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| I'll be... you know the drill. |
Naturally many like minded individuals would love to play wargames dealing with such situations; however, it strikes me that unlike other wargaming genre and themes, there's a distinct lack of anything that really hits the spot for the breadth of Inquisitorial activities. I've come to the opinion that the system should be matched to the action. For example:
- Up against your nemesis, trying to track down an arcane artefact? Pulp Alley would likely fit the bill.
- Attempting to uncover a heretic plot, rooted in a hive city? Something like The Department could work nicely.
- Inquisitors are forever getting into scrapes where they're outnumbered and outgunned and are required to escape before being overwhelmed. I suspect Hardwired could work well for such a game.
Some of the defining things when it comes to Inquisitor-type scenarios are they're typically small scale affairs, often asymmetrical and whilst bloodshed is far from uncommon, often there's some objective or goals in play that drive and direct the action.
With the above in mind, I thought I'd try my hand at some games with an Inquisitor bent (not bent Inquisitor). Over the course of the next 50-years, I'll write up some scenarios, play some games and publish some after the battle reports (ABRs). Who knows, whilst doing so, I may just find the perfect system? Probably not, but it's sure to be a bit of fun all the same.
The first such game I'll try will be a Inquisitorial version of the woefully underappreciated Terminator Genisys The Miniature Wargame or TGTMW. So how might Terminator 'work' as a system for an Inquisitor-type scenario?
Many an Inquisitor-related novel has the Inquisitor, often with a retinue of hand-picked specialists, go head-to-head with beings of awesome power. The whole Terminator franchise takes the same to a whole other level, keeping the viewer glued to their seat whilst a killer robot either tracks down the hero or the hero attempts to stop the robot from destroying its intended target.
The Terminator game has some very cool mechanics that tie in perfectly with a Inquisitor-take on such antics. Off the top of my head:
- The Terminators in the game are stoppable, just bloody tough and dangerous. To take one out, you need to get close, but if you get close, well you'd had better hope that Arnie-looking thing is rebooting else you're as good as dead.
- The mechanics for hits, death etc are particularly clever - the Reeling mechanism means even if you survive a hit, you're left out of the action for a time. Humans being fragile things, are likely to die or be left reeling, whilst the Terminators hardly have to worry at all.
- When Reeling, you're really vulnerable to an attack - its the only sure fire way of bring down a Terminator i.e. overwhelm it with enough firepower that you leave it reeling (you're unlikely to kill it outright) and whilst it's dazed, run in a finish it off with an Hasta la Vista, Baby! action - basically a powered-up attack on account the the target can't effectively defend.
Movement, line-of-site and skill check/resolution are all helped by the use of measurement templates and speaking of skills, each Unit only has about 4 attributes, complemented by various weapons and traits. I recall the game playing very fast and the scenarios, units and equipment included in the rulebook being quite varied. I even made and played a Predator version of the game almost two years ago now.
So watch this space. I'll do all the hard yards: write up the stats, describe the system, paint the miniatures, makes some game cards, play the game, take photos and publish it here. I've even got a scenario in mind... it should be some fun. If you've got a suggestion in regard to another system I might look at trialing, please let me know about it and why - I'm all ears.