The game is scale independent, meaning that you can play with 15mm, 25mm or any other size miniatures you prefer. These rules contend war remains a human endeavor whether we’re chucking spears, laser beams or atomic weaponry. Never fear, those of you who want more than mankind to serve up in your war gaming; rules for robots and aliens are also provided for those who want more variety than Homo sapiens alone can provide.
The book is hard cover and reminds me of a college textbook in size and heft----except better than any subject I ever studied in school. Presentation and organization throughout are a class act. The cover and interior art depict various hard sci-fi scenes and the images do a good job of getting across the ever-present human element. In addition to artwork, various manufacturers’ miniature lines are featured in on-table action scenes throughout the book.
These photographs feature nicely painted minis on beautifully rendered terrain and are excellent inspiration for players to get their own stuff painted. They also give the reader a peek into miniature product lines they might not have known existed. There are numerous examples, design notes and sidebars sprinkled along the way to make sure you ‘get’ the rules as they are presented.
TW currently has no points system (though one has been mentioned as in development). That is, you won’t find a table saying a human soldier armed with this or that rifle costs x number of points to field. However, Ambush Alley have foreseen many players’ apprehensions and have included ample force organization tables you can use to base your troops upon and the scenarios provided in the appendix do a good job of overcoming many points lovers’ concerns.
The game also covers just about anything you can think of from a modern to sci-fi setting: VTOLs, fast roping, atmospheric insertion, artillery (on and off table (I’m a fan of off table arty, personally), mechanized forces and more. The robot concepts of drones and androids are covered very well and have a good deal of detail and you get more of a kit approach for aliens.
Since you can effectively build your own forces stats, aliens are as simple to make as any human force. Psychology (morale plays an important role) and performance are what help to make them more alien. The authors note that alien in a war game usually equates to ‘special rules’ and I agree that just because your forces have 3-eyed aliens it doesn’t mean they’re necessarily better shots or close assault types or whatever. Still, you can stat your models as you please and there’s a full spectrum of weaponry, vehicles, armor, etc. to help you use any models in your collection and have stats that match your concept.
Pretty much all modern and futuristic war games have rules for movement, shooting and close combat and usually cover morale and some way to differentiate this or that troop type or maybe even provide special rules for certain armies. TW does a thorough job of covering a lot of options, unit types and vehicles with a tight rule system that requires you to think as you go. By refusing to use an IGOUGO (I go, You go) turn sequence, TW keeps both sides involved in the game the whole game through.
If you’re used to going a playing a few rounds of Angry Birds on your smart phone while your opponent completes his turn, you may end up getting your head metaphorically handed to you in TW. In effect, it’s always at least partially your turn since you can still have your units react to the other guys units. They can try to return fire or possibly move far enough behind cover to cease being a target completely.
Forces are measured primarily on their quality (usually reflected by the die type d6, d8, d10 or d12). Since rolling a ‘4’ on a die is a sign of success, it’s obviously better to have a die that has a higher chance of rolling 4 or more on your side. Combat factors in everything from range, to cover, to armor, to whether a firing unit has support weapons or whether the target has moved and more.
Opposed rolls using a small table of factors for the target and the shooting unit determine if any casualties occur. The target player tries to match or better the successful dice he rolled for defense against the shooter’s dice (rolling a ‘4’ on any die is considered a success but here you specifically want to roll as high as possible).
Fog of War cards are provided at the back of the book and add narrative impacts to the game to keep both players on their toes. The cards themselves are pages you can photocopy (they’re not perforated nor do they look to be easily removed without damaging the book) and make your own set. They come into play after certain failed dice checks or can be used differently if your scenario or house rules call for them. From friendly fire to communications problems, Fog of War cards add more variety to any scenario. That said, for those who don’t like that kind of randomness, it’s easy enough not to use them. Some of my favorite things:
High production values and tons of examples abound. Regardless of how intuitive a rule set may seem, it’s almost always better to provide examples of what the authors had in mind when they wrote this or that rule. TW delivers this well, often showing how a slight variation impacts a rule process.
Morale has a big impact on the game. You can pour enough firepower onto the enemy and make them much less effective. Higher quality troops have a better chance of staying above it all but nobody’s got a free ticket when hot lead, plasma or bioweaponry is continually chipping away at your cover.
Interactive turn sequence is my preference compared with IGOUGO games. It feels good to be able to at least try to move that unit out of the opponent’s gunfire or to blast his unit before he gets the drop on you. Since overwatch is also available to the side that has the initiative, I think the turn sequence is extremely engaging.
Fog of War cards can turn sure-thing fights into more interesting ones. Nobody likes to win because of bad die rolling on their opponent’s part but I honestly don’t think Fog of War cards have that huge an impact on game results. They might help tip a fight one way or another but the more skilled player will win out on average.
Close Assault goes on until somebody wins. Period. You win the fight, are captured in the fight or your unit dies. I think this is a great approach to this type of fighting. Other gamers may prefer protracted fights produced by other rule sets. Your mileage may vary.
Scenario driven play and an excellent campaign framework. Several scenarios are provided in the appendices and these do a good job of showing the versatility of the rules including variable sized tables. The varied scenarios are great templates for developing your own fights and the campaign system looks like a great way to string together multiple fights. I plan on using them to play some novel-style Heinlein Starship Troopers fights.
Hot spots are a nice concept for bringing in reinforcements. During a game turn, if the scenario provides for them, reinforcements can arrive via ‘hot spots’ that are pre-placed but arrival on which is randomly determined. These are great for replicating everything from a stealthy group of spec forces types who were lying in quiet, to alien ant-men appearing out of their hive entrances to airborne troops landing at varying spots throughout a drop zone. TW's not the first game to use this sort of mechanic but it's a good addition.
I would have liked the Fog of War cards to have been detachable from the main book without damaging the book. I’ve seen that these are being made available commercially but it would have been a nice addition to the book. I also would have liked to have seen a quick reference sheet that summarized all the handy tables throughout the rules. I’ve read them about half a dozen times and maybe there’s a QRF in there somewhere, but I didn’t see one.
Overall, I highly recommend TW especially if you are part of or want to start running a club for war games. I think competitive/tournament type play would not do as well with these rules especially due to its lack of points (a plus in my opinion).
TW provides a solid rule set that will cover just about any sci-fi or near future fight you can think of; I think you could also run some decent WW2 games with only a modicum of tinkering. The production values and thought put into the rules are top notch. If you like your war gaming to be more than an arms race of who can buy the shiniest new model, then TW is definitely worth your time.
