Astral Conquest (WIP wargame)

[Black Hydra]

Ok I spent quite some time deciding where to post this. While this is certainly a homebrew, it doesn't have anything to with any existing wargame. So if this is in the wrong place, please forgive me. I am by no means trying to say my current project deserves as much recognition as already established games.

I already have fluff and rules (that need playtesting) samples to post and while this wargame probably won't be taking off the ground any time soon (I hope that by at least 4 to 5 years I can start production) having the written stuff and art done ahead of time will greatly help me out.

Also I want the community's opinion as early as possible since I wouldn't want to make a game others won't be interested in. It's incredibly important to communicate with the customer base and I'm hoping that as I post more stuff including art I'll win you guys over.

Side note: the fandex project I have going on over at the 40k general discussion is still ongoing. It might take a while to finish but I'm pulling through with that one.

Astral Conquest: Fluff Primer

Introduction

The setting of Conquest takes place 100,000 years into the future. Humanity in the modern sense does not exist anymore. Over long millennia genetic manipulation, bionic augmentation, and synthetic technologies has fractured the human nation thoroughly. Roughly 10,000 years before the start of the AC timeline, a fleet of humans undertook an enormous exodus away from their homeworld, Earth. Most of humanity had become attached to robotics and began to embrace the idea of leaving behind their human bodies. Naturally only the rich and powerful could do this. The poor and even middle class could not hope to afford such an endeavor. As common systems of society became available only to those with significant bionic implants, the divide became ever wider until the non-augmented were being slowly phased out. In an effort to start over, since much of humanity had already been transformed, a journey was planned to another part of the galaxy. A place where humans as humans could continue to progress and thrive.

Fast track to the present and the New Human Republic is a gleaming jewel of perseverance and innovation. But as with anything in life, nothing is perfect. The NHR is not without internal disagreements and conflicts. From the original 70 billion fugitives bloomed a nation of over 1 trillion humans all strewn throughout Republic space. To further complicate matters, humanity is not alone in the universe. Multiple races of all kinds are striking out into the cold void.

The Races of the Astral Conquest Universe

*The Lopari nation, that has only been space faring for a little under 2,000 years, are descended from modern day canine equivalents. While they lack the sophisticated technology like that of humans, they are fiercer and incredibly loyal to their overall government. What they cannot defeat through martial skill or gun mastery, they defeat through the sheer numbers of their packs. Human relations with them are tenuous at best, since the Lopari view us as natural rivals when it comes to expanding across the galaxy.

Their lives are short (relative to a human lifespan which can reach 170 years at best) and the members of a family always live to further the pack’s goals. A pack can be anything from a family unit to a government body or even a military unit. The pack means almost everything to the Lopari, because even though they are faster than humans, overall they are not much stronger. So they must work together to overcome difficult tasks. The galaxy leaves little room for error, but there is no perfect formula and many packs develop different approaches. Some more violent than others….

*Even more dangerous are the An’torik. A long time ago they fled their homeworld just like humanity did their's. But that’s where the similarities and all possibility for empathy end. They are a race who could never abandon their hunter like traditions. Even when multiple clans and eventually nations developed, the An’torik prided themselves in competitions of strength. By the time they developed technology, grudges and rivalries ran blood deep. Multiple nations wanted control over one another and nuclear war was the final outcome.

With their world on the verge of literally exploding, a much smaller band (compared to the human exodus) flung themselves out into space in much less advanced ships. The An’torik are not about to become extinct just yet, but the harsh lessons they learned out in the galaxy reflects in their cruel technology and fierce determination to never give up.

*Pretorans are an eon old race with incredibly advanced technology. But this advancement came at a huge cost to their species. They are driven with an insatiable need to be as perfect as a living being can be. They ruled out long ago that bionics should be the answer to that question. Through genetics they have conquered far more diseases than humanity has and can live up to 400 years. The Pretorans as a result are left with a lot of time to pursue other endeavors. But each one is different to the other when it comes to the approaches used. While not ruthless like the An’torik or fierce like the Lopari, the Pretorans are methodical and precise. And once they strike on the battlefield, they bring a force to shatter the enemy with.

200,000 years of technological advancement didn’t come peacefully either. Due to their need to be perfect, many wars have been fought over ideas alone. The most important one being “what direction should our race go in?” Some of the more outspoken members of the Pretoran councils took it upon themselves and the nation they represented to “enlighten” their contemporaries to their final solutions. The end result each time was a hard learned lesson throughout 5 great wars. But there is a darker secret buried deep in the genetic code of the Pretorans. One that has created an enemy bent on vengeance….

*And what of the humans left behind all those thousands of years ago? Those who chose to become more machine than human continued on their path towards the technological singularity. After the exodus of the noncompliant humans, the bionic humans decided to fully give up their flesh and uploaded their minds into the “Collective”. That is their name now. They live in cyberspace where they can shape the reality around them to whatever they want. Some pursue “regular” lives without the burden of disease and strife. Their worlds in cyberspace are exactly as they would be in reality. Still there are other minds that live in weird realities, where nothing makes sense and everything imaginable exists. To host these realities, worlds already inhabited have been turned into massive server worlds. Each one can host billions of minds and travel between server worlds is nearly instantaneous, but the amount of power needed is enormous. So all the energy is drawn directly from the sun of the host solar system. They aren’t flesh anymore, so they don’t need the sunlight.

Out in the real world, the Collective uses drone bodies to interact with reality. Not everyone does this as many operations can be safely done from within a server rather than risk mind dispersal (dying). Still most minds would rather supervise their drones in person. Should their body be destroyed, their consciousness is ported to the nearest terminal center. If they are too far away then they will die permanently. But the range of the terminals is incredibly long. Also the porting system has a disconcerting effect on the psyche of the mind. For a moment they don’t fully exist and are aware of it. When they come back, they still remember the feeling. It is as close to death as they can get without actually dying. During a battle, massive server ships will host hundreds of thousands of minds that direct their battle drones either from the ship or personally on the field.

The galaxy has many more races just waiting to show their stuff on the tabletop. As the game progresses more will be added. There already are 2 more races on the backburner with 1 more in the concept stages. Rest and be assured, humanity has their hands full and everyone will have a lot of choices to pick from.

I'll add more fluff for each race soon enough, especially more on the humans along with some concept art for every race. Rules will also be posted soon.

[Black Hydra]

I think before I get into more fluff I'll give you guys a rough outline of the rules. This is because I'm trying to connect the fluff as much as I can to the actual gameplay.

Please remember that I have yet to playtest these rules and that I'm still tidying them up.

The Game Turn

*Player 1 turn
- Player 1 Movement Phase
- Player 1 Battle Phase

*Player 2 turn
- Player 2 Movement Phase
- Player 2 Battle Phase

Before the start of the game, players roll off to see who goes first. Highest outcome wins it. Pre battle prep includes deployment, how much of your force comes in as reinforcements, and how the terrain is going to be set up. More rules will be included but for now this is what has been developed. Battles for the time being will be played out on a 4x6 feet table since it's the most accessible.

Reinforcements are what you don't put on the table from the start. Instead they go off board and can be brought in at any time except for the 1st turn. But they can only come automatically from your starting table edge. Different units and models will have abilities that allow reinforcements to drop anywhere on the table or come in from another board edge but this will be more difficult to achieve. They can even attempt to come from the opponent's table edge, but that is the most difficult feat to pull off.

Terrain shouldn't be light either. Many of the battles fought in the Conquest universe involve military bases or cities being invaded. Though there are also jungle battles and open ground battles. Even so, desert or prairie battlefields should include small hills and battered trenches. The whole point of more terrain is to challenge both players to navigate the field and use it their advantage.

Each player will place terrain for the other player. This is to prevent gunlines from being formed with all the terrain being allocated to provide the most cover. Allowing players to place their terrain also creates an empty space in the middle which becomes a killing ground. It becomes very unfair for short range armies. So players place the terrain for the opponent up to 10" away from the opponent's table edge but also up to 6" away from their own starting table edge.

Movement

Each model for each race has different movement speeds. Humans usually have a 6" movement speed while Lopari have a movement speed of 8". But each race will be balanced in this regard. Lopari have lower armor types with an average fortitude while humans have better armor with average fortitudes. All races will have their standard movement listed in the beginning but any unit that modifies that speed will have the modifier listed in their appropriate entry.

Shooting

Each weapon will have a profile and type. The profile determines what the effective/roll to hit range is. The type is the strength of the weapon but that will be covered later in the to wound section.

The effective range is an auto hit zone. Basically, any unit caught in that range will take a hit automatically. Up to double that range will force the player to roll to hit using the weapon's profile.

At first weapon profiles also included how many shots they have. But in order to give armies separate identities I have chosen to take that out. Each weapon will have the amount of shots included independently of the profile.

Weapon profiles are as follows:
- Assault weapons: effective range of 14" and up to 28" to roll to hit. 3+ to hit.
- Precision weapons: effective range of 18" and up to 36" to roll to hit. 2+ to hit.
- Scatter weapons: effective range of 6" and up to 12" to roll to hit. 5+ to hit.
- Heavy weapons: effective range of 20" and up to 40" to roll to hit. 2+ to hit.
- Sub munitions weapons: effective range of 10" and up to 20" to roll to hit. 4+ to hit.

Additional characteristics may be include in the weapon's profile. These will grant bonuses given the conditions are met.
- Critical hit weapons: Whenever the weapon that has this characteristic rolls a 6 to wound, it is an instant death with no fortitude tests allowed.
- Tank buster weapons: Against tanks, these weapons always replace the no damage results with a damaged result and all previously damage results are destroyed results.

Some special weapons exist that don't fit these profiles such as flamethrowers, chemical weapons, or any other strange alien technology. Those weapons will have rules that fit their style and will be listed in their entries.

Also, in the game there will be modifiers that modify the rolling to hit ratios. Some situations will even force players to roll to hit even though they are in the effective range. The modifiers can lower or raise the hit ratios but they cannot go any lower than a 6+ or higher than 1+ to hit.

More shooting rules include reaction shooting, shooting against vehicles, and a few more. But those will be discussed later.

In this game, hits are allocated rather than wounds. For instance, squad A fires 6 shots and all hit squad B. The controlling player must allocate one hit to every model before allocating any left over hits. The opponent then rolls his/her corresponding fortitude tests.

Alright guys, gotta walk the dog. I'll post up the rest I have so far after I come back.

[Black Hydra]

More rules. I'm really trying to go for different rules when compared to the usual stuff out there but also keeping some familiarity. Cover works differently than in 40k and you don't have to roll to hit always. It can be frustrating to be 3 inches away from the target and miss everything. I think Ork players understand that more than anyone else.

So without further ado, here's more rules.

Cover

Cover works differently in the Galaxy Conquest game than in other wargames. Rather than grant cover saves, each shot takes a -1 modifier. Also the player must roll to hit using the weapon's profile. If at least 25% of a model is covered in any way the modifier has to be used. Only hard cover will force this however.

If some of the unit's models are in cover, only those that are exposed can have wounds allocated among them.

Hard cover prevents shots from going through but soft cover forces a -2 modifier on the shooters. This is because they can't see the opponent's unit but still have a chance to hit them.

Statline of a model

Each model will have a statline that shows what they are capable of doing. The different characteristics are as follows:

- Awareness: this characteristic allows models the chance to spot camouflaged models, make reaction shots, make evasion moves, and so forth. A model has an awareness rating of x out of 12. When rolling to pass these tests, roll 2D6. If failed nothing happens. Some models will be able to use modifiers to affect this stat. A player must use the majority awareness rating of the unit for tests. Unit leaders may take upgrades to allow their awareness to be used instead of the majority.

- Fortitude: while wounding isn't dependent on this stat, resisting the wound is. This stat allows a model to resist the wounds inflicted on them. The test involves one die per wound inflicted. The player must roll equal to or less than the given number. For example if the fortitude of a model is 3 then the player has to roll 3 down.

- Physical rating: this stat determines outcomes in martial assaults. Since this mechanic is still being developed these ratings will be listed with an "X".

- Armor type: armor types are used to determine how many wounds a model takes. It is the quality and strength of the armor compared against the same attributes of a weapon that determines wounding. This is a number from 1 to 6 with armor types 3 to 5 being the most commonly used by infantry.

- Points cost: a points system still has to be developed so this rating will be shown with an "n" for the time being.

Example statline: Human Soldier pts:n awareness:7 fortitude:3 armor type:4 physical rating:X

Units

Units are the components of your force. Anything from squads of infantry to squadrons of vehicles, units are the building blocks of your army. Each unit entry will state what the maximum and minimum number of models per unit will be. While in the future radio systems and even telepathy exist for communication, a unit must maintain some sort of coherency. This is strictly to keep the battlefield organized. And in real life situations squads should be coordinated anyway. The max distance a model can away from another model is half its movement speed.

Wounding by shooting and Fortitude Tests

The type of a weapon has to be compared against the type of armor the model is wearing. The lower the number the higher the quality of the armor or weapon. This to represent how effective weapons and armor are. Better guns have better penetration and cause more damage to flesh. On the other hand, better armor covers up more body and is stronger.

Here's the chart on rolling to wound when shooting:

Weapon type (vertical numbers) vs. Armor type (horizontal numbers)

//1///2///3///4///5///6
1 4+ 3+ 2+ 1+ 1+ 1+
2 5+ 4+ 3+ 2+ 1+ 1+
3 6+ 5+ 4+ 3+ 2+ 1+
4 NA 6+ 5+ 4+ 3+ 2+
5 NA NA 6+ 5+ 4+ 3+
6 NA NA NA 6+ 5+ 4+

There will be almost no weapons that are type 6 and only civilians/high priority targets (which will be included at some point) will have type 6 armor.

There are also blast template weapons. Only one clear plastic blast template is needed. There are 3 rings and one center circle. Depending on the weapon each ring will have a type to determine wounding. Some rings might not even be used.

More stuff to come tomorrow. Reaction shooting is a big thing and I'll cover it in more detail then. If I missed anything for the rules posted today, I'll add that stuff in the next post.

[Black Hydra]

Okay guys, for those of you who have been following, I appreciate it. I really do. There have been some changes since the last post because of playtesting. I figured that posting the rules up was a bit premature so instead I'm putting the updated ones in a pdf format. That way they are all out at once. After I finish playtesting a bit more, the alpha rules will be out. I'll provide the link to the pdf. For now thank you for visiting my humble post and I hope some of you are excited for more.

[Black Hydra]

Development is coming along. The rules are being expanded considerably to include a bunch of stuff. The most important goal I have is to differentiate this game from 40k as much. Which is why I'm changing the way turns and phases work. More on that later.