In the past
year I bought three of Osprey's new rulesets. Osprey rulesets have a lot going
for them: a good professional publisher backs hem, they are nicely priced and
presented even nicer. Eye candy abounds within as the artwork is of a high
standard, photographs are professionally made (or at least definitely look that
way) and tables and reference sheets are clean and crisp and usually can be
downloaded together with a lot of bonus content from the Osprey site. So it's a
"Yummie!" so far. But how do they stand up to the test of playing
them? By now I have played all three of them and wish to share my opinion about
them with you.
A general
observation beforehand. Perhaps because of the similarities in presentation
people often assume these rulesets are variations on the same engine, themed by
the period they are set in. This is not the case. The three sets reviewed here
are written by different people and the game mechanics are quite dissimilar. They
really are very separate games, only sharing the fact that they are all
skirmish rulesets that aim for a specific period.
Another
sidenote is that I could have included Tomorrow's War in this review but chose
not to. This is because TW is a ruleset with a much wider scope than the three
reviewed here and isn't a skirmish ruleset either. So those hoping for a TW
review must turn elsewhere for now, I am afraid.
So here we
go.
Ronin by
Craig Woodfield +/+
With 65
pages, like the others, Ronin is the only purely historical set of the three.
Set in Japan's
Sengoku Jidai period: the Time Of The Warring States it enables you to play
small-scale fights set in the golden age of the Samurai.
Ronin is
like the others a 1-figure-1-person game. The basic unit is the Buntai
("team") which consists of about 8 figures and upwards. There is a
choice from a number of Buntai: Bushi (professional samurai warriors) and
Warrior Monks but also the more exotic ones like bandits, ronin (masterless
samurai), peasants and Koryu (wandering students of Ken-Do: the way of the
sword). There are also lists for Koreans and Ming Chinese and even for early Kamakura period as well as the modern 19th-century Japanese army of the Late Edo period. You can add to your list by hiring sellswords, usually ninja, bandits
or ronin. The lists are point-driven, points being paid for character quality,
skills and equipment.
A Ronin
turn has a Priority (Initiative + Morale) , Movement, Combat, Action and End (Combat
results) phase.
Ronin has
an alternate turn sequence. This means that players move their figures
alternately: the player with highest Priority moves one first, then the other
player moves one et cetera until all figures have been moved. This simple
mechanism brings some tactical depth into the game, as figures strive to get
the best positions one by one. Also, you cannot charge someone by running, so
manoeuvring gets even more important. Alternatively, a figure may choose to
fire a missile weapon instead of moving. Missile weapons really come into their
own in Ronin, as they can be quite effective against unarmored targets and may
fire twice per turn (just wait..).
The game
really shines in the combat phase. Combat demands base-to-base contact. Both
combatants have a number of combat chits equal to their Rank: the Combat Pool.
They may secretly allocate these chits to either or both attack or defence, which
enables them to attack at all or strengthens their defence. This gives some
interesting tactical choices in combat: should I gamble on my armour and attack
full force? Or should I be cautious and strengthen my defence in case my
opponent counterattacks? This really lifts Ronin above the
roll-higher-than-your-opponent standard!
In the
Action phase figures may do other things, like load an arquebus, pick up things
or shoot. Bows do not need to be reloaded and now can shoot (for the second
time in the turn), so in general there are a lot of arrows flying around!
Unarmoured figures should be aware and usually die quickly if they don't!
The book
includes seven standard scenarios and Osprey offers additional army lists for
downloading, scenarios and even a list of supernatural beings from Japanese
mythology.
So in
general Ronin is an impressively interesting, quick playing game with lots of
opportunities for beautiful tables and figures. Recommended!
In Her
Majesty's Name by Craig Cartnell and Charles Murton +/-
Here we
meet the same number of 65 pages which in this case houses a set of rules for
Victorian Science Fiction games. VSF is a very popular period the last few
years so this set does not stand on its own and competes with others like
G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.
IHMN plays
teams of 6 figures and upwards against each other. There is much opportunity
for variation, as the basis rulebook alone sports half a dozen pre-generated ones
and much information to make your own. The individualization of the teams has
gotten a lot of attention in this game,
as there are lots of different weapons, historical as well as weird equipment
and rules for steam driven walkers and such. So you can play Prussian scientist
with Zombie Tod-truppen, British gentlemen with lightning guns or Chinese Tong
warriors with martial art skills and magic! The lists are point-driven, points
being paid for character quality, skills and equipment.
Perhaps due to its small format, the game misses (in my opinion) the opportunity to add a number of typical Victorian archetypes, like Dracula, Springheeled Jack, Jeckyll & Hyde, Martians, The Invisible Man and the like. But the game definitely succeeds in capturing the VSF flavour and you can go full throttle at painting and collecting figures and stuff for this game.
There are
some scenario ideas in the book, somewhat sketchy for my taste but still nice
and there are a surprising large number of terrain suggestions, some of which
are quite original, like a table made of rooftops!
IHMN starts
off each turn with determining Initiative and follows up with alternate
movement. This way teams move into position without having to wait for the
other one to completely finish and this makes manoeuvring interesting. Movement
is a saldo of quite a number of values and modifiers (standard value + speed bonus
+ sometimes a running bonus - armour encumbrance penalty - terrain penalties). This
should have gotten me worried.
The same
alternate sequence is used in shooting, so Initiative will get you the first
shot, but not all first shots. Shooting demands even more values and modifiers.
A hit is determined by adding a D10 roll to the Shooting value and the Weapon Bonus
and subtracting the target's armour and cover values. Lots of tables. There are
dozens of weapons and six (!) basis armour values (plus six more against
lightning weapons) so there is some calculus required. More tables. When all
this results in a hit, the target rolls against Pluck (plus Talent bonus, minus
Weapon Pluck modifier) and survives, drops down or dies. After some 30-45
minutes of play all the adding and subtracting became grating and quite
distracting. It seemed a very complex way to simply determine whether or not
you move or hit someone with a gun. All this is not improved by all the
different weapon ranges, which you are not allowed to measure beforehand by the
way.
We did not
get to use robots, walkers or vehicles but I fear that, since even walking and
shooting is quite complex, strolling about in steam vehicles is even more
complicated. The game mechanics feel slow and clunky like a 19th century steam
engine. My main gripe being that this distracted terribly
from the gameplay and narrative of the game.
Can I
recommend this set? Well, not yet. Maybe it's just me. Perhaps IHMN is an acquired taste. It is definitely a must to work your entire team into a QRS where at least all the movement and weapon modifiers are at hand. That should save a lot of time looking things up in tables. I will
play it some more and we'll see.
A
Fistful of Kung Fu by Andrea Sfiligoi ++/++
We dove
into FFOKF with a casual read and a taste for cheesy chopsocky movies. FFOKF
does not attempt to portray a period as such, but aims at playing in the world
of the 70ies and 80ies action movies, mainly those made by the Hong Kong producers that made the likes of Bruce Lee and
Jackie Chan stars. It is said that the set is written to play the movie Big
Trouble in Little China and that you will manage to play the entire movie,
action scene for action scene, effortlessly. So my expectations were high.
Like in
Ronin and IHMN you play a small team of about 6-10 figures, pulled right out
off the cinematographic heritage that birthed this game: Kung Fu heroes, tough
cops, vicious Chinese sorcerers or cool Yakuza gangsters. The rules allow for
even more variety: zombies, cyborgs, Chinese demons or vampires, ninjas and
what not. If you ever needed an excuse to buy exotic miniatures, this game
supplies it! Teams are headed by a Protagonist, a star actor, supported by a
cast of a sidekick and a number of Extras. The lists are point-driven, points
being paid for character quality, skills and equipment.
Contrary to
the former two rules sets FFOKF is a IGO-UGO system. One player activates all
his figures before his opponent may do something. Or is it? Activation goes by
throwing 1 to 3 dice against the figure's Quality. Every success gives you an
Action: walking, shooting, charging and fighting et cetera. However, every
failure grants a free Action to your opponent's Protagonist. Before you can do
anything! And two or more failures end your turn, even before all your figures
have been Activated! That doesn't sound very predictable and it isn't. It makes
for dynamic play and calculating risks before throwing more than one die. Your
Protagonist, with his high Quality, will end up doing the most, just like in
the movies!
Shooting
and fighting use the same Statistic: Combat. Roll and add Combat (and
modifiers) to shoot or hit someone. The target rolls and adds as well and the highest
score wins. In case of the attacker that is a hit, in case of the target it can
be something bad for the attacker, like a jamming gun, depending on how great
the difference between the rolls is. A table provides you with alternative
consequences and the winner may choose the result that can apply. So a shot may
kill your opponent, may shoot his gun from his hand or may result in your gun
clicking on an empty chamber or a free Action for the target. Fights go
similarly. Interactions with prop items and terrain are called for, so if you
have always wanted to throw someone through a fish tank, here is your chance,
provided you have one on the table!
It struck me that consulting the tables in this game was never a bore, contrary to IHMN. Why? I think it is because consulting tables in IHMN will only ever result in a simple result, like a move or hit/miss, while a table result in FFOKF might result in something that makes the game more interesting and easily fits into the narrative and makes it more exciting.
Last but not least your Protagonist has a limited number of Chi points he can use to reroll
dice or cause group actions of his Extras. Chi can be recovered during the
game, but mainly through lucky dice rolls, so you have to use them wisely.
All this
made for a quick, narrative and excitingly unpredictable game that felt EXACTLY
like a Hong Kong action movie! Even in our
first game the rules played fast and intuitively and we had immense fun.
FFOKF is
definitely recommended. For fans of Big Trouble in Little China
it really is a mandatory purchase!
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