ACKS: The Dark Project - Mapping Inspiration

By the way I found a resource for inspiration for my campaign map:

Thief World Map Project

Their "city region" map provided above is, on a rough estimate, about the size of an ACKS Campaign Map. How did I calculate this? The City is almost directly to the north from Cyric, and the site says that Cyric is 12 days of foot travel from the City. A day of foot travel by a lightly encumbered person on a road in ACKS is about 24 miles (actually 27 miles, but let's say that it's about 24 miles for the sake of simplicity, factoring in more rest periods and taking care to avoid highwaymen). So, Cyric is 12 24-mile hexes to the south of The City. That's about one quarter to one third of the entire map length from north to south, so the map is about 36-48 hexes long.Quite similar to an ACKS Campaign Map!

ACKS: The Dark Project - Introduction

One of my favourite computer games ever was, and still is, Thief: The Dark Project. This game was highly immersive and evocative with advanced AI for its time and what was then a relatively new approach to first-person gaming: stealth instead of blasting your way around to the objective. But the best thing about Thief: The Dark Project, I'd say, was not its game mechanics per se but its setting.

The game was set in a huge city, medieval in most aspects, but with certain steampunk elements (such as complex pumps, turbines, elevators and even electric lights). Inside this setting, mundane for the most part on its surface, were several strong fantasy elements as well - undead, elementals, mages, giant lizards (Burricks), giant spiders, spellcasting clerics, shapechanging wood nymphs - and a mighty Chaotic god as the antagonist!

Technology and society were, for the most part, somewhere between medieval and Renaissance - and combatants wore leather chainmail and wielded swords, warhammers, maces and bows, with no firearms to be seen (although some gunpowder did exist in the game in the form of clockwork mines and explosive barrels). Nobles lorded over the toiling masses and lived in fancy manors - complete with large amounts of lootable treasure; the church - the Order of the Hammer - had immense power and an army of their own (as well as a technological advantage over everyone else); and each and every faction had its own men-at-arms, just like in the olde days.

The sequel, Thief: The Metal Age, was far more Victorian in tone and flavour, turning towards a more 'proper' Steampunk setting rather than Thief: The Dark Project's steam-medievalism; still, guards brandish swords, maces, bows and crossbows, but the scenery is far more modern in look and feel. Personally I liked Thief: The Dark Project's feel and atmosphere better...

The last game so far in the Thief series, Thief: Deadly Shadows, returned to the first game's medieval feel and even reduced the amount of electric lights in the City. While it suffered from relatively small areas with load screens in between, it was still a good game. However, many of Thief: The Dark Project's cool fantasy elements, namely Burricks, Chaos beasts and Craymen, were absent and replaced by fish-men and possessed insane-asylum inmates.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I think that the world of Thief: The Dark Project can be a mighty source of inspiration for tabletop fantasy RPG games. Namely, I intend to base the setting of my next Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS) on the world of Thief!

There will be modifications, of course, as I want to optimize the setting for fantasy adventures and fit it to the ACKS rules, as well as inject some new ideas into it. But the main ideas of Thief will fit well with the ACKS rules, I think, especially since you even have rules for running a thieves' guild in ACKS!

Stay tuned for more in the coming days!

WH40K - Building an Imperial Guard Army

Turns out that the vast majority of the local gaming community here in Israel ("vast" being a relative term - the entire community has less than 100 wargamers in the entire country) play either Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer 40,000 or WarMachine/Hordes. A few also play Epic: Armageddon and one or two play Infinity. No historical wargamers here - apparently they had enough ultramodern military experience in the IDF (which is a conscript army for the most part).

So, since I want to have the maximum number of opponents, I'd rather play some WH40K or Epic. Both are cool games!

I'm starting an Imperial Guard force. I really like their fluff - ordinary men and women facing untold alien and demonic horrors with nothing but lasguns and flak-vests. Very heroic! Plus, I get to play with a lot of tanks and artillery. Above you can see my partially-assembled regular Guardsmen. I've built them with Cadian legs and chests (and sometimes arms) and Catachan heads (and sometimes arms) for a look resembling the Colonial Marines from the film Aliens (AKA Alien 2).

Here is a Tentative 495pts list for this force:

HQ:
CCS, 70pts - Role: Command and Sniper support (sits back and commands/shoots)
Company Commander

Veteran w/VOX
3 Veterans w/Sniper Rifles

TROOPS A: Infantry Platoon
PCS, 105pts - Role: Seizing far objectives
Platoon Commander
Guardsman w/Vox
3 Guardsmen with Flamers
Chimera

Infantry 'Blob' (Squads A+B), 150pts - Role: Seizing near objectives, anti-infantry
2 Sergeants
Commissar
Guardsman w/Vox
2 Guardsmen w/Grenade Launchers
15 Guardsmen

TROOPS B: Veteran Squad, 130pts - Role: AT Support
Veteran Sergeant
Veteran w/Vox
3 Veterans w/Plasma
Autocannon Team
3 Veterans

ELITE: Ratling Squad, 40pts - Role: Snipers
4 Ratlings

Expanding the Blog

I've made a decision - instead of posting my D&D, Traveller and wargaming ideas in separate blogs, I'll post all of them here in one blog, for maximum richness of content. So welcome to the Space Cockroach's full-spectrum gaming blog!

Work begins on USE ME 6mm!

In the last year and a half (or so) I have been working as a freelancer for Alternative Armies (15mm.co.uk), writing new rulesets and booklets for their USE ME (Ultra-Simple Engine for Miniature Engagements) 15mm wargaming rules. My latest work, to be published soon, is Valiesk - a war-torn fictional baltic island perfect as a setting for Ultra-Modern miniature gaming.

Now I am starting work on a new USE ME project - this time adapting the USE ME rules to the 6mm scale and to strategic-level wargaming. While in standard USE ME 1 figure or vehicle mini was, respectively, 1 soldier or vehicle on the battlefield, in this version each base on 6mm infantry will represent a whole infantry platoon, and a single vehicle miniature will represent a squadron of vehicles (say, 2-5 tanks). the scale will be, roughly speaking, 1cm=100m. So your average 120cm (4ft) table will represent 12km of battlefield...

Combat will be appropriately abstract. Pure infantry (without heavy support weapons) will only be able to attack in Assaults (i.e. "Melee"), representing infantry engagements at rifle range (circa 100m). Infantry with heavy weapons will have a range of 2cm; tanks, usually 8-12cm. Bigger guns (artillery) will have an even longer range. Damage will be abstract - an infantry platoon will be either Supressed (instead of Winged), Struck or Dispersed (instead of killed) - when an infantry unit is "destroyed", this will not necessarily mean that each and every soldier dies in battle, but rather that this unit no longer functions as a significant fightring force due to casualties, morale loss and lack of cohesion. A Supressed unit could Regroup by rolling its ELAN or less on one die; one attempt of this takes one action.

Most artillery will find its place on the tabletop; aircraft will fly over it. Only orbital support and strategic bombers will not be represented on the tabletop itself.

The rules will cover 6mm engagements in both WWII, Ultra-Modern and Sci-Fi.

Input, thoughts and ideas will be welcome! :)

Armoured Cars on the Move!

I've finished painting four armoured cars to serve the Fascist faction ("White Legion") in my Novi Stalingrad 2072 15mm wargaming campaign. These cars are HOF Light Tanks from 15mm.co.uk, EXCELLENT models and a great fun to work with, as with all other HOF minis.

March of the Red Mech Cavalry

Here is a 15mm Red Mech Cavalry squad for my Novi Stalingrad 2072 wargaming campaign. The minis are Kremlin Miniatures Rising Sun MANITOUs.