GWs All-Time Best Game Mechanics

[Kirby]

This is one of the best game mechanics GW has ever created...

A ongoing wish-listing post for 3rd Ed got me thinking. What are the best current or oop game mechanics from GW? This could be in AOS, 40K, or any of the specialist games.

The original post talks about innovations in 40K Apoc.

“40K's Apoc rule set actually delays all damage dealt until the end of the game round, not the phase. This means your opponent gets to "reply" with attacks from their models during their turn because the wholeround isn't over.”

I’d also nominate the Initiative Dice from Warcry whereby you roll 5d6 and the result indicates, first,  which player has initiative and, second, the quantity and nature of special abilities available to each player.    

i think a similar system could be an interesting way to generate cmd points in future. 

What other mechanics would you add to the list?

[El Syf]

The original Lord of The Rings Strategy Battle Game always tends to be spoken of favorably as the best rule set GW has ever produced and for my money it probably was too.

Flowed very well, (first instance of priority rolls for the turn being a thing and there was no moaning about it) everything just worked really, it's been over ten years since I played it but yeah out of the big 3 at the time it was the cleanest ruleset.  

[Kramer]

For me the two best mechanics that spring to mind:

priority roll and the self contained campaigns warcry introduced. 

priority roll might be the definining feature for me. And the campaign style by Warcry was such an eye opener for me. 

[Jefferson Skarsnik]

Stupidity

Goblin shamans' heads being able to explode from too much waaaagh

Destiny dice (WHQ and AOS; the aforementioned Warcry system feels like a twist on that too)

[Beastmaster]

The All Alone rule of Mordheim. Believable psychological aspect, easy to use rule. Very thematic, and makes the little plastic heroes so much more human.  Plus, it makes single elite fighters  quite a risky approach.
 

For those who don’t remember:

Being outnumbered and alone is a nerve-racking situation for any warrior.
If your warrior is fighting alone against two or more opponents, and there are no friendly models within 6" (knocked down, stunned or fleeing friends do not count), he must make a test at the end of his combat phase. The test is taken against the model’s Leadership on 2D6. If the warrior scores equal to or under his Leadership his nerve holds. If the score is greater than his Leadership, the warrior breaks from combat and runs. Each one of his opponents may make one automatic hit against him as he turns to run. If the model survives, he runs 2D6" directly away from his enemies.
At the start of each of his turns, the warrior must take another Leadership test. If he passes, he stops but can do nothing else during his own turn except cast spells. If he fails or is charged, he runs 2D6" towards the nearest table edge, avoiding any enemy models. If he reaches the table edge before he has managed to recover his nerves, he is removed from combat.
If a warrior is charged while he is fleeing, the charger is moved into base contact as normal, but the fleeing warrior will then run a further 2D6" towards the table edge, before any blows can be struck.

Edited August 21, 2020 by Beastmaster

[Greyshadow]

I am really interested in getting into Blood Bowl at the moment. From the games I’ve watched and the match reports I’ve read the turn mechanic just seems so tense and exciting. It seems like so much fun.

[JackStreicher]

LotR‘s combat mechanics 

[Gaz Taylor]

I always liked blast markers in Epic Armageddon and Epic 40K. Great way of enhancing the look of the game as well as being a mechanic on how it effects your units.

I also loved the card element to magic and psychic powers in older versions of WFB and 40K. It’s better now as the game flows better but it was fun at the time.

6 hours ago, Greyshadow said:

I am really interested in getting into Blood Bowl at the moment. From the games I’ve watched and the match reports I’ve read the turn mechanic just seems so tense and exciting. It seems like so much fun.

yeah Blood Bowl is ace. It’s great how you need to plan how you do what you want to first before rolling dice. Just remember Nuffle will get you at some point, so you better learn about risk management

[Mutton]

Back in the old days when squigs went wild they would bounce around the whole battlefield, chomping on anyone they ran into. That was fun.

As for something more modern, as others have mentioned the Warcry initiative roll is brilliant and I wish they'd implement something similar into AoS proper.

Edited August 21, 2020 by Mutton

[amysrevenge]

I second Destiny Dice from WHQ.  What a nice, simple mechanic.

[Evangelist of Cinders]

The artillery die pure chaos especially when you had to state how far you were shooting before you could measure.

[Jefferson Skarsnik]

Yeah the bouncing cannonball mechanic/rock lobba blast template/giant falling over template were all very fun iirc

[jeremym]

I'll defend the double turn of AOS for as long as I play this game. but that not withstanding one of my favorite mechanics comes from warcry where your last model can do a last stand and use all of the abilities you have available to them in a single turn. 

 

I've seen it turn a few games but its really just a fun  incentive for the losing side to keep playing and do something fun on their turn. 

[Frowny]

10 hours ago, JackStreicher said:

LotR‘s combat mechanics 

I loved how heroes worked. They could use their might to win key combats but also felt like they could still get overwhelmed if alone. Thematic! And how they attached to units without formally doing so with heroic moves etc.

 

Also, I also like the double turn. Makes aos not a shooting gallery, and gives a significant edge to t2. If say almost too strong, but still interesting. I wish first turn was also decided randomly

[Lord of the Isle]

The Mordheim hero injury table

Morgiana’s frog spell 

[Evangelist of Cinders]

16 hours ago, JackStreicher said:

LotR‘s combat mechanics 

 my favorite just because they scale well

[dekay]

Might mechanics from LOTR.

Both for making heroes  less swingy when it mattered, and to break turn sequence, making random priority rolls much less impactful than in AoS. It could single handedly solve the issues some have with double turn, and it was one of the best examples of heroes actually leading being reflected by the rules.

[Infernalslayer]

Lord of the Rings (Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game as is called nowadays). It has many designs that i like to list only one but some where mentioned by other members already.

There is better balance with the random priority roll, and the combat mechanics in combination with the wound chart are brilliant.

Also, Heroes (even on foot) feel like actual heroes with the Might/Will/Fate mechanic and can often lead the charge of their warbands, while in AoS you have to hide them behind to save them from getting sniped turn one.

[michaelforster00]

I love skirmish sized games, but I really dislike that there are often very high stakes riding on single dice rolls - in part a byproduct of fighters having stats similar to the battle sized games (e.g., one wound, one attack). 
 

So I think Warcry’s combat system is a genius solution: fighters have multiple wounds and multiple attacks.

[Lich King]

Declaring charges and space - gauging in fantasy. No rolls needed - just skill and guesstimates. 

[Kramer]

23 hours ago, Lich King said:

Declaring charges and space - gauging in fantasy. No rolls needed - just skill and guesstimates. 

Oh I’m not fully with you on the charges but guesstimating on the artillery with the misfire dice 😍

[Kadeton]

Epic 40,000/Armageddon was a game with mechanics way ahead of its time. It covered a vast range of military assets (infantry, light vehicles, tanks, super-heavies, titans, aircraft and even orbital spacecraft) and managed to give them all unique and vital battlefield roles. It had alternating activations, which GW still can't seem to figure out at the 40K/AoS scale. It had a tactically engaging morale mechanic (blast markers, mentioned earlier in the thread) which managed to simultaneously drive interesting gameplay and enhance the look of the battlefield. It still had flaws and could have done with more polishing over a few editions, but the core gameplay was a seriously brilliant piece of design.

[Greasygeek]

Vehicle movement rules of Gorkamorka! 
That chaotic set of fiddly rules don’t really work anywhere outside Gorkamorka, but man do they crack me up every time. 
But yeah the Warcry priority system is pretty neat too.

[JPjr]

This lad. Case closed.

[Rodiger]

I'd add my voice to the Bloodbowl Turn Over mechanic. Simply put it just means your turn ends when you fail a dice roll. This creates a situation where you need to order your whole turn, you need to decide how important things are, which are worth a risk, how much can you gamble on an un likely result. It is a huge amount of fun that can create a lot of in game tension and humour and that can lead to wild situations that flip the game on it's head. There is a really good balance of strategy and randomess in there to make it great.

I'd say I also really like the Activation Dice in the new Warhammer Quests, it is simple and fast and every go gives you a new set of moves which effect how you will approach that part of the dungeon.