Fog of War Expansion Preview: Force Selection

After some debating, this is the trial version of the Fog of War force selection rules (extract from the in-progress book):

Fog of War uses a variable army size for each mission. These are deployed in increments of 500 points, with a total army size of 3000 points. The first 2500 points should be chosen from a single codex, but may use allies when standard rules permit (Inquisitiorial ally rules, Kroot mercenaries, etc). The army is constructed as follows:

• 500-point Vanguard (explained below).

• 1000-point army. This army must combine the Vanguard with a 500-point addition to create a legal army (one HQ and two Troops choices).

• 1500-point army. This force must be a legal army (one HQ and two Troops choices) and include the Vanguard. This can be accomplished by adding 500 points to the above 1000-point army, or by creating a completely different 1000-point addition to the Vanguard.

• 2000-point army and

• 2500-point army. The remaining additions are restricted only by the standard Force Organization Chart, created however the player desires.

• 500-point addition which will create a 3000-point "apocalyptic" army. This remaining addition can be chosen freely, and may include flyers, super-heavies, additional units from the army's codex (or codices), or units from another codex (subject to the Apocalypse ally rules).
  

Vanguard Composition

The Vanguard is the core force used in all Fog of War missions. It consists of the following units:

• One mandatory choice from Troops
• One mandatory choice from Troops OR Elites
• Maximum 1 HQ unit
• Maximum 1 vehicle with a total armor value over 33 (sum of front, side, and rear values).
• Other units can be chosen from any Force Organization Chart entry, subject to the above restrictions.

Sample Army - Dark Angels

Vanguard: Belial, Deathwing Squad, 5-man Tactical Squad in Rhino
1000 points: Vanguard plus Vindicator, Ravenwing Attack Squad, and Devastator Squad
1500 points: Vanguard plus Interrogator-Chaplain, Mortis Dreadnought, Deathwing Squad, Ravenwing Attack Squad, and Land Raider
2000 points: Vanguard plus Interrogator-Chaplain, Deathwing Squad, Tactical Squad with Razorback, 2 Ravenwing Attack Squads, Devastator Squad
2500 points: Vanguard plus Interrogator-Chaplain, Mortis Dreadnought, Two Deathwing Squads, Tactical Squad with Razorback, 2 Ravenwing Attack Squads, Devastator Squad, Land Raider, and Vindicator
3000 points: 2500 points plus Deathwing squad and Land Raider Prometheus

Project Update - Fog of War

Good evening everyone,

I'm going to take a break from reading my shiny new Space Hulk rulebook to post the current status of the Fog of War game system. I'm really just in the concept phase at this point, so this will be a quick read. But hopefully it will generate a few emails, just like the last one.

In the old Epic 40k version, the missions were selected using an ordinary deck of playing cards. At this point I'm more interested in creating printable-and-cuttable custom cards for our 40k version, but the number of missions should still work. In Epic '97, the armies didn't have a fixed point scale - missions were scaled at "vanguard detachment +25% of army," "entire army," etc. Our version is going to have a set 2500-point scale, so we can fix the army sizes for each mission. Here's my initial idea:

Card	Force Size	Mission
2	Patrol Only	Strongpoint
3	Patrol Only	Attrition
4	1000pts	Breakthrough
5	1000pts	Secure Ground
6	1500pts	Defend Ground
7	1500pts	Stage for Attack
8	1500pts	Divide
9	2000pts	Fortify
10	2000pts	Engage
Jack	2500pts	Survive
Queen	2500pts	Repel
King	2500pts	Conquer
Ace	3000pts	Apocalypse

Things we need to decide before developing the scenarios:

1) Will the 2500-point army use the standard FOC, or are we going to use a variant system for Fog of War?
2) Will the patrol be 400 or 500 points? Will it use the old Combat Patrol composition rules, or will it be a legal 500-point army?
3) Is there too much overhead involved in planning a 3000-point Apocalypse game to make that a viable Ace option?

Right now my intent is that two players agreeing to a Fog of War session bring a 2500-point standard army (roughly dividable into a patrol, 1000, 1500, and 2000-point forces), along with 500 points of literally anything they want (a Force Org Chart-violating addition to their own army, an Apocalypse formation, 500 points from another Codex, a Super-Heavy, whatever). We'll try to playtest as many options as we can, but obviously we won't be able to predict everything.

40k Play Aid: The Fog Of War

(Apologies for the late update... I was working very late on my CoD terrain last night.)

The Basement Gaming Bunker is announcing its first official publication - The Fog Of War. If anyone remembers the 1997 Epic 40,000 ruleset, you may remember the Battles Book contained a random mission generator by this name. For those who either haven't heard of it or need a refresher, this is what it generally was:

-Both players chose large armies.
-Terrain and objectives were placed as per a normal scenario.
-The random mission was chosen.

The missions were very broad in scope. For some, you could only use your Vanguard - which in Epic was your smallest standard detachment. Some used another 25% or 50% of your force, and some called for your entire army. Both players had different missions, so you could end up with something like:

Player A) One 200-point detachment, must survive four turns.
Player B) Full 2500-point army, must defend all objectives.

So occasionally the scenarios were a little lopsided, but the results were always entertaining.

For some time now, I've believed this system could be adapted to 40k, with missions ranging from a Combat Patrol to an Apocalypse force. Over the next two months, we're going to playtest various force restrictions and organizations, objective systems, victory conditions, special rules, and deployment options. The result will be the Basement Gaming Bunker's first free PDF download.

Anyone with interest in the project, contact me, or keep an eye on this space.