Modipius team up with Spartan Games for Achtung! Cthulhu ww2 skirmish

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**endtransmission**

Modiphius, makers of the Achtung! Cthulhu rpg, have teamed up with Spartan Games to produce a mythos based tabletop skirmish using the Dystopian Legions rules as a base system. Unlike Dystopian Legions the models will be more in like with other 28mm ranges and will use the kickstarter models as a basis for the range. Here's the press release:

Spartan Game’s Neil Fawcett and Modiphius’ Chris Birch recently met over a slap-up fish & chips supper and a pint of Somerset cider and discovered they had a few things in common. Talking about cool miniatures and game projects ‘til the cows literally came home to the farm next door, the two soon realised that they had to turn at least some of those crazy ideas into a reality.

So, the first project out of this rather dangerous meeting of minds is the Achtung! Cthulhu Skirmish Game, to be launched in Spring 2014. Building on the massive range of Cthulhu creatures, Allied Investigators and Nazi Villains funded by the Achtung! Cthulhu Kickstarter, Spartan Games will launch a full-blown skirmish game line under license from Modiphius Entertainment.

The Achtung! Cthulhu Skirmish Game will utilise the fast-paced, action-packed rules used in Spartan’s Dystopian Legions game, and plans for the range include starter sets, faction sets, hero sets, large creature sets and experimental vehicles, as well as a full-colour stand alone rulebook.

“We [Spartan Games] have chewed over the idea of a WWII game for a couple of years now, but never had the all-important time to devote to creating the world. Then along came Chris and his enthusiasm, coupled with a fabulous game setting and some lovely miniatures. It didn’t take long to figure out what we could do together. I’m very excited by our plans for 2014,” explains Spartan Games Creative Director Neil Fawcett.

The first range of 49 miniatures, sculpted by Russ Charles, will be extended to include more Mythos creatures, Nazi Villains, Allied Heroes and strange experimental vehicles. Spartan plan to utilise their hugely popular laser-cut scenery line to add some stunning battlefield scenic accessories so that players can bring to life some of the stranger aspects of the Achtung! Cthulhu world, whilst Spartan’s high quality resins will allow some truly larger-than-life Cthulhu creatures and war machines to dominate the battlefield.

**Joyboozer**

Finally a historical war game I can get into!

**Absolutionis**

Oh hey. Yet another Spartan Games game. This is explicitly why I can never care to get into a Spartan Games game. When this game gets scrapped aside for another flavor-of-the-season, it seems impractical to invest any time in this game.

It's worse than being a non-SpaceMarine 40k player.

**modiphius**

Absolutionis wrote:
Oh hey. Yet another Spartan Games game. This is explicitly why I can never care to get into a Spartan Games game. When this game gets scrapped aside for another flavor-of-the-season, it seems impractical to invest any time in this game.

It's worse than being a non-SpaceMarine 40k player.

Well be driving the development and working with Spartan to benefit from their knowledge of production and miniatures retail, and jointly marketing the range. So it won't get dropped for anything as it's going to be one of our main product lines. So you can be sure of plenty of support :-)

**usernamesareannoying**

Absolutionis wrote:
Oh hey. Yet another Spartan Games game. This is explicitly why I can never care to get into a Spartan Games game. When this game gets scrapped aside for another flavor-of-the-season, it seems impractical to invest any time in this game.

It's worse than being a non-SpaceMarine 40k player.

ive noticed this too... im still waiting for something exciting to hapopen with dystopian legions. i own a bunch that im starting to regret.

like modiphius said though, maybe this one will get m ore attention with an outside source driving it.

**modiphius**

Have you seen Spartan's latest blog post - there's a lot coming in the new year for Dystopian Legions (not counting our own contribution with the Dystopian Legion's roleplaying game...)

"a Hardback Rulebook, Nation Guides and we’ve opted to roll out the Russian Coalition, Covenant of Antarctica and Republique of France in one massive release. And we’ve not forgotten our first four nations"

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/happy-holidays

**Mathieu Raymond**

Is there a way to sample the rules before we commit to the game? I'm looking for the core mechanics, not unit costs or force composition.

**Alpharius**

Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Is there a way to sample the rules before we commit to the game? I'm looking for the core mechanics, not unit costs or force composition.

I'd like to see that too, before jumping in.

And of course I'll need to see that these minis really are closer to 28mm before committing too!

**Mathieu Raymond**

Those creatures would mix really well with the Malifaux and Wolsung ranges... oh the possibilities.

**Zond**

I didn't back Achtung Cthulhu because I wasn't sure how well it would mesh with Fate, but I'm a sucker for Spartan Games and their miniatures, and these look great.

The only thing I hope is that it doesn't devolve into Nazi Cultists with Mythos creatures versus Allies with experimental tech. A lot of Weird WW2 seems to follow this pattern. I hope all factions get the chance to team up or attempt to use Mythos creatures and knowledge to their own end.

**Alpharius**

I don't think anyone on the 'good guys' side will be attempting to ally with Cthulhu types, which is why things usually go the way you described.

**Veteran Sergeant**

What if nobody was the good guys?

**Alpharius**

In WWII?

Not going to happen.

Plus, we already have 40K - that's enough Lack of Hope for all of us.

**modiphius**

Mathieu Raymond wrote:Is there a way to sample the rules before we commit to the game? I'm looking for the core mechanics, not unit costs or force composition.

It will be loosely similar to the Dystopian Legions rules but with extra rules for things like Sanity etc. I understand there'll be some changes and we'll be heavily involved in the playtest to ensure it's spot on for our world

Zond wrote:I didn't back Achtung Cthulhu because I wasn't sure how well it would mesh with Fate, but I'm a sucker for Spartan Games and their miniatures, and these look great. The only thing I hope is that it doesn't devolve into Nazi Cultists with Mythos creatures versus Allies with experimental tech. A lot of Weird WW2 seems to follow this pattern. I hope all factions get the chance to team up or attempt to use Mythos creatures and knowledge to their own end.

You have the Cult of the Black Sun who are the occultists allying with Mythos forces and their own twisted versions of 'zombies', you have Nachtwolfe who are the Nazi's obsessed with Atlantean tech and suspicious of the Black Sun's true intentions, there are numerous Mythos factions who may or may not be allied with the Nazi's then of course the Allies with Section M and Majestic from the US. The Allies do have some strange mythos allies in places but often it is investigator's with their ancient books and scrolls finding ways to stop the mythos, finding weaknesses for the guys with the guns etc. I'm looking forward to getting some of the bigger monstrosities from our Terrors of the Secret War book on the table :-)
There will be some great Mythos factions who are vs everyone though, plenty of horror for any table!

Alpharius wrote:I don't think anyone on the 'good guys' side will be attempting to ally with Cthulhu types, which is why things usually go the way you described.

Well sometimes...

Regarding the scale - Here you can see our figures compared next to from far left to right Warlord/Bolt Action, Artizan and West Wind followed by our Professor Deadman, Sgt. Carter and the Mi-Go. I'll be posting pics of the completed range of figures soon.

**Mr Morden**

Just got my KS figures and looking forward to seeing what happens next......

The AC figures are very nice - as you can see from the above they are Bolt Action scale rather than 40k.

Alpharius wrote:
I don't think anyone on the 'good guys' side will be attempting to ally with Cthulhu types, which is why things usually go the way you described.

Not really - the first two rulebooks books have interactions with the Mythos on both sides - I think its going to be more like the Milkweed Triptych: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bitter-Seeds-Milkweed-Triptych-Tregillis/dp/0356501698 (not really sure why this is not included as source materail in the books

)

Many things of the Mythos will aid whoever give them what they want and other beings won't even care or indeed understand the differences betweeen the two sides...............

**Alpharius**

I hope this isn't another 'Degrees of Evil" game...

**Zond**

I don't think this is so much a degrees of evil scenario. It's a human conflict with some added involvement from creatures with technology so advanced as to functionally be magic with very blue and orange morality. To throw in the obligatory Watchman reference, do you prefer helping red or black ants? :-P

**Alpharius**

Ha - good one!

I'll still hope for the best here as Weird War II is my favorite genre.

**Veteran Sergeant**

Alpharius wrote:
In WWII?

Not going to happen.

Plus, we already have 40K - that's enough Lack of Hope for all of us.

Come on. It's World War Cthu. Surely we can have some alternate history going on, lol.

**Mr Morden**

Alpharius wrote:
I hope this isn't another 'Degrees of Evil" game...

I don't think it is but the books do go in depth about how to handle the human Evil of the Nazi (and other regimes) as opposed to the alien madness of the Mythos. The Axis are more heavy users as they are more willing to do what the Mythos are asking for - sacrificing people and the like means nothing to many of them and just can be put down to other acitivites. However the Allies have also come into contact with elelments and the temptation to use or just not understanding what you are dealing with is there.....

You can run it a n number of ways and there are alt history elements - not as much say as Taunhauser but there are things happening -

Spoiler:

. The GMs book has a serious discussion of how to run it from an Axis point of view as well and the potential pitfalls.

Check it out , its very well written and lots of ways to use it

**Alpharius**

I'll definitely going to be checking it out - your synopsis makes it sound very interesting!

**Mr Morden**

Alpharius wrote:
I'll definitely going to be checking it out - your synopsis makes it sound very interesting!

Cool

Let me know if you want any more info

**Mathieu Raymond**

So we're looking at how many minis per side, ideally?

Automatically Appended Next Post:
And the quickplay rulebook, I hope, should be enough to confirm or infirm if I want to play.

Just since I don't own Bolt Action, but I do own Malifaux, these look to be about the same size? The human ones, at any rate.

**modiphius**

Mathieu Raymond wrote:
So we're looking at how many minis per side, ideally?

Automatically Appended Next Post:
And the quickplay rulebook, I hope, should be enough to confirm or infirm if I want to play.

Just since I don't own Bolt Action, but I do own Malifaux, these look to be about the same size? The human ones, at any rate.

The rules will change somewhat from the quick play rulebook - we'll be tweaking them to better suit the world of Achtung! Cthulhu, introducing sanity / horror rules, cthulhu mythos magic etc. However it's a good start. Dystopian Legions is pretty fast play and stuff dies most rounds. There's a new command system they're working on which we'll be using which fits better too. We'll want heroes and villains to be more heavily featured as they play a key part of the storyline too.

I think the figures would sit okay with Malifaux :-)

Numbers of figures per side? We'll I played a 'Legions game with 3 squads, an AT gun, an HMG team, tank and command unit in a couple of hours and that's learning the game. I think it will easily let us add in more squads - with the speed things can die on the table you could probably start at almost company size if you wanted. In fact we may just have to test that out and post some pictures :-)

**Mathieu Raymond**

Are you going to have enough miniatures available to to have numerous of the same, though, at company level? I thought A!C was going to be more skirmish.

**Joyboozer**

The Warlord/ Bolt Action minis in the pic make me think of Dads Amy. I'm not sure how they'd go against Cthulhu.

**Scott**

I eagerly await the release of the Laser-cut non-Euclidean scenery.

**Mr Morden**

Joyboozer wrote:
The Warlord/ Bolt Action minis in the pic make me think of Dads Amy. I'm not sure how they'd go against Cthulhu.

About as well as anyone else - its Cthulhu

I eagerly await the release of the Laser-cut non-Euclidean scenery.

That does sound cool

- have picked up a lot of laser wood cut stuff recently and enjoyting that not seen the resin stuff in person ?

**modiphius**

Mathieu Raymond wrote:Are you going to have enough miniatures available to to have numerous of the same, though, at company level? I thought A!C was going to be more skirmish.

Well a company level game is probably extreme but how it plays. I see no reason you couldn't do a game that size if you really wanted. Most people would probably field some conventional forces backed up by heroes on one side and mythos on the other side for example. I love pushing the limits so trust me to give it a go :-)

Scott wrote:I eagerly await the release of the Laser-cut non-Euclidean scenery.

Yep Spartan's laser cut scenery is really great and combined with the resins they can do I think we're going to have some fun.

Aim is to show off some stuff at Salute if you can make it, with the proper launch around May/June