Post by Zxqueb on Sept 2, 2007 12:43:55 GMT -5
Part 0: Introduction
If you haven’t read my review of how Halo Actionclix works, you should check it out at theminiwar.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=GD&action=display&thread=1187996167 to get some context and rules background for this review.
Part 1: Multiplayer deathmatch.
Having had fun with two player Halo, my group decided to see how it would go with four players. We played the game on the outdoor scarab map (two maps put together, actually) which is extremely spacious, but has liberal use of blocking terrain. Each player had a four man, 300 point army to start. We ran the standard two spawn portals per player and played to four kills. The game worked fairly well with multiple players. Because of the number of players, the play time slowed down a bit when figuring out where to position models to keep them relatively safe while still laying some fire down on someone.
Tactics were what you would expect. Two players mostly maneuvered to steal kills when other players wounded figures. I generally just ganged up on one guy per turn and tried to take it out unless something better presented itself. One player split their forces to get a battle going on multiple fronts.
In the end, I think the game would have been more fun to play to 10 kills. That would have allowed some gang ups and alliances to happen through the course of the game. On the other hand it would have been a longer game. And since it was already getting late and we had a Scarab to fight we started Part 2….
Fun Factor: 8/10
Part 2: The Scarab
Ok, so the scarab is big and has a bunch of special rules. The rules are basically as follows:
On the biggest mode of the scarab (Heroic) the attacking force has 1000 points of guys. They gain actions equal to ½ their guys (rounded up) each turn and take the first turn. Generally, things with big attacks and big damage are the order of the day (rocket launchers, sniper rifles, guns with possible multiple attacks like the MA5C Assault Rifle). When they shoot the scarab, the damage is applied to the shell dial. This is one of 4 dials on the scarab.
If the damage applied to the shell dial passes one of the penetrating marker click the scarab takes a damage to either its chassis dial or its main power core dial for each click past the marker (scarab player’s choice). If the shell dial stops on the penetrating click, the scarab takes one click on the dial of the attacking player’s choice.
Destroying the main power core is the attacking player’s win condition. That dial also represents the stats for the scarab’s main gun. The chassis represents the Scarab’s aerial defense turret (which is useless until some flying figures are made). When it takes enough damage, the dial also has “kneel” markers which stop the scarab from moving and allow attacking figures to climb onto the scarab’s back and enter the interior map. Inside, they can take shots directly at the main core. Each hit will do only one damage, regardless of how much damage the weapon actually does.
Of course, the scarab has some things it can do on its turn. First, it randomly moves by either shifting one space or rotating 90 degrees. Next it rolls a die and compares it to its event dial (the fourth and final dial). The event dial allows the scarab to spawn reinforcements inside itself, shake figures loose from who have climbed it, stomp on figures below it, or (unfortunately) offer a free upgrade to the attacker. After rolling on the event chart (which rotates every turn changing the probabilities for various actions), the figures inside can take actions and the scarab can shoot (generally killing or severely wounding a figure every time).
The scarab player wins if he kills 30 figures on heroic level and 20 on Normal level.
As an aside, when we played we messed up how damage was dealt to the scarab and ended up giving about 75% more damage to the scarab than it should have taken. The attackers won handily.
Being disgruntled, I went home, figured out what we did wrong and replayed the battle solitaire. This time the scarab won, but the result was fairly close. Of course, only having two boosters + the hunter pack from Gencon made army building and reinforcements a bit tricky. I think that the piece will be fairly well balanced when I have a better inventory of figures to choose from.
The scarab captures the “feel” of a video game boss. I really like the fact that you have to take steps to take it out (knock it down, send guys inside, fight more guys then hit the core). Plus, the sculpt and sheer size of the scarab is awesome! Spawning reinforcements gives the scarab player some more tactical thinking to do besides shooting a single enemy figure each turn. In addition, the scarab has some resource management in deciding where to apply damage to give it the highest point of survivability.
On the other hand, there are a couple things I didn’t like about this piece. First, the rules were not always clear. We ended up messing up how damage was supposed to be dealt to the scarab even though two of us read through the rules. Also, The chassis has a black spot at the end (generally indicating death in HAC), but the rules don't say what to do when you get there since destroying that dial does NOT destroy the scarab. We weren’t sure if you stop spinning at the point that the scarab becomes “crippled” (that’s how we played it) or if it wasn’t able to stand up or move again for the rest of the battle. We also weren’t sure if any extra damage from that attack transfer in to the main power core or just get lost. Dealing with scarab reinforcements were also unclear. The rules state that you don't get actions for reinforcements until you have 5 guys. But it seemed weird to have guys just sit there if you have four guys and the attacker gets into the scarab. Furthermore, I wasn’t sure if the scarab player lost the ability to command your guys if your forces were killed down to four or if he could keep the orders because you he had five figures at one time and it only checks once.
Most problematic for me was that the colors on the event dial don't match up to the colors on the card. There is a blue and a dark blue (shake and reinforcements) on both, but on the dial there is a red and a green while on the card, the abilities are orange and brown. We weren’t sure which was supposed to be “upgrade attacking unit” and which is supposed to be “mass stomp”. My guess was that red was upgrade attacking unit because it tended to appear on the dial in more slots triggered by a single number on a die.
While these issues are not terrible and are easily FAQed / Errataed, I find it particularly unacceptable that a $250 figure has a misprinted dial and unclear ruleset, especially given that the base rules are simple and elegant. There are only four dials to get correct and about 2 pages of text! To be fair, I won the scarab at the pre-release, so it bothers me less than it might. But I know if I paid that much for it, I would be upset that it was not well proofread/edited/checked over before shipping.
Fun Factor: 4/10 the first game, 7/10 the second. This rating is definitely subject to revision in two weeks when the game is officially released and we can tweak the forces a bit more.
If you haven’t read my review of how Halo Actionclix works, you should check it out at theminiwar.proboards45.com/index.cgi?board=GD&action=display&thread=1187996167 to get some context and rules background for this review.
Part 1: Multiplayer deathmatch.
Having had fun with two player Halo, my group decided to see how it would go with four players. We played the game on the outdoor scarab map (two maps put together, actually) which is extremely spacious, but has liberal use of blocking terrain. Each player had a four man, 300 point army to start. We ran the standard two spawn portals per player and played to four kills. The game worked fairly well with multiple players. Because of the number of players, the play time slowed down a bit when figuring out where to position models to keep them relatively safe while still laying some fire down on someone.
Tactics were what you would expect. Two players mostly maneuvered to steal kills when other players wounded figures. I generally just ganged up on one guy per turn and tried to take it out unless something better presented itself. One player split their forces to get a battle going on multiple fronts.
In the end, I think the game would have been more fun to play to 10 kills. That would have allowed some gang ups and alliances to happen through the course of the game. On the other hand it would have been a longer game. And since it was already getting late and we had a Scarab to fight we started Part 2….
Fun Factor: 8/10
Part 2: The Scarab
Ok, so the scarab is big and has a bunch of special rules. The rules are basically as follows:
On the biggest mode of the scarab (Heroic) the attacking force has 1000 points of guys. They gain actions equal to ½ their guys (rounded up) each turn and take the first turn. Generally, things with big attacks and big damage are the order of the day (rocket launchers, sniper rifles, guns with possible multiple attacks like the MA5C Assault Rifle). When they shoot the scarab, the damage is applied to the shell dial. This is one of 4 dials on the scarab.
If the damage applied to the shell dial passes one of the penetrating marker click the scarab takes a damage to either its chassis dial or its main power core dial for each click past the marker (scarab player’s choice). If the shell dial stops on the penetrating click, the scarab takes one click on the dial of the attacking player’s choice.
Destroying the main power core is the attacking player’s win condition. That dial also represents the stats for the scarab’s main gun. The chassis represents the Scarab’s aerial defense turret (which is useless until some flying figures are made). When it takes enough damage, the dial also has “kneel” markers which stop the scarab from moving and allow attacking figures to climb onto the scarab’s back and enter the interior map. Inside, they can take shots directly at the main core. Each hit will do only one damage, regardless of how much damage the weapon actually does.
Of course, the scarab has some things it can do on its turn. First, it randomly moves by either shifting one space or rotating 90 degrees. Next it rolls a die and compares it to its event dial (the fourth and final dial). The event dial allows the scarab to spawn reinforcements inside itself, shake figures loose from who have climbed it, stomp on figures below it, or (unfortunately) offer a free upgrade to the attacker. After rolling on the event chart (which rotates every turn changing the probabilities for various actions), the figures inside can take actions and the scarab can shoot (generally killing or severely wounding a figure every time).
The scarab player wins if he kills 30 figures on heroic level and 20 on Normal level.
As an aside, when we played we messed up how damage was dealt to the scarab and ended up giving about 75% more damage to the scarab than it should have taken. The attackers won handily.
Being disgruntled, I went home, figured out what we did wrong and replayed the battle solitaire. This time the scarab won, but the result was fairly close. Of course, only having two boosters + the hunter pack from Gencon made army building and reinforcements a bit tricky. I think that the piece will be fairly well balanced when I have a better inventory of figures to choose from.
The scarab captures the “feel” of a video game boss. I really like the fact that you have to take steps to take it out (knock it down, send guys inside, fight more guys then hit the core). Plus, the sculpt and sheer size of the scarab is awesome! Spawning reinforcements gives the scarab player some more tactical thinking to do besides shooting a single enemy figure each turn. In addition, the scarab has some resource management in deciding where to apply damage to give it the highest point of survivability.
On the other hand, there are a couple things I didn’t like about this piece. First, the rules were not always clear. We ended up messing up how damage was supposed to be dealt to the scarab even though two of us read through the rules. Also, The chassis has a black spot at the end (generally indicating death in HAC), but the rules don't say what to do when you get there since destroying that dial does NOT destroy the scarab. We weren’t sure if you stop spinning at the point that the scarab becomes “crippled” (that’s how we played it) or if it wasn’t able to stand up or move again for the rest of the battle. We also weren’t sure if any extra damage from that attack transfer in to the main power core or just get lost. Dealing with scarab reinforcements were also unclear. The rules state that you don't get actions for reinforcements until you have 5 guys. But it seemed weird to have guys just sit there if you have four guys and the attacker gets into the scarab. Furthermore, I wasn’t sure if the scarab player lost the ability to command your guys if your forces were killed down to four or if he could keep the orders because you he had five figures at one time and it only checks once.
Most problematic for me was that the colors on the event dial don't match up to the colors on the card. There is a blue and a dark blue (shake and reinforcements) on both, but on the dial there is a red and a green while on the card, the abilities are orange and brown. We weren’t sure which was supposed to be “upgrade attacking unit” and which is supposed to be “mass stomp”. My guess was that red was upgrade attacking unit because it tended to appear on the dial in more slots triggered by a single number on a die.
While these issues are not terrible and are easily FAQed / Errataed, I find it particularly unacceptable that a $250 figure has a misprinted dial and unclear ruleset, especially given that the base rules are simple and elegant. There are only four dials to get correct and about 2 pages of text! To be fair, I won the scarab at the pre-release, so it bothers me less than it might. But I know if I paid that much for it, I would be upset that it was not well proofread/edited/checked over before shipping.
Fun Factor: 4/10 the first game, 7/10 the second. This rating is definitely subject to revision in two weeks when the game is officially released and we can tweak the forces a bit more.