"Anyone use their 40K figures for Tomorrow's War?" Topic

I am hoping to get Tomorrow's War as a Birthday present in February. I think the engine for the Ambush Alley game system is one of the best to come down the pike for Modern and Science Fiction combat. While most of the games I have played in, whether Ambush Alley (in Iraq), Ambush Valley (Vietnam), have all been 20mm, and all the games I have played so far of Tomorrow's War and Force on Force have been 15mm, I am curious to see if the game will scale up for 30mm/28mm gaming. Actually I am curious if Force on Force and the other Ambush Alley games will work with 28mm.

Anyone tried this yet for any of the above mentioned periods/genres? What were the pros and cons?

Thanks,

Kim

YES! It was awesome! Space Marines in full on power armor versus HORDES of Orks! I had a blast – the whole thing was fun and funny as the game progressed! I think the Orks killed some 12 Space Marines out of the starting 15, but they got 5 drop-in troops from a special event card. The Orks lost over 250 from the continuously assaulting horde – including a vehicle! Great fun.

Jovian1,

It sounds like your experience was a lot more like the 40K fluff and Black Library books where Space Marines are truly awesome with a single squad killing hundreds of lesser foes than what GW's own system provides. I'm currently reading "Brothers of the Snake" by Dan Abnett and keep thinking how different his writing is from how WH40K plays. I have not played WH40K since the late 80's or early 90's, but it never had the right feel for marines. Having played a few games by Ambush Alley / Force on Force with elite troops and armor, It gives a much better feel for the differences between elite units, common grunts and green/militia troops than anything else I have played.

Glad to hear your results were similar to mine and just as positive.

Jeff

"I have not played WH40K since the late 80's or early 90's, but it never had the right feel for marines. "

It still doesn't.

My group played Starship Troopers/Battlefield Evo with Marines/Imperial Guard against Arachnids and it felt about right. Marines started with 29 marines, 5 terminators and a dreadnought. The Imperial guard only had 2 squads and an LT for 21 men total. We kept recycling warrior bugs, so by the end about 400+ bugs had been squashed, including two tankers(One had been killed in Melee by five marines. We imagined it as them walking up, taking out their knives and stabbing it to death, a truly funny image.) and the marines had only suffered 7 dead, but 11 wounded including two of the termies. Imperial guard fared about the same with 8 dead and no wounded to speak of, but they did start a bayonet charge backed up by three Space Wolves and an Ultramarine to take out some bugholes. :D

Would definitely like to try it with Tomorrow's War though. I just need to wrap my head around the system. Some parts of the book seem a little vaguely written to me, or offer too wordy of an explanation on how a particular bit works.

Sounds like a positive conversion then. If I may, here is the idea I have in mind for a future convention game wryly named "Better Dead than Red!"

I have some extras laying around of the classic plastic Space Marines and a ton of the Space Orks from the latest boxed starter set of 40K. I am currently painting Space Marines in the colors used for Allied tanks in WW II with the star in the circle on the left shoulder pad and the American Flag on the right shoulder using FOW transfers. (I'll post pictures later) Anyway the idea is that this is an alt universe, post WW II, the US has developed powered armor in the 1950's. The Soviets on the other hand made advances in genetic manipulation; however, with adverse effects.Hence they have mutated a number of their troops into beastial super soldiers, i.e., Orks. Throw a bit of post apocalyptic background and a battle in the ruins of Berlin and you have my game. The Soviet Orks, of course, have red skin, not green. How else can they be the red menace after all? I was also going to get some 1/48th scale period tanks such as a KV-1B, a Pershing, or Sherman M4A3E2. plus a couple of other period vehicles thrown in for looks.

The game would pit a small force (say about 20 or less with some AT support) of elite American Power Armored infantry against the Red Tide of Soviet Orks. The scenario revolves around the Americans holding an objective to delay the Soviets long enough for critical elements to be deployed. Of course, there would be a good deal of tongue and cheek to the game. I thought trying to run such a game using 40K just would not work. However, I think the Tomorrow's war system would be an excellent alternative and make for a fast dynamic game that could accommodate at least six players. Plus it would be a hoot!

I think the main thing to remember is that when playing with 40K miniatures is to forget the rules for them, and play them as the back ground fluff describes them. For all its faults 40K rules are quiet deep in terms of different weapons with each army having special weapons and rules for them. Other rules systems, TM in this case doesn't support that level of detail but gives great playable games.

Yes, and like Jovian1 we had an awesome time – often just 8 marines taking on a horde of Orks – fits the 40k fluff really well.

These rules, or rather the original Ambush Alley rules are what got this hardcore historical gamer into Scifi!

We (my kids and I) regularly play 28mm Ambush Alley size games on our 3'x3' gaming table and have a blast. I also play solo and enjoy the rules immensely. Many of the games I play are colonial North West Frontier skirmishes using very slightly adapted AA rules.

I feel that the keys to any good game (but especially when playing 28mm's on a 3'x3' area) are scenario design and terrain layout and with Ambush Alley Games Rules you get both aplenty. We often port modern scenarios into colonial or scifi periods with little or no adaptation needed.

Recommended, highly recommended.

I always felt the old marines were fun…. I never felt they were SUPPOSED to be unstoppable killing machines, just an elite unit. Nowadays they're hyped as unstoppable killing machines, and ARE more powerful than old school marines, but they still feel more or less like grunts.

I bet AA would work well in 28 though I haven't played it at that scale.

My group plays in 28mm, closer to what is in the rulebook than using 40k figures. I think we will start branching into more exotic units as we become familiar with the rules

I play withPig Iron System Troopers, my usual opponent has played with Imperial Guard or Chaos Marines up to now.
I might try with IG Stormtroopers and Battle Sisters next time.

What kind of stat lines are people using to represent 40K factions in Tomorrow's war? How are those strange exotic troop types determined, i am thinking of warp spiders at the moment.

There has been some discussion of this on the AA message boards, you should have a look there.

TW board:
link

40k topic:
link

Another 40k topic:
link

No need to worry about "scaling up" for 28mm. TW supports 15mm and 28mm equally well and both sizes of minaitures are featured in the book's many beautiful miniature pictures.

We've not used 40k figures yet, but we use 28's and we've had a fine time using figures from Reaper, Pig Iron, Warmachine, VOR and others.

Cheers Sumo Boy

Great information Sumo Boy. I will need to join the forum.

The AA Forum is excellent – some great support there.

And I've used all manner of 28mm stuff, GW included, and Copplestone, and Old Crow…

The only thing you *might* want to do for 28mm Tomorrow's War is to double the shooting ranges.

It is worth mentioning that TW is very much a game where troop quality matters far more than what they're armed with.

Oh, and d12s should be extremely rare or massively outnumbered. Or both.

I've played a few games with 28mm figures and did not double all the measurements, and it worked out just fine. YMMV of course.