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Future War Commander in 10mm (N scale). Observations after playing.  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
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Made in us
Brigadier General






Chicago

In the ongoing saga of things to do with rebased mechwarrior minis, a friend and I played FWC (http://blitzkrieg-commander.com/default.aspx?Area=FWC ) last week. Here's my friend's blog about the game.

http://rpgdiehard.blogspot.com/2010/12/future-war-commander-with-rebased.html

I agree with what he says. A few more observations.

-Once you get the rules down, the game plays pretty quickly. A largish battle should resolve in under 2 hours.
-I've been told that the command function in FWC and Blitzkreig Commander and Cold War Commander is based on GW's Warmaster, and looking through the warmaster rules (free from GW) there are other aspects that are very similar as well. This also might explain the author's thanking of Rick Priestly in the BC rules.
-The command function activates multiple units at once and moves things along fairly quickly, though the game is still IGOUGO, which is not my favorite turn/activation mechanic.
-It is abstracted, compared to other games. Most units only have one or two weapons systems.
-FWC does not have different structures or command systems for alien races.
-FWC contains enough sample army lists based on various manufactureres miniatures that you can find a stat for almost any kind of futuristic vehicle, mech or infantry unit
-Coming from a 40k background, it's interesting to see a battle where weapons have ranges that are more realistic.
-"Command" units in the game are mostly not able to attack or be attacked, they serve to direct the battle and establish command distances. I think they will be a nice excuse to use VTOL's and other unique vehicles or to model unique units that may not have a place in the army otherwise.
-There are no set force organization charts. Like most open-ended wargames systems, FWC is open for abuse by power-gamers, but those who are willing to discuss with thier opponents the forces involved shouldn't find this to be a problem.

Overall, FWC seems like a great way to get alot of miniatures on the table at once for a battle that will not take an eternity to play. I still prefer Mech Attack when doing smaller skirmishes, but for massed sci-fi combat, I may have found my rules! I'd never played a mass battle in small scale before and though I love 28mm figs, I really see the appeal of smaller (10mm/N-Scale in this case) battles that allow large amounts of troops and vehicles on a standard table.

I enjoyed the game enough that I ordered the Lulu version (26 bucks shipped rather than 55 bucks shipped for the color version) and immidiately got to work rebasing more MW clix figs. Though the rules seem most ideally suited for 6-15mm scales, It strikes me that it'd be fun to try abstract rules like FWC to play apocolypse size battles in 28mm. Using FWC (or epic 40k) rules, you could play an apocalypse size game in a few hours rather than an entire day.

Chicago Skirmish Wargames club. Join us for some friendly, casual gaming in the Windy City.
http://chicagoskirmishwargames.com/blog/


My Project Log, mostly revolving around custom "Toybashed" terrain.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/651712.page

Visit the Chicago Valley Railroad!
https://chicagovalleyrailroad.blogspot.com 
   
Made in gb
Monstrously Massive Big Mutant






Yeah I've have this game and would recomend it to others. I play it at 6mm but that doesn't make a huge difference. I am also a mainly 28mm gamer but smaller scales can look amazing.

IMO the best part is the list buidling. You can make up profiles for whatever units you want to field and because vehicles and infantry behave the same you can include whatever you like.

There are some problems- expensive units aren't as good as multiple cheap ones and big vehicles can be a bit of a waste (except that they look great) but these can easily be covered by some simple house rules.



For The Greater Good

Taking painting commisions, PM or email me at 4m2armageddon@googlemail.com
For any requests. 
   
Made in us
Brigadier General






Chicago

Just wanted to add an update. Played again, this time with a slightly larger force and as a 4 player game. I enjoyed it even more than last time, though we still haven't used alot of the more advanced rules.

Mechs still sometimes end up being big-walking-stunable-targets, but if you coordinate your list building so everyone has a mech or two in their force, (very different from typical 40k listbuilding) they are fun to include.

We hope to try an all vehicle and infantry battle soon, and I'd like to try an all mech army raiding a smaller entrenched conventional force.

One other tip. Turning all the terrain so that vehicles, and roadwasys were oriented diagonally across the board rather than paralell to the edges made for a much more interesting looking setup.

Lastly, FWC has army lists for many other manufacturers' games including Reaper's CAV which is the list we have been using (definitely worth the effort to email the game designer for access to his list builder) to stat up our rebased mechwarrior figs. I liked the lists so much that I first made a pdf of pictuers of the CAV units in FWC (email me if you want a copy) and later bought the first edition CAV books just to have a visual refference for the units.

Anyhow, to sum up, after buying myself a copy of the rules, and playing another game, I'm very pleased with the rules. Though I am a fan of using as simple rules as possible, I'm actually looking forward to incorporating the FWC rules for things like artillery bombardments, air strikes and dropships.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/03/09 04:02:58


Chicago Skirmish Wargames club. Join us for some friendly, casual gaming in the Windy City.
http://chicagoskirmishwargames.com/blog/


My Project Log, mostly revolving around custom "Toybashed" terrain.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/651712.page

Visit the Chicago Valley Railroad!
https://chicagovalleyrailroad.blogspot.com 
   
 
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