OK... now.. this is a bit of a painful post for me to write, because I really
love the Killer B miniatures and the whole idea behind their games. And I wish the best for the guy doing it all.
On the same page I actually paid £10 for a nice and shiny rules book from them. And here's where things get ugly I think.
Having read the rule book and being a bit 'hmmm.. maybe it'll all work when I get it on the table' I had set up for a game of Kalle Blixt vs. The Robot Master
I had invited Dr. Zombie over so we doctors could examine the inner workings of this new specimen.
Here are some shots of the setup:
Cygnus is trying to hot wire the Walnusian princess to sacrifice her to the Gods of Thunder
Kalle Blixt is en route to stop said Cygnus
Overview of the luscious jungle.
So what was wrong?
Well for starters. There are things that are missing.
The rules do not mention what turn sequence is used... what table size is 'standard'... how much terrain the author thinks works.
The rules refer to a 'charge' - but nowhere does it say what compromises a charge. And it's even rather important as the figures charging get a bonus... AND the figures being charged get a penalty.
There are more such weird omissions throughout the book. One of the better is 'to the rescue' - a cool special move that your hero can make to save another figure. Only problem is the rules don't explain how it works. Only that the figure is saved.
First there's an attack phase and then a 'to the rescue' phase. Nowhere does it say if figures that died in the attack phase are eligible for saving later. But we ruled that that was probably the idea.
Then there's the set up or layout of the book. For instance the rules for fighting are written under the introductory review of the stats... under the 'brawn' stat. Now this might make sense to some, but not to me. I'd like a paragraph called 'combat' or something and have all the combat rules in there.
The example armylists include units that doesn't feature in the book and wrong points costs for units listed just above the example. Now this is not a big thing at all. But it signals to me that very little in the way of proof reading was done.
AND on top of that, what about the rest of the rules. Well this is purely subjective in opinion (I think the above is more objective in nature) but even here the game totally fails to me.
First off every figure has AP - adventure points. Even the lowest minion has to keep track of how much he moved and how many points he spent. In the example armylists there are some 30-50 figures on each side and I just don't see how keeping track of that many figures would ever be fun. Just a lot of work.
Shooting seemed like it was almost impossible to hit. You roll 2d6 and hit a target based on the range band you're in. For example at long ranges a rifle will hit at basic 8. A shot costs 2 AP.
A standard shot - Unaimed - gives you a -2 penalty... for one AP point more you get a +2 aiming bonus. Now is that a total of +0 or +2? I said 0 Dr. Zombie said +2. After playing a little finding that it was impossible to hit anything I went along with +2.
OK so the list of modifiers goes on. If you moving, that's -1, if your target moved that's another -2, if he's obscured that's another -2. The terrain we used made and the fact that we moved a lot made it -7 most of the time and -11 to hit heroes as they are more difficult to hit.
This in my subjective opinion coupled with the fact that the basic figure has 4-5 AP and you can only move 4cm/AP makes for a very very slow game. A minion moving flat out over good ground will move 16cm. And be impossible to hit.
Next once you hit something it automatically dies almost. Most things having just 3-4 Life Points and the standard rifle dealing 1d6+1 damage no matter who you are.
Close combat is not to my liking either. When I read the thing I was confused but thought the idea that the hero could fight off a group of minions easily was cool.
However as was disclosed by our game you move in one phase and initiate a combat in the next. So if you go first you can never attack a target that doesn't want to be attacked, because it gets to move after you and then just moves away... when the attack phase comes you're not in basetobase and can't iniatite anything. Clumsy.
Maybe this is where the missing charge rules are meant to do something. (I sincerely apologize if this is all down to a mistake on our behalf of not finding the charging rules).
So all in all, my verdict is that GAFDOZ is a rules set that has some great ideas for what
should be in a retro sci-fi set. Rules for setting traps, sacrifing henchmen, red jersey troopers taking hits for characters and so on.. but the execution is sooo poor that it seems inaccessible to people like me (in fact I think modern physics melt next to this).
I'm not a power gamer or anything of that ilk, but this left me thinking that it was possibly the worst rules I have ever played.
As mentioned earlier though I love the range Craig has build and I love the whole idea of retro gaming. But I just have to write this as I did spend the money... now to make amends I will go to the KillerB site and order Rukbat and some more stuff.
KillerB should stay focused on miniatures and skip the rules. I don't know about the new supplement they have out, but I hope that it's compatible with other rules and mainly just a narrative.
27 January 2009, 04:31:15 PM
