It’s been a few months now since our last installment of the ‘Ask Rick’ Beyond the Gates of Antares article series… and behind the scenes at Warlord HQ, we’ve been beavering-away in order to get everything readied for the big launch coming later this year…
The more observant among you will have seen that – last week – we made a number of changes…
- We launched a dedicated Beyond the Gates of Antares Newsletter as a vehicle to bring you all of the latest goings-on, and perhaps a few previews along the way… so be sure to head over and sign-up to keep up-to-date…
- We updated the Beyond the Gates of Antares Facebook Page – to better allow us to share previews and updates with the community. We currently have more than 1300 Likes…. by ‘Liking’ the page, you’ll automatically be among the first lucky people to receive the latest news!
- We updated the Beyond the Gates of Antares Facebook Group
These changes are the first public indications of something of a gear-shift for Beyond the Gates of Antares… with the big launch just a few months away, there are some very interesting models being sighted around the Warlord design studio, and excited chatter can be heard across all corners of Warlord HQ – whether it be about models being worked upon, new background fluff being developed, or simply the wider Warlord staff preparing army lists with the finalised form of the rules set…
So – expect lots more Beyond the Gates of Antares related content over the coming months – and remember – if you want to be kept absolutely up-to-date with proceedings, sign-up for the Beyond the Gates of Antares Newsletter here.
So – with all of that out of the way… if you haven’t seen the previous editions of ‘Ask Rick’ – see part one here, and part two here… now – on with the questions!
John McLean – Any plans for boromite named heroes? Or warriors of renown? Or famous boromite fighting units?
Rick – No plans as yet but we certainly want to do some Boromite character models to go with the range – there are several named in the ‘fiction’ sections of the rulebook – one of which is based on the forthcoming Guildess model that accompanies our Matriarch. There are also more Boromite troop types to cover yet – but again there are references in the background to specific Guilds and clans that we can spring into models.
John McLean – Are there any human offshoots that just went wrong? Became ravening berserkers? or had some other crazy abilities that were not forseen? perhaps they were stranded on some isolated planet, but have now somehow managed to escape?
Rick – You mean in real life or Antares? If the former then yes you bet and I have worked alongside many in my time. If the latter then I’m sure there are – and there are Misgenic Rejects that have quite literally gone wrong during Renegade NuHu genetic experimentation – for which Steve has sculpted some very disturbing models indeed!
John McLean – Since gen modding and bio production is at such an advanced stage in the world, is it likely that we will see clone armies? or mercenary clone units? disposable soldiers sound like a commodity that this galaxy would have exploited at some point? … I am sort of thinking roving fleets of cloned soldiers for hire, purchase squads for elite guards, or company for defense or a whole army for an invasion
Rick – Ghar are clones… grown in vats as required…and Hansa claims that Bo has been regened so many times he’s been awarded a ‘lifetimes’ achievement award.
Matt Houghton – What is the possibility of Algoryn having even larger models representing old grizzled veterans or biologically augmented warriors for the most deadly missions
Rick – Hadn’t any plans for that – the Algoryn have a pretty big range of vehicles planned and the background makes provision for other kinds of fighting formations based in the Founder leger.
Matt Houghton – Will there be background that allows the idea of concord fighting concord for example?
Rick – Concord v Concord or Isorians v Isorians would be quite hard to justify – I’d have to work at that! – similarly Algoryn – but Ghar, Freeborn and Boromites are at each others throats given the drop of a hat.
Matt Houghton – Will there be any methods of hacking in the game to effectively use an enemies technology against them in some form even if it’s just a hinderance
Rick – I’ve created a device that enables one side to battle to control the opposing shard – they’re called a subverter matrix – you use them to snatch opposing order dice from the bag and then they become contested. In other cases there are specific exceptions or vulnerabilities because of the technology – Ghar being largely immune to many of the weapons designed to interact with opposing nano-envelopes (i.e. practically all Antarean machinery).
Matt Houghton – will we see rules for alien fauna or atmosphere types randomly effecting a game ?
Rick – There are a few examples in the terrain section – and I’d certainly like to do more for specific environments – ideal material for our projected campaign based supplements.
Andy Singleton – Will there be a unit creator kit to give people guidelines to make their own vehicles/units /Giant stompy mechs?
Rick – I had intended to include that but ran out of time – but I’d certain like to put something on-line to help folks towards assigning stats for models of their own.
Mateus Carneiro – Are the gates the only means of interstellar travel on the Antares setting? I always liked the idea of stracrafts doing hyperspeed jumps on the spot, and like to thing that the Antares gates are only a faster way of travelling, but ships from advanced societies such as the Concord are also capable of faster-than-light travel, though at a much slower speed (i.e.,the gates allow you to cross in a few hours a distance a spaceship would otherwise take weeks to traverse). Is that Rick’s vision of the whole thing?
Rick – The gates are the key to effective FTL travel – near light speed travel is possible but obviously limits the distance it is practical to colonise or explore. The Isorians perfected near-light speed travel during the isolation following the most recent gate collapse, but nothing goes faster than light!
Alan Bates – It is written that IMTeL nanospheres barely pickup Boromites, is there a potential for an army trait of stealth deployment for them on ‘core’ worlds where tactical coat has traditionally placed a heavy reliance on the nano-network?
Rick – Could be – Ghar are nano-free of course and effectively below the radar for IMTel societies.
D Anthony Radford – With some other game systems they seem to have a limit on army types/races. Will there be any such limitation with BtGoA? And if no limitation, is there a timeline for when we might see new armies, say one a year or every two years?
Rick – We have to flesh out our core six forces first – and just moulding and producing the designs we have will probably take Warlord about a year – though we can still consider new designs within that time of course. Then we’d like to continue with the Vorl range that we have in concept. Beyond that the sky is the limit – and possibly not even that!
D Anthony Radford – Will we be seeing a galactic map that shows the predominant areas for each army and where the unknown or exploration zones would be located?
Rick – Yes I’ve drawn up a solar map of the gate densities for Antares and that will be in the book – I haven’t seen the rendered version yet but it’s planned as a double page spread. It gives the background a physical geography of sorts, which is very helpful when it comes to explaining the relationships between the different factions.
Mateus Carneiro – Are there plans for very heavy infantry units, terminator-style?
Rick – The Ghar battlesuits are something like that of course – otherwise anything along those lines might give us a potential theme for a future force–the main troop types are as we have already created them and based largely upon human sized models (or thereabouts!).
For those not yet subscribed to the Beyond the Gates of Antares Newsletter – here’s what you missed-out upon last week… the first exclusive photograph of the Ghar sprues to be included in the Launch Edition of the Starter Set
We’re running a regular ‘Ask Rick’ feature – in which we post your questions to the esteemed Mr Priestley – whether it be rules questions, backstory questions, questions about the playtesting process, questions about our future plans for Antares, etc…
Remember – to have the chance to have your question answered by the one and only Rick Priestley, head over to the official Warlord Games Facebook page – and post your question on the relevant thread – and keep your eyes peeled for a response in a future Newsletter!
Sam Phillips