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Old May 30th, 2016, 12:43 PM
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Nerf Commons - without "Breaking" the rules

It is no secret that Common Squads have distinct advantages including the ability to soak up losses without it impacting Attack output (destroyed figures are replaced by reserves) and the ability to choose their targets over a wide area. Here are a few tweaks that are within the spirit of the core rules, but reduce the power of Common Squads:

1. Must declare which figures are being activated at the move stage (even if they don't move at all). This prevents common squads (especially ranged) to pick their targets after attacking if no one moved. For example if 3 4th Mass are in range of Raelin and no one else, while the others are engaged with Stingers, you will wait to see if the first or second 4th Mass destroys Raelin before starting on the Stingers. This flexibility would be removed if you had to declare that the 3 4th mass that were in range of Raelin were the ones being activated even if Raelin was destroyed by the first attack.

2. One card per Squad activates one set of Unique Sculpts. So each turn you could only activate one of each unique sculpt instead of 4 of the same one. Additionally, when a unique sculpt was destroyed you would have to put it on a Card that already doesn't have one of the sculpts on it. Where this really gets tricky is when all of the same sculpt is destroyed, so you have to activate one few figures per turn. For example if all the "Old Timer Mac Dirks" were destroyed you would only be able to activate one of each of the remaining sculpts.

Other Options:

3. One Shield defense from commons. Basically if a common attacks a Unique Hero, the most wounds they can inflict with a normal attack is 1 if at least one shield is rolled. This is definitely outside the rules, but makes heroes much more mighty compared to Squads. The only real down side is Figures like Charos and Major Q9 become greatly overpowered.

4. Height advantage (or other bonuses like Jungle or Shadow) only for Heroes. By letting only heroes get height advantage you can give a boon to heroes who would have more experience at taking advantage of their surroundings.

5. Use the awesome Parital cover rules @hextr1p put together, but only for heroes.

6. Use the height advantage determined by base and height that I put together, which benefits tall figures, which doesn't really include commons very often.


If you have any other suggestions let me know, I would love to hear them.


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Old May 30th, 2016, 03:43 PM
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Re: Nerf Commons - without "Breaking" the rules

But isn't it also true that the "distinct advantages" of commons are covered in their cost? Looking at the power rankings, there seem to be slightly more uniques than commons in the upper echelons. The MacDirks seem like an especially bad example to pick out---who thinks that the MacDirks need nerfing?

If you think, say, that the 4th Mass and Rats are too powerful then it probably makes more sense to nerf those units. To the extent that there's a problem here (I don't think there is) it's that some units are too cheap for what they can do, not that common status is inherently too powerful.

But another way to address the imaginary problem: add 5pts to the cost for every additional squad so that, for example, the Monks cost 80 for the first squad, 85 for the second, 90 for the third and so on. The classic Monks x6 now costs 555pts rather than 480. (The one place there arguably is a problem is in the ability to take lots and lots of a common that's good for its price---however strong Raelin is you can't multiply that effect by taking 400pts worth of her.)
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Old May 30th, 2016, 03:52 PM
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Re: Nerf Commons - without "Breaking" the rules

Oh I would not call it a problem - per se - and I would never want to run any of these rules in a tournament, I just like the stories when the hero is the star of the show and I think some minor tweaks can push the scales a bit.

There is something also a bit more "simulationy" about one card per squad and having to declare which units are used at the beginning of your turn that I particularly like (same vein as using partial cover rules and height advantage based on tallness)


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Old May 30th, 2016, 05:23 PM
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Re: Nerf Commons - without "Breaking" the rules

how about just limiting it so that you need one unique hero for each squad, or at least for each common squad (or for each extra copy of a common squad) etc etc. It somewhat fits thematically that common squads would need some kind of leader figure, whereas unique squads are kind of legendary groups that dont need leading. You wouldnt need to nerf any cards that way.
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Old May 31st, 2016, 12:27 AM
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Re: Nerf Commons - without "Breaking" the rules

I like #1, because Move=0 is still a move, so it seems unfair that you get to move more figures zero spaces than you are able to activate! Or something like that.

Here's another potential House Rule you might consider:
Unique Leadership
For every Order Marker on a Unique Army Card, add 2 to your initiative roll.

This has the advantage of also toning down bonding squads, plus you only have to remember it once per round.
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Old May 31st, 2016, 04:53 AM
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Re: Nerf Commons - without "Breaking" the rules

yeah adding initiative to unique heros and squads is also a nice idea (or subtracting initiative for each multiple common squad after the first) I'd give the bonus or penalty regardless of OMs though, just based on the cards in your army. That way, your uniques are buffing your command even if theyre just Barking orders out and not being activated explicitly
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Old May 31st, 2016, 11:54 AM
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Re: Nerf Commons - without "Breaking" the rules

Quote:
Originally Posted by ekoxe1 View Post
yeah adding initiative to unique heros and squads is also a nice idea (or subtracting initiative for each multiple common squad after the first) I'd give the bonus or penalty regardless of OMs though, just based on the cards in your army. That way, your uniques are buffing your command even if theyre just Barking orders out and not being activated explicitly
Sounds like an interesting alternative. I could see some scenarios that might work out oddly -- if you had +1 for every Unique army card, an army of Unique fillers could potentially have +15 to initiative every round, for instance. (Of course, then you're stuck with an army of Unique fillers!) Your thought about subtracting for Commons would get around that potential issue.

Using the OMs puts a ceiling on the bonus, and also can lead to some interesting decisions -- if I really need to win initiative, is it worth standing down my Commons this round?

Anyway, some interesting discussion here. There was a proposal elsewhere (I can't remember where) on "taxing" starting hexes as a means to the same end.
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Old May 31st, 2016, 12:07 PM
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Re: Nerf Commons - without "Breaking" the rules

Quote:
Originally Posted by IshMEL View Post
I like #1, because Move=0 is still a move, so it seems unfair that you get to move more figures zero spaces than you are able to activate! Or something like that.

Here's another potential House Rule you might consider:
Unique Leadership
For every Order Marker on a Unique Army Card, add 2 to your initiative roll.

This has the advantage of also toning down bonding squads, plus you only have to remember it once per round.
My group's house rule is that 50% of all armies point costs must be unique. It reduces the amount of commons without compromising any rules of the game.
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Old May 31st, 2016, 01:30 PM
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Re: Nerf Commons - without "Breaking" the rules

These are all great house rules.

Quote:
3. One Shield defense from commons. Basically if a common attacks a Unique Hero, the most wounds they can inflict with a normal attack is 1 if at least one shield is rolled. This is definitely outside the rules, but makes heroes much more mighty compared to Squads. The only real down side is Figures like Charos and Major Q9 become greatly overpowered.
This sounds great! You normally need Q9 to blank on his 7 defense anyway, so if he doesn't get any shields you can still inflict multiple wounds.
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Old June 3rd, 2016, 01:30 PM
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Re: Nerf Commons - without "Breaking" the rules

Quote:
Originally Posted by obfuscatedhippo View Post
These are all great house rules.



This sounds great! You normally need Q9 to blank on his 7 defense anyway, so if he doesn't get any shields you can still inflict multiple wounds.
I've thought of this rule quite a few times.

That said, outside of swarms of 4th Mass, I've never been that annoyed by Common squads.

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Old June 3rd, 2016, 08:51 PM
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Re: Nerf Commons - without "Breaking" the rules

#3 is really good, provided Q9, Nilfheim, Braxas, Raelin, and the entire Esenwein Family are exempt. But House Rules are allowed to be specific, right?

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