Clash on the Fringe. Opinions now?

[eilif]

Update Nov 12th: Thanks to those who responded this summer. I'm Bumping this again in the hope of getting a few more opinions.  My gaming direction changed back in July so still wiffle-waffling over whether to pick this up or simply wait for my kickstarter copy of warpath which should be here in a month or so.

I recently read a review of CotF that came out shortly after the game was released.  Now that it's been around for about a year and folks have presumably had a chance for the rules to sink in, what are folks opinions and experiences with the game?

A couple other questions.
1. I'm especially interested in the level of complexity as I prefer simple rules (SBH is a favorite of mine) in most cases.
On a scale of 1-10, with 3 being In the Emperor's name and 8 being Tomorrow's War, where do these rules fall?

2. Is the game all individual activation or does it have squad mechanics?

I'm bringing this up because I had initially planned to wait until Rogue Stars came out and then I found out it is intended for very few minis per side. I'll still probably buy Rogue Stars, but now the question is whether to give CotF a shot or just wait for Warpath to be released.

[Elbows]

I have the rules but haven't had time to read them, let alone play them.  I'm interested in doing RT era 40K with them, though it seems they're better for smaller skirmishes (I was looking for larger engagements).  If I try them out I'll let you know what I think.

[baldlea]

We've played it quite a bit. If you are looking for a replacement for (modern) 40k, it's not that. It suits maybe 15 to 25 figures inc a hero and maybe a vehicle or two. If you ever played Rogue Trader before all the army lists appeared, it's a lot like that but with modern systems such as reactions and a skill influenced activation system.

It is better for a scenario type game (though this is easier to set up and "balance" than, say, TW). You could still get away with a straight up fight, though.

Complexity 4 to 5 on the scale you suggested and the modifiers are straightforward so easy to remember. The heads down system allows pinning and suppression to work without being cumbersome.

The rolls are intuitive so easy to tweak and house rule if you want to.

It’s "squad at a time" activation but within that you move each figure in turn. You don't have to keep unit coherency so also get an element of "low figure count" skirmish within each unit activation.

I've got some AAR (of a sort) on my blog if that helps:

http://crapidfire.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/protect-patriarch.html?

[eilif]

Thanks for that.
      I'm definitley not looking for a modern 40k replacement.  The size sounds right and I definitely prefer scenario play. 

I'm not usually a fan of reaction systems. How does it work?

[baldlea]

The reaction is essentially that everyone can react by shooting a snap shot at anyone they see moving (once per turn). The chance to hit is fixed (see below). Certain orders that you give a unit may make them immune to reaction fire to represent them hugging cover etc. Also, being "heads down" (pinned) stops you from reacting. So you can shoot with a unit and get some suppression and then move up another unit without drawing reactions. Because of the figure at a time moves within an activation, you can even have a couple of men put down suppression and, if successful, move the rest of their unit up. But, if that target unit activates next, they might clear their heads down (depending on their Discipline stat) and fire back when it's their go.

We didn't like the fixed chance of hitting with a reaction as we thought that it should be based on skill so we apply a negative modifier to skill instead. It seems to work well. We also rule that someone with an Alert order gets no modifier for their reaction shots at all since they are already covering an area waiting for a target. The engine is very easy to modify like this as it's so intuitive.

Based on everything you've said so far, I'd recommend it.

Ivan's put other nice features in there such as scenario generator tables and the like. They alone are worth a good part of the price.

[Jagannath]

Sorry - I missed this.

I like and play it solo a fair bit for 'space adventures'. I still use 5 Parsecs (a variant of FiveCore) for smaller encounters, when the characters are fairly evenly matched and tactical firefights are the order of the day, but I use 'Clash...' for games of around 20 units, and a vehicle (exactly like old Rogue Trader).

My last game was a 12 man squad of troopers, and their transport, sent from the garrison to discover why contact had been lost with a research outpost. The outpost was ruined (plenty of cover) which is where the garrison deployed (in this scenario they'd discovered the cause of the loss of contact - a Nomad raid - as the game begins) then they suffer a surprise attack from the nomads again. There's a lot more of the nomads - about 40 - but they withdraw once the number of casualties + d10 they suffer goes over 25 (roll at the start of each turn). The squad just have to survive.

Fun game and excellent mechanics.

[Genghis]

Hmm, this sounds interesting.  I gave up on 40K a few years ago as it was getting way to big and unwieldy for my tastes, but an Inquisitor 28 campaign has rekindled my interest in sci-fi gaming again.  I think skirmishing in the order of half a dozen to 2 dozen figures a side would suit me nicely (I paint really slowly).  I was thinking of playing with Necromunda and the old 2nd Ed 40K stats (which is possibly where Inquisimunda comes in), but this game sounds like it could hit the spot.  I shall have to do some more digging.

[Jagannath]

It captures 2nd edition style play without being similar mechanically, plus has some more modern mechanics (like a lite reaction system). Some of its nifty features (like area of effect templates for rapid fire weapons - even infantry assault rifles) mean that things that the old 40k engine didn't handle (bottlenecks becoming dangerous, small arms fire suppressing troops) are handled really well, and the way 'coherency' (or lack thereof) works is great.

I'm a big fan. It's pretty good as a hard sci fi engine too, without the gribbly.

[eilif]

It's 6 months later.  Any more opinions?  As I said in the update, I'm still trying to decide on whether to pick this up or just wait for Warpath...

[Jagannath]

I still use it a lot, stand by all my above comments. 3 squads, maybe a transport and a hero or walker or something. Much more space fantasy than lots of other games.

The only 'criticism' I might have is that sussing out the army builder takes a couple of reads. It's very good, but not immediately clear. Worth buying some of the army list supplements to see examples.

In summary: Big fan says Do buy.

[PatrickWR]

It's on my list to check out if/when I can rally a few more players locally to give it a shot.

[eilif]

Well,
      I just got word that my Warpath rulebooks should be shipping soon so I think I'll hold off on this until I get a chance to play through Warpath.  It's still on my interest list though.  Thanks for the feedback folks!