So whats all this then eh?
Well a number of people on my Bloggy List have been posting up bits and a pieces from Beyond the Gates of Antares (You know who you are!) and it's been tempting me to maybe dip my toe in the Sci-Fi waters once more.
So what is Beyond the Gates of Antares?
Beyond the Gates of Antares invites us to a time when mankind has evolved into new and diverse species: the strangely powerful NuHumans, masters of the Panhuman Concord; the ape-like Pansimians, the greatest warriors in the whole Galactic Spill; and feral Revers primitive Humans driven by a irrepressible lust for adventure and danger. It is a universe where technology and humanity intermix indistinguishably, where human knowledge and endeavour has long since been supplanted by integrated machine intelligence IMTel. Where humans go their technology goes also, protectors, workers, and fighting machines in the form of WarDrones armed with deadly weapons and shielded by energy fields a thousand times more resilient than steel.
Beyond the Gates of Antares is a wargame designed anew for the twenty-first century – a fresh look at the raw mechanics of tabletop wargaming featuring a fluid combat status system and interleaved turn sequence that facilitates continuous play for both sides. Rival forces act and react in a series of triggered actions that quickly draw both sides into simultaneous fire fights and close quarter fighting. The mechanics are designed to enable rapid progress using forces of around fifty or so models a side, including futuristic fighting machines, vehicles and point-defence weaponry as well as human troopers – the game is infinitely scalable to facilitate battles as large as can possibly be imagined and is detailed enough to facilitate skirmish gameplay, too.
Wow that does sound rather interesting, trouble is if I'm honest is the rules.
While it's based on the Bolt Action System (Much like K'47) it uses Decimal Mechanics - based on D10 and D100's which will kind of be a hard sell to my local gaming group that's been fed a solid diet of GW games.
So getting past that problem (If we do) I'm then confronted we the big problem..
What Faction do I choose?
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| Hey Baby! Like what you see? |
So we have 6 Factions to choose from each with their own pros and cons.
Me I couldn't care too much about gameplay style for the moment so it's all down to looks and Fluff.
I've narrowed it down to 2 Factions:
The Boromite Guilds:
The Boromites are an extreme morph amongst panhumans. At some time in the past their ancestors were bio-adapted to live and work upon asteroids with thin atmospheres, low gravity and extreme temperatures. They are able to endure hostile environments more easily than any other human, and are probably the toughest and most unusual looking of all the countless human morphs. They have thick, gnarly hides covered in horny nodules. They originated in the mining colonies of Borom where a rocky asteroid belt extends around the system’s star in lieu of other planets. Today the Boromites have spread through Antarean space and live upon many worlds within the Panhuman Concord, the Isorian Shard, and beyond. They have no permanent settled worlds of their own, but form an itinerant work force with a strong cultural identity and secretive customs based upon their Guilds. They avoid becoming absorbed into the societies they live amongst because they are almost invisible to the nanosphere of IMTel societies such as the Concord and Isorians. They remain almost entirely apart from regular society, a reclusive, insular and self-governing sub-culture wherever they happen to be.
Or
The Ghar Empire:
The Ghar live only for battle and conquest, expending their entire energies on war and enslaving other human species they defeat. This savage race is descended from genetically adapted slave soldiers, though when or why they were created is a mystery. The Ghar themselves have little interest in such matters. They rule over a sizeable empire that borders against the Agoryn Prosperate, with whom they have been at war for many centuries. Neither the Panhuman Concord nor Isorian Shard have ever taken much interest in the Ghar, possibly because Ghar culture is relatively primitive. Ghar worlds are heavily shielded against nano-based technologies. The Ghar themselves are repulsive creatures with hunched torsos, bulging guts and what look to be spindly arms and bow legs – but they are rarely seen out of their huge, armoured battle suits. Though unattractive, their appearance belies a brutish strength and tremendous resilience to damage.
So what do you lot think?
Have you played BtGoA? What Faction do you prefer?
Plus does anyone have any for sale to the man on a budget?
Anyway Ta Ta for now!