Sunday, January 11, 2009
Speed Rally Car Race Game Review
Speed Rally gives you the opportunity to use your kids’ 1/64 scale Hotwheels and Matchbox cars and pit them against each other in a fantastic auto race. You can think of Speed Rally as a cross between Car Wars and Formula De. It’s not nearly as combat intensive as Car Wars, but offers more trickery than the latter (which has no combat options at all).
Speed Rally is easily learned and quickly played and thus is an ideal game as a filler when your regular game ends early. Gamers can just leave the previous game’s terrain in place and designate points for an off-road rally. For more complicated races, there’s always the option of printing, pasting and cutting out track segments to create a road track course.
One of the most clever aspects of the game is the car design process. Author JP Trostle has identified a number of toy car type archetypes—the “Bug”, Muscle, Stock, Formula, Wacky and so on. When picking a car to race from your kid’s car box, you match the car against a silhouette in the rules to determine the general type. Then, you build the car with various racing modifications and weaponry. Each has a point value, so cars can be made evenly matched.
The points values generally work well, but we thought that the “double engine” option was a game imbalancer.
Players also need to create a driver. Each has two basic stats: Skill and Reaction. The basic driver score can be improved at a points cost. Other advantages can be purchased, and the costs offset with “disadvantages” as with the GURPS role playing games. There also are rules for a campaign game that lets you improve your driver over time.
What I did to speed setup was to use a spreadsheet to create a score of cars in different classes before the game. After each player chose a car from the box, we agree on what silhouette best represents the vehicle, and a random vehicle of that type is chosen.
In terms of the racing mechanisms, it feels a lot like the board game Formula De. Each gear in the car is assigned a dice size, from the D4 representing first gear to the D12 representing fifth. A roll on the d4 will move you one or two spaces; on the d6, two to four spaces; the d8, 4-7 and so on. The lowest roll on each die will move you the maximum for the previous gear. A chart is used to determine movement, but the author encourages players to make a special set from blank polyhedral dice.
Movement is measured by a standardized car length and width—1.5” x 3”. The rules recommend that you attach the cars to the bases with blue-tac and this works well. For races on a track, you simply move the required number of spaces. In free form games, there’s a special ruler that you can print out use.
Turning is done either in the curved marked spaces on track, or with a turning template. The tightness of a turn is restricted by the gear that the car is in. Trying to make a tighter turn requires a dice roll check against the driver’s skill.
As a basic driving game, Speed Rally is moderately fun. The good times really begin, however, when the “combat” elements are introduced. In addition to basic maneuvering, drivers also have the option of blocking or bashing passing cars by expending an action. Cars with weaponry can use the action to attack other players. Drivers also can use their action for defensive maneuvering.
Another nice touch in the game are options for playing on the floor of your living room. Rules are provided for driving on various types of flooring and furniture.
If there’s one thing I’d like to see done with the game, it’s having some more options to bump up the combat. While it was fun shooting machine guns and rockets, we didn’t inflict nearly enough damage to satisfy the more bloodthirsty players in our group.
Overall, I think this is a terrific game. At just $10 for the pdf, it’s an affordable buy—and you likely already have all the “miniatures” you need to play in your kids’ (or your own) Hot Wheels car box.
You can buy it at http://www.speedrally.net
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Blitzkrieg 2 Anthology Video Game Review
Blitzkrieg 2 Anthology Review
Blitzkrieg 2 is a fun, fast-paced historically flavored game that takes you through several theatres of World War II.
Gameplay is what you’d expect of a real-time strategy game. You issue orders to your units, and them watch them peform on the screen. Battles for me often evolved into a furious clickfest, giving orders to one unit, and then sliding the screen across to issue new ones to a unit that had finished its mission.
The campaign game consists of a series of connected scenarios. Each starts you with a set of units—infantry, armor, artillery and what-have-you—and a set of objectives to meet. The objectives consist of either moving to, or defending a certain location.
What’s missing from the usual real-time strategy formula is the resource gathering. Instead, each scenario comes with a set number of reinforcements. When they become available, you can select from a list that varies from scenario to scenario.
While the game is set in World War II, I wouldn’t call it historical. While the units are recognizable, the mix of units available and their performance often defies expectations. Infantry, for example, is useless, getting mowed down in seconds by enemy units. When dug into a building, the enemy just brings it down around them. Infantry in a trench doesn’t fare much better.
Tanks, on the other hand, appear far too frequently, and are way too tough. Japanese armor strength—both in numbers and in individual toughness—seemed to me way too strong. And there were a couple of European scenarios where I can’t recall seeing a single German infantry unit.
The game is so armor heavy, that when you get reinforcements, there’s no reason to settle for anything less than the heaviest tanks available.
Still, the game is a lot of fun. It’s got that addictive quality where you keep saying to yourself: “just five more minutes.” And then before you know it, it’s 3 am and you realize you’ve been playing for eight hours.
As a casual gamer, I appreciated the ease of play—I ran through the tutorial scenarios and then was able to jump right into the game. There are a lot of “hot keys” available, but I didn’t have to remember any of them because there always are icons available.
A final word about the graphics and sound—aspects which concern computer gamers, but to me are secondary to gameplay.
The graphics are just right for the game: not overly intricate, but with a lot of flavor. You clearly identify each of the units, and they look quite a bit like the real-world things they represent. It’s a bit like watching little toy soldiers and tanks on the screen.
It’s also a lot of fun to watch the damage that the weapons wreak on the terrain Trees fall down, buildings degrade and then collapse, artillery turns ground into moonscapes.
The sound also is fine, but I turned the music off after a few minutes and eventually turned off the sound effects so I could watch television while playing.
In all, I thought the Blitzkrieg 2 Anthology was a huge amount of fun. It’s a nice diversion for those weekends where you can’t get together with your buddies to play with lead and dice.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Warhammer Ancient Battles Viking vs Norman Battle Report
I recently finished the second phase of my 1066 Campaign project by basing and clear coating more than 300 Norman infantry and cavalry. To celebrate, I ran a large Warhammer Ancient Battles game featuring Vikings and Normans. There are some photos of the Viking, Normans and the table here.
The scenario involved a Viking attack on a Norman province. The Viking force was approximately half Hirdmen, and half Bondi, with a smattering of bows, Ulfhednar and berserkers. The Normans consisted of about 1/3 each of cavalry, knight infantry, and medium/light troops. There were also several contingents of mercenary crossbow.
The main body of the Vikings advanced behind a screen of bow and ulfhednar skirmishers. These took heavy casualties from the Norman crossbowmen, whose range was much longer.
Still, the skirmishers did their job, and the main body of Vikings advanced with little damage.
Then the Norman cavalry charged. The Viking players (myself included) were convinced that the Normans would sweep away all in their path. It didn’t work out that way. The Normans had some incredibly bad luck, and the cavalry actually lost all of the combats; they then failed their leadership tests and fled.
At this point, the beserkers in the Viking ranks ran forward and hammered a couple of Norman knight infantry that got too close. They didn’t break, but lost enough figures to lose future rank bonuses.
The main body of Vikings next came into contact with the Norman knight infantry. More incredibly bad rolling for the Normans followed, and the Norman infantry began to slowly fall back.
In Warhammer, however, the tide can quickly change. One unit of Viking hirdmen lost a combat, then blew a leadership test. Adjacent units flubbed their panic tests, and the entire left wing of the Viking army fell back.
The right wing, however, continued its slow, inexorable push. One by one the Norman knight units—both mounted and foot—fell back. They recovered, but always losing ground, and running out of table.
After several winning turns on the left, the Normans returned to form with their luck and began losing again. Two Norman medium infantry units were destroyed, as were two units of peasants.
By this time, the Vikings had a numerical advantage—not necessarily in figures, but in units. That meant that they could pin the Normans with one unit, while flanking them with others.
It was hopeless. We all agreed that at this point, the mounted knights would head for the hills, leaving the hapless foot troops behind to get slaughtered.
We all like Warhammer Ancients—its fun, but as one 30-year veteran wargamer said, “it’s very Games Workshoppy.” There are plenty of bits in the game that leave us scratching our heads.
The main complaint was with the armor saves. After rolling to hit, and then to wound, it was one roll too many. We had quite a bit of discussion about whether it’s really needed. A much more clean solution would be to adjust the toughness of the figure to reflect armor. An unarmored human for example, might have a base toughness of 2. Add a shield, and it’s a 3; light armor makes it a 4, heavy armor and shield is a 5; and so on.
Of course, the real problem is Games Workshop’s decision to base all of their games on the d6. The three different rolls are necessary to provide sufficient granularity distinguishing between troop types—especially with different races in the fantasy and science fiction games.
I’m kind of surprised that they haven’t switched to 10 or 12 sided dice. As part of their business model GW makes their old system obsolete every few years, introducing “new” rules, army lists and models. It would be easy for them to make a clean break with the d6 system and to go to two rolls (it also would cut out people like me playing with a Squat army painted twenty years ago, and still using the same stats; I’d have to buy a new rule book to play with current players).
One argument for keeping the armor save is that it keeps the defender involved. We rejected this; the defender could make the toughness roll as a “save.”
Finally, a few notes about the figures and terrain:
The vast majority of the figures in the game are Gripping Beast. The exceptions were a “horde” of Foundry Vikings that I had bought one year on sale. They’re all painted with Vallejo paints, and heavy doses of wash made from Future. My technique is to paint an area in its base color, then to apply a wash of a deeper hue.
Figures based on 1 inch washers, which are coated in superglue and then dipped in mix of several different shades of fine model railroad ballast. When that’s dry, I apply a couple more dabs of superglue and then dipped into green flock.
The movement trays were made of cardboard and magnetic vinyl. To speed play, I stuck small bits of paper with the unit’s stats to the rear of the bases.
The table is covered with carpet squares I found at Big Lots. The squares were sprayed with various shades of acrylic spray paint to give an uneven look.
The buildings are all Hudson and Allen. The roads are hand made from brown acrylic caulk. I squeeze some out on wax paper, then smear it to the proper width with wet popsicle sticks. Just before they set, I use the same sticks to put rut impressions in them, and doss on a couple of pieces of gravel and small sticks. When the road pieces are dry, I trim to size with scissors.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Warbirds In Miniature Battle of Britain Game
This past Saturday, our group played a World War II air combat games using the excellent “Warbirds In Miniature” rules.
Warbirds In Miniature is easy to learn and play, and yet has what we judged was the right “feel” for the period. The game is played on a hex grid, which makes maneuvering and plane facing easy. Altitude ranges can be tracked on paper, although we used telescoping stands for visual appeal and reference. The aircraft models were 1/144 scale plastic models.
The core of the Warbirds In Miniature is the aircraft control sheet, which shows the maneuvers available to each model at different speeds. The maneuvers are illustrated as hexes, showing the plane’s movement direction and its ultimate facing. The first hex in each sequence also is marked to indicate whether the maneuver can be done in level flight, climbing or diving.
The range of maneuvers, of course, varies by aircraft. Lumbering bombers, for example, may be able to fly only only one hex at a time, and perform only a few simple turns. Fighters have much greater speed, acceleration and decelleration, and can perform a wide range of twists and turns.
At the beginning of each turn, players secretly record a maneuver, and note any changes in altitude. All action is then carried out simultaneously. Shooting comes after all movement. There’s no snap fire, but since most aircraft move at 1-4 hexes per turn, the time frame is small enough that we didn’t miss it.
Combat can occur when planes are within 1 altitude band of each other (the bands ranged from 1 to 30 in our games). Horizontal range depends upon the airplane and the weapon, as does the angle of fire. Fighters shoot straight ahead—very easy to keep track of on a hex grid. To resolve fire, firepower factors are totaled, dice rolled and a chart consulted. After determining the number of hits, the attacker rolls on a damage chart to determine what parts of the craft have been damgaged, and to what extent.
Our scenario was set during the London Blitz. A German formation of two HE-111 bombers and two ME-110 fighter bombers are being escorted to their warehouse target by a pair of ME-109s. Four British Spitfires are sent to intercept.
The bombers were great, slow pigs, and lumbered on in a straight line toward their target at one hex per turn. The ME-110s, being faster and more maneuverable, broke away from the heavier craft, while the ME-109s darted forward at the ceiling to engage the oncoming Spitfires.
After shaking off their initial engagement with the ME-109s the Spitfires fell on the bombers, almost immediately damaging the engines of one so badly that it could only stay in their air by executing a long, slow dive. The other took heavy wing and fuselage damage, eventually losing its landing gear and a gunner. Two of the Spitfires stayed on them, while the other two pursued the Me-110s.
The Spitfires stayed with their targets, inflicting more damage. That, however, made things easier for the German pilots, who maneuvered behind the Spitfires while they were concentrating on their targets.
In the rules, a player whose plane is being tailed must tell his pursuer the direction he plans to turn, as well as whether he is climbing or diving. Once the Germans had the Spitfires in their sights, it was nearly impossible to shake them. One Spitfire was shot down; another lost half its weapons. German pursuit drove them off the tails of the He-111s.
The faster ME-110s reached their target first, dropping bombs and damaging the warehouse. They suffered heavy hits, however, and one was downed by its pursuing Spitfire. One of the HE-111s took more hits and went into a tailspin. The remaining still was on its dive of doom; it likely was going to reach the target and crash a turn or two later.
By this time, however, the Spitfires were running low on ammo. One had emptied its guns and left the board. Another was shooting at half effectiveness, having lost guns earlier in the game. An ME-110 killed the pilot of the third Spitfire, leaving just one.
Meanwhile, an ME-109 that had taken damage earlier was smoking and slowly falling apart. After a series of bad rolls, the fuselage disintegrated. An ME-110 also went down.
Finally, the remaining ME-110 got a lucky shot on the remaining Spitfire. Its engine was destroyed and the pilot had to bail.
The scenario’s scoring gave the Germans the victory for driving off the Spitfires and destroying the warehouses. The price, however, was high: one ME-109, both HE-111s, and an ME-110.
It was a terrific game, and we are anxious to try the system in a Pacific was scenario. It’d be a lot of fun choosing from all those maneuvers available to the Zeros.
You can see more photos here.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Legends of the Old West Battle Report April 2008
Saturday night, the group got together for a good old fashioned Wild West shootout. The scenario had two rival gangs shooting it out for control of the town. It seems that the Marshall had gone to the next town to get married, and the hoodlums were taking advantage of the situation.
We used the Warhammer Historical Legends of the Old West rules. It’s a set that I’ve previously used for Plains Wars and French and Indian War rules, but strangely had not yet used for a basic gunfight. For those who haven’t played, the rules are typical Games Workshop. For shooting, you first roll a six sided die to hit, then your roll to see if you hit the cover, then you finally roll to wound. The game plays quickly, and new players can pick up the basics in a couple of minutes.
In our scenario, the sides each consisted of two gangs, each with a Desperado, two Kids and five Rowdies. I’ll call them North and South for the board edges they started on.
The players spent the first couple of turns maneuvering their gangs into position through the back alleys, taking the occasional (ineffective) long range shots as the opportunity presented itself. Both sides initially holed up in the buildings facing each other on opposite sides of the main street and began trying to pick off their opposite numbers.
Lots of shots were fired to no effect. Another tactic was needed. Then, on opposite ends of the street, each side began a flanking maneuver. On the western edge of the board, the North gang dashed across the street to an alley, losing one member in the move. At the same time, the South gang began trying to move across the eastern side. They managed to make it without taking any losses.
Now the casualties began piling up on both side, especially as the shotguns got within short range. The South Gang began having some luck with the dice, but the North Gang still was rolling blanks. They just couldn’t get a hit. Finally, in an act of desperation, the North Gang charged into hand-to-hand combat; that somehow seemed to work for them.
But it was really too late. They reached fifty percent casualties, failed a Guts check and fled the table.
The figures in the game are mostly Gurnsey and Wargames Foundry, with a smattering of other manufacturers mixed in, especially among the civilians. The buildings are all scratch built by yours truly, from foam core and cardboard.
All in all, a great game. I’m looking into using the Lord of the Rings/Legends system for even more skirmish games. You can see more photos of the game here.
You can leave comments and questions below:
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Franco Prussian War Battle Report
A couple of weekends ago, our group got together for a Franco-Prussian War mega-game, involving ten players many, many hundreds of 28mm figure. (You can see more photos here)
The game was run by Brad Northrop, who also painted the vast majority of the figures. The rules were a modified version of Fields of Honor, the (sadly) abandoned 19th Century rules set once published by Pinnacle.
The scenario was based on the battle of Froschwiller (also known as Worth), from 6 August 1870. In that battle, German forces under Crown Prince Frederick and General Blumenthal defeated the French under Marshal MacMahon near the village of Worth in Alsace.
From Reference.Com
The German 3rd army had drawn reinforcements which brought its strength up to 140,000 troops. The French had also been reinforced, but their recruitment was slow, and their force numbered only 35,000. Although badly outnumbered, the French defended their position along a ridge at the western outskirts of Wśrth. By afternoon, both sides had suffered about 10,000 casualties, and the French army was too battered to continue resisting. To make matters even more dire for the French, the Germans had taken the town of Froeschwiller which sat on a hilltop in the center of the French line. Having lost any outlook for victory and facing a massacre, the French army broke off the battle and retreated in a western direction, hoping to join other French forces on the other side of the Vosges mountains. The German 3rd army did not pursue the withdrawing French. It remained in Alsace and moved slowly south, attacking and destroying the French defensive garrisons in the vicinity.
In our scenario, the goal of the outnumbered French was to inflict heavy casualties on the Germans before they were able to bring the full weight of their reinforcements to bear. If the Germans were stalled at the beginning, the reinforcements would pile up, create a jam and night would fall before they could get it straightened out.
As the battle opened, Germans used screening forces and the ever present threat of massive reinforcements to pin down the French right. They then turned two thirds of their forces on the French left. With the overwhelming numbers, the French flank collapsed and had to fall back on Froeschwiller, in the center. Meanwhile, the French right held against German assaults, which were reinforced by ever-increasing troops and artillery. Finally, in the last two turns, the French right also fell, buried under a rain of steel from the German guns.
Unless the Germans were incredibly stupid, or the French incredibly lucky, there really was no way.
The rules played quickly with the modifications used. In the original version of Fields of Honor, two sets of dice rolls are used to resolve fire combat. The first handful of six siders rolled determines whether the shots were “on target.” Rolls that indicate “hits” are then re-rolled to determine casualties. After casualties are counted, a morale check is made. Finally, half of the casualties are returned to the ranks.
The design of this is based on the idea that troops will be at their shakiest after taking a volley (or multiple volleys) of fire. Thus, their morale rolls will be made with the full casualty effect. However, after the initial shock, some of those soldiers will discover that they are actually unharmed and will return to action.
In our modifications, the “on target” rolls were skipped, and rolls simply were made for casualties. In addition, there was no return of troops to the ranks. This
made for a much more bloody, quick and decisive game. It’s a modification that was probably needed to accommodate the large number of figures and players.
Page 2 of 4 pages < 1 2 3 4 >
