"Space Marine Operations" or Warhammer 40,000: Power Fantasy

[Atrus]

Recently came across the White Dwarf rules of Space Marine Operations.  For those like me that live under a rock, this particular rule set is inspired by the Space Marine 2 video game.  In this tabletop version, you select 3 marines from 6 different class of fighter and throw them into Objective focused missions against waves of Tyranids and hopefully not die.

 

The pdf of the rules was released on the White Dwarf website during Grotmas.  I've supplied the link to the download page here if you're interested.

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/downloads/white-dwarf/

 

I'm curious as to what other peoples experiences with this rule set has been?

For myself and a friend I've introduced it to, it simply has been the most fun we've had with our 40k models in years.

After I'd had a few games and wrapped my head around the rules, I've found it to be quick and engaging and surprisingly strategic.  Most importantly: fun.

 

My mate and I are not space marine players however.  So we've used models we have on hand to play the heroes.  He his mixture of scratch built models from Necromunda and Kill Team; me my Sisters of Battle.

I'm loving the way the stat cards for the characters work.  They're written open- no specific weapons or the like.  Just Shoot and Mellee and an equipment that does a thing.  So you're free to model whatever you like as long as it fits.  So i get to field my Heavy flamer sister as the Heavy, Seraphim Superior as the Assault and Greyfax as the Vanguard (yeah, her crossbow is totally a grapnel launcher).  I get to play out the power fantasy of the girls kicking butt.  That's something everyone can do.

 

You can swap out the marines to be whatever you play and play out the power fantasy.  Let's face it, we love our armies and we all know the lore is written so everyone is awesome and curb stomps little gribblies every Tuesday.

 

Then the same can be said for the Tyranids you fight.

I also play Necrons, so I've gone and found models in my collection that can match the Tyranid cards and now can fight against them now (i houserule that each enemy square regerates a wound every turn just for that little necron flavour).

 

So what are your experiences with this?

Are you only hearing about this now?  

[NTaW]

I've played hundreds of hours worth of Operations in SM2, and love seeing it on the tabletop. I have yet to try since I don't have Tyranid models, but proxying Necrons is very possible! I guess since it's very open worded I could pretty easily play this reskinned with Xenomorph and Colonial Marine models (or even Predators....hmmm....). I think there's also more content for Operations in next month's White Dwarf that wasn't included in the Grotsmas release.

 

Good to hear that you're having fun with it. I'll have to set something up and give it a try soon! Hopefully more frater pop in with their experiences.

[Atrus]

A bit of Alien vs Predator universe eh?  Hey, if it works...

 

I ended up writing up my own mission based on the Terminus operation.

Undoubtedly White Dwarf will release their official version one day, but for now this is my take on it.

 

TERMINUS:

 

Quote

Spawning Enemies:

 

Initial Deployment: Begin the game with a Majoris Enemy Group on Objective Omega and 1 Minoris Enemy Group on each Primary Spawn.

Until the Heirophant takes its first wound, only Minoris Enemies will Spawn.

 

When spawning Enemies, roll on the table for each Primary Spawn to determine what Enemy Group spawns.

 

When Objective Alpha, Beta or Gamma are active, roll on the table for the Primary and Secondary spawns for that Objective to determine what Enemies Spawn.

 

1-3 Minoris

4-5 Majoris

6 Extremis

 

Enemy Move Targets:

Endless Assault: Each time an Enemy Group

activates, its Move Target is the closest Space Marine

(excluding downed ones).

 

Mission Rules:

Weapons Terminal: Objective Omega is the weapons terminal used to target the Heirophant. A Space Marine in the objective square may use a Mission Action to use the terminal to attack the Heirophant. 

When doing this action, roll three D6. For every 4+, the Heirophant loses 1 wound.

The Heirophant starts the game with 10 wounds.

 

Generator Failure: Each time after the weapons terminal has been used to fire on the Heirphant, roll one D6 to see if the fortress weapons lose power.

The first time this is rolled, the generators will fail on a 6+. The next time will be on a 5+, then 4+, then 3+, then 2+, then automatic failure. This count is reset when a generator is restarted.

 

Restart Generator: When the fortress generators fail, randomly determine if Objective Alpha, Beta or Gamma is the objective target.

A Space Marine in the objective square may perform a Mission Action to restart the generator. It will require 2 actions to restart the generator.

Once the generator is restarted, the weapons terminal may be used to attack the Heirophant. 

 

Return Fire: After the Heirophant loses its first wound, in the Refresh Phase, randomly determine 2 Space marines to be the target of its attacks. Place a marker on the square these space marine are in. Even though the Heirophant is not on the table, roll for its activation wave as you would any other enemy. During that waves activation, the return fire from the Heirophant will land. The marked squares and the squares adjacent to it will be filled with potent acid (the acid will not pass through walls). This acid will remain in those squares through this turn and finally disappear at the end of the next turns activation phase.

Repeat this process in the next turn until the game ends.

(For clarification:  Turn X- acid lands.  Turn Y- still burning.  Turn Z- New acid lands).

 

Moving into an acid filled square or performing an action while in one will inflict one damage to the space marine.

Space marines in affected squares when the acid first lands will take one damage.

 

Stimm Packs: At the start of each turn, roll one D6

and consult the table below to determine the Priority Wave Target for the turn:

1-3 Minoris

4-5 Majoris

6 Extremis

Each time an Enemy Group with a threat level matching that of the turn’s Priority Wave Target is destroyed, select one injured Space Marine. That Space Marine is no longer injured.

 

Ending:

Threat Takedown: When the Heirophant Enemy is 

destroyed:

■ If no Space Marines are downed or injured, the 

Space Marines achieve a major victory.

■ Otherwise, the Space Marines achieve a minor 

victory.
 

 

 

Recycled a number of rules from official missions.

Some piccies of my set up below.

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HJD2YDLQZ/

wide shot

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EbYVrNSat/

Top down set up 

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17t8SztcMo/

Filthy zenos

 

Gave it a test run.  I had fun, got a bit nail bite, especially when the guns conked out after the second salvo.

My Assault sacrificed herself to restart a generator; melting away in acid as she got it running and then finished off by a couple hormagaunts.

MVP was the bulwark that managed to hold down a corridor and bottle neck the nids while attracting most the aggro. 

Needs more play testing I'm sure, but it was a fun first go.

Edited January 13 by Atrus

[NTaW]

I saw there was new Operations missions in WD 520 so I checked it out, and it's got 4 missions and datacards for Thousand Son adversaries. Lots of cool stuff! At this point, this minigame has enough rules to be a standalone release if GW wanted to push it.

 

Oh, I just looked at next week's releases and see more content in next month's issue for Operations.

 

Quote

New rules for Warhammer Quest: Darkwater send four Lumineth champions into the corrupted Jade Abbey to purge Nurgle’s taint, while the Space Marine Operations minigame continues with new missions, enemies, and options for your personalised squad.

 

Edited 11 hours ago by NTaW