When it comes to the vehicle section of the game, Maximilian 1934 works with no major modifications, all of the vehicles are made using the rules as written. We elected to not introduce a "Z Axis" to the game, as it would over complicate the wonderfully simple rules. The only area in which new rules were needed was to cover interactions between the vehicles and models on foot. It was pretty straightforward to come up with this one-page "cheat sheet":
- Vehicles that
transport miniatures are marked as “Transport” in their notes section. As this
confers bonuses and detriments, this upgrade is free.
- Cards that deal
“Mortal Wounds” instead deal “Critical Hits” to Vehicles. (More on this Later)
Embarking
and Disembarking
A
model may disembark from to embark to a vehicle either before or after a
vehicle has moved; never during a move.
A
player declares that a model will attempt to move from or to a vehicle, that
player rolls 1D6 and adds HALF of that model’s Move stat to the roll.
A
model is considered to have made the jump safely if the base of the model
reaches the vehicle or to a piece of terrain.
If
the distance is not enough to reach safety, roll 1D6, on a 4+ the model is
placed on the edge of the surface it tried to jump from. If the roll is failed,
the model plummets and is considered Out of Action, unless it falls to a lower
platform, in which case the normal falling rules are used.
A
disembarking model may make a Charge move, so long as it has a valid target and
there is enough space on the terrain piece for its base.
An
embarking model may charge onto a Transport vehicle, picking a target from the
models being transported. A model on an enemy vehicle cannot attack crew or the
vehicle itself.
Infantry
embarked on a vehicle cannot shoot any weapons whilst embarked.
Weapons
Vehicles
Shooting at Infantry
All
vehicles have 4+ to hit infantry, with range modifiers from Max34 used.
Weapon
|
S
|
AP
|
D
|
Abilities
|
Rockets
|
7
|
-3
|
D3
|
None
|
Side
Arms
|
3
|
0
|
1
|
None
|
Machine
Gun
|
4
|
-1
|
1
|
3
Shots
|
Light
Cannon
|
6
|
-2
|
1
|
None
|
Heavy
Cannon
|
8
|
-4
|
D6
|
None
|
Infantry
Shooting at Vehicles
As
well as normal Kill Team range modifiers, infantry suffer -1 to Hit for each
Speed a vehicle is traveling.
Pistols,
Boltguns, Shuriken Catapults etc, count as Max 34 Side Arms against Vehilces.
Heavy
Stubbers, Shuriken Cannons and Heavy Bolters count as Max 34 Machine Guns.
Melta
Guns, Shredders and Fusion Guns count as Max 34 Light Cannons.
Lascannons,
Bright Lances and Dark Lances count as Max 34 Heavy Cannons.
As you can see, the interactions are being kept as simple as possible, as the aim is to have a fun game, rather than play something competitive and finely balanced. In terms of which vehicles are "Transports", this is also played pretty loose, the Heretek Hauler, being a mining craft with an access ramp, can transport models, Deathwatch Jetbikes, however, cannot transport models. We didn't spend too much time working on this section of the game, as the first play test worked well and the Maximilian 1934 section transitioned into the Kill Team section directly.
Kill Team
The modifications for Kill Team are inspired by some suggested on the Inq28 Facebook Group. Rather than building "Battle Forged" Kill Teams, we selected teams up to 75 points from any model in the game, with the restriction of no more than one model with a Save of 3+ or better. So no teams of Space Marines or similar. The idea is to create interesting and thematic teams, rather than tournament-level death squads. Take a look at Ross' warband for an example:
Being a real narrative wargamer, Ross wanted a Kill Team that fit his miniatures, hence using the Thousand Sons, Genestealer Cults, Astra Militarum, Drukhari and Asuryani lists to get the right "feel" for the models. In contrast, Jason's Craftworld Namreb forces are usually entirely Asuryani units. There is no penalty or advantage to sticking to one list or having each model be from a different list. Don't worry about how the makeup of your warband will affect your Tactics and Command points, as that will be a bit different too. With our group, someone building a killer team is pretty unlikely, but with access to every list, it becomes pretty easy to power game. Fair warning.
So far, we have used the Kill Team Core Manual, Commanders and Elites, with the above-mentioned restrictions and the added caveat that any Commanders be "fair". Just take a quick flip through the Commanders and Elites books and you should get a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't. For example, the Genestealer Cult Magus' poor armour save offsets its Psychic Powers and multiple wounds, whereas the Drukhari Archon's 2+ Invulnerable Save and 5 Attacks make it a little unbalanced.
The normal restrictions on Specialists apply, but due to the Card System replacing Command Points (see below), we tend to find that Specialists have a reduced role in play. So far, we have found it fair to be less restrictive with the "Leadership" Specialty, for example Dauntless (Asuryani Wraithguard) would normally only have access to the Demolitions, Heavy and Veteran Specialties. This is done to facilitate narrative play, with several of the Cards specifically targeting Leaders, thus being without one would be an unfair advantage.
Instead of using the existing Command Points system from Kill Team, we use a deck of cards that have similar (or the same) effects as the Tactics listed in the books. Each player draws two cards at the start of each turn, with a maximum hand size of five, creating a "spending economy" with less incentive to horde cards. Players can discard at the end of the turn, if there's something not terribly useful in their hands. It is assumed that a card can be played at any time, unless the card states something like "Play at the start of the Shooting Phase"; wherever possible we've tried to be clear with what the card does. If two players play conflicting cards, the player with Priority takes precedent. We'll upload the full "deck" at some point as a PDF, but here's an example:
The cards were put together using 40K artwork searched up on Google and compiled online with MTG Cardsmith: https://mtgcardsmith.com/ Printed up, they can be placed in Standard Sized card sleeves with leftover Magic, Pokemon or whatever cards are lying around (mine are old The Spoils cards). There's no hard and fast rules as to how many cards you need to have or how many copies of each, but a rough guide would be to keep the more "powerful" cards to one or two copies.
Hopefully, this gives you enough ideas to get going on your own Narrative 40K games, or maybe just try a different way of playing Kill Team at your local club or store. We'll be trying to put a little content as often as we can in between now and when we play our next big narrative game.
Kill Team
The modifications for Kill Team are inspired by some suggested on the Inq28 Facebook Group. Rather than building "Battle Forged" Kill Teams, we selected teams up to 75 points from any model in the game, with the restriction of no more than one model with a Save of 3+ or better. So no teams of Space Marines or similar. The idea is to create interesting and thematic teams, rather than tournament-level death squads. Take a look at Ross' warband for an example:
Being a real narrative wargamer, Ross wanted a Kill Team that fit his miniatures, hence using the Thousand Sons, Genestealer Cults, Astra Militarum, Drukhari and Asuryani lists to get the right "feel" for the models. In contrast, Jason's Craftworld Namreb forces are usually entirely Asuryani units. There is no penalty or advantage to sticking to one list or having each model be from a different list. Don't worry about how the makeup of your warband will affect your Tactics and Command points, as that will be a bit different too. With our group, someone building a killer team is pretty unlikely, but with access to every list, it becomes pretty easy to power game. Fair warning.
So far, we have used the Kill Team Core Manual, Commanders and Elites, with the above-mentioned restrictions and the added caveat that any Commanders be "fair". Just take a quick flip through the Commanders and Elites books and you should get a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't. For example, the Genestealer Cult Magus' poor armour save offsets its Psychic Powers and multiple wounds, whereas the Drukhari Archon's 2+ Invulnerable Save and 5 Attacks make it a little unbalanced.
The normal restrictions on Specialists apply, but due to the Card System replacing Command Points (see below), we tend to find that Specialists have a reduced role in play. So far, we have found it fair to be less restrictive with the "Leadership" Specialty, for example Dauntless (Asuryani Wraithguard) would normally only have access to the Demolitions, Heavy and Veteran Specialties. This is done to facilitate narrative play, with several of the Cards specifically targeting Leaders, thus being without one would be an unfair advantage.
Instead of using the existing Command Points system from Kill Team, we use a deck of cards that have similar (or the same) effects as the Tactics listed in the books. Each player draws two cards at the start of each turn, with a maximum hand size of five, creating a "spending economy" with less incentive to horde cards. Players can discard at the end of the turn, if there's something not terribly useful in their hands. It is assumed that a card can be played at any time, unless the card states something like "Play at the start of the Shooting Phase"; wherever possible we've tried to be clear with what the card does. If two players play conflicting cards, the player with Priority takes precedent. We'll upload the full "deck" at some point as a PDF, but here's an example:
The cards were put together using 40K artwork searched up on Google and compiled online with MTG Cardsmith: https://mtgcardsmith.com/ Printed up, they can be placed in Standard Sized card sleeves with leftover Magic, Pokemon or whatever cards are lying around (mine are old The Spoils cards). There's no hard and fast rules as to how many cards you need to have or how many copies of each, but a rough guide would be to keep the more "powerful" cards to one or two copies.
Hopefully, this gives you enough ideas to get going on your own Narrative 40K games, or maybe just try a different way of playing Kill Team at your local club or store. We'll be trying to put a little content as often as we can in between now and when we play our next big narrative game.
