Mecha Carnage
Tabletop Miniatures Game
Gomi Designs
36pp - [sterling]4.50
Mecha Carnage fills a long-vacant niche in the SF wargaming field; a simple,
fast-play set of rules for simulating the sort of battles between giant robots
which are commonplace in anime. Previous sets of this kind have fallen down in
several ways; Battletech is too slow and complicated for anything more than
simple skirmish scenarios, both it and Mekton rely on hex sheets to regulate
movement, Titan Legions is embedded firmly in the GW house universe and its
attendant gothic spiky silliness, and so on.
Mecha Carnage, on the other hand, succeeds brilliantly in capturing the fast,
freewheeling action most of us are familiar with from our favourite cartoons,
and transferring it to the wargaming table. Although the rules are intended for
1/300th scale miniatures, allowing you to take full advantage of the many
ranges of models currently available, other sizes are possible if you adjust
the ground scales accordingly.
The rulebook is clearly and simply laid out, following the introduction with
the mecha design rules. These are dead easy to get to grips with, allowing you
to reproduce almost anything you've seen on screen or in a comic, or can come
up with for yourself. Once you've defined the size and tech level of the mecha,
you choose how fast, agile, and heavily armoured it is; all these criteria have
to be traded off against one another. Then the fun bit; choosing the weapons.
These are defined in broad, generic terms, allowing you to tailor them to your
campaign environment.
All the rules for transforming or combining mecha are factored in at this
stage, and work smoothly and easily in play. Furthermore, the same design
process is used to define the abilities of conventional vehicles and infantry
units; a neat touch, which makes it easy to remember the abilities of the
various 'mech fodder' units.
The turn sequence and movement rules come next, explained clearly and
succinctly. Then, finally, combat; your chance to find out how well your
brilliant mecha design actually works. As you'd expect from an anime game, this
is fast and furious, with an ingenious critical hits system which can leave you
in real trouble, real quick. And if all your weapons are down, you'll just have
to get in there and slug it out in true anime hero fashion.
As a final finishing touch, the game comes complete with a sheet of cut-out
counters, and a quick reference card with all the major rules neatly summarised
on it.
If manga, anime, and mecha are your cup of o-cha, then this is the game you've
been waiting for.
Reviewed by: Alex Stewart
Product supplied by: Gomi Designs
