Dystopian Wars revisited
So I found NetEpic over the weekend. It's a free version of the old GW Epic Space Marine game. That game was a damn fine one. It's a shame I don't still have my old stuff. Either way, it got me thinking. I do have a nice little collection of Dystopian Wars stuff and I'm not exactly taken with DW's rules*. Over the last couple of days I've generated some stats for the land and air units I have. I have yet to put it on the table, but it seems like it'll be quite workable. Junior tasked me with painting his Prussian small tanks on Sunday, and they'll be pretty necessary for a playtest as a cheap "fodder" unit. I may get some 1/600 infantry and base them on 1" or 3/4" inch squares if playtesting is positive. I'll probably just proxy some infantry for starters. Fodder is always good and was one of my favorite parts of Epic in the day. I used Orks and of course they come in hordes!
Dennis and I will probably be playing MDRG Saturday. I've concocted a neat little Left4Dead style zombie scenario. Hopefully Rick will be over too - the scenario will work well for three players.
* My gripes with Dystopian Wars: It is a dice rolling contest. There is almost no tactical decision-making involved. For such a simple system, it is very slow. In a game of any size, the first turn or two take a LONG time to resolve. Powerful units that take just a bit of damage turn into shitty ineffective units. There is no penalty for moving. Ranges and speeds are ridiculously out of whack. Tiny flyer combat is horrific.
Dennis and I will probably be playing MDRG Saturday. I've concocted a neat little Left4Dead style zombie scenario. Hopefully Rick will be over too - the scenario will work well for three players.
* My gripes with Dystopian Wars: It is a dice rolling contest. There is almost no tactical decision-making involved. For such a simple system, it is very slow. In a game of any size, the first turn or two take a LONG time to resolve. Powerful units that take just a bit of damage turn into shitty ineffective units. There is no penalty for moving. Ranges and speeds are ridiculously out of whack. Tiny flyer combat is horrific.
From looking at the DW bits you could probably do a nice line in working out generic stats for each type of vehicle (all nationalities seem to have the same Things with different designs) and then tweak national advantages/disadvantages into them afterwards.
ReplyDeleteUsing Net Epic is inspired though. The core system is pretty good.
Thanks Alan. I hope the result is worth a darn.
ReplyDelete