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Fluff: The world is broke so it turns to Mega corporations who run just about everything and have their own private armies. Your MERCS forces are the special forces for these different corporations.
Factions:
CCC - One of the North American corporations. They have the most reliable tech in the game (represented with low armor break numbers and the ability to auto repair themselves after a few turns.) A solid faction with more heavy/special weapons choices than other factions.
Kemvar - South America - Masters of Stealth tech. Their guys are always considered in cover (think Predator style camo) and if they're actually in cover they're almost impossible to dig out. When you do hit them though and wreck their armor they have a very hard time fixing it.. They have interesting choices with their sniper and heavy.
USCR - Northern Eurasia- the stereotypical Russian brutes. They are the most heavily armored faction and also some of the slowest. They do have the coolest looking heavy in the game (the Behemoth) and they use a lot of weapons that slow down their opponents to help keep from being outmaneuvered.
FCC - Central Eurasia - an organization that acts as a liaison between the other corporations. They are allowed to select one member of their team from any other faction. While it is a nice ability the selected team member does lose some of their effectiveness (in some cases making them more of a liability than an asset.) Their Boomer is quite devastating with his grenade launcher.
Keizai Waza - Japan - Power armor and a suitcase nuke. I don't really need to say much more than that.
Sefadu - Africa - The fastest faction of them all. They excel at close combat. Their armor is almost non-existent so use of cover is essential. When you do get into close combat though it's usually all over but the crying. The only faction without a true heavy weapon.
Texico - Texas/Mexico - Old west style cowboys/bounty hunters and their trusty cyberdog. The Marshal is able to put a bounty on a model and when the model is killed all team members get a bonus to their shooting for the rest of the game. They also benefit from focus firing on one target during the course of the turn.
ISS - Southern Europe - With a gladiator-ish style theme, this faction prefers to keep their opponents at long range. Knock back weapons and (my favorite) the lightning cannon that arcs between targets are what stands out for these guys.
The game itself is fast and once you know the rules you can pound out a game in about 45 - 60min (faster if your rolls are unusually good/bad.) Because of the small model count (3-5 per side) you roll individual initiatives at the start of each turn and go from highest to lowest. One of the nice things about the game is that if you do end up rolling poorly for initiative for an important model you can actually hold actions with your other figs to wait for the guy who isn't ready yet. This lets you coordinate your moves/fire and really makes your models feel like a team that trained together.. In fact, coordinating actions can make or break you if done at the right time.
The game uses cards for everything- movement, range, templates. People either love the system or hate it. I like it. It is a little restrictive when it comes to movement (you must move from notch to notch on a card) but maneuver is a HUGE part of this game and adds to the challenge. The snap to cover mechanic is also a neat idea. It allows you to take those one or two extra steps to make a piece of cover or snap around a corner w/o wasting actions to move to be able to take an important shot..
On a model's turn it may move, or attack, or use a special action like repairing armor/ using a med pack, or hold (no action but +2 to initiative next turn.) Some models have weapons that allow for move and fire attacks with a penalty but many do not. Shooting attacks have a base target number depending on the weapon which is modified by range and cover. Close combat attacks have a target number based on the target models reaction stat (faster targets have a higher number - this number is also used as a tie breaker for models who roll the same initiative.) In either case, when a hit is scored (by equaling or exceeding the target number) you compare the weapon's strength against the targets armor. If you equal or exceed the armor value you cause a point of damage. Most models have 3 damage. Regardless of whether a target is damaged or not you check for armor breakage (which again is a roll against a target number.) Having broken armor is bad.....real bad for some factions.....and causes a number of penalties for the model with the broken armor.
One thing to note that takes some getting used to is that targets are usually pretty hard to actually hit. The game is about building up lots of positive modifiers to help lower that number. Flanking, elevation, and suppressing fire will win you games. Simply hiding in cover and trying to blaze away will not. Your Sniper is your true heavy hitter when it comes to consistently dealing wounds. Your heavy weapons are made for suppression, not wholesale slaughter like other mini games. They will devastate folks who are dumb enough to run into them out in the open but their main use is to restrict maneuvering lanes. If you don't realize these things before you play your first few games it's easy to get frustrated as you find yourself constantly needing an average of 8+ on a D10 to do any damage.
Games are played in a very small space - 2'X3' is standard. Play mats are available that have lots of cover and make elevations easily represented. If you really like your 3D terrain though you can pretty easily use this as well.
We've only had one or two blow out games and those were due to some abysmal rolls. I haven't found one faction who seems to consistently outperform the others though there is less of a learning curve (I think) with CCC and USCR who tend to have more forgiving stats/easier to define synergies in their teams.
I got into the game by purchasing a rulebook and a few of the card packs. I proxied minis and played a few games before I bought any figs. Right now you can download the quick rules for free (which honestly covers most of the game), the stat cards, as well as two maps. If you want to jump right in though they do sell starter boxes that come with everything you'd need for a single faction (cards, dice, and quick start rules) all for less than $50 if you order from some of the discount online retailers (I use miniature market myself for most purchases.) As a heads up, there will be a second edition of the rules coming out so you may want to hold off buying the hardcover rule book unless you can find one at a good price.
The models are nice but there are some thinner parts on some. USCR figs are all pretty blocky (as are Keizai Waza but not as bad as USCR) so if you like lots of sharp details these may not be what you're looking for. The first runs of ISS minis were pretty bad too as far as detail goes. CCC, KemVar, Sefadu and Texico all have sweet figs. I'd post pics but as none of my stuff is painted you'd be better off just visiting the MERCS site and checking out some of the communities posted pics.
Hope this was helpful.
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