It is 60 days to go until the big Eternal Carnage Game 2!
I re-wrote the Rulespack for the scenario!
Eternal Carnage version 09.23.01
Introduction
Massive battlefields of the 41st Millenium roar with the din of battle. Masses of infantry and formations of tanks are the backdrop to every tactical game the core rules of Warhammer 40,000 are based on. Those missions represent a specific clash of a partial army matched against one another to fight over a specific set of objectives that is part of a larger conflict, an Eternal Carnage.
Eternal Carnage is a special scenario for Warhammer 40,000 that allows you to play a game with a lot of models. Generally the concept is to play with everything in your collection (that is painted!), allied with some friends against either another team or someone who has a large collection.
It is a fun exhibition game that allows you to start playing very fast compared to other large battle game-types. To achieve this, Eternal Carnage uses two rules to speed up the game and allow you to get a lot more done in a game: Vanguard Deployment and Escalation.
Vanguard Force Rule
A Vanguard Force is either a patrolling army, seeking out the enemy or it represents a part of a larger warfront, a dug in position that is being held.
These Vanguard Forces begin the game outside of engagement range of an enemy but within sight. Once these Vanguard Forces have seen one another, they call for backup, bringing in larger quantities of forces as well as the larger and more elite units into the battlefield.
This gives the battle a logistical aspect as you will to start the game in a different manner than a regular Warhammer 40,000 game. You will need to plan troop movements to bring them to bear on the enemy and plan the way your reinforcements are made.
A Vanguard Force has the following rules and limitations:
-No units that is part of a Vanguard may have a Ranged Weapon or other ability that allows them to deal damage at a distance greater than 48”.
-No Aircraft may be part of the Vanguard.
-No Towering or Titanic units.
-The number of units that may be deployed as part of the Vanguard is determined by the size of the smaller army.
-At least one unit from either side MUST start the game visible to the other army.
Escalation Rules
As two Vanguard Forces clash, they call for backup and as the battle rages on, more and more resources are committed to the battle. These are the waves of escalated troops that will be added to the battlefield.
Escalation is the method in which additional units are brought into the battle. At the first turn of the battle each side has no Reinforcements and need to be escalated to the battle first. The Escalation Step becomes a Sub-phase of the Movement Phase and works as follows:
Movement Phase
-Movement Units – The army whose turn it is moves their units as normal.
-Reinforcements – Should you have units with Deep Strike and units in Strategic Reserve, they may arrive this turn. Turn 1 there are no Reserves.
-Units placed into Strategic Reserves or Deep Striking position arrive the following turn.
-Escalation – You may escalate a number of units into the battle. The number you may Escalate each turn is determined by the size of the smaller army. Units that have the Deep Strike ability can be placed to one side and shall arrive during the Reinforcements sub-phase of the next turn. Other units may be placed into Strategic Reserves. This quantity is determined by the size of Escalations.
Strategic Reserves
Units with Deep Strike are always allowed to use this rule once they have been escalated into the battle. They do not count towards points limits for Strategic Reserves
Strategic Reserves may be allocated to each wave of escalation. The allowance for Strategic Reserves is roughly 25% of the points limit of Escalation. There will be a chart to work out how much this is exactly.
Units with Infiltrate and/or Scouts may walk in on any board edge except for the three edges of the Home Grounds of the enemy army. These units will need to roll a dice to see how successful their Infiltration or outflanking manoeuvre was with the same rules as Deep Striking units vs the Objectives controlled.
All other units that do not have Infiltrate and/or Scouts that are in Strategic Reserve can arrive from the board edges on the friendly half of the board. All three of these situations use the usual Deep Strike and Reserves rule and units must arrive outside of 9”.
All other units must arrive from the short board edge on the Home Grounds side of the board. These units do not have to stay outside of 9” of an enemy model. Should there be an enemy model inside your Home Grounds, you may move close to them and stay outside of 1” Engagement Range.
Deployment Rules and Objectives
For Eternal Carnage Game 2 we will be using a total board area of 12 foot x 4 foot, In inches this is a battlefield 48” wide and 144” Long from end to end.
Home Ground is the first 24” on the owning faction’s board side. In this area the owning player may move terrain around freely and even bring terrain specifically made for this area. This represents any structure that was built or reinforced on the battlefield far away from enemy lines. Enemy units may never Deep Strike or use the board edges of the Home Ground for Strategic Reinforcements.
Vanguard units set up at the start of the battle cannot be deployed within 24” of the centre of the battlefield. This means that from the centre of the board there is 48” space, 24” to either side that cannot have any models deployed in it. Pre-game Scout moves are still allowed into this space. Beyond the centre zone, Vanguard units may be deployed anywhere in that side of the battlefield.
Every 12” between the Home Ground of the one faction and the other, there will be an objective marker. This objective marker’s control is used to control the flow of Reserves and Deepstriking units. This means there are a total of 7 objectives.
Initially, these objectives start in the centre on the board (24” away from the long board edges). When a unit from either faction takes control of the objective, this allows them to dampen the enemy reinforcements using Deep Strike or Strategic Reserves. Owning the first objective, closest to your Home Ground grants the following rule:
Enemy units wishing to Deep Strike or arrive via Strategic Reserves into the area behind an objective held by an enemy they need to roll a dice. Behind one objective under the control of the enemy, the unit Deep Striking need a 2+. For each consecutive Objective held by the enemy, increase the requirement by 1.
Eg: A Unit of Terminators arrive via Deep Strike. They roll a 3. This means that they can Deep Strike anywhere on the friendly side of the battlefield, behind the first objective held by the enemy and behind the second objective held by the enemy. Should an area become 7+ or greater, we assume that units can never Deep Strike beyond that point. (The opponent would need to control 6 consecutive objectives to make this happen!)
Additionally there is the following Action that can be performed at the start of the Movement Phase:
Units that are within control range of an objective may elect to move the objective. This unit will move with the objective as they carry it and it can only be moved towards either long board edge. Thus the objective will never move closer or further away from the Home Ground than it already is. The unit Rolls a D6 and moves the objective that many inches. This unit cannot perform Shooting, or Charge Actions.
Building an Eternal Carnage Army
Eternal Carnage allows you to play well above the limits of a regular 10th Edition Warhammer army. Eternal Carnage still uses all the conventional rules for building a force with some adjustments. These rules also allow you to field several collections together that are all on the same side of the battle, but controlled by different players.
The Following Terms are defined:
Faction - All players and forces allied together on one side of the battlefield is called a Faction. This could represent several armies working together even if they do not usually fight on the same size. (Like Blood Angels and Necrons fighting together against Tyranids. This HAS happened in the lore. We might want to encourage the use of lore-friendly armies, but you can use these rules to do what you want!)
Faction Supreme Warlord – The Elected penultimate leader of the Faction.
Battalion – Several Detachments all from the same Army. This means that all units from one Battallion are the same army faction. When building your army, you can build up to a 3000pts Onslaught army. This is a single Detachment with all the regular rules for building an army. Eg: The Detachment must have a Warlord and there is a 0-3 limit on most Datasheets and a 0-6 limit on Battleline and Dedicated Transports.
*Note: A second Battalion of the same army can be build should that Detachment belong to another player.
Battalion Grand Warlord – The Elected leader of all Detachments of this Army.
Epic Heroes: In the entire Faction, Epic Heroes that are named characters cannot be duplicated. One faction cannot field more than one Roboute Guilliman for instance. There are Epic Heroes that are exceptions to this. Nameless Epic Heroes that have no name are allowed 1x per Detachment or 1x per Battalion as their stature requires.
Example: Temple Assassins are nameless heroes under 100pts. They are Epic Heroes to prevent someone from playing 3 of the same assassin in 3000pts. But should there be a Battalion that consists of 3x 3000pts Detachments (thus 9000pts) then having three of the same assassin is allowed as long as each of those three assassins are allocated to different Detachments.
Example: Certain nameless Epic Heroes might not be permissable in such small armies. Such as the Avatar of Khaine. This is a shard of the Avatar found in each Aeldari Craftworld. For there to be a second shard on one tabletop, each would be from a different Battallion. (Or if your Battallion consists of enough Detachments, this could be allowed).
This so far is the rules for Eternal Carnage version 09.23.01
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