Hello again internet. It's been quite some time since I've done much of anything hobby related (let alone post on here!), but I'm feeling the urge to get back into the swing of things with both some table-top 40k and the wonderful rpg pictured above.
I recently stumbled across Fantasy Flight Games' line up of 40k RPG's and was instantly drawn in by the concept. I mean, I love 40k and I love D&D, so how could a mix of both not be good? I proceeded to look over their games and picked out Dark Heresy and Only War as the two likely candidates to play. Then I found out that Dark Heresy was being re-released and was currently in beta... so there wasn't much reason to buy the old books. After some more digging, I learned that Only War is Fantasy Flight's newest game on the 40k front. I love guardsmen, so I decided to do some more digging to learn about how the system works.
I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the smoothness and simplicity of (most of) the system. Almost everything struck me as streamlined and geared towards a fast and gritty playing experience, but there were a couple of things that I at least need to read more about before I could speak about their complexity. Vehicles, the logistics system (how gear is acquired by players), and psyker abilities are three such things. I may post again later on those topics once I have some games under my belt.
There are rules to accommodate many different types of play-styles within the rulebook. From a small, stealthy team, to kilometer wide battlefronts, to Leman Russ squadrons: this book has got you covered. It also comes stock with the rules for many of the popular regiments in addition to rules for making your own.
If I had one complaint about the system, it would be that the enemies lack a "challenge rating" to make building encounters easier for new GM's.
I have yet to play a game yet, but am planning on running a test-game tomorrow with a premade mission-set called Eleventh Hour. I read through it a couple days ago to prepare and was amazed at the quality of the material. The game-style is very far removed from D&D's dungeons, allowing much greater choices to the players on how to confront problems or get where they are going. Obviously, this puts more strain on the GM, but the greater simplicity of Only War's system appear to remove quite a bit of the stress of making things up as you go. One such change is that there are no pre-assigned "difficulty checks." Instead, you make the call on the difficulty when the player goes to do something. Is it happening in the middle of combat? Subtract ten from their skill for the purpose of the test. Is the character being helped? Add ten to their skill for the purpose of the test.
Overall, I'm really looking forward to giving it a try.
On the miniatures side of things, I've almost bought enough Cadian minatures to get my regiment going. I'm a single platoon command squad short! I've still got a ton of painting to do on the guardsmen, but I'm excited to get them on the table. I'd like to pick up a single valkyrie and a couple basilisk tanks, but those can wait for a while: especially with the rumored release of both Space Marines and Orks right around the corner! So excited!
Also, in case anyone was wondering, my Warhound Titan is pretty much complete. I still need to find some gratings to cover the engines with (it didn't come with them and I didn't order from Forgeworld, so no luck there) and haven't had any luck getting anything useful locally. The miniature was an absolute blast to paint and worth every dollar I spent on it.
Well.. I think that's it for this update. Still haven't figured out a way to take decent pictures of my miniatures, so no pictures yet.. I really need to invest in some quality lighting and a photobox of some sort.
Thanks for reading!
-Symmacus
P.S.- A few more 40k Book Reviews should be happening within a couple months as I usually buy books to read during the time between my classes.
