Having made my first pass at the Battlefleet Koronus book I've been left scratching my head a little bit. I had assumed that the ground combat rules would be similar (or the same as) the combat rules from The Frozen Reaches... but I'm struggling to make a comparison between the stats in the adventure and the stats as represented in the book.

For example:

Frozen Reaches PDF unit: Equipped on a Modern World to IG standards. A Battalion sized unit (4 companies) has a unit strength of 16.

In Battlefleet Koronus a light infantry battalion would have a strength of between 10 and 50 (!) (between 100 and 500 men, at strength as 10% of numbers) but a power of 5 (4 basic, -2 light, +3 modern). Medium would have the same strength but Power of 7 (4 basic, +3 modern).

The figures are nowhere compatable. In addition, while power is given it has no reference to size. A Infantry division made up of medium infantry from a modern imperial world is power 7. Regiment is power 7. A battallion is power 7, so is a company. Damage is the same at each level as well, 4d10+7. The only difference is the ability to take casualties.

Which leaves the rather dubious situation that 4 companies fighting a battallion on equal terms would do 4 times the damage! (4d10+7 four times as opposed to 4D10+7 once). Or are we to total up all the troops planet side into divisions and deal 4d10+x damage each?

Then we get on to Armour... Standard medium armoured unit from a modern imperial world has a power of 10. However, the strength takes no account of the number of vehicles - only the number of men. Leman russ crew of (I think) 5, so a company of say 9 LR would have a strength of either 4 or 5 and a power of 10. etc.

Even the stats for Titans seems really really silly. Space Marine stats (Power of 20 and strength of 5 x number of Marines) make barely much more sense...

Have to say, again, I'm a little bit let down by this. Frozen Reaches and BK were published only a few months apart but there is little crossover between the two rules wise. And Frozen Reaches actually makes more sense as a abstract combat system.

I believe the rules in Frozen Reaches are intended to be stand alone rules that are more suited to the adventure. That's how I took it, anyway.

I've been extremely underwhelmed by the Ground Combat rules as well- the only part of Battlefleet Koronus I've been disappointed by to be honest.

I also felt that the system in The Frozen Reaches was good, and would have preferred an expanded version of that to what we've been given. I'll probably be working on my own house ruled version of it for my campaign.

Yeah the ground war rules weren't as clear on a lot of things and don't seem to provide much variety. Examples are light infantry moving the same as heavy infantry and not having any bonuses to things like flanking, stalling advances, etc.

As for the size issue thing I think they may have assumed all units of a particular type would be bunched into one macro unit rather than split into individual companies. Which...obviously most of us wouldn't do. But then I am assuming here.

Still, they're not entirely unuseable but they're about five pages short of being extremely useful. Things like unit samples, how you group units and or avoid the four platoons butchering a division thing someone mentioned above, and so on.

Also not sure if they made the marines to epic, or not epic enough. One marine CAN be the equivalent of a platoon which sounds about right.

I've been trying to work out a better system myself. Looking at the 10% thing it would work for infantry. I'm not too great with maths, so bear with me.

An IG company of say 4 platoons of 25 men each plus command and attached HW squads would probably be around 120 men (approx). So ignoring power as having any sort of relevance we could say a strength of 12 (10% of 120). Added as bonuses could be tech level (same as presented in BK) and Light/Med/Heavy bonuses (same as BK).

So a IG Company equipped as standard IG (Flak armour, lasguns, HW support, etc) and from a standard Imperial tech world could have an effective strength of 12, with a bonus of +3 for tech and 0 for being medium infantry - so 15. We could then scale it up to a Battallion of 4 companies... but add the strength together. So a Battallion of strength 60.

Sticking with the company idea then, Base 15 for a bog standard (as far as can be said to exist) IG company with all the basic kit plus microbreads, etc.

To create a Tank company of say 9 LR (mixed standard versions) going by crew numbers (6 per tank w/sponsons) would give only 54 men. There is an argument you would have to include support crews etc. Maybe an Atlas ARV, tech priests and servitors. But thats probably not going to take the numbers much above 100 men. So the Medium tank company has apparently a base strength of between say 5 and 10... again, +3 for tech giving it between 7 and 13.

Thats waaaay too low for a company of LR. One simple solution would to say Armoured units count double for effective number of men. Which would give a strength of 23 (100 x 2 plus tech bonus) - probably a closer match to the 15 of a supported infantry company.

Tweak this further and say, for example that infantry units get another +10% base strength for defending or attacking in urban environments (infantry company in a city is then at 27). And maybe rules similar to Frozen Reaches +% strength bonus for armour on the attack (maybe a -% strength bonus for attacking in urban areas) and keeping such bonuses as a % would mean even if the unit size scales up the strengths remain effectively the same.

Ground combat is then done in a similar fashion to Frozen Reaches. Players decide what units to commit where with a idea of how strong their forces are - but not necessarily how strong the opponents forces are. Combat is then done on strategic turns with a direct comparison of strengths and the same results based on the differences in strength. This would work from the company or platoon level all the way up to the army level. Allowing granular combat or abstracted to the extent of just dumping an army on a planet and getting the results in time (army strength vs army strength).

Aquisition rules from BK (tech, strength of force) would still make sense, factored in with the RT rules on size affecting aquisition. Morale rules would also need a tweak as I think they would still be relevant.

Work in progress, what do people think?

Sounds like a start. I've always like to see what others come up with, since even if there are problems with it others (and myself) can almost always find something in it that we would not have thought of and slowly something great can come about. Just takes time and revision.

Perhaps the kind folks at FFG might produce a PDF supplement to these rules that illustrate a few of the more nitpicky problems and or expand on some of the minor issues such as tanks ending up with a lower unit strength compared to infantry.

Alternately, has anyone tried making a light infantry company and a medium tank company using JUST the rules in the book and having them slug it out? Maybe the higher armor of the tanks will cancel out their lack of numbers.

Mmmm I dont think that its all that clear with regarding the numbers. A Imperial Guard Tank Company may have less men, but these abstract formations usually have auxilliary units attached. Bear in mind that even startegically Tanks/Cavalry are of limited use without groundtroops to support them. I saw the rules as being more rules of thumb/narrative/abstact odd scene than fully fixed on the Imperial Guard structures. After all these do not necessarly follow the munitorium IG template out of the 40k game.

I have had a chance to try them out yet on the group, so the questions raised are certianly helpfull. Keep us all posted on how they turn out in practice.

Im sure the rules will be revised, revisited and refitted, but you're gonna have to pay $50 for it when its called ONLY WAR . Welcome to capitalism!

I was going to buy Only War so long as it had rules for playable Ogryn...so more complete rules on ground warfare are just a plus. Honestly, i was surprised to hear about the ground war rules being in this book, and got pretty much what I expected, plus vague rules for titan usage by Rogue Traders.

Last I checked an IG company had between 2-6 platoons. A platoon has between 3-6 squads. Most companies end up within the 100-300 trooper range.

I've sent an e-mail to Sam asking about whether the size of a unit should increase/decrease it's damage, given that currently it does seem like 4 companies do 4 times the damage of a brigade with the same power rating.