Friday, January 21, 2011

Robofire! test drive

Having been a Super System fan for a long time, I was excited to find out Scott Pyle was working on some giant robot/mecha rules along the same lines as his Goalsystem rules. With Wednesday game called off because of weather, I called Lead Addict, to come over and try Robofire out.
I was already familiar with Goalsystem mechanics, so that part was easy. I spent about a 1/2 hour doing some quick and dirty stats for the old Mechwarrior figs I ordered (all units involved cost me about $15). I haven't rebased or repainted anything, because I really wanted to try the rules before diving in too crazy in miniatures.
I also didn't bother to try and balance the forces point-wise, I just went on looks as to what systems each miniature should have. Basically, each size unit has a number of Attack dice, and a number of Defense dice. Attacker rolls, adding up his successes. defender rolls and does the same. If the attacker scores more, the defender takes the difference in hits. Simple?
The battle started with my Anti-tank gun taking out, you guessed it, an enemy tank. There was some long range skirmishing to little effect. Defenders get bonuses to their Defense dice and longer ranges, the attacker gets dice at closer ranges. Again, a simple mechanic that gives the player a reason to risk getting in close.
The fight raged back and forth and went really quick, which I liked. This would be an excellent convention game, which is essentially what I have every week with 6-8 players. Eventually I had knocked out most of Leady's tanks, and it was over. Over all, a great game. But, then again, I'm bias for Goalsystem.
Liked: Speed and easy to teach the rules. I think with some more added "fluff" to differentiate all the myriad vehicles available, it would be even more fun.
Disliked: No rules for morale yet, I'm sure Scott is working on it. Biggest beef though, is with the infantry. Horribly slow (yes, I could get transport, but what fun driving around trucks?). Also too vulnerable. Even in today's warfare combined arms is still the core. Tanks are very vulnerable without infantry support. Any militia unit with a rocket launcher could take out a giant robot with a shot to the legs. I could make the infantry "Tough" giving them more than one hit, "Jump" capable, and "Anti-Tank" capable, but then they cost as much as a tank. Also ranges are the the same. Infantry can shoot just as far as the Mega-tank using a particle accelerator.
But, for a work in progress I am impressed. We both decided these rules might be the cure for all those Heavy Gear mechs we have (can you say "hundreds?"). Now there;s a company that put out great figs and turd rules. But, I digress.
I'm definitely buying more, rebasing and repainting to play again, both with "Robofire!" and Future war Commander.

Update: Looks like we hit 70 followers! Welcome!

6 comments:

Lead Addict said...

It was very fun. Scott is on to something with the rules. Needs lots of tweaks, but thats what playtesting is for.

I already started stting up the Gears.

Got the Defense, Move, size done on the five primary Gears for the North and the South last night I was so jazzed up about it.

Will Scarvie said...

So, are these rules available? If so, could you point me toward where to find them please?

BaronVonJ said...

I would try to contact Scott R Pyle thru his blog. I'm not sure how much he wants them out at this stage:
http://four-color-figures.blogspot.com/

Scott P. said...

If you want to give them a try, contact me at srpyle at gmail . com

Thanks!

inrepose said...

I am being a bit cheeky dropping a note in here but I wanted to highlight the fact that Gruntz rules are built for Mecha and you can design you own http://www.gruntz.biz/2010/12/15mm-mechs.html

If you are interested I will send you the latest PDF which has the mecha, tanks and troop builders included.

BaronVonJ said...

Please do!
-J