Mechanicus factory fight for BOYL 2018

Scalene

Member
Yesterday James Holloway came up with what I think is a fantastic idea for a table for BOYL 2018 of a Mechanicus factory, where rival Mechanicus factions will fight to decide whose interpretation of the STC is correct. Influenced by the board game Robo Rally, there will be conveyor belts, bottomless shafts, laser beams, enormous rotating saw blades, etc. etc. with a Necromunda game taking place on top.

Here's my brain dump so far.

Initially aiming for a 4x4 table. I've got 4'x8' of table surface covered in grime and industrial markings (can tick that off).
1. Industrial towers and walkways, as in Necromunda - got about 6 or 7 of these
2. Big pipes and tubes. Take cover or run along them. I might make some as particularly hazardous raised walkways (e.g. you can't fire from them or you will overbalance).
3. Conveyor belts - raised belts about 2" wide and up to 12" long. Each end turn all models move say 8" in the direction of the arrows.
4. Bottomless shafts. I'll print out a graphic of something going away into darkness - does anyone have anything suitable?
5. Acid tanks. Shallow tray with hardboard bottom, mounting card sides and the odd pipe. Pour in resin/fake water. Can go across it but take a low S hit each turn you are in it.
6. Steam vents. I've got some sheets of stuff with hole patterns in it. They cover a big floor area, and every so often a load of steam comes out (white cotton wool style stuffing material). Everyone on it takes burns.
7. Pipes : L-bend plumbing fittings pointing sideways (got a load of these). Randomly jets of steam (make a template) come out and blast people.
8. Molten metal. Like acid tanks but worse. Colour print a swirly molten texture and stick it to the bottom of lids/trays.
9. Crusher. A boxy frame with a hydraulic press that comes down. Some hydraulic pipes and rams to suggest movement. Needs to be able to be in open/closed configuration
10. Control panels where models can change settings.
11. Hammers - big hammers on pivots that bang up and down (scratch build or kids toy)
12. 'Drill hall'. - Grid with holes in the floor. Drill bits randomly pop out. Use cheap real drill bits or cast.
13. Giant cogs - Some actual cogs that rotate - laser or hand cut from MDF, or find kids toy. Models can caught in them, or they connect other machinery.
14. Laser beams - wire painted red, or transparent plastic rod comes out of holes across corridor.
15. Paint sprays - Nozzles jet out paint, blinding models caught in the way.
16. Heat treatment - giant heating elements (actually glowing??) cook models that get too close.
17. Pivoting platforms/walkways - like Hogwarts staircases, they move around, carrying models along
18. Spiked roller (I don't know how this fits in a factory, but it would be cool to have).
19. Big fans. Blow models sideways or over, or into pits full of acid.
20. Factory robots that attack models or attempt to feed them into the next stage of the 'fabrication' process.
21. Hoppers that feed into mincing machines

Idea would be that the table would be filled with these, so it was hard to get anywhere without walking across potentially lethal machinery.

There could be a number of key control panels, and the objective is to get to them and load your instruction set into the Machine God's mind (or smash ones where other factions have uploaded their instructions).
 

brassmonkey

Member
It sounds like a really cool and fun idea. I'd be up for maybe providing some servitors slaved to terminals and/or robots. I'm sculpting some at the moment, in between commissions.

If I get some cast up, I'd just need someone (or, indeed, several someones) to paint them up. I don't have time to bleed. Um, I mean paint.
 

Chico

Member
Sounds rather cool mate, been wanting to do a Dark Mechanicus Warband for awhile and sounds like the perfect excuse.
 
Excellent starting post, with lots of great ideas for terrain. In a multi-player game, how do you handle autonomous board movement? The way Robo Rally does it is to assign movement priority numbers. In the game, they're based on actions, but in an X-player game I think you just assign players priorities 1 through X at random, with the board elements moving at X+1. You could even use proper Rogue Trader reserve movement -- move 4" onto the rotating walkway, walkway rotates, move your remaining 4".

Another element that would be fun would be places where the characters can upgrade their cybernetics or search for equipment, as well as maybe try to hack the servitors or robots that run the factory.

Now, you could just do this as an RT game and have each character designed on a points menu (or randomly generated on the tables in RT), or you could simplify it and provide people with pregenerated character types much like the jetbikes which go into more detail about how the characters interact with the machines (if it's just an Int roll, well, everyone has the same Int, presumably).

I think if you're going to have lots of players you want something like a tech priest plus maybe two bodyguards, scribes, servitors or what have you.

I have a big crane with a magnetised grabber that could be a fun piece of terrain.
 

Fimm McCool

Member
It's almost exactly as if you heard me say "now I need something for BOYL 2018 that will encourage me to get my Mechanicus done..."!

Sounds a lot of fun. I suggest a fairly small (6x4?) table to keep everything compact, crowded and ultimately reachable. And we will need lots of laser pens for LOS.
 

Leromides

Member
I really like this idea as I'm very fond of robo rally and I had been toying with it myself. Rather than a standard flat table though my thought was to get a series of those plastic stackable shelves connected by walkways to make a long thin multilevel table. The players would start at one end with the goal of racing through the obstacles to the end. With a bit of judicious hacking you could get all sorts of entertaining lines of sight for sniping and it shouldn't be too difficult to have a large number of potential routes.
 

Scalene

Member
Brilliant - getting some great feedback already.

James - your crane sounds perfect.
- Turn order wise I was thinking something similar. There would be a secret GM script that says what happens after each numbered player move (so move 1 or 2 things after each player rather than do all in the end phase). This might be short enough that players can see a repeat.
- I'm thinking fairly constrained army lists with a few options.
- I like the idea of 'hacking' the factory.

Fimm - I'm starting with aiming for a 4'x4' table, but could grow if we get enough contributors.

Brassmonkey - That's sounds cool - whatever you can contribute.

Chico - be good to have you on board. Who defines 'Dark' - isn't that a point of view?
 

Chico

Member
Scalene":ii7c855h said:
Chico - be good to have you on board. Who defines 'Dark' - isn't that a point of view?

The bound daemons inside them define it hehe :grin: Their will be done ;)
 
Maybe some random enemies would be fun to have on the table too. Either malfunctioning robots and servitors or like ... gremlins. Snotlings, I guess. Maybe snotlings chewing the wires is the whole problem.

I assume there is some big doodad at the top level of this place that they are competing to get to? The Master Control Console or whatever.
 

Scalene

Member
Leromides - sorry I didn't pick up on your post. Having just lugged the Helsreach gates home in my car, the importance of having scenery that doesn't take up much space is foremost in my mind. Shelves for platforms makes a cool table, but I'm not going to be making any because I haven't anywhere to store them. If someone else wants to take that on...

James - I thought about this, e.g. is there a console in the middle and you have to get your servitor plugged in. Problem might be that it creates a stalemate where everybody surrounds the centre but nobody can get to it through a blizzard of lead. Alternatively everyone might pile into the centre and it ends up as one big bundle (a bit boring). Could have quite a bit of cover (e.g. a revolving room with walkways appearing and disappearing), alternatively there could be about 4 consoles in a square near the centre, and you try to upload to at least one and destroy others. Again that could be an issue where each player grabs the nearest, then there's stalemate and a draw. Some careful thought needed on this one. Maybe there are quite a few strategic points - seize a local console to get a walkway to appear, giving access to the centre. Also some points that turn on/off the power to a sector, or similar, so to win you need to seize at least a couple of points and hold them while you complete your diabolical plan.

Mekboy?? Sheesh, no wonder the other Mechanicus don't want you running the Manufactorium.
 

Scalene

Member
I've ordered a bunch of plastic cogs (toy mechanism type stuff) and some steampunk watch parts to do some machinery. Also rescued a load of plastic pipe from a skip, and by coincidence, last week I stripped out a load of circuit boards, fans and other parts from an old desktop PC. Watch this space...
 

Mendoza

Member
This game sounds amazing, I'd love to join if you're happy to have a newbie. I've got a handful of Servitors in the lead pile but I still need to get my hands on a Techpriest, preferably a lovely old RT one. I'll scour eBay and start painting my Servitors!
 

Scalene

Member
Mendoza, you are welcome to join in. Don't worry about using old models. I suspect many or most will be conversions of contemporary models. I'm going to turn some black tree design barbarians into servitors, for example.
 
I have found a good design for an updating "it has been X days since our latest accident" sign and will try to bash up a prototype in the next few weeks.
 

Scalene

Member
Looking forward to seeing it. I'm just finishing off a couple of bits of Frostgrave scenery and then I'm going to start building stuff. I've been collecting up bits ready. Just bought some large grid mesh (13mm squares), which is really good for ladders and railings.
 

Suber

Member
James Holloway":2czda64w said:
I have found a good design for an updating "it has been X days since our latest accident" sign and will try to bash up a prototype in the next few weeks.

That's enormously cool! But it's the Imperium, it really should read "it has been X hours since our latest accident" :grin:
 
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