Post by skald on Feb 18, 2023 12:28:21 GMT
I did a search but nothing came up, so excuse me if someone has written about this previously.
One of my fonder memories of getting into the grimdark setting over 3 decades ago has always been the first few games of GWs Space Hulk.
There was something truly special about pitting the best humanity had to offer against the xenos threat and watch them get absolutely obliterated as the green blips on the scanners closed in. Aliens had hit the cinema (and video-rentals) just years before and was still kinda on everyones mind in pop-culture, I think it added to the feeling in the game. The mechanics in said game are absolutely awful tho, so now that Im getting back into mini-wargaming again after a long hiatus and especially since I have begun building a Zone Mortalis terrainset that's sitting on my computerdesk...
Let's try to re-create this in GFF!
The basics of the game is Battle Brothers against Alien Hives in cramped Zone Mortalis, with fog of war for the BB player. For starters I'm thinking of a classical SH-setup with Destroyers against Soulsnatchers only, but if I can figure out a reasonable "points-system" that is fair for both players, anything can really be used. I'm open to ideas and would like to have any and all input. Please excuse the poor formatting and order of things, they will be cleaned up once we start reaching Void Hulk 1.0.
Basic setup:
*The battlefield is corridors, gateways and rooms on a 4*4-6' table representing a derelict Voidhulk.
*The base mission will be something akin this; The BB-player needs to go and pick up objective-markers (representing stuff like datasheets, geneseed or whatever) around the table. The Soulsnatchers will try to prevent this by coming to the area in unstoppable waves of new Snatchers as old ones die.
For each objective carried at the end of the turn 1 VP is awarded. If all objectives are carried off board-edge '0' the BB-player wins outright. Objectives are considered to shift hands if a model dies, aka. its the unit as a whole that "carries" it.
Snatchers gain 1 VP for each uncontrolled objectivemarker at the end of turn 2 onwards and win outright if all BBs are dead.
The game lasts for X turns at which point it's condidered that the rest of the Battle Brother detatchment catch up to the Destroyerteams and clean up the mess or the Voidhulk is deemed fit for destruction by bombardment. Whatever fits the players narrative.
*The boardedges will be numbered 0-3 and no Blips may enter the game in subsequent turns from 'edge 0'.
*At the start of the mission X Blips are placed on the board by the Snatcher-player. No blip can be within 18" from the BB deploymentzone or another blip. The Blips are drawn randomly by the Snatcher-player (from a pile) who may look at any of their Blips at any time during play. All subsequent Blips that enter the game should also be drawn randomly.
*The BB-player starts in the deploymentzone on 'edge 0' and deploy their whole army last. The Soulsnatchers are represented as green tokens (Blips) that move around each turn as per normal activation-rules.
The game:
*Voidhulk is played as a standard GFF-match apart from the special rules mentioned below.
*The BB-player is the one to start the first turn.
*Blips move 1D6+8". They can move freely, ignoring all terrain, walls and other Blips in play. This represents them "being in the walls!!" and various interference and scanner anomalies. Blips can charge as outlined in a paragraph below, but must be"flipped" and changed into Snatcher models at the first LoS-point for a Destroyer model.
*At the start of each turn before any activation, Z Blips will enter the game. Each Blip gets randomized with a D3 roll to decide the table-edge they enter play on. They get placed on the tableedge and will move when they are activated by the Snatcher-player that turn.
*There can only be a total of YY amount of blips in play.
*Each Blip represents 0-5 (?) Snatcher models and gets flipped over every time a BB gets it in LoS, to reveal what the threat is. As a Blip is turned over, the Snatcher-player puts models according to the number on the board, and finishes the rest of the activation (aka, they get to move up to their movement-allowance or finish their charge). Once Soulsnatchers are in play, they are for all intents and purposes ordinary units with standard rules for moving, charging etc.
*The Snatcher-player may charge with a Blip if you have rolled high enough for movement, or simply move the models into cover/towards the enemy and so on. The reasoning behind having Blips that represent 0 models is to add to suspense for the player, as a tactical advantage for the Snatchers and interference from the surroundings. Blips CAN NOT charge from the ceiling/floor or thru a wall, but must be flipped and turned into model(s) at some point of the BB-player units LoS. F.ex. you can move a blip freely to a corner of a corridor and converti it into models and the finish the charge/move. You can move a blip freely to a closed door next to a Destroyer unit and once you open it, you change the Blip to models. And so on.
Finishing thoughts:
*I think it benefits the game to have the Destroyers as battlesquads of 3 models. These are 85pts baseline value, and it's reasonaly to assume a classic setup of two melee brothers with a shooty support, which makes the squad-value ~300pts. The exact pointsvalue is not really important, and 'The Rule of Cool' will pretty much let the BB-player choose whatever models they prefer aslong they are not overly obtuse.
*The soulsnatchers are fine as they are stat-wise and lets assume we don't use the Mind Snatcher upgrade at all.
*It would be cool to work out the balancing based on one team of Destroyers so the game can be scaled up "indefinetly" depending on how big you wanna make it, or how many different people you want controlling the Destroyers.
*The wording of certain things needs to be made clearer, especially on how blips can move and declare charges. The Most Important Rule is in effect tho and I think most will understand how this works.
*Rules for doors needs figuring out, for starters they can just be treated as LoS-blockers that can be removed for free as models are within 1".
Should they cost movement to open/close? Should Destroyers be able to weld them shut to trap Soulsnatchers in bad spots? Should Destroyers be able to collapse whole rooms/corridors with certain high-explosive weapons?
*More missions, for sure. They should be very easy to design once the balancing issues with Destroyer-teams vs. Blips are done.
Unanswered questions:
*How to randomize where the objectives are placed for the basic mission?
*What is a good matchup if you consider 3 Destroyers vs. X amount of Soulsnatchers?
*How many of each numbered Blip (0-5 on the bottom of them) should there be to draw from the Blip-pile, per D-team?
*How many Blips on the table from start?
*How many Blips to add each turn, and how many can there be in total on the board?
*Would it benefit the game regarding stress/suspense that there is always a Blip with a 0 on it, plus whatever amount of numbered blips, that gets added each turn?
*How long (ie. turns) should the games be?
Best Regards
/Skald
One of my fonder memories of getting into the grimdark setting over 3 decades ago has always been the first few games of GWs Space Hulk.
There was something truly special about pitting the best humanity had to offer against the xenos threat and watch them get absolutely obliterated as the green blips on the scanners closed in. Aliens had hit the cinema (and video-rentals) just years before and was still kinda on everyones mind in pop-culture, I think it added to the feeling in the game. The mechanics in said game are absolutely awful tho, so now that Im getting back into mini-wargaming again after a long hiatus and especially since I have begun building a Zone Mortalis terrainset that's sitting on my computerdesk...
Let's try to re-create this in GFF!
The basics of the game is Battle Brothers against Alien Hives in cramped Zone Mortalis, with fog of war for the BB player. For starters I'm thinking of a classical SH-setup with Destroyers against Soulsnatchers only, but if I can figure out a reasonable "points-system" that is fair for both players, anything can really be used. I'm open to ideas and would like to have any and all input. Please excuse the poor formatting and order of things, they will be cleaned up once we start reaching Void Hulk 1.0.
Basic setup:
*The battlefield is corridors, gateways and rooms on a 4*4-6' table representing a derelict Voidhulk.
*The base mission will be something akin this; The BB-player needs to go and pick up objective-markers (representing stuff like datasheets, geneseed or whatever) around the table. The Soulsnatchers will try to prevent this by coming to the area in unstoppable waves of new Snatchers as old ones die.
For each objective carried at the end of the turn 1 VP is awarded. If all objectives are carried off board-edge '0' the BB-player wins outright. Objectives are considered to shift hands if a model dies, aka. its the unit as a whole that "carries" it.
Snatchers gain 1 VP for each uncontrolled objectivemarker at the end of turn 2 onwards and win outright if all BBs are dead.
The game lasts for X turns at which point it's condidered that the rest of the Battle Brother detatchment catch up to the Destroyerteams and clean up the mess or the Voidhulk is deemed fit for destruction by bombardment. Whatever fits the players narrative.
*The boardedges will be numbered 0-3 and no Blips may enter the game in subsequent turns from 'edge 0'.
*At the start of the mission X Blips are placed on the board by the Snatcher-player. No blip can be within 18" from the BB deploymentzone or another blip. The Blips are drawn randomly by the Snatcher-player (from a pile) who may look at any of their Blips at any time during play. All subsequent Blips that enter the game should also be drawn randomly.
*The BB-player starts in the deploymentzone on 'edge 0' and deploy their whole army last. The Soulsnatchers are represented as green tokens (Blips) that move around each turn as per normal activation-rules.
The game:
*Voidhulk is played as a standard GFF-match apart from the special rules mentioned below.
*The BB-player is the one to start the first turn.
*Blips move 1D6+8". They can move freely, ignoring all terrain, walls and other Blips in play. This represents them "being in the walls!!" and various interference and scanner anomalies. Blips can charge as outlined in a paragraph below, but must be"flipped" and changed into Snatcher models at the first LoS-point for a Destroyer model.
*At the start of each turn before any activation, Z Blips will enter the game. Each Blip gets randomized with a D3 roll to decide the table-edge they enter play on. They get placed on the tableedge and will move when they are activated by the Snatcher-player that turn.
*There can only be a total of YY amount of blips in play.
*Each Blip represents 0-5 (?) Snatcher models and gets flipped over every time a BB gets it in LoS, to reveal what the threat is. As a Blip is turned over, the Snatcher-player puts models according to the number on the board, and finishes the rest of the activation (aka, they get to move up to their movement-allowance or finish their charge). Once Soulsnatchers are in play, they are for all intents and purposes ordinary units with standard rules for moving, charging etc.
*The Snatcher-player may charge with a Blip if you have rolled high enough for movement, or simply move the models into cover/towards the enemy and so on. The reasoning behind having Blips that represent 0 models is to add to suspense for the player, as a tactical advantage for the Snatchers and interference from the surroundings. Blips CAN NOT charge from the ceiling/floor or thru a wall, but must be flipped and turned into model(s) at some point of the BB-player units LoS. F.ex. you can move a blip freely to a corner of a corridor and converti it into models and the finish the charge/move. You can move a blip freely to a closed door next to a Destroyer unit and once you open it, you change the Blip to models. And so on.
Finishing thoughts:
*I think it benefits the game to have the Destroyers as battlesquads of 3 models. These are 85pts baseline value, and it's reasonaly to assume a classic setup of two melee brothers with a shooty support, which makes the squad-value ~300pts. The exact pointsvalue is not really important, and 'The Rule of Cool' will pretty much let the BB-player choose whatever models they prefer aslong they are not overly obtuse.
*The soulsnatchers are fine as they are stat-wise and lets assume we don't use the Mind Snatcher upgrade at all.
*It would be cool to work out the balancing based on one team of Destroyers so the game can be scaled up "indefinetly" depending on how big you wanna make it, or how many different people you want controlling the Destroyers.
*The wording of certain things needs to be made clearer, especially on how blips can move and declare charges. The Most Important Rule is in effect tho and I think most will understand how this works.
*Rules for doors needs figuring out, for starters they can just be treated as LoS-blockers that can be removed for free as models are within 1".
Should they cost movement to open/close? Should Destroyers be able to weld them shut to trap Soulsnatchers in bad spots? Should Destroyers be able to collapse whole rooms/corridors with certain high-explosive weapons?
*More missions, for sure. They should be very easy to design once the balancing issues with Destroyer-teams vs. Blips are done.
Unanswered questions:
*How to randomize where the objectives are placed for the basic mission?
*What is a good matchup if you consider 3 Destroyers vs. X amount of Soulsnatchers?
*How many of each numbered Blip (0-5 on the bottom of them) should there be to draw from the Blip-pile, per D-team?
*How many Blips on the table from start?
*How many Blips to add each turn, and how many can there be in total on the board?
*Would it benefit the game regarding stress/suspense that there is always a Blip with a 0 on it, plus whatever amount of numbered blips, that gets added each turn?
*How long (ie. turns) should the games be?
Best Regards
/Skald
