Tournament - DFM 2010 RIP Bawl 5th Ed Cities of Death Article v1

8/8/2019 Tournament - DFM 2010 RIP Bawl 5th Ed Cities of Death Article v1

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Death Fears ME! Central Oregon Warhammer 40,000 Tournament Series – October 30, 2010

RIP: REST IN PIECES BAWL!

Cities of Death Games in Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Cities_of_Death_Games_in_Warhammer_40,000_5th_EditionWritten by: biztheclown and yakfacePictures by: Glaive Company CO and AgeOfEgos

I. Introduction1.The ‘RAW’ Boxes

II. Playing a Cityfight1.Choose Forces2.Agree Mission Level andPlace Terrain3.Choose a Mission andDeployment style4.Roll For Deployment5.Choose and DeclareStratagems6.Deploy Forces

7.Let Battle Commence

III. Cities of Death RuleChanges

1.Using City Ruinsi. Defining Terrainii. Vertical Movementiii. Line of Sight2.Occupying a City Ruin3.Scoring Units4.Dangerous City Ruins5.Destroying City Ruins6.Deployment Zones

7.Random Game Length8.Mission Special Rules9.Cityfighting Stratagems

i. Command Center Stratagem

ii. PreliminaryBombardmentStratagem

iii. Combat Engineer Stratagem

iv. Tanks Traps Stratagemv. Deep Strike & Infiltrate

Stratagemsvi. Sewer Rats Stratagem

IV. 5th Edition Cities of DeathMission Objectives

1.5th Edition Firesweep2.5th Edition High Ground3.5th Edition Domination4.5th Edition Maximum Attrition5.5th Edition Urban Assault

6.5th Edition Secure theObjective

V. Design Notes

VI. Cities of Death FAQ1.STRATAGEMS (Pages 33-40)

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As suggested in the GW conversion article, this meansplayers should decide before the game which style of scoring unit they want to use.

2. Agree Mission Level and Place

TerrainChoose the mission level based on terrain available andarmy sizes.

Players place the terrain as indicated on Cities of Deathpage 15.

3. Choose a Mission and

Deployment styleYou can both agree with your opponent which mission toplay or roll D6 and consult the chart below:

After selecting the mission, select Deployment style:

Cities of Death MissionsWhen playing by the RAW, use the Cities of Deathmissions exactly as presented on pages 42-44 of theCities of Death book, including all of the rules found therefor deployment zones, etc.

This also means players roll for missions from the chartfound on page 16 of the Cities of Death book.

4. Roll for DeploymentRoll off for first deployment as indicated on pages 92-93 of the Warhammer 40K rulebook.Cities of Death Rolling for DeploymentWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game you will be

using the mission rules exactly as presented on pages 42-44 of the Cities of Death book.

Note that this means, very similar to 4th edition, whoever wins the roll for deployment will not necessarily be player who takes the first turn in the game.

5. Choose and Declare StratagemsDecide what Cityfighting Stratagems to use and declarethem as stated on page 33 of the Cities of Death book.Revise stratagems as listed below under Cities of DeathRule Changes.

6. Deploy ForcesDeploy according to pages 92-93 of the Warhammer 40Krulebook, revised below under Cities of Death RuleChanges.

Then refer to the “Seize the Initiative!” rule as describedon page 92 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.

Cities of Death Deployment

When playing a RAW Cities of Death game you will beusing the mission rules exactly as presented on pages 42-44 of the Cities of Death book.

That means you'll be deploying in a style very similar to4th edition where each player takes a turn placing a unituntil both players have finished deploying their entirearmies and then players roll off to see who gets the choiceto go first or second.

7. Let Battle CommenceBegin with the first turn and fight amidst the ruins of theCities of Death!

III. Cities of Death Rule Changes

1. Using City RuinsIgnore any rules on pages 8-13 of the Cities of Deathbook that contradict the Warhammer 40,000 rulebookrules, except where noted below.

i. Defining Terrain


Alpha: Played on a 4'x4' table with 2-3 city ruins.Players receive 1 cityfighting stratagem. Suitable for games up to about 1250 points.

Gamma: Played on a 4'x4' table with 4-6 city ruins.Players receive 2 cityfighting stratagems. Suitable for games from about 750-1500 points.

Omega: Played on a 6'x4' table with as many city ruinsas possible. The more the better – as shown on p28 of Cities of Death. Players receive 3 cityfightingstratagems. Suitable for games 1500 points and up.

1 - 5th Edition Firesweep2 - 5th Edition High Ground3 - 5th Edition Domination4 - 5th Edition Maximum Attrition5 - 5th Edition Urban Assault6 - 5th Edition Secure the Objective

1-2 - Pitched Battle3-4 - Spearhead5-6 - Dawn of War

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Note that Skimmers may now only "normally" end their move over a ruin if they can physically be placed there. Defining Buildings and Ruins in Cities of DeathWhen playing a Cities of Death game by the RAW notethat intact buildings are impassable terrain (and thereforecannot be entered) and that ruins without a base still

count as having a 'footprint' on the ground floor as shownon page 9 of the Cities of Death book.

Of course, players are also told to define their terrainbefore the game, so even in a 'RAW' game this givesplayers a perfect opportunity to nominate enclosedbuildings they wish to use the rules for enclosed buildingsin the rulebook, for example.

Note that GW's conversion article does suggest that youshould use the 5th edition rules for enclosed buildings.

ii. Vertical MovementThe one exception to ignoring the Cities of Death Ruinsrules (as discussed in Using City Ruins), is that of verticalmovement.

Because so much vertical movement is used in Cities of Death games, ignore the vertical movement rules on page83 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook and instead followthose presented on page 10 of the Cities of Death book(which allows a model to move the same distancevertically as well as moving that distance horizontally).

Also, you may want to remove the limitation on "Beasts"from moving vertically into ruins (although it still feels right for Cavalry and Bikes to be penalized this way), otherwisethere are several units (such as Tyranid Hormagaunts)that will have little use in your Cities of Death games.

Of course, if you like how difficult it is to reach models upin tall ruins in 5th edition, then by all means follow the full

rules for vertical movement in the Warhammer 40,000rulebook!

Moving Vertically in Cities of DeathWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game, models areallowed to make their movement distance both verticallyand horizontally at the same time (so if a model rolls a '6'on their difficult terrain test, they are allowed to move both6" vertically and 6" horizontally in the same turn). Thismakes it much quicker easier for units in Cities of Deathgames to move up and down ruins.

Note that Beasts, Cavalry, and Bikes are not able to movevertically into ruins as described on page 83 of theWarhammer 40,000 rulebook.

iii. Line of SightIgnore references to terrain category sizes and the“determining line of sight” section on page 11 of the Citiesof Death book and instead use both the "Line of sight"(LOS) and "Building & Ruins" rules found on pages 16and 77-85 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook,respectively.

Cities of Death Line of SightThe Cities of Death book does not present full rules for line of sight but instead refers back to the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.

As such, even when playing a RAW Cities of Death gameyou will have to follow the line of sight rules presented inthe Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.

2. Occupying a City RuinIgnore the rules for "Occupying a City Ruin" on page 42 of the Cities of Death book. Instead, a city ruin is consideredoccupied if one ore more Scoring Units have at least onemodel within the city ruin, and no enemy units can claimlikewise.

Occupying a City RuinWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game, follow therules for occupying a ruin as found on page 42 of theCities of Death book.

This means that, unlike in the Warhammer 40,000rulebook, units have to have the majority of their models ina ruin in order to occupy it.

3. Scoring UnitsIgnore the section on “Scoring Units” presented on page42 of Cities of Death book (as well as the "CityFightingVictory Points Table" on page 46). Instead use thedefinition of Scoring Units contained on page 90 of theWarhammer 40,000 rulebook.

Scoring Units in Cities of DeathWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game, refer to page46 of the Cities of Death book for a list of what units areconsidered Scoring Units.

Note that in many cases, unlike in the Warhammer 40,000rulebook, units have to maintain certain criteria (such asnot losing more than 75% of their starting strength) inorder to remain "Scoring".

Also note that in GW's covnersion article they suggest thatplayers decide ahead of time whether to use the scoringrules as written in the Cities of Death expansion or thosefrom the 5th edition rulebook.

4. Dangerous City RuinsVehicles roll an additional Dangerous Terrain dice whenpassing through a Dangerous City Ruin as explained onpage 36 of the Cities of Death book. If either die is a '1',then the vehicle is immobilized. If both dice are a '1', thenthe vehicle suffers a "Destroyed - Wrecked" result with nosaves possible.

5. Destroying City RuinsUse the rules for "Destroying City Ruins" on page 37 of

the Cities of Death book, with the following changes:

1. Ignore the reference to "Size 3" area terrain for therubble left from a building being destroyed.2. Instead, any model firing across or into that pile of rubble for the rest of the game counts its target as incover and any vehicle target as obscured.3. Models inside that rubble can fire through up to 2" of the terrain without it conferring cover to their target.

Alternatively, for players who like the idea of a rubble






cloud blocking line of sight completely, use the followingchanges instead:

1. This rubble area terrain blocks line of sightcompletely for the rest of the game, with the exceptionthat models within 2” of the edge of the dust cloud maysee out and be seen normally.

2. Models within this rubble can see other modelswithin the same rubble, but cannot see out unless theyare within 2” of the edge.

Destroying City RuinsWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game, ignore thereference to "Size 3" area terrain on page 37 of the Citiesof Death Book. Which means a Destroyed City Ruin issimply a rubble pile that blocks line of sight exactly likeany other rubble pile in the game.

Note that models in a ruin that are destroyed becomepinned (go to ground) whether or not they are normallyimmune to being pinned.

6. Deployment ZonesUse the deployment rules on pages 93-93 of theWarhammer 40,000 rulebook.

Since many Cities of Death games are played on a squaretable, make sure to read the rules on page 88 of theWarhammer 40,000 rulebook for instructions on how todefine the "long" and "short" table edges.

Essentially, the player who picks his deployment zonenominates which edge is considered his "long" table edgeif it cannot be easily ascertained.

Cities of Death Deployment ZonesWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game use themission rules exactly as presented on pages 42-44 of theCities of Death book.

That means (for all the standard Cityfighting missions)players will always set-up in alternate table quarters.

7. Random Game LengthAll missions last a random number of game turns, asdescribed on page 90 of the Warhammer 40,000rulebook.

Cities of Death Game LengthBy the RAW, Cities of Death games last six turns unlessplaying an "Omega" level mission, in which case followthe rules for random game length as found on page 45 of the Cities of Death book.

8. Mission Special RulesDeep Strike, Scouts, Reserves, Infiltrate and Outflankwork normally as per the standard mission rules as foundon pages 94-95 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook.

Cities of Death Mission Special RulesWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game, players mustselect the "Deep Strike" or "Infiltrate" stratagems in order to utilize those special rules (unless their army contains aunit whose special rules state that their ability is alwaysused regardless of the mission).

Units may not be placed into Reserve unless they have aspecial rule that forces them to be placed into Reserve or the player has selected the "Deep Strike" or "Sewer Rats"stratagems.

The "Outflank" special rule can only be used in missionsthat allow Reserves to enter from a board edge (which is

only found in some of the Cityfighting "Special" missions).The "Dusk and Dawn" special rule is utilized in "Gamma"and "Omega" level games as described on page 45 of theCities of Death book.

9. Cityfighting StratagemsAll missions use cityfighting stratagems as presented onpages 33-40 of the Cities of Death book. Revise thefollowing stratagems:

i. Command Center StratagemIgnore reference to "Target Priority". Instead, thecommand center may either grant "Counter-Attack" aswritten, or allow one unit within 6” of the command center to split its shooting between two different enemy units.

Declare the target for each model in the unit before rollingany dice to hit. If the unit is able to assault in thesubsequent Assault phase, it may do so against either (or both) of the enemy units it fired at.

Command Center StratagemWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game, a "CommandCenter" may only grant the "Counter-Attack" ability aswritten. The second option is no longer relevant (as issuggested by GW's conversion article).

ii. Preliminary Bombardment

StratagemRoll a D6 for each enemy unit (including embarked units)and each section of razor wire, barricades, or tank trapson the tabletop. On a roll of 6 the unit or obstacle is hit.

A squad takes D6 wounds from the shelling. (TakeArmour Saves as Normal, units within city ruins may takecover saves, and troops may go to ground) and must roll aLeadership test or be pinned in their first turn—see thebarrage section of the rules for details. Place a suitablepiece of scenery under the squad if you have oneavailable. A vehicle hit by a preliminary bombardmentstarts the game stunned (roll for each vehicle in asquadron independently, if half or more are hit, the wholesquadron must remain stationary in their first turn).

Units that start the game in reserve cannot be hit by apreliminary bombardment. A section of razor wire, tanktraps, or barricades is automatically destroyed by being

hit, remove it from play. If a unit is struck whilst shelteringin a city ruin, roll a D6. On a result of 4+ the ruin becomesa dangerous city ruin.

Preliminary Bombardment StratagemAs explained in GW's conversion article, the PreliminaryBombardment special rule can still be found in the 5thedition rulebook on page 258.

iii. Combat Engineer Stratagem






Replace the first bullet point with: "When assaultingenemy defending a Fortified city ruin (see theFortifications stratagem), models equipped with breachingcharges strike at their normal Initiative value. Thefortifications are then lost for the remainder of the game."

Combat Engineers Stratagem

There is no way to play the first bullet point of the"Combat Engineers" completely RAW, but the closestseems to be to allow Combat Engineers who assault aunit defending a Fortification to strike at I10 for that roundof combat (meaning they'll almost certainly get to strikefirst).

iv. Tanks Traps StratagemTank Traps provide 4+ cover save instead of a 5+.

Tank Traps StratagemWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game, tank trapsprovide a 5+ cover save, and only ever to non-vehiclemodels.

v. Deep Strike & InfiltrateStratagems

Remove these stratagems, as the missions all allow theserules.

Deep Strike & Infiltrate StratagemWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game, thesestratagems must be selected in order for a player's unitsto utilize these special rules (unless the unit always getsto use their ability regardless of mission special rules.

vi. Sewer Rats StratagemWhen placing a unit in Reserve, the player must declarewhether it will use the Sewer Rats stratagem to arrive onthe table. Any units declared this way may not thenchoose to arrive via a table edge.

Sewer Rats StratagemWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game, units placedinto Reserves via the "Sewer Rat" stratagem will only beable to arrive to the table via a sewer marker unless themission allows units to move on from a table edge (whichonly some of the Cityfighting "Special" missions allow), inwhich case the player may choose which when the unitarrives.

V. 5th Edition Cities of Death Mission

Objectives

1. 5th Edition FiresweepObjective: Plant the FlagBoth forces are seeking to clear the enemy from thissector. This is achieved through occupying city ruins.When a city ruin is occupied, the unit doing so 'plants theflag' in that city ruin, and may move off to do so in more

city ruins. The 'flag' remains until an enemy Scoring Unitoccupies the ruin, at which point it plants its own 'flag'instead.

The player with the most flags planted at the end of thegame wins.

2. 5th Edition High GroundObjective: Capture Vital BuildingBoth players are seeking to capture the strategically vitalbuilding. This is the first building placed during terrain setup. The player with a unit occupying the building at theend of the game is the winner. If neither side has unitsoccupying the building at the end of the game, then thewinner is the player who has earned the most Kill Pointsper the "Annihilation" standard mission on page 90 of theWarhammer 40,000 rulebook.

High Ground MissionWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game, use the"Victory Points" rules as described on page 46 of theCities of Death book instead of Kill Points.

3. 5th Edition DominationObjective: Hold OutEach side is attempting to clear the enemy out of nearbybuildings and to hold them against possible counter-attack. The player occupying the most city ruins at the endof the game is the winner.

4. 5th Edition Maximum AttritionObjective: AnnihilationBoth players are seeking to inflict maximum damage onthe enemy, while taking minimum damage to themselves.The player who has earned the most Kill Points per the"Annihilation" standard mission on page 90 of theWarhammer 40,000 rulebook wins the game. Maximum Attrition MissionWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game, use the"Victory Points" rules as described on page 46 of theCities of Death book instead of Kill Points.







5. 5th Edition Urban AssaultObjective: Enemy PositionsAfter rolling for deployment, the player who will deploy first

chooses a single city ruin to defend, anywhere outside theenemy deployment zone. Their opponent then chooses acity ruin to defend, anywhere outside the enemydeployment zone. Both players must attempt to get unitsinto the enemy's defended building. At the end of thegame, the player occupying the building the enemy choseto defend is the winner. If neither or both sides can occupythe enemy defended building then the game is a draw.

6. 5th Edition Secure the ObjectiveObjective: Capture the LootAfter rolling for deployment, the player who will deploy firstchooses a single city ruin to defend, anywhere outside theenemy deployment zone and places their loot counter there. Their opponent then does the same.

Both players must attempt to secure an objective beingguarded in the enemy defended building. If at any point aScoring Unit occupies the enemy defended building, theysecure the objective and are now the objective carryingunit. An objective carrying unit that is not locked in combatcan pass the objective to a friendly Scoring unit that isalso not locked in combat by ending their movementphase within 2” of each other. If the objective carrying unitis destroyed, place the counter in place of one of thecasualties of the unit. Unattended counters may be pickedup by any Scoring unit moving into contact with theobjective while not locked in combat.

Units may not pick-up the objective marker belonging totheir army. Units that Fall Back immediately drop theobjective. Place the marker touching any of the models inthe unit before making its Fall Back move.

At the end of the game, the side carrying the enemy

objective is the winner. If neither or both sides are carryingthe enemy objective then the game is a draw.

Secure the Objective MissionWhen playing a RAW Cities of Death game and a '6' isrolled for Mission selection, roll again or both players canagree to play a "Special" Mission as described on page 16of the Cities of Death book.

V. Design Notes

It isn't necessary to read this section in order to utilize andenjoy the rest of the article. Instead it is here to illuminatethe thinking behind the various rule changes in this article.I played a lot of Cities of Death games in 4th Edition 40K,and it was always one of my favorite ways to play. Themain things Cities of Death adds to a normal game of 40kare: rules for setting up terrain, new missions, and of course, the stratagems.

The terrain set up rules in the Cities of Death book allowfor a bit of tactics before the game starts. They're reallygreat as-is for use in 5th edition 40K, so they haven't beenaltered at all.

I did make some pretty serious changes to the missions.First was to adopt the “roll for deployment style” 5th

edition rule, which means no matter which mission you'replaying there are three different ways to deploy. Thiscreates and incredible diversity of Cities of Deathmissions.

Next, I made some changes to the mission objectives,replacing Victory Points with Kill Points and even added aentirely new mission: "Secure the Objective". The overallthought was to keep roughly the same ratio of twoobjective missions versus multiple objective missionsversus kill point missions that are found in the standardmissions in the 40K rulebook. I felt it was important to gowith 5th edition's notion of what counts as a scoring unitand what can stop a unit from scoring.

I know Kill Points are unpopular with many players, but byincorporating them, those players who have built their armies with 5th edition in mind can continue to use their existing army builds without feeling the need to maximizetheir units to take advantage of the Victory Point rules.

“Secure the Objective” is a slightly more dynamic versionof the 2 objective game, in that scoring units are allowedto pick-up and take the objective (and even pass it toother scoring units). This tends to create less draws thanthe standard rulebook "Capture and Control" Mission. Ialso added Kill Points as a tiebreaker to “High Ground” asit frequently turned out to be a draw when I played it in 4th


If you find that Kill Points seem to be ruining your games, try any of these alternatives:

1) Victory Points: Use Victory Points instead, asdescribed on page 108 of the Warhammer 40,000rulebook.

2) Fixed Number of Kill Points: At the start of thegame, both armies get 6 Kill Points total, which must beassigned one at a time by the player onto his ScoringTroops units. If he doesn't have enough Scoring Troopsunits to assign all the Kill Points, the player may thenassign them to other units in his army as he sees fit(including onto transport vehicles), so long as no unithas more than one Kill Point assigned to it. If this stillisn't enough to assign all the Kill Points, the player isthen allowed to assign his Scoring Troops units asecond Kill Point.

3) Kill Point Ratio: At the end of the game, each player calculates the total number of Kill Points theysurrendered, and then divides that number by the total

number of Kill Points that he would have surrenderedhad his entire army actually been wiped out. The resultis his "Kill Point Ratio". Both players then compare their Kill Point ratio and whichever player has the lower ratiowins the game.For example, an Ork player gave up 4 Kill Points out of a maximum 8 total (4/8=.50 Kill Point Ratio), while hisImperial Guard opponent gave up 6 Kill Points out of amaximum 14 total (6/15=.40 Kill Point Ratio). Thereforethe Imperial Guard player wins as his Kill Point Ratio islower.






edition. Adding them as a tiebreaker also keeps Kill Pointsrelevant in one third of the missions, this again matchesthe mission ratio in the 40K rulebook.

The biggest change to the stratagems was removingDeep Strike and Infiltrate and allowing them in all Cities of Death Games. Both of these abilities (along with Reserves

and Outflanking) are present in every game of 5th edition40K and therefore it feels wrong to force players to wastetheir stratagems on them.

The other stratagem changes were much smaller.Command Center was changed to give it a ranged abilitysimilar to the one it lost when Target Priority was removedfrom the game. Tank Traps were changed because 4+cover saves are nearly standard in 5th edition andremembering that they are a 5+ save would be moretrouble than they're worth. Preliminary Bombardment is nolonger in the main rulebook, and so has been re-printedhere. Sewer Rats has a clarification added to deal with thefact that Reserves are now a normal part of every mission.The last change has to do with Destroyed City Ruins andline of sight. In 4th edition the smoke from the Destroyed

Ruin was said to block line of sight completely. I've optedfor a couple of different solutions to taste your needs. Oneversion pretty much blocks line of sight completely for therest of the game (like it did in 4th edition), while the other version plays more 5th edition in that you can shootthrough the smoke but doing so provides the target with acover save.

I hope this article is helpful to those who want to bringCities of Death out of the shadows of 4th edition and intotheir 5th edition games. Thanks for reading and have fun!

VI. Cities of Death FAQThis list of frequently asked quesitons is completely and100% unofficial and essentially represents the "houserules" of the authors of this article. Obviously if you feel

differently about an answer, play it that way!

1. STRATAGEMS (Pages 33-40)Q: Are Stratagems that are placed on a City Ruin lostif it is subsequently reduced to Rubble?A: Yes [clarification].

Q: Do Stratagems that have rules for “Infantry” alsoapply to "Jump Infantry", or any other unit type sincethey all supposedly use the rules for infantry exceptwhere noted differently?A: Only models classified as “Infantry” may benefit fromthese Strategems [clarification].

Q: What models may benefit from the “Plunging Fire”Stratagem?

A: Any non-vehicle model in the army [clarification].


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