IHMN for 8?

[BaronVonJ]

Here is my blessing and my curse. Our regular gaming group has 6-8 people. So, every Thursday night is basically a convention. Lots of people, short time period. I have been a fan of IHMN since the first incarnation In the Emperor's name. We did that with 8 players:http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/2011/09/ork-in-door.html
I even adapted for Fantasy: http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/2011/10/in-emperors-name-fantasy.html

I ask gentlemen, is IHMN they same. Can I run games with big groups?

[Skrapwelder]

I ran a convention game for 8. I used playing cards 1-8 to determine Initiative each turn. This worked well in that it was faster than rolling dice, comparing scores and rerolling ties and it had the added benefit of giving the player something to hold that reminded him of when it was his turn to act.

I modified the rules to have each person activate their entire faction when their turn within each phase came around. Everything else remained the same. We probably spent a little more time sorting out combats with multiple models involved than normal but I always stressed that models in combat required pairing up one on one unless that option was not available.

It seemed to work well given the number of players and the fact that only one other besides myself were at all familiar with the rules.

[LCpl McDoom]

Agree with Skrapwelder, playing cards are a great idea to decide and know the player turn order. One thing I would add is on the activation point for multi-player games - sometimes find it easier to allow the players the option to activate one of the leaders/characters/specialists, or, activate a 2, 3 or 4-man squad of the rankers/basic fighters.

[Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers]

I like your activation rules for big games. It's a bit like Battles by Gaslight. I always thought moving one figure at a time terribly slows down a game if you have more than two factions playing.

Cheers
Fuzzy.

[BaronVonJ]

I was thinking of the mechanic of every player gets two playing cards. They have to decide which will be their move activation and their shoot activation. That way, the move part and the action aprt can have different turn order and its always tense.

[The_Beast]

Here is my blessing and my curse.

Oh, you know it's a blessing! All chores are chores of love. 

Store has the numbers several times a week, but mostly GW and FOW play. Gawd, I miss fleets burning noiselessly in the aether...

Just out of curiosity, no way you can play a couple-four separate games simultaneously?

I was thinking of the mechanic of every player gets two playing cards. They have to decide which will be their move activation and their shoot activation. That way, the move part and the action aprt can have different turn order and its always tense.

Having not yet played, or even completely read, the rules, have to get back to you, but sounds reasonable. Almost say two sets of different colour-backed decks. I think I wouldn't give them even that much choice. ;->=

Doug

[Skrapwelder]

I was thinking of the mechanic of every player gets two playing cards. They have to decide which will be their move activation and their shoot activation. That way, the move part and the action aprt can have different turn order and its always tense.

I think that if you went this route you would create situations where the rules created for a Move, then Shoot, then Fight dynamic would lose much of their influence. The way the rules stand as written you do not keep track of who moved and who ran on the previous turn because only Movement during the current turn counts against the firing that happens in the same turn.

You might end up modifying more of the rules and their modifying numbers to make up for the changes in sequence.

[BaronVonJ]

But I think I'm still keeping that mechanic. Each player does there moves in the order dictated by the cards. Then they do their shooting in the order dictated b the cards. New turn. That's pretty much the way it the game plays with just two players, correct?

[Skrapwelder]

I see what you're saying.  That would work.

[Mr. Peabody]

Allowing your 'mooks' to go all at once could also work to speed things along. Not as subtle as the rules as written, but you can still line up a nice bit of volley-fire that the low SV models need.

Might get a bit sticky if someone has a swarm of this sort of figure; could make fights & especially mobbing impossible to break away from....