Vastarian: Rules for the Church of the Red Athenæum

The Church of the Red Athenæum.

Since announcing the Vastarian Open Invitational, we have showcased factions (Church of the Red Athenæum and Spyreheads), revealed the logo, recorded an episode of our podcast, and wrote a battle report. Despite all of this, we have not spoken too much about the rule set we have been using to play our games. In the original post, we suggested that we would primarily be using the 2023 Necromunda rules, but encouraged people to use whatever system they enjoyed and are familiar with. Indeed, we have played a handful of games, mostly using the Necromunda rules. Additionally, we have also played games using Forbidden Psalm, like at the Rot of Hondious event. With this post, we want to show some sample warband lists for different rule systems to give readers a sense of the possibilities for playing games in the Vastarian setting!

Necromunda

Necromunda seemed like the most obvious ruleset for Vastarian, due to it being designed for gang warfare in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Having played a number of games using the updated 2023 rules, it is very usable, albeit quite complex and bloated. Anyone familiar with Necromunda in recent years likely knows that the game has innumerable “codex” books with different gang lists, making it difficult to know how to get into the game. While the updated core rulebook simplifies the process, it does not contain any gang lists. Therefore, you are forced to look to other books for them. To get around this, we used Yaktribe’s Underhive Tools online gang builder to create lists, opting to simply use the Cawdor list from the old Gangs of the Underhive book (2018), because it is more streamlined. We also allowed free access to the Trading Post from the 2023 core rulebook. This list is only for five models, which we will likely add to over time.

Kirill Blokhin: Acirgeon, Arch-heretic (125 credits)

M WS BS S T W I A Ld Cl Wil Int 5 3+ 4+ 3 3 2 4+ 2 4+ 6+ 5+ 6+ Micro-uzi (autopistol) Gore-soaked axe Flak armour Broken but not Defeated (True grit)

Marcelo Lythgoe: heavy weapons specialist (220 credits)

M WS BS S T W I A Ld Cl Wil Int 5 4+ 4+ 3 3 1 4+ 1 7+ 7+ 7+ 7+ Urdeshi Automatic Rifle (UAR; heavy stubber) Hecuter 9 (Stubgun) Fighting knife Respirator Flak armour

Petr Danev (135 credits)

M WS BS S T W I A Ld Cl Wil Int 5 4+ 4+ 3 3 1 4+ 1 7+ 7+ 7+ 7+ Combat Shotgun Hecuter 9 (Stubgun) Fighting knife Flak armour

Lucien Conticello (95 credits)

M WS BS S T W I A Ld Cl Wil Int 5 4+ 4+ 3 3 1 4+ 1 7+ 7+ 7+ 7+ Long Rifle Hecuter 9 (Stubgun) Fighting knife Flak armour

Alexsei Tsybovsky (85 credits)

M WS BS S T W I A Ld Cl Wil Int 5 4+ 4+ 3 3 1 4+ 1 7+ 7+ 7+ 7+ U416 (Autogun) Hecuter 9 (Stubgun) Fighting knife Flak armour

Total: 660 credits

Forbidden Psalm: Kill Sample Process

Since we used a modified version of Forbidden Psalm for the Rot of Hondious event this summer, we knew the system was well-suited for Inq28 games. Forbidden Psalm has a Cy_Borg/cyberpunk themed version of its rules called Kill Sample Process that is inexpensive to get digitally, so we decided to use it to create warbands. While the core rules are much simpler than Necromunda (and all within a single book), they can still get fairly complex due to each model having quite a few special rules to remember, in the form of feats, flaws, CyberMods, and Mutations. It should also be noted that true to its setting, some elements of Kill Sample Process veer deeply into a technology heavy cyberpunk that can feel at odds with the Warhammer 40k setting, particularly the CyberMods (at least for lowly cultists and not Inquisitors). I tried to minimize these with the list I created, or use some of the questionable elements, but call them something more fitting of 40k.

Kirill Blokhin

Micro-uzi (Smart pistol): 110C

Gore-soaked Axe (Steel pipe): Free

Thrice Damned (Bad Connection) - any installed CyberMod gains Flawed trait

Vivere est pati (The One) - whenever targeted by a successful ranged attack, the model can make an Agility test to ignore all damage dealt to them.

Mutations:

Emperor’s Tarot (Procog) - Sees the future; when targeted by an attack, you can move 6 inches in any direction, on successful Guts check. If you move out of range, the attack fails.


Marcelo Lythgoe

UAR (Pulse Rifle): 300C

Fanatic - must pray after killing a model: next activation can only be to move

Resistant - Auto-pass any test to avoid poison or disease

CyberMod:

Respirator (Iron lung) - Ignores Gas and Smoke negative effects


Petr Danev

Combat Shotgun (Sawed-off): 150C

Blood Rage (Ghost) - When the model takes damage, they are overcome with anger and attack the nearest model

Burst of speed - Once per scenario can move 9 inches for an action

CyberMod:

Hidden Carry - Smart pistol


Lucien Conticello

Ancient Rifle: 200C

Bad break - Cannot enter scenario without a Blue crystal/flect

Bribe - Enforcers ignore this model unless they attack an Enforcer

CyberMod:

Tech savant (Network Uplink) - Can reroll failed Knowledge tests


Alexsei Tsybovsky

U416 (SMartG): 225C

Mycotoxin - -1 to all stats, but immune to poison and disease

Combat medic - Can heal downed models within 1 inch for 1d4 with successful presence test

CyberMod:

Auto injector - When downed the first time, make a toughness test, on success heal 1d4 instead of being downed.

Total: 985C

MiniGangs.

MiniGangs is a miniature agnostic skirmish game created by Ramshakle Games that has incredibly simple rules that are not burdensome, and do not require constant rules references (I am looking at you Necromunda, ha ha). The core rules, MiniGangs: Gateway is only a couple of pages long and free to download. The creator, Curtis Fell, is working on a small supplement designed to work with the Gateway rules to create Vastarian Cults!

Kirill Blokhin (Cult prophet, 14pts) - 34pts

Awesomeness 4 Shoot, Fight, Charge, Crawl
   

    Gore-soaked Axe (Combat Weapon) - 6pts
    Holy Artifact - 10pts
    Prayers of Devotion - 4pts


Marcelo Lythgoe (Ecclesiastical Guard, 16pts) - 28 pts

Awesomeness 3 Shoot, Fight, Charge, Crawl

    UAR (Support Weapon) - 6pts
    Combat Weapon - 6pts


Petr Danev (Ecclesiastical Guard, 16pts) - 32 pts

Awesomeness 3 Shoot, Fight, Charge, Crawl

    Combat Weapon - 6pts
    Acts of Devotion - 10pts


Lucien Conticello (Ecclesiastical Guard, 16pts) - 28 pts

Awesomeness 3 Shoot, Fight, Charge, Crawl

    Long-las (Support Weapon) - 6pts
    Combat Weapon - 6pts


Alexsei Tsybovsky (Ecclesiastical Guard, 16pts) - 28 pts

Awesomeness 3 Shoot, Fight, Charge, Crawl

    Combat Weapon - 6pts
    Stim Pack - 6pts

Total: 150 pts


We hope this gives you some ideas of how you might start playing games within the Vastarian setting, and encourages you to create a cult yourself! Let us know if there are any rulesets you think would be suitable for Vastarian!

- Eric Wier