Faction Abilties

Fallout Wasteland Warfare
21

I’m cross-posting these questions from the BGG forums, because I still think we have a lot of nuances to sort out and get more explicit answers on. Forgive me for those of you who pay attention to both forums. If I get official replies either here or on BGG from James or others at Modiphius, I’ll be happy to copy the reply over.

Link to BGG thread: https://boardgamegeek.com/article/30376659#30376659

My questions from BGG post:

  1. When building a force, there don’t appear to be any restrictions on mixing units from different factions in the same force , except for Creatures and the special faction rule of the Brotherhood of Steel. Is this true for both Narrative mode of play and Battle Mode? I have been unable to find any rules restricting force building even in the more competitive Battle Mode. I’m not suggesting that this should be further restricted, I’m just interested in getting explicit clarification that this is true for both Narrative and Battle modes of play. The reply by James here: Faction Abilties suggests to me that when playing Battle Mode, you are restricted to the units provided by the “Force List” for each faction found on the Fallout WW Downloads page. Which would mean that currently in Battle Mode, only the Brotherhood of Steel, Survivors, and Super Mutants are playable as factions. But as far as I can see, there is nothing in the rules which restrict things in the way for Battle Mode, only the impression that I get from forum replies.

  2. It has been stated that the faction affiliation of your force is determined by the faction of your leader . Is this true for both Narrative and Battle mode? If so, what is the purpose of this? If a force can contain a mix of factions, why is the faction of your leader important and how does that affect the rules?

  3. Faction abilities, such as the armor bonuses given to Survivors, have been stated that they apply to all units who have that faction listed on their unit card. This means that the armor bonus will still be given to Sturges, even if he is part of force that has a Super Mutant as a leader, correct? Is this true for both Narrative and Battle mode? If so, it might make more sense to attach these rules to unit types instead of factions . So for example, the rule that robots cannot equip power armor would be tied to the unit type instead of the robot faction, because the rule has less to do with faction affiliation and more to do with how robots work thematically. This is just a suggestion. Considering doing the same for Super Mutants perhaps?

  4. Related to #3, do all faction abilities always apply to ever unit that is a part of that faction? The FAQ states that the Super Mutants faction abilities apply to all units part of the Super Mutant faction. It’s unclear to me whether or not this is specific to Super Mutants, or the same applies to all factions. Do the Survivors always get their armor bonus tokens?

  5. I’ve noticed that none of the robot units actually have “Robots” listed as a faction on their card. Yet, there is a “Robots” faction card which describes the rules for units that are part of the Robots faction. Is this just a mistake? It’s a little confusing because the Rules of Play state that Mr. Handy is “neutral” and always counts as the leaders’ faction. But none of the other robots list “Robots” as a faction. Does this mean that all Robots are neutral and don’t really have a faction per se, only special rules for any unit of the robot type ? Or is this simply a misprint on the cards?

  6. The Minutemen are the opposite of the Robots above. There are units with “Minutemen” listed as their faction, but there is no “Minutemen” faction card. Is this simply because there are no special rules for the Minutemen faction?

  7. It’s been mentioned that some units, like Mr. Handy, are “neutral” as far as faction is concerned (Rule of Play, pg #51). What does this mean? If Mr. Handy is neutral, I assume the unit is still restricted in the same way Robots are when it comes to using Power Armor and Food (another reason to tie these rules to the unit type instead of faction ). So what are the gameplay implications of a unit that has a faction of “neutral”, since there don’t appear to be any restrictions on force building anyway? Can you have a “neutral” unit as a leader? If so, are there any gameplay implications for that?

  8. It’s already been stated on the forums that Creatures are not currently used in Battle Mode, but why are there no Robots or Minutemen Force Lists for Battle Mode?

Thanks in advance for any light that can be shed on this. I know that as players we are free to “do what we want”, but it’s best to know what the intent of the design is here. As perhaps a bit of constructive criticism from someone who is really loving this game, I just want to say that the rules around factions aren’t very clear or precise upon initial release. Most of us that play other miniatures games are used to the concept that you can only build a force within the same faction, or expect to pay significant penalties if you go outside your faction. Wasteland Warfare is a lot more flexible and open-ended, so should probably make this more explicit and clear since it goes against the grain within this genre of what most of us are familiar with.

22

For anyone following this, James responded on the BGG thread. Cross posting here for convenience. Thanks again to the entire Modiphius team for the continued support. You guys rock!

  1. Battle Mode does not allow mixing factions. You create a force using a single faction’s force list but can not mix the lists.

  2. At present, the main effect is that only Units with the faction matching the Leader benefit from the Leader’s Leader card abilities. Apart from that, all I can say is that the faction of your force will be used more at a later date. Battle Mode may need a rule to say the faction list sets their faction, rather than the Leader, and thee will likely be a few restrictions on who can be leader later.

  3. The title of the faction reference cards is slightly confusing as faction can refer both to the group or the individual. As you say, the cards refer to models with that faction written on their card, not all the models in a force of that faction.

  4. The rules on the card apply to models with the Robot icon, so is the type Robot as you mention. The title of ‘Faction: Robots’ on this card should just say ‘Robots’.

  5. The Minutemen do not have special rules so do not have a card. Their abilities give them advantages working together, but there are no specific rules for every minutemen member.

  6. The reason for neutral units will come to light fairly soon (when the Robots Faction and Creature Faction rules are released). If you have a neutral leader, then your forces faction is neutral.

At present, the effect of being one faction or another is relatively small, but this will come into play more in some ways later. Like you mentioned, other games are very fixed on playing a specific faction and not straying outside, but F:WW is not like those other games - not for the sake of being different but to allow the flexibility found in the Fallout setting and also to let the players tell their own stories. Those sort of restrictions are more important in games that are solely battle-focused and need tighter control for balancing and competition (which is why F:WW’s Battle Mode has those restrictions).

Hope that helps,

James.

23

I updated my post on BGG, so here is the updated reply:

Thanks for the questions.

There are two levels of faction: that of a model and that of a force. A model’s faction is that written on their Unit card (and it may help to think this as their affiliation - it was a word I considered when designing the game but sounded odd and people usually said faction anyway). The force’s faction is separate to that and is set by the faction on your Leader’s card. So, Sturges himself is a Survivor and this remains the same regardless of the faction of the force he is in even if led by Paladin Danse or a Super Mutant Brute.

1 In Battle Mode, you create a force using a single faction’s force list but can not mix those lists. Except for a few exceptions written in the rules, you can mix factions in narrative (non-battle) mode.

2 At present, the main effect of a force’s faction is that only models with the faction matching the force’s faction (i.e. the Leader models faction) benefit from the Leader card abilities - in a minor way, this rewards forces of the same faction who would be more familiar/co-ordinated with each other, but without being too influencing. This allows some interesting mixtures and flavouring; for example, if you have Reilly’s Rangers and some Survivor models with a Survivor as Leader then Reilly’s Rangers won’t benefit from the Leader abilities but the Survivors will (as they are familiar with that leader) - if you put one of Reilly’s Rangers in charge then the reverse is true. With many factions and small groups in the Fallout world, this system allow players to combine their models in different ways with a bit of contextual effect, and the video games show so many exceptions and unusual alliances which I wanted to be possible. As a result, F:WW lets you combine Minutemen and Gunners, Reilly’s Rangers and Survivors, etc. if that’s what you want, as well as the more unusual mixtures like Super Mutants with Survivors; however, you can also just have a force of entirely Brotherood of Steel models, or all Super Mutant models, etc.

Also, I wanted very similar forces to be able to have slightly different flavours to and the Leader card adds the potential for this, i.e. two forces using the same models but one with a Hunter Leader and the other with a Brawler Leader.

Apart from that, all I can say is that the faction of your force will be used more at a later date.

You raise a good point about determining the Battle Mode faction. I have passed it on to the team as they are the Battle Mode architects. There will likely be a few restrictions on who can be leader in a Battle Mode force at a later date too.

3 and 4. As you say, the reference cards refer to models with that faction written on their card, not all the models in a force of that faction. So, Sturges gets the Survivor bonus (as he has Survivor printed as his faction on his Unit card) even if the faction of the force is Super Mutants. (The title of the faction reference cards is slightly confusing due to faction being able to refer to the group or the individual.)

5 The rules on the Robot reference card apply to models with the Robot icon, so the type ‘Robots’ as you mention. The title of ‘Faction: Robots’ on this card should just really say ‘Robots’ with the robot icon.

6 The Minutemen do not have special rules so do not have a card. Their abilities give them advantages working together, but there are no specific rules for every minutemen member.

7 One reason for neutral units was so that some models inherit the faction of their Leader and, therefore, benefit from the Leader abilities, such as robots. The other reason for neutral units will come to light fairly soon (when the Robots Faction and Creature Faction rules are released) as some creatures are affiliated with a specific faction whilst others are not.

If you have a neutral leader, then your forces faction would also be neutral (and only neutral models would get the benefit of the Leader card).

8 There may be Battle Mode Force Lists for Creatures and Robots later but, at present, there’s no way to field a Robots (or Creatures) faction [though the rules to do so are coming soon]. For the Minutemen, they are a part of the Survivors Faction List but don’t warrant their own list at present as there aren’t enough Minutemen specific models; however, you could use the Survivors’ Force List to field a force of purely Minutemen (using Minuteman, Preston Garvey and Ronnie Shaw models).

At present, the effect of a force being one faction or another is relatively small, and more of a label - it’s the models in a force that are important. Like you mentioned, other games are very fixed on playing a specific faction and not straying outside, but Fallout: Wasteland Warfare is not like those other games - not for the sake of being different, but to allow the flexibility found in the Fallout setting and also to let the players tell their own stories. Those sort of restrictions are more important in games that are solely battle-focused and need tighter control for balancing and competitive play (which is why F:WW’s Battle Mode has those restrictions). In other games, the main factions are very strict, but Fallout has a lot more variety - the other games are black-and-white; whereas, Fallout is more shades of grey.

Hope that helps,

James.

1 Like
24

That’s awesome! I saw and replied already. May you bask in Atom’s glow.

25

In light of this, how is the Brotherhood of Steel faction rule meant to work? They can’t take non-Brotherhood models, but that’s already inherent in the fact that a Brotherhood force can only take models from the Brotherhood force list, which only contains Brotherhood models.

26

Yeah that’s what confuses a lot of us.

27

@SparksMurphey

In Battle Mode, the BoS are already restricted to the units that are available in the Force List PDF for the BoS faction. So the additional faction rule does not really change/affect anything for Battle Mode.

For “narrative” mode, if the leader of your force is a BoS unit, then your force may not also contain non-unique Super Mutants.

This means that if the leader of your force is not BoS, but you have other BoS units in your force, you are not restricted in this way. The leader of your force determines the faction of your force. This particular rule only applies if the faction of your force is BoS.

You may be hesitant to accept my input since I’m not James (I wouldn’t blame you), but for what it’s worth, I’m 99% sure I understand how all this works now after a lot of back and forth.

Also, as James has mentioned, some of the faction rules may seem like they don’t do anything right now, but that is because content coming out in the future is expected to make use of those rules in more interesting ways.

2 Likes
28

This is how I understand it as well, given what I’ve read.

29

cough midwest BoS cough

30

Ooooooooh well colour me intetested