Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: Major_Gilbear on September 26, 2011, 10:48:30 AM
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I keep seeing mentions here and there about Ambush Alley's "Tomorrow's War" ruleset, and it seems to have some people quite excited...
However, the reviews I've seen tell me almost nothing! o_o
I haven't played any Force On Force games, and really don't have any idea about anything to do with Tomorrow's War, but I gather it is a generic ruleset that is near-future / 'hard' Sci-Fi. That being the case, it has intrigued me, and I'd love to hear more about what the game actually is.
So, can anyone who's played it /owns the book tell me a bit more about it please? What's the book like? What are the basic rules mechanics? Could you give me a quick rundown of how a model/squad would behave in a typical turn? Are the rules well explained? Is there an index? What forces/technology are catered for? Are there any army lists, or force builders? Is there much weapon / equipment variety? Are there many scenarios? How much terrain is required to play? ...And finally, is it any fun and is there anything else that might be worth mentioning?
Thanks in advance for your help! :D
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This fellow is just starting a multi part review.
http://steelcitywargaming.blogspot.com/2011/09/tomorrows-war-today.html
May be worth keeping watch on it.
Al
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Not reviews, but a free version of Force on Force (which Tomorrow's War shares mechanisms with) and a write up of a turn of play so you can see for your self what it is like (minus the sci fi elements). If you don't like the mechanisms you probably will not like Tomorrow's War.
Personally I do like them. I've also done playtesting and some other writing for Ambush Alley Games though.
Jake
http://ambushalleygames.com/images/pdfs/fof_qs_rules.pdf
http://ambushalleygames.com/images/pdfs/one%20turn%20walk%20through.pdf
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Some quick bits on Tomorrow's War:
- Individually-based (although you can use fire team bases if you track casualties
- Alternating activation with the "Aggressive" player moving/firing and the "Defending" player using interrupt fire and movement - NOT IGO/UGO
- Easy for a player to control platoon-sized forces, gets a little messy with larger forces (all the interrupt activations)
- Rules for different tech level diffs in troops, vehicles, off-board artillery, comms (and comms failures), creating alien races, etc
- Random event cards for all kinds of mischief
- Good tactical game that rewards suppression, fire & movement tactics, etc
- Lots of room to create your own race/armies/whatever (near future, "Aliens", whatever) and still feel "realistic"
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Some bloggers who have received advanced copies of he game have posted up more in-depth reviews than those released so far. If your interested, here are a few of them:
http://steelcitywargaming.blogspot.com/
http://glueinthecarpet.blogspot.com/2011/09/tomorrows-war-review-part-1.html
http://walworthcountywargamer.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/review-of-the-fall-2011-release-of-tomorrows-war-by-ambush-alley-games-and-osprey-publishing/
http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.com/2011/08/review-tomorrows-war.html
Hope you find these helpful!
Best,
Shawn.
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Thank you all for the links; I think Mark Gipson's "Walworth County Wargamer" ended up being very helpful when read against the backdrop of the other reviews which went into the details more.
I'd love to hear more from people who've played the game, and see what their thoughts are in regards to how easy the game is to get into (not so much rules-wise, but in terms of terrain/scenario/model requirements).
I'd also be most likely to play with 28mm scale figures, and would have around 4' x 4' tables; would this cause many problems with the game balance / rules?
Finally, I note that the emphasis is on scenarios, and that these give you fixed resources for each side. Is there any provision for more open / general scenarios that players can bring their own forces to? Also, is there any provision for anything like 'army lists' or points values for the various troops and equipment options?
I ask that last part as I'd like to just bring a list to a table and play a game without having to design a scenarios and test it out for balance first. My gaming time and opportunities are limited, and I'd rather grab a force and just get stuck into the game itself than have to pre-determine and plan everything ahead of schedule.
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I bought it at the weekened from Derby my only disapointment is no QRS table sheet the tables are there in the book but no on one page for referance????
Looks lovley and well put together...
Tony
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I bought it at the weekened from Derby my only disapointment is no QRS table sheet the tables are there in the book but no on one page for referance????
Looks lovley and well put together...
Tony
True !
A good QRS would definitly be welcome.
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...Dare I ask; is there that much stuff that really needs a QRS? Because if there is, that's a pretty big oversight. Otherwise, I can live without / make my own.
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On the QRS: We didn't include a QRS in the book because we're offering a downloadable QRS on our website. Once folks have played the game a few times the only tables they generally need to consult are the Vehicle Damage Table and the First Aid Table. Actually, if you have a memory better than mine (as 98.5% of the human population and a large percentage of the chimp population does), you memorize the First Aid Table pretty quickly, too. ;)
On Army Lists/Points Lists: TW is primarily a scenario based game, but we are working on a rough point system for just the reasons you stated, Major Gilbear. It too will be available on our website soon.
I'm glad you found the links useful!
Shawn.
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(We didn't include a QRS in the book because we're offering a downloadable QRS on our website) ??????? ok where is this please???
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(We didn't include a QRS in the book because we're offering a downloadable QRS on our website) ??????? ok where is this please???
http://ambushalleygames.com/resources/downloads/30-playing-aids
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On Army Lists/Points Lists: TW is primarily a scenario based game, but we are working on a rough point system for just the reasons you stated, Major Gilbear. It too will be available on our website soon.
Shawn.
That makes me interested. I've been working on my own game with a points system to use all our 28mm figs with. But if you guys are doing a points system that saves me a lot of time!
The reason we NEED a point system is because we are running a space campaign where armies are abstracted on the campaign map, but have a relative strength. When combat occurs players have to make a forces with the same relative strength to fight each other - it doesn't have to be a point system per say, but we need a way to say that Joe's army is approx 50% larger than Larry's army.
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from whom can I buy it as SELWG?
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I was fortunate to try out FoF at a participation game over the weekend. If Tomorrow's War is based on the same mechanic, then this is going to be a great set of rules.
In combination with generic miniatures, I think the points system will make it more enticing for Tournament gamers... here's hoping it is something of a "40k killer".
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On the QRS: We didn't include a QRS in the book because we're offering a downloadable QRS on our website. Once folks have played the game a few times the only tables they generally need to consult are the Vehicle Damage Table and the First Aid Table. Actually, if you have a memory better than mine (as 98.5% of the human population and a large percentage of the chimp population does), you memorize the First Aid Table pretty quickly, too. ;)
On Army Lists/Points Lists: TW is primarily a scenario based game, but we are working on a rough point system for just the reasons you stated, Major Gilbear. It too will be available on our website soon.
I'm glad you found the links useful!
Shawn.
Thanks for the reply!
I'm looking into getting a copy of the game, and once I've had a chance to read up on it, I may well post my thoughts back here.
The points system really is important I think as it adds flexibility for pick-up games. I do understand that they are often hard to balance however, and that some people do tend to focus a lot on them. One great idea that I've seen is to have two point values for all the unit choices.
Corvus Belli's game Infinity uses this system, and whilst most units only cost points from the first points pool, a few also cost points from the second points pool. Typically, in Infinity, the first value is the one that is used to set the game size, and also the number of secondary points available. So a 300 point game will let you spend up to 300 points (duh) and up to 6 secondary points (called "SWC" or Support Weapon Cost). Some specialists also cost secondary points, or in some cases, certain leaders allow additional secondary points to be spent beyond the normal limit.
So for example, a typical basic soldier with a rifle might cost 10 points, but one with a heavy machine gun might cost 20|1, and one with a sniper rifle perhaps 20|1.5. You can see that the specialists are not only more expensive, but use up some of the support points too; this therefore limits them in a much more flexible manner than a hard numbers cap or an organisation chart.
It is worth noting that the secondary cost also sometimes scales to the abilities of the wielder; an elite trooper with lots of specialist skills and equipment will make that HMG much deadlier than a basic trooper with the same gun.
Anyway, that's enough pontification on points values from me!
I also just wanted to say, looking at your post count (4), "a belated welcome to the LAF boards!" :D
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Corvus Belli's game Infinity uses this system, and whilst most units only cost points from the first points pool, a few also cost points from the second points pool. Typically, in Infinity, the first value is the one that is used to set the game size, and also the number of secondary points available. So a 300 point game will let you spend up to 300 points (duh) and up to 6 secondary points (called "SWC" or Support Weapon Cost). Some specialists also cost secondary points, or in some cases, certain leaders allow additional secondary points to be spent beyond the normal limit.
So for example, a typical basic soldier with a rifle might cost 10 points, but one with a heavy machine gun might cost 20|1, and one with a sniper rifle perhaps 20|1.5. You can see that the specialists are not only more expensive, but use up some of the support points too; this therefore limits them in a much more flexible manner than a hard numbers cap or an organisation chart.
That's quite brilliant I have to say! Great way to limit the amount of "elite" stuff without having to have complicated composition rules.
I love point systems but also agree that its next to impossible to make them perfect. However given that the point system is not in the main rulebook, and would likely be a PDF posted on their site, they could revise it whenever they see fit.
-Tim
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The only QRS on the Ambush Alley website, is for the primary game, "Force on Force". I'd think there would be a separate one for "Tomorrow's War".
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Yep not the tomorrows war QRS id like one might clear up some stuff and make it easy ti grasp....??????
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They just released a QRS for TW. It's in the downloads.
http://ambushalleygames.com/resources/downloads/30-playing-aids (http://ambushalleygames.com/resources/downloads/30-playing-aids)
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Brilliant , will try this out and report back , Im intrested in how the whole combat works out and will have questions ......
Tony