Review of Terminus V

I recently relocated and it took me a while to find any gamers in my new area. When I finally did, I hooked up with a group that played a game I had never heard of - Terminus V. The first night I got together with them, one of the guys lent me a copy of the rules so that we could start a campaign the following week.

The precept of Terminus V is that it is a hundred and twenty years in the future. The few people who have survived World War IV have been reduced to eking out a bare existence. Disease, famine and nuclear destruction have severely depopulated the Earth. Clean water and food are extremely difficult to obtain and the few nations remaining spend most of their resources on protecting their people and their food supplies. Because of the destruction, there are few resources to be put towards any sort of scientific advancement. Thus, all weapons available to the world's powers are of 20th/21st century vintage and anything of any kind of value, military or not, is extremely scarce. In fact, military action is one of the few ways nations have of obtaining the scarce resources they need to survive as virtually all means of international trade and cooperation have come to an end.

However, battles are fought, not by armies, but by small teams of men, typically five to ten. That's all that any but the most powerful nations have to spare. This is the world of special operations and besides, it would be too time consuming and awkward for any player to control much more than that and armies larger than platoon size would leave too many players with too much down time to keep their interest in the game for long.

Here's how the game works. It is a combination of miniatures and role-playing. The rules are designed so that you can mix the two to any level you want. You can play straight role-playing or straight miniatures or anywhere in between. In our games we have been sticking more closely to the miniatures side, but the game can open up whenever we feel it is necessary, useful, or interesting to do so.

The rules initially look daunting. The rulebook runs to nearly four hundred and twenty pages, but there is a lot there that you don't need in the ordinary game. The first eighty pages set the stage. They contain the "historical" background and information on each of the countries remaining in the world. The U.S. and Canada, for example, have been fractured into regional powers while the nations of Europe and the Third World have combined to create larger states than previously existed. What looks powerful on the map, could be very weak indeed. Next comes ten pages on establishing and integrating weather into a scenario or campaign.

After that we get into creating characters. Again, most of this can be ignored if you are only interested in the miniatures side of things. You need certain base numbers for damage, ability, etc., but the character background can be left out or incorporated to whatever extent the players feel comfortable with.

Next, comes outfitting your character. If doing simple miniatures, all you have to do is choose your weapons and equipment from the substantial lists provided. If into role-playing, you have to purchase these things and determine availability, etc, as in other games.

Finally, just over half-way through the rules, we come to the best part: "Starting and Playing the Game." The turn order consists of rolling for initiative, movement and then combat.

Movement simply follows a chart, though each character may have different movement speeds based on his own strength and agility. Everyone can walk one inch per turn or crawl half an inch. Jogging and running are also included and will carry a character farther but will fatigue him as well. Movement, of course, is further modified by terrain, etc.

Combat is extremely simple, though fairly realistic. For gun combat, you simply follow a table modifying a base to hit number. If you roll that number or less, you hit the target. This can be very difficult. In a practice match to introduce me to the game, my friend and I traded shots for a few turns before either of us hit anything. At another time, he stepped out into the open unaware of my presence and I scored an easy hit on one of his men.

After determining if you hit, you then determine how many bullets hit. This is a function of the character's skill level and the difference between two dice rolls. In the case above, I hit my friend's character with three shots.

Next, you determine where the shots hit. Again, this is simply rolling on a chart. I hit his man in the upper leg, abdomen and chest. Each body part has a certain number of hit points. If the damage done by a bullet is greater than the damage that body part is capable of absorbing the character is dead, or at least in critical condition (which can be alleviated by medical attention). Each weapon caliber has individual characteristics for damage and custom bullet loads can be designed as well. In this case, his man was down but not out. He did, however, have to be pulled to safety by another team member and given medical attention. This effectively took two men out of the action - the guy I shot and the guy giving him medical aid. I hit another guy, hiding behind a wall, in the head with a sniper rifle. As you can guess he didn't need medical aid after that - he needed a body bag.

Finally you determine ammunition consumption. Although I got three hits, it is possible that I shot off an entire magazine in the process. This is a function of the size of the magazine and the player's decision to use conservative or aggressive fire. A chart is consulted and a die is rolled. I think I used five shots to get those three hits.

That's it. That's the game. It's that easy. Designed primarily as a small unit action game, armor and vehicles, as well as large caliber support weapons, can be incorporated into it and rules are provided for doing so.

Now, don't let the sci-fi, futuristic background to the game put you off. There are no ray guns or photon torpedoes here. This game can even be used to recreate small-unit to medium size (platoon or even company if you have multi-players or are a sucker for punishment) engagements from Viet Nam to Afghanistan for the historical minded people out there. Any weapon or vehicle can be adapted to game terms and paramilitary actions, such as police SWAT teams, can be replayed as well as combat action.

The beauty of T5 is its flexibility and support system. In addition to the rulebook, there is at least one website dedicated to the game which includes additional weapons, vehicles and equipment. Periodically new items are added to the list. Optional and experimental rules are also posted to give players greater flexibility in designing scenarios. In addition, a whole series of miniatures is being produced, with new releases every month, to recreate the wide array of battles possible with T5. The rules, the miniatures and vehicles can be obtained from the publisher - Scorpion's Nest Tactical Gaming. For more information, check out www.scorpionsnest.com or e-mail tacteam@scorpionsnest.com. Check it out - I guarantee you won't be disappointed.