Category: tabletop games

FRAG: Poor Bloody Infantry

I wrote part of a new army list for FRAG, the Earth Defence Force, but ended up shelving it.

Intended to represent the generic soldiers who are inevitably slaughtered before a game begins, they were meant for the sort of people who love playing the Imperial Guard in 40k. The poor bloody infantry, outmatched but determined that the superhuman invaders can piss right off.

At first I wrote some Duke3D inspired gimmick special weapons for them but decided that it didn’t really fit the theme of bloody minded cannon fodder. The second idea, having them plant lots of debuffs on enemies before going in for the kill, also proved to be too much paperwork that just didn’t gel with the fast and fluid nature of the rules. Finally, just giving them a generic equipment list so that anyone can use their generic sci-fi miniatures proved boring and conflicted with the fluff of the space marines (who get way cooler stuff).

Whilst I could have fixed these things, in the end I moved the EDF work into the “Cut Content” section of the rulebook where they’ll probably stay.

I love the idea of basic humans fighting back these superhuman opponents, but if you want basic soldiers struggling to move and fire heavy weapons, just take a New Order army full of basic soldiers.

FRAG: The New Order Lore

I wrote some new fluff for FRAG’s evil human faction.

The New Order
The accessible dimensions are strange and varied places. Rarely, Humans or human-like creatures may live in these dimensions but their societies are alien to the inhabitants of Earth. Colonial scientists believed that there simply were no ‘alternate Earths’. This changed after the discovery of the New Order during the Battle of New Angeles.

When they were first encountered the New Order were believed to be a militant cult taking advantage of Hell’s invasion. The truth was far more sinister. In reality the New Order were humans from an alternate Earth, newly arrived with the goal of subverting and eventually conquering the Earth government.

Little information about the New Order is known for sure. They are believed to come from a parallel Earth where the Second World War was won by an alternate incarnation of the Axis Powers called the European Triad. In this timeline the Triad achieved total dominance using mysterious technological and occult methods. Following on from their total victory over the Allies, the European Triad became the New Order and began to explore alternate dimensions through a mysterious technique involving “the Dark Sun”.

The Dark War
Unlike all other dimensions visited, current information about the New Order’s home world suggests that it is a true ‘alternate Earth’. Investigators have yet to identify a point of divergence, but by the early 1940s the world had started to majorly diverge. An alternate version of the Axis Powers, composed of Germany, Italy, and Spain, uncovered a cache of ultra-technological weaponry and used it to conquer the world. The circumstances surrounding this discovery are shrouded in mystery, even to members of the New Order.

It’s possible that variations in the timeline may stretch much further back than initially believed, with alternate rulers and ancient orders of warlocks hinted at by captured New Order operatives, but the Earth Defence Force does not possess the technology needed to infiltrate the New Order’s home world yet.

Like Hell itself, time appears to flow differently in the New Order’s home dimension. In their universe, the year is believed to be some time in the mid to late 20th century.

Get Psyched
Members of the Lost Battalion first encountered the New Order during the Battle of New Angeles. The Order had attacked several Earth Defence Force positions, but was wiped out by a counter attack by the Lost Battalion’s marines. While the Lost had little interest in searching the ruined outpost, EDF investigators arriving after the battle were able to piece together some information about the inter-dimensional interlopers.

Since then, the Earth Defence Force and the New Order have clashed a few times. The current goal of the Order appears to be theft – they hope to steal the secrets of Earth’s interstellar flight and demonic research. They also have an interest in the mystical, and target arcane dimensions as well.

FRAG: The Elves Get Pissed

I’ve finished the first pass of the fourth army for FRAG – the Sidhe.The Sidhe (‘shee’) hail from a distant, magical dimension. After their world was annihilated by powerful arch-demons, the reminders of the Sidhe race turned their considerable might towards hunting demons and monsters across the cosmos. While ostensibly allies to the Earth Defence Force and the Lost Battalion, they remain mysterious and aloof.

More so than the Lost Battalion or the Forces of Hell, the Sidhe really rely on their characters to deliver their deadliest abilities. Most Sidhe pepper the enemy with amber wand fire; they depend on mages to deliver them to the right spot and increase their firepower, cardinals to support them defensively, and lords to rip the throats out of the biggest bads on the battlefield.

The Sidhe also have a few important differences to other armies. For one, they need to declare which artifacts they are using at the beginning of the turn (they have a lot). Secondly, many Sidhe are Slippery (they can leave close combat without triggering attacks). Careful planning, alongside the brute force expected from a FRAG army, will ensure they win the day.

FRAG: The Next Faction

Tried to do some work on the next update…. let’s call it the Sidhe update. They’re a new army for FRAG, my tabletop rulebook project. There’s not been much progress. Perhaps there’s been too much Real Life Work stuff on my mind.

When I started writing FRAG, I just wanted to make a simple but fun game about some of the cool stuff that’s gone on in the Doom / Id fan community. I also wanted people to be able to use pretty much whatever miniatures they liked – the fantasy list has a dual purpose of letting people use fantasy models as well as scratching that Heretic / Hexen itch.

Of course, it’s a bit tricky balancing that against armoured space marines shooting plasma guns at bulletproof demon-cyborgs in a simplified d6 system.

FRAG: New Faction

Currently writing rules for the “Not-Wolfenstein” SS Paranormal Division, now renamed to the New Order. They should play quite differently to the other lists. While running about firing heavy weapons is the standard in FRAG, these alt-history Nazis are (mostly) only human and have to carefully deploy weapon teams instead.

Mid-write I went looking for reference pics for the army list to help guide artists and play testers. I really shouldn’t have been surprised at what’s available for the SS Elite Guard. In the end I used screenshots from Return to Castle Wolfenstein but I’m pretty sure I’m on a watch list now.

Tomorrow’s War: DOOM

An army list I wrote for use in Tomorrow’s War. If you’ve bought a box of Maelstrom’s Edge, this’ll let you use the Epirian models (hopefully converted!) as Doom marines.

I nearly wrote accompanying rules for demons, but I started work on FRAG and have concentrated on that. Please note that these rules haven’t actually been tested on a table yet

United States Space Marine Corps (Doom Marines) Platoon
Troop Quality: d10-d12
Morale: d12
Confidence: High
Tech Level 2+
Armour: Light (1d)
Supply Level: Abundant

Special Qualities: Close Combat Monsters, Hard-to-Kill (d6), Old School, Pain Resistant

 Platoon Organisation
           1 Command Squad (5 marines)
                       Officer
                       NCO
                       x2 Engineer (breaching tools, drone interface, communications equipment)
                       Medic

           1-3 Marine Squad (10 marines)
                       Squad Leader
                       Support weapon user
                       x2 Fireteam
                                   Fireteam leader
                                   Support weapon user
                                   x2 Marine

Marines are armed with battle rifles and pistols. Squad leaders may use pistols or shotguns. Support weapon users may equip chainguns, rocket launchers, plasma rifles, or the fearsome BFG 9000.

The command squad may split and join other squads.

One marine per fireteam may add an underslung grenade launcher to their battle rifle, giving +1FP dice per attack.

Options
Mega-Armour: May upgrade the command squad to defence 2d.
Heroic: By default the Lt and and ‘Sarge’ are TQ d12. Up to 3 non-command staff may also be upgraded to TQ d12; these units may equip non-standard equipment such as shotguns, super shotguns and/or chainsaws.

Wargear
Pistol (TL2 TST pistol, AP1)
Battle Rifle (TL2 TST rifle, AP1)
Shotgun (TL2 TST shotgun, AP1)
Super Shotgun (TL2, TST shotgun, AP2, cannot attack outside of  Optimum Range)
Chaingun (TL2, medium support weapon, AP3 / AT 1 (L),  Intimidating)
Rocket Launcher (TL2, medium support weapon, AP3 / AT 2 (M),  Intimidating)
Plasma Rifle (TL3, ESW, light support weapon, AP2 / AT 2 (L),  Intimidating)
BFG 9000 (TL3 ESW, heavy support weapon, AP4 / AT 3 (M),  Intimidating)
Chainsaw (TL2 close combat weapon +1d)

Support Drones (non-canon)
All drones are controlled by marine engineers who operate them remotely via their command uplinks.

If left without a controller marine drones will enter sentry mode. Nearby marines can ‘claim’ uncontrolled drones by entering base contact with them. The drone will then join the marine fireteam as an escort, adding to team firepower.

Marine engineers with command uplinks can activate them remotely from anywhere on the board. The engineer and his bots benefit from the grid.

Spider Drone – TL2 dumb bot. (TQ d8 unless controlled)

Heli Drone – TL2 dumb bot, ignores terrain due to hover movement (TQ d8 unless controlled)

Light Warmech – TL2 smart bot (TQ d8, fixed morale d10)

Heavy Warmech – TL2 smart bot (TQ d8, fixed morale d10)

Heavy Warmechs count as Power Armour in addition to being a smart bot. This adds the following rules to the usual smart bot rules:

Intimidating to non-power armoured troopers.
Enhanced strength (count all weapons as one class lower than usual for movement)
Possesses close combat weapon
Close Assault Monster
Contributes a full initiative dice as if an armoured vehicle

Drone Wargear
Drone support gun (TL2, TST, AP2)
Light Mech Rail Rifle (TL2, ABW, light support weapon, AP2, AT2 [L])
Light Mech Flamethrower (TL2, flame-thrower)
Heavy Mech MMG (TL2, TST, medium support weapon, AP2)
Heavy Mech Autocannon (TL2, TST, medium support weapon, AP2 AT2 [L])
Heavy Mech Energy Cannon (TL3, ESW, medium support weapon, AP3, AP2[M])
Heavy Mech Shoulder rockets (TL2, medium support weapon, AP3, AT3[M])
Heavy Mech Shoulder multi-missiles (TL2, light support weapon, AP3, AT2[L])

Energy Support Weapon Rules:
Team Firing: Ignore 1d of infantry target’s armour or cover.
Split Fire / Weapon Team Effects: +1FP, -1 to reaction tests (all), ignore 1d of target armour/cover (TL2+), ignore a additional die of target cover / armour (TL3)

Personality – The Doom Slayer (Doom 4)
d12/d12, high confidence, armour 3d (TL3), abundant supply

Special Qualities: Advanced Life Support, Close Combat Monster, Dreadful, Hard-to-Kill (d8), Intimidating, Jump Infantry, Pain Resistant, Old School

TL3 Power Armour: Intimidating to non-power armoured troopers, enhanced strength (count all weapons as one class lower than usual for movement), close combat weapons, contributes a full initiative dice as if an armoured vehicle.

Counts as a two model team in close combat (for the purposes of determining outnumbering and close combat attacks). Since the Doom Slayer counts as a two model team armed with close combat weapons and possessing the Close Combat Monster quality, he rolls 5d12 in close combat.

Tomorrow’s War Army List: The Gempire

A sample army list for Tomorrow’s War using the miniatures shown in my previous post.

The Gempire
The Gempire is a race of imperialistic gem-themed aliens with a strictly defined social structure. This harsh feudal structure dictates the life of every gem from the lowliest ruby to the highest diamond.

Gempire Platoon
TQ: d8-d10
Morale: d10
Confidence: High
Tech Level 3
Armour: Typically 2d
Supply Level: Medium
Special Qualities: Caveman CASEVAC

Light Infantry – Ruby Team (units of 4-6)
TQ: d8
Morale: d8
Confidence: High
Armour: Hard (2d)

Veteran Leader – Amethyst (solo officer, or units of 2-4)
TQ: d10
Morale: d10
Confidence: High
Armour: Hard (2d)
Special Rules: Augmented CC Weapons (+1d in assault), Hard-to-Kill (d6)

Drone Technician – Peridot (0-1 Peridot, 0-6 drones)
TQ: d8
Morale: d8
Confidence: High
Armour: Hard (2d)
Special Rules: Drone Operator / Drone Mechanic, Hard-to-Kill (d6)

Peridot Robonoids
TL3 dumb bots with TL3 pistols.

Very Heavy Infantry – Jasper (solo)
TQ: d10
Morale: d12
Confidence: High
Armour: Powered Armour (3d)
Special Rules: Counts as Power Armour*, Augmented CC Weapons (+1d in assault), Hard-to-Kill (d8)

* Intimidating to non-power armoured troopers ; Enhanced strength (count all weapons as one class lower than usual for movement) ; Possesses close combat weapons ; Close Assault Monster ; Contributes a full initiative dice as if an armoured vehicle.

Jasper Weapons:
Heavy Cannons (TL3 ESW*, heavy support weapon AP4 / AT2 [M], Intimidating)
Medium Cannon (TL3 ESW*, medium support weapon AP3 / AT1 [L], Intimidating)

Close Assault Monster is a trait from the By Dagger Or Talon expansion book for Tomorrow’s War.

Vor the Maelstrom: Shard

Originally an army from FASA’s Vor, I ended up using these in  another game called Tomorrow’s War.

Tomorrow’s War is a setting and scale neutral game that I really recommend – the book is a bit of a confusing read, but when you’re going the game itself is simple and very fun, with a nice toolbox approach to gaming that more gamers should try.