Thoughts on Agents Crusade Rules

[ThePenitentOne]

I didn't want to clutter up news and rumour threads with discussions of rules, so I figured I'd put it here. Obviously, as more information becomes available, there will be more to talk about; for now, what we know has some gaps, but it looks decent.

 

It looks like there are a total of 9 possible threats- three at each difficulty level- and that each Shadow Operation consists of 3. Interestingly enough, if you generate them randomly, it is possible to end up with all three threats being Extremis level difficulty, or conversely, all at the Minoris level, and any combination in between. The tracker obviously tracks more than completed threats- if that was all it covered, it would only go up to +3. I think it's cool that your position on the tracker only has a tangible effect at the end of the Shadow Op, but is an ongoing indicator of the tone/atmosphere in the theatre of war.

 

The time limits are weird; if you examine the charts, you have 7 games to counter an Extremis threat, and you must accrue between 6-8 points, whether Intrigue/ Influence, so if you score from an Agents Agenda every game, there's a good chance you'll counter the threat; if you pull an 8, you need one extra, so in one of your seven games, you'd have to find a way to generate 2 points. And if you happen to get lucky, and draw a Threat that only needs 6 points, you can counter it even is you have a bad game and don't score any Intrigue/Influence. But if you look at the Majoris threats, the pattern changes- you have 5 games to get between 5-7 points, meaning that if you fail to score a point in even a single game, there aren't any threats that you can counter unless you make up that point elsewhere. And the hard Threats, weighing in at 7 require you to overscore in two of you games instead of one. And finally, it's even worse for Minoris Threats, where you have a mere 3 games to score 4-6 points! You have to overscore on one game just to counter the easiest threat, and you need to overscore on all three games in order to counter the hardest threat.

 

Now obviously, we don't know what the Agendas are, or how many points of each type are offered for completion. Similarly, it might be easier to generate points in smaller games depending on the fine details- but at a cursory glance, it does indeed look like difficult threats take more time, but don't have as high a threshold for success as the "less difficult" threats... Which seems wierd.

 

It also sounds like Shadow Ops are not specific to Ordo/ Faction (except for the Deathwatch one). Like, the threat is just Arch-Nemesis - so if you're Ordo Xenos, that Nemesis is an Alien leader, but if you're Hereticus, it's probably a Witch, and if you're Malleus, it can be a Daemon. I think that's a good thing- there are more options for each Ordo when everyone can pick from the full list... But you probably still want to talk to your opponent (or GM if your campaign has one) to make it as fluffy as you want it.

 

The key is going to be how well Agendas and requisitions interact with Influence, Intrigue and the Sub-Sector Control Tracker, and how all of that interacts with the win/ loss dichotomy.

 

And finally: I'm interested in the potential for Agents and Requisitioned units to earn Crusade perks from multiple dexes. In Crusade, all of the units that you use have to be added to your roster before they are available, and you can have any Imperial Units on the same roster- you just couldn't have units from different organizations in an Army, unless a rule such as Assigned Agents allows it.

 

Let's say in my first game, I take a Hereticus Inquisitor leading a unit of Henchmen and a Requisitioned unit of Battle Sisters, and we ally with the Guard as Assigned Agents. The Sisters earn 3xp on an Agenda, and I mark them for greatness, and voila: Blooded. Now it's a Sisters unit, requisitioned by an Imperial Agent for use in a Militarum army. So do I pick the battle honour from the Sisters dex, the Agents or the Guard dex?

 

If my Inquisitor Requisitioned my Saint Potentia for a game, can she earn Saint and Martyr Points? A transport can earn 5 Battle Honours, but there are only 3 skills in the sisters dex, and vehicles don't qualify for Crusade Relics or Weapon Upgrades... But if that transport carries requisitioned units into a guard army, can it take Battle Honours from the guard dex? 

 

So, anyone else planning on Crusading with the Agents?  

[WAR]

I am planning on doing a Crusade in the future with my kids and my Gaming Group and having rules for Ordo Malleus or Ordo Hereticus is nice. Adepta Sororitas would make the most sense since the codex is out but I have more Grey Knights painted and I would prefer to use them. Inquisition and agents will be nice, fingers crossed storm troopers are in there too. 

[Brother Captain Vakarian]

My main gaming buddy and I are probably going to use these rules at some point to try to play through a really thematic, multiple-Inquisitors-scheming type of campaign. It seems from the article that the rules will provide a great baseline, but also they’ll probably work best with a lot of flexibility and some house ruling. 
 

For example, you mention your Saint Potentia making an appearance alongside your Inquisition forces. We don’t really know how that sort of thing will work in the Agents dex—the article was pretty vague on it. But I can say for sure that my buddy and I would be house ruling it to allow her to gain Saint and Martyr points while appearing alongside the Inquisitor. Like, for us, my custom Space Marine chapter will show up at some point to help out, and my Marines will absolutely still be gaining the relevant XP and oathsworn campaign points, even if they’re only showing up alongside Inquisition forces occasionally. 
 

When I have the book in hand I’ll post some ideas about how we’re going to accomplish our campaign and allow for that sort of crossover, if the book doesn’t fully enable it from the get-go. 

[ThePenitentOne]

Glad to know there are others looking forward to this. It's interesting too that there is an Intrigue and an influence target to each. With the Tau, they can achieve control of a world diplomatically or through conquest, and there are different methods and effects depending on the choice; as much as I can tell, Intrigue and Influence are probably generated by different Agendas, but I wonder if they have different impacts beyond countering the Threat.

[WAR]

Yeah I’m not sure if I’m more excited to have an imperial agents codex or the fact we are getting an imperial navy codex out of it

Edited August 2 by WAR

[Wormwoods]

It seems super cool, so it's a shame I'm taking Tau to my next big Crusade! Ah well. Next time.