Babylon's Burning...Anyone remember it?

[gmanrocks]

A long time ago I signed up to the BB Yahoo fan group, as I was really interested in this game, but never actually got round to playing it. Anyway, yesterday I got an generic Yahoo group email update, just to say that the group had a new member or something. This has sort of picked up my interest in it again.

Did anyone ever play it? If so, what are your experiences? There doesn't seem to be much out there from my searching. All i can remember is that it came on a CD with the PDF on (which I think i've sadly lost) But I remember it had some very cool fluff and artwork.

[v_lazy_dragon]

I don't play it - never have if I'm honest* - but I frequently read the rules through for the fluff (It has to be the most read PDF on my phone for a start), and lots of my Post Apocaylse gaming and ideas have been shaped by it. (Infact, for my WinterApoc+10 stuff most of the factions are pulled directly out of BB)...

I'm also on an ongoing quest to get my mitts on the figures from the associated range that Hetzerdog released, so if anyone fancies moving some of them along...?

*I was told that the rules were quite complex and detailed, which wasn't what I was after at the time as I only had limited time for games and rules assimilation. I ended up playing Skank and Combat zone instead, which were a bit more managable. I probably ought to give it a try at some point

Mattblackgod - who lurks on here and runs the post-apoc wargames forum - played it a fair few times and wrote some of the assorted 'semi-official' addons (I say semi-official as the few sneak notes we saw of the never added expansion incorperated some of them, especially the weapons); so he'd be a good person to chat to...

[Mainly28s]

Wow! Blast from the past!

I worked with Hetzerdog on this project- I painted the figures for their site, and started a WW2 adaptation of the rules, but when the guys at HD vanished, so did my interest.

Yes. the rules are fairly complex, but they're not bad. Once you get into them and have played a couple of games, the flow is actually quite good.

[gmanrocks]

The cultist miniatures always looked really fun. The comments you've made about the rules seem to sum up what I thought when I read them too, although they did look interesting. Being a teen at the time and just wanting to get into the game, I too went for Combat Zone, then Gangs of Mega City One.

I actually went on the Yahoo group out of morbid curiosity, and low and behold I've found out that not only is the game now available in print from WargamesVault, but it seems (at least from a post in December) that an expansion is in the works.

It looks like the expansion is mostly dependent on the sales of the rule book/PDF, so I think I'll grab a print copy, for nostalgias sake

[NickNascati]

Bought it, but never played.  Great background for the PA genre though.  Reads almost like a novel in parts.

[superflytnt]

I have a copy I got in PDF and then had printed and bound - really more complex than I like, but it's a very solid game. The book is beautiful and as was above noted, the "novel" aspect is unlike any other rule set I've seen, and the fiction is engaging and solid. Great illustrations too.

[TwoGunBob]

Same issue as most had. The rules didn't quite gel with my rather free form play style of sorts. I was reading Babylon's Burning at about the same time I was TRYING to digest Panzer Marsch. I really disliked Panzer Marsch with the drawing of the gaming table to issue orders and the distaste kind of bled over to Babylon's Burning as a result. Great fluff but the rules just weren't a fit with me.

[superflytnt]

While I like the command-and-control structure (this is what drew me to the game in the first place) I get why people don't like it - it makes the game overly complex, slows down "actual gaming" because you can't simply disperse at will. Playing without the orders is actually pretty good though. There's a lot to like...the things that I don't like are the initiative system (which can be substituted for IGOUGO but it takes something away) and the complexity of simply trying to kill something.

If there was a middle ground between this and SKANK then I'd think it would be the perfect miniatures skirmisher.

[Dewbakuk]

Like everyone else, I bought the disk and loved the setting. The game however seemed very complicated and it never got played.

I still want to build the container town and the multi-storey farming conclaves seemed great.

[mattblackgod]

As V_Lazy_Dragon mentioned I played the rules quite a bit. The rules provide a good simulation game. They were not bad and could provide a interesting game. The fluff and factions lists where excellent.

The rules are for skirmishes with say one or two squads and a officer & runner. Anything larger and the initiative system gets bogged down. I got around that by using a deck of activation cards.

One thing I also recommend is having a sheet with all the tables on it handy as you will need it.

The only other issue was the game lacked rules for vehicles.

All that said I had fun with BB and I occasionally feel like rolling the rules out for a game or three.