There's a Zoat on Syrofoamia

No music tonight.  Luckily was able to bring Private N. over for a game.  Introduced him to Rogue Trader.

Seems a Zoat was seen on Syrofoamia.

The Squats (don't call us Squats) want the Zoat.  They need the Zoat.

But so do the Orks.

Reason enough for a fight?

Simon Never Saw A Zoat Before...

A quick solo Rogue Trader skirmish earlier tonight.

Simon never saw a Zoat before but now there was one banging on his door.  And it brought friends...the Ulysses gang!!!

So Simon called the local Constabulary.  And they arrived in a flash.

Led by no other than Brother Inspector Monatheus. 

Ulysses knew it was a bad idea to rendezvous with the renegade Zoat here on this primitive world.  But no matter.  He has seen worse.  And he always makes it.

Mad Dog takes aim at the twit in the Space Marine armour...and takes him out.

This is all too much for the local Constables.

And now on to Taris 6...

Redlines and Rogue Traders

Since there was no jam last night, I went down to the basement and had a game of 2nd Ed. 40k.  (Second edition because I found some long lost plastic Space Dwarves, and they just screamed out Second edition!)  So it turned out that Rogue Trader Mordecai Pank (formerly of the Imperial Army) had come across a field of classic Redline Wheel Hotwheels.   All he needed now was some help in transporting them onto his ship. 

   His friend and fellow Rogue Trader, Pilot First Class Maxwell Jacobs, agrees to help and enlists a group of eager Squats to assist him.

A squad of of Space Marines also gets involved to make sure everything is on the up-and-up.

Unfortunately, a roving band of Orks roves by.  And they admire the pretty redlines.

All heck soon breaks out.

Leaving the Orks in possession of the Field of Redlines.

                                    
Second Edition is so great.  Although what was most amusing was the incredible Psychic phases dominated by the Ork Wierdboy and his mighty, MIGHTY Power Vomit!

Redlines!

The Battle At The Farm

After years of just staring at The Battle At The Farm scenario in the Rogue Trader book, I finally played it last night.  It was surprisingly a little bit of disappointment in terms of tactical possibilites, but still fun.  

     Thrugg's Orks return to the farm and stumble upon a bunch of sleeping Space Marines...

     ....who immediately open fire.  Here three poor Orks are caught under the plasma blast template fired by the Space Marine Missile Launcher Trooper.

     The Orks take more and more casualities, but keep on coming.

     Only a few make it all the way into Hand-to-Hand combat.  The picture captures last Ork's last moments in the game.

     Commander Pedro Cantor leads the Space Marine Victory Cheer!

We are Space Dwarves!

A couple days ago I gave some Space Dwarves some air.   (I don't think they like to be called Squats.)

                                                       
                                               
                                            

       

They're all hopped up about some Stargrunt II soon...

Imperial Commander

Every couple of months it seems I pull out the Imperial Commander rulebook, thumb through it thinking, man, I really want to play this, then I put it back on the shelf again.  Last night I decided enough is enough, set up a table, gathered some Rogue Trader Era guys (any excuse to play with them), and played Imperial Commander.  
An alert rings out at the local Imperial garrison - someone is in the Forbidden Zone exploring the ruins of New Babylon.   A platoon of Imperial troops is ordered to find and deal with these trespassers.

Anyway, the skirmish that resulted doesn't really matter, it was great, but it was the rules themselves that most interested me.  I really liked the flow of action that Imperial Commander provided.  The double movement (which works a whole better here than in Rogue Trader or early Warhammer editions), the simultaneous fire in both player's turns, the constant chance of weapon malfunction and/or ammo problems, the way rallying is handled, and especially the brilliant close combat phase, all make Imperial Commander truly quite wonderful.   I also love that it was written in 1981 by Bryan Ansell and Richard Halliwell.   I am such a sucker for 70s-80s gaming.  I really want to find and try Rick Priestley's and Halliwell's fantasy set, Reaper, sometime.  And also Laserburn.  And some Chainmail soon would be great too.   Ahh, yeah.  To game all the time.   One day.   But Imperial Commander, yeah, I hope to get in a lot more games of it. 

The New Neighbours

When the local Wizard Tower went up for sale, the village knew they were in for some trouble.    And sure enough, some rich Elf Mage soon moved in with his "friend", and his troupe of Harlequins.  And what a ruckus they caused! 

The local Constabulary was called in only to be chased away by these arrogant Elves.   Something had to be done!   The Imperium was notified.  Almost immediately a platoon of Space Marines were dispatched.  Unfortunately, they were from the Slack Chapter.  These are veteran Marines who are long passed worrying if their unit's uniforms all match. 

Anyway, when the Elf Mage heard about this, he hailed the closest Craftworld to request some help.   And zip...

The Elves were ready.

The local Constabulary tries again.

Elven firing is deadly.  And so are their rounds of Close Combat.   The remaining Marines try one last suicidal charge.

Looks like the new neighbours are here to stay.   Rules used - Warhammer 40 000 2nd. edition.   A really wonderful set of rules that I want to play with again and again.

Rules, No Rules and the Joy of Play

With conferences, new babies and general AWOLness claiming the other privates, it was another solo game last night.   But that's okay, because that meant I could play with my new robot!

The new robot was immediately posted to Research Station 147 under the care and control of Dr. Heinrich Blotzenbachburger, the sector's Sanctioned Mad Scientist.   But before Blotzenbachburger could install his new secret-secret modifications to the robot (whom he named Jeffery), a roving band of Orks descended upon the station.

The station's Squat defenders stumbled into action and a furious firefight enrupted. 

 At this point I stopped playing Rogue Trader and just began to "jam" out the fight.   I am obsessed with collecting rulesets and various different editions of games that I like, but I also really enjoy just playing.   The wonderful freefall of letting go of a rules-imposed structure at a key moment in a game often leads to even further immersion into the little piece of mad theatre that is being instantly created on the table.   Oi, that was a bit of a mouthfull.  Anyway, the Orks ended up overwhelming the defenders and capturing Jeffery the Robot by throwing a stasis field over him.   Dr. Heinrich Blotzenbachburger's last words:  "Ahh, Jeffery, I always thought you looked too Orky..."

A Distress Call from Zynon IV

A detachment of The Squat Liberation Army beams down to a settlement on Zynon IV to answer a distress call.  But where is everyone?  Suddenly there is a rumble and the sky fills with acrid black smoke.  "Ah, that can only be one thing", thinks Capt. Karak, "ORKS!!"    And sure enough an Ork Raider hovers above the settlement and drops out a pile of hopped-up greenskins.    With a whoop and a holler the battle begins...

Captain Karak in action...

While Squad 3 refuses to activate (too busy listening to synth riffs played by the Platoon's musician!)             

In the end, an Ork victory.  Boo!  But a great game.  FUBAR rocks!

"We are, we are, we are the ORKS!!"