Topic: Lets do some game reviews

[KTG17]

I am sure many of you have played a ton of games in your life besides WFB. Some were good, some were bad, and some are just classic. I want to hear about them all. So I am going to post some reviews on some games I consider classic and still have, and some I thought were terrible and got rid of. Don't care if its sci-fi, fantasy, historic, or whatever. If you have something to say about it, post it.

As soon as I post this I am working on a review of the game that started it all for me.

[KTG17]

The first game I am going to review is the one that started it all for me: Adeptus Titanicus (1988 version).



Its hard to state how much this game changed my life, along with its sister game, Space Marine (version 1).

It featured giant robots battling in the early days of the Imperium, during the Horus Heresy we all know about today. The Heresy came about because of the limit resources Games Workshop had on making the game, with only a single type of Titan to fight on both sides, and decided to create a story that involved a civil war, thus the Horus Heresy was born.

I got this game along with Space Marine, which focused on the infantry and vehicles of the time, and it was everything I had waited my whole life for and didn't know it. I had actually bought the game sets used, along with a bunch of articles from White Dwarf, and just couldn't believe how amazing it all was. No game has hit me before or since like it.



Adeptus Titanicus came with 6 titans, some buildings, rulebook, chits, and measuring sticks. After Space Marine was released, which did include rules on how to merge the two games together, GW released Codex Titanicus, which expanded the game to include the Eldar and Orks. Eventually other races like the Squats, Chaos, and more titans and units would be released in White Dwarf as well.



The game was so novel for its day, and it seems the designers went a little overboard on the details for the rules. This meant that its slow going, and there is a rule for everything. It makes some small unit actions pretty amazing, but if you are playing on an 8 by 4 foot board, its going to take days to play out.

Here are some shots of the reference section for Space Marine:



Vehicles and Infantry, and even later light vehicles were handled a little differently. Essentially think of a lascannon; a lascannon is a lascannon regardless of race and what it is mounted on. Lascannons are great against vehicles, but not so good against infantry. So there are separate stats for weapons depending on what their target is.





Check out those close combat modifiers. Certainly a lot to add up. Along with whatever values the units themselves have too.

When the system was first released, GW used cards to show the unit stats, but this went away and was summarized on reference sheets later on.



The support weapons were important because heavy weapons could not be used by infantry that moved, much like in 40k. Then there were the smaller assault weapons that could be used when advancing. Also much like in 40k.

All that level of detail really slowed big games down and the designers learned from this and went on to create the most successful version of Epic, Epic Space Marine and Titan Legions by trimming a lot of the rules. That system became one of GW's big three, and it was a really fun time. My gaming group played both versions of the game and loved both for different reasons. We had some amazing battles with this version, and for long games we just left the table as is and came back to it a few days later, sometimes involving huge swings in momentum. The games really felt massive, gave us time to think out tactics, and the detail in the rules created some heroic events where a few models might hold off a larger force because it was dug in. Nothing was abstract either.

That isn't to say that AT1/SM1 is perfect, the system does have some quirks which we just fixed with house rules back in the day.

I have a lot collected for this game, every rule, article, or mention from White Dwarf, model, etc. The likelihood I ever play another serious game with it is probably remote, as if I were to introduce a new player to Epic, it would be with the second edition. But when it comes to my own imagination, and my fondness of the early days of the Horus Heresy, this edition can't be beat. Its kinda cheesy by today's standards, but there wasn't anything like it back in the day. Giant robots with little infantry and vehicles under their feet looked amazing on a gaming table.



I don't know what GW intends to do with their latest version of Adeptus Titanicus, which I do have, and do not like. The models are too big for large armies and sweeping attacks. To offset this, GW has developed rules that focus on controlling a few models, rather than on an army itself, and there is nothing Epic about it. The only reason I have it is because I own everything for 'Epic'. But whether or not they introduce infantry and tanks to that scale I do not know, but I doubt it will touch players like the old game did.

Tomorrow I am going to talk about a little known gem called Trinity Battleground.

[Rowsdower]

My introduction into this hobby was with Heroquest. I remember seeing the old Heroquest game in the local toy store in the early 90's. I never obtained the item but over the years, I was slowly introduced to more aspects.

[KTG17]

I never played Heroquest, but I own Warhammer Quest and love it. Brilliant game not just for the dungeon crawls, but for everything they developed for in between the crawls.

I played the game with my three nephews and they loved it too. I really should try to play that game more.

[Warlord]

My introduction into this hobby was with Heroquest. I remember seeing the old Heroquest game in the local toy store in the early 90’s.

Me too. My cousin had it. He gave it to me when he wasn’t interested in it anymore.
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[KTG17]

Trinity Battleground



Based on the RPG 'Trinity' by White Wolf, Trinity Battleground is a action point based skirmish system that takes place in the Trinity universe. Now, I am no expert on the Trinity universe, and I am not into RPGs, but I saw this game at a time when I was crazily buying up all miniature games I came across, and I had never heard of TB before I saw it. Trying to learn more about it, I found that the game did not sell well, and was discontinued by White Wolf only 6 months after releasing it. With that, I had to have it.

The first thing that struck me when I opened the box, was that a lot of love went into making this game. It comes with a lot of well made components for the time, and while I bought it at a time when it was selling for a discount, I would have still felt that I was getting my money's worth had I bought it when it was released. It comes with miniatures, some nice hill terrain I have never seen included in any game, some interesting cardstock buildings and other barriers, full color character sheets, and a ton of colorful and nicely designed counters. The game also uses 10-sided dice and includes a bunch of them as well, with even a little pouch to put them in. Really above and beyond.





The miniatures make up two opposing forces: the psychic Psions of the Legions and the mutated Aberrants. The Legions (and there are several different ones, are defending humanity against the Aberrants, who are former humans who have mutated into various beings with assorted powers. Here are the models that come in the starter.













Each character or unit is has a corresponding character sheet like the one shown below for Aberrants:



Aside from the stats, there are a bunch of counters for the Legion and Aberrants which are designed to be placed over parts of the sheets during the game, like equipment or mutations. So a heavy weapon might take up three equipment slots, and therefore the counter is shaped accordingly. The same for the mutations. Each character is able to use a certain amount of these slots based on his stats. Its a little cumbersome but it does make for some nice looking character sheets. I have used sticky tack to attach the counters to the sheets without any problems. And there is a wide variety or equipment from stimpacks to armor to remotely operated machine guns, all designed to take up space on the character sheets.

The rules are fairly light. Characters are handled a little differently than squads, as the game is really character driven.  One of the things I do not like, and this does show up in other games, is placing a counter next to each model to represent the order/phase he is going to be activated.  There are different actions each model can take and you have to commit to that in the order phase, as opposed to deciding what to do when it's his turn.

The Legion troops, also called Psions, can have a mix of psychic powers as well as technology, which is fun to play out. Of course they have everything from side arms to missile launchers, and then a variety of powers. The Aberrants have powers what include ranged attacks as well.

The universe the game takes place in is a little weird and I don't get into it like I would 40k for example, but without taking it too seriously, I still like the game. As a matter of fact, I liked it so much I went out and bought just about every miniature they released for the game (there were about a couple dozen).

I know there were plans to expand on the system had if been successful, but it wasn't so we're just left with rumors of what could have been. While Trinity Battleground may not come close to some of my other favorites, like Epic, Man O' War, Warhammer Quest, let alone 40k, or even WFB now, I still have a lot of appreciation for it, and if I was stuck playing this game for some reason, I wouldn't complain. It does have some nice things going for it, and I am surprised others didn't feel the same way when it was released. The biggest thing holding it back might be the Trinity universe.

One of the coolest things White Wolf did to promote the game was to release fold out poster that could be stacked at a register that on one side contained a playing area, cut out counters and characters, and a light summary of the rules to play the game. Very cool idea, although, it doesn't seem to have helped much.