Vogen Crusade Update

 Crusade Rules

Playing Crusade games, especially starting at the 25 Power Level and working up from there, has been very enjoyable. It has also, unfortunately, exposed some rather glaring problems with the Crusade rules in general.

1.

The record keeping is, to some extent, quite onerous, especially when you keep a battle log of every battle played, and all the XP and kills accrues by each unit, for every battle they participated in. I did this so that I would be sure that I had counted each units XP gain and kills properly, and that if/when I ever get to play some Crusade games with other real people, I could show them the record. Yes, I know it could be faked, but why would someone do that? I mean, considering the effort it takes just to get it right...that's a lot of effort to fake some XP. Anyway, I digress.

2.

The small board size significantly changes the nature of 40K, especially when one of the armies is a melee specialist, and especially when they lean all the way into being an assault army. I like the Goff fluff, so I take loads of boyz. The only reason my Goff Crusade Waaagh! isn't just Boyz and characters is because I couldn't get the PL numbers to work at both 25 and 50 Power games, so I had to add Nobz and Grots.

I went this route not for power gaming reasons, but for fluff reasons. Goffs are supposed to be the one klan that can bring the most boyz to any battle. So I do. But when you get to start less than 24" away, sometimes as close as 9", well, the other army NEEDS to bring their anti-infantry firepower, and even then, sometimes it's still not enough. It really isn't much of a game when the assault army gets first turn and makes it into combat before the other guy even gets to shoot.

3.

The extra rules that a veteran unit earns can just absolutely turn mediocre-to-good units into unstoppable juggernauts, as evidenced by my Skarboyz unit that earned ONE Battle Trait (re-roll 1's to hit) and they never really needed another one. This unit became so good with just that one upgrade, more upgrades would have been rude. 40K already has some balance issues, and these upgrades just make it worse, and not by a little bit.

4.

High-point units that would usually be used in a competitive list turn into game controlling monoliths. Take for example, and this isn't even the most egregious unit I can think of, a 10 man unit of Terminators, with two Cyclone Missile Launchers, running as Imperial Fists.

This unit costs 435 points, which is irrelevant, but it is still an indicator of a units' strength, and it costs 18 Power. So you could take two units in a 50 PL roster. 

This unit puts out 40 bolter shots, that can hit on 2+ by using a 1 CP stratagem (so every turn), and still fire 4 missiles at something else. It should have a re-roll 1's to hit aura from a nearby Captain, cuz that's who leads Crusades, at least by my reckoning. 6's to hit explode for an additional auto-hit, which you should get roughly  of. It also has 2+ armour (1+ in Light Cover) and 30 wounds, not to mention the S8 AP-3 2D powerfist each guy wields.

This unit will basically make the game unfun for the other guy unless he has something that can counter it, and in the case of a hard counter, it will make your unit seem non-functional, and make the game unfun for you. And on a small board, at low point values/low PL, you just can't bring enough tools in the tool box to cover everything out there in the game. It shoots infantry hordes off the table, with a strat or two it kills 2 vehicles a turn and is only threatened by a melee unit dedicated to dealing with heavy infantry.

AHA! I hear you say, that's why the units get to gain Battle Honours! It increases those units' general lethality so you have something you can use to fight the thing you don't really have a tool for. Increasing lethality in an edition that is already the most lethal edition ever has its own drawbacks and issues. Like games really being over turn 1, and playing the game out for formality's sake.

All of that to say that, for the time being, I'm done Crusading. I'm moving back to 2000 point matched play games with the new 2021 Chapter Approved book, hopefully a new Orks (or whatever new trademarkable name they have come up with) codex, my Green Tide list, in whatever new form it takes, my 43 man all-Terminator army, and my brand new Astra Militarum regiment, the 48th Kreigian Light Infantry. Pictures next time, I hope! New models, so excited!

Until next time, happy gaming!