Only an 2 and a half hours left until the DSR 6th ed live show.

Quick correction to the time, I was early by an hour. The show will begin at 5PM PST and 1AM GMT, sorry for any confusion.


Live video for mobile from Ustream

Here is the feed for the show for convenience.

We are pumped so please join us for this special event! Here's hoping it goes off without a hitch!

Deepstrike Radio 6th edition Live launch event

Hey guys we I wanted to let you know that Deepstrike Radio will be doing a live launch event for 6th edition 40k via Deepstrike TV on Ustream on the 30th in Australia/29th in the USA.

The stream will begin at Midnight GMT, 10AM Australia time and 4PM Pacific time.

Chris will be playing a live game with his buddies Adam and Pat. Pat was on the Queensland ATC team that won the event.

While Chase and I will go over some of the background changes, plus may delve into some of changes in the core rules as well.

This should be an extremely fun event.

Be there or be square!

Killzone and the Future

First off I would like to thank everyone that has been involved in S.O. Killzone and supported the game from the get go. I also want to say a heartfelt fond farewell to Brian and good luck in all of your future game design endeavors. I appreciate the help you gave and all the work you have done for S.O. Killzone more than words can convey.

I hate for it to end but end it has.

 S.O. Killzone will go on as S.O. Killzone: Events once its 6th edition update is done and dusted. After that is completed I will finally be able to focus on the more narrative version that I had planned to do from the very beginning of this long two year road. 

This will be Killzone: Evolution,  the next logical step in skirmish gaming for the Warhammer 40k universe.

Where Special Operations Killzone bent over backward to allow existing 40k players an easy transition into skirmish gaming; Killzone Evolution might have a bit of a learning curve for many of those same gamers.

Like its predecessor it will still draw most of its rules from 40k, but unlike its predecessor it will change the way the game turn works. 

Killzone Evolution will use an action based alternation activation turn sequence. Each model will have a set number of actions that they can perform when “activated.” More to come on this in a future post.

Then finally we will have Killzone: Forlorn Hope that will pit players verses hoards of aliens or zombies. This will be a supplement that works for both the Events and Evolution systems.

So as one chapter ends a brand new one begins for Killzone.

Cheers,
Jim

Celesticon 2012 40k Narrative event info so far

The battle for Denari: Narrative gaming event

The forces of Chaos has wrested control of the Denari system on the Eastern Fringe. Denari is a valuable Imperial resource planet and must be retaken at all costs. Control of the Promethium and Adamantium mining facilities are key goals to the campaign.

The lack of an Imperial Fleet presence has brought many forces to bear on the world in an attempt to capture its resources for their race. There have even been void skirmishes with scouting elements for a Tyranid hive fleet in the outer reaches of the sector.

Come join us for a fun filled big game of 40k!

Allowed armies:

Armies can be built from all current 40k codices including the White Dwarf codex for the Sisters of Battle, and may also include or be built to include units or completely using the army lists in the Imperial Armor books. Units and list may only be drawn from Imperial Armor book 3-11 and the IA Apoc books.

With that said all IA units and lists must use the most current listing for the unit, which includes the Errata listed on the Forgeworld site.

Armies are built using the following requirements:

2000 points using the normal force organization process and may include one superheavy vehicle from the Apocalypse rulebook or an IA book it may have no more than 3 structure points. Each army may also include one Spearhead formation as listed in the spearhead rules on the games workshop site.

Narrative gaming cards:

At the beginning of the game each player will draw a strategy card from the decks that I will provide.

At the beginning of the game each player will draw a Fate card from from decks that will be provided. The Fate cards will add to the narrative of the game allowing each commander some special bonus during the game.

At the beginning of the game each player will draw a Mission card from decks that will be provided. These will provide each player with a secret agenda that will benefit their team upon completion.

Painting:

Every army must be painted to a three color minimum and be based. (basing can be as simple as painting your models bases an appropriate color.) This is not debatable, we want a great looking event filled with painted models fighting over nice looking terrain.

Scoring:

Objectives will be scored at the bottom of every game turn. Objectives held by a troops choice are worth 2 points, any other unit may score objectives with a worth a value of 1 point gained.

Event House Rules:

Bogged Down:

This rule replaces the current rule for when a vehicle moves in difficult or dangerous terrain.

When a vehicle enters difficult or dangerous terrain some times they become temporarily immobilized; stuck in the terrain they are attempting to cross. These vehicles are referred to as Bogged Down.

Follow the normal procedure for vehicles moving in difficult or dangerous terrain; if they get bogged down place a marker next to the vehicle.

A bogged down vehicle may remobilize at the start of any of its turns by rolling a 4+ on a D6. They may function as normal from that point on, including making a test for difficult terrain if they want to move.

Dangerous Terrain Test:

Dangerous terrain tests will usually remove a model as a casualty if they roll a 1 on the D6 test. This test is changed to the following.

If the model fails the dangerous terrain test it is only removed if the model fails its saving throw (Armor or Invulnerable). Feel No Pain may not be used to save a model from failed saves in this case.”

Coming soon S.O. Killzone: Forlorn Hope

We are in the middle of making a players versus a GM style supplement for S.O. Killzone. I have been playtesting it myself and have had good success and am about ready to send it out to others to playtest.

 I have decided to call the supplement Forlorn Hope it is an old military term that was made popular during the Napoleonic wars.


Forlorn Hope: A forlorn hope is a band of soldiers or other combatants chosen to take the leading part in a military operation, such as an assault on a defended position, where the risk of casualties is high. 

This supplement is meant to pit teams of special operations groups into desperate fights versus the likes of a Daemonic incursion, Tyranid invasion or even a Zombie apocalypse. Your teams will work together to accomplish mission goals and hopefully survive while doing so.

This supplement works best with 2-3 players with one player acting as the game master running the adversary creatures.

This supplement will also give you the opportunity to play single player games of Killzone by utilizing a random creature generation dice and card mechanic in conjunction with random creature movement system. For those times that you or your buddies don't have a game master handy or just all want to play as the good guys.


I am very excited about this supplement it has been tons of fun to play so far, so plenty of great stuff in the future for Killzone!
 

CelestiCon 40k Narrative Event proposal sent!

I have submitted and am hashing out the final details for another narrative event this time at CelestiCon in Fremont CA. This will be another "Big Game" of 40k similar to the event ran at the BAO; with some slight revisions. This Event will happen on Sunday September 2nd, during the Celebrating 25 years of 40k event I created on Facebook, a week to play some great 40k games and share our memories of the good times we have had. Maybe even try busting out an old edition and play a nostalgic game, basically anything goes as long as we share!.

The background for this event is directly linked to the BFG campaign I just finished up. The forces of Chaos have wrested control of the Denari system on the Eastern Fringe. Denari is a valuable Imperial resource planet in the sector and must be retaken at all costs. Control of the Promethium and Adamantium mining facilities are key goals to the campaign.

The lack of an Imperial Fleet presence has brought many forces to bear on the world in an attempt to capture its resources for their race. There have even been void skirmishes with scouting elements for a Tyranid hive fleet in the outer reaches of the sector.

More soon!

Chaos drifting hulk cruiser

Here is the first of a few drifting hulks for my Chaos fleet. This started life as a poorly built ebay model. Thanks to my buddy Kev for converting this for me, the details are great!

I can think of lots of ways to use this model, it can be used to represent the first hulked out ship in a battle, or as part of the space "terrain".

Chaos victory in the Black Sea! (BFG campaign finally)

The Denari system falls as the Imperial Navy and Eldar pirates in the sector are sent running. It was not an easy fight and the Chaos armada of the Soul Reapers has sent many ships back to the orbital docks above Ehdan for repairs and refitting.

Warlord Krüg has transferred his command from the Battleship Eater of Souls to his Battlebarge the Death Incarnate as the warbands Battlebarges, Legion Strike cruisers and light Strike cruisers arrive to bringing their full Astartes might to bear to begin culling of the systems resources.

Here are some pics from the final battle for the system as the Chaos Fleet overruns the Imperial Navy rally point.

The Fleets

This pic is missing a squadron of 3 Infidel class Raiders.

The Set Up

Opening moves

The battle begins

The Mars fires its Nova cannon at the Eater of Souls clipping its base doing one point of Damage. The Eater of Souls returns the favor and puts its lances to work causing 3 hits to the Mars.

More jockying for position as the Mars takes another shot at the Eater of Souls and completely misses with the Nova cannon, but the saving grace is two hits from its torpedo salvo.The Imperials get reinforcements this turn in the form of a squadron of light cruisers and a squadron of destroyers

The Chaos Iconoclast destroyers open up on the Cobras

Chaos Reinforcements arrive as the Betrayer and squadron of Infidels make life difficult for the Imperial light cruisers. The Betrayer cripples one vessel in one volley of its gun decks.

The Eater of Souls cripples the Mars with it's lances!

The Imperial light cruisers brutalize the Infidels.

The cobras destroy an Iconoclast.

The "Hateful Song" Slaughter class cruiser is crippled by the Imperial Battleship. As the Imperials get more reinforcements: in the form of a Lunar cruiser, more cobras and Overlord Battle cruiser

The Chaos fleet cripples the Lunar class cruiser on lock on orders.

The Betrayer cripples the Overlord then the Eater of Souls finishes it off!

3 turns of maneuvering later the final shots take place. With only the Eater of Souls able to lock on through the debris field.

The final results Chaos victory!

The final BFG battles begin tomorrow morning!

The Betrayer

My father has been in town all month, he leaves Tuesday morning; we have been running a BFG campaign to determine the fate of the Denari system. I must say after personally playing about 14 games of BFG in the last 4 weeks I don't understand why any fan of 40k is not playing this game. It is an absolute blast to play and really easy to learn.

So far the forces of the Imperium have been brutalized at the hands of Chaos and Eldar pirates, but the Eldar do not discriminate and have manhandled the forces of Chaos as well. Damned pointy eared bastards!

That said the title most deadly ship goes to the Repulsive class Grand Cruiser the Betrayer. Holy crap this ship has single handedly killed or crippled a total of 13 cruisers with one salvo from its weapons batteries and lances. To top it off the ship has not been crippled once in the entire campaign.


I will be posting pics from the final two or three games sometime tomorrow.

Wolf Theory Mk II: Revelations

So I had a post on this topic back in May 2009 I have decided to revisit it now. As I gear up to start working on the reboot of my Wolves, now that I am in the final stages of the Soul Reapers rebuild getting ready to unveil the first 2k on the blog.

I talked about how I plan to build an entire Great Company of Space Wolves this time around, but there are a couple of common issues.

How many Space Wolves are there in the Chapter? What makes up a Great Company?

Here is an important estimate from that post:

I estimated that a full strength Great Company was around 200 Space Wolves; with the Chapter probably maxing out around 2500 Space Wolves if it included all the priests and their initiates.

Now that we have a number of Astartes to work from in print via the Black Library novel Battle of the Fang, I fully believe those numbers to be extremely close to accurate. At the end of the novel there is one Great Company Depleted to 23 Astartes (the 12th GC who had been decimated defending the Fang), the other 11 Great Companies are present just returned from campaigning but still numbering a staggering 2000 Astartes of the Vlka Fenryka.

The new information really jells with the information from my previous post and I will be running with it. 

So here is what I plan to shoot for:

1 Wolf Lord

2 Rune Priests

2 Wolf Priests

2 Iron Priests
20 Wolf Guard
12 Grey Hunter packs (total of up to 110 Astartes)

2 Blood Claw packs (total of up to 30 Astartes)

4 Long Fang packs (total of up to 20 Astartes)

2 Wolf Scout pack (total of up to 20 Astartes)

I will vary the number of models in the Grey Hunter packs to show combat losses.  The Claws will be broken into the 3 types with 12 of them being foot born Blood Claws. The scouts will be built as 10 strong packs as well as with the options to be split into 4 packs of 5.

So that is my theory and plan.

Randomeness in 6th ed is not a bad thing

With all the current rumors of an increase in randomness coming to 40k, I just wanted to share my opinions on the matter. As you know I am unashamedly a Beer and Pretzels (B&P) gamer, so that predictability that tourney players are looking for is not my bag. I play for the sheer fun of rolling dice and hanging with my bros. I will give some of my thoughts from both the competitive and B&P side of my mind.

Recently there have been whispers that random terrain effects and randomly generated psychic powers similar to way things are done WFB may be coming to 6^th. The gnashing of teeth has been epic from many in the 40k community and I do understand a bit of the issue that the tourney guys are having. I used to be a hard core tourney player, but have gotten back to my B&P gaming roots.

I still don’t think it is as bad as many are worrying that it will be. I think it has added a ton of depth to WFB, in fact it is the only GW game that I will still play in a tournament format. I think WFB is more balanced than ever, unlike 40k IMHO.

From my Competitive side:

All GW games are at their core “dice” games; meaning there is always going to be tons of randomness. While playing to win you have to plan for random outcomes to happen and mitigate them as best you can.

If this current batch of rumors are true it provides the opportunity to up your game competitively. Dealing with randomness like this really gives you many more opportunities in the risk verses reward type of game play on the tabletop and in my opinion 40k has lacked this kind of depth for too long. Do I want to charge that unit or shoot them?

Positioning of units on the tabletop will become much more important.  40k has always had a very lackluster movement phase since 3rd ed and anything that shakes that up is a good thing.

From the Beer and Pretzels viewpoint:

Randomness is not something that ruins my experience in wargames as long as it is not arbitrary and pointless. It takes away an amount of control from the gamer and I would actually propose that it is a good thing for the game in many instances.

An example of pointless randomness is the way that difficult terrain is implemented in 40k. It is silly that if you’d like to enter lets say a wood and you are 4 inches away from your unit and you roll less than 4 inches you do not even move to the edge of the wood by default, nope you only move the 1-3 inches that you roll. Now mind you I only say that this is pointless randomness in its implementation. If the implementation were to have the models always move to the edge of the terrain if they fail to go far enough to enter the terrain; that would be good randomness.

Well implemented randomness changes the focus of the game from worrying about winning; it brings the focus back the process of playing and having fun. You become more interested in seeing how things will play out on the tabletop, and less interested in who actually won.

Your average B&P gamer is looking for; a fun day/night of socializing with their opponents, rolling dice and having a great gaming experience. Basically they want to get a nice looking table set up, with painted figs, great terrain and armies that both of the players love. It is all about the spectacle of watching a story unfold before their eyes and randomness can really help generate some unpredictability that lends its self to great story telling.