The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Ronin is a new collectable miniatures wargame from Cell Entertainment. Collectible miniatures games are actually becoming more numerous these days, but every company seems to have a slightly different take on what that involves. In Cell's games, you get a basic set with a miniature, and a random assortment of equipment with which to equip it. In order to make your miniature more powerful, you need to buy packs of additional equipment. However, you don't know what specific types of equipment are in a pack, so you need to buy several packs to outfit your miniature.

In the case of Ronin: Duels, the miniature is a giant robot. Judging from one picture, the scale is approximately 1:285 or 1:300, also known as 6mm scale. This is a common scale in miniature wargames, and there are a number of suppliers out there who create science fiction terrain pieces in that scale, as well as troops, tanks, and other vehicles.

Currently, there are two starter sets available: Green and Orange, with Red and Blue on their way. In the Green and Orange packs, the basic robot is much the same. It comes in 11 pieces: a two-piece (front and back) torso, a hips/lower torso, two odd-looking reverse-knee legs, two feet, two upper arms, and a head. The basic robot is the same between the Green and Orange packs, the only structural differences are the head and the feet. Note, however, that the lower arms are also unique pieces, and each Ronin starter set comes with the specific arms featured on the cover. The Red and Blue starter sets have a different Ronin design featured. In addition to the basic Ronin and the featured arms, each starter set includes half-a-dozen pieces of weapons and equipment, two dice, and a rulebook.

The basic Ronin body can mount two lower arms, and as many as 19 pieces of equipment, or more. The lower arms, each of which constitutes a melee or ranged weapon, can be glued onto ball-and-socket elbow joints on the upper arms. There are also 19 hardpoints on the body, represent by raised metal nubs. Equipment and weapons can be glued onto these nubs. Note that some of the lower arms themselves offer additional hardpoints, as many as 2 apiece, for a total of 23 possible hardpoints on some Ronin. There are specific rules as to where many pieces of equipment may be mounted. The vast majority of weapons, for example, can only be mounted on the lower arms or shoulders of the ronin. A very few can be mounted on the legs. On the other hand, most equipment can be mounted anywhere. This creates a natural limitation to the number of possible weapons which a Ronin may carry.

The sheer number of parts involved makes assembling these robots something of a challenge. Fortunately, apart from the torso assembly, the models are intended to be glued together along poseable (i.e., you pose them, then glue them in place) ball-and-socket joints, rather than fitted together as in a model. The upper torso halves are intended to be glued in place around a projection from the hip section, allowing the torso to rotate. This is a game feature: weapon arcs are important to game play, and torso rotation is important to determining what the Ronin can shoot at. There is a rather substantial seam between the torso halves: finicky modelers can use putty to fill this in, but apparently the game designers themselves are unconcerned with it... its visible in the painted Ronins seen in the product rulebook and the website gallery.

Apart from the seam question, the miniatures are quite good in quality. One of Cell's previous games, Krash (reviewed here), is noted for the poor quality of its miniatures. That was Cell's first miniature game, and they have apparently been getting a lot better since with their mold-making skills. The Ronin parts have some visible mold lines, but these are easily removed with filing. For super-detailers, many of the gun barrels need to be drilled out.

A few more thoughts on assembly: You will want to test-pose your Ronin before gluing. This will be a pain, because the Ronin will fall apart easily, even if stuck together with blu-tack. However, it is necessary, because if you glue them together in a bad pose, your Ronin will get knocked over easily, or you may find yourself having a difficult time making use of inner-leg equipment hardpoints. Another consideration is involved in mounting weapons and equipment. Unless you're the patient sort, who can wait to create the 'perfect' Ronin by assembling the specific equipment and weapons you want, you're likely to just build a 'good enough' Ronin with what you have at hand. As you accumulate more stuff, though, you may want to reconfigure your Ronin. This is going to require ripping off pieces of equipment. Therefore, I recommend using minimal amounts of glue to attach equipment and guns, or to attach them after painting, so that they can be easily removed.

So, what about the rules?

The Ronin Duels rulebook is a 32 page full-color horizon-folded booklet. Although this is typical of Cell Entertainment products, I consider it a minor strike against them... I just find horizon-folded books difficult to use. It starts off with an introductory page, followed by some discussion of physically preparing the Ronin and the battlefield. Then it gets into the rules, discussing terms and concepts before getting into specifics.

Ronin uses d6 dice for all of its mechanics. These dice are used in a variety of ways. The two most common rolls are Tests and Damage rolls. A Test roll is made to see if something works... for example, a Test is used to successfully aim a weapon, get back up after being knocked down, etc. The goal of a Test is to roll 2d6 and get a 7 or higher. The roll can be modified by a variety of factors: range, bonuses from equipment, situational modifiers, etc. A Damage roll is used to inflict damage. Most damage rolls involve rolling a single d6, often modified by the weapon type. Some weapons modify damage by as much as an additional d6, or more. There are a number of miscellaneous rolls: for example, the Kerberos (a gatling machine gun) uses a d3 to determine how many times it hits a target, while Overheating tests are rolled on a d6.

Play begins by assembling opposing forces of Ronin. Generally, a single Ronin is considered equal to another Ronin if they have the same number of filled hardpoints. There is one case where this is not so: Ranked Ronin. Ranked Ronin, designated as such by bearing Flags, gain great bonuses to heat capacity, cooling rate, and damage capacity, which make them much more powerful than other Ronin. To use such Ranked Ronin, they must either be opposed directly by two normal Ronin, or accompanied by a number of other Ronin equal to the number of flags they bear.

Once the number of Ronin have been decided, players roll off to see who can start placing their Ronin first. Players proceed around the table, placing Ronin one by one until all are on the field. This same order is used to decide who goes in what sequence during a game round.

During the game round, each Ronin moves through a simple sequence. Step one, they reduce their heat per their heat reduction system. A basic Ronin has a normal heat reduction of 6, modified by torso damage. A Ranked Ronin can have a heat reduction of as much as 12. Heat levels are reduced to negative numbers... for an ordinary Ronin, starting at 0 Heat, they are reduced to -6 at the beginning of their round. After the heat reduction step, they perform actions. Actions can included movement, weapons fire, standing up, and several other things. All of these actions cost Heat. Essentially, Ronin uses Action Points, but the currency of action is Heat.

A Ronin's movement distance is determined by its Weight Class, which is in turn determined by the equipment and weapons it carries. Every lower arm, weapon, and piece of equipment has a Weight. This is an entirely abstract value, representing a game balance mechanic rather than a real weight. It is possible to have a Ronin loaded to the gills with equipment that all weighs 0 units, resulting in a Weight Class 0 Ronin. A Ronin's first move is free, each subsequent move costs 1 heat. Therefore, most Ronin can only make 7 moves in a single turn. Light Ronin, with a 12cm base move, can travel as much as 84cm (~34") in a single round, while extremely heavy Ronin, with a 4cm move, will obviously only be able to travel a third of that.

By the way, Ronin uses centimeters for ranges and speeds. This will be a moderately difficult adjustment for American players, but it can be changed to inches easily, although this will require larger boards to play on. All in all, though, the centimeter ranges used in Ronin feel better for this game than they do in Krash, where most movement and ranges feel absurdly short compared to the size of the miniatures.

Moving on, one of the most common actions a Ronin will be taking will be using weapons. Most weapons cost from 1 to 3 heat to use. Using a single weapon or piece of equipment more than once a turn incurs an additional heat penalty, making it difficult in most cases to use a single item more than twice in a turn. There are several ways of getting around this limitation. One option is to mount more than 1 of the given item. Some items are immune to the heat penalty, and can be used repeatedly in a turn. Some Ronin can be designed with very high heat capacities.

When you've selected a weapon to fire, you check to see if there's a target within it's firing arc. If there is, you declare your target, *THEN* measure range. This will determine whether you can even shoot at your target, and if so, whether there will be a modifier to hit it. Once the modifier has been determined, you take a Test to see if you succeed, then you roll for hit location. After determining where you hit, you roll to damage the target. To damage the target, you need to roll higher than the local Armor value. The base armor of a Ronin is a 5 in all locations, so for a typical attack, you need to roll a 6 on a d6. Most weapons have positive modifiers, however, so it can be easier than that. Making things more interesting, there are several types of equipment which provide additional Armor to a Ronin, as well as weapons which are Armor Piercing. Finally, the Damage roll is open-ended: if you do roll a 6 on a d6, you get to roll again, and add. Ordinarily, you can only roll 1 additional damage dice, although some equipment modify this.

You score 1 point of damage on a Ronin when you roll damage equal to or exceeding your target's armor value, and for every multiple of that armor value. So, if a typical Ronin has Armor 5, and you roll 10 damage, you inflict 2 points of damage on that Ronin. This brings us to one of the most unique features of Ronin: The MagLock System. Each hit location on a Ronin is represented by a small magnet, which is glued into a socket on that body part. To record damage, you take a small ferrous ball, and stick it to the magnet. Each hit location can only take 3 points of damage... excess damage is moved to other hit locations nearby. When a hit location has 3 points of damage, it is considered to be 'Critically Hit', resulting in penalties to the Ronin. Torso criticals lower heat reduction, leg criticals slow the Ronin down and give it a chance of falling over, and arm criticals reduce its accuracy in combat.

Other actions include changing direction, revolving the torso, standing up after being knocked down, or colliding with another Ronin. One of the niftier actions is the ability to spend some heat to reserve an action for use during another player's turn. This gives you a chance to respond to an action outside your own turn, ramping up the tactical complexity of the game.

The final step is to check for overheating. You check for overheating any time you plan an action that would raise your heat above 0. If your overheat check is a success, you can continue your round, although every single heat-producing action will require another overheat check. If you fail, you roll to damage your mech, and automatically end your turn.

Play proceeds until someone has won the game. Although the basic game is a simple 'Last Man Standing' scenario, variant games with additional rules for hidden movement, controlling territory, and siege elements are suggested.

After the rules, there is an extensive section depicting all of the collectible parts for your Ronin. These include Arms, Weapons, Equipment, Skill Marks, and Missiles.

There are a dozen arms, 6 melee, and 6 ranged. Each arm has different characteristics and special powers. For example, someone looking to crush his opponent may mount the Titan Fist, a heavy armored fist which does great damage and has a chance of knocking opponent's off their feet. On the other hand, it has a high heat and it's rather heavy. Another option may be the Juggernaut Fist, which in spite of the name is actually a light fist. Although it does much less damage than the Titan, it weighs nothing and requires little heat to use. It also provides an increased chance of parrying opponent's blows in combat, and has 2 hardpoints for additional equipment.

There are numerous weapons, providing many different abilities. Some have great range, others great power. Some provide unusual abilities, such as being able to turn your opponent around on the battlefield, or knock him back. Others have valuable effects, such as being able to be fire indirectly or the ability to pierce armor.

There is likewise an awful lot of equipment, including a wide variety of armor, equipment designed to provide increased heat capacity, reduce weight, add more damage to weapon attacks, or make the Ronin more difficult to hit.

Skill Marks provide bonuses to specific actions which a Ronin might attempt, or give unique abilities. They are quite nice, in that they only take up a single hardpoint each, and weigh nothing.

Missiles are large seeking weapons. They are single-shot weapons, and require a Missile Rack to use. However, they do a large amount of damage, and have many special abilities. Most interestingly, they are actually represented by models on the battlefield, flying around at a certain speed and directed at their target by their owners. A battlefield with Missiles flying around has got to be an interesting place... players will have to consider their movement carefully so as not to find themselves in the flight path of a missile, and will have to make choices as to whether to shoot a Missile or an enemy Ronin.

Summary:

The Good:

Ronin bears a number of similarities to Battletech: tactical detail, giant robots, heat as an important play factor. Unlike Battletech, however, the miniatures are not simply play pieces, 3-dimensional counters, but rather have a number of functions in the game. First, all of the Ronin's equipment and weapons can be seen simply by visually inspecting the model. Second, in addition to determining direction of motion from the position of the model, you can also determine whether its torso is twisted, and how far. Finally, the model is also used to track damage. All in all, this means that you can play a game without stacks of mech control sheets and counters.

Also like Battletech, the robots are customizable. Unlike Battletech, where such customizations where generally only visible on paper, your Ronin configuration is immediately apparent to other players. There's just a high coolness factor involved in such a tactile game. It brings back a lot of the fun from our youth, when we played with Legos and He-Man action figures (and of course, many of us haven't stopped... ;).

Ronin is what I would consider a highly-evolved game. Although I can't point to any specific part of it (except maybe the MagLock system) and say that it's innovative, all of it makes use of the gradual improvement in game design that has taken place over the past couple of decades. It's a collectible system, which is bad for us but good for the game company (and that is ultimately good for the players). It is complete in one box: everything you need to play is right in the box, and although your Ronin might not be very tough at first, it is at least usable and legal (which is not true of many other boxed miniature games). The rules make use of sequential activation, which is generally preferred by most wargamers, and even gives players the option to respond during an opponent's turn, providing tactical complexity.

Game play is deep. Thinking is involved at all levels of play, from assembling your Ronin, to placing your Ronin on the game board, to the specific decisions you make fighting your Ronin during the game.

The Bad:

The rules are a little complex. I don't think they will be difficult ot master over time, but they are formidable at first, and may turn some players off of joining into a game. Also, there are a number of poorly-explained weapon and equipment abilities that are open to confusion and abuse.

The Ronin: Duels booklet has absolutely no background information. This isn't going to matter much to the casual gamer, who might approach the game with the mindset, "Ooh, giant robots! Let's fight!" However, many gamers like to make some emotional and intellectual investment into their forces, coming up with backstories, unique insignia, and so forth. For these gamers, there is absolutely nothing to go on, not even an indication of how many crew a Ronin carries or what factions exist in the setting... or even what planet it's set on. Although Cell is planning on expanding on the setting with a supplement called Ronin: War, I think many gamers might be frustrated until that material arrives, especially if they've come up with backgrounds and paint schemes for their Ronin in the meantime that don't fit the 'official' material at all.

Finally, Ronin is going to be an expensive game to play, especially for finicky and/or antisocial gamers. In order to fully dress up a Ronin, you will need to buy several expansion packs per Ronin. At an average cost of ~$5 per weapon or equipment expansion, the price increases pretty swiftly per Ronin. At least in my area, while these games are sold at the local game store, they are not particularly well supported with scheduled gaming nights, clubs, or tournaments, so it's going to be hard to build up a pool of players amongst which to swap equipment items to build that 'perfect' Ronin.

Final Thoughts:

It's all about the combos, baby! Cell's first collectible miniature game, Krash, wasn't all that collectible, in the sense that the pieces available didn't have any huge degree of synergy. Although you needed to buy a certain number of expansion packs to outfit your cars, you didn't have to acquire them aggressively to build powerful vehicles. In fact, of the 4 Krash vehicles I have completed (out of 6 owned), the first 2 I built, from the starter set alone, are probably the most formidable.

In Ronin, however, that has changed. I would say that the construction strategies in Ronin approach those of Magic: The Gathering in depth and productivity.

For example, I mentioned that Heat was the currency of action in the game. There are a plethora of weapons which can increase heat, either directly, by hosing your opponent with a flamethrower, or indirectly, by causing it to expend more heat for common actions. With a Ronin designed to heat up opponents, you can paralyze them long before you inflict enough damage to destroy them.

There are other such combos built into the weapons... for example, you could use High Explosive weapons to knock an enemy off his feet, then go up and Stomp on him with Aggressor equipment items or Stomper skill marks to increase your stomping damage. You can build such combos onto a single Ronin, or design a small force with interlocking roles.

This combo-hunting is part of the fun of the game, and should (hopefully) prove less important to final victory than it does in M:tG because tactical miniature games are a lot more chaotic than card games, but it's still a factor which rewards Mr. Suitcase over the casual gamer.