Von Mohnblume Line

A package arrived from Alternative Armies recently and I had the pleasure of being one of the first to see the Von Mohnblume Line , due for release later in August. These are some new sculpts and a new type of Dogman infantry for Flintloque and Slaughterloo.

The pile of minis and bases

"Sci-Fi Rules"

A bit of a random post this time. Recently I have had a fair bit of time to do what I should probably have done years ago, and have a good root through some of the things I left at my parents' house when I moved out, with a view to deciding what is worth keeping and what I can do with out.

As part of this process, I stumbled across some a small set of sci-fi rules, conveniently entitled: Sci-Fi Rules. Nothing quite like something saying what it does on the tin... What's more, the Alien on the front cover add to the reader's understanding of what he or she is getting, even before the cover is turned!

Possible subtitle: Not a set of historical rules

Strangely enough, there is no author or publisher information available anywhere in the book, but fear not, all will soon be revealed! Ah, okay then, I'll tell you now... To the best of my knowledge, these are a set of rules published by Warrior Miniatures to accompany their 10mm sci-fi range. The only reason I know this is that, about 15 years ago, I recall buying some of their figures and I am pretty sure I got a set of rules to go with them. Now, I could be wrong, but given they list a set of rules with the range of figures, I'm willing to bet that this is them. Even more so when I see they are listed for the princely sum of £1.50.

£1.50??!! Yes, that is correct. One pound and fifty pence. But before we get too excited, a few things to bear in mind. The production quality is, errrm, let's call it 'quaint'. They could have been produced in the 70s. But I quite like them! Check out the staples holding them together! Secondly they are written in a 'typewriter' font, with some hand drawn tables for good measure. Thirdly, they are only 8 pages long (although they feel deceptively large as they are only printed single sided. And in case you are wondering, they are pretty much A5 size. So they basically fit on 4 sides of A4.

Here's a picture of the first page. I won't show any more as if I show you a second page I'd have just reproduced 25% of the whole book....

But on the plus side, whereas I might break down a review into sections based upon each chapter of some rules, here I can review each page! Let's do it!

Page 1: Pictured above, this gives the background and what is needed to play. Basically it is a simple recreation of an Aliens type scenario. Interestingly, it opts to scale the map at 1cm = 1m, but then overlay it with a 1 inch grid. Nothing like mixing imperial and metric measurements! I'm also not entirely sure where I would get a map of that scale to overlay with a inch grid in the first place... So ultimately, just do your own thing is what I'd suggest...

Page 2: This suggests a couple of objectives for the humans, such as locating colonists or defending an outpost. The rules to govern objectives are pretty loose. For example, under the 'Find a colonist' scenario, it merely says 'randomise level/room of objective.' So again, plenty of scope for adding more detail as desired! In fairness, the second half of the page does give an optional rule for rolling to see if the colonist is okay or impregnated by an alien, but the whole page seems unsure whether there is one colonist to be found or more, or exactly how you determine if they have been found.

Page 3: Outlines the order of play. Which is that Marines move and fire, then Aliens dice for their movement. Human organisation is also mentioned here. Marines are divided into fire teams of between 3 and 6 marines, one of  whom is equipped with a flame thrower or heavy weapon. It also says that a command section 'can' be used, but given the bottom of the page describes how orders can be issued to fire teams under an officer's command, I'd say it was pretty important! It doesn't say what happens if all officers are killed though! What is interesting about these rules is the order system. Orders are issued at the start of a turn and then you roll to see what effect they have. Which brings me nicely to...

Page 4: Possibly my favourite page in the book! This page outlines what the 5 order types are and what might happen when they are issued. Basically they are: 'move toward objective', 'move towards the command section', 'disperse', 'fall back' and 'retreat to the exit'. They are given more interesting titles than that though. But what I really like is that, once an order is issued, you roll a d6 to see if it is followed. Most have a 50% chance of being followed, a 1 in 3 chance of being followed but not as effectively and a 1 in 6 chance of not being followed at all. This actually is an interesting approach and I'd be tempted to use something similar for other games, especially when human soldiers are facing a particularly brown-trouser inducing foe.

Page 5: This page introduces the Aliens. You roll to see how many are encountered, which is either 1x, 2x or 3x the number of Marines... This seems to make for quite varying difficulty so I'd probably stick with the 3x option! Aliens are placed randomly on squares at the edge of the map and this makes me think a smaller map might make for a more interesting game as there will be less option for the Marines to pick off the Aliens as random movement disperses the pack. On the other hand, Aliens have entirely free movement, unhindered by doors and walls, so the Marines may well be lucky to get many shots in before the Aliens are on top of them! Alien movement is determined by a d6 roll. The most likely (33%) result being a move directly toward the nearest marine and the others resulting in movement in other directions (never away), so there is the possibility of being outflanked.

Page 6: This page outlines shooting. Interestingly, it suggests you need a 1cm gap between friends to shoot between them. So although movement is on a grid, placement within the square has some importance. Although perhaps it is just a typo or a hang over from a previous version of the rules? Oddly, an assault rifle shoots 2 squares, giving it a whopping 5 meter range at the ground scale. And you remember the kick ass heavy weapons from the movie? Well they can blast aliens at a distance of 7.5 meters! I think it is probably best to either ignore the ground scale, or adjust the maps and ranges to something the player feels is right. A table gives a d6 score to hit depending on range and weapon used. The shooting section also mentions that Marines are placed to face the side of a square when firing. Now this has an impact on close combat, but I'd have thought it might be best decided during movement. But there you go.

Page 7: Talking of close combat, it is covered on Page 7. It takes place after the Alien move and you basically roll a d6 on one table if the human is facing the Alien and a different table if the human is not. The 'Human facing the Alien' table is hugely generous in that it gives a 5 in 6 chance of the Alien being killed. There is a 1 in 6 chance of the human being killed and a 1 in 6 chance of the human being disabled, which unfortunately is an effect mentioned nowhere in the rules. If the human is not facing the Alien there is a 50% chance they are captured, which means the human is removed and the alien placed on the edge of the map. There is only a 1 in 6 chance of the Alien being killed in this situation. In fairness, I assume the odds of the Alien being killed during a frontal attack on a human represents the effects of shooting as they close. Indeed, there is a -3 modifier if the human is armed with improvised weapons (which I assume means a colonist). There is vague reference to a facehugger counting an Alien victory as an attachment and the human counts this as dead. Given that a 'victory' for the Alien in close combat pretty much means the human is out of the game anyway, this rule seems slightly redundant!

Page 8: For a very simple set of rules, Page 8 is dedicated to special rules, including stairs, lifts, the Alien queen, facehuggers and vehicles. As you might expect, none of these are covered in huge detail, but there is enough to go on.

Well, there you have it! A review of every page! I actually find these rules quite fascinating... They have a few good ideas and are suitably simple for a fun game. On the other hand, they are in pretty significant need of clarification and polishing, or perhaps just more rigorous playtesting. I kind of get the impression that they might have been written with a participation game at a convention in mind, one run by a GM who can adjudicate situations as and when they arise. Ultimately I think you will struggle to find a better set of rules for £1.50, but I would love to clean them up and rework parts of them.

As it is, I'm happy I own them and will probably play them in some form as a simple Alien skirmish. I really like the idea of the how Marines are ordered and how Aliens can use air ducts to avoid having to move normally like the humans do (just like the film). I imagine having Aliens moving closer to you while to try to dash to a larger room so you can get a good shot in would create quite a few tense moments.

Time to start a 15mm Aliens project...

A look at: Patrol Angis

Recently I have been scouring the web for information on Patrol Angis, the new set of rules from Gavin and co at The Ion Age. I was intrigued by the description of the rules and the setting but could not find a great deal more than what was on the website. So naturally I thought 'what the heck, they are only £10' and bought a copy! To make up for the lack of information available, I thought I'd give my initial thoughts here.

The Book

The book itself is a very well presented A5 size publication with full colour cover and black and white images inside. It has seriously started to make me wonder why more rules are not this size! It means they can easily be rested on the table during a game for quick reference and it also makes them easy to handle or hold in one hand while the other one is rolling dice or holding a refreshing beverage. Good thinking, chaps!

The Background

The first 20 or so pages of the book deal with the background to the setting, which could be described in a nutshell as being the Wars of the Roses in a Space Opera setting. While the rules could be used with other miniatures, the setting and content of the book is obviously geared to the Ion Age range. What is different about this book is that, while my usual inclination is to discard the fluff and just play with my existing figures, reading this particular background has really got me wanting to play the rules with the Ion Age figures and in the Ion Age setting. I really wasn't expecting to feel that strongly, but the background in the book is highly interesting and different to other things I have read.

Force Organisation 

The rules say they are aimed at each player having a platoon sized force. This immediately made me think of three squads plus a command group on each side, but I was wrong! While this gives an idea of the number of figures you might expect to field, you actually have quite a lot of flexibility in how your force is organised. You can choose to deploy in squads, sure, but you can decide to split your squads into fire teams or even smaller units if you wish. So there is actually a good amount of decision making in terms of how you wish to deploy your platoon and you would want to think a bit about how you might use your options to achieve your objectives.

The elements you decide to deploy are organised in a fixed way, as shown by the picture of suggested movement trays:

It should be noted that this book contains rules for infantry, power armour and infantry-sized vehicles, such as bikes. Larger vehicles and how they fit into the force structure will be covered in a  future book.

Core Mechanics

Unusually for a game of this type, the core mechanic is an intriguing command and control mechanism. Initiative is a d6 roll, but the higher roll determines how many activation tokens are received by each side. The side which loses initiative gets the number shown on the die, the winning side gets that number plus one. So if the initiative roll was 3 and 5, the side which won gets 6 tokens and the side which lost gets 5. A good way to give a little edge to the winner without being overpowering.

Starting with the side that lost initiative, players then take it in turns to place an activation token next to an element in their force. Unless specified, an element can be assigned any number of tokens during this process. This is an interesting mechanic which leads to you trying to out guess and out plan your opponent before you have even touched a miniature!

During the main part of the turn, starting with the side with initiative, the player removes an activation token from an element and chooses what that element will do. There are no less than 11 (well, 10 and the option to pass!) choices to select from and these cover moving and firing, rapid moving, precise firing, overwatch, reorganisation, recovering morale, digging in for self protection and lots more. To add to this, elements which are fired upon can also use activation tokens to negate hits against them, so you may have to make a tough choice about taking casualties or keeping your head down for a turn, which in effect is a neat little pinning mechanic!

Now let's be clear, fire combat in this game can be pretty deadly! All rolls to hit are made with a d8 and have a basic target of 2+. That's right, there is only a 1 in 8 chance of missing a target in the open! Of course, terrain modifiers come into play and each item of terrain provides a bonus from +1 to +3 depending on how much of the LOS crosses it. If there is terrain along more than 10cm of the LOS then no fire is possible. The max terrain modifier is +4. So terrain starts to be rather important in this game! Any hit figures can make an armour save roll, which is a 4+ modified by the armour worn and the penetration of the weapon.

Taking casualties results in the need to make morale tests. Failing a test results in the loss of an activation token if the element has one, or the gain of a 're-motivation' token if they do not. The re-motivation token has to be removed with an activation before any other action can be taken.

Lets not forget that you only get between 1 and 7 activation markers each turn (skewed toward the high end as the winning roll determines the number). So if your force consists of smaller elements then you have some tough choices to make when allocating them. And it gets even harder when morale checks force you to remove them or waste one next turn to re-motivate an element.

Other Rules

After the main rules section, there are a couple of pages outlining a series of special rules which may apply to units, covering things like jet packs, medics, snipers and special gear. There is also a section on solo play, which will be largely familiar to players of Flintloque. Then there are 10 pages of stats for the various forces available and some 'fluff' on the types of weapons and armour available. The book ends with some brief designer's notes and some additional background which outline the 'rules' of the setting in terms of why certain technology exists and why the universe works the way it does.

My Thoughts

I have to say I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I was expecting something solid, fun and playable. What I found when I read the rules was all of those but arranged around a command and control system that I have not come across before in a sci-fi rule set and some nicely brutal combat rules that punish commanders who think acceptable battle strategy is advancing across open ground.

I also found myself really getting drawn into the background and enjoying it, it manages to feel 'fun' but also have a nice amount of detail to it.

My only slight criticism at this point would be that I found some of the rules sections to be a little unclear. My questions were answered by the examples, however, so there were no problems left after I had read them, although I prefer examples to be optional rather than required reading. But that is a minor point in an otherwise excellent looking set of rules.

There is a lot crammed into the 64 page book and the rules themselves do not take up a massive amount of it (about 17 pages for the core rules). But at the same time I am left with the feeling that they present a lot of tactical challenges in a deceptively simple package.

I have often described rules by this designer as being quite 'old-school'. In this case I don't think that is true at all. I think these are a modern set of rules which will let players fight 'old-school' type battles they way they remember them being rather than the way they actually were (i.e bogged down in loads of die rolls and endless charts and tables!).

I would highly recommend these rules to anyone who is either drawn to the accompanying miniatures range or interested in a more tactically challenging sci-fi game which is still simple to play.

A look at: Typhon

Typhon is Alternative Armies' game of skirmishes and heroism during the time of Greek Myth. Players lead a band of Heroes, Shades of Hades or Mythical Monsters in legendary battles, calling on their patron gods to aid them and hopefully surviving enough encounters to grow into a hero worthy of being remembered for generations to come!

Overview

Mechanically, the rules are similar to the Darkestorme fantasy skirmish rules (which I have looked at here), but are modified to both suit the period and improve on the aforementioned publication.

The book itself is an A4, spiral bound tome of 78 pages with clear plastic covers front and back. It's actually quite nice to have a book that lies flat on the table with no need to bend it back or break its spine!

Opening the book, the reader is greeted by a map of Ancient Greece, a brief overview of the game and a generous background of 12 pages outlining the myths and legends of Greece. Useful if you are new to the period or want a quick overview.

Following the introduction are the rules of play, how to create your hero and his followers, advice on scenario creation, an extensive list of powers and gifts, stats for warriors and the monsters they may face, a set of three scenarios and finally record sheets for your heroic band.

Rules of Combat

The core rules are relatively simple in their execution. Characters have two or three actions per turn, which can be used to move, fight, use a god power or carry out other tasks suitable to the scenario. To attack a foe requires a 2d6 roll meeting or exceeding the attacker's 'To Wound' score (usually between 6 and 9). If hit, the defender can make a Resist Wound roll in a similar way.

Where these rules differ to Darkestorme (and are much better, in my opinion) are the way shields, armour and wounds are handled.

If a character carries a Hoplite Shield, he may use it to block the attack. This requires a 2d6 roll and can result in the attack being negated or reduced in strength, or the shield becoming damaged or broken. Other shields merely provide a modifier to Resist Wound rolls and this provides a neat way to differentiate Greek Heroes and their ability to shield against attacks. This is also a more interesting roll to make than your typical d6 roll against a target number.

Armour works in a similar way, with a 2d6 roll on a table. My favourite entry is the roll of a 12 breaking the attacker's weapon! Other results allow various degrees of stopping power or damage to the armour. Both this and the results of using a Hoplite Shield can give a range of modifiers to the defender's Resist Wound roll.

In my opinion this is more interesting to play out than the rules in Darkestorme, but of course it is a little more time consuming. This level of detail is a welcome addition to rules more geared towards skirmishes with only a few figures on each side though. And from a game play perspective it is enjoyable to have the excitement of these rules (usually accompanied by cheers or groans depending on the outcome!).

If an attack scores a wound a roll is required to find out the effect. Monsters just have a flat number of wounds and are defeated if reduced to zero. Characters in Typhon , however, have no such thing! Instead they might be killed outright, mortally wounded and need the assistance of their fellows, avoid the wound entirely, or receive a flesh wound which gives a penalty to future rolls on the table. The table is weighted towards the character being out of the game, but as two of these options allow for the character to return to future games if his side wins, it greatly adds to the tension of the remaining battle!

Additional rules for combat provide for the use of missile weapons, using two weapons at once, having a terrain advantage and making sweeping attacks which can target more than one foe.

Your Hero also has access to Fate points, which can be used to modify initiative rolls or force re-rolls by your opponent.

God Powers

God powers are a major part of the game, so I thought they deserved their own section in this review! When you create a hero, you choose a patron god which allows the hero to have access to that god's powers in addition to a  generic set of gifts that heroes can choose from. Six gods have powers listed in the rule book (two more are available as free PDFs from the publisher). Each god has seven powers of varying potency, reflected in the amount of fate points required to 'buy' them. The generic list of gifts contains an additional 29 powers, for a total of 71! It is quite a list and very thematic compared to your usual list of skills and abilities, serving to reflect how important the gods and their patronage was to the Greek heroes.

All of these gifts are classified as either Items, Powers or Creatures. Generally speaking, Items have an ongoing effect for the whole game, Powers can be used once per game for their effect and Creatures represent some kind of summoning ability which results in the summoned entity coming into play for a certain number of turns or for the whole scenario depending on how powerful they are.

All of the powers really enhance the theme of the game and it add a great variety to the Heroes in the game as well as an interesting decisions in campaigns about whether to gather several minor powers or save up for some of the more powerful ones.

Hero Creation and Campaigns

Before playing, you need to create your band of Heroes, or if you are so inclined, your drove of Shades from Hades. This is a pretty straight forward process. You start with 50 fate points and with these you need to select your Hero and his god powers. A minimum of 40% of your fate points also have to be spent on Champions and Fighters to follow your hero. Costs for all characters vary depending on if you choose Youth, Man, or Aged characters, each of which have a different stat line and differing advantages and disadvantages along with it. Shades are worked out similarly, but have a choice of being Lesser or Greater rather than the three ages.

Once you have chosen your band, you receive a random number of coin with which to purchase weapons and armour, as well as other useful items for campaign games.

The campaign rules as presented in the book are quite a simple affair. Your Hero and Champions gain Fate Points by defeating enemies, winning scenarios and so forth. These can be kept to spend during the game, or used to buy new god powers. You can buy new warriors to join your band or, if they have proven themselves, advance a Champion to the class of Hero.

Monsters

A selection of monsters, most well known from Greek Myths and some less well known, have rules provided in the book. You can also get free PDFs of additional ones from the publisher. These are fearsome foes indeed and suitably challenging for experienced bands of warriors. As well as the kind of stats you might expect from such monsters, they also come with unique abilities that really capture their individual 'flavour'. In a very nice touch, defeating certain monsters allows a Hero to benefit in some way, for example using the teeth of the Cadmus Dragon to raise undead warriors, or the head of a Gorgon to turn enemies to stone.

Miniatures

This is a review of the rules, not of figures, but it is worth pointing out that Alternative Armies stock a range of 'Heroic Scale' figures to accompany these rules, nominally 50mm but I think some 42mm ranges would be compatible (although I have yet to verify this). Of course, you can use whatever range of figures you want with the rules, but I find these have a certain charm about them that I find very appealing. The picture below shows two Typhon figures next to the silhouette of a 28mm Flintloque miniature.

Conclusion

These rules take mechanics from a generic fantasy skirmish game and, with the odd tweak and adjustment, turn them into something that feels quite different. In fact I'd have to say I prefer them to the set they were based on. At their core, the mechanics are pretty simple, but there is so much flavour layered on top that it doesn't feel this is detrimental when playing. I can't say I have played other rule sets for the 'period', otherwise I could offer some kind of comparison. But what I can say is that I don't feel the need to rush out and buy any others! I would like to see the rules supported by a more comprehensive figure range (there are some god powers that summon monsters not currently available) and perhaps the main drawback is a lack of fully fledged campaign rules, but these are not insurmountable problems.

I thoroughly enjoy Typhon and would recommend it to people looking to recreate Mythic skirmishes with a small number of figures. The rules are easy to pick up and play or teach but with a good deal of variety and fun to be had.

(All pictures are taken from the Typhon overview PDF, free from Alternative Armies). 

A look at: Darkestorme

Darkestorme is the name of Alternative Armies' high fantasy skirmish game (although it is also supported by their sister company 15mm.co.uk). The back of the A5 book promises a pretty comprehensive ruleset for 60 pages and says it is for those who like a more traditional high fantasy feel in their miniature gaming. So does it deliver?

Whats in the book?

The book starts off with a contents page and a decent map of Valon. This is the nominal setting of the game, but not one enforced by the rules as such. Players are free to use whatever figures they want and in fact the figure ranges by AA and 15mm.co.uk are pretty generic high fantasy (and certainly worth a look if you are in to old-school type games).

Let's take a look at the various sections in the book before moving on to how the game plays.

The History of Valon in the Darke Age
The title sums up the contents of the first section! As with other AA products, this is a detailed background and interesting to read. For anyone who plays Slaughterloo or Flintloque, it is worth a read to find out about Valon before the advent of black powder weapons. In fact much of it is more 'serious' in tone than those other games, with much less of the tongue in cheek place names and such. Worth a read even for those who normally skip the fluff!

Darkestorme: The Rules of Warfayre
This section presents the bulk of the rules. Here is information on the basics of combat,  terrain, weather, monsters and so forth. Terrain generation consists of rolls on two tables, one for the general terrain type and then one for terrain features. A roll for a more wild general terrain will give more rolls on the second table. The third table is the most interesting, however. Not technically terrain set up, it involves rolling for each unit to determine when they make contact with the enemy. This can range from being caught in a trap to spotting the enemy from a distance. In practice this means your opponent may be able to set up your unit, or you might be able to choose an initial placement, but your enemy can move your figures a certain number of inches. This is an interesting method and could yield some chaotic set ups!

After set up, a roll for weather is made, with the usual range of effects (plus the chance of a magic storm making wizards more powerful!). Finally a check can be made for special terrain. This brings to mind early (and I think one of the more recent) versions of Warhammer where not all terrain is your standard forest or scrub. Some of the 'terrain' is truly special and can include magic creature which attack players, or a giant poisonous mushroom! It certainly is good inspiration if players want to expand on this and make up their own special terrain as well.


The rest of this section covers the turn structure and combat, which I shall return to in a bit.

Other things in Warfayre
After the main bulk of the rules, there is an additional section covering cavalry, artillery and chariots, should players wish to include these in their games. A generous list of spells is also located here, divided across 10 levels of power, most of which contain around 7 or 8 spells. This gives lots of variation for people who like their wizards!

Creating Characters and Units
This covers the creation of warbands and heroes (or villains!) and includes lists of weapons, armour, magic items and skills.

Scenarios and Campaigns
Possibly the weakest section in the book. This is a simple introduction to creating your own scenarios and a list of how experience points and money is gained. The implication seems to be that an Umpire would be governing how a campaign is run, so there is no real detail on this, which is a shame.

The Races and Bestiary
The final section in the book gives a decent list of stats for the different races in Valon, but also a comprehensive points system allowing you to create game information for any figures in your collection. There are also special rules for larger monsters, such as Trolls, Giants and Dragons.

How does the game play?

Characters in the game have scores they need to achieve on 2d6 in order to cause a wound, resist a wound caused to them and resist magic powers. In addition to this they have a move and run rate in inches. So a basic human might walk 6 inches, run 9 inches, cause a wound on 9+, resist a wound on 8+ and resist magic on a 5+.

Characters are grouped into Units and lead by a Leader and a Sub-Leader. If the leader falls, the Sub-Leader can take command. It is usually worth having both as a Unit with no leaders will flee the battle!

Initiative is an opposed 2d6 roll, with the winner deciding the order in which Units will activate. When a Unit activates, its members can act in turn taking up to two actions to move, attack etc. If you are within the 'Reach' score of your weapon you can make an attack. Ranged attacks also roll against the 'Cause Wound' score but have an additional range modifier (-1 per 6" distance) and usually require an action to reload. Mages usually cast magic successfully (with a small chance of failure or a backfire), but the target gets a chance to resist. Armour gives the wearer a save roll and may break in the process, and the same is true of shields. There are also a handful of special rules and abilities which can be used to spice up your heroes and leaders.

All in all it is a pretty simple game, or perhaps I should call it straightforward as too many people seem to take 'simple' as being a negative thing. It is similar to games like G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. in that the mechanics are straightforward and give a relatively quick, fun game.

I'll have to say straight up that I quite enjoy these rules! They fill a certain gap for me in that they have a real 'old-school' feel to them and I can plonk a handful of figures on my table and play a game in an hour or so without having to think too hard about the rules. This is ideal for the times when I don't want to fight a large battle or play a game that is highly detailed or complex.

In the interest of fairness, I have to say that they are not without flaws (which rules aren't?!). Most oddly, the points calculation seems to result in characters costing more if they are less able to resist magic! There a few ways to correct this, but I opt for changing Resist Magic rolls so they need to score equal or lower, rather than equal or higher.

I also prefer to ignore the chance of armour breaking. Take, for example, 'Acceptable' armour with a rating of 2. This means you can prevent a wound on a roll of 1 or 2. But all armour breaks if you roll equal to the armour rating. So while it has a 1 in 3 chance of stopping a wound, it also has a 50% chance of breaking when it does so! I'd have a right go at the blacksmith for calling that 'acceptable'! If I was using the rules for armour breaking, I'd probably just have it break on a 6, or require a separate roll to see if it broke.

But neither of the above are major things that stop me enjoying the rules. For a mere £8 I consider them to be well worth the money and they are now my fantasy skirmish rules of choice. You can buy them from Alternative Armies here and AA also provide free PDF documents in support of the system if you drop them an email.

Check out these rules if you want an old-school style fantasy skirmish game that is easy to expand with your own special rules and adapt to your own collection of figures. 

 

A look at: 5150 Star Army

I thought I'd kick off my 'new-look' blog with a couple of related posts. A look at 5150 Star Army by Two Hour Wargames and my thoughts on how it adapts to different settings.

5150 Star Army is Two Hour Wargames' rule set for platoon level sci-fi wargames. It is set in their 5150 universe, but easily adapted for whatever setting you like.

How does it work?

SA uses similar mechanics to other THW rules, with an integrated turn sequence centred around their reaction system, meaning that players don't have an unrealistic control over their forces. (For more info see my post about Chain Reaction 3.) The main difference from other rules by the company is that figures are organised into squads of 8 figures and players typically control a platoon of three squads or a company of two platoons. Same side, solo and opposed games are all possible.

Bugs everywhere! (From the THW Blog post found here)

Any aliens?

I won't dwell too much on the different races available, but the rules cover various humans along with setting specific aliens and generic bugs. What is worth mentioning is that they are all neatly represented by different abilities. If you want to play in your own setting, you can easily pick and choose from these to create your own alien races. It works well without making things over complicated.

BatRep of 5150 Used for WH40K. From this blog

And the scenarios?

Patrol, attack and defend scenarios are available, although the reality is that, combined with things like the enemy investment level, variable reinforcements and PEFs, there is a lot of variation in actual gameplay. 

Reinforcements can appear for either side during the game. Squads, vehicles, off board artillery, snipers and strafing runs are all covered. This really varies the basic scenarios and forces you to respond to a changing situation on the fly.

Assets are also available at platoon and company level with their availability being dependant on the type of mission and the investment level. They include flame throwers, machine guns, plasma guns, satchel charges and more.

Great looking game from this blog. Note the recurring theme of "Ace for solo gaming"

Hang on! Enemy Investment Level? PEFs? What...?!?

The Enemy Investment Level determines how much effort the enemy is willing to put into defending or attacking the region the battle takes place in. This has a direct bearing on the strength of resistance you are likely to find. PEFs are 'Potential Enemy Forces', markers placed at the start of the game which are resolved when in line of sight. They could be enemy squads, vehicles, defensive emplacements, or just a false signal. 

Sci-fi is about the tech! What gear and equipment is available for my troops?

There is a good range of weapons and armour represented in the game. Modern style projectile weapons as well as lasers are present, with the differences represented by varying the firing ranges, the number of targets which can be shot in one turn and the impact values against different armour types. 

Armour can be one of four classes: soft body, hard body, exo-suits and battle tactical armour. The latter two also afford the wearer extra movement, targeting, communication and other benefits. I see hard body armour being like Storm Troopers, exo-suits like GW Space Marines and BTA like in the Starship Troopers novel. 

All of this makes it quite easy to create new weapons to fit your preferred setting and figure out their effectiveness against various armour types.

Want an asymmetric game with a modern/near-future feel? Look no further than here!

So, tell me about the options for a campaign. 

When you start a campaign you pick your side, who you are fighting against and decide who is attacking and defending the planet. You undertake two missions per month, the results of which will cause your campaign morale and that of your enemy to rise or fall. The side whose morale drops to zero first loses. 

Your first mission will be a patrol, but after that it could be any of the three types depending on the outcome of your last game. So you may find yourself on the offensive or defensive at various times depending on how you are doing. 

Before each game you need to determine various factors, all of which work towards making a seemingly small range of scenarios actually quite varied. The investment level has to be determined along weather conditions and what kind of intelligence is available. This last point is very important as entering a scenario with poor intel can result in your force being outflanked or running into a much larger enemy force than expected. Simple rules to implement which allow for unexpected situations to crop up and make even setting up interesting!

Following the battle, you find out if you have received replacements for your losses and any gaps in your command structure are filled by promoting soldiers. You may feel cocky at the onset, but try to fight a campaign on an enemy planet when your senior command doesn't care too much about the platoon it sent in as a token gesture to gauge the enemy strength. Soon you'll be begging for more soldiers, even green recruits, and every battle becomes a balance between preserving your force and achieving the required victory. Tough times, soldier, so just man-up and get on with it!

And is solo play actually any good?

Solo play is well catered for. In addition to the variability from the PEF rules, there are charts to determine enemy behaviour during the game. These are used by rolling against the enemy Rep to decide what action they take and vary depend upon the type of scenario. There are also basic tactics which the enemy will follow in addition to the mission specific ones. Added to the ongoing campaign, this means lots of fun and variation for the solo gamer. 

Any other points I should know about?

Here is a list of things I could think of that I haven't covered:

• Random events including snipers, mines and artillery strikes. 
• Variable insertion: enter the table on foot, in APCs or even by dropship!
• Rules to cover all kinds of vehicles without being overly complex. 
• Structures including bunkers and other buildings
• Rules for 'Stars' so you can heroically lead your forces into battle. 

There has to be something you are not so keen on, surely?

I think there are a couple of gaps to fill if you wanted to game the whole gamut of sci-fi settings. Things like psionics or independent heroes are not covered, and there are no rules for droids, specifically thinking of single ones like Imperial Probe Droids. But in truth it is pretty easy to figure out the odd special skill here and there, or construct a special set of reaction tables for droids to make them act like you want. If you really wanted a game focused on the exploits of larger than life heroes like Han or Luke from Star Wars, then you'd probably want to check out the more skirmish focused 5150 New Beginnings.  But these are minor quibbles given the game's remit of delivering fairly 'hard' sci-fi platoon battles. This it does very well indeed.

Final words to sum up?

I'd like to finish with a quote from the designer's notes which summarises what I like about the game:

5150: STAR ARMY is all about potential. We're giving you the tools to play the sci-fi games you want, as big as you want, and as detailed as you want. Not the crunchy "what bolt was hit" details rules to cover all aspects of sci-fi warfare but easy to follow rules that cover all aspects of sci-fi warfare.

STAR ARMY is not for everyone. You'll find that you do not have total control of your forces, this isn't chess, that you will often not know what you're facing, and the reinforcement system can be cruel at times. But you will be presented with challenges every battle and the tension that comes from uncertainty.

Star Army is great as a solo game and for playing campaigns that are focused on the games to be played rather than lots of paper work. Despite what I said in the section above, in practice it is very flexible in terms of adapting your favourite setting as well. I always used to play Star Wars using Star Grunt. But I'll use Star Army from now on. And that's strong praise from me!

A look at: Chain Reaction 3

Chain Reaction 3 is a free set of rules from Two Hour Wargames suitable for skirmish games in most periods where modern firearms are used. It forms the core of the majority of THW rules and is offered for free as a ‘lite’ version of their rules so potential players can get a feel of what it is all about. The implication in the document is that it will be used for modern police actions or urban warfare but, that said, as long as you are prepared to do a little work, it can be adapted for whatever you like.

Oops. Uploaded this on my iPad and it is much grainier than I expected, sorry!

So how does it work?

CR3 has a rather interesting approach. Core to the game is the idea of ‘reaction tests’. When certain things happen, like being fired upon or coming in sight of the enemy, figures have to test by rolling 2d6 and comparing the individual dice results to their Reputation (Rep), which is usually between 3 and 6. The outcome varies depending on how many dice score equal to or lower than the figure's Rep. So a Rep 4 figure rolling 3 and 5 has passed with 1d6. Naturally, higher Rep figures pass with both dice more often, meaning they react better under fire, duck for cover less and generally behave themselves more!

The second important aspect of the rules is that Rep is used to determine initiative. Each side rolls a d6. The highest roller gets to activate first, but only figures with a Rep equal to or higher can act. So less well trained figures will act less and be forced to mainly react to the enemy (and even then quite poorly), This can be overcome by organising soldiers into groups with a higher Rep leader, as they then use the leaders Rep to decide if they can act.

Both of these things mean that, while you can coordinate your troops according to your plan for victory, you are effectively commanding real people who sometimes are slow to follow orders or prefer to cower in safety. Game play wise, the reaction mechanism means both players are involved no matter who’s turn it is and the activity feels much more integrated than in other games.

What else do I get in these rules?

While they are a substantially paired down set of free rules, CR3 still contains weapons lists, rules for campaigns and generally enough to keep you going for a while as you decide if you want to try some of THW’s other rules. More importantly, it contains one of the most interesting ways to play solo or on the same side as your mates that I have ever come across! The number and deployment of the enemy at the start of the game is unknown, represented by Potential Enemy Force markers (PEFs). When these move into line of sight they are resolved and could be a single figure, or a whole squad, maybe even nothing at all. Once resolved, the figures act according to another table, so the game really does take care of most of the enemy decisions. It is a fun way to play and I personally find it a satisfying solo experience, especially when added to the reaction system.

So what is missing?

I don’t think ‘missing’ is quite the right term, but the ‘full versions’ of the rules are much more meaty affairs. You will find rules and scenarios specific to the period being recreated and skills for characters which add a lot of variation. Depending on the period, there are lots of tweaks to the core rules many of which are significant changes, such as the rules for ship battles in the Pirate rules. Also of note is that while the CR3 rules has one reaction table list for all characters, the full rules have different ones based around class. So police, military or civilian characters will react differently. There are also different rule sets covering platoon (or larger) engagements, where the basic unit is a squad rather than an individual.

Okay, so be honest. What’s not to like about them?

Well, the main thing with these are that they are free and designed to get you interested in the ‘full’ versions. But this isn’t really a criticism as you do get a good game experience from them. In fact I would go so far as to say that in some ways this is a good thing. For example, I am planning on playing Doctor Who games with these rules. I’d rather add to these ‘core’ rules to make them work than try and take bits away from full sets. I guess they do feel a bit empty compared to the full rules, but that is to be expected. They are also different enough that some people seem to struggle with understanding the core concepts. I cannot comment on why this is, but it is safe to say that players should leave their preconceptions at the door and absolutely not make assumptions based on experience with other rules. But that’s why you should really try the free version and see what you think.

Right, so a quick sum up…

This is a fun and very different free set of rules that provide a good insight into the core concepts behind THW rules. I would very much say try them out and see what you think. Then, if you like what you see, take a look at the rules for a specific period which interest you (and most are covered). The full rule books are available as PDF only or PDF/Print versions and even then only cost you $15-$25 so you are not really breaking the bank to find out what is going on. I’ll be posting more reviews of specific sets in the future.