We’d had a couple of games of Dreadball at the club, so
we were already feeling fairly well disposed towards Mantic’s rulesets and
theme, and we have the advantages of one or two members being itinerant
Kickstarters, so we had all we needed to get cracking. Now, there’s quite a lot of stuff to like
about this game, so I’ll touch on a few things that struck me about it.
The play area:
this game come with a nice and sturdy (I think it’s vinyl) battlemat
that’s about 2’x2’ and subdivided into an 8x8 grid. Combined with the modular buildings you can
create the battlefield really easily and quickly and play the whole game in a
fairly small space. The preponderance of
buildings and the modular design does allow you quite a bit of
three-dimensional play which was refreshing to experience and really helped
create a good urban atmosphere.
No tape measures: The grid on the mat isn’t just for
show, which is just as well (it would look quite weird). Movement in this game is oddly freeform. A
single move allows you to move into an adjacent cube (this game works with a
lot of vertical movement), but you can place the model anywhere in that
cube. The precise facing of the models
doesn’t seem important yet (bar one of the units for one of the factions), but
the lines of sight are still ‘true (i.e. model-sight), so getting the
positioning of your unit to make use of cover is still significant. Weapon ranges are all in cubes, so it’s quite
easy to work that out as well.
The dice: This
game uses D8s rather than D6s. Nothing
really above or beyond that, really. It
helps with rolling the scatter and, giving the Mantic tendencies towards
exploding results, this happens a little less often with D8s than the more
common D6s. I suppose it also helps
distinguish it from other skirmish games, much like one of the main
distinguishing properties of Malifaux was/is its reliance on cards. This brings us onto another big thing with
the game.
Luck: Mantic has
long used the exploding dice mechanic (where you get a success and a reroll if
you roll the highest result on the dice).
It allows long-shot events to happen and overwhelming odds to be overcome,
although this is very much in the lap of dirty, dirty chance. A lot of this game is very luck based. The first game I played, my sniper took one
shot at the opposing leader and bang, it was completely dead. Never even got a chance to move. I suppose it helps the feeling of
vulnerability, but the outcome of nearly every action is governed by these
rolls and there is very little you can do if the dice aren’t falling your
way. I realise this may sound spurious
or hypocritical as a point made by a heavy 40k player like me, but the
exploding dice mechanic really brings this into starker relief. I’m not even sure this is a complaint either,
it’s just a quirk of the game. Anyone
could die at any time, without any dirty tricks even entering into it. Get used to that. And speaking of dirty tricks…
Cards: Each player
has a deck of cards based on their faction.
All of these cards have bonuses on them like ‘take a short move’ or ‘+1
dice to shooting’ or similar. You can
play these on your models to give those advantages, although you are limited to
one card per model per turn. It is a
very interesting tweak to the game and adds an extra layer of tactics. They are also critical for game timing as
well. The moment your deck runs dry and
you have no cards left in your hand, the game is over. You have to discard one card a full round (if
you haven’t played any), so there is a hard limit of 20 turns to a game, but it
most likely will never reach it.
Speaking of game end…
Victory conditions: Much like Malifaux, both teams can
have completely different victory conditions, which are randomly selected out
of your faction’s deck of missions. If
you don’t like the first one, you can redraw, but you have to stick with the
second one. A lot of them rely on capturing/controlling
objective points on the map, with different victory point values for each
objective. The thing is, the objectives
are all on preset points on the field, but are otherwise random. Objective X may be worth 5 VPs to you, but
you don’t know which of the three markers is X until you get one of your guys
there to inspect it. This also ties in
nicely with another victory mechanic, which is that you can call an end to the
game if you think you’ve acquired 10VPs.
If you’re wrong, then your mission becomes known and the opponent now
knows exactly how to stop you, but if you’re right then, boom! Victory! I like this mechanic as it adds a good sense
of tension to the game as it really could end at any time and you can still win
the game even if you’re being slaughtered provided the objective is
achieved. Time will tells if this proves
an unbalancing mechanic, but seeing as how much of the game is freeflowing and
random, I don’t think this will prove a problem.
Anyway, that’s my first impressions of the game so
far. I’m definitely sufficiently
intrigued to play it again and get a bit deeper. It’s developing a fair amount of interest in
my club as well. And none of the
factions are the odd ones out. Every one
of them has a fan, which is good to see.
I think I’m an Enforcer fan, myself.
I like the design of them, particularly the riot shield/shotgun
combos. It could also be that they are
the most elite and points-heavy faction and I usually play hordes of guys so
want a break. Could be. Well, that’s it
from me today!
End of Line….
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