Fixing Warhammer 40k with...

[OgreBattle]

Jotting down ideas for how I'd modify 40k 9e, or how I'd do the big change from 8e


Overarching Stats Guidelines
* More 2+ sv's and less INV sv's. Battle tanks and wraithlords get 'em, this makes AP-4 more valuable too
* Basic troop guns don't get AP-1, maybe an exception with Tau because great troop guns was their thing. So big primarislongbolters are ap-
* Feel No Pain "Roll to save against individual wounds suffered" saves standardized for vehicles and monsters, this also means lower wound count
** So most mortal max out at 3-4 wounds. Most vehicles are w6 and everything above is titanic
* Lower wound count and FNP sv's means Damage 1d3 and Damage 1d6 is a big deal. A model with w2 such as a marine, being wounded by a 1d3 damage weapon has a 33% chance of survival when at full health which I think is a good way to give them extra durability without more rules.

Most troops are W1. Spess mehreens are W2. Faction Lords W3+. Most vehicles and monsters are W3-6, titanic stuff is W6+
Examples of defensive profiles...
Leman Russ (heavy clunky battle tank)- T8 W6 sv2+ FNP6+
Falcon Grav Tank (flying space elf tank)- T7 W5 sv2+ FNP6+
Wave Serpent (shielded space elf flying tank) the above, but energy shield gives FNP5+ instead
Rhino (Mehreen transport)- T6 W5 sv3+ FNP6+



Stratagems: There is a short list of universal stratagems, then every faction gets a short list of unique stratagems.
* About 6 Universal Stratagems: Reroll, Morale boost, extra Relics, extra Warlord Traits, then 2 more
* 12 for each Faction, with some being particular to specific models. Current Dark Eldar have 20+ and that's not necessary

Super Doctrines (Bonus for being a mono faction army)
*Keep them something simple, not using player decisions (Dark Eldar Power from Pain adds a bonus every round, space marines get killier for different unit types every round)
*Each faction then has a different way of regaining command points, the stratagem design space is for turn by turn extra decisions.

[Foxwarrior]

Are there any people here who play 9e enough to have any idea whether your ideas are good or bad? These look like fiddly balance decisions you'd need to have a fair few 9e battles under your belt to properly evaluate.

[Thaluikhain]

I sometimes consider looking at the 9e rules, but the retcons and primaris marine and power amour in power armour everywhere puts me off.

[Koumei]

Here's how I would fix it:

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Here's how I would fix it:

80 proof might as well be water when it comes to 40k. Double it and then it might be strong enough.

[Koumei]

I picked it for the picture because it's called Imperial. When what I want is *strong* drink, not a specific brand or flavour or whatever, my brother in law makes whisky (and others) and normally bottles them at 60% so people can water them down to taste.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Oh, shit, that's clever. Lucky you, I want some moonshine...

[Omegonthesane]

I do not often buy absinthe, but I got a bottle opportunistically once, and it had been brewed to 80% alcohol.

Apparently absinthe is traditionally diluted anyway.

[Thaluikhain]

I had a dream last night in which I was reading an old IG codex, and it had an option for adding terrain in your army lists, specifically modular river sections you could upgrade to have dangerous wildlife in to keep the enemy away from your static gunline.

Which, actually, didn't seem that bad an idea when I woke up.

[OgreBattle]

I had a dream last night in which I was reading an old IG codex, and it had an option for adding terrain in your army lists, specifically modular river sections you could upgrade to have dangerous wildlife in to keep the enemy away from your static gunline.

Which, actually, didn't seem that bad an idea when I woke up.

The Ice and Fire tabletop battle game kinda has that as a mechanic, there's X types of terrain and players alternate placing them until there's 4, then roll off to see which side they start on. So someone with siege weapons that remove terrain may place more of them, someone with a terror build will place the morale reducing corpse piles.

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More ideas... Kill Team 2nd edition simplifies the amount of stratagems factions get to...
https://wahapedia.ru/kill-team2/the-rules/introduction/
- 3 Strategic Ploys that are declared at start of round, affects whole team
- 3 Tactical Ploys that can trigger during battle round, affects 1 unit

More extreme change to bighammer 40k- Alternating activations, plus some units (usually legion mass numbers type) activating in groups. Some Leader units can activate another unit near them. It's worked well in Kill Team, Necromunda. This cuts down a lot of the need for current stratagems and trait stacking to survive alpha strikes