Duty's Fist, Defence Laser.
NEW BATTLE FORMATION - EXPLORING THE BACKGROUND
Battle Formations are also a great way to enhance the theme of an Apocalypse battle, and to include units or characters you may have read about in the background and stories written about Warhammer 40,000. You might want to base a game on a battle described in one of Dan Abnet's 'Gaunts Ghosts', books, for example, in which case it would be highly appropriate to create one or two new battle formations for Gaunt's Ghosts and their enemies. |
lthough this article is primarily
about designing datasheets for converted or scratch-built
'Legendary Units', the principles apply just as
well to creating your own Battle Formations. The main difference
is that a Battle Formation will usually be made up of units
drawn from an existing army list, that then receive an associated
special rule. This allows for important parts of the Warhammer
40,000 background, which would be too devastating to include
in standard sized games, to be included in games of Apocalypse.
So, for example, the Emperor's Wrath Artillery Battery
on page 109 of the Apocalypse rules is made up of Basilisks
drawn from the Imperial Guard Codex, and receive a special
rule for firing spotting rounds that allow the whole battery
to pound a single target.
o, you now have a selection of models you want to use in your next Apocalypse battle, and you're itching to create a set of datasheets for them. My advice is to hold on for a minute and decide if they really do need a datasheet, or if there is another
way to include the models in your game. Quite often
you'll find that the lack of any army list restrictions, combined with judicious use of the 'counts as' rule, will allow you to use the models without any extra work. This approach has the benefit of both being easy, and being acceptable to players that might object to a new datasheet you have designed yourself.
The first thing to remember when taking this approach is that you can ignore army list restrictions, and also mix units from different armies in an Apocalypse battle. This means that in many cases you won't have to create a new datasheet in order to use some of your older classic models in a game. For example, Eldar players used to have the option of fielding Seer Councils made up of any number of Farseers and Warlocks. I've heard of tournament games where a players army had a Seer Council made up of over sixty models! This proved a bit much in standard games of Warhammer 40,000 so it was stopped in the new Eldar Codex. On the other hand such a formation is perfect for Apocalypse games, and can easily be fielded as there are no restrictions on the number of HQ choices you can take.
 |
Apocalypse makes an Iron Warrior Basilisk a viable option again. |
Another example of this is players that have an Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marine army that used to be allowed to include Imperial Basilisks. This is no longer allowed in standard-sized games, but in Apocalypse they can be included by simply taking Basilisks from the Imperial Guard army list along with an army chosen from Codex Chaos Space Marines. The second thing you can do is to use the 'counts as' rule from page 62 of the Apocalypse rulebook. This rule allows you to say that a model which doesn't have a rule 'counts as' something from a current Codex. One slight variation on this is to say that the model counts as another existing, but with a slightly different set of weapons. This works especially well for simple conversions where you've changed the guns on an existing vehicle, though you may need to adjust the points value for the model to reflect the changes made. Almost all of the vehicles on pages 62 and 63 of the Apocalypse book work in this way. Studying these examples should give you plenty of ideas about how you can use the counts as rule to include models from your collection in your own Apocalypse battles.
CREATING A DATASHEET
 |
Modifying an exsisting datasheet to fit the model you've created is a good way to get started. |
ometimes, however, these simple options won't be quite enough, and you'll want to create a new datasheet for a model.
It's best to limit this to games you've arranged to play with a group of friends, and where the model in question is designed to fit in with the theme for the battle. People seem happier to accept a new model in these circumstances than they might do otherwise. You'll also find that once players have allowed a model in one game, they are rather more forgiving about its use in future games. So, the first time you use the datasheet for the huge scratch-built Adeptus Mechanicus War-Machine, try to do it in a game that happens to be themed around it; assuming the rules you've worked out are fair, fun and balanced, then you should find that players will ask you to bring the model along in future games.
When you start work on a datasheet, begin by finding an existing vehicle that is similar, and then modify the datasheet for that vehicle just enough to capture the spirit and nature of your own model. For example, when we started writing the datasheet for the Eldar Revenant Titan, we began by modifying the datasheet for the Warhound Titan. The Warhound was one of the very first datasheets we'd created, and we knew it worked well, and it was similar enough to the Revenant to serve as a basis for the new datasheet. We then modified the datasheet to reflect the unique qualities of the resin model of the Revenant made by Forge World.
 |
This Necron Super-Monolith is a good candidate for adding a new rule to it's datasheet. Or it can "counts as" a Necron Pylon. |
Sometimes you may want to 'mix and match' bits from several datasheets. This is especially true for things like weapons and special vehicle upgrades. If your Adeptus Mechanicus War machine is armed with a Volcano Cannon, for example, then just use the stats for the Volcano Cannon on the Warlord Battle Titan; if it's armed with a Defence Laser, then use the rules for the Defence Laser included in the Exterminatus battle on page 87 of the Apocalypse rules. You may want to consider slightly modifying the stats for a weapon if its used in a special way or looks very different to the normal model. For example, the Hydra Flak-Tank from page 107 of Apocalypse has a special long-barrelled version of the standard Autocannon, which is reflected by giving the autocannon a slightly longer range.
Next, consider adding some brand new things to the datasheet to reflect the unique qualities of your model. It's very easy to get carried away at this stage and add lots of detailed, complicated rules. Resist this temptation at all costs! One or two simple but dramatic new rules will work a hundred times better than any number of small fiddly rules. A good example of this approach are the rules for the Revenant's agility and jump jets; notice how both rules are quite simple, and how the help reinforce the background for the Revenant and underline important aspects of the appearance of the model. This is what you should aim for with your own datasheets.
Next: Points
Previous: Scratch-built and Classic Models
