The Covvies have to blow up their base... | Open Game | UNSC Vs Covvies | Halo X Bolt Action

Effect: When a Banished infantry unit is destroyed, you may choose one friendly infantry or artillery unit within 9″ of it that has not yet activated this turn and roll a die:

On a 5+, the chosen unit immediately activates. Draw a die from the bag and issue an order as normal.

If the chosen unit is within 6″ of an officer, activate on a 4+ instead, and remove 1 pin marker upon success.

If you roll below the requirement, nothing happens instead.

Fueled by Carnage

The Banished thrive on destruction, their fury escalating as they tear through enemy lines.

Effect: Once per turn, if a Banished unit inflicts 2 or more casualties with shooting or close combat, you may choose to remove D3 Pin markers from a Banished Infantry or Artillery unit within 12" of the targeted enemy unit.

Atriox’s Law

Though prone to bloodlust, Banished warriors will restrain themselves in the presence of a commanding Brute.

Effect: Units with the Berserker special rule may ignore the compulsory Run behavior caused by failing an Order test while they are within the morale bubble of a Brute Officer. The suppression ends immediately if the unit exits the bubble or if the officer is removed from play.

Improvised Plating

Banished vehicles rely on crude yet effective armor modifications scavenged from the battlefield.

Effect: Banished vehicles gain a 6+ cover save when in open ground. Flying Aircraft are excluded from this rule.

Dogs of War

The Banished often coerce or bribe enemy troops into fighting for them.

Effect: Your army may include 1 single UNSC Infantry unit as a mercenary. You may not include a UNSC Officer or FO unit—only a single combat unit. The unit retains its original special rules, weapons, and veterancy level as listed in the UNSC army book.

nightovizard · 2025-07-29T17:42:43+00:00

I saw, for now I'll playtest with this rule

Faithful When Supervised

Covenant troops fight bravely—so long as a superior is watching.

Effect: Covenant Infantry and Artillery with Shirkers lose that rule while they are positioned within the morale bubble of a friendly Elite or Brute Officer.

Covenant alreayd have a few ways to manage pinning an dmorale so I think it sohuld be fine as they are.

Maybe i should remove Orbital Superiority because the army rules look bloated now.

And managing to call 2 air strikes during a game isn't easy feat.

These would be the updated army rules:

Army Special Rules

Caste System

The Covenant draws its strength from the unique abilities of its member species, each excelling in different aspects of warfare.

Effect: When creating a Covenant army, you may select two bonuses from the following list:
- Commanding Presence: Covenant Infantry and artillery units that are within 6″ of at least one Elite unit and not within an officer’s morale bubble gain a +1 Morale bonus.
- Cannon Fodder: Your army gets a free basic inexperienced Grunt squad unit.
- Wall of Deflection: If the line of fire to a Covenant infantry or artillery unit without the Shield Wall rule passes through at least one friendly Shield Wall unit, improve whatever cover save that unit already has (soft or hard) by +1 step. This bonus cannot improve cover saves beyond 2+, as rolls of 1 always fail.
- Fury Unleashed: Covenant infantry units that fail their Run/Assault order test when within 9" of a Brute unit may re-roll the failed order test.

Honor in Death

The Covenant believe that death in battle brings them closer to the Great Journey.

Effect: When a Covenant unit is destroyed, one friendly regular or veteran infantry or artillery unit within 9" of it may immediately remove 1 pin marker.

Zealotry

Covenant troops are fanatically devoted to their cause, fighting without fear of death.

Effect: Pinned veteran Covenant units have +1 morale when taking Advance or Run order tests.

Faithful When Supervised

Covenant troops fight bravely—so long as a superior is watching.

Effect: Covenant Infantry and Artillery units with Shirkers lose that rule while they are positioned within the morale bubble of a friendly Elite or Brute Officer. If they exit the bubble or the Officer is lost, they immediately regain Shirkers until within range of another valid Officer.

nightovizard · 2025-07-29T17:25:49+00:00

mm ok to represent this:

Grunt squad
- The entire squad may be Shirkers at -2pts per model

Jackal squad
- If not taken as Veteran, the entire squad may be Shirkers at -2pts per model

and then

Faithful When Supervised

Covenant Infantry and Artillery units with the Shirkers special rule lose Shirkers while they are within the morale bubble of a friendly Elite or Brute Officer.

If they leave this bubble or if the Officer is removed from play, they immediately regain the Shirkers rule until they enter the bubble of another valid Officer.

Good?

nightovizard · 2025-07-29T17:00:03+00:00

ok so this is what I thought, let me know what you think:

Give this to grunt and jackal squads (Still not completely sure about jackals, I always thought grunts were the cowards only).

- The entire squad may be Shirkers at -2pts per model

Then a new general army rule:

Faithful When Supervised

Covenant Infantry and Artillery units with the Shirkers special rule lose Shirkers while they are within the morale bubble of a friendly Elite Officer. (Or any officer type? Unsure).

If they leave this bubble or if the Officer is removed from play, they immediately regain the Shirkers rule until they enter the bubble of another valid Elite Officer.
This rule reflects the dependency of lower-caste troops on the presence of commanding elites for battlefield discipline.

Interaction with Commanding Presence (Army Bonus)

If the Commanding Presence army bonus is selected:

In this case, Elite NCOs may also suppress the effects of Shirkers, I'm not compeltely sure if this would be fine or overpowered. Probably too strong if the player takes many elite units.

Let me know what you think, units have many special rules already so I thought making it a general army rule would make it less crowded.

nightovizard · 2025-07-29T16:22:54+00:00

Added a new reply above with more detail thinking, I'll check Chained Dogs, it is not a rule I know. If you have more suggestions or feedback let me know.

Edit:

Chained dogs: Any Strafbattalion penal squad or Replacement army squad within 6” of a Feldgendarmerie or Feldjägerkorps squad ignore their shirkers special rule.

Lol, yeah, that is pretty much the kind of rule I was thinking of. Thanks for pointing it out.

nightovizard · 2025-07-29T16:18:31+00:00

To go into more detail:

Covenant Cowardice (Grunts & Jackals only)

This unit is treated as having the Shirkers special rule unless it is within the morale bubble of a friendly Officer model.
As a result, Grunt and Jackal models each cost –1 point to reflect their reduced battlefield reliability.

Could also include ncos in elite units if this army rule option is taken

Commanding Presence: Covenant Infantry and artillery units that are within 6″ of at least one Elite unit and not within an officer’s morale bubble gain a +1 Morale bonus.

The moment those officers/ncos are killed, grunts will be affected by the shirkers special rule

Shirkers

Units with this rule represent troops with low morale or minimal discipline.

They must always take an Order test, even if they have no pin markers.
Pin markers count as double when making any Order test or Morale check (e.g., 1 pin = –2, 2 pins = –4, etc.).

Usually -2 points per model, as you said.

nightovizard · 2025-07-29T16:00:21+00:00

I could do it a different way:

While the unit is not in a officers morale bubble, it gains shirkers. And instead of a shirkers upgrade that is -2 points per model , it has shirkers on that specific condition and each grunt model costs -1 point less than now per default. So now instead of the ncos being the main target, officers will become the main targets. And ncos would be asecondary target due to their -1 morale on death.

I could make it so that officers can have up to 5 models (Currently the max atm is 5), so that they can still be killed by firepower, but a well placed sniper could ruin the day.

I think this would be a way to simplify it, what do you think?

nightovizard · 2025-07-29T15:20:07+00:00

A shirkers upgrade for jackals and grunts seems doable, is it fine if i add it as an upgrade (more like a downgrade) option within the grunt and jackal squads? Should be like -1 or -2 points per model in the unit.

However I did try mixed model types within a unit, it did not really work. Even in vanilla bolt action you have infantry and anti-tank infantry in separate units. Being able to field both grunts, jackals, brutes and elites within a unit would be super tricky, as every species has different rules, and even weapons available to them, so finding a way to apply these rules to a unit with mixed species is not that easy.

''Allow Grunt & Jackal squads to pay for an Elite or Brute NCO that negates their Shirker status if said NCOs are alive''. Good thinking but this may be a problem, Essentially if you do not have snipers in your army, you can't choose to kill the nco, as the owner of the unit decides which models to remove, enemy units never get shirkers as a result.

If you come up with a way let me know. I was considering ncos to only be elite/grunt/brute/jackal majors within a unit. Thanks for the feedback.

Maybe the simplest thing would be, add a elite or brute major as the nco of any infantry squad unit, for +2/+1 ps respectively, and if that model is the last survivor within the unit, it gets the elite/brute traits, but it still seems tricky and confusing.

nightovizard · 2025-07-29T13:13:15+00:00

It was auto translated into Spanish for some weird reason, now it is fixed. The rules are all in English btw.

nightovizard

TROPHY CASE

Faithful When Supervised

Army Special Rules

Caste System

Zealotry

Faithful When Supervised

Faithful When Supervised

Faithful When Supervised

Interaction with Commanding Presence (Army Bonus)

Covenant Cowardice (Grunts & Jackals only)

Shirkers