When Men were MEN

Do you remember back in the old old days of GW when a single genetically enhanced "brother" could psycopathically scythe his way through an entire platoon of standard PDF without even breaking a sweat or scratching his century old paintwork? I do.

These days T4 and a 3+ save doesn't even begin to do the job! I know it's all about the practicalities of game balance and all that but somedays don't you want your supermen to be, well..... SUPER!!

Should you so wish then I'd suggest a look at some of the many other rulesets out there, including Two Hour Wargames' 5150.

This bad-ass shaded dude is Rich J's leader or STAR. He's equipped with a full set of exo-armour, with jet pack, a hand cannon of a laser pistol and some form of super-sword probably involving the phrase "mono-filament". All this costs some serious pointage but he's what a Space Marine is supposed to be.

I know this as my lot poured an awful lot of fire into him and simply succeeded in dumping him on his arse a few time. He even took a hit in the chest from an RPG to simply bounce through the wall of the house behind him and then get back up again.

This was mainly due to a STAR's ability to "Big Man" any one round of damage and ignore it. Unfortunately I only had the one RPG shot, DOH!, and assualt rifle fire simply patters off of exo-armour. I also wasn't helped by the "traits" that my chaps randomly recieved, most of them being rather negative, STAR's choose by the way.

Despite all that it was still a good game where I gave almost as good as I got. It was the first live round of the club's 5150 campaign and having re-mastered the rules we moved on to the more eclectic subject of tactics and luck!

To be honest I probably should have concentrated more on Rich's other troopers but there you are. In my second game Ian just happened to roll whatever dice his lads needed and my attack onto the table into his prepared position went all one way pretty quick!

I then remembered my people's "tough" special rule so we re-played for a much tighter game, effectively drawn only due to both of us being beaten by the clock.

So, a good nights game which reminded me of various things;
- the limits of slug throwers against decent body armour and the value of single shot lasers
- the excellent "grit" of 5150 and the need to employ proper tactics (cover, LoS etc)
- know your strengths and play to them, bring MORE rockets!
- how much I CAN enjoy my hobby :)