Warhammer 40K skirmish games

[The Red Graf]

I have recently fallen in love with the idea of creating an Inquisitor and her retinue. As far as I know, no one plays any of the rules sets in the Kansas City area so that pretty much leaves me free to choose any one I want. I wanted to ask if anyone plays one of them and what your thoughts are. As far as I can tell there are Kill Teams and Necromunda as the two official rules sets. Then you have the unofficial rules sets. Inquisimunda, In the Emperors Name, and Heralds of Ruin. Anybody want to talk about their experiences and what they like and don't like?

[dijit]

Inquisamunda works well as it's basically just additional force lists for necromunda. So if you like necromunda, then that is probably the most obvious way.

I've found kill team a bit dull tbh the few times I've played it. Cooking a platoon level game down to a few minis just didn't seem to work well without the extra stuff that a game like necromunda added.

Tried reading In the Emperors Name, but didn't get on with the way it was written, so never tried it.

Then there's also Inquisitor, which is more RPG like and if you're playing solo anyway might offer a better option - just avoid marines as they'll go through everyone else like a power sword through butter. Inqusitor has lots of gritty detail which for some is a bonus for others it isn't. I enjoyed it though.

[blacksoilbill]

Another option is Pulp Alley: I think it works really well for these kinds of games. About 6 figures in a team, plenty of room to customise characters, and designed to create stories with objectives and challenges, not just killing the other guys.

You can see a campaign I ran here: http://preacherbyday.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Sinastras%20IV%20campaign

I don't have any experience with the GW options, so can't comment on those.

[spect_spidey]

Rogue Stars maybe? It just came out, uses a d20, is very customizable, and has an exhaustive list of missions/locations/complications. I think if you exclude space marines and focus on inquisitors hunting down xenos, it would work perfectly. It is crunchy though. No stat line for models. The miniatures success is based upon a base target number modified by situation, model traits, and equipment.

[blacksoilbill]

Make sure you let us know what you do go with, and show us some pictures! More inspiration is always good.

[Sir_Theo]

Rogue Trader or 2nd ed 40k are great for small battles. 

Rogue stars looks like it would work well for 40k.  Pulp Alley as well is worth a go.  I've used that for various settings and it handles sci fi very well. 

Rogue Planet by Brent Spivey looks promising as well although I've not actually played it so that's just from a read through.

[Jagannath]

Rogue planet's great! For me, I don't enjoy it with troops and grunts... it's not Vietnam-in-space, but if I think it might work for the 'extreme' end of 40k.

[Sir_Theo]

Rogue planet's great! For me, I don't enjoy it with troops and grunts... it's not Vietnam-in-space, but if I think it might work for the 'extreme' end of 40k.

Yeah!   Inquisitors and Imperial agents,  Eldar Warlocks and Chaos champions flying around smashing each other.

For more Mundane 'Nam in Space'  Tomorrow's War would probably work well. 

Oh!  Deadzone for a rules light squad sized skirmish would also work

[audrey]

Another option is Pulp Alley: I think it works really well for these kinds of games. About 6 figures in a team, plenty of room to customise characters, and designed to create stories with objectives and challenges, not just killing the other guys.

You can see a campaign I ran here: http://preacherbyday.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Sinastras%20IV%20campaign

How does Pulp Alley handle the various 40k weaponry since it doesn't use stats for weapons? I am almost sold on it for Inquisitor games especially after seeing your AARs.

thanks
-A

[blacksoilbill]

You can get a lot of weapon effects from the characteristics you give your characters (burst templates, flame templates, higher shooting scores, rules for shotguns, heavy melee weapons, rapid firing weapons where you drop your shoot quality to gain more dice). But it is generalised: you can't differentiate between a bolt gun and a lasgun.

I guess I'm ok with that: the hero is going to take apart the minions regardless of what kind of pistol he's toting. On the other hand, a lowly cultist will struggle to hit you whether he has a Las rifle or an autogun.

And what the rules do a really good job of is letting you create distinctive character with all sorts of interesting characteristics. To me, that feels more important than the kind of weapon the figure is toting.

Hope that helps! Also, I think there's a free quick start set of rules on the Pulp Alley website, so you can try before you buy!

[audrey]

Hope that helps! Also, I think there's a free quick start set of rules on the Pulp Alley website, so you can try before you buy!

It does. Thank you!

-A

[Genghis]

I'll second the Rogue Stars recommendation.  I've not played it yet, but have read the rules a couple of times and will be using it for pretty much the same thing you appear to need ie ~6 a side 40K skirmish.  Some of the weapons need a bit of tweaking to make them more 40K lore compliant, but that should be relatively simple.  (Something I'm going to look at over the weekend in fact.)

[livanbard]

I also say rogue stars and add void pirates. In VP beta I used my rogue trader crew vs a lone astarte and his scout squire.

[eilif]

At the club we've enjoyed In The Emperor's Name.  It's a quick game and really shines with a good scenario.
If you visit the blog in my signature below and put ITEN into the search you can read some of the reports and observations from our ITEN games. Note that the weapons list on the website is strangely not complete. I completed it using the ITEN points system and it will greatly enhance your enjoyment of the game.  I've attached it below.

If you wanted more crunch in your rules, I'd give Inquisimunda a try.  I've not played it, but I've done a fair amount of Necromunda and I really enjoyed it.  My favorite version of Necromunda is the "Necromunda Community Edition" (NCE) at Yaktribe. It' clears up the many vagueness, inconsistencies and imbalances in the game very well.  They recently released their own version of Inquisimunda for NCE  which I believe is heavily based on the version by "Empire of Ghosts" which IIRC was the most widely used of the various Inquisimundas.

Rogue Stars also looks very intriguing but I think I'd want to deal with slightly larger retinues than it is intended for.

I've been meaning to give Inquisimunda a try for some time.

[bermanj]

At my local gaming club (Nunawading Wargames Association, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) we're about to embark on a ?40k type run of games shortly.  The idea is to stick to the W40k universe and setting, but use whatever rules take your fancy.  It is quite an attractive proposition.

Myself, I'm going to attempt to host a few R40K games. Using Rogue Planet, which I've been playing for almost a year now, I've slowly Rogueified W40k factions and it has been feeling great.  Rogue Planet is definitely geared for lower unit counts - seems to work best for me with 3-6 independent Units per side - and consistently delivers the right combination of tension, tactics and 'Oh, for @#$%#% you've got to be kidding me' blind luck that makes for memorable gaming.  I've taught a few of my novice wargaming mates the same and they've quickly 'gotten it'.

I think I've only introduced two of my own house rules, so the system is pretty much good to go.  If you're after some details including pre-gen stats cards for Marines, Orks, Imperial Guard and others, all detailed in my blog https://southernbermanblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/R40k.html.  The next big addition that I've got in mind is Eldar.  Why?  Because I've got a mountain of elf lead that's dying to be painted and played - unfortunately, I've got a rule that I won't stat up any faction until I've pumped out some playable minis!