Let's Review: Deth Wizards

 

What is it?:

Deth Wizards is a skirmish miniatures game that can be played solo, cooperatively, and standard skirmish with players duking it out.

 

The setting:

Deth Wizards is set in the kingdom of Deth, a once typical fantasy world with kings, villagers, paladins, wizards, and the like. And necromancers. You take control of one of these necromancers, cast out for your dark interests, and have now returned to the kingdom of Deth, to cause havoc and have some revenge!

One interesting thing about this setting is how there seems to be something wrong with the land now. In the lore, there’s talk of how the sun doesn’t shine fully or for as long as it used to. And the land is becoming fallow. I imagine it’s because of the return of the necromancers, but who knows?

 

The system:

To start, you’re going to make a Necromancer. You get to pick a spread of stats, a legacy, and then some powers of your choice. The legacy is how you figure out what “kind” of necromancer you’re playing. Some build up hordes of cheap zombies and skeletons, while others are drawn to the spirit type of undead. There’s only six of these legacies, but you can put a spin on them with the stats and powers.

When it comes to powers, you’re going to have powers that boost your necromancer and those that boost your undead minions, but there’s some that can effect the enemies you’ll be facing. You only get to pick three, after the three everyone, and the ones you might get from your legacy. While you can pick up so more powers and abilities later, it’s really hard to pick just three powers to start off with, especially when you’re just getting started. I’d suggest playing a game or two before setting everything in stone.

The next part of getting ready for the game is picking your minions. Minions have a rating, which will roughly tell you how powerful they are. The higher the rating, the more powerful the minion is. However, that will also depend on your necromancer and your play style. Sure, zombies are low rating and hard to put down, but are slow as hell. This is another thing you should play test before you pick them for sure. Since I tend to play horde style in most games, I know I had to switch myself away from zombies, because of how slow they were, when coupled with the other stuff I wanted to take.

The final part of making your necromancer is selecting a lair for your necromancer. There’s only three of these, and they provide a few abilities, a cap for the amount of undead you can have, and a limit of improvements you can make. You’ll need to leave some undead behind, because your lair can get attacked between games, which you don’t play, you just roll for. And I think that’s kind of lame. I’d rather than it be a thing you play or it doesn’t happen until you reach a certain level of power.

Each mini has a series of stats, the usual ones that you can expect. You’ve got move, Offense, Defense, Resist, and Durability. For the most part, you should be able to puzzle these out and you’ll be rolling d10s equal to the number you have in a stat, with the enemy’s stat being your meet-or-beat on the dice. Resist is the stat you’ll use when you’re trying to effect an enemy model with one of your necromantic powers. Given how you can play against other people, you should think about this as well when picking your minions, if you’re going to being playing that way.

One interesting thing about the game is how your necromancer’s health works. You don’t have any. Instead, you have energy that’s used to power your spells and is how you take damage. Once you run out, you’ll start draining power from the nearest of your minion, continuing until you spread the damage around. I think this is an interesting and unique way of handling this, regaining power isn’t easy. At the start of the turn, you gain 3 energy. That’s the cost of most powers. Your necromancer is going to activate at least twice in a turn, able to move, attack, or cast a power each time, so you’re going to be burning power quickly if you’re going to be running out of it before too long. There’s too other ways to regain power: kill a minion or collect energy from killing enemies. Regaining energy by killing your minions might be a good idea for a minion that’s already badly hurt, but you only gain energy equal to the minion’s rating. That’s 1-4 energy. For the necromancer that’s quote Caligula (Quantity has a quality all its own), you’re boned, getting only 1-2 energy. And to collect energy from a dying enemy, you have to be within 3” of the enemy when it dies. So, you decided to go for a long-range necromancer with a horde of cheap minions, you are screwed for energy. You need to be in the face of the enemy if you want to use more than one power each turn, and if you expect to heal damage. Clearly, the way that the creators what to play the game shines through here. 

As I mentioned at the beginning, you can play one of three ways: Solo, co-op, and skirmish. For the most part, solo and co-op are played the same, just with some slight changes for additional people. In this version of the game, you pick a scenario (attack innocent villagers, raiding a castle, and robbing a graveyard, just name a few) and then set it up. As common with Snarling Badger games, the terrain is the same from Reign in Hell, with crags, forests, and pools of water. What makes this version of the game so interesting to me is that they have “AI” enemies. These enemies are the typical “heroes” you’d see in other games; paladins, priests, rangers, and so on. When they get to go, you roll a d10 and see what they’re going to do this turn. This can be absolutely brutal, if you get the worst result at the wrong time. And there’s a lot of enemies you’ll have to face in a game. Unfortunately, the scenarios are mostly “attack this place, face ever increasing enemies, and try to kill everything in five turns.” Which is going to get boring quickly. And requires certain type of terrain (anyone got a “magical college” building laying around?), which is a bit taxing. Also, you either kill everything in five turns or you lose. There’s no minor victories. There’s only succeed, really succeed, or do it again harder and get even more success, or you lose. That’s it. It’s all shades of success or total failure.

And while there is the skirmish version of the game, it’s much more “roll dice to see what we’re fighting over and how we win” which doesn’t feel engaging. I admit that I haven’t read all of the rules about it, as I picked this game up for the co-op or solo play, because that’s what interests me. That said, it’ll be nice to try out, once I finish the campaign in the rest of the book.

After you’ve finished a game, there’s a roll to see if your minion has survived (even if you blew it up, which some necromancers can do), which is pet peeve of mine. After that, you get to choose to raise one new undead. You can either choose to create a new minion from the list at the beginning, or you can raise one of the heroes you defeated. When you try to raise a new minion, you roll a die and hope for the best. Some of the scenarios give you an automatic success on some type of minion or a bonus on the roll. It does it easier to succeed the more you fail. When it comes to raising a hero, you get a hero with the abilities it has, with the rating equal to what it had when it died, but it loses all the AI stuff. I do like how you get a choice of what you want to do, it’s really nice to customize what kind of force you can build. Once you’re done with this, you can spend any experience you were able to earn to get more powers, select some abilities, or save it up. And then you can improve your lair, every other game. The bookkeeping isn’t too much but it seems to be a little too random for me. 

 

Is it worth it?:

Yes, if you have the stuff for it. If you’ve got an evil wizard mini and some undead monsters, go for it. It’ll be a fun change of pace for you. If you’re looking to be evil, there’s a lot of evil stuff to do. It’s less than $20 for a physical and digital copy.

However, the game isn’t a hard, crunchy system. Stuff is really swingy and I bet you could math your way into the best minions to take for every scenario. It’s an indie game, it’s going to be flawed, so you have to be ready for that. It’s more about fun than setting or rules. And that might not be the best for everyone. Plus, it’s not going to be much for replaying after you finish the campaign once or twice, or play the skirmish version a dozen times.

Let's Review: Pulp!

 What is it?:

Pulp! Is a skirmish miniatures game that aims to replicate the feeling of old books and movies from the “pulp era” of media.

 

 The setting:

As mentioned above, the setting isn’t really one, but a genre instead. The book references a few of the more famous pulp series and media, but they do include two scenarios in the book. One is about a New Rome thing being discovered and the other is about ninjas and poison during the WW2 era. Otherwise, it’s up to you to come up with something.

 

The system:

The game is based around pools of d6’s, with the number and amount depending on a few things.

When it comes to the amount of models you’re going to have, it’s going to depend, but it recommends that you start with maybe a dozen models. Each of these models are going to have a rank, which is going to be the main factor in how many models you’re going to have and how good they’re going to be. To put it simply, the more powerful the unit is, the fewer models it will have. In the beginning of the book, they recommend one Hero/Villain model (or two), one or two 2-Model Elite or Veteran units, and three 3-Model Seasoned units. And we come to one of my first problems with the game. It doesn’t clearly state that you should have either one Elite Unit or two Veteran units, plus I don’t think this really reflects Pulp genre stuff. Usually, in the old serials and films, you’d have a main hero, a “trusty sidekick”, maybe a love interest and maybe a scientist or “Kenny” (young kid that’s going to cause problems but also be helpful) for the heroes. The villains were usually the main villain, be it the king, the priest, or whatever, and then a second in command (who might be traitorous), and a bunch of grunts. By requiring both sides to be matched like this, it doesn’t quite line up with how we see most stuff in the old stuff. Hell, even modern stuff doesn’t have things like this.

Anyway. Once you pick your models, you get to equip them. After a few games to learn the rules, which is fair. Models can have one ranged weapon, one melee weapon, and one explosive. In addition to the stuff you’d expect (pistols, knives, grenades, etc), they do have a nice list of Mad Science or Alien Technology weapons, with is kind of cool. I say you could also make them into spells or super powers, if you need them. That said, there are some special powers that a unit/model can use a few times per game. There’s a fairly sized list of them, but it’s not well organized, and they do have that “roleplaying element” where your Heroes can pick from a list of things that limits what general powers you can use, but also gives you another power instead. One the other side of that, there’s a list of drawbacks that you can use to balance it out. Not that this game really cares about balance, but it at least gives it lip service.

The game is broken down into several different phases in a turn, like a lot of games, based around movement, combat, and typical end of turn stuff. However, one thing that makes this game a little different is the “continuing combat” phase at the start of the turn, for hand to hand fights that hasn’t been resolved yet. When it comes to picking your actions, there’s a lot of leeway in how much you can move and what you can and can’t do in the next phases depending on what you choose to do. Out of everything they have, this is one thing that I like the most. Getting to choose between moving zero and four inches for the same action is really nice, because it reduces the sense of urgency or need to “do something” when you’re trying to set things up, and might make it harder for an opponent to guess what your plan is based on what action you’ve picked. Plus, I think I rather enjoy combined actions these days.

Now, on to some of the stuff that I feel like doesn’t quite work with this game. While you do have a rather nice list of classic wild and savage animals (yes, including dinosaurs) to include in games if you want to, I don’t feel like the rules work quite as well as I would like them. I can’t explain exactly what it is about them, but it’s just not clicking for me. And, as much as this game wants to be like character driven game, there’s no real rules for experience and campaigns. Part of this is because of the loose rules they have, but it’s also the fact that this game is trying to be everything to everyone, which is the downside of “universal” games and settings. What compounds this for me is the fact that the scenarios they give you are more outlines than real scenarios. While this is great for the intent of the game, as you don’t know what kind of games and settings your players are going to come up with, you can’t really give them firm games to play. There’s also several variations they discuss, should you be trying to run a campaign. Not that you can, not like other games, because there’s nothing but an outline of an idea of how to improve models and groups.

 

Is it worth it?:

If you have the models already, and it’s on sale, yes. Otherwise, probably not. Honestly, this feels unfinished or cut short. It’s almost there but there’s too much missing for me. I swear, it’s got to be that full page art that Osprey uses that must be cutting down the page count just enough to leave things undone.

Honestly, it reminds me a lot of Zona Alfa. However, ZA has two supplements that make it better, which is where it feels like the author wanted to take it, but didn’t have the space. If this game could do the same, I’d put this as a firm yes.

I only picked up this game because I’d heard really good things about it and I’ve been on the hunt for a good Pulpy game. Nothing in what I found pointed out the problems I found, which is a shame, because I’m still hunting for that game…

Let's Review: Reality's Edge

What is it?:

Reality’s Edge is a Cyberpunk skirmish game set in the grimy, dark, depressing world of the Sprawl. 

 

The setting:

It’s 30 minutes into the future and the Space Jerk/Tech Bros/Super Rich just run the world now. Crypto Currency is actually being used (even if that makes the least amount of sense in the whole thing) and we have cybernetics. It’s everything that science fiction authors have been trying to warn us about for decades.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t read too much about the setting, as it’s kind of mishmash of cyberpunk settings, with a dash of current trends (gig economy, crypto currency, social media, etc). I’m not saying it’s bad, not at all, it’s just that I have my own idea for the setting and I’ll get into that if/when I get around to playing some games.

 

The system:

The system for Reality’s Edge is very similar to the one from This is Not a Test, with a few changes and adaptation for the gritty cyberpunk setting. For the most part, models roll a d10, add a stat, and beat the TN (Target Number, usually 10). There’s stats for shooting, fighting, hacking, your firewall so you don’t get hacked, and even some digital hit points, which is really about your connection.

When you make your group, you’ll start with making a Showrunner, who is a promoted version of the various model types (I’ll get to them shortly), who also gets a background and a few other things. Then, you’re supposed to make your Backer, but I’m going to skip them for now. Instead, let’s talk about the rest of model types.

When making a crew or team, you can recruit up to five other models from a pretty good list of classic cyberpunk archetypes. We’ve got hackers (who are called Console Cowboys, in a nice nod to classic cyberpunk), Sprawl Ronin (which is a very interesting flip on the classic Street Samurai title), gang members, enforcers, social media influencers, ninja types, and drone handlers (which I find to be a very interesting inclusion), just to name a few. You might think that this low number of types might lead to a feeling of sameness in crews, but each time you pick one, you get to pick what sort of variation they get in stats, as well as pick a random table to roll on for their starting skills. These members of your crew start out as freelancers, who you can later recruit into permanent member of the crew, who then gain experience.

The last part of your crew is going to be the avatar of the mysterious backer of your Showrunner and your crew. This avatar is going to be a hologram or only exist in cyberspace, as that’s something else that’s also on the game board, too. Anyway. If you’re just playing one off games, your backer isn’t really a big deal. When you start a campaign, you get to pick (or randomly roll) what kind of backer you have and give them a special ability. Backers vary from media corporations, military/government sponsors, organized crime, corporations, and unshackled AI, which is my personal favorite. Each sponsor gives you a pair of advantages and gives their avatar a special skill.

The last part of building a crew is buying gear, which is going to add up quickly. You have melee weapons, pistols, long guns, support weapons (except not rocket launchers for some reason), cybernetics (with a cyber-psychosis mechanic to keep things interesting), and Apps for the hackers, that act a lot like spells. Now, most things cost 5, 10, 15 points, but it’ll add up quick. Plus, there’s only one healing item, but only one combat medic character type, so things are going to get deadly fast.

Once you get around to the missions, or JOBOPS as the game calls them, where you get to do your hacking and killing. Most jobs are about what you might expect in a dystopian cyberpunk future: kidnapping people who want to change employers (or because another employer wants them), protecting a location, or stealing data. My favorite one is protecting a Ramen cart as your crews transport it through the ghetto. There’s a fair amount of jobs, each with their own complications, as well as a master complication table. I feel like this can add in some repeatability, but it would be nice to get some expansions with extra jobs. Maybe that was part of the plan and it just hasn’t come to pass yet. Anyway.

Once the jobs are done, you get to roll for rewards, and traces if you fumbled while hacking and stuff, as well as recruit your freelancers. That’s right, most of your team isn’t going to gain experience during games. It’s the gig economy, but with more bullets and less heath care. Which is saying something. I still don’t know how I feel about this mechanic, but I can see why it works like this, with the setting we were given. I just worry about how this comes down to a roll, with bonuses from bribes, as I tend to roll poorly.

The last part of this book is the “rogue’s gallery” of NPCs you might encounter in the game. This list varies from the corporate security you might expect, to the drunk salaryman and VR griefer you’re probably not expecting. As much as I like the types collected here, I’m slightly unhappy with the amount of corporate goons that could have been condensed and replaced with more interesting NPCs.

 

Is it worth it?:

Reality’s Edge is most expensive Osprey Wargame that I’ve run across at $45, so that makes it a much harder call to make. For me, I found a cheaper copy online, which made it easier to swallow, but it’s a hard sell if you’re not sure if you’re going to like it or not. So, I have to leave this in the “maybe” category as that price makes it harder to figure out.

Let's Review: Rogue Stars

What is it?:

Rogue Stars is a 28mm scale science fiction skirmish game that’s part of Osprey’s “blue book” collection.

The setting:

The setting is a galactic empire that is falling apart, with pirates, mercenaries and others going up against the last few militias and police, while others are defending themselves or perhaps taking advantage of the situation. That’s all that’s really said but you can get some more from the sample groups and persons. For me, the art reminds me of Titan A. E., which is a fun little flick that you might get a kick out of. I enjoy it because it kind of subverts the expectation that humanity will be a power player in galactic affairs.

However, since the system and rules are flexible enough, you can easily make up a setting that fits your models or ideas better. That means I’m using it to play some Raygun Gothic stuff.

 

The system:

Like a lot of systems I’ve been seeing these days, or maybe I’m just reading too many supplements for FrostGrave lately, this one uses a d20 for almost everything. However, it does a lot of things differently than I’ve seen done. To begin, when you want to have a model act, you have to make a roll to see if you get to go. You can roll up to three dice for this but it’s a gamble, as if you fail to make a roll, that gives your opponent a chance to react for each failed roll. And when a model gets to roll for a react, assuming they make their rolls, they get to take their actions before the model that was (is) going to act. While interesting, this is going to screw someone like me, who rolls at or below average. Now, this system is really unique and makes choosing who you want to act (or react) a very important decision, not to mention that you have to choose how many dice to try with. However, it can also mean that you could spend a game with a model that never gets to act or even having your entire force blasted off the board before they get to act. So, yeah, interesting idea but given the variability, or should I say, unreliability of dice rolls, is really going to screw people over.

The random rolls continue, as when you actually hit someone, you have to make another roll to see what kind of damage you do, and then another roll to see where you hit them (because we have hit locations), and then see how badly hurt the place you hit. While this will speed up the more you play, it makes your first few games drag out. Not to mention that there’s a lot of modifiers and tokens that you have to keep track of.

When it comes to making your force, you have a ton of options. There’s almost fifty Traits that models can have, allowing you to make any sort of alien or human. There’s also a ton of weapons, both melee and ranged, equipment, and armor. You can pick up just about any model in your collection and use it in a game. But, that depends on your Theme. There’s ten Themes, giving you a list of Traits you can pick, and what weapons and equipment your models can use. The way these are listed in the book is terribly done and I had to make my own reference sheet, which is why I know how many Traits there are (next up is making a full list of what weapons and equipment each Theme can use, when I get time). I don’t know if this was done for balance, because it really doesn’t feel like it, more like the creator was really focused on making it a THEME, if you get what I mean.

How many minis do I get in my team? Well, you get 200 points to build a force of 4-6 minis, with a minimum of 30 points per minis and a maximum of 70, or so. Unfortunately, this means that your teams are going to have models that do one thing, really. Not doing it the best, just having one thing that they’re going to have a focus because you can’t really give them everything they need to really be good at it. Well, that’s really my feeling on it. I mean, you team would probably be about five minis, which gives you roughly 40 points per model, and the lower end armor that you want is 14 points. Add in a single weapon (which you want more than one, because you’re going to have them dropped or knocked out of hands), and that’s going to be almost half your points for a single model. Of course, you can make one big bad model supported by some cheaper ones, but remember that you don’t know if that big guy is going to be able to act. Ever.

One thing I feel compelled to mention is the lack of rules for vehicles. Personally, I don’t feel the need right now but this the one thing I’ve heard from at least one person everywhere I asked. I mean, yeah, I have some minis on motorcycles that I’d like to use but I don’t think that the games lacking without them.

 

Is it worth it?:

Yes.

Okay, yeah, I kind of made it sound bad but it’s $20 and does work out of the box, so to speak. For the problems it does have, you can modify things easily enough to make it work for what you want. For me, that’s upping the teams to 250 points and maybe modifying the Themes a bit. Not too much work. I do wish that the book had spent a bit more time with an editor and maybe had some more play testing but it’s not too bad. While the creator has mentioned that there’s going to be an expansion (to the point where it’s something of a meme about how it’s coming “soon”), I think moving it up to the hardback section and fixing and expanding things, like Gaslands, this game could be a real success. So, maybe pick it up now, help fix the problems, have some fun, and see what happens.

Let's Review: Reign In Hell

What is it?:

Reign In Hell is a “miniatures agnostic” skirmish game created by two YouTube guys for 2-4 players. You probably already know that...

 The setting:

As the name implies, you take control of a group of demons or devils in Hell. However, Hell has had some problems. Some time ago, Hell was invaded by some demon-hunters who were able to destroy the portal to the mortal realm, and the leaders of Hell were toppled. In this power vacuum, different group with different ways of looking at how to solve the problems (or not, for some).

 

The system:

For the most part, the game uses pools of d12s or d6s to decide things. Initiative is using d12s, rolling one for each model you have and assigning it to a model when it comes up. Combat is resolved by comparing the Combat stats and rolling d6s equal to the Combat stats of the models involved to attack and defend. That means that models only have a few stats, really just the ones you need: Move, Combat, and Life. All in all, the system is fairly simple and doesn’t require too much math.

When it comes to making your Cabal (crew, group, team, etc), you pick a Philosophy out from the list. The Philosophy will give your leader a special ability (or two) and determine what your Devout (second in command) will be. The leader is the most complex model in your cabal, as they get powers from the Philosophy, pick one of three different types of Leaders, pick one Relic, and one Essence. This actually creates a lot of customization for your team. Once you get the leader sorted, you pick a model for the Devout, who aren’t nearly as customizable as the Leader but you want to make sure that you’re taking the Philosophy that matches your play style. Then, you can take another eight lesser demons (for most types of games). But, you’re not going to be able to. You see, you get 100 Souls to spend on these lesser demons but they’re so oddly priced, you’re going not going to able to spend 100 even. The lesser demons vary in points from 16 to 22, so good luck with that. Even if you can swing 100 on the nose, you’re not going to hit the ten model cap. However, as you’re probably seeing the comparisons to FrostGrave and the like, your minions DO level up in a campaign.

Speaking of the campaign, the game is really trying to make it be rewarding. There’s tons of stuff to roll for, charts for causalities that don’t let them just drop dead (but you can dismiss them if you want to), and titles you can get by meeting conditions over the course of the campaign. It’s actually pretty cool. There’s a lot of things going on here. But, that does bring us to a small problem: there’s only ten scenarios. Which isn’t terrible but it isn’t a whole lot if you’re going for a long campaign to get all of the toys. I think when there are expansions, they’ll probably be including more scenarios.

The last note about rules and combat is that each model can take “stance” during its activations. It also looks like models can ONLY fight, but movement is rolled into that. I think. I do have to say that the phrasing in this game is more vague then it should be. Anyway. These stances allow you to pick how each model fights as you pick each turn, meaning you’re not locked into one mode for the whole game. Each demon will have bonuses for what stance they’ve taken or when they’re attacked (or even when they die). One important thing about combat is that it’s all close combat, no ranged combat. Which is kind of sad. I was hoping that Leaders (at the very least) would be able to blast someone from across the board. And the boards are going to be KillTeam/WarCry sized. I don’t know why they selected that size. I mean, you could use a 3x3 board if you wanted to but with how movement and combat works, you probably want to stick with the 22x30 board size.

All in all, the game is very fun and unique. I like what I’ve seen however… However, it’s not completely balanced. When you get down to it, numbers and speed are going to be what you want in your minions. I find that to be a little disappointing as it’s going to lead to spam of one type of minion. I also think there’s a bit of a lack of minions for learning and campaign games. There’s only one flying minion and it’s not very powerful in the lesser demon list. I would have liked a few more options for flying minions. That’s partly because I have a handful of succubi that aren’t really useful for this game because of that. Yes, I could just make them Mephits (the flying minions) but I feel like something a little more powerful with flying would be cool. They don’t even need anything extra, just flying. They have talked about some expansions here and there but don’t count on it.

 

Is it worth it?:

Yes. The PDF version is $10 and that’s a fair price of it. If you’ve got anything demon related, and aren’t too particular about what is what, it’s a nice little thing to have. The print copy includes the PDF for free. With shipping, the hard copy cost me less than $20, and gave me the PDF. I think that’s a fair price.

If you don’t have a lot of demons, this might not be worth it. Unless you just want to proxy in random models. I mean, you could use any fantasy minis if you want to. And if you’ve been looking for an excuse to pick up random demons, here it is.

 

Let's Review: StarGrave

What is it?:

Stargrave is a 25mm/30mm scale skirmish game using science fiction miniatures and setting by the creator of FrostGrave and Ghost Archipelago.

 

The setting:

The game takes place after the Last War, galactic conflict that seems to have collapsed all of civilization, leaving pirate fleets as the only real authority left. These fleets are keen to keep everyone else ground down so they can loot and pillage as much as they desire. How much sense this makes is up to you. The forces players bring to the game are smaller crews of freebooters and independents looking to find interesting, or at least valuable, things back from places most others don’t go. However, they have to worry about the beasts of the various planets they visit and attracting the attention of the pirates.

 

The system:

Like all of the games based on FrostGrave, you will build a leader, second in command, and a crew of varying power. Unlike the original FG, this game has much customization. When you pick your captain, you pick a background from a list, with things like Mystic, Veteran, Biomorph, and the like. From there, you get to pick some powers from the listed ones, and then a few more from the complete list, but they’re not as easy to use. These powers have a “casting” difficulty and might cost you health to use, depending on how powerful they are. Your First mate can choose the same background, or another of your choice, so you can mix and match, finding the best combination that works for you. Afre powers, these two get to select gear, using only slots to limit your choices. No money or the like, just X slots for gear, with some gear taking up multiple slots. Once your have the CO (Commanding Officer/Captain) and XO (Executive Officer/First Officer) figured out, it’s time to get your crew. There’s two different types of crew: Basic and Specialist. You get some Credits to spend on both, and can take up to four Specialists, like in Ghost Archipelago. However, there’s a lot of choices for you in the Basic section, like Medics, that will cost you but you aren’t capped by the Specialist limit, making them easier to get and replace. One other thing to note is that you can replace up to four of your crew with robots, which are something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, they can be upgraded with certain Powers, and have some advantages when it comes to combat, but can also be taken over by another player if they have the right Powers. Something to think about.

The rest of the system is almost exactly like what you’ve seen in the other games created by the same guy, you’ve got d20 rolls for everything, the same stat lines, some Powers that are very useful and some that aren’t, and a lot of random tables. A few changes that we see to familiar tables is that when your CO and XO are messed up and make the rolls, they don’t automatically die if you roll the same results twice (except losing your eyes), as well as not being as crippling, but they’re still not great. They’ve made the usually optional rules for being wounded a requirement, and added in some new status effects and conditions you’re going to need to manage. Poisoned, Shaken, and Wounded are going to need tokens. They’ve also included templates for things like grenades and flamethrowers. But, if you’ve played the other games, you’re going to pick it up really quickly.

The last thing is the random monster tables. Instead of the pages and pages of random monsters that you need to proxy or buy, the list is much, much smaller, but still contains some rather unique entries. The major change now is that you’re going to be dealing with random pirates and ruffians. This might be easy for you to do, if you’ve got a large enough 40k or minis collection but might also be harder to match exactly. If you don’t have a ton of Imperial Guard minis laying around (like I do), just pick up some IMEF or Nova Corps guys from Reaper’s Bones line (there’s also Cyber Reavers, too) and slap them down. You can also use them to make crews, too. Personally, I’m planning to finally paint up the two IMEF squads I got way back in the first Kickstarter to use for example crews and bring along some Nova guys to use as pirates.

I have to say that this version of the system is bay far my favorite. While FrostGrave is interesting and kind of opened the door, the game requires a lot of time before you start, managing money for weapons and crew, as well as picking spells from the lists, and calculating the casting requirement for them; I’m also not a huge fan of losing health for failing a roll, it feels like punishment for bad luck. I do like the way Ghost Archipelago works a lot more, more freedom when making your crew and picking your Powers. But, those are fantasy, which isn’t my bag anymore. Having a sci-fi game that’s skirmish scale and won’t really require spending more money on minis is very appealing to me and this game is right in the sweet spot for me. Once The Plague has started to fade, I look forward to playing a campaign of this with a group of friends.

Is it worth it?:

If you already have some sci-fi minis, this is an easy “Yes.” The crews can be built using 40k stuff, random Reaper stuff, whatever you’ve got laying around. Since they use sci-fi weapons, you could probably get away with filling your ranks with even modern minis. Or using them for some wandering monsters.

Let's Review: After the Bomb (second editon)

What is it?:

After the Bomb is a post-apocalyptic RPG from Palladium Games originally designed to be part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game line but was spun off into its own thing when they lost the license.

The setting:

As I just said, this game begins some 80-100 years after the end of the world. The end of the world happens some hundred years in the future, so it’s maybe 200 years from now. If you’re hearing echos of Rifts, you’re not the only one. Anyway. The end of the world happens during a point in the future where most diseases and such have been eliminated and animals have started to be mutated to be better pets and the like. Well, some little jerk released a disease that just started wiping people out (which is way darker in the post-2020 present) which led to a limited nuclear exchange and the end of the world as we knew it.

Now, some decades (or century) later, humanity is almost gone. In its place is a full of mutant animals and insects instead. Of course, there’s group of human supremacists that have loyal mutant dogs (but without the coll skull motif on their equipment) in America, surrounded by several mutant animal nations. The core book is centered around the east coast, but other source books explore the west coast, the Yucatan, the UK, and Australia. There’s also a joint source book for Rifts and AtB that takes place IN SPACE!

The system:

The system is the typical Palladium system, with all the flaws I’ve already gone over. While this book doesn’t use OCCs, I’m sure you could add them. The one thing that this second edition of the game is make really good and unique mutant animals. There’s plenty of normal things you’d expect; things like cats, dogs, weasels, alligators, birds, and the like. Then, there’s “Chimeras” and “Purebreeds.” Chimeras are animals that are a blend of two (maybe more) animals we see in nature. Some of these are just made by having animals interbreeding but the more terrifying thing is that the majority were based on things we’re made in reality or would make, if given the chance. The most horrific of these is the “Spider Goat” Chimeras. Based on something we already do (splice in spider DNA into goats so we can harvest spider silk from their milk, look it up), these ones take the cake for the most extreme. Then, there’s flying pigs. Because you know someone would do that if they could. Meanwhile, Purebreds happen because of natural selection in this hard world and can only “bred true” (meaning both parents have to be the same thing). Some these are also stupidly powerful, like the Pixie Bobcat, who can teleport 1 mile. And then there’s the Pleasure Bunnies, which you know we’d do, if given half a chance…

Using the BIO-E system, you can make a mutant animal that can be anything from normal looking with massive mental powers to a mutant animal that’s almost impossible to tell apart from a normal, unmutated human. You can spend these points to increase the mutant’s size (or gain them by reducing size), keep vestigial traits both good and bad, give them full bipedal motion, hands, speech, and looks, and give them psionics. The original mutant animal rules are from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and were not nearly as in-depth as these, which carries over into the source books, as well as the mutant hero rules in Heros Unlimited.

The one thing this system also has is a very low key Psionics system compared to the others. You don’t have to keep track of Psionic “mana,” instead just having a limited amount of time it can be used or uses per day, at most. You could introduce the normal Psionics system into this game, if you really want to.

Is it worth it?:

As with all Palladium games, this is another “Maybe.”

If you already own Rifts, Heroes Unlimited, or even Ninja & Superspies, you might want this as a source book, just for the mutant animal character creation rules. Since it doesn’t have the typical OOC/RCC system, it fits seamlessly into one that already does, since you can make your mutant and then take a class of your choosing. If you don’t have those other games, you can probably skip it. While it is a playable game, the setting feels very bolted on, with very few details. You need to download the map pack online (which is free) to understand where things are. If you want to explore the world, you need those books, as well as some issues of The Rifter. And the source books are using the first edition rules, not nearly as comprehensive as the second edition ones, meaning you’re going to want to fiddle with them before playing.

And, yes, there’s a very strong element of furry stuff in here. I won’t deny it, there’s no point. If you’re in that community, this might just be the game for you. Just don’t try to force it onto others, okay?

Let's Review: Ghost Archipelago

What is it?:
Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago is a 28mm miniatures game set in the Frostgrave world published by Osprey Games. 

 

The setting:
While in the same world as Frostgrave, Ghost Archipelago is a literal world away, set in the tropical isles that make up the aforementioned archipelago. You take control of a Heritor, who's ancestor once visited this area and drank from a Crystal Pool, gaining great powers. Since the archipelago vanishes every 200 years, only to reappear for a few more, you have acquired a ship and crew and are now looking to find the Pool. You need to find the pool so using the powers you have don't make your blood burn... 

 

The system:
Much like Frostgrave, you're going to start out by building your crew, beginning with your Heritor. You pick five powers for your Heritor (which is just like your Wizard in Frostgrave), one of which will be very easy to use and four others that aren't much harder. Of course, you can use these powers multiple times per turn (depending on a few factors) which makes them harder to pull off and hurts your Heritor more. After you get the Heritor figured out, you have to pick a Warden, which is more like a Frostgrave wizard with a “school” of sorts, but are much more like druids in a traditional high fantasy setting. Once the magic users are done, it's time to get your crew sorted out. You get a total of eight crew, up to four of which may be upgraded to Specialists, with 250 gold. The basic crew get to choose a weapons package, like hand weapon and shield, two handed weapon, etc. The Specialists will help you decide what kind of force you're going for. Heavy weapons and armor? Ranged specialists? Speed? It all comes down to what you pick.

Just like Frostgrave, you have a few stats and everything is settled with a single d20 roll. And each mission revolves around claiming treasure and getting away. The random monster tables are similar yet very different. You'll spiders and undead return, but now there's a whole bunch of dinosaurs and even intelligent forces to contend with. One positive change is that most of things that could make a game complex (like random encounters) are now optional and can be used to bridge the gap in power between forces. Of course, this does mean that you're going to need to buy more miniatures, but, come on, dinosaurs! Who doesn't want some of those to play with?

One of the major changes is that most of the missions will involve water and boats, meaning you might need to invest in new terrain and some miniatures for those. I'm a bit unhappy with that, having to make a bunch of islands and waterlogged ruins, but I do have to agree that it makes sense for the setting.

 

Is it worth it?:
Yes. If you already have a Frostgrave group, switching over shouldn't be too hard. If you don't, just buy some pirates and dinosaurs. Or just buy some anyway.

Let's Review: Zona Alfa

 What is it?:

Zona Alfa is a 25mm scale miniatures game published by Osprey Games, inspired by things like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. And Roadside Picnic.

 

The setting:

While slightly vague about the exact location, it's clearly suppose to be the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (like STALKER) in Eastern Europe in territory of what was once the United Soviet Socialist Republics. Also known as the USSR or CCCP.

This Zone is very fucked up. There's zombies, ghouls, hordes of vermin and wild dogs. To make things even worse, there's Anomalies. These warp reality and cause all sorts of crazy shit. If you've played STALKER, you know the basics.

The Zone is contained by a military force that should be keeping people out, but seem to be either easily bribed or evaded. Probably a bit of both. Inside the Zone, there's a half dozen groups operating inside, looting and pillaging whatever they can get away with for a variety of reasons. These groups can work together, ignore each other, or fight whenever they come into contact.

Inside the zone is a very dangerous place, so don't think that it's a place for the faint of heart. Only the hard, or the insane, are able to survive long enough to make enough money to retire.

 

The system:

The game uses both d10s and d6s, but most of the rolls you're going to need to make uses d10s. One interesting thing is that the game is a throw back in that you want to roll low, not high, and there's critical hits and failures.

Before I go much further, I'd like to point out the very Warhammer 40k vibe that comes off of this thing. The game also uses the classic WYSIWIG: What You See Is What You Get. That means that all weapons and equipment must me represented on the model. Or at least something someone can reasonably guess is that it is. That means a pistol is a pistol, not an SMG. Nor is an Assault Rifle an SMG.

Building your gang is rather interesting compared to most other games I've read. Rather than using points to build your force, you go by the experience level of the models. Sure, it's actually called Khrabrost' but it's just a way to get a balanced force. You get 12 Khrabrost' to spend on your group, however your leader has to a Veteran that costs 3k Khrabrost', you really only get 9k. And each level of experience (Rookie, Hardened, Veteran) costs 1k and is also the total number of actions the model gets, as well as how much equipment it can carry. If you want to make a horde, just roll with a bunch of Rookies and have at. If you want an elite force, roll with Veterans.

Another thing you want to figure out is what Faction your crew is a part of. There's the military, scientists, traders, and independent operators. There's also bandits and cultists that seem to worship the Zone. Each faction relates to the others differently. What that means is that you could end up in a mission where the other player's crew is an ally, meaning that you have to make a roll to fight them. The good thing is you'll split the rewards if you don't attack each other. Even if you're not best buds, you might not want to attack the other crew.

The models have a few stats, beyond their number of actions. They also have Combat Ability (which seems to be what is rolled when in a fight), movement (which should be obvious), and Will (which is rolled to get back into the fight and survive stuff). Weapons have Range, Firepower, and Damage. There's a lot of weapons. Not just melee weapons and guns, but RPGs, grenade launchers, crew serviced weapons like mortars and heavy machine guns, and thrown grenades, as well as so much more. I'm really happy to see all of this, especially with the WYSIWIG rule in effect. It also means that I'm probably going to be using my old Imperial Guard to build my crew. Or maybe Inquisitors or even some metal Sisters of Battle.

Models, with enough experience, get skills. There's not a lot of them but they do give each model its focus.

When it comes to playing the game, the rules are very much like most other skirmish games that I've played. Each model gets a set amount of actions based on their experience as I mentioned, so you have to be very careful when building that group. If you're going to go with a horde, you won't be able to shoot as much, even if you have a bunch of them. Because it's alternating activation, you might get screwed because you can never see the other crew, as they're able to stay in cover.

Models get to equipment based on their experience, so you have to keep that in mind, too. If you want to have a model that heals others, you probably want to have a more experienced model in that roll. Not only because of the number of actions they can take, as well as having skills that can help, but the ability to carry enough kits to do what needs to be done.

Speaking of healing, this is where things can get weird. When your model gets hit by a ranged attack, it can either miss, hit the armor, or actually do some damage. When an attack hits, but doesn't do damage, the model becomes pinned. Which you have to slowly remove with actions. Most models can take only one damage, but do remain on the table so they can be healed. They just lay there until someone kills them outright or the game ends.

Remember how I mentioned how much this reminds me of Warhammer 40k? Well, that's because it uses the old blast markers and flamer template. Thankfully, I have several left over from when I played. However, it doesn't use the old scatter die, instead you use the direction the “top” of the d10 is pointing when using blast markers.

In addition to all the rules to make your crew, there's rules for a campaign and leveling up your crew. You get points, and cash, from completing missions and getting salvage (oh, we're going to have a talk about the missions). You can use the cash to buy the stuff you need, including more models, or you can save it. Saving it is the name of the name, you see. During a campaign, your goal is to hit 10,000 in Zone Script (ZS) and retire. Of course, that might be easier said than done. When you select a faction, they give you discounts for buying gear or guys, but at the cost of 10% of the take during a mission. What happens if you don't bring home the bacon? They take 10% of your savings instead, so if you're almost to retirement, you will lose a lot of cash. There are some suggested ways of changing the end game but you'd have to discuss them with the other player(s) first.

So... Missions. Runs. What you do to actually play the game... Yeah. This is where things start to fall apart. There's no real rules for deployment. I saw some in the little campaign they have at the end of the book but no hard and fast rules, at least that I could see. They also say that the game can be played on a 3'x3' board, but with the weapon ranges they list, you're going to get smashed on the first turn if you didn't deploy in the right way. Not that you would know how to do that... If you really what to play the game, be ready to play on a 4'x4' board absolutely covered in terrain.

In each game, there's a “threat level” so to speak. The deeper you go into the Zone, the more Hot Spots you encounter. Roughly two per level with three levels. But there's no real rules on where to place these Hot Spots on the board. Plus, each Hot Spot and objective has a threat inside them. There's vermin swarms, zombies, ghouls, bandits, and mutants, with rules, but no real description of what they are or how big they should be. I don't know what the difference is between zombies and ghouls, as our modern version of zombies are more ghouls than traditional zombies. And these threats will move no more than 12” away from the Hot Spot and objective, so placement should be important. Also, Hot Spots are where you get Artifacts, which are very powerful, and therefore, very important. Since the game has a turn limit, you'll have to rush to these things, beat the monsters (and possibly opponent), and then make a roll to collect the Artifact. And then you'll have to roll to see what it does.

As for objectives, and mission types, there's a little table for What/Where/Why, which is cool but again, no rules for how that effects the mission. I'm not sure exactly what happened here but it just... Bothers me. Happily, there's only one objective per game so when you combine up the tables, you'll get a lot of different games out of it. Once you figure out what they all mean.

 

Is it worth it?:

I hate to say it, but... No, it's not worth $20. It's not a complete game. It's only ¾ of a game, which is a real shame. There's so much flavor text and atmosphere in the book, but it seems to be at the cost of basic rules you need to play it. I'm not sure if Osprey has an editor for these games but it looks like they need one. When I was reading over the game again for this review, I got the sense that the creator just ran out of room for the last few things the game needed and just assumed that players would figure it out. I think that might be because the creator is of the “old school” way of thinking where it's “your game, do what works for you.” There's nothing wrong with that, it just work for a lot of people.

However, I only paid about $12 for my physical and digital copies each, and if you're willing to do the work, it's not that bad at that price. I love the concept of the game and I think it has really good mechanics and setting, but I have to caution you if you're expecting a complete product.

My final note is that the book has a ton of fantastic art and great favor text that really gets you into the world of Zona Alfa. If they gave this book the “Hardback Treatment”, (like Gaslands) with rule fixes and expanded mission stuff, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, even at $30+.

Let's Review: Dracula's America

What is it?:

Dracula's America is a Gothic horror meets old west 25/28mm scale miniatures game for two or more players published by Osprey Games.

 

 

The setting:

It's 1875 and North America is much different place than the one in our history. President Abraham Lincoln was advised by a mysterious European noble who makes the US Civil War much, much worse. The war grinds to a halt and a group of freedmen fight behind the lines inside the South. After a long and bloody war, the CSA is defeated and starts a guerrilla war against the Union.

Not that things are going well for the Union. In one night, President Lincoln and his cabinet are killed and the mysterious noble takes control and becomes “President For Life” after declaring martial law.

Of course, this nobleman is in fact Count Dracula and is doing all of this to gain and keep control. Now, there's all sorts for terrible and horrible things going on, with magic and nasty creatures bumping around.

Note: there's actually a lot of background covered in a short amount of pages.

 

 

The system:

The game uses several different dice (d6s, d8s, d10s) for actions and decks of playing cards for initiative. And if you roll the top number on one die, you can re-roll another. Honestly, I'm getting some really strong Deadlands vibes. And they only increase as I read.

In a turn, you draw a number of cards equal to half your current posse, plus one if the Boss is still around. Then, when one of your cards comes up (going in descending order from Aces), you can choose to give one model two actions or two models one action each. The actions are about what you would expect; moving, shooting, fighting, as well as an overwatch type action that's becoming common in a lot of skirmish games these days. Once you're out of cards, or everyone standing has gone, it starts all over again.

Combat seems to be pretty straight forward and models can be unaffected by an attack or taken out in one hit. That's right, hits, not damage. There's two states a model can be, before being removed as a casualty, but it's going to come down to making saves when you've lost the original roll.

As much as I can see the Deadlands influence in the game, I'm starting to see some 40k cropping up here. I don't think I've seen too many games with saves besides that one lately...

Models have three ranks: Hero, Veteran, and Novice. If you're familiar with Zona Alfa (which I'll get to, eventually), this might have seen something like this before. Depending on the rank of the model, you roll X amount of the dice you need. Every 5+ is a success and the model with the most successes wins usually. What that boils down to is that the higher the rank, the better the chance of success.

When it comes to building your forces, you have several different ways to do it, and I have to say, I kind of like it. The first way, and probably the way you should start, is you pick a maximum number of models, equipment them with what you can see, and play the game. This is clearly for pick-up games and learning how to play. And I think that's a good thing. Next, you can build a force with a $100 limit, including their equipment. You pay more per model depending on their rank (or Grit as the game calls it), so you can go for the minimum of four if you want an elite force and a maximum of ten if you want to have a bunch of less reliable dudes.

I'll discuss the third way of making a posse in a little bit.

When it comes to equipment, there's a healthy list of guns and a few other things but no melee or hand to hand weapons. I was a little surprised by that however I do understand why they might want to just be like “naw, you all fightin' with shootin' irons.” I'm kind of disappointed by this, as many of the models I'd like to use are carrying swords, axes, or aren't carrying any visible weapons at all.

Now, about that setting... With the stuff above, you can just use this game for some shootouts without magic and monsters, just have a bit of fun. However, if you really want to play the game they've sold you, you'll be sucked into the setting.

There's six main groups in the core book (and it looks like there's more in the expansions) with each representing a different side of the conflict going on. You've got your “good guys” in the Twilight Order, who are monster hunters that can summon a lady gunfighter angel. Opposite them, you have the Red Hand Coven of vampires that appear to associated with President Dracula. When it comes to the South, you've got the Congregation, made up of freedmen, Abolitionists, and Voodoo priests. And opposite them you the Dark Confederacy, who summon their own war dead to keep fighting for the Southern Cause. Finally, you've got the Skinwalker Tribes, who are Native Americans that use lycanthropes to fight against the Palefaces. And on the other side of them, you have a demon summoning railroad baron's group of the Crossroads Cult. Not that you have to play one side or the other in these conflicts, as it looks like none of them get along very well.

When you create a posse for a campaign in the setting, you get a total of six dudes (including a Veteran Boss), two of which get to change depending on the faction you're choosing. The Red Hand Coven, for example, gets some vampires to play with. This is also where you're going to start dealing with the magic and monsters in the game. Of course, even if you're not playing with the Factions and all this, they can pop up, but a lot of the groups have access to something like werewolves, demons, zombies, and the like.

So, there's some “yikes” stuff in this book that makes me a tad uncomfortable. The first one is the Native Americans. Skinwalkers are part of Navajo tradition (if I'm remembering correctly and Wikipedia proves me right) and they ARE NOT GOOD PEOPLE! In addition, the Wendigo is from Canada and kind of... Odd, in terms of history. Throwing these in here feels disrespectful. No one is perfect, and games involving alternative history don't have to be historically accurate, but... Come on, man! Also, the whole Native American thing feels a bit last minute, as they only get bows for weapons. Nevermind the plethora of ranged weapons that the Native Peoples used all over North and South America... I just... It doesn't feel researched at all, you know?

The next “yikes” in the Confederacy. I get that this was released in 2017, but, still... I will grant them that they are clearly suppose to be Black Hats, I'm just not sure if it was a good idea to include them, given the amount of racist pricks involved in gaming. If you've been to a game store, you know what I'm talking about. When you add in the Voodoo of the Congregation, it just gets worse. I think all of this is because the author is from the UK, which might give a different perspective on the whole thing. (Nevermind the fact that the UK was an a kinda, sorta ally of the Confederacy, in case you didn't know.)

I'm not trying to harp on this too much, just think of this as a warning if you've got issues with any of this, okay?

Is it worth it?:

This is a really tough call. On the one hand, it's a fun little game that lets you choose if you want to play with or without horror elements. However, on the other hand, it's not quite filled out as much as I would like because you can turn the horror “on and off.” If it was just a $20 Osprey book, without the horror, I would recommend it right off the bat, as it is, I'm going to give this a real “maybe.”

If the setting sounds interesting to you, I would say go for it. If you want a pure western minis game, you'll have to find something else, unless you can find a copy for cheap.

Having looked through the book several times, I still do don't know how I feel about it. I think the system is interesting, but feels incomplete. I like the idea of the setting (the monsters and stuff) but it also includes some stuff that gives me pause. I'm also not sure how much I like the “bring the miniatures you want BUT there's a ton you're going to want to buy from my friend...” thing that's going on here. I know you can play without them, or use proxies, it's just that I don't feel like the get the whole experience without them, I guess.

Let's Review: Perilous Tales (beta)

What is it?:

Perilous Tales is a Pulp horror miniatures game based on the movies and serials of days long past. It's currently in development and you can download it for free.

 

The setting:

While there isn't a real setting, per say, the game is clearly inspired by old horror and science fiction media from days past. Mostly, it's based around pulp fiction and B-movies from the 1930s to the 1950s, meaning things could be set anywhere from 1730 to 2230. It's all up to what models you want to use and what kind of game you want to play.

The system:

Perilous Tales uses an interesting system I've never really seen before. When you need to make a roll, you roll two d10. One of these is the skill of the model and the other is the difficulty you're aiming for (which means you're going to need two different color dice). Some models have a set number they can't roll below but, it might not be enough to make it.

One of the main selling points (you know what I mean) for this game is that it's designed to be played cooperatively or solo. That's right, you don't even need someone else in your house to play this game. You control both the good and the bad guys.

When you play solo, you get a group of five; a Leader and four Teammates. Your Leader is, of course, tougher, has more actions, and gets two special abilities. The Teammates only get one special ability, so be careful with who gets what, as some of them are one time use. There's no equipment to manage, which I don't know how I feel about. On the one hand, it could make your Teammates much more useful and allow for more customization (as well as get rid of the one time use abilities). On the other hand, I think it would take away from the simplicity the game is going for. Maybe give them as an option instead of special abilities? You can have one piece of equipment OR one ability. I don't know. I say this because the special abilities are the only way to make your Teammates unique. The special abilities seem balanced over all, allowing you to make a tough guys, snipers, medics, etc. That said, I wouldn't mind having something else to give them a few tweaks. I'm not sure what you could add but I might have some after I get in some games.

When it comes to the bad guys, things get interesting. The first thing is that there's a bunch of different villains (I'll get into it), each of which operate differently and have a variety of different minions. When you set up the board, you roll for for deployment of the “Threat Markers” that will represent not only your villains and minions, but the other threats as well. When you “reveal” the villains, they'll take actions based on their attitude. Some are aggressive, some are sneaky, some are half way between the two. The villains, and their minions, have something like AI behavior like in a video game, more expansive and complicated than I've seen in board games, and are suppose to take the actions based on their type. Which makes it easier to play the game solo. To determine what actions the villain and minions, you have a check list based on their behavior. Of course, you're going to have to keep track of what your villain or minion is going to do depending on the situation.

Now, let's talk about the games, or “episodes,” as they call them. Each episode is going to start with rolling for where to place the Threat Markers. After that, you can roll for or pick three Objectives. These Objectives can be as simple as killing the villain or as complex as activating a set of switches, with a lot in between. There's more than enough variety to make each game unique and interesting. If you're picking Objectives, you can make them fit your villain and location or what terrain you have laying around. There's Idols and machines you'll have to interact with, perfect for that thing that came as part of a pack that you never thought you would use. You know the one. Yeah, that one.

Once you have the Objectives figured out, it's time to decide on what villain you're going to face. Again, you can roll off or you can pick which ones you want to face. Each villain comes with a set of minions and might even have some effects they call Perils. Gee, I wonder why they picked that name? Anyway. I suggest you pick your villains simply because you're going to need to have a set of models to represent them. Some will be easy to do, as they have swarms of vermin, townsfolk, and minor monsters. I'm sure we all have some demons, werewolves, witches, and monsters laying around in our collections, so you don't have to worry too much. But, they have a Blob villain, as in the classic movie The Blob. This one requires not only the main body of the creature but its pseudopods as well. While I have a lot of stuff, I don't have those. I might invest in some, however...

After you get all of that figured out, you have to figure out where this Episode takes place. There's a rather nice list of locations you can roll for, or pick, yet again. As I said for villains, I suggest picking this one, too. Because while the blob and robots work best on Moonbase X3000, I would have trouble keeping a straight face while trying to hunt down a VooDoo Priest in the same location. The game is played on a 2'x2' board, so you'll want to probably pick one that matches not only your villain, but your terrain and tiles (if you have some) as well. There's also a “basic” location you can use, if you don't have the right stuff for any of them. I think it's probably best to use this default one for your first few games while you're still learning.

Now, once you've got your location picked out, you need to look for the Perils that the location has. As I mentioned, you've got Threat Markers out there on the board. When you reveal them, you either get a villain, a minion, or a Peril. The Perils are environmental effects for the location you're playing in and should fit the theme of it. Using Moonbase X3000 again, you'll have to worry about being low on oxygen. While most of these Perils are the same you'll find in other locations, the ones for each location should fit the theme of the location. If that makes sense... Anyway. “Low on Oxygen” is the “A Thousand Cuts” Peril, which you'll see in others. But, it's also there with meteor strike and low gravity.

Alright, we've build our team of heroes, figured out our villains, and where the episode takes place, now what? Well, it's time to play. And that's the easy part. Your Hero and their Teammates need to go around and trigger those Threat Markers and complete the Objectives. Your models can move, shoot, and fight in close combat, as well as anything else from the special abilities. When you get close enough to a Threat Marker, you flip it over, compare the number on the bottom to the list of villains, minions, and Perils, and deal with the outcome.

As you play, the Threat Level will increase and complicate things even further. Maybe your characters will panic easier. Maybe the villain gets a health boost. The longer the game takes, the worse you'll have it, so you'll want to end it as quickly as possible.

And that's pretty much the game as it stands right now. Since it's still in a beta form, things can change a lot when it updates. I'm using the most recent version I have (from June 23^rd 2020). By the time I put this up, things could have changed, so don't get too mad at me if I'm wrong.

Is it worth it?:

Right now? Hell yeah! It's free! And, as we used to say around these parts, “free is a very good price”. Since we can't go out and play games with our friends, a game designed to be played solo is something we could all use right now. Since all this costs is time (plus printing costs if you want to print it out), this is worth your time to learn and play.

Even when this game does (hopefully) get a full release, I'll gladly pick it up. I don't know a lot of cooperative miniatures games out there, and with my love of the types of fiction that this game was inspired by, so this makes it very appealing.

Don't forget that they'll send out an email every time a new version of the game is released, so you won't have to keep checking.

And, since it's still in beta, let the creator know what you think of it. Maybe you'll make it even better and worth a physical release.