Good Apoc Rules

For people unlike me that log onto BOLS every day to read what they have to say this is for you. I think it's some great rules and ideas for the Next Apoc game.

BOLS APOC LINK

APOCALYPSE COMMANDMENTS

1) REASONABLE POINTS PER PLAYER
We recommend no more than 3-4000 pts per person, not counting war machines. It is difficult for a single player to command more than that in a timely manner.

2) MANDATORY TEAM CAPTAINS
Pick your most senior player per side. His job is to keep your team playing efficiently. Not only does the team captain carry out grand strategy with his team, he is also there to:
-Let the individual players focus on their parts of the table, instead of having to worry about big-picture stuff (they can if they want to)
-He is available to roll for anything on his team if no-one is around to watch or take care of something.
-He mans the clock (bring an egg timer if you need to) and keeps the turn phases moving for his side.

3) NO WRECKS
Keep the table clean. If any non-warmachine is destroyed, it gets pulled from the table. Apocalypse games are notorious for getting all jammed up at critical areas of mass carnage, and becoming parking lots of dead models that make the board very difficult to play on. Just get the dead vehicles out of there.

4) NO DESTROYER WEAPONS WITHOUT APPROVAL
No one gets to bring Destroyer weapons by default. Only after both sides are balanced, do the team captains decide whether they wish to each take an equal number of Destroyer weapons. They should select these as a pair and dole them out to key team members so there are no surprises.

5) NO STRATEGIC ASSETS WITHOUT APPROVAL
Same as with Destroyers. To many Strategic Assets will ruin the game and tick off most of your players. Assume both teams have none, then have the team captains both select a small number per team that they both agree on. These should not be secret, and need to be agreed on by both sides, as the Strategic Assets pool is not balanced.

6) NO "BIG GUYS" WITHOUT APPROVAL
The following units must be pre-approved for use:
-Any super-heavy with more than 3 Structure points
-Any Gargantuan creatures with over 6 wounds
-Any Forgeworld Gargantuan Chaos Major Daemon
Have the team captains determine which of these will be allowed per side. Keep in mind that these become more powerful the smaller the game, and may need to balanced out with Destroyer weapons as well.

7) ONE WARMACHINE/FORMATION PER PLAYER
This just keeps things simple, and prevents lots of unbalanced combos. Its easy for a single player to devise and implement nasty combos. Its harder to coordinate such tricks between different people.

"ZONE DEFENSE"
Assign team-members parts of the board to roll for. First priority always goes to a model's owner of course, but if he is busy, rolling elsewhere, in the bathroom, or anything else, have a player assigned to that board section who can roll quickly for anything required.

9) WATCH THOSE RESERVES
Enforce the reserve rules. If stuff is not on the table by the start of turn 3, its DEAD. Players arriving late and just throwing things onto an Apocalypse table late game will destroy the flow of the game and often give their side a decisive late-game advantage. Don't let this happen to your game.

10) DON'T SWEAT THE LITTLE STUFF
Stuff like going to ground, and even break checks get forgotten all the time (especially from turn to turn). Determine if you wish to skip these mechanics altogether or streamline them into something that can be resolved immediately (such as counting pinning results as an extra d6 casualties, or having units which could rally do so automatically and having understrength broken units automatically destroyed). Alternatively you should mark pinned or broken units in some blatant way so they will not get overlooked next turn.

11) HAVE FUN
Remember that Apocalypse is about FUN and telling a great story. About half of all games will end in ties, so don't get bent out of shape and just relax. The most important skill in running Apoc games is to KEEP THE GAME MOVING. The biggest time killers are slow setup (use the time bidding system and stick to it), and folks milling around towards the end of each phase (team captains need to enforce time limits per phase).


I think at the very least it's worth posting a copy of it at the DEN. Nothing revolutionary but worthwhile info. As always take it for what it's worth and enjoy

I think strategic assests are fine, but special formations are what can be u nbalanced. I would say allow an equal amount of special formations per side and player. Also Im not a big fan of zone defence. I see why its there, but you don't have as much fun playing with other people's units. Also I have taken a quick trip to the bathroom, only to return to find a whole unit wiped out by someones highly improbable bad rolling for me