I’ve been feverishly building Robots over the past week or so:
They may be my favourite warband for Chob-Noggoth yet… closely followed by my Beastmen. I was initially worried that my robots would be a little too cutesy, but after I put together my Monster for them, all that cutesiness (that’s a word right?) started looking far more sinister.
Anywho, while thinking about the rules for Chob-Noggoth, one of my brain goblins went deep into the recesses of my memory and pulled out the rules for Blasted Planets. Blasted Planets was a pretty bizarre ruleset that gets oddly specific about heights of things and is available to download here:
https://www.blastedplanets.com
What I’d never seen in another ruleset before or since, was the random possibilities of the turn structure (although my memories of this weren’t exactly accurate, there’s actually a lot of choice involved).
Basically you roll off for initiative, but the winner of the initiative can then attempt to roll for ‘super initiative’. If they get a 5+ they can pick one of the following options:
1] Normal turn, move second.
2] MAD MINUTE: a turn is played with no movement phases there is a single stationary attack phase in which all are considered stationary. Other phases are as normal.
3] RUSH: A turn is played with no attack phases and no OP fire (Player with initiative may decide whether to move first or second.) Other phases are as normal.
4] HEAT OF BATTLE: A turn is played with no Morale phases. Other phases are as normal.
5] HURRY UP AND WAIT: A turn is counted as Passed with no activity occurring.
6] SENSLESS SLAUGHTER: A normal turn is played with all Models on both sides behaving as mindless, except one model chosen by the friendly player from each unit. The Player with initiative may decide whether to move first or second.
7] WIDE SPREAD PANIC: A turn is played with only a morale phase and all Models on both sides including those not normally subject to morale test for morale.
8] Normal turn move first.
If a player fails a check for Super Initiative he loses initiative and the opposing player decides whether he wants to move first or second in a normal turn.
That’s a fun idea, my mad brain imagined a world where you randomly played a whole turn as either an IGO-UGO thing, alternate activations, individual activation in an entirely random order etc. I wasn’t sure how fun that would be though, and it didn’t exactly make writing specific rules easy either. So I compromised and came up with the following:
At the beginning of the game roll off to determine which force is Side A and which is Side B.
The game is then played in rounds. The order in which things happen in each round and what can happen in a round is randomly rolled for on a D6 at the start of each round, then the round progresses as below:
1: Blast ‘Em!
Side A Actions (only shooting or spell casting is permitted)
Side B Actions (only shooting or spell casting is permitted)
End of the Round (Morale Checks)
2-3: Standard Round
Side A Moves
Side B Actions
Side B Moves
Side A Actions
End of the Round (Morale Checks)
Resolve Melees (opposing models in base to base contact) immediately as they pop up.
4: IGO-UGO
Side B Moves
Side B Actions
Side A Moves
Side A Actions
End of the Round (Morale Checks)
Resolve Melees (opposing models in base to base contact) immediately as they pop up.
5: Berserk Charge!
Side A Moves
Side B Moves
Side A Moves
Side B Moves
End of the Round (Morale Checks)
Resolve Melees (opposing models in base to base contact) immediately as they pop up.
6: Artillery Bombardment/ Magical Storm/ Meteor Strike
Roll a die for each Warrior, on a roll of 6, that warrior suffers D6 hits.
End of the Round (Morale Checks)
Let me know what you think… also do I need to buy a bunch of Blasted Planets minis? And then play a game of Blasted Planets? I shouldn’t be allowed an expendable income…
Deathzap 