Rules: The Starting Phase (Ver. 0.1)

Here are the Alpha-Test rules for the Starting Phase. Let me know if you see any issues.

The Imperial Republic In Detail

Council of Judges, Spyders

O_N here! Today we're staring into the inner workings of the Imperial Republic of Centaurus.

Test It Real Good

Bucking Bronco, Frank Wootton

CaulynDarr here. I thought I'd take a break from contemplating the finer points of alien bug reproduction to discus testing.

Slight Name Change: Grün --> Grüin

Alien Muthfucka, Inverted Chalupa

SandWyrm here. I'm making a slight name change for our aliens in green. 'Grün' is just the German word for green. 'Grüin' can be trademarked and has some extra meaning as well. :)

The Church Of Terra: Their Symbol

Sandwyrm here. I've just completed this symbol/logo for the Church of Terra. Enjoy!

More About The Bugs: Part 2

Be Smart And Help Save Our Bees, Larry Wright

Here's the 2nd part of Aeria Gloriss's thoughts on the bugs.

Org Chart: The Imperial Republic

Sandwyrm here. O_N and I have been working on filling out more of the fluff for the Human Empire Republic. He'll be posting his detailed descriptions of the various power structures within the Republic very soon, but I thought that I'd share the nice Organization chart that I just finished.

Contest: Name The Bugs!

Antz, Dreamworks Animation

Sandwyrm here. We need a better name for the Bugs. Something snappy and cool. Go for it!

More About The Bugs: Part 1

Sandwyrm here. Aeria Gloriss has been taking a crack at filling out the history and behavior of our Bug faction. Click on in and have a look, it's pretty cool!

So What Are You Thinking?

Cicero Denounces Catiline, Cesare Maccari

SandWyrm here. Things are busy behind the scenes here at the M42 Project. We've got teams working on Bug Fluff, Detailed Political Structures for the Human Republic, Action Phase Mathematics, and whatnot. I'm also working on formalizing more rules. But... well, I don't have anything ready to post today. So how about this? You can talk about anything you like in the comments to this post. Ideas... Questions... Criticisms... anything. Tell us what you're thinking about. I'll be sure and read it all.

Rules: The Turn Sequence (Ver. 0.1)

Here's the final Alpha-Test rules for the Turn Sequence. Let me know if you see any problems. The next rules post will formalize the Action Phase structure. Then movement, then shooting.

Behold: The Face Of The Prophet

Sandwyrm here. So... I was thinking that I ought to do a drawing or something of the Prophet, as he's such an important part of our fluff. But then I thought "Hey! I don't have to! I've already sculpted his face in detail!"

Reader Mail: Vehicle Damage In M42

The Postman, Vincent Van Gogh

SandWyrm here. OldDryAsDust sent me an interesting email about his thoughts on Vehicle Damage in M42. I think it's worth discussing.

Hey! We're Moving Right Along!

The Librarian, Giuseppe Arcimboldo

SandWyrm here. I've gone through all of our posts to-date and organized links to the most important ones at right. That should make it easier to keep track of what's current and what isn't. This should also make it easier for folks who are interested in the project to get up to speed on what we're doing and how the game is supposed to work. Let me know what you think of the organization.

Looking through it all, I see a couple of things that need to be updated. But my overall impression is "Wow! We're really moving right along, aren't we?". Great job everyone!

Concept: New Turn Structure

Spinning Out Of The Turn, Jean Francois Paris

SandWyrm here. With the new movement and shooting discussions we've had, I think that a new turn structure is in order. So I'm updating my previous post on it. Mostly to simplify it to the minimum amount of info that we need for our initial testing.

Concept: Unit Actions And Suppression

On the No-name Height, B. Kohal

Sandwyrm here. Ok, so we are moving towards new movement and shooting mechanics that just scream for tearing up our current turn structure and replacing it with a system where all of a unit's actions are done at once. Like Warmachine does (or so I hear). So here's what I'm thinking of doing.

Herding Cats

CaulynDarr here.  This is my first time posting as a member of the project.  You may have seen me making a general nuisance of myself in the comments these last few weeks.  I'm an Indianapolis local and met Sandwyrm though my various 40K misadventures.  I've also tried my hand at game design a few times.

Fluff For The Fluff God: Part I

Sandwyrm here. I think that we can talk about Church of Terra all day, but you'll never really understand what the Church and the Prophets are like unless someone actually writes a proper story about them. Because it's the details of a story, and not a bunch of high-level descriptions, that will suck you in and make you understand the universe we're creating. So... here's that story. Enjoy!

Concept: Wound Allocation With Templates

Battle Banner, V. Safonov

Sandwyrm here. I'll be spending most of the day finishing up some fluff for the game, but I wanted to kick out a crazy idea that I have for wound allocation and see what folks think of it as a mechanic.

Concept: Terrain/Enemy Affects Command Radius

Jungle Column, Samuel B. Alexander

Sandwyrm here. So far, we've said that you just measure the model and then place the rest of the unit within the leader's Command Radius. But this allowed high-Ld units to sandwich single-file lines of enemy infantry. So we instituted model coherency to fix that. But I don't like model coherency as then you're back to measuring everyone instead of placing a few at the extremes of the CR and filling the rest in however you like. So... how about this idea instead? Which also allows a leader's CR to interact interestingly with terrain.

Testing: Grün Hunting Knights

Orc, Aleksi Briclot

Sandwyrm here. Time to see how easy it is for the Grün to hunt Knights.

Testing: Knights On The Hunt

Long Distance Hunters, Carl Brenders

Sandwyrm here. With another series of pictures from my movement testing. I was wondering how long it would take for a small unit of Knights to catch an Imperial Army squad. But I found a few interesting things along the way that really have me enthused about this method of movement.

Movement: Sandwich Testing

March The Motherlands Lament, Konstantin Vasiliev

Sandwyrm here. Caulyndarr and I got together today and pushed some models around a table to see if we could break the movement system. Our results were interesting.

Balance: General Squad Ratios Between Factions

The County Election, George Caleb Bingham, 1851

Sandwyrm here. The results of the poll are in, and they're both reassuring and a bit surprising.

Movement: Take 2

M. Samsonov. Battle Reconnaissance Group

SandWyrm here. Time to take a another crack at those overly complicated movement rules. :)

The Imperial Church: Part II

The Space Cardinal

O_N here! Today we continue our dive into the Church of Terra Ascendant. Today on the menu: the beliefs and worship structure of the Church.

What's Our Primary Selling Point?

A Pedlar selling Spectacles Outside A Cottage, Jan Steen

Howdy! Sandwyrm here. Caulyndarr asked me the other day what our game's primary selling point is. After thinking about it carefully, I finally have an answer.

Shooting: Part I - The Overview

SandWyrm here. Let's discuss shooting at a high level before we dive into the fine details.

Let's Get Everyone's Opinion!

Public Opinion, George ONeil

SandWyrm here. There seems to be some difference between what I consider the ideal Regular Army vs. Star Knight ratio to be in a fair fight and what's appealing to others. So let's do some polling to determine what the 'ideal' range for most folks would be. That can then inform our design decisions.

Poll at top right. All comments welcome in this post.

The Imperial Church: Part I

The Heirophant

O_N here with another world-building article. Today, we’re going to take our first in-depth look at the heart of the Empire: the Church of Terra Ascendant.

Stuff That Sucks In Flames Of War

The Burning Of The White House, Tom Freeman, 1814

SandWyrm here. Ok, I've been getting a lot of feedback that indicates I'm perceived as too much of a Flames of War fanboy. Probably because I tend to criticize 40K more often, since it's less professionally produced. So to show that I'm not uncritical,  I'll go through Battlefront's system and call out the stuff I DON'T like about the game. Some of this will be things I like in the context of WWII, but which I just don't think will work in our game.

Perspective: This Is What I'm Talking About

Untitled, Julian Beever

I lot of folks are probably a little scared now, because I'm suggesting all sorts of things that don't currently have much, if any, any relation to 40K-as-we-know-it. Some of it has a basis in how Flames of War works, but 95+% of you aren't going to have the same experience with that game that I do. So let me show you a 'moment' from Flames that epitomizes the promise that I see in adopting some of Battlefront's ideas and improving on them.

Standard Shooting Modifiers

Wild Duck Shooting, William T. Ranney

SandWyrm here. Whew! Burned a whole day today downgrading the OS on my Macbook, but OSX Lion is a real stinker, so it had to be done. I guess every company has their Vista sooner or later. :)

Anyhow, I'm working on the rest of the terrain rules, but I think I need to cover the standard shooting modifiers first, or else some of what I cover won't make much sense.

Proposed Model Spacing: In Pictures

Two People Walking In The Desert, Holly Roberts

SandWyrm here. I thought it would be instructive to get out some models and demonstrate the Ld-based spacing we talked about in my last post so that we all have a sense of the scale involved. It's also allowed me to refine our ideas even more.

Movement - Part 1: Moving Models (Updated)

Wildly Moving Waters, Miki

SandWyrm here. Time to share the first part of my Movement rules. It's in more of an outline form because I expect there to be a lot of high-level changes to what I've written. Based on our discussions about them.

My Approach To Game Development

Creation Painting, Michael Parks

SandWyrm here. CaulynDarr, who I also know off-net, wrote something in the comments to my last Turn Structure post that I think needs addressing. He thinks that my development strategy is too complex. Fair enough. Let's discuss it.

Let's Talk Psychic Powers!

Psychic Dimensions of Nadir

Oblivion_Necroninja here! Today I’d like to take a break from the normal fluff article style and ask you some big questions about Psychic Powers in M42. 

Turn Structure: Take 2

SandWyrm here. I've refined the turn structure a bit based on the feedback I received.

Don't Fear GW, Respect Them!

Sam And The Two Watchers in 'The Return of the King', Rankin Bass

SandWyrm here. In my last article on our Business Planning, Canageek posted the following comments, which I think express something that needs to be addressed in it's own post. How afraid should we be of lawsuits as we create our 40K alternative?

Rumors And Recruiting

Rumors, Nejma Terchani

SandWyrm here. I'm on Tasty-Taste's mailing list, so I get to hear about all of his rumors at the same time the big blogs do. Whether it's the 6th Edition rulebook 'Leak' or the latest mumblings from last night about GW remaking 40K into 8th Edition Fantasy's twin brother, complete with random charge distances and random terrain effects. Expect those to hit the big sites today or tomorrow. It's going to generate a lot of discontent in the player base. Especially the competitive community.

First Strokes: The Turn Sequence

Wolverine Poker, Unknown

SandWyrm here. Ok folks, we're finally getting into something meaty. It's time to tackle the... (Drum Roll) ...Turn Sequence!

Defining The Problem We're Solving

Untitled, Banksy

SandWyrm here. As of a couple of days ago, Nurglitch has joined our project to contribute his technical writing experience to the cause. Welcome aboard! We'll get him set up as an author soon, but he's already written up some great things that I wanted to share. First up, we have a nice formalized statement of our design problem.

First Strokes: Terrain Classes

Themistokles von Eckenbrecher, on the Sognefjord, 1901

SandWyrm here. Here's my first stab at defining basic terrain types.

Special Rules: Clarity from Order

Eriochrome here again. Today we will look at all the concepts that go into special rules so that when we write them we can do it clearly and succinctly. Now this should all seem like basic and unnecessary to discuss ideas but if all publishers remembered these things we would not see forums with 10,000 topics of rules questions.

Colseran Robots: To Serve and Consume

A Replicator from Stargate

Oblivion_Necroninja here (O_N for short). Today I'd like to go into a little more depth about the machines that supply Colser with the resources it needs for its lavish lifestyle.

Scale of War: Part 2 - Forming the Line

Battle of Waterloo

Eriochrome back again for more discussion of the dimensions of the battlefield and how they influence the game design.

The Basics of Codex Design

Old Books Painting, Sonsoles Shack

Later on I'll be going through and discussing units and books in broad strokes – but for now, lets talk about the basics. First and foremost is go go into (again) which codexes go into which faction, and roughly what you could expect from each one. Here's what I've picked up from the discussions so far – if I've missed anything, let me know.

M42: Let's Talk Business!

Caravaggio, The Fortune Teller, 1596

SandWyrm here. As we get closer to my releasing a PDF of what I've done on the game so far (about 20 pages to date), I think it's time to share my thoughts on where M42 should go as a business venture. Who will own the IP, and other such things.

First Strokes: Unit Classes

SandWyrm here. Here's a quick post on the M42 Unit Classes.