Well my copy of AE Bounty arrived a few days ago, I'd been waiting a long time so it was nice to finally have it in my hands. So I thought I'd do a quick review and battle report.
The book is full colour A5 sized with 100 pages. The A5 size is nice as there is less tabletop taken up by rulebooks!
If you've played AE WWII the I understand that the rules mechanics work pretty much the same way. They are a simple yet elegant skirmish ruleset, with alternative activation. In the basic rules there is nothing all that new, but it's in the force construction that the rules really shine. Here there are a number of different templates to build your crew around, ranging from the small, but elite 'two man teams' through the veteran and standard templates to the large crews. These templates tell you how many veteran, regular and green choices you are allowed, and after choosing whether you want Bounty Hunters, Mercenaries or Pirates you're ready to start filling out these templates. Each option allows for a variety of different equipment choices (pistols, Rifles, SMGs, special equipment, etc), but what you choose from those choices is freely open. Also each choice can then be modified by adding an alien type to it, sometimes altering it's profile or giving other options. With the different crews available you can as few as 1 model and upto 18 models in a crew. You're also able to choose from a number of 'Dirty Tricks', these allow you to gain some sort of tactical advantage such as gaining the initiative, getting extra equipment, laying an IED.
Another nice thing with the rules are the missions, each missions has a primary objective (rescue the VIP, annihilate the opposition, etc), and each crew has a secondary and faction objective. All these different objectives means that few games will ever be the same. Also include are rules for fighting on board spaceships, with zero gravity and rapid decompression rules. The rule book also contains a simple campaign system, not quite the level of the likes of Necromunda, but reasonable enough.
But I figured that a short game and maybe a battle report might help too (pictures are never a bad thing) Here's the two crews both made with the standard crew template:
A Bounty Hunter crew, With a Hero gunfighter, a bit of heavy support and a few grunts. All Bounty Hunter options are single figures, so the highest number of Bounty Hunters you're going to get is 6. Small, but tough seems to be the name of the game.
A Mercenary crew. A few more minis this time. With a Hero warrior leader, a bit of heavy support, a few grunts and two assault guys.
The mission was a chance encounter, with two options deployed on the table and others coming on one at time on a table edge.
Here we have deployment from the Bounty Hunter's viewpoint:
and again from the Mercenaries viewpoint:
The two crews moved up to each other, the few shots that were fired were largely ineffective.
After a few turns the reinforcements started to arrive, the the heavies from both crews advancing in the open to get good lines of fire trusting in their armour (wisely enough it turns out). The Mercenary's assault team moves up to move through the building, meanwhile lots of shots are traded and the Mercenary sergeant manages to wound the lizard looking bounty hunter.
Now things start to get interesting - the merc heavy opens fire on the wounded bounty hunter taking him down. The mercs then move their models up through the large central building.
The Bounty Hunter heroine backs off from the building as the merc assault team burst through the door, she gets shot at and suppressed by the Merc sergeant and later runs for cover of the nearby police car.
Where she then gets charged by the merc assault team and gets wounded. meanwhile the heavies trade shots and are unable to bet each other's armour.
Until the Bounty Hunter heavy chooses instead to take out the merc heavy's green friends, denying him the chance to rapidly reload his weapon. The Bounty Hunter Heroine takes out the assault team, whilst the merc sergeant moved up to help them out leaving him standing in the open.
Where he promtly receives a head shot from the bug eyed bounty hunter taking him out. The Merc crew's drive drops to 0 and they route. The Bounty Hunters are left in command of the field and more scum are off the the penal mines of Amman IV.
Hope you like it,
Duncan
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April 28, 2024, 12:14:10 PM
March 02, 2009, 02:47:03 PM