Game Primer: Narrative Missions
Posted on Thursday Jul 29, 2021 at 01:18am in Gaming
As we discussed in the previous 'Missions and Objectives' primer article, the Maelstrom's Edge rules allow for two different types of mission - Competitive missions, where both players have the same objectives, and Narrative missions, where each player has a specific objective of their own to achieve while trying to prevent their opponent from achieving theirs. This time around, we're looking at how those Narrative missions work.
To create more of a level playing field, competitive missions require players to pick their forces without knowing what their mission will be and whether their force will end up being the attacker or defender. In truth, however, a force is almost always hand-picked and deployed to complete a specific mission. Narrative missions represent the perfect opportunity to recreate this dynamic more accurately, and in keeping with this idea, players select their forces [i]after[/i] choosing the mission, rather than before. This can be done to allow each player to select their own ideal force, or can be a co-operative exercise with players agreeing on the sort of forces that would be appropriate for the mission. The mission itself would usually be chosen by the players, although there's always the option to make it a random selection if you are not too attached to playing any specific type of battle.
The Narrative mission cards are mostly the same as for Competitive missions, except that there are two cards for each mission - an Attacker card and a Defender card. The mission objectives listed on each card apply only to the player with that card. So one player's Primary Objective may be to assassinate the enemy commander, while the other player has to capture objectives around the board. There may or may not be Secondary missions in play, and the player's Faction objective will also always apply as a Tertiary objective.
Because Narrative missions often use non-standard deployment, the cards also include a diagram showing the shape and position of the deployment zone for each player. As with Competitive missions, the players roll off to see who chooses deployment zones with the winner choosing an appropriate zone and their opponent taking the corresponding zone from their card to suit. For example, if the deployment zone is 'Long Edge' for both players, the winner of the roll would choose either of the long board edges and their opponent would take the other.
As with Competitive Missions, there may be mission special rules that apply. These may restrict Reserves or Reinforcements, or impose other restrictions or bonuses on the force. In Narrative missions, however, these only apply to the player if they appear on their card. So one player may have the 'No Reserves' rule preventing them from keeping units off the table at the start of the game, while the other player may be free to reserve units if they wish.
Narrative missions excel for use in campaigns: where the result of one game has some bearing on which mission is used for the following game. There are a near infinite number of ways to implement a campaign system, though, and so while we intend to produce various campaigns for you to use in the future, players should feel free to let their imagination run wild coming up with custom campaign missions and different ways to link their games together.
To get started with your Narrative journey, we've created three Narrative missions - "Hold the L.Z.", "Go For The Head" and "Resource Grab" - which you can download now from the 'Rules' section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. Just download the PDF, print and cut out the cards, and you're good to go. We will release new narrative cards periodically, to give you something new to wage war over.
Note that you will also need the Objective and Faction Objective cards, which can also be downloaded in PDF form. The Objective cards are also included in the Battle for Zycanthus starter set.
Get your tactical hat on and order the Battle for Zycanthus set, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range, from the webstore here! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.
If you have any questions on Narrative Missions, or any other aspect of Maelstrom's Edge gameplay, feel free to pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.
To create more of a level playing field, competitive missions require players to pick their forces without knowing what their mission will be and whether their force will end up being the attacker or defender. In truth, however, a force is almost always hand-picked and deployed to complete a specific mission. Narrative missions represent the perfect opportunity to recreate this dynamic more accurately, and in keeping with this idea, players select their forces [i]after[/i] choosing the mission, rather than before. This can be done to allow each player to select their own ideal force, or can be a co-operative exercise with players agreeing on the sort of forces that would be appropriate for the mission. The mission itself would usually be chosen by the players, although there's always the option to make it a random selection if you are not too attached to playing any specific type of battle.
The Narrative mission cards are mostly the same as for Competitive missions, except that there are two cards for each mission - an Attacker card and a Defender card. The mission objectives listed on each card apply only to the player with that card. So one player's Primary Objective may be to assassinate the enemy commander, while the other player has to capture objectives around the board. There may or may not be Secondary missions in play, and the player's Faction objective will also always apply as a Tertiary objective.
Because Narrative missions often use non-standard deployment, the cards also include a diagram showing the shape and position of the deployment zone for each player. As with Competitive missions, the players roll off to see who chooses deployment zones with the winner choosing an appropriate zone and their opponent taking the corresponding zone from their card to suit. For example, if the deployment zone is 'Long Edge' for both players, the winner of the roll would choose either of the long board edges and their opponent would take the other.
As with Competitive Missions, there may be mission special rules that apply. These may restrict Reserves or Reinforcements, or impose other restrictions or bonuses on the force. In Narrative missions, however, these only apply to the player if they appear on their card. So one player may have the 'No Reserves' rule preventing them from keeping units off the table at the start of the game, while the other player may be free to reserve units if they wish.
Narrative missions excel for use in campaigns: where the result of one game has some bearing on which mission is used for the following game. There are a near infinite number of ways to implement a campaign system, though, and so while we intend to produce various campaigns for you to use in the future, players should feel free to let their imagination run wild coming up with custom campaign missions and different ways to link their games together.
To get started with your Narrative journey, we've created three Narrative missions - "Hold the L.Z.", "Go For The Head" and "Resource Grab" - which you can download now from the 'Rules' section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. Just download the PDF, print and cut out the cards, and you're good to go. We will release new narrative cards periodically, to give you something new to wage war over.
Note that you will also need the Objective and Faction Objective cards, which can also be downloaded in PDF form. The Objective cards are also included in the Battle for Zycanthus starter set.
Get your tactical hat on and order the Battle for Zycanthus set, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range, from the webstore here! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.
If you have any questions on Narrative Missions, or any other aspect of Maelstrom's Edge gameplay, feel free to pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.
Game Primer: Missions & Objectives
Posted on Monday Jul 12, 2021 at 06:00pm in Gaming
Game Primer articles will be an ongoing series looking at different aspects of the Maelstrom's Edge rules. Kicking things off, let's have a look at the inner workings of the missions and objectives that affect your games.
The Maelstrom's Edge rules allow for two different mission types - 'Narrative' missions, where each player has their own objectives that support the narrative of the game, and 'Competive' missions which aim to provide a balanced competition through both players having the same objectives. The mission cards that come with the Battle for Zycanthus set (also available for download on the website here) are the latter type.
Each Maelstrom’s Edge mission features several objective types, giving players multiple paths towards victory. Victory Points (VPs) are tabulated at the end of each turn, and if you can manage to reach the total needed to complete the mission while also outpacing your opponent by a wide enough margin, then the game immediately ends with you as the victor! This makes accomplishing mission objectives as efficiently as possible of paramount importance to the game.
Missions are chosen at the start of the game, before deployment, by shuffling together the mission cards and drawing one at random. Each mission card contains a number of pieces of important information, including a list of any mission special rules that apply, and the objectives that players need to achieve in order to gain Victory Points. For easy reference, the objectives are all each printed on reference cards, although these can also be found in the Maelstrom's Edge Rulebook.
Objectives may call for players to destroy or control objective markers scattered around the board, eliminate specific enemy models, capture territory, and so on, with each objective granting Victory Points each turn, at the end of the game, and/or when specific conditions are met. For example, when playing the 'Purple Gold' mission, players gain 2 VPs in turns 1-3 for each refinery objective marker under their control, increasing to 4VPs each from turn 4 onwards. Then at the end of the game, an additional 5 VPs are awarded to the player who controls at least half of the refinery markers.
Purple Gold also has Decimation as a secondary objective, which grants VPs based on how much of the enemy force you have managed to destroy. Players should always be mindful of both Primary and Secondary objectives, as reaching the mission's VP cap with a sufficient 'margin of victory' immediately ends the game! For Purple Gold, this means scoring a total of at least 15 VPs, while also having scored at least 3 more VPs than your opponent. If neither player reaches the required VP goal earlier, standard games of Maelstrom's Edge last for 5 turns. At the end of Turn 5, VPs from any objectives with 'end of game' conditions are applied, and the player with the highest final VP total is the winner - so long as they have a sufficient margin of victory. If neither player manages this, then the game is considered a hard fought draw!
To add a little individuality to the missions, each of the game's different factions also has one or more 'Faction Objectives' which provide a tertiary path to collect VPs. These faction objectives provide themed VPs tailored to that specific force, with some being available to any force made up of that faction, and others being specific to forces that contain certain sub-faction units. For example, any Karist Enclave force can utilise the Secret Cache objective, while a force that includes an Angel Keeper may choose to use the First Contact objective card instead.
Faction objectives usually provide a limited number of VPs, and also grant a special bonus to the force until those limited VPs have been tapped out. The Karist Secret Cache, for example, allows a Karist player with a unit close enough to the cache objective marker to utilise the 'Cache Resupply' rule to re-roll any failed rolls to hit, or to gain an additional VP at the end of the turn. Once they have received 3 VPs from the cache, the objective marker is removed and Cache Resupply can no longer be used.
While all of that can seem a little complicated at first, in practice it creates a layered game experience where achieving a solid victory relies on making best use of the forces at hand, rather than just how quickly you can eliminate enemy units.
It's worth noting in closing that the above all relates specifically to 'Competitive' mission types. We'll explore the differences that Narrative play can bring to the game in a future article.
Get your tactical hat on and order the Battle for Zycanthus set, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range, from the webstore here! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.
If you have any questions on Missions, or any other aspect of Maelstrom's Edge gameplay, feel free to pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.
The Maelstrom's Edge rules allow for two different mission types - 'Narrative' missions, where each player has their own objectives that support the narrative of the game, and 'Competive' missions which aim to provide a balanced competition through both players having the same objectives. The mission cards that come with the Battle for Zycanthus set (also available for download on the website here) are the latter type.
Each Maelstrom’s Edge mission features several objective types, giving players multiple paths towards victory. Victory Points (VPs) are tabulated at the end of each turn, and if you can manage to reach the total needed to complete the mission while also outpacing your opponent by a wide enough margin, then the game immediately ends with you as the victor! This makes accomplishing mission objectives as efficiently as possible of paramount importance to the game.
Missions are chosen at the start of the game, before deployment, by shuffling together the mission cards and drawing one at random. Each mission card contains a number of pieces of important information, including a list of any mission special rules that apply, and the objectives that players need to achieve in order to gain Victory Points. For easy reference, the objectives are all each printed on reference cards, although these can also be found in the Maelstrom's Edge Rulebook.
Objectives may call for players to destroy or control objective markers scattered around the board, eliminate specific enemy models, capture territory, and so on, with each objective granting Victory Points each turn, at the end of the game, and/or when specific conditions are met. For example, when playing the 'Purple Gold' mission, players gain 2 VPs in turns 1-3 for each refinery objective marker under their control, increasing to 4VPs each from turn 4 onwards. Then at the end of the game, an additional 5 VPs are awarded to the player who controls at least half of the refinery markers.
Purple Gold also has Decimation as a secondary objective, which grants VPs based on how much of the enemy force you have managed to destroy. Players should always be mindful of both Primary and Secondary objectives, as reaching the mission's VP cap with a sufficient 'margin of victory' immediately ends the game! For Purple Gold, this means scoring a total of at least 15 VPs, while also having scored at least 3 more VPs than your opponent. If neither player reaches the required VP goal earlier, standard games of Maelstrom's Edge last for 5 turns. At the end of Turn 5, VPs from any objectives with 'end of game' conditions are applied, and the player with the highest final VP total is the winner - so long as they have a sufficient margin of victory. If neither player manages this, then the game is considered a hard fought draw!
To add a little individuality to the missions, each of the game's different factions also has one or more 'Faction Objectives' which provide a tertiary path to collect VPs. These faction objectives provide themed VPs tailored to that specific force, with some being available to any force made up of that faction, and others being specific to forces that contain certain sub-faction units. For example, any Karist Enclave force can utilise the Secret Cache objective, while a force that includes an Angel Keeper may choose to use the First Contact objective card instead.
Faction objectives usually provide a limited number of VPs, and also grant a special bonus to the force until those limited VPs have been tapped out. The Karist Secret Cache, for example, allows a Karist player with a unit close enough to the cache objective marker to utilise the 'Cache Resupply' rule to re-roll any failed rolls to hit, or to gain an additional VP at the end of the turn. Once they have received 3 VPs from the cache, the objective marker is removed and Cache Resupply can no longer be used.
While all of that can seem a little complicated at first, in practice it creates a layered game experience where achieving a solid victory relies on making best use of the forces at hand, rather than just how quickly you can eliminate enemy units.
It's worth noting in closing that the above all relates specifically to 'Competitive' mission types. We'll explore the differences that Narrative play can bring to the game in a future article.
Get your tactical hat on and order the Battle for Zycanthus set, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range, from the webstore here! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.
If you have any questions on Missions, or any other aspect of Maelstrom's Edge gameplay, feel free to pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook group here.
New Broken Faction Objective and Summary Update
Posted on Tuesday Jul 06, 2021 at 06:00pm in Gaming
With the release of the Revolutionary Captain heralding the arrival of SARA forces onto the table, The Broken have some new strategies to bring to the tabletop. To help this along, we've added a new Faction Objective for SARA forces: Moral High Ground.
Along with their military might, SARA forces are deft at using propaganda to demoralise and destabilise enemy forces. This is represented through the Propaganda rule allowing a SARA player to force their opponent to sacrifice a model each turn.
The Moral High Ground card has been added to both the Mission & Objective card pack and Faction Objective card pack, which can be found in the Card Downloads section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here!
The unit cards for the Revolutionary Captain and the Broken Sniper also both introduced some new special rules and equipment. These have now been added to the Broken Summary, which you can find in the Faction Summary Sheets section here.
If you still need the unit cards for these two models, they can also be found in the Card Downloads section, in the Broken Unit Cards PDF.
Build your army of revolutionary doom by picking up these fantastic new models from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.
Along with their military might, SARA forces are deft at using propaganda to demoralise and destabilise enemy forces. This is represented through the Propaganda rule allowing a SARA player to force their opponent to sacrifice a model each turn.
Propaganda
Immediately after your opponent finishes their ‘Destroy Units’ portion of the end phase, nominate one enemy organic model on the table with FOR 1. Your opponent must immediately remove any one of their organic, FOR 1 models from the table as a casualty, however if they choose not to remove the model you nominated, gain 1 VP. If your opponent has no organic FOR 1 models on the table for you to nominate, you automatically gain 1 VP and may place +D3 psych STs on any one enemy unit on the table.
The Moral High Ground card has been added to both the Mission & Objective card pack and Faction Objective card pack, which can be found in the Card Downloads section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here!
The unit cards for the Revolutionary Captain and the Broken Sniper also both introduced some new special rules and equipment. These have now been added to the Broken Summary, which you can find in the Faction Summary Sheets section here.
If you still need the unit cards for these two models, they can also be found in the Card Downloads section, in the Broken Unit Cards PDF.
Build your army of revolutionary doom by picking up these fantastic new models from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore now! Free shipping applies to qualifying orders - check your cart for details.
What is SARA?
Posted on Monday May 31, 2021 at 06:00pm in Gaming
By far the most rare of the Broken sub-factions are the Spiral Arm Revolutionary Army, also known as just SARA. These are Broken who escape their system but cannot abide the immoral way that governments at the Edge continually lie to, and doom the common man to death by the Maelstrom while escaping to safety themselves, and they vow to do whatever it takes to stop this from happening to others. Unlike most Broken, members of SARA are proud to be known as Broken, and often display the Broken symbol on their ships and gear. Like all Broken, SARA engages in piracy to survive, however they make a point to go after very specific targets, namely those they deem to be colluding to save only the rich and powerful from the Maelstrom. They regularly attack Epirian Foundation facilities, blaming the massive, wealthy corporation of profiting off the destruction caused by the Maelstrom while not utilizing these profits to save every person they can. Its unsurprising that SARA is also a natural enemy to the Karist Enclave, as the Karists actively attempt to keep people from escaping the Maelstrom. Unlike other sub-factions of Broken, SARA utilize propaganda and often have secret donors helping to support their cause even when all planetary governments condemn the actions of SARA as those of a terrorist organization.
Tales of SARA have filtered throughout the spiral arm, so similar to the Jackals, there is a constant stream of people moving towards the Maelstrom’s Edge looking to join their cause. However, while SARA sees the Forsaken as potential allies and a pool for recruitment, they are vehemently opposed to Jackals, who they see as poisoning the otherwise good name of the Broken. SARA cells will often go out of their way to attack a Jackal stronghold when they discover its location.
With their well-equipped, fast-moving fleets, SARA does wage some military campaigns at worlds right at the Edge, mainly by attacking external forces that have laid siege to a planet so as to exploit its resources before the Maelstrom arrives. But even when they’re successful in these types of campaigns, the number of people they can actually rescue is often quite small, basically just those who can fit onto the ships they manage to liberate during the fighting. As a result, SARA instead prefers to target worlds that are still a few generations away from being threatened by the Maelstrom, but are downplaying the danger to their populace and secretly shuttling away the rich and powerful. These types of worlds almost always have secret cells of SARA already in operation, funded by secret donors who see SARA as either a philanthropic cause or just a way to guarantee their own escape from the Maelstrom. These cells seek to weaken local government and ferret out hidden Karist Enclave cells. Bolstered by reinforcements from out-system, SARA groups will spread their infiltration throughout the society to fuel full scale revolts. It isn’t entirely unknown for SARA to completely topple a government this way, and turn the planet’s full scale production towards producing ships to save as many people as possible.
SARA is very much a paramilitary organization and more often than not, the founders of a cell start as lower echelon military units on a dying world who realize their government is not going to save them. They spend years organizing rebellions, training civilians to fight, struggling to get as many people off-planet as possible. As SARA contains a higher percentage of military-trained individuals, it tends to be much more regimented and organized than most Broken forces, and has better discipline and morale. When the time comes for open conflict, SARA cells are organised into brigades, each led by a Revolutionary Colonel. Each brigade is comprised of a varying number of companies depending on the number of SARA units available, each led by a Revolutionary Captain. When SARA manages to rescue souls from a dying world or from ships that have no place to go, able-bodied adults are offered a place in a SARA company for a certain period of time - usually 5 to 10 years, depending on the particular cell. After their service time is up, they are free to leave and try to find their own way in the galaxy, though many choose to remain with the fleet. In this way, SARA fleets are constantly provided with a stream of new recruits.
While from outside SARA is commonly seen as a single entity, there is no true central leadership and each brigade acts autonomously. Some degree of communication between fleets does exist, through cells utilising fast courier vessels or infiltrating Comm Guild facilities and piggybacking support requests or warnings onto authorised Guild messages. This allows SARA fleets to converge when a larger response is required than each can handle alone, or to avoid systems where the danger from the Maelstrom’s unpredictable advance is too great to risk their valuable resources. Sharing similar goals does not always guarantee co-operation though, as fleet commanders may disagree on the value of specific objectives or the best allocation of resources, occasionally even leading to conflict between different SARA brigades.
SO... why are we telling you all this?
Next week sees the release of our new, plastic SARA commander model, which will open up new options for your Broken forces in Maelstrom's Edge. We will also have a showcase article to follow the commander, with a SARA force being put together by Iain - stay tuned!
Put together your own ill-equipped rabble of doom by picking up the plastic Broken infantry sprues, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range from the webstore here.
Then pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group to show us what you're working on!
For other building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.
Tales of SARA have filtered throughout the spiral arm, so similar to the Jackals, there is a constant stream of people moving towards the Maelstrom’s Edge looking to join their cause. However, while SARA sees the Forsaken as potential allies and a pool for recruitment, they are vehemently opposed to Jackals, who they see as poisoning the otherwise good name of the Broken. SARA cells will often go out of their way to attack a Jackal stronghold when they discover its location.
With their well-equipped, fast-moving fleets, SARA does wage some military campaigns at worlds right at the Edge, mainly by attacking external forces that have laid siege to a planet so as to exploit its resources before the Maelstrom arrives. But even when they’re successful in these types of campaigns, the number of people they can actually rescue is often quite small, basically just those who can fit onto the ships they manage to liberate during the fighting. As a result, SARA instead prefers to target worlds that are still a few generations away from being threatened by the Maelstrom, but are downplaying the danger to their populace and secretly shuttling away the rich and powerful. These types of worlds almost always have secret cells of SARA already in operation, funded by secret donors who see SARA as either a philanthropic cause or just a way to guarantee their own escape from the Maelstrom. These cells seek to weaken local government and ferret out hidden Karist Enclave cells. Bolstered by reinforcements from out-system, SARA groups will spread their infiltration throughout the society to fuel full scale revolts. It isn’t entirely unknown for SARA to completely topple a government this way, and turn the planet’s full scale production towards producing ships to save as many people as possible.
SARA is very much a paramilitary organization and more often than not, the founders of a cell start as lower echelon military units on a dying world who realize their government is not going to save them. They spend years organizing rebellions, training civilians to fight, struggling to get as many people off-planet as possible. As SARA contains a higher percentage of military-trained individuals, it tends to be much more regimented and organized than most Broken forces, and has better discipline and morale. When the time comes for open conflict, SARA cells are organised into brigades, each led by a Revolutionary Colonel. Each brigade is comprised of a varying number of companies depending on the number of SARA units available, each led by a Revolutionary Captain. When SARA manages to rescue souls from a dying world or from ships that have no place to go, able-bodied adults are offered a place in a SARA company for a certain period of time - usually 5 to 10 years, depending on the particular cell. After their service time is up, they are free to leave and try to find their own way in the galaxy, though many choose to remain with the fleet. In this way, SARA fleets are constantly provided with a stream of new recruits.
While from outside SARA is commonly seen as a single entity, there is no true central leadership and each brigade acts autonomously. Some degree of communication between fleets does exist, through cells utilising fast courier vessels or infiltrating Comm Guild facilities and piggybacking support requests or warnings onto authorised Guild messages. This allows SARA fleets to converge when a larger response is required than each can handle alone, or to avoid systems where the danger from the Maelstrom’s unpredictable advance is too great to risk their valuable resources. Sharing similar goals does not always guarantee co-operation though, as fleet commanders may disagree on the value of specific objectives or the best allocation of resources, occasionally even leading to conflict between different SARA brigades.
SO... why are we telling you all this?
Next week sees the release of our new, plastic SARA commander model, which will open up new options for your Broken forces in Maelstrom's Edge. We will also have a showcase article to follow the commander, with a SARA force being put together by Iain - stay tuned!
Put together your own ill-equipped rabble of doom by picking up the plastic Broken infantry sprues, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge range from the webstore here.
Then pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group to show us what you're working on!
For other building ideas, modeling tutorials, army spotlights and conversion walkthroughs, check out the Hobby section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here.
Unofficial Faction Rules - Trogyl Scouts
Posted on Monday Nov 30, 2020 at 05:00pm in Gaming
A few weeks ago, I shared a conversion article featuring some homebrew alien Trogyl Scouts, kitbashed from Wargames Atlantic Einherjar and Maelstrom's Edge Broken parts (find it here). While this was a fairly simple conversion, I was so happy with the results that it seemed a shame to leave them cooling their heels in the display case. So, I've worked up a rules card for them, adding them into a new (unofficial) 'Mercenary' faction!
Trogyl Scouts infiltrating a Karist encampment.
Mercenaries are an idea that I've been wanting to explore for a while now. As I've conceived them, rather than being a standalone faction in their own right, the Mercenary faction will allow the addition of less mainstream units that can be taken in a detachment drawn from another faction, although you will have to use up double the normal unit slots for the privilege. Need some more heavy firepower for your Broken force? Want something sneaky to back up you Epirians? Call in the mercs!
Trogyl Scouts.
The Trogyl are capable fighters, although lightly armed compared to some of the heavy hitters of the Edge. WIth their beam blastguns and ritual axes, they utilise their Scout ability to get in close to the enemy, while their Stealth rule allows them to make better use of available cover than most other troops. If a more long-ranged solution is called for, their blastguns can be swapped out for assault rifles or sniper rifles, and the unit also has the option to take a single heavier weapon, choosing from a grenade launcher, massive torch or plasma cannon.
Trogyl Scouts rules card.
The unofficial rules card for the Trogyl can be downloaded here. The download also includes a summary card with the weapon and special rules that apply to the unit. This will be expanded out into a full summary page when other mercenary units join the fray, but for now that seemed excessive.
Trogyl Scouts Summary.
While your Trogyl are getting sneaky with it, you can share your battle reports, army building, or any feedback on these rules in the Comm Guild Facebook group!
If you're just getting started, or looking to expand your force, you can pick up the entire Maelstrom's Edge model range from the webstore here.
Happy Gaming!
More Updated Summaries!
Posted on Monday Oct 12, 2020 at 05:00pm in Gaming
Continuing on with our rules updates on the Maelstrom's Edge website! Last week we updated the faction summaries for the Broken and Epirians, covering all of the new units and options that have been added since the previous iteration of the summaries. This week the Karists were similarly brought in line, and we've also added a new summary covering the rules and weapons used by the various 'unofficial' units. This covers the gear and rules used by the likes of Epirian Wardens, Broken Gnolti Longhorns and Karist Reapers, which can be built with some conversion work.
You can find the updated summaries along with downloadable versions of the unit cards in the rules section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here! And if you're looking for the conversion articles for the various 'unofficial' units, you'll find them in the 'Modeling Articles' area of the Hobby section here.
If you have any questions on the rules, or building your models for Maelstrom's Edge, feel free to pop in to the Comm Guild Facebook Group!
Updated Faction Rules Summaries
Posted on Monday Oct 05, 2020 at 05:00pm in Gaming
Because flicking through books looking up rules cuts into valuable gaming time, (and nobody wants that!) the Maelstrom's Edge website has downloadable Faction Summaries that include all of the special rules and weapons profiles for each faction. Since the last iteration of the Epirian and Broken summaries were created, however, we've released quite a few new units and options for both of those factions. Well, good news! These summaries have now been fully updated to cover everything currently available for both factions.
You can find the updated summaries in the rules section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here!
Unofficial Faction Rules - Imperial Marines.
Posted on Monday Sept 21, 2020 at 05:00pm in Gaming
When you've been dabbling in miniature wargames for a while, miniatures have a way of accruing, particularly if you collect multiple games systems. And that's fine, since it means more miniatures for the cabinet. It can be nice, however, to get a bit more mileage out of the collection by using those miniatures in different systems from time to time. With that in mind, this week I'm breaking out some old miniatures and fleshing out an extra faction for Maelstrom's Edge at the same time, with a finished (for now) version of my unofficial Imperial Marine rules!
Epirians face off against an Imperial Marine force comprised of Anvil Industry Exo-Lords and an old Havok Battle Form from Bluebird Toys.
I published a very rough, WIP version of these rules some time ago, but finally found the time to flesh them out, adding some more unit and gear options to cover a wider range of models. While it doesn't include every available model option out there, this should let you field a reasonably varied force comprised of any suitably power-armoured models from any of the various manufacturers out there.
Karist troopers watch as a Mature Angel wades into an Imperial Marine force built from Games Workshop Space Marines.
The rules you'll need to build an Imperial Marine force are split into two downloads. The first compiles all of the current unit cards, while the second has the Faction Summary, listing the faction objective, weapons and applicable special rules for the Imperial Marine faction.
Imperial Marine Unit Cards - Download here
Imperial Marine Faction Summary - Download here
You can also find these in the Rules section of the Maelstrom's Edge website. Note that these rules are intended as just a fun way to use some of your non-Maelstrom's Edge models in your games. The Imperial Marine faction is not a 'canon' part of the Maelstrom's Edge background, nor are the rules an official part of the game, so you should only use them with your opponent's consent.
Imperial Marine rules.
In time, there will be additions to come for this faction, with some more unit options, maybe a vehicle or two, and some more Faction Objectives and commander options to flesh out different sub-factions. In the meantime, though, feel free to bust out some marines and give these rules a go!
Epirian SecDef defend a landing platform against an Imperial Marine strike team. Marine miniatures taken from the long out of production Space Crusade game from Milton Bradley.
While you're gaming, you can share your battle reports, army building, or any feedback on these rules in the Comm Guild Facebook group!
And, of course, to put together some opponents for your Marine force, you can pick up the entire Maelstrom's Edge model range from the webstore here.
Non-Maelstrom's Edge miniatures used in this article are © their respective manufacturers, and are used without permission.
Battle Report: Remnant vs Epirian Foundation
Posted on Friday Sept 04, 2020 at 05:00pm in Gaming
This week, I took a small break from gluing things to other things. Slopping paint around is fun and all, but the whole point of putting these models together is, of course, to play games with them! So for a slight change of pace this week, here's a 150 point battle report featuring an Epirian Foundation force squaring off against the an Artarian Remnant fire team!
Click here to read it!
New Faction Objective Cards for the Artarian Remnant!
Posted on Tuesday Dec 10, 2019 at 05:00pm in Gaming
Standard missions in Maelstrom's Edge include multiple objectives for players to rack up those all-important Victory Points. While the Primary and Secondary mission objectives are shared by both players, they each also have an objective specific to their own faction. The Artarian Remnant has been missing these faction-specific objectives until now, but we're pleased to announce that they are now available from the Card Downloads section of the Maelstrom's Edge website!
In keeping with the individual nature of Remnant fire teams, we've given you three different faction objectives to choose from!
When Remnant Champions go to war, their exploits are followed avidly back in their fleets by crowds of Artarians, all rooting for their favourite fire teams and champions. Crowd favour can be fickle, depending on successes or failure on the field, but the attention of the masses can provide a boost to a battling champion.
If you choose Favour of the Crowd as your faction objective, you can represent this attention through an extra command point bestowed upon the first suit you activate each turn. As champions can use command points to boost their suit systems through the Overcharge rule, this can come in very handy when a suit needs that little bit extra.
The attention of the crowds doesn't just convey approval (or lack of) to the fighting champions, but can also focus the fire team's efforts against particular enemy units at whim. The Great Hunt faction objective represents this by allowing you to nominate an enemy unit as your current Hunt target each turn. Successfully destroying this target will grant you VPs and additional command points. Even if you don't destroy your Hunt targets, though, nominating a unit as such can be a handy way of forcing your opponent to keep that unit away from the main action to avoid giving away VPs, allowing you to steer the battle where you want it to go!
Finally, the Epic Hero faction objective lets you take to the field with an accomplished hero of the Artarian Remnant. This hero's exploits have earned him fame and fortune amongst his own people, and the enmity of the enemies of the Remnant.
The Epic Hero gains you additional VPs for every enemy unit they destroy, but at the risk of also giving away a VP to your opponent if your hero is brought down!
To try these out for yourself, you can download the cards now from the Card Downloads section of the Maelstrom's Edge website. We would love to hear how they work out for you in your games, so be sure to pop over to the Comm Guild Facebook Group and share your war stories!
You can pick up the plastic Militus battlesuit model, used to create various suit variants for your Remnant fire teams, from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here!
In keeping with the individual nature of Remnant fire teams, we've given you three different faction objectives to choose from!
When Remnant Champions go to war, their exploits are followed avidly back in their fleets by crowds of Artarians, all rooting for their favourite fire teams and champions. Crowd favour can be fickle, depending on successes or failure on the field, but the attention of the masses can provide a boost to a battling champion.
If you choose Favour of the Crowd as your faction objective, you can represent this attention through an extra command point bestowed upon the first suit you activate each turn. As champions can use command points to boost their suit systems through the Overcharge rule, this can come in very handy when a suit needs that little bit extra.
The attention of the crowds doesn't just convey approval (or lack of) to the fighting champions, but can also focus the fire team's efforts against particular enemy units at whim. The Great Hunt faction objective represents this by allowing you to nominate an enemy unit as your current Hunt target each turn. Successfully destroying this target will grant you VPs and additional command points. Even if you don't destroy your Hunt targets, though, nominating a unit as such can be a handy way of forcing your opponent to keep that unit away from the main action to avoid giving away VPs, allowing you to steer the battle where you want it to go!
Finally, the Epic Hero faction objective lets you take to the field with an accomplished hero of the Artarian Remnant. This hero's exploits have earned him fame and fortune amongst his own people, and the enmity of the enemies of the Remnant.
The Epic Hero gains you additional VPs for every enemy unit they destroy, but at the risk of also giving away a VP to your opponent if your hero is brought down!
To try these out for yourself, you can download the cards now from the Card Downloads section of the Maelstrom's Edge website. We would love to hear how they work out for you in your games, so be sure to pop over to the Comm Guild Facebook Group and share your war stories!
You can pick up the plastic Militus battlesuit model, used to create various suit variants for your Remnant fire teams, from the Maelstrom's Edge webstore here!
Trial Transport Rules - Downloadable PDF
Posted on Monday Oct 28, 2019 at 05:00pm in Gaming
From time to time, we'll be offering a chance to test out new ideas in development. These trial rules will potentially change during development, but will give you an idea of where they're going, and let you try out something new.
You can now download some trial rules for fielding vehicles that can transport infantry units around the battlefield. A version of these rules will be included in the next edition of the Maelstrom's Edge rules, but this version, tailored to fit into the V1 ruleset, lets you kick some tyres a little earlier.
Also included in the download are some unofficial rules cards for Epirian, Karist and Broken transport vehicles, to give you something to test these rules with. Conversions to build some of these have been featured in previous Comm Guild modeling articles, and you can use these as inspiration for your own vehicles, or feel free to use whichever other appropriate vehicles you like.
You can download the trial transport rules from the Maelstrom's Edge website here.
We would love feedback on the rules, or to see your transport vehicle builds. Pop on in to the Comm Guild Facebook Group!
Printable Mission & Objective cards now online!
Posted on Monday Sept 09, 2019 at 05:00pm in Gaming
The core Mission and Objective cards for Maelstrom's Edge are supplied in the Battle for Zycanthus starter set, along with the various other bits and pieces you need to play. For those who don't have the box or need replacements, you can now find all of the cards in printable PDF format in the Card Downloads section of the Maelstrom's Edge website, under the 'Rules' category heading in the menu.
This PDF document includes all of the core Missions and Objectives, and all of the exclusive Faction Objectives for the Epirian, Karist and Broken factions. Watch this space for an update with Faction Objectives for the Artarian Remnant very soon!
This PDF document includes all of the core Missions and Objectives, and all of the exclusive Faction Objectives for the Epirian, Karist and Broken factions. Watch this space for an update with Faction Objectives for the Artarian Remnant very soon!
Rules for the Artarian Remnant are now online!
Posted on Tuesday Jul 30, 2019 at 05:00pm in Gaming
This month, the forces of the Artarian Remnant assemble to storm the battlefields of the Edge, with the release of rules cards for the Militus battlesuit!
With a wide array of different gear and weapons available to them, the Militus is the most widespread of the suit types in use by Remnant champions. The suit classes that can be built straight from the plastic Militus kit are represented on five rules cards - two different command options, and three different troop options, which you can now find in the Remnant section of the online Force List.
Faction Abilities
All Militus suit types have the 'Aerial Insertion' rule, to represent the fire team deploying from orbit. What makes them truly special compared to other armies, though, is the 'Crowd Favorites' rule. Combat is an extreme sport for Lorican Champions, and fire teams broadcast their exploits back to adoring fans on the vast ships of the Remnant Fleets, who in turn convey their support to their chosen Champions in the form of Favor.
While Remnant forces receive Command Points each turn for any Command models in play, they also gain an additional point for every 3 Lorican Champions currently on the table. This represents the Champions being boosted by the support of the watching crowds back in the fleet. These Command Points can then be used by the Champions to Overcharge their suits, allowing them to move faster, buff their weapons, or improve their defensive abilities, at the expense of generating heat. Heat is represented by additional Suppression, and can be dispersed through the use of Venting systems.
Militus Warrior
The most common Militus class is the Warrior. A Core choice in a Remnant detachment, the Militus Warrior wields powerful ranged or melee weapons on its arms. It can be equipped with a field generator backpack, and also has access to a third, shoulder-mounted weapon or an assortment of support equipment.
Note: We will be releasing a resin upgrade pack which will include all of the support equipment options, but we have included these options on the cards for now to let you try them out!
Militus Warrior Prime
Experienced Lorican champions may eventually wind up commanding fire teams in combat, and bear the rank of 'Prime' to show their status. The Warrior Prime's 'Counterattack' ability gives his units a boost when retaliating against enemy fire.
Militus Skyrunner
The Skyrunner eschews the protection of a field generator, or the extra firepower of a shoulder mounted weapon in favour of the mobility boost provided by a Lorican Boostpack. While more limited in options than other Militus classes, the Skyrunner serves as a handy Vanguard option for capturing territory and getting the drop on slower enemy units.
A Skyrunner Prime retains the mobility of their class, and can use their enhanced view of the battlefield to better co-ordinate the movement of their units with the 'Mobile Strike' ability.
Militus Dominator
A more specialised class like the Skyrunner, the Dominator trades in support options in favour of overwhelming firepower. While they lack the ability to take the heavier weaponry available to larger Brutus class suits, Dominators opt for twin ranged weapons on their shoulders to maximise their ability to rain punishing fire on their opponents.
So, What's Next?
Well, as we mentioned, there will be a resin upgrade pack coming, with an array of different support options and some special parts to customise your Primes.
Of course, the Militus isn't the only weapon in the Remnant arsenal, and many Lorican Champions take to the field in the heavier Brutus or super-light Nimbus suits. Both of these will be added to the force with resin models later this year.
In the meantime, though, the multiple variants of Militus suit give you plenty of options for building different forces and taking on the less-well-equipped and considerably squishier factions opposing them on the Maelstrom's Edge!
The Militus kit is available now, along with the rest of the Maelstrom's Edge model range in the webstore here.
You can see the unit cards in the online Force Listing section here, and you can also find a downloadable, printable version in the 'Rules' section of the website here!
Happy Gaming!
Maelstrom's Edge V2 Rules - Help, I'm being suppressed!
Posted on Thursday Jun 13, 2019 at 03:27am in Gaming
As we've mentioned before, we're currently beavering away on the second edition rules for Maelstrom's Edge, and over the coming months will be showcasing changes and refinements, and asking for feedback on different directions for the rules. Previously, we had a brief look at the change to model characteristic profiles. This time around, we're looking at weapon profiles!
In V2, suppression will have a much bigger impact on how your units perform on the table (more on that later!). As a side effect of that, being able to suppress enemy units becomes much more useful. We have allowed players to capitalise on this by intruducing a 'Suppression' (SUP) stat to the weapon profile.
You will now be able to choose between two different types of shooting attacks. You can fire normally, which applies suppression to the target unit if it is hit and/or damaged similarly to how it works in V1. Alternatively, you can choose to use 'Suppressive Fire', which doesn't cause direct damage like normal shooting, but allows you to roll against the weapon's SUP stat and increase the target's suppression for each successful roll. This represents your unit spraying the enemy with fire to force their heads down, rather than taking carefully aimed shots.
This gives you some tactical choices when you are electing to shoot with a unit, and also means that units armed with low powered weapons aren't necessarily completely useless against tougher opponents - you might not have much chance of wounding them with regular shooting, but you can potentially still use suppressive fire to soften them up for other units, and if their suppression goes high enough they start taking automatic damage!
If you want to know more, you can join in on the discussion of the new rules, and download a copy of the current draft rules for V2, in the development thread on the DakkaDakka forums here. You can also post any feedback in the Comm Guild Facebook group here.
If you haven't tried Maelstrom's Edge yet, and don't want to wait for V2, you can download the PDF version of the current Maelstrom's Edge rulebook from the website here!
In V2, suppression will have a much bigger impact on how your units perform on the table (more on that later!). As a side effect of that, being able to suppress enemy units becomes much more useful. We have allowed players to capitalise on this by intruducing a 'Suppression' (SUP) stat to the weapon profile.
You will now be able to choose between two different types of shooting attacks. You can fire normally, which applies suppression to the target unit if it is hit and/or damaged similarly to how it works in V1. Alternatively, you can choose to use 'Suppressive Fire', which doesn't cause direct damage like normal shooting, but allows you to roll against the weapon's SUP stat and increase the target's suppression for each successful roll. This represents your unit spraying the enemy with fire to force their heads down, rather than taking carefully aimed shots.
This gives you some tactical choices when you are electing to shoot with a unit, and also means that units armed with low powered weapons aren't necessarily completely useless against tougher opponents - you might not have much chance of wounding them with regular shooting, but you can potentially still use suppressive fire to soften them up for other units, and if their suppression goes high enough they start taking automatic damage!
If you want to know more, you can join in on the discussion of the new rules, and download a copy of the current draft rules for V2, in the development thread on the DakkaDakka forums here. You can also post any feedback in the Comm Guild Facebook group here.
If you haven't tried Maelstrom's Edge yet, and don't want to wait for V2, you can download the PDF version of the current Maelstrom's Edge rulebook from the website here!
Maelstrom's Edge V2 Rules - Getting up close and personal!
Posted on Thursday May 16, 2019 at 01:11am in Gaming
We're hard at work on a second edition rulebook for Maelstrom's Edge, and over the coming months will be showcasing changes and refinements, and asking for feedback on different directions for the rules. One of the bigger changes we're implementing involves the number of dice rolled by models in Close Quarters attacks.
In the current Maelstrom's Edge rules, unless you have a melee weapon with a specified SHO value, the number of dice you roll for Close Quarters attacks is determined by a neat little formula that uses the model's EVS, MAS and FOR stats. While this provides some nice granularity, and allows for a large model's CQ ability to be reduced as it takes damage, it's also a little awkward to calculate on the fly. As a result, it's the one thing in the V1 rules that, going by player feedback, is almost universally disliked by players. We've taken that feedback on board for V2, and will be changing model statlines to include a shiny, new Close Quarters Attacks (CQA) characteristic!
This entirely replaces the current formula - No more algebra in the middle of the game, you just look at the CQA stat, and roll that many dice! This does mean that large models no longer lose shots as they are wounded, but this will be accounted for elsewhere, with their ability to use multiple weapons being affected instead.
You can join in on the discussion of the new rules, and download a copy of the current draft rules for V2, in the development thread on the DakkaDakka forums here. You can also post any feedback in the Comm Guild Facebook group here.
If you haven't tried Maelstrom's Edge yet, and don't want to wait for V2, you can download the PDF version of the current Maelstrom's Edge rulebook from the website here!
In the current Maelstrom's Edge rules, unless you have a melee weapon with a specified SHO value, the number of dice you roll for Close Quarters attacks is determined by a neat little formula that uses the model's EVS, MAS and FOR stats. While this provides some nice granularity, and allows for a large model's CQ ability to be reduced as it takes damage, it's also a little awkward to calculate on the fly. As a result, it's the one thing in the V1 rules that, going by player feedback, is almost universally disliked by players. We've taken that feedback on board for V2, and will be changing model statlines to include a shiny, new Close Quarters Attacks (CQA) characteristic!
This entirely replaces the current formula - No more algebra in the middle of the game, you just look at the CQA stat, and roll that many dice! This does mean that large models no longer lose shots as they are wounded, but this will be accounted for elsewhere, with their ability to use multiple weapons being affected instead.
You can join in on the discussion of the new rules, and download a copy of the current draft rules for V2, in the development thread on the DakkaDakka forums here. You can also post any feedback in the Comm Guild Facebook group here.
If you haven't tried Maelstrom's Edge yet, and don't want to wait for V2, you can download the PDF version of the current Maelstrom's Edge rulebook from the website here!
