Summary of the Chip Cap Rules:
1. Total Chips: Both players count up how many Action and Star Chips they have.
2. Calculate Chip Cap: Multiply the number of chips the smaller force has by 1.5, rounding up. This determines the Chip Cap limit for the larger force.
3. No Chip Cap?: If the larger force's chips are equal to or less than the Chip Cap, then the Chip Cap is not required; run your game as normal.
4. Chip Cap In Effect: If the larger force's chips exceed the Chip Cap, then excess chips must be discarded. Action Chips are discarded before Star Chips. The remaining chips go into the bag, along with all of the smaller forces'. The player affected by the chip cap can still activate any models they wish, within the normal rules. In all other respects, the game functions as described in the standard rules.
Small Forces v Large Forces Chip Cap
Small groups of elite forces, especially Judges, will act like a well-oiled machine, and with deadly efficiency. By contrast, larger groups of untrained fighters are more difficult to coordinate. The leaders of such groups - assuming there is one! - bark barely comprehensible orders while their fighters hesitate, fumble with their weapons, stand around gawking - or, worse still, overwhelmed by confusion or panic, find themselves rooted to the spot by the mere sight of Judges breaking up their illegal activities.
To reflect this on the tabletop, a chip cap is placed on the side with the larger force limited in how many chips they will be able to place in the bag each turn.
Total Chips
Before the game begins, you need to compare how many chips both sides have (Action Chips and Star Chips are weighted equally in this calculation, e.g. 2 normal chips and 3 Star Chips counts as 5 chips total).
Calculate Chip Cap
Once you know which force is smaller, multiply their total chips by 1.5, rounding up. To save you working this out, here is the chip cap calculation for all but the largest of games:
Small Force Total Chips Large Force Chip Cap
1 2
2 3
3 5
4 6
5 8
6 9
7 11
8 12
9 14
10 15
So using the starter set scenarios as examples, the Chip Cap would be as follows:-
Sugar Rush: For the lone Judge, the perps are capped to 2 Action Chips.
Half-Eagle Day: For the 2 Judges, the perps are capped to 3 Action Chips.
Sweet Justice: For the 2 Judges, the perps are capped to 3 Action Chips.
Important Note: To be clear, this is a cap limit and does not mean a larger force gains extra chips they are not entitled to. For example, 4 Judges encountering 5 powerful perps would see the perps still putting their usual 5 chips into the bag, even though the cap limit allows for a larger force being able to use up to 6 chips.
No Chip Cap?
Quite simply, if the larger force's total chips are equal to or less than the Chip Cap, then the Chip Cap rule is not required and you play the game as normal.
Chip Cap In Effect
If the larger force's total chips exceed the Chip Cap, then excess chips must be discarded. The Chip Cap is the maximum number of chips that the larger force can put into the bag each turn. If you have a mix of Action Chips and Star Chips, when applying the chip cap, prioritise (where possible) Star Chips over Action Chips, i.e. discard Action Chips first. Example: 3 Judges face off against 9 perps, 2 of which are Star Chip characters and 7 are minor characters. The chip cap for 3 Judges is 5 chips for the perps - so the perp player, giving preference to the Star Chips, puts his 2 Star Chips and 3 of the remaining standard chips into the bag.
Important Note: This Chip Cap remains the same for the duration of the game - and is not affected by casualties. If your Chip Cap is 8, then the most chips the larger force can put in the bag is 8 throughout the scenario.
The chip cap does not mean the smaller force faces any fewer opponents in the larger force than were bought for the scenario, only that the perps are restricted to making the most of the limited number of chips they have. They are free to allocate the chips to whichever models they wish within the usual rules. On a turn by turn basis, this means the perp player is free to activate the same characters or different ones as the turn before. It really is up to the perp player who they will activate, a decision that will be swayed by their need and preference.
Casualties and the Chip Cap: The chip cap remains in force until such time as the larger force, due to casualties, cannot sustain it. At that point, only the chips generated by the larger force's remaining models on the tabletop will be put into the bag.
For example, as set out above, in Sweet Justice, the Judges put 2 chips into the bag, while the perps can only put 3 in, but the perps have 8 models on the table in total. On turn 2, the Judges takes down 2 perps, reducing their numbers to 6. This is still well above the chip cap of 3, so 3 chips continue to go into the bag. On turn 4, the Judges have taken down 5 perps. At this point, the perps can still put 3 chips into the bag, but this is as many as their three surviving models would generate. On turn 5, another perp is incapacitated, so with only 2 perp models left, only 2 chips will be going into the bag. (Note this example is for illustrative purposes only, I'm aware that Sweet Justice ends when the Judges have subdued or incapacitated 4 perps!)
This means that as the larger force's numbers are thinned, a larger proportion of their fighters get into the fight each turn. From a narrative point of view, the fighters in the larger force realise the danger as they see their friends and accomplices being picked off - and snap into action to address the threat.
Important Note: When Star Chip characters in a larger force are subdued or incapacitated, it means they no longer generate a Star Chip and that it cannot be considered as part of the remaining chips, capped or otherwise.
Using an earlier example: 3 Judges face off against 9 perps, 2 of which are Star Chip characters and 7 are minor characters. At the start of the game, the perps place their 2 Star Chips into the bag along with 1 standard chip. During turn 1, the Judge take down 1 perp - but it is a Star Chip character. At the end of turn 1, the perps are down to 8 but, due to the cap, they are still limited to 3 chips. With the loss of that powerful character though, they will be returning only 1 Star Chip and 2 standard ones to the bag.
Tips For Play
Larger Force:
Reduce your chances of being affected by the Chip Cap by including some Star Chip characters and Pack characters.
Include Leaders such as the Citi-Def Leader and Block Gang Lieutenants who can return chips to the bag. These characters may allow you to activate everyone in a given turn!
If affected by the chip cap, consider playing defensively, setting up Overwatch for some characters - if the opposition is slow to act, this will give you the opportunity to put more models on to Overwatch.
Remember that you can use Star Chips on any characters! The chances of returning the chip to the bag are lesser, but sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures!
Smaller Force:
You'll have more powerful characters who can capitalise on the Chip Cap, but do not play them as though they are Gods.
Consider not Going For Broke and let your Gunfighter skill take the strain.
Keep your elite troops working closely together, much like Dredd and Anderson in the 2012 film, Dredd.
Target leaders, particularly those who can return their troop's chips to the bag.
Life just got harder for Mega-City One's low-life criminals - but that's the way it should be! Good luck!
Note for Strontium Dog fans: The same rule can be applied to the Strontium Dog Miniatures Game - it would be appropriate in games where the likes of Johnny Alpha and his close allies are taking on a large group of low-Cool Law Enforcement models or Kreelers.
Community Invite
If you'd like to try out these rules, we'd love to hear about your experiences - good or bad - with them! You can add a comment to this blog post or comment on any of the Facebook groups or on the Life of Die Youtube Channel. Please let us know what you think!
If you'd like to see an example of the cap rule in action, please check out the video I made below. Important Caveat: this was an experiment filmed some weeks back - in the video the cap is set at 1:2 rather than the 1:1.5 advocated here. At the 1:2 ratio there was still a lot of reliance on Going For Broke for the Judges so it still felt a little too tough on them and the ratio was tweaked to what felt more balanced - and should scale up nicely when playing large games.
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