MagnusIlluminus wrote:
The Bissler wrote:
Sorry to sound obsessed but could I confirm how activations work in this system? Would it be that nearly everything from vehicles upwards would activate as units of one with possibly infantry and cavalry operating in units of two?
Very good question. While primarch has already somewhat addressed it in his way, I'm going to comment as well.
At the moment, how activations would work has not been settled. My thought is that each formation would get one activation, much like how each formation (or detachment of a Company) gets one in Gold. Primarch seems to have suggested that activations could be handled at a different level, but I'm not entirely sure he intended to or even specifically what he meant. Obviously, this is an issue that would have to be discussed.
Also, while the listed increment would be one model (or two stands), the expected - or default, size of a formation would of several such instances. In other words, the majority of formations would be three models (or six stands). While I am tempted to make this a required minimum, I feel that having such a minimum would be a bad idea overall, as it would squelch creativity and flexibility.
A couple more thoughts on default formation size.
_ It could vary by faction. For example, Marines and Eldar could allow minimum formation sizes of 1 instance (1 model or 2 stands) as their troops tend to be higher quality and lower quantity. On the flip side, Guard and Orks could have minimums of 3 (or more in some cases) instances per formation, as they tend to be lower quality and higher quantity.
_ We could have minimums for standard troops, but then say that Elite troops ignore the restrictions. Or just have less restrictive rules.
So to put that another way, as a generality Vehicles would not be activating as single models, but rather as formations of several models. Probably. Same with pairs of Infantry stands. Again, probably. Depending on what gets decided on via discussion.
Hi!
The way I thought of controlling this issue Magnus was that certain armies would have required command formation acquisitions the more formation "blocks" in had. For those armies it is better to make fewer organizational blocks with larger formations in them than numerous such blocks with small formations because that would require more expenditure for command formations to "lead them".
To make this point clearer lets use they hypothetical example for IG.
All armies would start by buying its "commanding general" formation which tops the organizational chart.
The "basic" organizational building block would be a "battalion" which can be composed of lets say a maximum of 5 formations. Each of those formations of course could be of any size in accordance to the projected building block scheme (2 stands of infantry or 1 vehicle model).
The IG player could make a battalion of 1 to 2 models in each of those formations to maximize activations.
HOWEVER
Since IG, by the fluff tends to be a more regimented command structure we can include in its organizational chart that each battalion MUST be headed by a command formation.
Therefore the IG player could make a bunch of battalions with small formations, but the each needs command formations attached which makes it onerous (high cost low efficiency).
Thus the organization done in this manner encourages the IG to "fill" his battalions with larger sized formations in order to not have to make more battalions and buy costly command formations.
In this way the organizational chart encourages the IG player to build in a manner consistent with how the guard should be built, without the need for blanket restrictions.
The formation numbers and ratios for command formation requirements are all hypothetical (open to debate on the exact numbers), but it shows that force building can be tailored to favor certain manners of building a force to be consistent with common tropes of the 40k universe, but still keep flexibility and options open (you could still building a lot of battalions with small formations in them, but they will costlier due to command formation requirements and much less efficient).
That was just using IG as an example the other side of the coin would be a force like Eldar where command requirements are much more liberal, permitting numerous small formations (activation advantage), but far more brittle than say IG.
Its a good way to simulate a ponderous attrition army versus a smaller elite force.
I hope that came across as intended.
Primarch
