Iron Kingdoms Game

[Imperial Overlord]

Backstory

Enlistment with the Winter Guard didn't suit Alexei Ivanov. The young Khadorian didn't take well to the harsh discipline and the dull routine. When he got out the arcane mechanik decided to form a mercenary band of his own and recruited serveral friends of his. The initial efforts proved successful and the mercenary band, the Young Wolves, grew.

Ten years latter, the Young Wolves were a free company of modest size lead by their warcaster Captain Alexei Ivano and fielding a mighty Nomad Warjack. Skilled and formidable soldiers and specialists made the Young Wolves fearsome opponents in the field of battle. Then disaster struck.

Hired by a Khadorian nobleman to break the power of a Tharn tribe they found themselves in a much more terrible fight than they expected. The Tharn had warp wolves and Devourer Wyrm shaman-priests among their number and the battle was violent and desperate. In a desperate storm of steel and fire, bullets and blood, the Young Wolves emerged triumphant but ruined.

Their leader was slain and their warjack ruined. Most of them were crippled or killed and the company's debt were almost as great as its surviving assets. Having seen to the burial of their comrades in the cold ground, the surviving Young Wolves begin to contemplate their futures or drift away

[Ford Prefect]

Sounds good to me. Actually rather cool.

[Raj Ahten]

Ah, backstory. It looks like my guy may have some intelligence failures to answer for.

[Imperial Overlord]

So, is everyone ready to go? Kojiro?

[Stormbringer]

So, is everyone ready to go? Kojiro?

I'm as ready as can be. Even started creating my future NPC minions out of boredom.

[Imperial Overlord]

I'll start us off sometime tonight. Late comers can dive in when ready, they'll be recovering from wounds or something similar that wil rationalize their absence.

[Kojiro]

To be fair I don't think I'll have time actually. Count me out for the time being.

[Stormbringer]

And with a mighty D'oh, I've realized I forgot the D20 human bonus skill points. Those will be nice.

[Raj Ahten]

Reading some of Imperial Overlords fanfic, I see that man portable rocket launchers are in use Could anyone more familiar with the setting fill me in on the various man portable and heavy weapons that are in use in the Iron Kingdoms setting? There isn't very much on the weapons on wiki, and the official website's pics of minis shows what I think is grenade launchers and some sort of rapid fire pseudo machine gun in use.

[Imperial Overlord]

Check out the Deliverers here:

Link

Accuracy and reliability sucks, but point enough of them in the right directions and bad things are likely to happen.

[Ford Prefect]

There isn't very much on the weapons on wiki, and the official website's pics of minis shows what I think is grenade launchers and some sort of rapid fire pseudo machine gun in use.

If I'm not mistaken, Cygnar fields Warjacks armed with gatling cannon, as well as one model with a single barrled, armour piercing cannon. They seem to be good at rotating, multi-barrled designs - one of my characters handguns is designed as such. There is a Khadoran Warjack whose name escapes me which is designed around heavy armour (surprise) and multiple grenade launchers.

EDIT: As an aside, Raj, there's a spy prestige class on the website that I just came across. I thought you might want to have a look.

[Stormbringer]

There's really very little in the way of man portable heavy weapons. About the only thing there is are various flavors of a rocket, and those are still relatively new and touchy. As Imperial Overlord mentioned, they're apt to backfire and kill the operator or bystanders.

There are a few like the Khadoran mortars and field guns that are crewed carried and operated weapons. But those are still not truly man portable and are definitely much bigger and more cumbersome.

If I'm not mistaken, Cygnar fields Warjacks armed with gatling cannon, as well as one model with a single barrled, armour piercing cannon.

The Sentinel has the gatling gun.

The Hunter the long gun.

They seem to be good at rotating, multi-barrled designs - one of my characters handguns is designed as such.

Not in the sense you're thinking. There are a few gatling gun designs for warjacks. But the pistols are simply four barrels on a cylinder. The user is the one that actually turns the barrel by hand. A bit quicker than an old fashioned one shot, one reload.

There is a Khadoran Warjack whose name escapes me which is designed around heavy armour (surprise) and multiple grenade launchers.

Devestator.

[Raj Ahten]

Thanks for all the info guys. Those look like man launched congreve rockets those guys are using. It would seem in this universe men can wear heavy enough armor with the help of their steam technology to defeat most firearms, making even gatling guns of limited value vs. troops thus equipped. Lightly armored soldiers might be able to fatally outmanuever such heavily armored troops and hit weak points (at least I hope so, as otherwise my guy is hamburger). Also thanks to Ford Prefect for pointing out the prestige class.

Edited for spelling.

[Stormbringer]

Thanks for all the info guys. Those look like man launched congreve rockets those guys are using.

The Winter Guard rocketeers are probably close. But the protectorate versions are almost certainly cruder than that.

It would seem in this universe men can wear heavy enough armor with the help of their steam technology to defeat most firearms, making even gatling guns of limited value vs. troops thus equipped.

That's not accurate at all. A few elite heavy troopers can stand up to light small arms fire, but nothing more. About the only one that can really do it are the Khadoran Men o War, and that's because they're using power armor.

The reason they don't employ gatling guns is the reason they remained comperatively rare in reality, they're as heavy as a typical field peice, consume a lot of cartridge ammo which is fucking expensive, are not terribly accurate, and are mechanically unreliable. Keeping mind that in the Iron Kingdoms cartridge bases fire arms are still quite new, so a lot of the applications for it are just developing. The technology is still relatively new, expensive, and generally immature for it to see much use.

Lightly armored soldiers might be able to fatally outmanuever such heavily armored troops and hit weak points (at least I hope so, as otherwise my guy is hamburger).

To some extent. But not terribly much so when you get down to it.

[Raj Ahten]

It would seem in this universe men can wear heavy enough armor with the help of their steam technology to defeat most firearms, making even gatling guns of limited value vs. troops thus equipped.

That's not accurate at all. A few elite heavy troopers can stand up to light small arms fire, but nothing more. About the only one that can really do it are the Khadoran Men o War, and that's because they're using power armor.

The reason they don't employ gatling guns is the reason they remained comperatively rare in reality, they're as heavy as a typical field peice, consume a lot of cartridge ammo which is fucking expensive, are not terribly accurate, and are mechanically unreliable. Keeping mind that in the Iron Kingdoms cartridge bases fire arms are still quite new, so a lot of the applications for it are just developing. The technology is still relatively new, expensive, and generally immature for it to see much use.

I feel like a noob as far as this setting goes sometimes, but live and learn I guess.

[Stormbringer]

I feel like a noob as far as this setting goes sometimes, but live and learn I guess.

It's no big deal. There's a lot of material out there and it's spread around three different gaming systems. That makes for a lot of material for even the fans to follow. I know I don't know everything, probably not even close.

There's also the cardinal rule to remember with games: the numbers tend to be abstracted for playability, so take with caution.

[Imperial Overlord]

Gear has already been gathered and divided and the few serious wounded have left with one of the other groups. The battlefield has already been policed.

[Stormbringer]

Gear has already been gathered and divided and the few serious wounded have left with one of the other groups. The battlefield has already been policed.

Uh, okay...

So what exactly do you want us to do then?

[Imperial Overlord]

As a general note, the closest major city is Tverkutsk to the west of you, in the northern part of Khador. It's on a railway line, but the area around it is somewhat hazardous for a few men travelling alone.. Civilization in general is mostly south.

[Stormbringer]

Okay.

At this point then I'm wondering what we should consider our status as being.
Is what was posted simply going to be blinked out of existence, with us instead being alone and on the way? And how are we going to handle any encounters along the way?

I'm just a little confused about what we we're supposed to be doing thing and how it is you'll be throwing challenges in our path.

[Imperial Overlord]

Encounters are my business. You post walking in a direction, I'll let you know what happens. And I'm clarifying the gear and aloneness situations, because I thought it was evident in my first post that everyone was leaving and the gear/loot had been divided, but from your conversation I obviously hadn't clearly conveyed that point.

[Stormbringer]

Encounters are my business. You post walking in a direction, I'll let you know what happens.

Okay. I was wondering how that was going to work, that's all.

And I'm clarifying the gear and aloneness situations, because I thought it was evident in my first post that everyone was leaving and the gear/loot had been divided, but from your conversation I obviously hadn't clearly conveyed that point.

I wasn't really expecting anything other than Kojiro's character as far as the wounded; I mostly made the suggest for Kojiro and because it was in character. And I wasn't at all sure on what sort of condition the camp or our supply situation was, so that's my fault.

So what do you want to do about fixing it? I guess that would be the next logical question.

[Imperial Overlord]

Not a problem. An minor edit about assessing your supplies and loot should do it.

[Imperial Overlord]

To clarify you might want to go west if you want more wilderness/exploration based adventures or south for more civilization based ones.

My apologies for any confusion.

[Raj Ahten]

I want to make sure I've got the new situation correct. There are no wounded, we are just going to scratch that as it was all a result of confusion. However, we are on our way (possibly with a wagon?), and we just have to decide where we are going. Is that about right?

If it is, I vote we head south for the more urban enviroment.