Project: Advanced Space Crusade

[Lovejoy]

Thanks ToD, I really enjoyed this game. Thanks for bringing it and for preparing the models so lovingly! The initial card turning mechanic for the tunnels reminded me of Chainsaw Warrior, and the hand drawn, home spun feel board design is very of its time- in the best sense of the meaning. Rules were not something we'd see today, thinking particularly of the myriad charts of numbers to roll for close combat, shooting and armour, each dependent on fairly specific circumstances, etc. The kids wouldn't stand for it now, by jove! Anyway, it's a blast. I hope to have another crack at it on a larger scale with some of the other scenarios.

[The Other Dave]

Glad you guys had fun!

Yeah, I do want to try a 900-point game some time (as that would allow a two-front attack, with all the wonderful complications that adds to the game), but it could be counted on to take a whole day. Definitely something for when that particular mood strikes, rather than any old Joshin day.

Also a 300-point game using just terminators, as I think that would stress the system in a good playtest-y kind of way.

[YellowStreak]

Glad you guys had fun!

Yeah, I do want to try a 900-point game some time (as that would allow a two-front attack, with all the wonderful complications that adds to the game), but it could be counted on to take a whole day. Definitely something for when that particular mood strikes, rather than any old Joshin day.

Also a 300-point game using just terminators, as I think that would stress the system in a good playtest-y kind of way.

I'd be up for that sometime! I really enjoyed the game last week!

In fact it has got my unfinished Space Hulk marines/'stealers/hybrids onto the painting table...

[The Other Dave]

ASC, I don't know how you quit you.

After another fun couple of games at the last Joshin, and a poke around on eBay, I ordered up enough sprues to make an Imperial Guard squad because why not? Being able to paint up a squad of Cadians and actually use them in a game without also having to buy 50 more Cadians plus a half dozen tanks is, in a nutshell, why I started this project in the first place.

So I got a Cadian shock troopers box, plus one sprue of heavy weapons so I can convert a missile launcher into a man-portable lascannon, which is the biggest difference between the first-edition Guard as they appear in ASC and modern Guard / Astra whatever-they're-called-now.

Rules-wise, I think all the games so far have mostly made me think that I ought to start the Nids off with more blips, and/or up their reinforcement rates slightly. I think I'll start with the former in my next couple of games and see what happens.

[The Other Dave]

My guard arrived, and I assembled them. GW plastic kits, as always, are a joy to assemble.



All 11 dudes - a choice of special weapons. The rules from WD way back when only have a grenade launcher, but they didn't actually make the grenade launcher in any way superior to being completely unarmed - all Guard carry frag grenades, with the same range, damage and chance to scatter as the grenade launcher, so the dude with the grenade launcher essentially has the same stats as a guardsman who left his lasgun at home. So I put together a flamer too and will bash some rules based on the terminator's heavy flamer, less powerful of course. Thinking of maybe adding rules for krak grenades to make the launcher not garbage?





Also did a really simple conversion to make a man-portable lascannon, since the RT-era guard have those things. I left the handle on the energy pack as it seemed like it would be a good way to haul the thing around when not firing.

[job]

Fantastic job on the Guardsman conversion. Nothing quite says badass like toting a gun bigger than you!

[AndrewGPaul]

All 11 dudes - a choice of special weapons. The rules from WD way back when only have a grenade launcher, but they didn't actually make the grenade launcher in any way superior to being completely unarmed - all Guard carry frag grenades, with the same range, damage and chance to scatter as the grenade launcher, so the dude with the grenade launcher essentially has the same stats as a guardsman who left his lasgun at home. So I put together a flamer too and will bash some rules based on the terminator's heavy flamer, less powerful of course. Thinking of maybe adding rules for krak grenades to make the launcher not garbage?

The hooky PDF of the ASC rules I have makes no mention of the range of thrown grenades, although this BGG thread makes mention of an errata (not the one on page 39 of WD 132) stating it as 8 squares to the Grenade Launcher's 16. In addition, the Imperial Guard Grenade Launcher comes with Frag and Blind grenades, while troopers only have Frag grenades.

[The Other Dave]

All 11 dudes - a choice of special weapons. The rules from WD way back when only have a grenade launcher, but they didn't actually make the grenade launcher in any way superior to being completely unarmed - all Guard carry frag grenades, with the same range, damage and chance to scatter as the grenade launcher, so the dude with the grenade launcher essentially has the same stats as a guardsman who left his lasgun at home. So I put together a flamer too and will bash some rules based on the terminator's heavy flamer, less powerful of course. Thinking of maybe adding rules for krak grenades to make the launcher not garbage?

The hooky PDF of the ASC rules I have makes no mention of the range of thrown grenades, although this BGG thread makes mention of an errata (not the one on page 39 of WD 132) stating it as 8 squares to the Grenade Launcher's 16. In addition, the Imperial Guard Grenade Launcher comes with Frag and Blind grenades, while troopers only have Frag grenades.

Yeah, but in actual practice firing at anything more than 6 or 7 squares away happens vanishingly infrequently, so I don't really think the range boost is worth much at all - it's much more than balanced out by the fact that, unlike thrown grenades, the grenade launcher can't bounce grenades around corners, a ginormous penalty to the utility of grenades. Blind grenades are a bonus, to be sure, as is the flexibility of being able to fire on snapshot and get a couple extra squares of move to set up the shot, but on the whole I feel a lot better about the weapon having added a modest krak grenade.

[The Other Dave]

Imperial Guard: Dead Men Walking

When two black and gold thunderhawk gunships descended on the final beleaguered position of the remnants of the Cadian 689th, the weary and terrified men were momentarily elated – reinforcements had arrived, to beat back the strange alien threat! But the dropships were empty, and the men were informed that they were being airlifted out as the last remaining viable Imperial military assets on the planet of Grendel V. Now it has become clear that the only way past the ships of the invading hive fleet is literally through them, and the only thing the guardsmen fear more than the prospect of boarding and attacking the hibernating ships of the Tyranids are the Angels of Death fighting at their sides.

Fortunately enough, the rules in WD132 allow for pure Guard forces, or combined Guard-Marine forces, the latter of which makes collecting nice and easy. This is my first addition, a tactical squad - I think I'll get a command section at some point, if only just for the heck of it, although that plus some close combat terminators will probably be all I could reasonably collect. I added a simple rule for the vox-caster and beefed up the grenade launcher a bit, but basically guard are ok as presented, I think - cheap, plentiful, and scared to death of termagants.

[AndrewGPaul]

You missed a golden opportunity to have the squad leader looking at an Auspex nervously, but other than that, cracking!

Edit: There's always the command squad ...

And just in time for the 29th anniversary of the release of Aliens.