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Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone has tried Darkson's AE-WW2 game yet, or has bought any of the miniatures.

It looks really cool and I did the whole Weird/Alternate time-line type stuff with the pulp feel to it. The miniatures don't look too bad, in fact many of them look quite good and it doesn't seem to be a game where you need to spend hundreds of dollars to build up a force, which is great for me being married with a child, that kind of limits my budget.

any help and or info is appreciated. Oh I have checked out TGN's web-site and they have some helpful info, but I am looking for more.

one last thing, True 28mm scale works out to what scale in terms of WW-2 model kits that companies like Tamiya puts out?? I.e., 1/48 scale or 1/72 scale models??

Thanks,
Chappy P!

The test rules are still out (on the website), and the full rules are being released as we speak. I haven't played it, but those few reviews online seem pretty positive of it.

TGN has done a lot of playtesting/playing of the test version, so I'd take his stuff pretty seriously. Also check out the Weird World War II page on the Lead Adventurer's Forum.

'28mm scale' (which of course is not a scale but a measurement of figure size, either from foot to top of head or foot to eye) is (depending on which scale nazi you talk to) either 1/64th or 1/56 scale. 1/48 vehicles work in a pinch, but figures are going to be too tall. 1/72 are often described as being 25mm scale, but are probably closer to 'true' 25mm or today's 20mm (which tend to be closer to 23mm-25mm anyway). You could probably get away with some things like aircraft, terrain etc., but the figures would be pretty small in comparison. either way you're fine as long as everything you and your opponent is using is the same scale, but I wouldn't mix and match Darkson figs with, say, Tamiya 1/48s.

Battlesuits are another story, however.

My sense of the game is that it's true skirmish, which means each side should be no more than 6 figs or so (those are the battle reports I've seen, at least). Hope that eases some of your money fears.

I am also waiting for a comprehensive review of the game before jumping in.

I got burned *badly* when Rackham sh*tcanned their skirmish line, so I guess I'm still gun shy.

Plus, West Wind's Weird War II setting looks fairly nice too, though again, I haven't seen many reviews of their system (still in beta with the full rules coming real soon) yet...

Decisions, Decisions...

So far I have heard some pretty promising things about AE-WW2...but the 2 main LGS' in my area don't carry the line!

Plus I feel pulled toward AT 43, I have the UNA and Karman books and hopefully I'll have a small Karman army soon! Doh too many games and not enough time and money to play!

Thanks,
Chappy P!

PS Alpharius Check out tabletop gaming news website for some good AE-WW2 reviews! They give it a decent score, but with all games there are some flaws. Hope it helps!

Secrets of the Third Reich!

That's the name I couldn't remember.

http://sotr1949.com/

It doesn't look to be terribly well supported in the USA though. Nothing for it at the WarStore either, where at least AE-WWII has some love...

So we have:

Dust:Tactics for heroic 28mm prepaints,(upcoming)

Secrets of the Third Reich for platoon level Werid War 2,

AE-WWII and for squad level skirmish in WeirdW2

.45 Adventure: Amazing War Stories for narrative skirmish campaigns

Nuts! along with with Holle Auf Erden and Chain Reaction 2 or All things Zombie add on rules might work really well for even more narrative campaign stuff.

Then there's Gear Krieg for 15mm company sized WeirdW2 (except it's sadly in limbo until DP9 hopefully regenerates some um..game market mojo? with HG:Blitz!)

Flames of War homebrew add on rules for more 15mm WeridW2 is out there.

And potentially some sort of SF:3D/MaK gaming product revival now that the kits are coming back into production.

There are lots of alt-WW2/Weird War 2 options out there. Not bad at all.

West Wind’s Secrets of the Third Reich rulebook is out now (I think) and I should have mine in hand within a week or so.

I’ve also ordered Darkson Designs’ AE-WWII rulebook and some figures too.

I really like AE-WWII’s miniature designs, and they are supported a bit better in the US (as far as I can tell…).

West Wind’s stuff is very nice too, but finding a US source isn’t easy.

Both do not seem to be terribly well supported at the FLGS level.

I think as far as Weird War II stuff goes, I’ll be sticking with SoTR (larger games?) and AE-WWII (Skirmish).

SoTR does have nice big walkers, where AE-WWII will NOT have walkers (at least not officially) but they do plan on having a range of “powered mechanized-infantry suits”…

I’ll let everyone know what I think about the two systems after the rulebooks arrive!

Well I have done it now! I recently went to my LGS and picked up AE-WW2 main rule book as well as the American Starter set, a blister of US robots and a blister of US Airborne troops.

Overall, I am pleased with the purchase, I still have yet to fully read through the rules sufficiently to give a review, but as soon as I do, one will be coming.

As for the miniatures, they are true 28mm, not the heroic GW scale, which is going to be a bit of a pain to put together. There was a fair amount of flash to deal with, but overall the molds are good and the detail is amazing for the scale.

I'll try to get some pictures going for a WIP, maybe I'll blog my progress here on the site if there is any interest...I'll let you know more as I go deeper into my wonderful miniature ADHD!!

Thanks,
Chappy P!

I bought the same stuff!

I agree, the miniatures are a bit on the 'small' side (from what I'm used to) but it shouldn't be too bad.

I look forward to seeing your force painted up, as well as hearing about your impressions of the game itself (no points system!).

Yeah, I am really excited about the no point system! It's weird, but cool all at the same time. At this point I am hoping to get my models together next week and paint the week after! Hopefully I'll get it all done and get some games in with any luck.

I'll keep people posted!

Thanks,
Chappy P!

I can put in a real recommendation for this game. The non-points based army creation seems bizarre at first, but once you make a few lists, you'll find it remarkably liberating. Games flow quickly and there's a real sense of atmosphere throughout every battle.

This sounds really cool! My interest is definitely piqued regarding both AE-WW2 and SotTR.

Anyone care to elaborate a bit on how the "no points" system works in AE-WW2?

@Hordini:
The game has different "Detachment" types. Each detachment is broken down into the following:

Name
Detachment Composition
Heroes
Restrictions
Vehicles
Special Orders
Options
Standard themes

Name is obviously the name of the detachment, it's typically followed by a brief description of what the detachment is.

Detachment Composition is how many selections of various troops you can have. Such as How many veteran units can you have, how many Regular selections can you have and how many green selections can you have...Sort of like the FOC of 40k, in 40k you have to have an HQ and 2 Troop choices. Here is the same, but the difference is that the units don't have poit values, rather they have experience levels, from Green to Veteran.

Restrictions is just that, what kind of restrictions does that particular detachment have. Some have restrictions on the number of PSI units or experimental units and things along those lines

Vehicles, does the detachment allow vehicles or not? Most don't, but they do have detachments based around vehicles.

Special orders, are sort of like the orders you get in Apocalypse in 40k, they have special and give special advantages to your army. I believe you can only have 1 such order.

Options, this allows people to swap out an experience level for more of a lesser level. or a lesser level to a greater level. Usually you get one such advancement per detachment.

Standard themes gives a player a general idea of what this unit might look like on the battle field. It's like the game designers said, if you take this detachment, then this is a theme you can use, or think about these units for this detachment, but this is not hard fast rule, such as is you take this detachment, then you must take these units.

I count 7 detachments in the main rule book. They are

Cavalry Detachment based on a couple of small vehicles.

Command Detachment which is like a comand squad in 40k.

Experimental detachment is focused around the experimental units or weird fantasy units in the game, such as the Soviet Chumans (Man-Ape soldiers), the German Flame warriors or the American Buffalo Soldiers (AE-WW2's version of power armor)

Infantry Detachment, based upon infantry units

Motorized Infantry, like the above but with one light vehicle

Support detachment, basically like a 40k Devastator squad.

Veteran detachment, like a guard veteran squad, smaller numbers but more skilled.

It's weird at first, but cool once you dig into it. I am so excited to get started on my stuff. I am hoping to be building this week and painting the next week as I said above. So far I have heard nothing but Good things about the game. The only thing I have heard bad, is that you are better off having a larger force for better playing games (and by larger force I mean 10-15 models)!!

This games is totally squad based, but they do have free online rules for using multiple detachment games. They also have a good vision for the future, and I am really excited for the first expansion, The Occult!! Vampire German officers and stuff like that!!

Anyway, there is a somewhat brief description of the "no point" system. If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

Thanks,
Chappy P!

I'll chime in with another vote for AE-WWII. We just played it for the first time last weekend at the local hobby store - using mostly existing WWII figs and proxies for some of the special AE-WWII units. The game played quickly once we learned what we were doing (we had a 6 player game with 3 detachments per side). Each detachment averaged around 10 figures, so we were able to get through turns fairly quickly.

The game definitely felt more pulpish than historical - with elite troops having more actions than regular. The Germain giant ape is a beast..it's quite a bit of fun to send it loose to pound GI's into the ground. We had a mix of players who prefer historicals and players who prefer 40K and both types enjoyed the game equally - and we plan on playing again in couple of weeks.

Just about to buy into AE-WW2 as well.

It's pure skirmish, and you can run armies with only 4 models, all heroes, which is very cool.

There are rules for larger battles in the game's monthly supplement, "Over the Wire" however those rules are mostly temporary. They've already talked about a larger scale version with streamlined rules.

Sorry if this is Threadnomancy but its still on the front pages so WTF.

I am a huge fan of this game and play it regularly with wonderful results. The no points system is amazingly well balanced and results in flavorful and entertaining games while still giving you the fun of building YOUR unique unit.

The preview sculpts and concepts for the "Occult" expansion are really impressive and worth a look. TGN has been covering them regularly and we talk about them on TWiW all the time as well.

I personally recomend that you pick up the Battlefield Evolution World at War game as well ( available either in pdf or at most online retailer ) as that allows you to have some variety to your gaming by mixing in pure historical games with your wierd games using mostly the same models. It also lets you have fun with some gorgeous Tiger kits ;-)

Which episode of TWIW discusses the game? I recently added the podcast to my list.

How is WAW and is it a mongoose product, or just a third party license? Mongoose is dead to me as a company due to the way they completely mis-handled starship troopers and BFE. However, I have considered the zombie game made by a third party.

We actually had an interview with one of the designers of the game in episode 11 where we talked at length about the game, its genesis and some a little bit of a preview of Occult and some of their plans for future expansions

We have talked about some of the preview figs and art for Occult in several of the episodes this year as well but episode 11 is the best for pure
AE WWII

palaeomerus wrote:

Dust:Tactics for heroic 28mm prepaints,(upcoming)

Paolo will be @ Comic Con this month and I plan on grilling him about the status of this.

palaeomerus wrote:
And potentially some sort of SF:3D/MaK gaming product revival now that the kits are coming back into production.

Wow I'm surprized to see another SF3D /Ma.K 3000 fan on here and I hope you're right about a game being a possiblility.
I'm putting together a 1/35th small scale combat game based on what figs are available in that scale but that is real limiting.
I also play the old AH style board game on occasion.