Second in an ongoing series
“PORTALS,” a gaming store, has opened on Kent Island, MD, a few minutes’ drive from my home, featuring “Tabletop Thursday” open play from 5:00 to 9:00 pm. This has given my neighbor Nate, my brother-in-law Drew, Drew’s son Daniel, and me the perfect opportunity to get together, move minis, and roll dice, using the Grimdark Future rules from OPR Games.
(Why Grimdark Future? Because all four of us agree that it is sooooo much easier and quicker to play than 10e Warhammer 40K. You can read my take on it here).
We had gotten together two weeks before to play our inaugural game at Portals, a closely-fought battle that the Imperial forces had managed to win in the end. In the interim, Nate’s brother Dylan had returned from a year-long internship at Walt Disney World, and was itching to get back into running the Space Wolves army that he had purchased from Jungle Guide Patrick Eibel.
Earlier in the days leading up to the big fight, Dylan and I played some warm-up games at my house to get him up to speed on the 40K Lite version that are the GF rules. For the game at Portals, he teamed up with Nate to take on an expanded “Alien Alliance” consisting of: Drew and his Orks (which OPR calls “Orc Marauders” to avoid IP infringement); Daniel and his “Alien Hives (Tyranids by another name); and my “Dwarf Guilds,” which are similar to GW’s current Leagues of Votann and their Rogue Trader/2e ancestors, the Squats.
Nate and Dylan each had 1500 points, while Drew, Daniel, and I each had 1000. As you’ll notice, that doesn’t buy the equivalent number of 40K models, because GF point costs are higher, but so be it.
Dvergar Steeljacks
Visitors to the original Jungle site (2000-2017; see here for more about that) may well remember my “Space Dwarf” army that went through several iterations. Started between the cancellation of the Squats, but before the emergence of the League of Votann, the army first used the rules from the Ork codex, then briefly switched to those of Genestealer Cults, then became a proxied Adeptus Mechanicus force.
Regardless, it always featured lots of figures, enabling it to perform well in “shooty” or “close combat” modes, and had lots of vehicles. It was inspired by the Pittsburgh Steelers (American) football team, so it’s painted in lots of black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow (you know what it is).
Ordinarily in smaller games, I go for quantity over quality, but I knew that Drew and Daniel would have plenty of bodies. With my 1000 points, I chose two 10-strong squads of “Elites” (melee specialists with great armor and power weapons), a pair of badass leaders, and two transports to get them to the show, because Dwarves under the GF rules are Slow (move 4″/round, or 8″ if they charge).
I was feeling confident, because in my warm-up games with Dylan, this configuration had absolutely wrecked the ever-loving dog [poop] out of his Space Wolves, winning so easily that it made the 2025 Eagles/Chiefs Super Bowl look like a nailbiter.
Game 2: “Battle Brothers” vs. Xenos
Nate and Dylan set up the terrain, and Drew, Daniel, and I chose what side we wanted. We took turns deploying our armies, and the game moved along swiftly from there.
Daniel brought a fat squad of “Assault Grunts” (Hormagaunts), and a smaller squad of “Winged Grunts” (Gargoyles). He also had a “Snatcher Lord,” a fast-and-slashy psyker leader-bug similar to the 40K Broodlord, and a “Hive Lord” (Hive Tyrant). Drew brought lots of Boyz on foot, and three shooty Grot Walkers.
Nate brought two squads of Primaris Marines, as well as the GF version of Roboute Guilliman. Dylan had tweaked his list to bring Gray Hunters in a Drop Pod, a trio of Terminators, and a Wolf Heavy Gunship.
If you’ve never played Grimdark Future, the biggest change from 40K is that instead of one player moving, shooting, and charging with their entire army while the other player sits back and waits, players alternate using units.
So, in a turn, Drew might move and fire with a unit, then Dylan would, then Daniel would, then Nate would, then I would go, then back to Dylan, and so on. It’s a lot more dynamic and fun than 40K’s “I-Go-You-Go” approach.
Daniel launched the Xenos attack by running his Assault Grunts + the Snatcher Lord up our right flank, tagging an objective. The Ultramarine forces under Nate retreated further into the Imperial deployment zone, as the Orcs and Dwarves chugged across the field.
Painfully aware of the brutality that my Dvergar could unleash, Dylan’s flyer targeted one of my transports, blasting it to bits, killing several passengers. The survivors managed to bail out and take refuge in a crater atop an objective.
In Turn 2, Nate continued to stand back and shoot, and Daniel pressed his attack. Dylan’s flyer zipped around, blasting Daniel’s Hive Lord, knocking off several Wounds and Shaking him, so that he would go no further on this turn. The Orcs and Dwarves continued forward, grabbing objectives, but not were not moving across the board quickly enough for my liking.
Daniel’s Assault Grunts penetrated deep into the Imperial deployment zone, charging Roboute Guilliman and slicing Wounds off him, but they were not able to take him out.
At Nate’s urging, Dylan dropped his Terminators deep into the Imperial deployment zone, but away from the main Marine forces, and to my shame, I failed to recognize this gambit as the bait it was. In Turn 3, Drew’s Orcs and my Steeljacks charged the Termies, wiping them out, but were in no position to do anything useful for the rest of the game.
Daniel’s Winged Grunts flew in, and the surviving Steeljacks from the first squad, whose ride had been shot out from under them, tried to stop the Ultramarines, but Nate’s forces were too much for us, and they tramped forward to seize objectives. Dylan had his Drop Pod come in at the far end of the table, on our right flank, and contest an objective that Drew’s Orcs had previously taken.
Daniel got his Big Mean Bug going again, but it been slowed sufficiently so that it was not a factor. Dylan’s gunship blew up my other transport, which had claimed an objective. After four turns, the Xenos ran out of time and steam, and the Marines won.
Post-Game Analysis
This match was very frustrating because I had recognized ahead of time where Drew and Daniel had gone wrong in the previous game, I knew what we needed to do to avoid those errors, and yet the outcome was the same. Once again, we were unable to coordinate our attacks so as to hit the Imperials all at once, and we were unable to hold most of the objectives that we took early on.
As the most-experienced player (by far!) on our side, I take the blame for this loss. I’ve often said that I suck at deployment, and once again, this was my Achilles heel.
I should have placed my transports side-by-side and smashed them down the Marines’ throats, instead of putting one on our left flank, and one towards the middle of the board. This would have ensured that at least one transport would have reached the Marines’ lines with its cargo of choppy Dwarves intact, where they could have carved through Nate’s guys, possibly taking down Rubber Girlyman.
This is an especially stupid mistake because I knew from our warm-up games that Dylan’s gunship could take out a transport with a single round of firing. It was also stupid for me to take the bait and jump Dylan’s Terminators, which kept my Elites and a big chunk of Drew’s Boyz from krumping the Ultras and keeping them from taking objectives.
Kudos to Nate for an excellent game plan. He did a nice refused-flank deployment, kept his guys back most of the time so they could keep firing and not get swamped in close combat, and outfoxed the wily old wargamer. In addition to our GF games, he continues to play a lot of 10e 40K, and he’s learning quickly. I’ll not underestimate him again.
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Kenton Kilgore writes books for kids, young adults, and adults who are still young. Follow Kenton on Facebook for frequent posts on sci-fi, fantasy, and other speculative fiction. You can also catch him on Instagram.