This just in....

Just got my copy of "in Her Majesty's Name". Being a fan of both VSF and "In the Emperor's Name", the predecessor of IHMN, I think I will be very happy. This should allow us to do smaller games in our GASLIGHT universe. Special Ops if you will. I'll post more after a read, and of course a play.

In the Emperor's Name - Fantasy

In the Emperor's Name, a free set of Sci-Fi rules set in the not-40k universe, turned out to be great time when we tried it out several weeks ago. Though nostalgic for early GW days, that universe has never been my bag. Fantasy, particularly a large scale skirmish, which is the best for my group of 6-8 weekly, is what I wanted to try. Now, I loves me my Song of Blades and Heroes, but it's really a two player game. I figured it would be simple enough to tailor ITEN to fantasy. The ensuing brawl proved me right.

the Wastes

"The temple of Baal-El has lain buried in the Wastelands for untold centuries. But recently, during an earthquake, the temple emerged from the depths. Now, forces converge. Some to destroy the temple, some to worship it's dark god..."

the Elves

The Adventurers

The Barbarians

the Forces of Chaos

The King's Men

The forces weren't balanced point-wise. But tactics should have panned out. They didn't. It was mostly a one sided affair in favor of Chaos. The Boy, controlling the Adventurers, got hammered by the Barbarians second turn. He never even got off a spell. (Spells are basically Psyker Abilities from ITEN). The forces of Good should have hauled ass to the temple, and then defended it's narrow passage. Chaos warriors are slow, the Barbarians have no long range, and the orcs were farthest away and blocked by terrain. Oh well. It was still fun.

The Ork in the door...

...or an "In the Emperor's Name" play test. I mentioned in an earlier post how much I wanted to try these rules out, and why I was drawn to them, so I won't cover that. The only reason I haven't tried ITEN on a large scale is because I just didn't have the troops. Luckily one of the Basement Generals, Zombie J, has a had a secret stash of GW (well painted GW stuff) hidden away for some time. They finally got to see battle.
I wasn't sure what he had so we winged it with the scenario.

What do they say about "the bigger they are?"

" Krag III was an Imperial mining operation until it was cut off by a warp storm. Previous attempts to make contact have met with disaster. With a clearing in the cosmic weather, a small Space Marine detachment is sent to check things out. What they found was a colony virtually wiped out by Ork invaders, a renegade Guard unit unhappy with being left abandoned by humanity, and an Eldar civil War being fought on this desolate world."

The Death Jester waits....

Here's where we "break" most games. We generally have 6-8 people show up on a Thursday. Most games don't handle this well, and also throw in some experienced gamers who can find a crack in the mechanics very quickly. As much as I love some games we've playtested recently, they're dead to us now.

A fight over the wreckage of a Titan

ITEN held up really well. Everyone picked up the rules within minutes. If I would have known the forces we were playing with, I could have made individual quick reference sheets. You could play a large scale 40k-esque game in a decent amount of time.
But, back to the game. No sooner had I explained to a player that the reason he had so few Marines is that they were so bad-ass compared to my many poor Guardsmen, than I shot down 2 of his 6 said Marines.
That got a good laugh. He whacked 2 of my traitor Guard in return. On the far edge a group of Eldar and their troupe of Harlequins bounded forward, while the Guard unit mixed it up with some Dark Eldar and their Ork partners. The Eldar and Orks took heavy casualties. The Ork Boss decided it was a good idea to take cover in one of the buildings, sniping from the shadows despite his heavy armor. Thus the title of our post today.
We tried a long time to dig him out. Long after Eldar walker, the Terminator and the Death Jester  were gone, we were still trying to kill that pesky Ork. He finally went down under a combined 4 man melee from the Guard. Victory to the No Longer Imperial Guard. Krag III is a free colony!
These rules held up. We played a large game in 2 hours, with a lot of drinking (thus the crappy photos) and talking in between. I'm already thinking how to tweak for fantasy and take on Zombie J's large collection of Warmachine miniatures.

Kickin' It Old School....

I admit it. When Citadel (before they were GW) released the first set of plastic Space Marines along with this giant book for something called "wargaming" named Rogue Trader, I was in love. For a short while, I saved what little my college era money I could, and bought everything I could of this strange Gothic future world. I had Epic, and Adeptus Titanicus and everything that went with them. Space Hulk followed. I grab every White Dwarf my tiny comic shop by school had. If it was "Chapter Approved" it was mine.

Then everything changed. They began to price themselves way out of my range. The forces became generic. The sculpts became goofy to me, and lacked character. I guess I grew up.
Then, recently I, like many discovered "In the Emperor's Name", a set of non-sanctioned sci-fi skirmish rules that seemed to take place in that far away gothic future where the undying Emperor still held sway. I dug out some old plastic the Boy had painted and gave them a whirl.
Simple, fun and easy to learn.

I found myself digging through the lead piles (or, as my wife calls it, the Isle of Misfit Toys). I found the first lead Space Marines I bought. Still base coated. It all came flooding back. They were fill of character, not like the nameless plastic legions now. Two have battle damage, one actually has a chunk blown off his armor. Each has customized armor and different weapons. A power sword, that looks like a power sword with wires sticking out? One has heads hanging from his belt. How cool is that?
I painted these as Crimson Fists in homage to the cover of that first plastic box set. Rather than use decals, I wanted their insignia to have that hand painted look, as if each had lovingly drawn theirs on their armor. I usually use washers for bases, but, maybe out of nostalgia  I kept the big plastic slotta-bases.

Battle report next week. Until then, see ya at RECRUITS!