Matt takes a look at the Forge in Fire Southern Field Guide from Dream Pod 9 for Heavy Gear. He shows you why the new field guides are huge improvement. The field guide features history, vehicle compendium, data cards, army building, and league rules.
If you wish to learn more about Heavy Gear feel free to visit Dream Pod 9.
You can get the PDF at Drivethru RPG
In this Box Breaking Matt breaks Kemvar out of the MERCS Kemvar starter. Briefly reviewing the detail displayed on the models.
The Kemvar faction is one of the more appealing factions in the MERCS game. Dynamic figures and stealth armor I can’t wait to get them on bases.
You can learn more about MERCS here and follow them on Facebook.
In this Figure Forge Matt grabs his glue, knife and a file to tackle the task of assembling the FCC starter for the Mercs Miniatures Game
If you want to learn how to play MERCS they have more than a few videos on their blog.
In this Box Breaking Matt takes a look at the FCC starter pack of the MERCS miniatures line. MERCS is a fast paced skirmish game. These minis are highly detailed and are easy to assemble. You can watch our Figure Forge on the FCC soon.
To learn more visit MERCS.
I hope that helps you get a feel for what is in the FCC Starter kit.
Watch as Glues his way through the CCC starter for the MERCS minatures game. This is actually one of the complicated MERCS kits to put together.
Thanks for watching. You can learn more about MERCS here.
We will have more MERCS Miniatures coverage tomorrow.
In this Box Breaking Matt busts open the CCC faction starter. The MERCS miniatures are among some of the best in the gaming industry. Matt has never seen these models unassembled and unpainted before. Watch as he busts them open.
Those are some pretty dynamic miniatures. Later tonight Matt puts them together; we will have the figure forge up shortly.
You can learn more about MERCS on their website. You can also like them on Facebook.
Princes of the Dragon Throne
Let me start by saying this isn’t a rules review, it is more of an experience review. We played Princes of the Dragon Throne twice now and have a few things to share. But before we can do that you should watch this video. No, really the rest of this won’t make any sense if you don’t watch it. It is an excellent tutorial of the game.
As I said we played twice, well three times actually, but the first game doesn’t count because we botched the rules a little bit. We overlooked parliament. By the end of our second game we were starting to get the hang of it. But let’s review a little bit. The goal of the game is to become the next Dragon Lord. You do this by managing resources to gain control of the board, which in turn is how you earn prestige. Simply put you try and have the most prestige.
It’s not that simple. There are several ways for one to earn prestige. The easiest is to recruit prospects (Dragons and Citizens), some of them have a dragon’s claw on them that earn you prestige from the moment you buy them. Most of your prestige rewards don’t come until the end of the game. They are as follows.
Have the most dragons in your deck.
Have the most citizens in your deck.
Control more kingdoms by controlling the most guilds in that kingdom.
Have the most of a guild type.
Control the most Clan Houses.
As you can see there are many layers to the strategy involved.
On to our experience. At first I thought Princes of the Dragon Throne was going to be a long drawn out game that required a lot of effort to get through the lulls in resource building. While there are a few lulls in your resource management we quickly discovered there is a random factor to that as well. So the game could start quickly if inexpensive prospects are placed on the board. Just in case I lost you, here is a quick recap. You use your starter deck to gather your resources and recruit prospects. Recruiting a prospect allows you to discard a card from your hand or your discard pile. The recruits have varying resource costs with some as high as thirteen. If you have 6 prospects on the board with a cost of 10 or more it might be a couple of turns before anyone does any recruiting.
Oh and recruiting is strategy all in its own. It is always a good idea to replace a starter card with a citizen or a dragon that offers you more resources. Why? You might ask. Because by replacing your starter card with the recruited card you thin your deck making it easier to draw the better card.
Oops, I’m rambling. The second game we played we fell into a gather resource rut. It was almost like we were waiting for the crops to grow so we could harvest them. But in the last game we played there was no such dilemma. It just clicked. We had players gathering resources while others took the opportunity to recruit on the first turn.
It wasn’t until about half way through our third game that we realized we were playing wrong. We were following the rules and all that. What we weren’t doing was looking at the big picture. The one that is about the strategy of the game. We were kind of racing to get the most prestige. Which is the goal of the game. We were struggling to get recruits for that instant prestige we spoke of earlier. But we weren’t looking to control clans, guilds, kingdoms and we certainly weren’t looking at having the most citizens or dragons in our deck. All of us overlooked those. I mean we were acquiring them , but not focusing on them.
Once that critical piece of the puzzle was popped into place the entire game changed. It was no longer a mundane game of “I need these resources to buy that dragon”. It was instead a game of critical thinking, where you would try and plot your next turn instead of waiting to gather resources. Yes it became a wrestling match with all the players struggling to gain the most control all the end of game conditions. At this point you began to see light bulbs go off and on in the other players eyes.
And it really is a wrestling match. There are so many ways to thwart your opponents. For example, you can easily gain control of a guild in one turn by recruiting a dragon and a citizen; providng they share the same color. If you need to stop a player from controling a kingdom or the most guilds it is one of the easiest methods to use. Of course, if you have a soldier’s favor you can accomplish the same thing by adding or removing up to two Kings Guards from the board. As you can see it doesn’t take long for Princes of the Dragon Throne to become a cut throat game.
All in all we had some pitfalls in learning to play, but once we caught on to the game we were more than happy to be playing. Princes of the Dragon Throne is a game that offers the players more than enough options to keep everyone guessing, and wanting more. My boys really can’t wait to play again and neither can I.
Battle for Normandy Expansion: June – August 1944
$59.00 SRP
SDI
This expansion set for The Battle for Normandy allows players to extend the campaign game to the end of August, but most importantly includes the area for the Mortain and Falaise Pocket scenarios. Counters are included to fill out Allied and Axis Order of Battles to the end of August, and also include specific breakdown counters for AT, SP AT, and mechanized infantry.
The Full Color Rules & Scenario books are updated and comprehensive, and include all original rules and scenarios plus all optional rules, and 6 new scenarios.
Well Heavy Gear fans I’ve finally managed to sit down and give Forged in Fire its fair time needed for a review.I don’t
A 1:144 scale HACS-02HG-MPS Grizzly, from Dream Pod 9’s tabletop miniatures wargame Heavy Gear Blitz! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
want to spoil anything for you so I won’t delve into the fluff. I will say there is plenty of it. If you are a Southern player you might just want to pick this book up for that alone. Instead I would like to talk about the features that the field guide has to offer you as a player. These features make the book a bit more of a tool for you.
The first is the vehicle compendium. It follows the same basic format of the vehicle compendium used in Perfect Storm, giving you a blueprint style picture of each gear and vehicle, and the variants of those models. Each model has two documents associated with it. The first is a development history. The second is an operations history. It wasn’t really necessary for them to do that, but it really puts the the compendium over the top. You also get little blue prints of each variant with the load right next to it. The vehicle compendium from Perfect Storm was a huge asset to me when building my forces the first few times.
Combat groups follow the same basic template that is laid out in Perfect Storm, which is to pick a threat value, followed by priority level, and then a regiment. Regiments limit the combat group availability. They are linked in the margins of the book. For example, a General Purpose Squad can be considered for an infantry regiment, a gear regiment, or an armor regiment. Regiment types will always offer you a benefit that comes with an imposing restriction. An infantry regiment can’t be played at Priority Level 4 and you must take at least two more infantry platoons. In return you gain a bonus veteran slot that can be used.
The nitty gritty defining your Southern force seems to take place when you select a league or a cadre. They are an upgrade that provides your army with unique options available only to your choice. Of course there are always the generics. In the case of the South they are called hemisphere wide options. One of the options is “Gear Carriers”, which basically allows certain combat groups to take Baranbys for 35 threat value.
There are at least half a dozen leagues that are more specific. These often define your force even more. The Southern Republic Army or S.R.A. has a great deal of focus to it. This league provides the player with amphibious troops, combined operations, humanist prejudice, political officer, and republican cadres. Each of these brings special benefits to your game table.
The Republican Cadre is a special branch of the S.R.A. using the best equipment in the southern hemisphere. This allows you to swap a G.P. Squad, Veteran Strider, or a Veteran black ops cadre for a Republican cadre of the same association. When you swap a squad the upgrade mus still meet the basic requirements. A Republican Cadre G.P Squad must still fill the requirements of a normal G.P. Squad . I think one of my favorite options is upgrading no more than two standard Sidewinders to the Riotmaster load out for free 0 T.V. The Riotmaster variant uses a Fragmentation Cannon. The Fragmentation Cannon boasts a rate of fire 2 along with the traits melee, anti infantry and reload. It does have a shorter range as a result.
One last piece of information, the final part of the book contains the battle for Port Oasis. Not only is it a detailed account of the history, but it is also a scenario you can play. It contains a complete list of the forces involved for you to reenact the battle.
Forged in Fire is a complete historic guide to your army if you are a Southern player. It offers you a complete vehicle compendium. By giving you a more detailed army building guide, you truly get the feeling you have become a Southerner. If you aren’t a Southern player it is a valuable tool for you to understand the enemy.
PDF on DrivethruRPG
If you want to learn more about Heavy Gear visit Dream Pod 9.
Zpocalypse: Zmaster Expansion
$40.00 SRP
Zmaster adds a fifth player to the Zpocalypse main game as the game master. This new player controls the zombies as they converge upon the survivors, who are trying to protect their bunker. Via zombie upgrades, new mutated zombie miniatures and the Deck of Doom, the zombie master adds new mechanics which spice up an already epic zombie survival game. Choose which scenario you prefer for the style of zombies to combat each game.
Zmaster provides rules and mechanics for altering the physics of the game to make it harder or easier, depending on your preferences and style of play. It turns Zpocalypse into the ultimate sandbox for testing out survival strategies and testing out how one would cope with a zombie threat.
Requires the Zpocalypse main game to play.
2-5 players
Ages: 13+
