Adeptus Mechanicus

Designing Custom Companies in NetEpic

by S. Birol Akmeric

 

Introduction

One of the greatest strengths of the Epic series of games is using an Army Card system that enables the players to construct their armies easily and quickly by using the pre-defined units and thus to avoid the lengthy cost calculation process most other similar games have. NetEpic also uses this system and takes the full advantage of it.

On the other hand, this method also restricts the choices of the players by imposing upon them the standard unit types, however diverse these are. When viewed like this, the capability of E40K of creating custom-made units may appeal to some players. We of the NetEpic discussion group have contemplated on this issue in the past. The majority of the members decided that such a model-by-model unit-building system would destroy the character of the game by removing the fast army construction system that supplies the players with recognizable modular building blocks. It is also said that in "real world" as well, there are no armies that form units in so liberally a fashion; all of them have basic minimal unit organizations that could be used to form larger fighting groups.

However, it is also a recognized fact that, although a squad, platoon, or equivalent may have a fixed organization, companies and larger formations may be altered to satisfy the changing conditions. Some examples may be the WWII German Kampfgruppe or contemporary task forces. From this stemmed the idea that we too could allow some degree of customization without making drastic changes to the basic Army Card system and keeping the original detachment level units intact. If we used the existing Detachment Cards plus detachment level company components as the basic building blocks we could at least make a more elastic company structure.

The following company building rules, coupled with the Epic Points Cost Formula as needed, may be used as an Optional Rule in the NetEpic games.


Basics

Even though we aim to construct a more elastic company building system, we do not wish it to be so much so as to allow some of the players to combine detachments of different nature in a haphazardly manner and construct dysfunctional or "cheesy" companies. So, there must be some restrictions in doing this. First of all, even if it will not fit any of the existing Army Cards, it should abide by the general rules that define the nature of company level units in NetEpic. It also must have a default basic character or "class" like the others. That is you should first begin with a unit class and attach other units that can logically support this original. To do this we first start with a "partial" NetEpic company that contains its command unit and a few of its detachment level units, and build on this structure.


Unit Classes and Sub-Classes

The Classes we shall use will be the existing unit types of the NetEpic system, with some small modifications to allow similar units to be combined. These are:

  1. Infantry,
  2. Cavalry, Light Vehicles and Small Walkers (crewed by 1 or 2 – or none, like Robots),
  3. Medium Armored Fighting Vehicles (AFVs),
  4. Super-Heavy Vehicles,
  5. Knights and equivalents,
  6. Praetorian Vehicles, and
  7. Titans.

As you see, most these are the classes that have been already used for categorization in the NetEpic rulebooks. The only exception is the Light Vehicles such as Trikes, Warbuggies, Land Speeders and such to allow company-level units such as the Cult of Speed or Ravenwing to be built. In the army booklets these (and the medium AFVs) were classified under the general heading of Vehicles.

The detachment-level unit than can be further categorized by its Sub-class that is defined by its specific type or making, which is in most cases its name on its detachment card. Some, on the other hand, share a sub-class with different units and are already interchangeable to some degree in the existing NetEpic units, like Chimera variants, Ork Speedstas or Rocket Artillery.

Examples:


Company Construction Rules

There will be two sets of rules that define the construction of custom company level units. The first set (basic) will consist of the basic optional rules on building of such units, and the second (advanced) will bring the additional restrictive rules that will serve to balance the game play for those players who feel having such companies will favor the ones who are using them. The first set should be applied as it is, the second set however, can be discussed by the gaming groups and some (or none) of its rules could be adopted.

Basic Rules

  1. The company (as always) has to be homogenous in terms of the race, army, clan, or chapter. You can not put a Squat detachment in an Imperial company, or a Goff Boyz detachment in an Evil Sunz Clan etc.
  2. The company level unit’s Basic Class is determined by the class of its command unit. This unit should either be an existing detachment card already been defined as a Command (HQ) unit (e.g. SM Commander), or the command unit component of an already existing and company level unit of the same class. For example, if you are planning to build an infantry class Ork unit with a basic sub-class of Goff Boyz, the command units you can use are the 8-stand Goff Nobz mob of the Goff Clan or the generic 4-stand Nobz support card. You can not use a 3-stand Evil Sunz Nobz Mob, or a Nobz Warbikes mob. If the army does not have specific command unit classes (like the Ork Nobz), a token class is assigned to the unit to define the class of the company-level unit. If the army does not normally use command units within the company structure (like the Eldar), the player may:
  1. Choose to appoint one of its detachments as the "command unit" for the purposes of cohesion only (see the advanced rules),
  2. Opt to use one of the existing independent command unit detachment as the core unit (e.g. Exarchs in the case of Eldar), or
  3. Appoint either a single vehicle (in the case of vehicle companies) of the sub-class or an Elite detachment of the same class as a new command unit by paying the cost markup for command units (please refer to the Epic Points Cost Formula article).
  1. At least one of the detachments that form the company must match the basic class and sub-class defined by the command unit. E.g. if you declared the basic sub-class as Devastator, then you must have at least one Devastator detachment.
  2. At least two of the detachments (including the first one defined above) must match the basic class (but may be of a different sub-class). For instance, if your company has the Imperial Tank class and Leman Russ sub-class then at least two of your squadrons must be from Leman Russ, Demolisher, Predator, Vindicator, Gorgon or other IG medium AFV vehicle squadrons.
  3. The detachments that do not belong to the basic class of the company may not outnumber the basic class detachments. For example, you may not take 3 tank squadrons and 2 infantry detachments in a company with an infantry class commander.
  4. You may not take more of any sub-class of detachments than you take of the basic sub-class.
    Example: To a company of the IG Assault sub-class and have 2 Assault Detachments you can take 2 Bike Squadrons. On the other hand, for a company with a Tactical HQ with 1 Tactical, 1 Assault, and 1 Devastator Detachments (the Battle Company), you may only take 1 Bike Squadron since you have only one Tactical Detachment.
  5. The Players may use the total cost of the models and stands used in the company calculated by the Epic Unit Cost Formula (rounded to nearest 25 points – see the related article) as the company points cost instead of adding up the detachment card costs.
  6. The Break Point of the company is one half of the total number of models/stands rounded to the nearest upper integer. For Squats use ¾ of the total.
  7. The Victory Points are calculated by dividing the Points Cost by 100 and rounding to the nearest integer (lower or upper; 3.4 to 3, 7.55 to 8, etc.). For Squats, divide by 75.
  8. Morale value of the company will be lowest Morale value of the non-command units.

 

Advanced Rules

  1. In this system, the company is formed as a whole with its support elements, and does not take separate support detachments. A HQ unit can only command a total of 6 detachments (not 8 or more as before). Transports used by the company - even if the original detachments were non-mechanized - do not count towards this sum.
  2. All of the detachments that form a company must be within 35 cm of the HQ unit to receive orders. If the specific army has more restrictive rules on the command radius, the latter apply. That is, IG troops still need to be within 25 cm of the IG HQ, and Orks still must be 10 cm distant to some Nobz to receive orders.
  3. The company may have only 1 (one) of any detachment belonging to a class other than the basic class (note: not sub-class). This is a more restricted version of the Basic Rule 6.

Application of the Construction Rules to Specific Armies

You may have noticed that the alternative company construction rules given above may give considerable flexibility to some armies while not adding much to the others. Chaos, Chaos Renegades, and Slann already have similar systems and will not benefit noticeably. Space Marines and Eldar, although had pre-defined companies, were not really restricted due to their unlimited command radius (and due to apparent lack of company-specific command units, in the case of Eldar), and thus will not gain much advantage rather than variety with the application of the above rules. On the other hand, the armies with the company structures and/or command rules restricted to the point of being handicapped - like Orks, Squats, Imperial Guard and Tech-Guard - can do a lot with these new rules.

Tyranids, due to their distinct alien nature, may not use the custom company rules (sorry guys).

When applied to specific armies, the above rules may be interpreted in a liberal fashion, or may be slightly stepped out of, in ways for which there exists some precedent in the "official" companies of that army. This relaxation of the rules may also be regarded within the category of the optional Advanced Rules given in the previous section.

 

Example: You can not build the standard Evil Sunz Clan out of the existing detachment cards. The Clan has 15 Boyz, 3 Nobz, and 6 Battlewagons, for none of which there are suitable building blocks. If we use the existing cards the clan will have 16 Boyz, 4 Nobz, and it will either lack a Battlewagon (6) or have 2 extras (9). So, it may be concluded that:

  1. Ork Boyz mobz used in clans may be picked stand by stand instead of by Boyz cards. The player should still apply common sense here. We know that the existing clans contain 12 to 15 Boyz stands; the chosen number of stands should not be too much out of this range.
  2. Same for the Nobz. As existing clans have 3 to 8 stands, any number of Nobz stands should be allowed to be used, providing that the Nobz stands do not outnumber the rest of the clan.
  3. The number of transports (note that this applies to any army) could be picked to suit that of the transportees.

The player then should go on and calculate the cost of the company either by using appropriate fractions of detachment level cards, or by applying the formula to get it from the scratch.


Custom Company Examples

Example 1: Variation of the Ravenwing Company

Here, we shall go on and construct a Space Marine company with two Bike and one Land Speeder detachments. Note that both of these fall under the Cavalry Class by the rules. First of all, we should choose a command unit. This, by the construction rules should be of the Basic Class of the company, thus can either be a Bike or a Land Speeder (or some other SM Cavalry unit like a SM Attack Bike, or even a Dreadnought). Let us choose the Attack Bike for variety. Note that Attack Bikes are Cavalry Class and (still) Bike Sub-class. So our mandatory first detachment could either be a Bike Detachment or an Attack Bike Detachment. Choose the Bike, as we planned above. We shall now add another Bike Squadron, since we can have as many detachments of the Basic Sub-Class (Bike) as we wish, up to the maximum of 6. Finally we’ll add the Land Speeder Detachment, which is of the Cavalry Class and Skimmer-Bike Sub-Class (only such for SM – note that Eldar have 2 types). Our company is now complete.

Now, we will go on and calculate the points cost and other data for the company. Let us use the detachment cost fractions instead of the formula, for the sake of simplicity. Two Bike Squadrons cost 2 x 125 (note, new NetEpic cost) = 250 and the one LS Squadron costs 200 as usual. The HQ unit costs 1/5 of the Attack Bike Squadron cost, that is 175/5 = 35 points. Now add +5 to this cost for the command ability (this parameter of the formula we have to use). The total cost then will be 250 + 200 + 40 = 490. Rounding to the nearest 25 points we then get 500 points. Note that this is higher than the cost of the original Ravenwing, which is noticeably the more effective one. This is caused by the fact that the Ravenwing Company is under-priced to give a chapter-specific advantage to the Dark Angels.

The Break point of the company will be the upper integer to the half of the number of models/stands, which is (5+5+5+1)/2 = 16/2 = 8. The Victory Points will be calculated as 500/100, and thus will be 5. The Morale Value of the company will be the SM standard, 2.

There you go. You can now prepare an Army Card or add a line on the SM army list for this new company. However, do not forget that you still can not field this unit without the consent of your opponents. Units created in this fashion fall into the optional category unless added to the appropriate army booklet by the NetEpic Group. So, if you get any interesting ideas on new units, do write to us and nominate them to the group.

Air Attack (AA)
Note that, although our company has a Cavalry Class command unit, the original Ravenwing has the standard SM HQ. Even though this is not allowed by the Basic Rules above, as mentioned in the previous section, you may go on and substitute the SM HQ unit in your new company. In this case you should apply the formula and calculate the new cost, however.

 

Example 2: Veteran Company with Terminators

As almost all of the Epic players know, the SM Terminators are really SM Veterans in special armor. Terminator armor is also supposed to be very rare, and only a small number of the Veterans actually get to wear them in combat. So, the representation of Terminator and Veteran companies in Epic games as to distinct entities – and the former consisting of solely Terminators - seem to be inaccurate, to say the least. How about then creating a Veteran company with Terminators a part of it? To go by the Codex books, only one of the detachments should be Terminators, but let us find a way in between and give those a greater share.

Our new company will consist of a Veteran Command Unit (a standard SM HQ with a token Class of Infantry and Sub-Class of Veteran), two Veteran Detachments and two Terminator Detachments. Note that we can not take one Veteran and two Terminators since this would conflict with Basic rule 6, unless we change the HQ unit to a Terminator HQ (you can take 2 Veterans and 1 Terminator, however). Let’s make one of the Termie detachments a Close-Assault Terminator for variety.

Let us also go on and use the formula calculated costs for this example. We have 1 SM HQ with Rhino, 2 Veteran Detachments of 6 Veterans and 3 Rhinos, 1 Terminator Detachment of 4 Terminators plus 2 Land Raiders, and 1 CA Terminator Detachment of 4 CA Terminators plus 2 Land Raiders. These cost respectively (remember the 6+ saves of NetEpic SM, and 5+ of Termies) 48+25, 2 x (216 +75), 224+138, and 160+138. The total cost will be then 1315, and rounding to the nearest 25, 1325 points. If we apply a GW style HQ discount, we may round this to a nice 1300. The Break Point will be (2 + 2 x 9 + 6 + 6) / 2 = 16, Victory Points 1300/100 =13, and the Morale 1, as these are all Veterans.

Quite costly is it not? It is, however, 4 detachment strong, and very effective. I have one such company and field it often.

 

Example 3: Ork Strike Forz

Have you ever got frustrated because of your rigid Ork Clan structure and wished a way to go around taking a whole clan with so many Boyz before buying other weapons? You may have dreamed of a fast and effective Ork infantry force with more punch and style then a typical clan, perhaps some sort of an Ork "Battle Company", but could not form it for the lack of rules. We have them now. Let’s build the Strike Forz!

As always, we’ll start with the command unit. The planned Clan being of the infantry class, this will necessarily be a mob of Nobz. Let’s take 6 Nobz stands. Now, Ork infantry sub-classes are in terms of clans (like Infantry, Goff), so we may get more elbow room than some other armies in using the special infantry types if we declare our new clan of the Bloodaxe persuasion. So, our Clan is now of Infantry Class and Bloodaxe Sub-Class, which enables us to take any Ork infantry. Great! Let’s take

1 army card worth (4 stands) of Shoota Boyz, 8 stands of Bloodaxe Kommandoes (2 cards minus the Kaptins, as we have the Nobz, we don’t need them), and 4 Stormboyz (again without their Kaptin). Applying the formula to all of these we get 336 points for the Nobz, 124 for the Shootaz (30cm average range, 0 for to-hit, +2 for no-modifier-for-cover), 224 for Kommandoes (+2 per stand for being Elite, +2 for Infiltration), and 80 for the Stormboyz (added +1 per stand for jump-packs, although GW calculations seem to omit this parameter - see the formula article). The total cost comes up to 764 points.

Now, let’s go more ambitious and mechanize these guys. Bloodaxes normally use Rhinos but there are no rules to stop them having Battlewagons, so let’s take them. We need 2 wagons for the 6 Nobz, and at least 6 wagons (2 cards) for the total of 16 "boyz" stands. We would like the different types of our infantry to fare in their distinct transports though. So we’ll need 2 for the Shootaz, 3 for the Kommandoes, and 2 for the Stormboyz. This is one extra vehicle, but since we only have 4 cards worth of detachments so far this is allowed by the above rules (1 detachment out of the Basic Class, still within the 6 detachments limit). We then will have a total of 9 Battlewagons, which will cost us an extra 252 points by the formula.

The complete "Forz" will then consist of 31 stands/models and will cost 1016 points. Rounding with a typical Ork discount we’ll set its price at 1000 points. It will have a Break Point of 16, with 10 Victory Points. The morale value will be the usual 4 (remember, the lowest value of the detachments).

Note that, in the above example I have interpreted the definition of sub-classes rather liberally. One may argue that all of the existing Ork Clans and equivalent formations have uniform structures in their main mob, disregarding their transports and the commanding Nobz. All of the classic clans have only the basic clan boyz for their boyz mob, the Cult of Speed has only Warbuggies, and Gargant Big Mobz (if you accept them as proper "companies") have only Gargants. This will be true, and will prohibit the forming of the "Forz" by the logic given in the "Application of the Construction Rules …" section above. I have constructed the above example mainly to demonstrate the mechanics of the rules rather than making a serious suggestion for a new unit. On the other hand, if you can convince your gaming group everything is possible. Just use your common sense.


There you go. Go ahead and make some units of your own. And please let us know if you spot any errors or weak points in the rules or if you get new and interesting ideas about forming custom units.