Search
Review Editing
Review of Chronopia
The first quarter of the book details the 300 year history of Chronopia, and the prose is no less over the top that the visual art. It is the Age of Chronopia, the entire world is an apocalyptic battlefield, and all the races mutually despise one another for various evils perpetuated over centuries. This passion is eclipsed only by their hatred for the Devout, genocidal servants of the Dark Lord satisfied with nothing less than the total destruction of all mortals that oppose them. Though there are a few interesting twists in the plot, there are also a number of ridiculous turns. You'd think after a few hundred years of utter hatred and distrust they'd have learned to be a bit more paranoid, perhaps keeping an eye on proverbial friends bearing gifts or prodigal dark prophets returning with a vengeance. Overall the fluff isn't too bad, introducing the dark setting while motivating players to slaughter all opposition on the gaming table. You may like it, as I did, or you may not, again it's a matter of personal tastes.
The next fifty pages detail each of the five race's cultures, background, cities, military and magic. The designers did a marvelous job taking familiar fantasy races and giving each its own novel flavor. The Firstborn are civilized humans led by their living God the One King, a Master of Time yet a slave to Fate. The knights war distinctive crenellated shoulder pads, while the Chronomancers manipulate the flow of time to their advantage on the battlefield. The Elven Houses are inspired more by Moorcock than Tolkien, each house fielding different flavors of specialty troops and wielding elemental magic with the aid of consumed lotus flowers. The three houses detailed in the book include the House of the Crystal Lotus (wind and frost magic), House Helios (fire magic) and House of the Obsidian Serpent (stone magic). The Dwarf clans, including the Dark Tusks, Blood Bones and Horned Ones to name a few, fight by the sides of their old Gods, turned into wild and berserk Blood Totems by the Wilding. The Blackbloods are four races in one: orcs goblins and trolls ruled by ogre nobility. These aren't dimwitted green-skinned goons, but rather honorable dusky-skinned warriors, wearing ornate bronzed plate over patterned robes and wielding ornate curved falchions. Can you say Arabian-Orc Alchemist of the Burning Star? The last are the Devout, all around evil dudes who raise the dead and summon demonic creatures from the Dusk Realms to swell their ranks of disenfranchised Firstborn.
The third quarter is devoted to the war game rules. The game uses a D20 resolution system with a natural 1 treated as a perfect success and a natural 20 as a fumble. For example, a perfect 1 made during an attack roll bypasses all armor and automatically wounds your opponent, while a perfect fumble causes the attacker to lose all remaining actions for that turn. Players activate units alternatively, with play passing back and forth until all the units on each side has been activated, completing a turn. Units are organized as warbands or individuals, and each model has at least two actions per turn. Warbands are groups of 4-8 figures that activate together, though each model is capable of carrying out actions independently as long as they remain within 4 inches of the warband leader. With the expception of the Shield Wall special ability, there are no set formations. Individuals are activated independently, in effect acting as units of one, though they can support larger warbands by giving orders, rallying broken units and increasing overall the leadership of nearby warbands. Though often possessing special powers, skills and equipment, individuals are still quite mortal and can fail spectacularly fielded without any support. There are rules for panic, rallying and fear, though their effects during play seem fairly minor. Stalwart models perish in droves, often only a hand full left at the end to taste bittersweet victory.
Successful attacks, both close and ranged, are determined by a pair of die rolls, the first rolled by the attacker to determine whether the attack hits its target, and the second rolled by the defender to determine if a successful hit penetrates armor to cause a wound. For novice players, game play tends to be slowed by the need to repeatedly check various statistics for both the attacker and defender, such as the attackers weapon damage and the defenders armor value when checking for wounds. Ranged combat can dominate games at first, through judicious use of gaming terrain can help if you find this a problem. Warbands that use available cover will fare far better than those that charge across open fields exposed to enemy missile fire. In general the rules are fairly straight forward, though I found the learning curve for putting the rules into play to be a bit steep. In the end it was well worth the effort, with game play feeling fast, furious and fun after the first few battles.
The final fifty pages contain the army lists for all five races, providing a complete table-top miniatures war game in a single book. The game uses a point-based system to calculate army costs, and though the armies seem to be balanced well, formulae for calculating point costs are not included. Though some units appear under/over priced by comparison, armies of equal point values play quite competitively, provided that players makes use of each army's own strengths and weaknesses. However, I have to admit I'm naturally inclined to throw away most point systems and just have at it with whatever is at hand or with whatever a particular scenario calls for. Rounding it all off are a few pages of cardstock cutoouts of counters and templates, and a single two-sided reference card.
In conclusion, Chronopia is well presented, darkly evocative, and most importantly, fun to play. If dark fantasy miniature skirmishing turns your crank, I'd advise you give it a glance and pick up a copy, if you can find one. The only overt absences are point cost formulae, some detailed scenarios and unfortunately, a company to support it. At the time of this review, Target has closed the design studio and the European factories due to restructuring, though Target U.S. is still cranking out the minis. Apparently, Paradox Interactive, newly born from Target's old interactive division, is purchasing or has already purchased the Adventure division responsible for the miniature war games. Hopefully they'll begin producing new product in the near future and continue to support the game the way it deserves to be. Only the One King knows for sure.
Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
