The Comm Guild Maelstrom's Edge

- by Iain Wilson

The V2 rules for Maelstrom's Edge (which you can download for free in their current Beta format!) make some big changes to the way suppression works. Along with giving suppression a more active and serious impact on how units behave, the way suppression is tracked has changed. In V1, we used 4 sizes of explosion-shaped suppression markers to mark a potentially endless number of suppression points. V2 changes this to having 6 suppression levels, and so we need a different way to mark this on units during the game. Below, I go through a few different options for doing so.




With 6 suppression levels, the most obvious markers to use are six sided dice. Using dice does have its drawbacks, however, the most obvious being that it's easy to accidentally pick them up mid game and use them for other things. So if you go with this option, make sure you use dice of a very different colour and/or size to those you are using for your shooting!



If you would prefer to avoid the 'stray dice' trap, another easy option is to use numbered markers. Blank plastic tokens, cheap poker chips, or circles cut from cardboard or plastic can be numbered from 1 to 6 with paint or a permanent marker and swapped out as needed to track your suppression.



Of course, if you have the V1 suppression markers, it seems a shame to not continue using them! You could use them like the flat tokens above by writing numbers on them, or combine them with the dice method - glue a suppression marker to a spare base or circle of card and then you can tuck a small D6 into one side of the marker. You can also do this without the base, but having it there makes it easier to pick the marker up and move it around with the unit.



Or, because I can't resist finding an overly complex solution to a simple problem, you can go all out and make a numbered dial to glue onto the bottom of the cardboard suppression marker!



The one was made with a spare base sprayed white, with numbers added on with a permanent marker. I drilled a hole in the middle of the base and glued a piece of plastic rod sticking up through it. Onto the bottom of a suppression marker, I glued a circle of foamed PVC with a matching central hole and a cutaway on the edge to show the numbers on the base. With this sitting in place on top of the base, another piece of plastic tube glued over the top of the protruding base rod locks it in place.

With everything glued in place, the marker serves as a handle to turn the dial to show the relevant suppression level through the gap!



Get started with the V2 rules by downloading them from the Trial Rules section of the Maelstrom's Edge website here. The Beta rules documents contain all of the rules for playing V2 games, but keep in mind that these are just 'preview' documents - some rules may be revised based on feedback, and the final layout including background material for the factions and the Maelstrom's Edge universe, artwork and other 'flavor' material is missing.

If you have any thoughts on the new rules, pop on over to the Comm Guild Facebook group, or start up a thread in the Maelstrom's Edge section on the Dakka Dakka forums. We welcome any feedback, and would love to hear how everyone's forces stack up in the new rules!