We've scientifically ranked many Rogue Trader battle reports of the Battle at the Farm by correlating the total Victory Points of each game against the chances of Ed Grundy successfully taking over Grange Farm, dividing by 2 and adding 1d6:
11. The Privates Eternal
Models: Kenner Star Wars
A late entry, which, believe it or not was prompted by this very blog-post. I slightly bemoaned the fact that everyone was using mostly using GW figures to play the scenario (not a bad thing in itself you understand). When Private W. jumps up, out into the garden, for a quick skirmish using classic Star Wars action figures. Now that's more like it! Unfortunately, rain stopped play, which leaves the outcome of the battle somewhat undecided, but not before Han Solo bounds in on his Tauntaun to whisk away Princess Leia.
Victors: Han Solo
http://theprivateseternal.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-battle-at-farm-on-tatooine.html
10. 6 Iron Spikes
Models: 2nd Ed Tyranids vs. Classic RTB01 Marines
6 Iron Spikes dive in with some true impro gaming. No scenery? Use cardboard boxes and carrier bags. No orks? Use Tyranids. The orks managed to call for reinforcements and only 2 marines survived. Good play through.
Victors: The Marines
http://6ironspikes.blogspot.com/2012/02/rogue-trader.html
9. Cigar Box Battle
Models: Modern GW Orks & Modern GW Marines
Ran using 5th edition, and the Battle of the Farm ended prematurely, but not before most of the orcs were mown down.
Victors: The Marines
Cigar Box Battle at the Farm
8. Fawcett Avenue Conscripts
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| Battle at the Farm | Fawcett Ave. |
Models: Space Ork Raiders Boxed Set vs. Classic RTB01 Marines
A fun report which captures much of the flavour of the scenario. The Orks actually managing to call for reinforcements really kicked off the motivated play, with both players working to achieve their victory conditions.
Victors: The Marines (just)
Fawcett Avenue Conscripts Battle at the Farm
7. Oldhammer 40k
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| Battle at the Farm | Oldhammer 40k |
Models: Sisters of Battle & Modern Space Marines
In a creative, satirical, and wholeheartedly Oldhammerist take, LegioCustodes' Orks were replaced by the forces of Imperial Governess Margareet Thatchot. Pretty much a draw, but good stuff, but really getting into the swing of things using the objectives and characterisation. Nice.
Victors: Draw
Classic Astartes Battle at the Farm
6. Toms Toy Soldiers
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| Battle at the Farm | TTS |
Models: Modern Plastic Orcs and Modern Plastic Marines
After throwing his entire collection of 80s Warhammer into a skip, Tom was left with no choice but to play the modified Battle on the Farm from some unspecified triple-digit issue of White Dwarf, poor chap. Orcs charged, got massacred, Thrugg got into hand to hand and killed Cantor. Tom didn't really seem to engage with the scenario and I suspect the redacted version may have had simpler objectives.
Victors: The Marines
Toms Toy Soldiers Battle at the Farm
5. Old School Workshop
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| Battle at the Farm | Old School Workshop |
Suber and Miguel have a quick game of suicidal Orcs running towards the farm and getting killed - blamed largely on putting too much space between deployment zones, and ending with the commanders going toe-to-toe in classic 80s action-movie style. A good time had by all, but these guys aren't taking it as a serious military exercise in the first place. Great!
Victors: The Marines.
Old School Workshop Battle at the Farm
4. Fighting Fantasist
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| Battle at the Farm | Fighting Fantasist |
Models: Vintage Paper tokens out of the back of Rogue Trader
It's great to see that the game can be played as a game without endless weeks of collecting, painting modelling and prepwork. The game is the thing. The graphic charm of the original counters are not without merit. Not much in the way of tactical information, but it's all dressed up in Coops enthusiastic style.
Victors: The Marines.
Fighting Fantasist Battle at the Farm
4.1. Fighting Fantasist
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| Battle at the Farm | Fighting Fantasist |
Models: Modern Orks and Modernish Space Marines
As Coop reminded us he's actually played Battle at the Farm more times than he's had hot dinners. Nicely accurate (to the map) terrain placement, Orks using the Orchard for cover. Some interesting observations about down-shifting from later editions.
Victors: Marines
Fighting Fantasis Battle at the Farm
3. Iron Dog Studios
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| Battle at the Farm | Iron Dog Studios |
Models: Modern Orcs vs Modern Marines
Can't actually find the battle report, but can find the modelling preparations with lots of corrugated cardboard and masking tape.
Victors: unknown.
Iron Dog Studios Battle at the Farm
2. Somewhere the Tea's Getting Cold
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| Battle at the Farm | Somewhere the Tea's Getting Cold |
Models: RTB13 Space Orks vs RTB01 Marines
Thantants plays Battle at the Farm, on an actual farm! So this game scores a gazillion post-modern points for that. A nice write up, and some terrain modifications to try to give the Orks a little more of a chance - not that it worked, they still ended up cooked.
Victors: The Marines
Teas Getting Cold Battle at the Farm
1. Hubbabubba on LAF
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Models: RT02 Space Orcs vs RT101 Space Marines
A great battle report, well written, nice photography, love the scenery. Super! Good strategy from the Orks, including flanking and use of cover and keeps the play report interesting.
Victors: The Marines (just)
Hubba Bubba Battle at the Farm
Commentary
OK I hate Listicles and blog-posts where the author just copy-pastes stuff other people wrote and makes inane comments about it, and generally find reading play summaries dull (I did read an incredibly witty, strategic and erudite game of Scrabble once) but I'm prepping to run the scenario and wanted to see what other gamers made of it first - and there are some really great games out there.
It's clear that in the first Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader scenario, Battle at the Farm, the Ork player is dealt a difficult hand. The Orks greed and reluctance to call for backup combined with their sub-standard military ability makes it tough for them to survive, let alone earn victory points. It's all too easy for the Space Marine player to get entrenched into the farm complex and just pick off the invaders as they approach.
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| Battle at the Farm | Maps vs. Photography |
The original scenario is accompanied by a map and a photograph of some terrain, and they don't quite match - the map is not the territory - some players opt for set-ups that are truer to one than the other, notably in the farm building layout, and the maps Orchard is significantly larger than the photographs one. The subtleties of terrain placement do seem to make a big difference to the ork players strategies and all close victories appear to use both the larger orchard and smaller relative overall playing area as indicated by the map. Old School Workshop game particularly commenting on aspects of this, and Teas Getting Cold going some way to mitigate the disadvantage the Orks have by geoforming the landscape a little.
There is an even split between classic and new Games Workshop models being used, from vintage 1987 lead to modern plastics, and of course the original Rogue Trader card tokens just pushing the archeogaming into the lead (see what I did there?). It doesn't seem that people are jumping en-mass into Rogue Trader with their Ion Age Space Knights or Britains Space Force figures.
Overall I think it's great that The Battle of the Farm still gets played, and if taken in its original intention, as an intro with a few figures and objective motivated play, it does stand up. Still, some elite strategist out there needs to discover a way to get those Orkses to achieve their dreams...
Missing in action If you've run a game of Battle at the Farm, or know of an online batrep that I've missed, please do drop a link in the comments, especially if it led to a greenskin victory!
