First game of Space Weirdos

[Hobgoblin]

Intrigued by JPearce's thread, I bought the Space Weirdos rules last night, and we played our first game this afternoon. It's pretty good at first run-through - sufficiently fast and furious that our game was resolved in the regulation four turns.

Some elements were similar to Song of Blades of Heroes/Mutants and Death Ray Guns (movement sticks); others were more like Pulp Alley (shifts up and down in die type). I particularly liked the emphasis on rapid movement and shooting; when your guy has an auto-rifle, it's appropriate and satisfying to have him rattle off three or four shooting attacks in a turn! I also like how fast running makes characters harder to hit.

The use of command points to interrupt your opponent is a great feature - you can use command points for overwatch shooting, a first strike in close combat or to dodge, among other things. But you only get three a turn, and you can only use each of the interrupting actions per turn.

Unlimited range is a nice genre-appropriate feature too. We had a lot of ducking into alleys and sneaking round buildings to avoid fire from far across the table, which was just as it should be.

I think it might work OK as a multi-player game too: the alternating activations would play out fine with more than two players, I reckon. All in all, three quid well spent!

[Golgotha]

It has been a while since I played these rules I must give 'em another go. Looks like you had fun like the minis and terrain - space weirdos indeed...

[Hobgoblin]

Cheers! Yes, "Space Weirdos" sums up the bulk of the sci-fi miniatures we have in the house - lots of kitbashes and conversions.

On the basis of today's game, I think SW fills a nice niche: the very small sci-fi skirmish. We play a lot of Mutants and Death Ray Guns, but that's usually 6-10 figures a side. Space Weirdos is a bit more intricate/fiddly, but can get away with it because of the small model count - so the extra detail's a positive factor.

[JPeace]

Glad you gave this a go and had a blast. I've played a couple of trial games to get the hang of the rules using tokens while I get models ready (I have to play with painted minis!) and really enjoyed it.

Love your terrain, btw. I'm putting together lots of recycled waste to use for terrain and have a few projects lined up, so will be using yours as inspiration.

[Mellal]

Hi,

I played some 4-players games that were really fun. I don't see why it would work for 3 players (except the usual 2v1 ending).

I do like this system : some possibilities for the crew but not too much optimization, fast played, mini-agnostic... All I love 

[Hobgoblin]

I played some 4-players games that were really fun. I don't see why it would work for 3 players (except the usual 2v1 ending).

Thanks - that's good to know! We usually have four. In the case of three, I think the 2v1 ending is all part of the fun! 

Love your terrain, btw. I'm putting together lots of recycled waste to use for terrain and have a few projects lined up, so will be using yours as inspiration.

Thanks! I get the kids to assemble and paint buildings whenever I can!

[DivisMal]

I have those rules but only gave them a quick glance. Maybe that was unjust. I vaguely remember I intermixed them with another set that I found slightly underwhelming. What you write here, sounds definitely like fun!

What about all those markers? That’s something I don’t like. Is it possible to skip them?

[Hobgoblin]

I have those rules but only gave them a quick glance. Maybe that was unjust. I vaguely remember I intermixed them with another set that I found slightly underwhelming. What you write here, sounds definitely like fun!

Yes, well worth a game or two as written, I reckon!

What about all those markers? That’s something I don’t like. Is it possible to skip them?

I'm not generally a huge fan of counters either. You could get away with placing the 'footsteps' ones on the roster sheet (those counters show how much the character has moved in a turn - affecting both its shooting and that of its foes). The same goes for 'staggered' markers. What we found, though, is that the counter use is light compared with many other games - we only needed a few to play, and some never go onto the table itself (the command points).

[DivisMal]

Yes, well worth a game or two as written, I reckon!

I'm not generally a huge fan of counters either. You could get away with placing the 'footsteps' ones on the roster sheet (those counters show how much the character has moved in a turn - affecting both its shooting and that of its foes). The same goes for 'staggered' markers. What we found, though, is that the counter use is light compared with many other games - we only needed a few to play, and some never go onto the table itself (the command points).

Thanks! I now read the pdf on the train and there is definitely some new stuff which I hadn’t seen before in them. I do like that the approach is similar to SoBH: a few dice give a whole range of combat outcomes.

Another thing that I hadn’t seen anywhere is the use of personal speed also for defence. That is kinda cool and a nice gimmick which gives a unique feel.

What I can’t see right now is how the different abilities work; I plan to use my fairly large 28mm Warhammer 40k collection and therefore need quite some crazy profiles. But, otoh, those Oldhammer 40k dudes ARE space weirdos …

[NotifyGrout]

You won't get the same amount of abilities as you would in old school 40k, but you should be able to approximate fairly well. There are a few 40k themed sample lists in the book.

Space Weirdos is now my go-to for simple but fun skirmish. Both point totals are worth trying, too.

[DivisMal]

You won't get the same amount of abilities as you would in old school 40k, but you should be able to approximate fairly well. There are a few 40k themed sample lists in the book.

Space Weirdos is now my go-to for simple but fun skirmish. Both point totals are worth trying, too.

Thanks! The good thing is the low model count. I simply don’t have the time to paint larger amounts of models in anything but 15mm. Space Weirdos sounds definitely manageable, though.

[Snowman]

For this game, and any others that are token heavy, we now have a large wipe clean board on the wall next tobthe gaming table. All the characters have spaces to write on activations, health, movement and special notes, so that everyone can see at a glance who has moved, who is poisoned etc. It means we never have tokens on the table anymore. It works well with Weirdos because there's usually only ten characters to keep track of.

[mikedemana]

I agree that the last thing I want on the tabletop next to the terrain and miniatures I spent so much time on are a bunch of stupid looking counters. Which is why I make my own counters that add to the scenery rather than detract. For Space Weirdos, I put a blood marker on a Staggered character.

I'm still deciding what to use for the movement markers. I am thinking I will use small, appropriately flocked or painted markers that look like the ground (which is what I use in my other games to show a character has activated).

Another example is in my Zombie games, I use a small round base that is flocked to look like asphalt and contains a number of stones on it. The number of stones is the number of noise the character made. If they made three noise for a move and a shot, I put a three stone marker next to them. It also acts as a way to keep track of who has moved and who has not.

Mike Demana