IHMN Company - Time Team (edited 04 July 2014 now with more photos)

[ant1clock]

The best thing about this game is the ability to create your own Companies. Here is my first stab, it is based on the story the Time Machine and an earlier short story about time travel by HG Wells.

I have played twice using HG, Weena, a Sgt and three  Privates. They were pretty good but not over powered.

The list is contained in the pdf attachment. Edit sorry that list was the one I used for my demo game, correct attachment now included.

Any comments appreciated.

ant1clock

[shadowking1957]

Very good work and ill test this out, what i need it some rules or consequence for a time machine as i bought the west wind one

[religon]

Interesting.

On paper the company looks very powerful...

Two Pluck 2+ characters
Access to three new pieces of equipment that are arguably better than standard equipment from the rulebook.
The Rollback Mystic Power looks dreadfully effective on a Pluck 2+ figure.

The Temporal guns seem very similar to Arc weapons. They ignore armor.

Although it would require a little record keeping regarding who killed whom from turn to turn, perhaps a more thematic approach to Temporal Guns would be when the effects of a temporal gun takes place. Roll a d10.

1-3 Damage takes effect the next turn. (You could kill an opponent in turn #3 but he dies in turn #4.)
4-7 Damage take place this turn. (As normal)
8-10 Damage takes place the previous turn, potentially changing the outcome of the last turn. (Allies killed by an opponent shot with a Temporal Gun come back to life and continue fighting this turn.)

One strategy would be to concentrate fire on the slayer of HG Wells after he is killed with a barrage of Temporal gunfire in the hopes of scoring a kill in the previous turn and reviving the leader.

For what it's worth...

[EndTransmission]

Really interesting read, though not the Time Team I had in mind when I saw your thread title though

[ant1clock]

Thanks for the feedback all. I really like the concept of this list and so I want it to be balanced and getting the feedback from the community will help me avoid over powerful characters.

Interesting.

On paper the company looks very powerful...

Two Pluck 2+ characters
Access to three new pieces of equipment that are arguably better than standard equipment from the rulebook.
The Rollback Mystic Power looks dreadfully effective on a Pluck 2+ figure.

It looks powerful on paper but its costed as per rulebook and I did compare costs to similar powers as well to try and ensure balance. In saying that
I think you might be right about the two Pluck 2+ characters. I haven't tested the Rev. yet and putting him in the same list as HG might tip the balance, although I did make him a close combat specialist with no shooting to give him a bit of a disadvantage. I might drop HG to 3+ considering he's got the best armour of the group. Again during the match I played he didn't need his power as most things couldn't get through the armour, so I might drop that from 12 to 11 and see how that goes.

Although it would require a little record keeping regarding who killed whom from turn to turn, perhaps a more thematic approach to Temporal Guns would be when the effects of a temporal gun takes place. Roll a d10.

1-3 Damage takes effect the next turn. (You could kill an opponent in turn #3 but he dies in turn #4.)
4-7 Damage take place this turn. (As normal)
8-10 Damage takes place the previous turn, potentially changing the outcome of the last turn. (Allies killed by an opponent shot with a Temporal Gun come back to life and continue fighting this turn.)

I did actually think about delayed impact hits but was trying to keep the list rules simple as it was the clubs first intro to IHMN and didn't want to suggest the game was all about the book keeping. I will probably implement something similar in the future and if you don't mind I might steal your idea about killing someone in the previous round, never really considered that, but it sounds great fun.

Again many thanks for the suggestions. Playing again this Sunday so I will try out the new list and see how it runs.

Cheers

ant1clock

[EndTransmission]

You could also take a concept from Strontium Dogs (2000AD comic) and have the Temporal grenade. The grenades a re very small and only affect a tiny portion of the world, so in game terms, the have no blast area and will only affect one person.

At the start of the game decide which way the board faces in terms of earth rotation.

Then if the grenade hits, roll a dice to see how far into the future they are shunted.

1. Misfire! - The grenade was mis-wired and has actually shunted the target back in time briefly. If they have already acted this turn, they can do so again.
2-3. A second's glitch - The model blinks out of existence for a few seconds and appears 1D6" in the opposite direction to the rotation of the world. If they would appear inside impassable terrain they will appear next to the terrain and take damage as normal.
4-5. It felt like a lifetime! - The model blinks out of existence for a few seconds and appears 3D6" in the opposite direction to the rotation of the world. If they would appear inside impassable terrain they will appear next to the terrain and take damage as normal. If they would end up off the table, they may come back in at the point they would have left the table as their action next turn. If they are still on the table, they may not act; they have missed their shot
6. Miles away! - The model blinks out of existence for a few minutes and reappears miles away. They take no more action in this game, but will return unscathed next time

[religon]

Time travel is advanced by nature for a tabletop game. Really engaging the theme might make the company unsuitable for a novice IHMN company. You can KISS, but that may really comprise the theme. Moderately simple for experienced players seems the sweet spot for time travelers. I once tried a Chronomancer mage class for D&D. It was lovely but played terrible. In the end, I declared it an NPC-only class to keep the game flowing. I think IHMN may be more accommodating.

As implemented, I would question some of the point values in this company.

Tempus Armor costs the same as an SRC Breastplate, only it is light. Surely this adds to the point cost of such an item?

The Arc weapons in the base game have a large upside, ignoring armor, and a significant downside, firing every other turn. They can utilize an Arc Generator, but it is limited in range and can be both destroyed or utilized by an enemy. It also precludes running if using a generator. The Temporal Rifle and Pistol have none of the downsides of arc weaponry. I'm not sure if the points are reflective of capability, but the weapons co-opt what is special about many of the companies in the original rulebook.

Compare the "Fanatic" Talent with "Rollback." Effectively, the Fanatic Talent double the durability of IHMN characters (double the hit points from 1 to 2 if you will). This cost 5 points, a bargain for all but the weakest characters. An alternate approach to evaluating the Fanatic talent is that is should cost the same as all the other points on the figure combined! A 20 point figure that you add Fanatic would need to cost 40 points as he needs to be killed twice. (In reality, perhaps 80% would be a better yardstick, but that is another discussion.) Because Fanatic is one use only, the abuse of the Talent is limited. Rollback can be used many more times at only 10 points.  Even on a Pluck 3+ character, there is only a 1-in-25 chance that an injury that gets through the armor slays the character. That is powerful. It is also frustrating to play against in an opponent.

Consider this for Temporal armor…Light armor with rating 10. (Same as a chain shirt.) I would try to work the theme of time into the equipment rather than just making it lightweight, protective armor.
When an opponent declares a Shooting action or a Fighting action directed at your character, you may opt to engage the "Jump-Forward-in-Time" button if you have not already acted in this phase. The button works 70% of the time (4+ on a d10). Nothing happens if the button does not work, otherwise, you move through time to the start of the next turn, the attacker's action is lost. One downside is you lose your remaining actions this turn, but you might avoid great harm. Cost is tricky…17 points?

Another option for Temporal armor is to switch two of your phases this turn…Move, Shoot and Fight.

So you could Fight in the Move phase and Move in the Fight phase. That could be interesting.

Cheers.

The grenades look fun also. 

[ant1clock]

All good points.

I'd already downgraded the armour to 11 (Edit. I've now reduced it to 10, I had a look at the armour table on pg. 23 of IHMN and read diagonally down from the Weight column for Brigandine armour which is Light, then the rating for Chain shirt, then the cost for Breastplate steel, and it seems to work out at a reasonable cost) and have upped the price of the Temporal Rifle, and it no longer ignores armour. HG has suddenly created Time Bullets which have an associated cost. As religion suggested above dependant on a D10 roll on a chart being hit by the rifle can now make models skip turns and can move them on the table as well, without being fatal.

@EndTransmission: I was a big fan of the Strontium Dogs in the old days before Wulf and then Johnny died (1st time). Now there's a list just crying out to be made, Middenface McNulty for the win.

I'll have a look again at the cost of Rollback I think your right it is a bit cheap. Hopefully my second full game of IHMN on Sunday will help iron out the bugs and sell the game to more of my mates.

Cheers

ant1clock

[Craig]

Please note that I am following this discussion with interest 

It is very satisfying to see the workings of people's thinking.

[ant1clock]

Hello All

Here is the latest version of the Time Team, I've attached it to this post and to the first post as well. I have made one or two significant changes to try and tone down the power levels, especially on HG.

First, after all the suggestions (thanks all), HG has now invented time bullets. Once you have been hit by a time bullet you roll a d10 on a chart, depending on the outcome of the roll, the model can be removed from the table for ever, for a turn and then replaced either by your opponent or the models owner. This means that the rifle doesn't now ignore armour and it might not even kill.

I removed the rollback power from HG, far too powerful. With it he was pretty much "unkillable" and that wasn't fun at all. In the two games I played with him using this power he was never even scratched, not good. Now HG can discharge the time energy held in his body and potentially stun models in base to base contact. This has the effect of reducing their FV and speed values by two (at the moment). I'll play this next time and if too powerful I'll reduce it to one instead of two.

Cheers

ant1clock

[religon]

Much better balanced.

You may wish to test the Time Bullets in action. For 22 pts, the Temporal Rifle seems much inferior to a standard military rifle. The Time Bullets only kill an opponent 20% of the time he fails a Pluck test. 20% of the time it misfires. 60% of the time, it simply takes the opposing figure out of action briefly.

Imagine a player's dismay to finally hit Tarzan such that he fails a Pluck test and then he rolls a 1-8 on the Time Bullet table.

[shadowking1957]

could open the first  page the update i cant  open at all??? sorted it  looks great sorry

[ant1clock]

Here are the first two Special Forces members of the Time Team, the Sgt (Red Hands) and a grunt. I love the Death Korp of Krieg models but neither want nor can afford a full army so using them in IHMN is perfect.

Time Team SF1 by ant1clock

Time Team SF2 by ant1clock

All comments appreciated.

Cheers

ant1clock.

[Craig]

Excellent figures and paintjobs 

I use Wargames Factory Shocktroopers as Thule Totenkopf, so I can see the look that you are going for here.

[Genghis]

That's a really good use of the Death Korps figures - and a nice paint job.