Goatboy - Whoa Friday??!?!?!

Hey Goatboy here again - I swapped one of my weekend days with a coworker that needed Friday off to do some finals for his school. So here I am at work just writing stuff and doing some Technical Support on some Fiber customers. Other then that I am also working on some mental exercises for this game thought I have. As well as waiting to paint up some Mexican headed orks for a model review from Puppet Wars. So woot.

So basically this post is another Game thought journal on this idea I have. Will it work? Who the hell knows. I need to plan out some rules and go from there. But today I want to go over some game location thoughts.

I love Post Apocalyptic stuff. I wish I could spell that without having to need spell check but still I love the look and idea. I want some kind of high tech stuff mixed with a broken world with all kinds of neat stuff. Some magic thrown in too because I love all that stuff. So that is the basic idea.

The other thought would be to work it as a party based group. You have your main hero - then some subordinates and henchmen/machines after that. The system would most likely have a rotating order system as you move a model and then your opponent does - with the each turn having an initial roll off to see who starts first etc. The design set up would be a lot of buff and debuff options to help create combos as you take down certain aspects of the enemy.

I talked about stats and I think I want to limit the amount to create something that is easy to keep track of and use. Something like Movement - Melee - Range - Defense - Life.

Movement is pretty easy as it is basically how far they can move. There will be a charge option and other things to create more info within the rules. Basically try to design movement to be something that will create game play that isn't just dice based. I think that will be a big help in creating an interesting and still competitive game.

Melee is also pretty easy as it is your ability to hit something in combat. I think this state will also have options that allow for the models defense to be replaced by its Melee ability. This way you can showcase better fighters versus just fast or strong fighters etc.

Range is how good at shooting you are. I don't want to make this a straight shooting gallery game with most ranges being short and the options here most likely expensive. 40k is a shooting game and this one doesn't really need to be that. This will fall into the Magic realm as there will be options for Missiles and other long range effects. The idea is that each action takes a specific # of successes to hit the opponent. Your range is how many successes you can try to roll. So if you have Range 6 you roll 6 dice and if you succeeded for the item/ability you do its damage to the target.

Defense is how well you can take a hit. This can be in melee or when someone shoots you with a bullet. I kinda want to create a game that lets your guy be invincible at times to small arms fire. Basically we always hear how these terminators too a bazillion shots and kept moving - but in gameplay that doesn't happen. Normally get a squad to roll 6 wounds they should roll a 1 and fail. The question is there a way to make something like that happen and still be effective?

The idea I had for this is to try to do a system that takes whatever you beat a score by - that is how many dice you roll. For every 4+ you succeed - ie do damage or something else based on what is needed for the ability. So in other words - let's say your Melee ability is a 10 and you are hitting someone with a defense of 5 - you roll 5 dice and for every 4+ on a d6 you do a wound. Simple and easy. Let's say your Melee is 5 and the guys defense is 10. Then you can do nothing to them. I know that not being able to do anything to a unit is bad but we can always look at other options to help this out - ie Buffs and Debuffs. Or ways to gang up on a model - ie groups that can add up their melee to try and hurt the opponent.

So of course the idea of ganging up can allow for different options for activation. Basically you have special guys that can activate two at once or groups of henchmen that activate at once. All different ideas that might work. Again this is all just mental thoughts and other things as I try to work on the game.

So to give an idea - here is a hero I thought about. Not sure yet on any points or anything - just an idea.

Hero - Rotten Asshole
Move - 6
Melee - 4
Range - 6
Defense - 8
Health - 10

- Weapons -
Deadshot Pistol - 2 Successes = Basic Hit - 3 Damage / 3 Successes = Hard Hit - 4 Damage / 4 Successes = Crippling Hit - 5 Damage / 5 Successes = Crit Hit - 6 Damage / 6 Successes = Dead Shot - 7 Damage

- Special Abilities -
Rot - Area of Effect - Cursed - 5 Inches around target - all within range are at -2 Defense until the beginning of the next turn. The area stays with the target. 4 Successes needed to hit.
Bloody Curse - Missile - Cursed - Target takes 1 Damage - -2 Defense for rest of the game. 3 Successes needed to hit.
Undead - Takes 1 more damage from Holy based effects.

Cursed will mean something like Holy will mean something. Based on what kind of damage etc. There will be others that will help give a lot of interesting options etc. That is my thoughts initially.

Of course I could be writing about something that is already done. Who the hell knows I am just putting stuff down as I think it. Would it work? Maybe. I think it could be interesting especially if I come to it from a "competitive" fast game play option.

Other then this I also tested my first Henchmen build. It did alright - I played the following which is diff from the post earlier this week.

HQ: Coteaz
HQ: GM, Psycannon, Rad, Psychotroke
Elites: Tech Marine, Rad, Psychotroke, Servo Skull
Troops: GKT X 10, Bro Banner, Psycannon X 2, Daemonhammer X 2, Halberds X 7
Troops: Henchmen - DC X 6, Crusader X 4
Troops: Henchmen - Jokaero X 2, MM Servitor X 3, Chimera, Hvy Flamer
Troops: Henchmen - Rogue Psyker X 7, Warrior Acoloyte X 3, Meltagun X 3, Rhino
Heavy: LRC, MM
Heavy: Dreadnought, TWL Autocannon X 2, Psybolt
Heavy: Dreadnought, TWL Autocannon X 2, Psybolt

It worked ok - played a crazy Venom spam list to test out my friends army. We tied and I shot a lot. If we played other missions I probably won on Kill Points or Victory Points or whatever. Still it was ok - just felt I could change it up a lot. I think I figured out another build - almost all Henchmen as well as a design process for it. I think anyway. So let's show it to ya.

HQ: Coteaz
HQ: Librarian, Might of Titan, Shrouding, Sanctuary
Elites: Ven Dread, TWL Autocannon X 2, Psybolt
Elites: Ven Dread, TWL Autocannon X 2, Psybolt
Elites: Techmarine, Rad, Psychotroke, Warding Stave, Servo Skull X 2
Troops: Henchmen - Warrior Acolytes X 3, Razorback, Psybolt
Troops: Henchmen - Warrior Acolytes X 3, Razorback, Psybolt
Troops: Henchmen - DC X 4, Crusader X 4, Rhino
Troops: Henchmen - Jokaero X 2, MM Servitor X 3, Chimera, Hvy Flamer
Troops: Henchmen - Rogue Psyker X 7, Warrior Acolyte X 3, Plasmagun X 3, Rhino
Troops: Henchmen - Rogue Psyker X 7, Warrior Acolyte X 3, Meltagun X 3, Rhino
Heavy: Dreadnought, TWL Autocannon X 2, Psybolt
Heavy: Dreadknight, Heavy Incinerator
Heavy: Dreadknight, Heavy Incinerator

So this might be a full evil army as I look at doing a design from a Skaven standpoint. I don't want to play Fantasy but I want to paint Skaven haha. So will see. What do people think of this one? A massive kinda spamie list with lots of options. It does give me a lot of conversion possibility. I might have to forgo the Skaven thing as I would have to repaint a whole army - so I might just look at making this a normal so I don't have to redo Rhinos. But the Skaven stuff will look cool! ARGH!!!

So yeah - who the hell knows. The Dreadknights would be based off of Ork Dreads with the regular dreadnoughts based off of Kill Kans with Skaven bits and other nonsense. That is the thought. What do you peeps think?

And some Infinity models.