List Guidance
Starting Supply Limit is 1000 pts. Starting RP 5. This will increase as more battles are fought.
Legends and Legends of Horus Heresy: Legends may be used. They must have a valid data card. These units can provide excellent narrative cues, veterans of the long war, exiles now returned, etc.
This is to also reflect that Codex releases may relegate units previously in the rules to 'Ledgendary' Status.
Epid Heroes: May be used, however, they will be unable to gain xp or enhancements via requisitions. They are still affected by the Battle Scar mechanic.
Terminology
There are several terms that sound similar, but have different meanings. These are:
a. Crusade Force. This is the umbrella term for every unit you can use during the crusade. With the name you give it, this will become the sub-faction keyword used for the purposes of rules where that is required.
b. Order of Battle. Also referred to as an ORBAT, this is the master list of all units in your Crusade Force. When writing a list, you can only use units within your Orbat. You can add or remove units from your Orbat at any time, but once removed they cannot be added back in (i.e. lose all experience and upgrades).
c. Crusade Army. This is the term to describe the units you physically put on the table and play with for each game.
Managing an Army
The number of units you can have in your Crusade Force at any one time is governed by Supply Limit. This number is the maximum total points value of units in your ORBAT.
Every Crusade Force starts with a Supply Limit of 1000 points. This can be increased through requisitions, or some victory bonuses.
Your Supply Limit can be greater than the total points limit for the next Crusade Army you are playing with, as you don’t have to play every unit in your ORBAT in every game. I.e. You may have a Supply Limit of 2000 points, but your next match is 1500, so you will end up leaving some units out of your army, but they can be selected for future battles.
When adding a unit to your ORBAT, the weapon and war gear options assigned are locked in and must be played whenever that unit takes to the table. There are opportunities to change load outs through requisitions or some victory bonuses.
Requisitions are special actions that can be done before/between battles to edit or improve your Crusade Force. They are managed through Requisition Points, with different requisitions costing different values, and some graduating depending on how experienced different units are.
Crusade Forces start with 5 Requisition Points,
and gain an extra 1 after every battle completed. More may be gained through victory bonuses. An army cna never have more than 10 RP, RP accrued over this amount are discarded.
Units also have a Crusade Point value, indicating how powerful they, and in turn your Crusade Force has become. This is important to track as a sufficiently large difference in Crusade Points between the two Crusade Armies about to play, the army with the lower value will gain a Crusade Blessing to help level the playing field.
Enhancements and Detachments
Enhancements: Gained via Renowned Heroes Requisition. You can select one Enhancement that unit has access to when added to your roster, or when gaining a rank. When doing so, that unit has access to any Enhancements described within any Detachment rules that it could use, even though you have not yet started to muster your army and so have not selected any Detachment rules yet. If the selected Enhancement replaces a weapon that is a Crusade Relic or a weapon upgraded by Weapon Modifications, that Crusade Relic or Weapon Modifications are lost. Recalculate the unit’s points value as a result of gaining this Enhancement and update its Crusade card. You cannot make any changes that would cause you to exceed your Supply Limit.
Detachments: Selected as part of Step 4 in Mustering an army for battle. This ignores the select enhancements options in usual matched play in accordance with the above.
Unit Upgrades and Battle Scars
Throughout the Crusade, your units will gain experience that will go on to personalise their abilities, and help specialise them to the tasks at hand. This is tracked through experience points, and units will gain experience through the following ways:
a. Battle Experience: Every unit in a Crusade Army gains 1XP per battle, regardless of whether they survive or not.
b. Dealers of Death: Units will gain 1XP for every 3 enemy units if kills.
c. Marked For Greatness: Each player can select one unit from their Crusade Army at the end of the battle to be ‘Marked for Greatness.’ This unit gains 3XP, and does not have to have survived the battle.
d. Victory Bonuses and Agendas: XP may also be gained through victory bonuses, or through completing agendas.
e. Mission Focussed
[House Rule]: Units will gain 1XP for every mission action that gains that VP. If this action, eg. control of objective, is conducted by multiple units, then the player must select one to gain the XP.
Whenever a unit gains enough experience, it will increase in rank. The exception to this are models with the Epic Hero, Fortification, or Swarm keywords, and any unit that was summoned or replaced during a battle (i.e. does not feature in the ORBAT). Promotions occur at the following levels:
- 6XP = Blooded,
- 16XP = Battle-Hardened,
- 31XP = Heroic (Only Character’s can achieve this rank or above)
- 51XP+ = Legendary
When a unit promotes, its Crusade Point Value increases by 1, and it gains a Battle Honour. When gaining a Battle Honour, that unit can select 1 options from the following:
- Weapon Modification. One weapon in that unit can select up to 2 upgrade options from a list to be active moving forward.
- Battle Trait. That unit can select a skill/ability to be active from that point onward. Battle Traits are locked by Keyword type to ensure balance.
- Crusade Relic. That unit can choose to receive a special weapon/item to be used in battles to come. Available Relics are governed by the rank of the recipient, so the most powerful items can only be attained by Heroic or Legendary units. [House Rule] The Campaing Manager must be informed of Crusade Relics Gained. The will accrue their own lore and some defeats may result in the theft of relics as part of the narrative. This may occur due to battle scars, or as a result of a specific mission rule.
The exception to this rule are Titanic units who gain 2 Crusade Points.
Inversely, every time a unit is killed in a battle, it must roll and Out of Action test. This is a roll of a D6, with a 2+ pass. If this test is failed, that unit is Battle Scarred, and must choose a nerf to apply to that unit, or lose a Battle Honour. A unit can have multiple Battle Scars, but cannot have duplicates.
If a unit has 3 Battle Scars and no Battle honours, and fails an Out of Action test, it is eliminated from the Crusade, and must be removed from your ORBAT. Battle Scars can be removed through Requisitions.
Playing a Crusade Battle
Crusade battles happen much the same as a Matched Play battle, but with unique Mission Rules and map set ups. Many are similar to Matched Play, but measurements differ and so must be checked before the match starts.
Before a battle, each player must select two Agendas to complete during the game. These are essentially your secondary objectives, and will typically allow units that complete certain actions or fetes of glory to gain extra XP.
As previously discussed, both players must know the Crusade Point Value of their Army when starting the game, as this will determine how many Blessings, if any, the underdog receives.
During the battle, keep track of how many kills each unit achieves, and any activities they complete. This will then allow you to track each unit’s development easier, and therefore make the post-match Crusade admin easier.
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