Had my first game of tomorrows war.

[Justicar_Freezer]

So last night before going for beers my buddy and I sat up our gaming table and played the putting it all together scenario from tomorrow's war that pitted the USMC against the DPRG.

We had to change a few things because we were playing with 28mm models on a much bigger table then suggested we also didn't have a river so the terrian was as close to the suggested as could be. We also doubled measurements as I have seen suggested when using 28mm models. The last little change was giving one of the USMC squads two SAWS because I didn't have three missle launcher troopers from that line of models.

The game was really fun. I'm sure we were doing a few things wrong since it was our first game but we had the basics down after the first turn. It was fun and engaging at no point in our turns did we ever feel like we could just walk away from the table because we didn't have to do anything. Our forces were constantly reacting to one another.

It was rough only having a troop quality of D6 compared to the Corps troop quality of D8 however having numbers and being an ambush made things a little better. Having a medic seems to be super useful for keeping your guys in the fight, I can only imagine what having power armor would do letting a squad make their first aid rolls even if all the squaddies are down.

The USMC managed to get the pilot off the board which was their goal however they took heay casulities losing one whole fire team and suffering two serious wounds to another. Though at the end the poor DPRG forces were left with only the command team, each other team was down and in need of medical attention which the forces brave leader was unable to provide seeing as his team was the only one putting accurate fire down on the marines.

So overall it was a great game. I'm looking forward to playing it as the USMC next time and can't wait to start making my own scenarios and putting together my own forces for it. I want to get the fog of war deck for the game for more fun. I'd suggest anyone looking for a fun fast paced game check it out.

[Easy E]

Yeah, the action/reaction system they use for this and Force-on-Force is great!

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

Glad you liked your first game.

[sigur]

Thanks for the little report. I got myself the rulebook a few days ago and it looks nice enough. However I'm a bit overawed with the rules right now and I think I'll start out slowly with infantry-only scenarios for now and then go on to using stuff like vehicles and/or off-table support, maybe power armour and the grid. What I'm really interested in though is scenarios including irregulars versus regulars.

I have yet to figure out what this game is best suited for in terms of scale. In two ways actually - scale of battle and model scale. I don't want to get all new models for the game at this point so I'm actually thinking of trying it with 6mm epic models for any skirmishes that involve something like vehicles. For smaller battles I think that 28mm miniatures should work well but for some reason I got this urge to play that game at a smaller scale.

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

I use 1/72 for Force On Force and 10mm Mechwarrior Dark Age for Tomorrow's War. If you go with 28mm you should double all distances.

[Amnar]

I'm in the same boat. Had the rulebook for a while, am currently painting 15mm stuff, but the rules are intimidating to say the least. There are just so many variables in play...

[sigur]

Indeed. This, combined with the rather abstract ruleset, is a bit intimidating. However there's two factors that make this whole thing less scary: First, I'm fairly sure that this is a kind of rulesset which, once you start playing, you get into pretty quickly and once that's done I suspect that all the other mechanics will seem much more natural. Second, the book gives you a ton of stuff to play with but you don't have to. So you can get into it slowly, adding additional bits and pieces where you need them instead of having to deal with everything at once.

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

Believe me, once you have the basics (and those are easy) you will enjoy this more than anything you have ever played before. You won't believe how much you are going to do even when its not your actual game turn. The action/reaction principle can be complicated in some tricky game situations but when you know how to proceed its going to be the most fun game ever.

[chromedog]

I use my backlog of old 28mm stuff to play it (we play it on a 6x4 to compensate) - as I've been playing in 28mm of one game or another for over 20 years (got rid of my 15mm stuff in the late 80s).

@Aequitas/Veritas: I get what you mean, I think (I got the book last year when it was released, but it's hard work trying to convince the mainly GW/PP centric crowd around here to give anything different a try). So d6 TQ would have an optimum range of 12" instead of 6", d8 would be 16", d10 would be 20", etc ? This is how I've played the game, and it seems to work well.

Naturally, any game to "convert" (and yes, I mean it in the religious sense, too. The followers of PP and GW around here are THAT one-eyed in their devotions - although we do have a large Infinity contingent - 40-odd players compared to the maybe 30 PP zealots) would have to feature Powered armour troops (d10 TQ?) with their power armour enhanced senses (p72 top of 2nd column says double OR for the die type. If you are already doubling for 28mm, then does this give a PA trooper of d10 TQ a 40" OR?). This would seem to make PA troopers the kings of the battlefield and to play a lot closer to (for example, Space marine fluff) than their own game.

I've tried a game with the non-augments outnumbering the PA at 3-1 (with TQ of d8) - and it got one or two guys interested.
One squad of His Imperial Majesty's Policy Enforcement Bureau (10 marines - two fire teams of 4 and a heavy weapons team) with a Bushpig (standard Aussie nomenclature for a razorback pig) transport (They had to get to the centre of the table and recover a fallen "battle brother" and his banner and get them both off the table). Facing them were the devoted minions of the Powers That Be (30 soldiers, with several heavy weapons teams) and a single Echidna AFV (Echidna was the "mother" of chimaera according to one source).

The game went down to the wire at 5 turns (turn limit), with the final two heavy weapons team marines hoofing it off the board with the prize (their transport was taken out with a HATGM from the Echidna in turn one, with a lucky reaction fire shot) and the dozen or so valiant (still mobile) defenders not having enough firepower to stop them (outside OR and casualties). It was a tight game.

We're trying out the beta points system at the moment as well. There seems to be real resistance to any game that doesn't use a points system for "balance" (like it works for GW!) and this might help.

[sigur]

Hmm, interesting. I mean I basically only play Infinity outside of the house at my LGS but these guys seem to be pretty open towards new games (although there's a hefty set of resentments towards anything GW, especially from the store guy. It's fun at times, seeing the kind of unfounded glee whenever he reports that sales on GW stuff dropped while some random PP stuffs sell more well even though that might have something to do with a GW store right down the street ).

Anyhow, I have a question concerning Tomorrow's War - some of the sample scenarios in the book, especially the first few, are somewhat light on terrain if you look at the diagrams for table setup. Combine this with the unlimited range on weapons does this mean that more terrain should be set up or is the fact that dudes/dudettes can be shot at pretty much everywhere not as bad as you can claim cover anywhere too?


Also, how viable do you think is playing in 6mm, with all ranges halved and playing on a 2x2 table for example? I have this vision of a game that's really quick and easy to set up and which I could actually play on a table at home.

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

Yes, Astartes created with Tomorrow's War are pretty tough guys. Something they are supposed to be according to fluff, but somehow I miss that feeling in 40k :-)
Its easy to make things overpowerd in TW. You have to be careful. See, just because PA in 40k gives beakies a 3+ doesn't mean it has to be like that in TW. Especially with physical augmentation rules and enhanced sensors Marines tend to be too powerful. My general advice for Space Marines: Power Armor, but only with +2 dice. In addition, skeletal augmentation (this grants even a naked Astartes plus one die for defense - their metabolilsm is really though, even without armor.) Active Trauma Treatment Nanites to represent their body's healing abilities AND at the same time Power Armor bonuses. Normally both things are totally different functions but you don't have to re-create 40k in all details with TW to have a game that comes close the gothic feelings of the 41. millenium.
Power Armor doubles their senses anyways, so no need for any other attributes. I would however grant "grown up" Space Marines (like Scout Sergeants) the Augmented Senses attribute to represent their advanced metabolism compared to their younger scout brothers. As you can see there are many ways to make something "feel" like its supposed to be. Just don't put too many rules into one unit. Space Marines also don't have to be D10 TroopQuality. A Space Marine might only be average in what he does compared to others in his chapter. An Imperial Guardsman might be trained with TQ D8. Well, a "trained" and an "average" solider can both be D8 although the SM is likely to be 10 times as deadly.
The Augmented stuff and the Power Armor will make more than just "Up" for what the TQ dice didn't show in difference between guardsman and Astartes.
Giving a regular Astartes only D8 but highly sophisticated equipment will make him very durable and putting out a lot of damage to opponents. This way you can save the D10 for Space Marine Veterans and Terminators. And D12 for chapter heroes.

With all those bonuses the Astartes still have more than a high chance to always come out in better shape after a firefight than their regular human enemies. TW gives you really an impressive amount of things to adopt other universes in game terms.

An example are the rules for Clan Elementals I wrote to play battletech with TW rules:
Tech Level: 3
Body Armor: +2
Speed: like infantry +2” (Tactical Move 8” / Rapid Move 16”)

Active Trauma Treatment Nanites (TW rules, p. 193)
Advanced Sensors (TW rules, p. 190)
Jump Troops (TW rules, p. 47)
Intimidating (TW rules, p. 192) VS. all infantry without Power Armor
OmniMech® Riders
Grapples
Anti-Mech®-Training
Swarming

As you can see I came up with four brand-new Attributes because I wanted something represented in a very special way. You can do that with your gaming group as well. It really is a lot of fun to brainstorm such things.

A mate once suggested to bring back the "Rapid Fire" rule from 40k 2nd Edition. We said Space Marines that haven't moved can re-roll FirePower dice that were showing a miss. You can use such ideas too. Just make sure everybody that is in your gaming group knows about them (we have ours printed on the wall in the gaming room).

@Sigur: don't copy the maps 1:1. Try to make sure troops and objectives are located as on the map. Everything else is a matter of your available terrain collection.

Don't forget that you can also claim cover everywhere (if you haven't moved) unless you are exposed.

I wouldn't change distances for 6mm. I use 10mm for TW and I use the regular ones.

[sigur]

I know that copying the maps 1:1 is rather pointless. I was talking about the relative armount of terrain. Anyway, thanks for the info. I really like your plog on your TW project by the way.

[Glabro]

The great thing about TW is that it's extremely mutable while still retaining the core concepts of reaction and "quality based" gameplay. I'm currently doing a 40k conversion for Tomorrow's War, but I'm changing around some of the core firefight mechanics, and making hard to kill a universal rule to represent armor. The changes are inspired by Stargrunt II (which inspired FoF / TW), and because I personally disliked the defense mechanic being based on headcount. It would either lead to PA troops like Space Marines having a ridiculous number of dice - or you'd have to artificially make them go about in mechanically inferior, smaller teams for balance,

So, in my system, like in SGII, the defender rolls just one TQ die for defense, and the die type is shifted up or down based on circumstances. And of course, a 4+ is still the minimum score to hit, so it won't get ridiculously swingy even if the defense roll comes up a 1 or 2!

Check it out here, it's a work-in-progress.

http://ambushalleygames.com/forum/vi...p=68189#p68189

[Justicar_Freezer]

Have to agree with Glabro the ability to change the game to suit what you want to do with it is really very nice. My buddy and I are slowly working on making some zombie scenario's to play co-op or head to head and we've played two games total now both of which have been fun, I think we're still not quite nailing the reactions 100% but that will come with each game we play. Looking forward to what else Ambush Alley Games has in store for TW.

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

Looking forward to what else Ambush Alley Games has in store for TW.

..a supplement to Tomorrow's War is currently in the making.

[sigur]

Hey, I played my first game last night. Solo, because chances anybody would want to play were slim. Very interesting system. There definately is a lot in it and by turn #6 or so I somewhat got into at least what checks are to be made when and all the modifiers. Had a very hard time wrapping my head around the reaction system at first to be honest. The rulebook, as other people pointed out before, isn't laid out in a way that makes grasping the game as a whole really easy but everything is there and fairly well explained. I'm sure I got a few things wrong of course but that's the first game.

Anyhow, very interesting experience and the outcome was interesting as well. Almost typical really I'd say. I'll be writing up a little battle report shortly I think.

[VERITAS/AEQUITAS]

For starters you really only need to play with basic rules. Once you know how to resolve action, reaction, basic morale and overwatch you start adding attributes, supply level and confidence level, vehicles etc.

If there is going to be a re-release in the future one of the things we already have on our to-do list is the books' structure. Its a bit fiddly to find things occasionally...

[sigur]

Yes, it is. I mean it's all there and all pretty clearly described with lots of example and all, which is great, but quite a bit of page turning is involved. Shame I only found a good quick reference sheet after playing the game.

All in all, and I stated that in my review as well, I like the simplicity of the game. As you said, VERITAS/AEQUITAS, as soon as the basics are covered this game is really straightforward. I can see this game working really well at demo tables as long as one guy explains the basics and people get to roll dice it can surely work rather fluently.

Last night I looked through the vehicle rules and was pleased to see that those are actually pretty simple to learn as well.