Grimdark Future Game with 15mm Space Marines!

A couple weeks back I was fortunate enough to be in Toronto for work, and got to drop in on Conscript Greg for a delicious dinner and a game. Greg had planned a very cool 15mm 40K game using the "Grimdark Future One-Page Rules" and I'd brought along the 15mm Blood Drinkers Space Marines I'd painted in the most recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. So for both his Sons of Horus and my Space Marines, this was their first tabletop outing. LET'S GOOOOO!!!

Greg had set up the three-objective scenario described in the OPR Grimdark Future ruleset. The objectives were pretty evenly spaced down the middle of the table, with the Blood Drinkers coming on from the left long edge and the Sons of Horus from the right. Greg had picked up some really cool new terrain when we were at Meeplemart earlier that day - some prepainted scale-agnostic desert stuff from GF9. It looked just as good with the 15mm Marines as it will with 28mm models! 

The forces were pretty evenly matched - I had three Rhinos (each with a 10-man tac squad in it) and a Land Raider with the command squad and a couple extra Marines. Greg had two Rhinos full of Marines and two Land Raiders ditto (one of them was actually a Spartan model standing in). My cunning plan was to leave the rightmost objective to Greg and try and take the left and centre ones. Above you can see the objective just behind my Rhino.

                                        

The Marines deployed from the Rhino just in front of the objective and awaited contact with the Sons of Horus.

This happened quite quickly as the Sons rocked up and with the help of the Land Raider, wiped out most of the squad. 

The battle in the centre turned into a general fracas with my Land Raider and many Sons of Horus assets becoming engaged. Greg had already grabbed the rightmost objective and the scenario rules dictated that once an objective is obtained, it stays under control until the enemy grabs it. This allowed troops to roll over objectives and not have to worry about leaving a unit behind to hold it, as long as the enemy couldn't reach it themselves.

Here's a good view of the centre. Lots of combat and death here! But keep in mind that the objective itself is behind the Blood Drinkers Rhino at top left...

Endgame in the centre. Unfortunately for the Sons of Horus they just couldn't wipe out the Blood Drinkers and get to the objective. The centre holds for the sons of Sanguinius.

Meanwhile over on the Blood Drinkers' left, a Rhino got blown up by Greg's Land Raider. The passengers bailed out and started movement towards the objective on the hill, just visible at top middle.

The other Blood Drinkers Rhino and missile launcher/meltagun wielding Marines managed to take out the Sons' Land Raider and caused a bailout. The Marines from the destroyed Rhino at bottom started to move towards the objective.

The command squad moved up to intercept the Marines moving toward the objective, but were defeated by the Blood Drinkers.

So that was basically the game, a Blood Drinkers victory, two objectives to one. I quite liked the ruleset and the game fairly rocketed along, lots of stuff died quickly, including the vehicles. Opinions may differ on how those are treated, in the rules as written even bolter fire can chip away at Rhinos and Land Raiders. I don't mind that, because bolters are supposed to fire mass-reactive explosive shells and there's no reason why vehicles would be totally immune to those. But it's something to keep in mind if you have a strong feeling the other way.

My thanks to Greg for setting up the game and for a great visit. It was fun to try out the Grimdark one-page rules and to get our 15mm Space Marines out for their first games!