I picked up the new Battletech game with a fair amount of trepidation at Gen Con. I was introduced to the gaming hobby originally by a simple box of plastic robots, a hexmap, and a thin green rulebook. While not the novel-devouring background-quoting fanatic, I would still consider myself an enthusiast of the Battletech setting and sensabilities.
My goal in this review is NOT to compare MWDA to CBT, but rather explore the value of Wizkid's Mechwarrior game in its own right. So let's get on with it.
What you get:
In the $21.00 starter, you get one 'mech figure, two vehicles, and five infantry squad bases. You also get the rules, the special equipment card, dice, and several short dossiers on the different factions. None of the starters have the possibility of containing a Unique 'mech(the rarest and most sought after).
Boosters are 10.50, and contain one 'mech, one vehicle, and two infantry.
All contents are randomly inserted.
How they look:
As a miniatures gamer, I'm a bit more critical of the appearance of miniature figures than the typical gamer might be. Still, I found a lot to like with the MWDA figures. The paintjobs are leaps and bounds ahead of the lively awfulness of original Mage Knight releases. They show evidence of moderately advanced techniques like drybrushing and inking, or a fair approximation thereof. One extremely nice touch is the use of transparent plastic on vehicle and 'mech canopies and windshields. It's much more visually appealing than simply painting them on. On some of the 'mechs you can even see the pilot in the canopy.
Infantry is on a standard sized base (about 1" across) as used by typical Mageknight and heroclix figures. One base contains a squad of 5-6 "regular" troops, or typically 3 battle armor guys, represented by a single combat dial.
Vehicles are on an oval base with a circular dial in front. These dials are wickedly hard to get to click properly untill they've been "broken in" a bit.
'Mechs are on a base about 2 1/4" wide, and stand 2-4 inches tall. most have 3 points of articulation: arms and waist. The articulation does have a tendancy to come somewhat loose with repeated reposing. I have seen a few 'mechs that have broken in the package or with only moderate handling. My understanding is that Wizkids has an excellent replacement policy, but this is small comfort to the poor sap who opens a booster and pulls out a broken 'mech.
The figures are in "N scale," meaning in theory you should be able to buy model railroading buildings ready made as terrain. In practice you'd have to do a lot of searching to find terrain that felt more like 32nd century than Downhome Middle America.
Distribution:
A critical aspect of a collectable miniatures game, or any collectible game, is distribution of figures in the boosters and starters. No one wants to buy half a C-note worth of product and open nothing but pack after pack of identical, medeocre figures.
There are 116 different figures in the set, though for the non-uniques, each sculpt is actually 3 figures in Green, Regular, or Elite flavors.
In order to do a proper exploration of this aspect of the game, I would have to open a case of boosters or so. This is quite outside my means, however Wizkids is welcome to send me one gratis so that I may do so in the name of Science!
Based on my admittedly limited Gen Con aquisitions of one starter and six boosters, distribution looks decent. Of the seven 'mechs, none were identical, and only two pair were the same sculpt. While I don't remember specifics, there was a decent mixed bag of everything else with an agreeable mix of "experience levels." I pulled one unique. Most of my figures seemed to represent one faction, and I was able to do some trading of the rest to create a solid collection of this faction with several different tactical possibilities.
So based on my experience, the distrobution isn't so bad. It doesn't lose points for being a collectable game, since it is what it is, and it seems to do it fairly well.
How it plays:
Anyone who's played Wizkids' other games will immediately be familliar with the basics of Mechwarrior Dark Age. Your battleforce is selected from your collection based on the point value on their bases to come in under the agreed build total. The build total determines the size, and in practice length of the game. The battlefield is set up from a terrain pool contributed to by both players, battleforces are set up in deployment zones on opposite ends of the field, and then you have at it.
Each unit comes on a combat dial which gives several fixed values such as damage, base attack, and defense. On the top, static portion of the dial are its permanent pertenants: faction, min/max range, point cost, damage and movement types. Colored backgrounds in these blocks indicate special equipment that gives the unit abilities, listed on a seperate reference card. As it takes damage, it is "clicked" down, losing and sometimes gaining special abilities, and changing its combat values. Eventually three bullets appear in the dial window, indicating that the unit is destroyed.
Each turn you recieve a number of "orders" equal to the initial size of your battleforce devided by one hundred. In the standard 300 point game, you get three orders per turn. This adds a wrinkle to the game that is often derided as "unrealistic" by igo-ugo wargamers, but in practice adds certian unique tactical considerations. In order to act, units must be given an order. The basic orders are "move" and "attack." When a unit is given an order, a token is placed by it to note this, and removed at the end of the following turn should the unit pass. If a unit is given two consecutive orders, it takes a click of "push" damage (representing expendeture of fuel or ammo, structural strain, what have you), and may not act on the following turn. Units of the same faction, with the exception of 'mechs, can move in formation. This allows you to spend a single order to move 3-5 units at the cost of only one order. You may also spend a single order to have units fire and attack in close combat in formation, with the primary attacker gaining a bonus "to hit" for each helper.
The above applies to vehicles and infantry. 'Mechs get to break the order, movement, and pushing rules somewhat with the addition of the heat dial. The heat dial lines up with a 'mech's combat statistics, and as it clicks down it adds negative modifiers to these values. Colored spots on the dial indicate such things as checks to avoid automatic shutdown, ammunition explosions, weapons jams, and the like. When a 'mech gets hot enough, it shuts down completely. Any time a normal unit would be pushed, a 'mech takes a click of heat. A 'mech is never considered "pushed" and can act every turn- provided you don't mind running it hot. A mech can run double its movement value and take a click of heat. Finally, 'mechs are able to charge into combat at the cost of two clicks of heat. The ability to act every turn and several special attack modes serve to differentiate 'mechs from the other unit types and make them "special."
The addition of minimum ranges, different damage modes, different movement types, and more adds some tactical wrinkles not present in other "Clix" games. A few examples: Infantry takes a maximum of 1 click of damage from any energy attack, hover vehicles ignore water hindering terrain, tracked vehicles ignore standard hindering terrain.
All in all, the system allows for a fair amount of complexity without overtaxing the player, for a good balance between playability and detail. The game is fast-playing and has a fairly quick learning curve, though slightly more complex than other "clix" games.
The one fundamental flaw of the system is what has been dubbed in my gaming circle as the "Clix game dance." There is an undue incentive to play passively, "turtling" as it is often called, as a great deal of momentum is taken away from the attacker. A basic example:
Two identical tanks are facing off. The tank which moves into range first is at a fundamental disadvantage, as the opposing tank will get a "free" shot at it after it moves into range. Even if the opposing tank misses, or the other tank survives in any kind of fighting shape, it will have to damage itself to return fire immediately.
On a larger scale, this often results in a Mexican standoff of two battleforces staring down eachothers gunbarrels; the first to engage will be the loser. Even blitz tactics are blunted somewhat, as the attacker can only move so many units in at a time to be picked apart by his opponent's choice of stationary units.
While it can be argued that in modern and futuristic armored combat that the defender should indeed have an advantage, this particular standoff-inducing problem does not make for fun gameplay. It goes beyond the bounds of tactical modelling into the realm of unfun design flaw in this reviewer's opinion. I've seen several games bog down because of it.
I have devoted a large amount of space to this issue as it is the most glaring, but I don't want to give the impression that it spoils the game irredeemably. To the contrary, in many games it does not crop up, and there are a few effective ways to defeat turtling by using different terrain and tactics. I maintain that it is problematic, but not gamebreaking.
Probably the best thing about MWDA is the reintroduction of a solid sense of scale, reaffirmation that these are indeed giant robots we're fighting with. This is accomplished by incorperating vehicles and infantry in combined arms, while still reserving a special role and place for the 'mech. Seeing them tower over a squad of infantry reenforces their sheer size, and that's a good thing in a game about giant robots.
Overall, the gameplay is fairly simple yet engaging, the pieces are very good looking, and provided you're not the compulsive type, the cost of entry can be comparatively low. I reccomend this game to anyone looking for a fast-playing futuristic combat game with 'mecha sensibilities.
I've tried to give a general overview without too much painstaking detail, but feel free to ask specific questions in the forum.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)