07/10/2013

A few 'Wolf time' campaign pics

I promised to show you some pics of the 'Chapter Approved: First book of the Astronomican' campaign, shortly known as the 'Wolf time'. I don't have but a fistful of them, but I'll try to explain the campaign in a few words.

50 years ago an Ork fleet from the Charadonian Empire got lost into the Warp and ended up in an isolated system known to men as 'the Wheel of Fire'. Totally surrounded by Warpstorms, the Orks were unable to leave the system, so they settled and colonized the planets. Nowadays, an Imperial Navigator has discovered the apparently only safe route in an out the Wheel of Fire. The Emperor commanded Space Marines of the Space Wolves Chapter to lead a Crusade into that dangerous area and claim it for the Imperium...

So this campaign is set on a crappy planet named Xit (again, GW humour from the 80's, long time lost in battle...). Space Marines must take over the Ork stronghold led by 'Governor' Kulo (if the planet is 'Xit', 'Kulo' phonetically sounds exactly like 'butt' in Spanish). But the defences of the castle must be deactivated prior to the final engagement. So Space Wolves must simultaneously conduct three different raids on three different power plants. If they succeed, they can attack the castle. If they fail, the assault is impossible and they should fall back. That's it, quite a simple campaign.

The following pics are from the first battle; I'm afraid these are all that I keep. They show the assault to the first power plant, built on a mountain. Primitive dwellers made a temple of it, but when Orks invaded the planet, they killed everyone and decorated the temple in their own style, included the big statue on the front.


You saw me last week
Fifteen Orks garrison the complex. Space Wolves must take over the main building by reaching the grav elevator (on the top of the temple), using it to go into the building and setting the power plant down (or throwing grenades through the elevator. Or whatever; remember, this is RT, there is no limit of what you are allowed to do).

Oooops! No more repeated pics! Next one is new, promised
At the beginning of the campaign, the Space Marine player has to split up his forces at will into three separate detachments, each one having to take care of one objective (though the player doesn't know how many enemies he will meet when he arrives to each one of them). My pal used a couple of Squads and a Captain here (I hadn't said, but I led the Orks, as usual, hehe). They begun the assault with fierce determination:

C'mon brothers! I can feel the statue staring at me! Let's finish here and go back home
However, Orks didn't want to be evicted from their home!
Dis is ur neigburhood, hummies!
As a matter of fact, they did outstandingly well! The dice rolls were unusually lucky:

Ork marksmanship
So they held the line and avoided the Space Marines from even approaching the main building.

No grey hummie is comin' home for dinna!
The Space Wolves Captain bravely advanced under enemy crossfire towards the Ork leader: 
Add photoshop effects at will
In the meantime, the heavy weapons support Squad helped causing some mayhem!

Bratatat dakka dakka pew pew
But the Ork leader smashed the Captain and charged onto the rests of the now scattered strike force.

We're winnin'! Unbeliv... Unbiliv... Unbi... ehrm... Cool!

Though having received an injury, da Boss killed the last Space Wolf standing

Multiple deaths in progress. Please do not disturb

Ork viktury! Well, you see this has been real fast, but it took five turns. Due to an extraordinary luck on the Ork side during turn 1, Space Wolves didn't really had a chance, as their forces were decimated just as they arrived. It was a reeeeal shame, as we didn't even use the big building! :( It would have been fun seeing the Marines in action trying to reach the roof.

We played the other two preliminary battles, but I'm afraid I don't keep any pics but these two:

The bowl building in use!
Space Marines have to take over this power plant, but it's suffering from pressure overloading and it might explode any second! Space Wolves don't know anything of that, and they look amused how the Orks run all over the place instead of fighting them!

Nope, that's a totally diffrerent compound. You haven't ever seen that :P
The fun here comes from the fact that there is a mist so heavy that no one can see beyond certain radius. Besides, the floor hides... some surprises.

I can say no more in order not to spoil the campaign (And I might have said more than I should!). Depending on the results of these three battles, Space Wolves should find it easier or more difficult the final assault on Governor Kulo's Castle. We didn't play it, but I definitely would have liked to see that, as it is a big scale battle. My friend even managed to get the ooold 'Citi-block' set, so we really should have played that, we have no excuse. On other thought, for sure it would have been fun designing and building some more cheap Orkish scenery...

And there are some more map surprises indeed!

So this is what we got. Hope you like this half-campaign!

8 comments:

  1. ¿Cuánto tiempo duró la partida? Estás haciendo que me apetezca jugar a RT y no quiero. ¡Malo! :P

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    1. :D
      No duró mucho; de hecho en una tarde jugamos las tres partidas preliminares de la campaña. Muy pocas figuras y un objetivo claro, nada de enredar con complicaciones. ¡Anímate!

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  2. Mate; that is an excellent battle report! It's good to see someone else still playing the Old RT ruleset. Did you use a GamesMaster or did you self regulate!

    You have inspired me; I might play that very campaign this weekend. I just need to dig out my Book of the Astronomican!

    If you want some more retro goodness dear readers then I also do a retro blog at:
    http://classicastartes.blogspot.co.uk/

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    1. Thanks! I already know (and follow!) your blog, I just love your Salamanders and Crimson Fists. I find it great this refreshing interest for these old materials. We played with a GM; though sometimes it's not essential and players can act as GM, having one always gives more depth and fun to the game. If you play the campaign don't forget to post about it!

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  3. I know what you mean about the depth a GM adds. I do find they make a real difference; if I remember there are a few twists in the Wolf Time material that only the GM should know (I won't spoil it for readers here); particularly if you're going to play all the linked games; as force allocation for each battle has repercussions. The trouble is most of us in my gaming group are in the Forces so it's hard enough to find an opponent let alone a GM too!

    It is so good to seem this love for old school war gaming appearing every where. I didn't realise there were so many of us! I might do a piece on making modern models look retro soon!

    Anyway thanks again for a top notch battle report!!

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  4. Oh forgot to ask...did you play pure RT from the book or did you use the later add one to streamline the rules...you know, Compendium; Compilation; etc?

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  5. Having a GM always enhances the experience. It's true that there are some parts in this campaign that are for GM eyes only, but it can be a problem finding one. You can't find so many people interested in playing RT, and those who are have already read the book! You sometimes just have to play with whatever you have :)
    For this campaign we just used the regular rulebook, but we have used some of the other books when playing the Rynn's World campaign, you can spot some of that in the blog. Beyond some point there are so many rules that it's easy to drop some of them without even noticing!

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  6. Hey mate! I didn't lie; you inspired me! So over the weekend I got my mate around; cracked out The Rogue Trader book and played an adaption of the Battle at the Farm! It was awesome; I've put a battle report on my blog about it! Perhaps when the rules are a bit more familiar I'll give the Wolf Time a spin!!

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