Making a Dream a Reality

Over the years my Pops and I had discussed his dream game space. I intend to make most of this dream a reality over the next 12 to 18 months.

Down one side there will be separate workbenches for painting and making terrain. Down the other side there will be miniature cases and terrain storage.

There should be two table tennis/ping-pong tables for gaming on; my Dad really thought that these were the way forward with their ample 5x9 foot play space, then when put together they give you an 18ft long table for massive multi-player games. The other plus side is that they fold and have wheels for easy movement and storage.

The walls themselves should be half paneled to avoid damage from moving things around in the space. The upper part of the walls should have a stone texture pattern painted on them to resemble a castle/dungeon. (I think this is cool but its gonna take forever so may just start out with grey walls)
There should be a TV and stereo in the space for visual and audio entertainment while gaming. This will be a long and ongoing project for the foreseeable future, but is totally going to be worth it in the end.

Until next time may your dice roll hot!
-Jim

Big Daddy Jim's Gaming Legendarium

I grew up in wargaming, my Father was a gamer and all through my youth he would host games in our garage or at game conventions wherever we lived. He was a larger than life fellow that made every gaming experience a unique one with its own special flavor. Telling a story on the tabletop was always his goal whether it be a historical refight between Hannibal and his enemies or in some fantastical far off land.

Back in those hallowed days of the 70’s & 80’s there were not many shops where you could physically play within the store, almost everything was garage gaming. It was much more personal than it is for most people today. You were gaming with people that very quickly became close friends or disappeared as fast as they arrived. I can remember when my dad would want to venture into a new gaming genre him leaving our phone number on a message board in the local shops, so we could find likeminded gamers. Running games at the local conventions was also paramount as it always lead to new people to game with. 

So now that I have shared a little piece of my personal gaming history with you, let’s get on to the concept behind what I will be doing with the blog going forward. My father passed away this past January and I have been soul searching a way to preserve and further his gaming legacy. I have decided to recreate the more intimate and personal feel of wargaming that I grew up with. I am slowly but surely setting my garage up to be a gaming destination as my fathers was growing up.

I will be playing games with old and new friends alike then document them here for all to see. I play a plethora of games spanning many genres from biblical ancients to the Dark Ages to the 20th century to fantasy & Sci-Fi worlds.

I will also be sharing more history about my dad and wargaming throughout the past 4 decades. I will also share what the name Gaming Legendarium means in a later post.

Cheers
Big Jim Jr

Rules from the Man-cave: Big Game 40K

Been a while since I shared some of the wackiness that we do here in the GiF Man-cave. I thought I’d share this with you guys.

The guys in my group love to play outrageously large games of 40k with points values reaching Apocalypse stature, but we still want to feel and flavor of 40k. We have played plenty of D-Weapon Titan madness, which is fun for the occasional slugfest, but not really what we are looking for in most games.

We like to still have the infantry be important, while at the same time adding the koolness of limited Super Heavies. So we came up with a series of house rules to cover our big game outings.

Rule 1: All armies must contain at least 3 troop choices (preferably full strength) and include a further 3 non-vehicle units from any force org selection of their chosen Codex. For every full 1000 points over 3000 they must choose an additional non-vehicle unit.

Rule 2: All armies must have an HQ selection as their “Battle Group Leader.” These HQ units gain D3 +1 fate points. The fate points are used to keep the BGL on the tabletop as long as possible, they may be used anytime that the BGL is killed. Roll a D6, on the score of a 4+ fate has intervened and the BGL remains on the table with 1 wound left.

Rule 3: All non- super heavy vehicles may move up to 6 inches and fire all their weapons; if they move over 6 they may fire one. Fast vehicles may move up to 12 inches and fire all their weapons; if they move over 12 they may fire one. If using the Spearhead supplement rules any vehicle may shoot at two targets if part of a SH formation.

Rule 4: Each Team may have one Destroyer weapon for every 2500 points in their force.

Rule 5: Each Team may have 4 structure points for every 2000 points in their force.

Rule 6: Everything can score an objective in big games, with the exception of empty transport vehicles. Super Heavies count as one scoring unit per structure point. So a Baneblade with 2 structure points, counts as 2 scoring units. To claim an objective you must have more scoring units on it than your opponent has.

Keeping the fun of 40k alive in the Man-cave

Fritz from Fritz 40k posted on his blog the other day opining about the fun of the good old days during the early editions of 40k.

I agree the good old days seemed focused on fun and it was fun to play 40k back then. With that said I would say that the game can be just as fun today as it was in the past.

It is all in what you and you opponents expect from the game when you go to the table. I have surrounded myself with gamers who are into 40k for the background of the universe. This has a tendency to create a really fun atmosphere to game in. While everyone likes to win their battles none of of are focused on winning we tend to focus on creating great stories on the tabletop.

We also have a tendency to change up the game with simple house rules or guidelines to help the cinematic events in game.

The first thing we do is run lots of ongoing campaigns. This has a tendency to create cool story lines for our games. We also smack talk before our sessions telling the tales of our latest victories from out previous games.

We also tend to run about half our games as Attacker/Defender scenarios. With the Attacker gaining a 25% points advantage. The Defenders gain their own advantages depending on the scenario being played.

Second we have thrown out the Force Org for army building. The only requirements we have are 1 HQ and two Troops. You may spend up to a quarter of your points on HQ's and freely fill out the rest of your points with Elite, Troops, Fast Attack and Heavy Support choices.

This leads to really dynamic armies, which in itself is awesome, making the cinematic of the game even more epic.

Thirdly all games use objectives as a victory condition, plus each side gets a secondary objective based on Kill Points to break ties. These secondary objectives are the ones I listed in this post.

The bottom line is that 40k is as fun and/or competitive as you and your opponents make it. So free your mind and the rest will follow!

Rules from the Man-cave: Discarding the Force Org

Looking at all the retro rules added back into Warhammer FB 8th has got me all nostalgic, for the 2nd ed army building restrictions. To be honest I have never been a fan of the Force Organization chart for army construction, hell even GW tried to impose the 2nd ed standard to the force org chart with the implementation of the comp system. They have since abandoned it, but most tourneys have not.

Looking at what they have done with army construction in 8th ed WFB, For the sake of fun I propose that you discard the force org for the following army building restrictions.

Your army must contain at least one HQ model.

Up to 25% of your armies points may be spent on "Unique/Special Character" HQ models.


Up to 25% of your armies points may be spent on Generic HQ models.


A minimum of 25% of your armies points must be spent on Troops units.


Up to 50% of your armies points may be spent on "Support" units (no more than 3 of any entry under 3k)

Support units comprise all the Elite, Fast Attack and Heavy Support units


or if the 50% "Support" units is too much for you you could alternatively do the following:

Up to 25% of your armies points may be spent on Elite units (no more than 3 of any entry under 3k)

Up to 25% of your armies points may be spent on Fast Attack units (no more than 3 of any entry under 3k)

Up to 25% of your armies points may be spent on Heavy Support units (no more than 3 of any entry under 3k)

We have been using the above for our Apocalypse games to keep them fun, playable and semi-balanced for quite some time now. It really has made Apoc much more fun, and the fact that we limit the big stuff probably helps too.

Comments and feedback welcome as always. If you try these rules out for yourself please let me know how it went.

Rules from the Man-cave: 'Bogged Down' stuck in the mud; alternate rules for vehicles and terrain

Is anyone else less than thrilled with the way vehicles interact with terrain in 40k? As someone who has ridden in a bunch of armored vehicles I find the rules for permanently immobilizing vehicles on terrain absurd.

Here in the GiF Man-cave we have come up with this simple solution.

Bogged Down

When a vehicle enters difficult or dangerous terrain some times they become temporarily immobilized; stuck in the terrain they are attempting to cross.

Follow the normal procedure for vehicles moving in difficult or dangerous terrain; if they get immobilized place a marker next to the vehicle. Then on the next turn follow the procedure listed below.

If a vehicle gets bogged down it may un-bog its self on a D6 roll of a 4+ for difficult terrain and a 5+ for dangerous. The turn the vehicle un-bogs it cannot move but may fire as normal.

See I told you it was simple! Comments and feedback welcome. If you try these rules out for yourself, I'd love to hear about it!

Rules from the Man-cave: Strategy and Mission Cards

Sometimes you need to spice things up on game night. Here at GiF HQ we loved the random Missions and Strategy cards from 2nd ed 40k. Here is how we modified them to fit our purposes.

Strategy cards were very similar to the strategic assets in the various 5th ed supplements.

Strategy Cards

Each player draws one Strategy Card at random for each 1,000 points or part thereof that his army consists of. I have only used the 18 cards from the Dark Millennium box.

Unfortunately I have not worked up full cards for these, so you must possess the original 18 from 2nd ed to use these. If there is enough demand I may work up a PDF of new cards.

Changes:

• Delayed - Change the effect to: Instead the delayed unit does not arrive until turn 3.
• Ambush - I changed this card completely to allow a squad to infiltrate, and get a free round of shooting.
• Forced March: Replace the rules with the following: D3+1 units in you army gain a scout move.
• Reinforcements - remove the not within 24 inches of an enemy unit stipulation.
  
• Insane Courage - Changed to; the rallying unit gets a free round of shooting counting as stationary; this is the only activity this unit has in the turn they are rallied.
• Booby Traps – Nominate one piece of terrain to be booby trapped, any enemy model that moves through or within 3 inches will trigger the traps on a 5+. It has the following profile: Strength 4, AP 5, Large Blast. The Booby Traps remain in play attacking all enemy models that move within 3 inches.
  
• Traitor - Ignore the strategy rating part of the card and replace it with the following: You may play this card at the beginning of the game to force you opponent to re-roll his dice to determine who goes first.
• Barrage: Has the same effect as an Orbital Bombardment from the Codex Space Marines.
  
• Malfunction: Nominate any enemy vehicle to suffer a weapons malfunction. The vehicle takes an automatic penetrating hit, roll for damage.
  
• Flank March: Play this card during your movement phase. Nominate a single unit that is still in reserves. The unit may choose to enter the board from any table edge, with no reserve roll required.
• Brilliant Strategy: Change text to: Play this card at the beginning of the game; The owner of the card may choose to deploy first or second; no die roll needed. Additionally he may steal the initiative from his opponent on a die roll of 5+.
  
• Virus Outbreak!: Play this card at any time. Choose an enemy unit all models that are part of the unit take a Strength 4, AP 4 hit with no cover or invulnerable saves allowed.
  
• Special Issue: Pick an Independent Character in your army. You may equip that model with any one piece of Wargear from his own or opponents Codex.

Disclaimer: most games played in the GiF Man-cave use 3 or more objectives. Each objective controlled counts as 5 Kill points towards determining a winner. If one player controls more objectives than his opponent he gains a +5 kill point bonus.

The Mission cards will be used in conjunction with the normal 5th ed missions; they will be secondary goals and objectives. So any Kill points listed below are in addition to any standard mission rules for 5th ed.

Mission Cards

If both players agree, each player draws a Mission Card before setting up. The Mission Card will detail a secondary objective for the player to accomplish—and describes how doing so will accord the player extra Victory Points. The different Mission Cards are described below:

Engage and Destroy

• For each enemy squad wiped out: +1 Kill Point
• For each enemy vehicle destroyed: +1 Kill Point
• For each enemy character slain: +1 Kill Point

Take and Hold

• Your objective is a point 24” into the table and 36” from the left hand edge (which should be in the middle of a standard table). If you have at least one model within 3” of this spot at the end of the game, and the closest model to this spot is yours: in an objective mission it counts as two objectives.

Dawn Raid

• Having at least one squad with less than 50% casualties or at least one undamaged vehicle in opponent’s Deployment Zone at the end of the game: +5 Kill Points

Guerrilla War

• For every 3 enemy models slain in hand-to-hand combat: +1 Kill Point
• For every enemy vehicle destroyed or disabled within 24” of your table edge: +1 Kill Point

Witch Hunt

• If the most powerful enemy psyker is wounded at end of game: +1 Kill Point
• If the most powerful enemy psyker is slain: +5 Kill Points
• Each enemy character worth 90 points or more slain: +1 Kill Point

The Assassins

• Enemy Commander wounded: +1 Kill Point
• Enemy Commander slain: +5 Kill Points

I love Blogging, because there are so many great minds out there. Warhammer 39,999 did a great revival of the strategy cards for Apocalypse on his blog yesterday.

Comments and feedback welcome as always. If you try these rules out for yourself please let me know how it went.



Link suggested by WH3999, quoted text from his post.

It turns out that the guys over at Under the Couch, have already done strategy cards for us! You can download those cards from their site using this link. The only problem with using the cards as is from UTC is that I didn’t have card stock to print them out on.

Rules from the Man-cave: Rules that make you go Hrmm?

Two more rules we use here in the man-cave.

Imagine this:

You are an eight-foot tall, genetically enhanced, Power Armor augmented Space Marine, The Emperors finest soldier, but you can’t seem to manage moving and firing a Heavy Bolter. Hrmm… really?

Or

You are a Tank commander in a tank with 4 different weapons and a crew of 5 including yourself, but as soon as you move your gunners forget how to shoot. Hrmm…what the heck?

Both of the circumstances are silly and make no sense in our opinion. Here are our solutions to these circumstances.

Moving and Shooting Heavy Weapons

Any man portable infantry heavy weapons may move and shoot at half range with a –1 to the models BS.

Heavy weapons that require a crew because they are mounted on a tripod may fire at half their rate of fire rounding down in addition to the previous changes.

Moving and Shooting Vehicles

Any Vehicle that moves at combat speed can fire one weapon as listed in the vehicle rules in the WH 40K rulebook or may choose to fire all of its weapons up to their full range with a –1 to the vehicles BS.

A vehicle that moves at cruising speed may fire one weapon at half range with a –1 to the vehicles BS.

They are both simple solutions that work for us and add more tactical depth to our games. So if you and your opponent are up for a challenge give them a spin.

Rules from the Man-cave

Here are two house rules from the Galaxy in Flames Man-cave, that we use all the time. They add a lot of tactical depth to our Warhammer 40k games.

Think about it, who in their right mind would sit there not shooting their guns at an opponent charging into them? Or how hard it would be to launch an all out assault on the enemy if there is a withering hail of lead bearing down on you?

To us these rules make sense. They may not be for you, but hey I thought I’d put ‘em out here.

The Unit Suppression rule does not affect units that are Fearless. As they don’t care about being shot at, and can never be suppressed.

Unit Suppression in Warhammer 40k; we have added a suppression mechanic to our 40k games. It was shamelessly pilfered and tweaked from our experience with Flames of War. Suppression is used to affect a units ability to function properly in the Assault phase.

In the shooting phase keep track of how many hits each non-vehicle unit takes. At the end of the phase any unit that has taken five or more hits from shooting than it has models in the unit, must pass a leadership test or they become suppressed. Suppression lasts until the end of the suppressed units next player turn.

A suppressed unit must pass a leadership test to be capable of launching an assault. If the test is passed the assault is launched as normal; if the test is failed the unit falls back and automatically regroups at the end of the move, even if they normally would ‘not’ be able to do so. (For example, even a unit that has been reduced to less than half strength would be able to regroup in this type of fallback move)

If a suppressed unit is assaulted, they do not get their Defenders React move, but may pile in after the initial Assault is done.


Defensive Fire in Warhammer 40k; this was also shamelessly pilfered and tweaked from Flames of War. Defensive Fire makes assaulting more dangerous and tactical.

This is not a normal shooting phase and supercedes the normal infantry shooting rules; facing does matter. Any unit that receives an assault may fire all it’s weapons at the assaulting unit as they move into contact, as long as the assaulting unit starts off in the 180-degree models eye view of the defensive firing unit; 90-degrees to either side of the models head.

Vehicles may also defensive fire, but only at targets that start off in direction the weapons are facing; in defensive fire sponsons, pintle mounts and turrets do not move.

During Defensive Fire shooting each model in the unit fires their weapon at full effect as listed in the weapons summary in their codex, as long as the unit is not suppressed. If the unit is suppressed all weapons in the unit get one shot regardless of their normal game statistics.

If the assaulting unit becomes suppressed during the assault move it loses its +1 attack for launching the assault.

Edit: I may make this a regular bi-weekly set of articles if there is enough interest.