Gelida 40k

We Embark on an Adventure!

Doctor Mathias's Winter Warriors

Every year or so, it seems that the trendsetters in the Inquisitor28 community cobble together an event, with a setting and a system and a whole lot of chutzpah. They've done Mare Solum, a waterworld with sci-fi whalers, Tor Meggido, a red wasteland with towers that march across its surface, and this year we're introduced to Gelida.

Magos Buer's Vision of the Vast

Word has it that Gelida is a feudal ice world on the brink of imperial space. It's been over half a millennium since the people of this planet have had contact with anyone off world, and many regard the histories beyond recent memory as legends or half remembered nightmares. All they do know is that resources are scarce, and time is running out for the sequestered communities starving in the shadows of the frozen world. The surface is terribly cold, and the only folk who go outside are scouts who scavenge the surface looking for supplies to keep their clans going for just another week, just another day, holding out hope that if they can last long enough that someone will come and save them from this desolate land.

Ana Polanscak Devles into the Drear

My brother Thomas visited me this weekend, and with this swirling in my head, I proposed that we take his time in Boston and make our own excursion out into those icy wastes. We set out to do a 24 hour build-and-bash, and the following is what came of it.

The Warbands

This old crate is the Snow Crab, a woodpaneled mecha who scuttles on eight stubby legs for optimal balance. Its piloted by Bian the Axe, a topsider of ten years now ready to train his replacement for the duty of scavenging for the tribe. The apprentice and their brother join him in this expedition, one to learn what must be done, and the other to guard their hope for the future.

Thomas's warband consisted of some menacing tech thieves, who are marauding across the icy wastes in search of scraps and baubles to perpetuate their cruel existence.

We used parts from GW, Maelstrom's Edge, Black Tree Designs, Northstar Miniatures, and Ramshackle Games, as well as a ton of popsicle sticks and recycling. While we didn't have time to paint any of it, we got pretty much everything else done, and so after about 12 hours of crafting and building, we started throwing dice at each other.

Scenario One - Supply Run

We began this game with each of our warbands throwing themselves into rummaging through ruins to find salvage for their salvation. Some noteworthy moments included a Squall blowing all the objectives across the board during my alpha strike objective snatch, and my pilot's apprentice taking down a wandering snow beast, who'd been looking to make my pilot it's lunchmeat.

Scenario Two - Gate Crash

Thomas's warband had spotted an old warpgate somewhere in the midst of another ruin, and as the storm worsened, he sought to grab its panels and wires to replenish the supply at his hive. Knowing that would render the gate impossible to use later, my team tried to stop him from operating his impromptu chop shop. Our Mechas finally did battle with one another, and after a few turns of smashing and slashing, my Snow Crab was helpless to stop his crew from ruining the gate.

Scenario Three - Bunker Down

The weather turned quickly on the surface, and simultaneously the pilots realized they wouldn't have time to make it back to base before the storm front hit. Not far from the warpgate there'd been a small bunker crews would ride out the storms in, so the two warbands scuffled for squatting rights. However fate took a different turn, as a great beast wandered in from the wastes, killing the tech priest from Thomas's crew and the pilot from mine. Putting aside our animosity, we decided that the only way to escape certain death was to team up, and together our mechas overpowered that gargantuan creature. 

With the pilot dead, the torch was passed to the apprentice, and the tribe's hope and preservation find themselves in worthy hands. Huzzah!

Wrap Up

Three matches of full throttle action! Ultimately, neither crew gained ground with the score being 1/1/1, but the narrative beets were pretty satisfying. I think the system was lightweight enough that we were able to enjoy those moments, it being a stripped down version of 8e 40k, with turn sequencing like AOS, and knocked down actions like old school Necromunda. Perhaps for future ventures though, I'd like to give the characters more tools, weapons, and skills, since at 3-4 models per side you'll find yourself rolling the same actions for whole turns in a row, leading one to think that there could be a smidge more tactical depth to what we were doing.

A thing I did find success with however were some eventt/weather cards I cooked up pregame, which were flipped at the beginning of each battleround and made the turns have special rules or buffs to spice them up. For next time we've talked about using Nic Evans' Planet 28 or Ana Polanscak's Fabula or Wasteman for our systems, but this could also work with a bit more cooking.  On that note however, it looks like we might tackle Tor Meggido next, so maybe it'll be time to actually learn the rules to Gorkamorka?!

And Another Thing

While Thomas and I were crafting, I invited my roommate Isaac to hang and cobble together their own figures. The results were pretty nifty, so I included them here as a treat. Thanks for reading!