Noodling a revamp to IG orders

[OldWherewolf]

I'm still of the mind that the IG orders is a problem, and I've been noodling on an idea.  What if we no longer order our units, but orders now apply to Objectives & enemy units?

 

One of my ideas back in 9th was that the Warlord picks an Objective and we get +1 to hit or re-rolls vs. units on that Objective.  So let's start with that, and break orders into 2 groups:

 

• Enemy unit-based orders:   Take Aim, FRFSRF, Fix Bayonets
• Objective based orders:  MMM! and Duty and Honor!

 

(Yes there's holes, and I'm not sure what to do with Take Cover! yet)

 

2nd step, we zone the orders available to the army. 

• An Objective/Enemy unit can only have 1 order per type (infantry/tank) order on it at any given time
• The Leontus/WL order does not count toward the limit of orders applied to an Objective or enemy unit
• Leontus has 1 order with an unlimited range (he is a Supreme Commander after all, and no vox needed)
• Officers & Tank Commanders have one order with a 24" range (removes need to be attached to a platoon command squad with vox), but does require the Officer to be local to the target
• Commissars & platoon command have 1 order with a 12" range.

 

3rd step, orders only apply to certain units (like we have today):

• Leontus' or your warlord's orders apply to all units (tank, arty, infantry)
• Tank Commanders orders only apply to vehicles
• Infantry officers orders (excepting your warlord)  only apply to infantry units (any any infantry unit  - solves the Commissar/Bullgryn issue).
• Orders would not apply to units firing our of LOS (solves the problem of Leontus babysitting arty)
• A friendly unit can only benefit from 1 order with the same name.  (e.g. no 2xTake Aim! or 2xMMM!)

 

Now, when giving orders, you specify a target and effect.  Examples:

• You can pick an Objective and say MMM! -then any friendly unit (respecting infantry/tank/WL) moving toward that Objective gets +3" to their move, but must end either on the Objective or 2" closer to that Objective or secondary mission Objective (e.g. for Investigate Signals). 
• Pick an enemy unit, and Take Aim!, giving any friendly unit shooting (respecting infantry/tank/WL) at that enemy unit a +1 to hit. 
• The WL Putting Duty & Honor on an Objective means any tank or infantry unit gets +1 OC on that Objective. 

 

Putting those together means you can get +1OC on an Objective an infantry unit that MMM!, along with tanks getting +1 to hit on an enemy unit nearby/threatening that Objective.  Now you can combo that with Hellhounds removing cover, or Exterminators giving +1 AP, etc.

 

My thinking is that this shifts the IG orders away from number of orders (and keeping track of a ton of them) to Movement and objectives.

• WL stays in the back directing the battle
• Officers cover the mid-board
• Commissars & Platoon Commanders push up the board directing local objectives
• It simplifies positioning & having to join to Platoon command squads for the order range.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

I don’t really like making orders apply to enemy units or objectives.

 

i think we just need to go back to splashing orders again, or allow for more orders per officer and having vox caster extend order ranges again.

 

vox refunding CP is extremely silly imho, and heavily crippled the order mechanic.

[OldWherewolf]

On 5/20/2024 at 2:31 PM, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

i think we just need to go back to splashing orders again, or allow for more orders per officer and having vox caster extend order ranges again.

 

vox refunding CP is extremely silly imho, and heavily crippled the order mechanic.

I'm of the same mind with Vox Casters.  Vox is utterly pointless where Leontus is almost mandated.  The best spot to use those Vox casters is when the unit is destroyed when you can't use the Vox...

 

I hated the splashing orders.  It was just a lot of overhead and useless paperwork just to say Unit A has Take Aim! and unit B has MMM!   It was just a clunky mechanic to limit the need for Officer units and quantity of orders.  This edition GW solved that problem by saying AM only gets half an army rule, then costing every unit as if they had an army rule and a detachment rule.

 

My other thinking was that we could form units into groups of 1 Officer+1-2 non-officer units, and as long as the other units were within 12" of their officer, then all units would be considered under whichever order you wanted.  No splashing, no paperwork, just a simple range check.  The downside here is that the upper officers really don't have a purpose unless they can take the place of a destroyed lower officer.  I'm more meh on this idea. 

 

 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

2 hours ago, OldWherewolf said:

I'm of the same mind with Vox Casters.  Vox is utterly pointless where Leontus is almost mandated.  The best spot to use those Vox casters is when the unit is destroyed when you can't use the Vox...

 

I hated the splashing orders.  It was just a lot of overhead and useless paperwork just to say Unit A has Take Aim! and unit B has MMM!   It was just a clunky mechanic to limit the need for Officer units and quantity of orders.  This edition GW solved that problem by saying AM only gets half an army rule, then costing every unit as if they had an army rule and a detachment rule.

 

My other thinking was that we could form units into groups of 1 Officer+1-2 non-officer units, and as long as the other units were within 12" of their officer, then all units would be considered under whichever order you wanted.  No splashing, no paperwork, just a simple range check.  The downside here is that the upper officers really don't have a purpose unless they can take the place of a destroyed lower officer.  I'm more meh on this idea. 

 

 

Just give each officer one more order than they get now, and make voxes extend order range then.

that way we still don’t need to pay for a bunch of officers to get a decent spread of orders out.

command squads 2, castellans or equivalents 3, commissars 1, etc.