Gangs of Commorragh: Zooming Into a Turn
Checkout a detailed rundown of a turn of GW’s latest boardgame – only days away.
The game is coming this saturday and quite the deal:
Gangs of Commorragh $60
GW’s designers showed off the game and put it though it’s paces this week. One keen observer was furiously taking notes to pass onto the community:
Gameplay Basics and Big Picture Overview
We’ve noted some interesting details in red.
via B&C’s Halandaar 1-19-2017
Initial Setup
- The board looks super sparse; like a 4×4 will just a black sheet or something over it, and about 6 bits of tiny card terrain.
- Each players rolls an “event” before the game; Phil rolls 12 which signifies “Home territory”. This would be more significant in a campaign
- You split your gang into murderpacks and send them out on missions; you then randomly select which of your packs you end up using in the game so don’t pack one side with all your good stuff.
- “Ambush roll” is the first thing to determine who gets the advantage; numerically smaller gangs get +1 to their roll
- They’re tracking the rolls for ambush; the difference between the rolls signifies what amount of maneuverability the ambushed gang has at the beginning of the game
- The “ambushed” gang is deploying in the centre; the ambushing gang then deploys on a randomly determined side from them
- Phils (ambushed) starter roll was 2 less than James’ (ambusher), so he gets to rotate up to 45 degrees with his guys before the game starts. if the roll was only 1 different, he could rotate up to 90 degrees
Sample Turn
- The beginning of every phase has a roll off to see who goes first
- Skills being described: the arena champion has an ability that gives him a passive 3″ boost to movement, the helliarch can reroll kill-shots
- Phil is attempting to make a “breakturn”; usually you can only pivot once during movement (at the beginning or end of the move). The maneuvre roll is essentially “roll lower than the combined score of riders agility and piloting skill”. Phil passes, so he splits his 18″ reaver jetbike move with a turn partway through
- All models have a minimum move to represent the pace of the flying around
- After phil moves one, it’s now James’ turn; alternate unit activation
- James attempting to maneuver “sideslip”; move to one side (45 degrees) while facing the same direction. Hellions move 12″
- A double 6 (fail) on the maneuver roll can actually damage you
- Random info: “Heavy weapons” like a Heat Lance reduce the agility value of the jetbike
- Various other movements happen
- There are markers to signify which models have moved
- The attacking phase begins, again its a roll off to see who acts first; looks like shooting and close combat are resolved in the same phase
- To-hit roll for shooting is basically, roll higher than the target’s agility; target can opt to jink, in which case you cant attack later in the turn but the shooter has to beat the combined total of agility+piloting skill
- Random info: “Agonisers have a 6″ whipping range”
- Phil hits but fails to kill with heat lance; the target takes a damage marker (which means further attacks against him will be at +1)
- James’ makes an agoniser attack against one of the jetbikes and passes the kill-roll, knocking him out of the sky
- Shooting past (“through”) other models grants target a 4+ cover save.
- If you lose a third of your force, you have to take a break test
- Orientation affects difficulty to hit; because in turn one it was head-to-head, no modifiers
- You can get a 2+ to hit if your in somebody’s rear arc, but if you get on their tail (hunter & quarry) you get 5+!
- That’s the end of the turn!
Thoughts
There are mechanics in there to diminish the power of big scary gangs, like having to dive up your gang and roll to see which portions plays.
Alternating turn sequence – Nice. Get used to honing your activation sequencing skills.
No stopping and minimum moves keeps the action going, so no turtling up in this game.
Random roll-offs per turn for who moves and fires first keeps everyone on their toes.
Balancing mechanics for taking deadlier weapons vs maneuverability.
Break test after 1/3 casualties (so about 2-3 deaths), should keep this game quick.
I’m not going to say this is a copy of X-Wing, because it lacks the hallmark movement templates of that that game, but it feels like the aviation/dogfighting category more generally – transposed into individual 40K models.
I have no idea if there will be add-ons, but Scourges are a very obvious expansion opportunity.
Overall this seems like a very light, easy and fast game at a great price that will serve as a gateway into 40K. It would be a fantastic “gift game” for someone on the fence about tabletop gaming (of yourself).
~ZZZOOOOOM!
