey and could lead to some absurd amounts of firepower (imagine trying to MSU multicharge a Leman Russ Punisher for example).

So I wanted a system that was fairly simple that could cover a wide variety of situations, be it letting Rangers/Pathfinders snipe trouble units as they pop up, to using Basilisks for counter-battery fire vs artillery, to solving the old question of "why don't Hydras have Interceptor". To a lesser extent it also mitigates the worst-case troubles of move-shoot-move mechanics like Scatbikes/Crisis Suits.

At the same time, I wanted to restrict it (-1 BS penalty, making Overwatch trigger on enemy attacks rather than movement, making Overwatch have a relatively limited zone of control, etc) so the game wouldn't devolve into gunlinehammer like 4th/6th did and how I'm predicting 8th will (due to AOS-esque DS rules, 4 Rhinos can block an entire table quarter from Deepstrike).

Other than spam (attempting to overload a castled-up overwatch by selectively focusing on part of it), other ways to break up Overwatch include Tank Shocking units out of "support range" (Death or Glory already exists), shooting Overwatching units with "harder" or sufficiently out-of-range units (ex: bringing the Vindicator/Riptide/etc to soak overwatch fire), and maybe any abilities that would "prevent Overwatch".
« Last Edit: May 22, 2017, 08:55:04 AM by MagicJuggler »

 


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