When I first started playing 40K in the Rogue Trader days, the games we played were all oriented around small unit actions with a very developed scenario run by a game master. The GM would set the stage and we'd begin gaming. This was a lot of fun back then and when 2nd edition came along, those types of games fell be the wayside with the introduction of scenarios in the game. Now, GW scenarios and tournament style scenarios are the standard and you won't find many people making an effort to try something different.
I like competitive 40K tournament play, but I've found myself wanting more from my hobby. For quite some time I've wanted to do some small scale skirmish battles in both 40K, WFB, and historical settings. Imagine a game with 30 Vikings landing ashore in North America fighting back against the Skraelings (American Indians) or a Space Marine night assault against an Ork settlement on Armageddon. That's what I'm aiming to do.
I'm sure most folks have read at least one Black Library novel (with the exception of Patrick), and imagined how games would be different if the game was more like the background. That's part of the inspiration in Heroic 40K.
So my storyline for next week involves about 20 Space Marines vs. 80+ Orks. The SM players can pick their weapon load-outs for the action and will be accompanied by 2 scouts armed with sniper rifles. It will be up to the players to decide how they are going to destroy all the Orks. Additionally, some of the players will be playing the Orks and will have their own objectives.
The game will be a blend of 40K (all editions), Inquisitor, and Necromunda rules and will have substantially more depth and decision making within the game. I won't be writing a set of rules for the game, but modifying the existing rules and I expect that they'll morph as we go.
Here are some of the rules changes for the Ft. Buyaki Friday night game.
- Marine squad coherency is set at 6". Each model may choose to move, fire, run, assault as if they were a seperate unit as long as they maintain their unit coherency. This means that each model may shoot at a different target and a single model may assault without the rest of the unit.
- Story driven. Players can attempt to try things that regular 40K rules don't allow for. The GM decides the difficulty of such feats and gives players a chance on a die roll to attempt it.
- Additional abilities on both side making some of the models in the game very unique, ie, sharpshooters, combat masters, beserkers, tough ol' sonuva guns, etc. These unique effects will only be shared with individual players and will bring some surprises to the players in the game.
- Anything goes. Imagination is the limit!
- Points don't exist here, neither do fair and balanced scenarios.
- I will most likely have a semi-simultaneous turn, similar to old Space Marine Epic rules.
