A 'Beyond the Gates of Antares' newsletter from Warlord Games...

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(*integrated machine intelligence)

By integrating yourself with the machine you will be the first to find out everything there is to know about Beyond the Gates of Antares by Rick Priestley.

PREVIEW: BATTLEFIELD TERRAIN

A key aspect of any tabletop wargame is the terrain upon and around which your battles are fought... from hills, cliffs, water features and other topography... buildings and walls... through to smaller pieces of scatter terrain and obstacles such as foliage, rubble, craters and the like...

The worlds of Antarean space are as numerous and as varied as it is possible to imagine. Some are verdant, thriving jungle worlds covered in all manner of fauna - some familiar, some entirely undiscovered and alien, having evolved over countless millennia untouched, in isolation...

Some are consumed by towering cities - or perhaps entirely cultivated for industry or agriculture to feed the ever-hungry populations of the surrounding societies, their surfaces forever scarred by the rigours of dense populous... and as populations move on, so their buildings and other structures remain to decay - with countless once-thriving worlds now lying inert... still covered in all manner of strange and obsolete structures now left to ruin and dilapidation - their purpose and function long-lost to the annals of time.

Others lie baron, uncharted and unknown - their secrets lying as yet unexplored... deserts of broken rock and lifeless craters... perhaps covered in perma-frost many hundreds of metres thick - or their surfaces entirely covered in water - or unstable and unpredictable volcanic worlds whose surfaces are an unmappable, ever-shifting series of plates in a constant state of flux - huge sections constantly melting away into lava, only to be formed again elsewhere in an endless cycle of regeneration.

All are potential battlefields for our forces - and the Beyond the Gates of Antares Rulebook contains an extensive Terrain section, packed with information and special rules for a huge variety of different terrain types - we've picked-out a few here, as something of a special preview...

Of course - there are more advanced rules for features such as buildings, marshland, quicksand, lava, hot water geysers and much more... but you'll just have to wait for the Rulebook's release to read more about those..

BOULDER FIELD

This is an area of densely strewn rocks up to about man height affording cover to troops but impenetrable to vehicles and large models. A boulder field is sufficiently dense to block line of sight from one side to another. As with areas of rocky ground, these are common features of lunar type worlds that may be devoid of vegetation or running water.

LOS: Dense Terrain
COVER: Res+2
DIFFICULT: YES -1/Impassable to large models.

JUNGLE

Jungle is the ultimate in dense vegetation where progress is likely to be impeded by plant growth to an even greater extent.

LOS: Dense Terrain
COVER: Res+2
DIFFICULT: YES -3/Impassable to large models

CRATERED GROUND

Cratered ground is just that – an area of ground covered with fairly small craters! Such craters might be shell holes or they could be natural formations resulting from small meteorite strikes or volcanic activity. Either way, the craters are sufficiently shallow not to completely prevent movement, and will afford some cover to troops sheltering within them.

LOS: Open Ground
COVER: Res+2
DIFFICULT: YES

Contents of the the Launch Edition starter boxed game are as follows...

Full colour 260-page hardback rulebook.
Quick reference sheet.
Getting started booklet.
3 multi-pose plastic Ghar Battle Squad walkers.
3 multi pose plastic Ghar Assault Squad walkers.
20 multi-pose plastic Concord Strike Troopers.
4 plastic Concord support drones.
8 plastic spotter drones.
Strike Leader Kai Lek Atastrin metal figure.
12 order dice.
Ghar distort dice.
13 Polyhedral dice.
Launch Edition plastic templates and tokens.
12 red plastic pin markers.

PRE-ORDER GOODIES: ONLY AVAILABLE UP UNTIL LAUNCH DAY!

FREE GIFTS: When you pre-order directly from Warlord Games you will receive a personally signed art print of the box artwork from the game's designer Rick Priestley, a PDF download of the Concord & Ghar army lists, and the limited edition model of Fartok, Veteran Leader of Battle Group Nine, Unarmoured.

You can pre-order right now from Warlord Games