In the Emperor's Name - First Game AAR

I have played a few games of In Her Majesty's Name and enjoyed it.  Then I heard about In the Emperor's Name.  It is pretty much the same game (with a few tweeks) just themed for the Warhammer 40K universe.  I like the fluff of 40K, but the rules don't interest me anymore.

However, their models are very impressive, if a bit pricey.  I already have lots of stuff that would work and even if they are pricey, this game is based around an army of 5-10 models so you can get what you need for a pretty reasonable amount if you don't have something in the cabinet that will already work.

The rules for In the Emperor's Name are a free download.  Can't beat that.  Their layout leaves a little to be desired, IMHO, but since they are free I can forgive that.  I think a quick start sheet and/or summary sheet would be a useful addition.  I might put one together myself if my friends start playing this with me on a regular basis.

For our first game, we didn't play a scenario.  Just a straight up fight to the death.  Ultimately, I'm most interested in using this system for scenario based games that may or may not include balanced forces, but to learn the rules a basic fight works.

I brought out a Mob of orks.  These brutes have been trading with the local Imperial Guard forces.  Basically providing additional weapons to the poorly supplied grunts.

Madruk's Mob

Warboss with slugga and choppa
Nob with slugga and power klaw
5 'ard boyz with slugga and choppa
2 'ard boyz with big shoota and choppa


 My opponent for the game was my friend Nathan.  His inquisitor had heard about our orks and was concerned about where our supply of imperial weaponry was coming from.  He brought his retinue out to get some information and ended up in a fire fight with the orks.

Sorry, but I don't have the specifics of his force.  Here is my description based upon my memory of the game.  (This is probably way off.)

Inquisitor
Interrogator - Techpriest
Stormtrooper
Interrogator - Psychic
Interrogator - Servo skull
Death Cult Assassin

Our battle took place on the outskirts of a battle worn city.  The buildings have been raveged by artillery and most of them are in ruins.  This is a great place for my orks to conduct their business, and also a great place for the Inquisition to interrogate us.

The game started with my orks deploying on the right and the inquisition on the left.  We decided that the stream would be soft cover and the buildings would count as hard cover.  We decided that the base of each building would all count as hard cover.  In hind sight, I'm not sure that was a great idea.

My orks set up with most of the boyz joining the Boss and Nob ready to rush across the board and engage with the hummies.  The two boyz with big shootas took up position in a building with a good view so they could rain down fire on the enemy.

In the first turn I got a lucky shot off on the enemy's inquisitor and hit with a 6.  He failed his grit with a 1 and suddenly their leader was dead.

The inquisitor psychic promptly failed his test to use a power and then after more bad rolls was turned into a demon under my control.  Bad for the inquisition.  Thus is the danger of the warp.

Not a great start for them.  Really it was a hole that they wouldn't be able to dig themselves out of, but not wanting to fail the Emperor, the rest of the unit advanced hoping to achieve their objective and hope the Inquisitor would recover from his wounds.

The assassin ran around a building and with its stealth ability avoided my fire while it got up close and personal with my boyz and warboss.

I sent a contingent of boyz forward along the stream to engage the techpriest and Sergeant.  The real stinker was that sergeant.  He was here just last week buying up half of my supply.  Now he is here attacking me with my own product.

The Techpriest opened up with his flamer and killed a boy and my nob.  Them things are scary.  

 My boyz with their big shootas took some shots at the sergeant on the bridge.  They didn't have much luck hitting him though as he got cover from the bridge railings.

The Warboss and his boyz got into it with the assassin.  Well eventually.  Since we counted the bases of the buildings as hard cover, Movement in hard cover removed 3" from your movement, and since we counted the bases of the buildings as hard cover, I was having some trouble actually getting to the assassin.  Finally we got there and started beating on each other.

Close combat is much more brutal than shooting with the orks as no modifiers are applied to the target for speed.  This made the assassin a lot easier to hit.  The orks were able to knock the assassin down and then it got up and ran away in its next turn (without any free shots by the orks because of some skill).

In the end, the orks held their ground and sent that pesky 'Quisitor packing.  I'm sure the lucky shot killing the Inquisitor in the first round and then the psychic turning into a demon on turn two helped a lot.

As a whole, I like this game.  I think I will make a few adjustments, but want to get a few more games in before I change too much.

This will be a fun game that plays pretty quickly.  It will work well for scenarios as well as pick up kind of games if I can get enough guys interested.  It is a good use for all of those 40K models that I have.

Have you played this?  What did you think?