40K variant for Chain of Command

I have plenty of 40k figures but I'm not particularly fond of GW rules.  I've tried my hand at writing rules but I've never been entirely satisfied with the results.  I had head that there was a 40K mod for Chain of command(ww2) but all the links i find are broken.  also, the discussions draw attention of the one element that i really like about CoC: the platoon lists.

Example of a Tau platoon list, complete with custom header

So I decided to develop my own variant.  I don't think it would take a lot to modify CoC.  so I bragged a copy of the CoCulator, which is a formula for getting  platoon and support ratings, and I went to work.

I decided early on 1 major change:  armour saves.  these are really the defining characteristic in modern sci-fi games.  I decided to lessen them a bit.  So I grouped armour saves into 4 groups.  saves of 5+ or worse get no armour saves. the armour will save your life, but leave you incapacitated, much like modern body armour.  Carapace armour gets you a 5+ save.  Marine equivalent armour gets you a 4+ and terminator-equivalent armour. when you make an armour save, it converts a kill result into a shock result.    there would be no armour saves in close combat though, as i wanted this to remain bloody.  In relation to the CoCulator,  I count 5+ save as +1 point per model,  4+ save as +2 pts per model, and a 3+ save as +3 points per model.

Another rules change I decided to make was a change to Infantry Antitank weapons. In the rules, you get a -1 for each range pas the first.  I have made extensive use of this class of weapons for things like Melta and Plasma guns.  I modified both the range bands to better reflect ranges in the 40K rules, and i made one more change.   On the army specific Infantry anti tank weapon chart,  grey-range bands and white range bands. Grey range bands get no modifier.  For every range band past the last grey range band,  the rules for firing infantry anti tank weapons apply as normal.

Not everyone will agree with my platoon lists.  40k has left some huge holes in the orders of battle.  many forces don't really have a platoon structure. They go down to company level and then just don't go any further. others  like the Imperial guard, go right down to platoon level, but their theoretical maximum sized platoon IS a company by any other name, with 5 infantry squads, 5 heavy weapons squads, 3 special weapon squads, and 1 30 man conscript squad! I've had to adapt some platoon structures to something playable, while with others wholly inventing a platoon structure that makes as much sense as I can make given the information in the codexes.

I've played the Imperial Guard  Type 1(5 squads) platoon versus a Tau Fire warrior Demi Cadre(3 squads of 12 with 2 drones each)  and it seemed fairly balanced.

the rest have not been tested yet. I've also made custom headers for each race I've worked on so far.

Here is a link to my google drive folder for the PDFs I have thus far set up. I have a few more but they need at least one more pass before I consider posting them.

Steve's 40k CoC Google Drive folder


I hope you enjoy!

A Nepherite in-hand is worth....

before i left Ontario last August, I stopped by Meeplemart in Toronto one last time.  I was mostly there to pick up more robotic minis, but i also wanted to pick up some Warzone resurrection minis.

Now I don't play Warzone Resurrection but i do have a large collection of Warzone miniatures, mostly from 2nd edition.  Warzone 1st edition was my first 28mm miniature game, so it always held a special place in my  heart.  it also helped that it was a pretty decent game.it was also very big in my area, until 2nd edition came out. shortly thereafter target folded, and Warzone has been seeing hard times ever until Prodos took it over.

Warzone is the miniatures setting for Mutant chronicles(1993), which in turn is a development of a Swedish game from 1984 called Mutant.  like it's immediate competitor, Warhammer 40K, it is set in a very dark brooding world. the setting for warzone is set somewhere in hte area of 1500 years in hte future.  It has mega corporations, a Inquisition-like religious group know as the Brotherhood, and a chaos-like faction known as the dark legion. it's also a slightly more hard-scifi world(at least, for the 80s/90s), assuming you ignore the Dark legion.  the tech is just barely post-modern  in most cases(weapons are predominently ballistic, etc).  and interstellar travel has not been developed, though humanity has colonized  most of  "teraformable" planets.

Several of the Mega Corporations are aesthetically themed on periods of history from their ancestry.  Many Bauhaus units wear a modified Pickelhaub helmet,  Imperial forces tend to draw inspectorate form Great Britain, and Mishima are strongly In the samurai style.  Capitol draws strongly from an exaggerated American style.

2nd edition Raside with Nazgaroth HMG(centre) and
2nd edition 2 Immaculate Furies(left and right)

the background results in an interesting array of forces, and the rules are a refreshing break form Warhammer mechanics.



Anyway,  when i was at Meeplemart I picked up a trio of Preatorian Stalkers(with LMGs) and a Nepherite of Algeroth.  neither of these units got a decent treatment under 1st edition, and only the Praetorian stalkers got a (crappy) release under 2nd ed.  I happen to like the fluff for both, so i was quite happy when Prodos released  spectacular sculpts for both.

a few years ago i also stumbled upon a stockpile of Warzone minis in  a dank store basement in Toronto, and bought a small bortherhood and Dark legion army at 50% off. I bought a Razide, 2 Immaculate furies,  20 hilarious carnophage models,  8 Kadavers, and a huge Ezoghoul(pictured below mounted on a CD for a base)

1st(and only) Edition Metal Ezoghoul(Left) and
Prodos resin Nepherite of Algeroth.(right)

 Nepherites are the lieutenants of the Apostles.  They sport superhuman strength and resilience, and can wield the Dark Symmetry( Magic/ Evil "Force").   This particular Nepherite serves Algeroth, the Apostle of War.  Algeroth provides most of the muscle for the armies of the Dark Legion.

3 Prodos Games Praetorian Stalkers

The praetorian Stalkers are bio-mechanical machines built in the laboratories of Algeroth.  they are extremley proficient killing machines.

Ezoghouls  and razides are a little murky. at least some of the fluff hints that they may be extra-dimensional Aliens, pulled into this dimension and into the service of Algeroth.  Immaculate furies are created in birthing vats in the laboratories of Algeroth, so they are presumably bio engineered.

the Nazgaroth HMG was probably one of the most fearsome weapons in Warzone 1st edition.  it's range was LOS, and the Razide could fire the damned thing on the move with no penalty.  it was ungodly expensive though.


the 4 prodos models had almost no flash and required almost no cleaning of mold lines.  very well sculpted and cast all around. Which is a good thing because they aren't cheap to begin with, and the current UK-Canadian exchange only magnifies it.  I believe the Nepherite was $17.95 CDN, and the 3 Praetorians stalkers were $27.95 CDN.  I'm adding these to my existing army, though, which i got at discoutned prices, so overall it's still a good deal.  the regular infantry from Prodos are notably larger in most cases, but the non-human models (dark legion stuff, and large /vehicle models) fit in jsut fine.  Next on my list to buy from Prodos is an Eradicator Deathdroid and an Exterminateur Atilla Mk I.

the old Target metal models were also very clean.  this isn't unusual, but there were occasional mold slips with the 1st edition Warzone miniatures, so i lucked out with the Ezoghoul, which was in pristine condition(after almost 20 years)


I own  armies for Bauhaus, Capitol, Cybertronic, Brotherhood, Dark Legion, and I have my Father's Mishima army on semi-permanent loan.

200pt Robotech game

On Tuesday I ran a game of Robotech RPG Tactics at the Edmonton Wargamers Group meeting.
Dave played the Zentraedi forces, while Chen reprised his role from the previous battle as the UEDF.

THE Battlefield

 I had blitz a few bits of terrain teh few days before teh game night.

The Zentraedi forces had 2 recon squads each with a recovery pod.  one squad had 2 heavy missle battlepods attached.

Dave's Zentraidi forces

the UEDF forces had a squadron of Valkyries and a a reinforced Brawler Company of (4 Tomahawks and 2 Spartans)

Chen's UEDF Forces

  During the first turn, Chen shot up some  battlepods with  valkyrie missiles, but they returned during teh enxt turn.  The Zentreadi fired half the missiles from their heavy missile battle pods, but teh valkyries managed to avoid serious damage.

during the 2nd turn, the  UEDF killed the 2 heavy missile battlpods nearly killed a Command pod, but in response lost the Valkyrie Flight leader, one spartan, and  a missile volley from the heavy missile battlepods nearly took out a pair Tomahawks(left then with 1 damage point each).

At the beginning of the 3rd Dave moved his 2nd battlepod squadron into position to capitalize on the previous turn's missile strikes. he took out the last UEDF spartan,  one of  the badly damaged tomahawks, and another valkyrie. In return Chen's UEDF forces killed the damaged command pod and more battlepods.  

During the 4th turn things tuned for the Zentraedi as  Dave lost his last  Command pod and a recovery pod, and, of course, more battle pods(as long as command pods are alive they comb back after all).

During the last turn,  the Zentraedi charged their remaining recovery pod into close combat with a Valkyrie, but failed to land in hit.

all in all it was a good game. During the 2nd turn it looked like  the Zentraedi were pulling ahead, but the UEDF pulled  ahead during the 3rd and 4th turns.The UEDF still took significant losses.  50% of their unit had been outright destroyed, and another 3 of the remaining 5 machines had heavy damage.

The Zentraedi had 5 battlepods and 1 recovery pod when we called the game.

I think Dave and Chen enjoyed the game.  it certainly was bloody.   I need to get to painting more UEDF forces for some variety.

A Welcome to Edmonton and My First Game of Robotech.

I'm back!   Gotten things mostly straightened out in the new house.

the gaming community here is smaller then I'm used to, but they play more consistently which is nice. The members of the Edmonton Wargamers Group(EWG) are all bunch of good guys.

I've now attended 3 of their bi-monthly meetings. during the first game, I played saga.  during put on a small game of Man O'War.  naturally i forgot to take pictures.  My photgraphy-mind gets easily distracted by pretty models and gameplay it seems.

last night I attended my 3rd  gaming night with the EWG.  I brought along my Robotech RPG tactics collection.  i only had enough painted to play the smallest introductory scenario, a meeting engagement between 2 UEDF Valkyries and 6 Zentaedi battlepods.  I also forgot to take pictures here(despite my camera being less then  2 feet away during the game).  fortunately Chen-song,  the UEDF player, snapped a few pics with his phone.

The Feared Zentreadi Regult Battlepod

Battlepod from a different angle

UEDF Valkyries shown with all 3 modes, in Israeli Jet camo

Close up of Valkyrie models.

The Battle rages on. One Regult down!

Regults close in for the Kill

neither Chen nor I had ever played the game.  I've only red it a few times.   fortunately the game is fairly simple, so it didn't take long to pick up on the mechanics with so few models on the table.

during the first 2 turns we closed the distance.  Chen got first blood and took out 2 regult Battlepods in 2 successive turns.  I destroyed one valkyries in hte 5th turn. he badly damaged 2 more battlepods, then retreated into the woods to make it harder for me to shoot at him.  the luck took a drastic turn for chen.  i managed to kill his last Valkyrie despite the cover of the trees.

All in all it was a fun, fast game.  It's definitely meant to be played with more models though.  Also, in hind sight, I think Valkyries need to spend at least one turn in  one of their other modes to utilize their missiles(missiles on the wing mounts can only be used in Guardian and Jet mode).  thinning out the battlepods early seems like a good idea.

thanks to Chen-song for playing and chatting after.  it was an enjoyable night.

Epic Goodness

lately i have been thinking a bit about epic Armageddon.  there have been a few posts on hte edmonton wargamers group facebook page about it.  Since my interested in 6mm sci fi has been piqued by Robotech tactics, I decided to pull them out.

Epic Armageddon Squat/Demiurg Army

all hte unpainted stuff i can find.

 the biggest contingent of my epic collection at the moment is my epic Armageddon squats.  i build them for the Demiurg Consortium list available from the Net EA compendium.  i have alot fo squat still unpainted.  I have 1 land train, 1 more leviathan, 2 Colossus and 3 more overlord airships waiting to be painted. plus I have 75 bikes and 25 each of the 2 types of trikes.  i have 6 thud guns, 12 more Mole mortars, 6 more rapier laser destroyers, and a huge amount of infantry left.

The Void Raptors, a chapter of my own making.

The space marines are the 2nd largest contingent I have at the moment.  They are grey with blue highlights. this is a chapter that i developed with my  recently sold-off s40k space marine army. i have almost enough infantry miniatures and rhinos to do the entire chapter. i just need more tanks.

Yme Loc Eldar

The Eldar are the smallest painted group in my collection.  this paint scheme is the same as my 40K eldar.  I have a similar amount of unpainted Eldar as i do space marines.  and i have bunch of the Forgeworld epic eldar wave serpents also waiting in the webway to be painted.  I have several Phantom titans and a warlock or 2.  I also have about 20 of the old Epic Eldar Knights. 

I do have a few misc Imperal miniatures.  20 or 30 Imperial guard with jetpacks, some leman russ, basilis, seige mortars and hydras.i may ahve a few metal knights as well.

Yme-Loc Eldar

I haven't play 40K in over 5 years, and I've never played it seriously.  But that never stopped me from building armies.

My Eldar army started when i found a big old blister box(the kind that held 10 blisters) of rogue trader Eldar aspect warriors at a  Five Arrows Fine Figures & Art , During a trip to  Hotlead 6 years ago. The Owner, Donald Cameron, was handling an estate sale for an old friend.  he gave me a good price and  that was that.  that Same Day I  found a bag of Guardians in the Bring and Buy, and that was that. 

Yme-Loc Farseer and council.

I set about creating my Eldar army. I picked up a Wraithlord, Farseer, and a box of Dire Avengers(back when Dire avengers came 10 to a box) to compliment what I already had.   a year later i found an OOP Cloudstrike Squadron box(3 falcons). Almost everything else in the army was  bought 2nd hand or at a significant discount. the 3 forge world tanks were payment for painting a Friends Forgeworld items.

Extra Dire Avenger Exarch and Autarch

The Army i decided to do was Yme-loc. they are one of the non-mainstream craft worlds mentioned in the codex at the time. they were red and grey, although i decided that the weird green-blue grey i had kicking around form a previous project would suffice.  the Brief bit of fluff on the craft world suggested that their armies were backed up with signifcant armoured and titan support. and this the strange eldar tank army was born(before 6th edition when serpent spam became common.

Custom Jetbike Farseer(or autarch) to lead my never-realised Windrider host.

 I had always intended to build a windrider host.  I always like jetbikes.  I may build it using the new jetbikes GW jsut released.

my Old school Fire Dragons.  some new ones mixed in on the right with Old rogue trader ones.

Old-school Howling Banshees

Old school Striking Scorpions

  so as you can see my Eldar do not follow the typical paint  Scheme.  the head and shoulders are usually the colour that is associated with that particular troop type.  so so the howling banshees are washed deneb stone head and shoulders with bluegrey bodies.  Dire avengers are blue head and shoulders with Bluegrey bodies. etc.  the exception is the Striking scorpions.  I decided to invert them, as I like the green. The result is a more uniform look then your typical aspect-focused eldar army.

Wraithlord and Wraithguard.

Dire Avengers. 

Serpent spam.

  I have 2 more Wave serpents waiting in the wings to be painted.  Unfortunately they won't get done any time soon as i am moving cross country from Ontario to  Edmonton, Alberta later this summer.

Guardians.

Modified Vypers

Forgeworld Warphunter(back) and Horners(front)

 Yes, I have a lot of tanks. including the Vypers and the 2 unpainted Wave serpents, i have 13 vehicles.

my Cloudstrike Squadron

As mentioned I'd like to add some jetbikes and a wraith knight to the army. they are expensive, but this army is more of a modelling project now then anything else. and that Wraith knight is definitely deserving of some serious customization.

 I actually have begun writing my own set of rules for sci fi.  I've been waiting far too long for someone to write a set of customizable sci fi set of rules i like.  I waited like 6 or 7 years for one company to released but it never seemed to get published.

A Robotech Oddyssey

At Hotlead  back in March i bought the Robotech RPG tactics boxed set.  this game has sentimental value for me two-fold.

1)  When i was 6 (in 1987) my family was shopping in Toronto.  now shoping in my family was always a big deal becasue i have 2 older sisters, and they were 12 and 14 at the time. because I was  well behaved my mother bought me this cool toy.  it turned out to be a Robotech Zentraedi Tactical battlepod with a 5" pilot action figure.  It was really cool.

2)  when i started gaming what I was 12, my first game was battle tech.  I got the 3rd edition battletech boxed set and the 10th anniversary Compendium for Christmas.  the 3rd edition box is the one that came with 16 mech, all of which would later become the Unseen mechs (a good deal of which were actually directly lifted from Robotech).

 Robotech RPG tactics, as a purchase, was mostly fueled by nostalgia.  however I found the models to be great fun to paint, and the rules are delightfully good.  I missed the ongoing trainwreck which  Kickstarter  is apparently turning out to be.

As almost everyone knows by now, Palladium made some bizarre choices as to how to split up the models on the sprues.   the Zentraedi models, so far are not much more complicated then your average GW plastic model.   the UEDF destroids  range from about as easy as the Zentraedi to a little more complicated.   but the UEDF Valkyries are just silly.  each Valkyrie ash 3 models to represent the 3 modes you can transform into.  only the fighter mode is straightforward and simple.  the Guardian/gerwalk mode has some serious arm issues, and Battloids are between 15 and 17 pieces depending on which variant your are assembling.  The only good thing about the battloids being in so many pieces is that it's easier to convert new poses.

I decided i was going to do my UEDF forces in a Israeli theme.  I love the Israeli 3tone camo.  So i modeled my Valkyries after the  IAF 106 "Spearhead" Squadron.  I have yet to print off the squadron decals and apply them but i intend to.

VFA-106 "Speahead" Squadron

 the UEDF ground forces(destroids) are useing teh IDF armoured markings.  I decided to Model the 71st Armored Battalion, of the 188th Armoured Brigade. I've taken some liberties with the nicknames. Each battalion in the brigade is named after some sort of weather phenomena, so I've dropped that down the the company level(since my game "squadrons" are going to be companies). 

1st "Tornado" Company of the 71st Armoured Brigade

At the moment I have 4 of each destroid, but no Defenders(Riflemen) or Phalanx(Longbows)  painted yet.  they will be arranged into 3 companies.  th 1st "Tornado" Company will be 2 tomahawks and 4 Spartans. the 2nd "" Company will be 2 tomahawks and 2 Defenders, and the 3rd "Monsoon" Company will be 4 Phalanx and 2 Defenders.


My zentraedi will be fairly vanilla.   I have not come up with a theme for them yet.  I'm thinking I may not come up with one at all, since they are Zentaedi.  They don't strike me as particularly individualistic or as having a great deal of character.

2 Glaug Command Pods and a Recovery pod.

2 Recon battlepods and 2 tactical battlepods.

I have 18 Tactical battlepods  4 artilelry battlepods, 2 Recon battlepods, 2 GlauG command pods and 2 recovery pods.  I have to really work on painting more battlepods to get a solid game in.

Introductions and a few pictures

Hi there,

My Name is Stephen Thomson and I've been gaming for 22 years(since I was 12). I started gaming with Battletech.  before I even played my first game I built my own terrain table.  I used the "table top" conversion rules.  I never liked hex maps.

for teh last decade I've mostly played Historical games, and you can see that on my other blog, Adventures in Miniature Gaming , which is listed as a "page" of this blog(and vice versa).  Recently my interest in Sci-fi and fantasy gaming and re surged a bit. and now I'm balancing both instead of going whole-hog into one genre.

Over the years I've played many Scifi and Fantasy games, including:
Warzone(all versions but Prodos one)
Warhammer 40K
Void
Battletech
Epic Space Marine/40K/Armageddon
Starship Troopers
Full Thurst
Babylon 5 a Call to Arms
A Sky full of Ships(which my gaming group playtested and Published)
Dystopian Wars
Warhammer
GW Man O'War
Crucible: Conquest of the Final Realm
GW Lord of the Rings SBG,
GW War of the Ring

Here are a few bits and pieces of stuff I've done in the past:

A lot of my older pictures are garbage, so I'll be retaking photos of stuff  over the next little while.

Cheers!