Revisiting Empire of the Dead

[Saucy Jack]

Been a long time since I did anything with Empire of the Dead, but that is about to change.

During the last couple of weeks I have been thinking about my Empire of the Dead miniatures. They really are lovely models - shame about the rules. I want to get them back on the table again, and since Westwind seem uninterested in Empire of the Dead and delivering the promised Requiem book, I decided to change the rules to my liking.

http://londonbymidnight.blogspot.dk/2014/10/revisiting-empire-of-dead-house-rules.html

[scouts19508]

I like those changes. I will be giving them a try.

Jim

[Saucy Jack]

I like those changes. I will be giving them a try.

Jim

Please let me know how they work 

[Brummie Thug]

Sounds good. Will have to give them a try

[Saucy Jack]

Had a chance to playtest the house rules yesterday.

Read about it on my blog: http://londonbymidnight.blogspot.dk/2014/10/playtesting-house-rules.html

[Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers]

Had a quick read. Not sure about the melee rule changes.
The defender has no opportunity to win the combat during melee. They can only parry attacks they cannot hit back until their own action phase.  A melee is a fight between two opposing combatants trying to hit each other, not one attacking and one only defending.

There are a lot of other changes too. I think what you really want to play is In Her Majesties name instead of Empire of the Dead.

I think the Empire rules are fundamentally sound except for the melee rules. We make one change where we add the combat score to the melee roll. This works very well and is in keeping with the same logic as the shooting.

It does seem very strange to me that people think they can/should only use West Wind figures for Empire of the Dead and nothing else. Is this a hangover from Games Workshop tournament play where only GW figures are allowed?

My Empire of the Dead factions include minis from West Wind, Northstar, Eureka, Blue Moon and others. I also plan on using the same figures with In Her majesties Name, Gaslight and other systems I have.

Cheers
Fuzzy.

[Saucy Jack]

Hi there,

I love the background of Empire of the Dead and In Her Majesty's Name is too steampunky for me.

In regards to the rules I fully understand what you mean when you say combat is not one hitting while the other defend. What I wanted to do is take some of the advantage away from missile combat since it has completely dominated previous games to the point where there was no melee combat.

I have only westwind minis because they IMO are the best for Gothic Horror.

Appreciate your feedback.

[Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers]

Hi Jack,

Factions like the Gentlemen's club with their repeating rifles can dominate a game if the terrain allows them too. However should they get into melee combat with vampires or Lycoans they are dead meat.

Your problem is more of a terrain placement issue. If you put down lots of terrain to break up lines of sight then the melee factions have a better chance of using cover to get close enough to charge into melee combat.

Also playing games at night or in pea soup fog can also limit the power of rifles.

I quite enjoy EOTD. Like I said the rules are basically sound and give a good game. The problem I have with Empire of the Dead is the factions. The requiem factions seem rushed and not fully developed and there is not a lot of flexibility in the design of factions. This is where IHMN wins hands down.

Did you know that there will soon be another expansion to IHMN covering the Gothic Genre?

Cheers
Fuzzy

[Saucy Jack]

We play with a lot of terrain ... See my blog.

Playing at night-time has so far not made any difference at all. I agree that the Requeim factions minus the Supernatural Branch dont fit the game at all.

IHMN Gothic Horror can be found on their website, but it is not at all what I am looking for. The factions are not to my liking.

[Brummie Thug]

If I'm honest the games I've played shooting wasn't that overpowered but it was usually in a terrain heavy village. Requiem definitely need more play testing before being released some are suited I think more for special scenarios or campaigns. Some tweaks here and there and the can become playable but it will take a dedicated group to try it out and then publish the mods.

I like that your trying out some new rules. It will make interesting reading.

[Saucy Jack]

Brummie you have seen my London Docks board on my blog, and I would categorise it as being filled with terrain. Despite this shooting has been king in all games except the two I played on Monday with my house rules.

[Brummie Thug]

You have a great board but there are still quite a few long shooting lanes with only little bits of cover on. I think your table needs to be a bit more terrain dense.

Yours
http://londonbymidnight.blogspot.dk/2014/03/eotd-skirmish-report-prisoner.html

Mine
http://brummieswargamingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/empire-of-dead-fracas-2-turns-1-3.html