Tag Archives: Classic Sci-Fi

Writing a Sci-Fi Tabletop Wargame – Part 6

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Our past posts:

So the results of last weeks votes are as follows:

Factions

Now we’ve got most (if not all) of the basic information in place for our game we can start getting our hands dirty with some of the nitty gritty stuff. Firstly, should we have pre-made ready to go factions or should players have options to construct their own units for their own faction? This would make the game miniature agnostic but it would also require players to take the time to build a faction from the ground up, i.e. this is a leader unit it needs this particular weapon, with this armour and these special rules.

Of course we could always have a mixture of both pre-made and create your own. But what do you think?

Turn Order

This is about how the players determine who goes first. There are many options for this, but I’ve narrowed this down to two or three, but bear 🐻 in mind these can also have vary to some extent. For example, while AoS is a UgoIgo system it also implements the turn priority in terms of a dice roll before each turn.

I Go You Go

This is the first and possibly most common option used. Players use a mechanic to determine who goes first and then play is simply alternated between the players until the end of the game.

Draw

Players use coloured dice or chips to represent their individual units on the table e.g. one players units are represented by red dice while the others are blue, when a red dice is drawn the red player chooses a unit to activate. This system will be familiar to those who have played Warlord Games Bolt Action.

Initiative

This could either be an army wide initiative rating or individual initiative ratings for units to decide what order they act in. For example, elite units may have a much higher initiative than conscripts meaning they’ll always act first.

Bidding

One of my personal favourites is using bidding systems to determine who acts first. This can take various forms such as rolling a number of orders each side can take on two or three dice then giving up a number of those orders to try and claim the priority that turn.

So which is your favourite? Perhaps there’s one I’ve not even thought of, I’d that’s the case why not add a comment below?

Woehammer Facebook Group

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Did you know that Woehammer have a Facebook group? Why not head over there and post some pictures of your miniatures, we’ll include them in monthly hobby summary alongside our own.

Rogue Trader Collection – 24/12/21

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Just a quick update this week, as I’ve not had a huge amount of time to get things done.

But I’ve fixed up the wall with green stuff ready for painting. I’m still in two minds about the bear rug though…..

So with all the pieces complete it’s just going to be a matter of making some posters and banners to go on the wall and then sticking the whole thing together. It’s only taken two months….

Rogue Trader Collection – VI

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Another week under the belt and just that little bit closer to Crimbo.

Unfortunately I haven’t had much time to get much done this week, but I did receive the plinth through the post….. And I may have made a slight error in judgement.

It’s a little bit small! Never mind I’ve ordered a slightly larger one, while this one can be used for the Imperial Army Land Speeder once that’s finished.

I’m still in two minds about the bear, as the print quality is pretty shoddy when viewed in person.

Roar!

Does anyone have any decent tips for solving this?

Rogue Trader Collection – V

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Following on from last week’s post, I’ve not been able to get too much done painting wise. However a couple of pieces have arrived to enable me to do a quick dry fit mock up.

Is this a good layout?

As you can see I’ve had a bear rug delivered from a seller on Etsy (apologies I can’t recall the seller). And I’ve had a name plaque delivered from Versatile Terrain.

I’m more than happy with the name plaque which will get painted up and placed on the side of the plinth once that arrives from Green Stuff World. The bear however….. I’m not as keen on. It feels a little too large for the scene. Especially if I’m going to try and include a wall in the background. Also the print quality isn’t great.

I’m tempted at this stage to remove the rug from the equation.

While I’m here I wanted to give a massive shout out to fellow club member Steve Milford who sold me some metal rogue trader models you see below. But who also threw in some of the lovely plastic original space marines from the RTB1 set. Very generous!

Rogue Trader Imperial Bike – I think this is part of RT106 “Vincent Blackshadow”
Rogue Trader era terminator (I recognise this, but can’t pin point the exact code, it may be slightly later than RT).
I believe this was a Squat from the RT03 set named “Owen Garano” (1987)
RTB1 Marines

So what to do with these? The marines will be stripped and then painted up as Crimson Fists (may need to source a couple of arms and a boltgun). The terminator I’m going to to try and track down what set it belongs to before committing it to a paint scheme, however it may also end up as a Crimson Fist.

The Squat will get painted up and placed on a 25mm scenic base of some sort to wait for the rest of his brothers from that set who’ll then also be displayed on a plinth at some point.

I’m hoping that I’ll have the Imperial Commander sorted by next week (as long as the remaining parts arrive) at which point I can start thinking about which of the models to do next (yeah, it’ll be the land speeder).

Book Review – Fahrenheit 451

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By Ray Bradbury

A departure from Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Age of Sigmar reading, but in what may become a semi regular diversion in the Book Review series, I will be reviewing Fahrenheit 451 today. It’s a book that many of you will have heard of, and it’ll be on the required reading of some school curriculum’s but I only first read it in 2016… and again recently.

Published many times over the 50 years since it was published, this cover is an evocative view of the book!

Set in a near future world where books are banned and firemen no longer protect life and property, but burn any books which are found. Enter Montag a fireman who is part of a family of book burners.

A huge novel in America, not quite so important this side of the pond – perhaps as we didn’t have McCarthy-ism on this side of the pond – but poignant none the less. It’s never too late to read a classic novel especially a science fiction one which has been adopted by the mainstream, and it’s easy to see why it remains popular.

The stark warnings are as clear today as they were fifty years – perhaps even more so as we lose books, and embrace 24 hour television and films. A great though provoking piece leaving as many questions opened as answered…

… I suppose the only issue being that I read it on an ebook… what would Mr Bradbury think of that I wonder – I hope he would be happy we were still reading – so however you get it – paperback, audio or ebook as I did – I hope you enjoy it!

Rating: 4 out of 5.

— Declan