Warfare in the Age of Madness now available

[Visceral Impact Studios]

We made the leap and published our rules that we've used for years to play modern and near-future battles in our imagi-nation of Afraqistan.

For the main rule book we tweaked the setting so it's after the fall of Global Civilization. This provided us with the freedom to pit any force against any force. For example, we built a force based on Georgia Tech and have used it against a mech infantry unit based at Fort Benning, Georgia. It also allowed us to use a dynamic victory condition system which involves securing battlefield supplies and gear. But the focus is truly modern war at the company level despite the veneer.

While real-world tactics such as overwatch and fire-and-maneuver are certainly crucial to the game the the background is definitely tongue-in-cheek and as easy going as modern war can be (the cover photo features a force led by Captain Art Vandelay). The game includes a complete army list/point system and weapon stats which can be used to represent lots of different real world weapons. You can also ignore the points system and simply fight recent and current battles by designing a force based on real-world TO&Es. The scale is roughly 3:1 so about 10-12 elements/stands represent a rifle company (each element/stand represents about three fireteams, weapons teams, heavy weapons, special weapons, etc.)

Along the lines of Peter Pig's "Poor Bloody Infantry" and "AK-47 Republic", instead of having specific weapons such as the AT-5 Spandrel we have general classes of weapons to represent multiple real-world weapons. Later we're going to make the weapon design system available as "open source" so others can have fun designing real world weapons.

Our sons and I have really enjoyed this project and hope you enjoy the game too. We even gave a nod to my wife and included some CDC-inspired zombies in the game for fun (she works at CDC and some folks she knows worked on their zombie-inspired emergency prep campaign).    But the focus is really tight on the fundamentals of modern war at the company level.

Do let us know what you think! The game evolved over the years through play at various FLGSs and conventions and we love to incorporate player feedback as much as possible. It makes the game easier to understand and faster to play when the rules meet most gamers' expectations and assumptions about how things should work.

Warfare In The Age Of Madness.com

Tim

edit: we also made available the Quick Reference Sheet and game markers on the site to download for free.

[soldieroftheline]

Looks interesting. I like that it needs only a dozen or so stands on a small table. I have a quite a lot of AK47 figures in the lead pile maybe they will get shifted over to this, add a few more modern bits and.....order placed!

[Steve F]

For the main rule book we tweaked the setting so it's after the fall of Global Civilization.

Then perhaps you should be on the Post-Apocalyptic Tales board?

[Visceral Impact Studios]

Then perhaps you should be on the Post-Apocalyptic Tales board?

I thought about that but there's "modern/near future fairly conventional warfare" and then there's  "radioactive giant rats and multi-armed mutants post-apocalyptic skirmishes". When I looked at the content of the two forums this one seemed far more appropriate.

The folks on the other board probably wouldn't enjoy WAM since it's really more about company-level  fire and maneuver tactics with infantry and AFVs rather than exotic mutant troops fighting skirmish battles.

WAM definitely plays more like the sort of fighting we're seeing in Syria and Afghanistan than the skirmishes from the old Gamma World role-playing game (I loved that armored guy riding on the cyborg tiger pictured on the cover).

In fact, I'm working on a free PDF for current conventional TO&Es for use with WAM.  Should have it ready tomorrow.

[Arlequín]

It is difficult to pigeon-hole something sometimes. 'Near-Future' does tend to be further away than we might typically think and on 'Post-Apocalypse' all bets are off. Conceivably this could happen a few months/years from now, by which time it will be 'Modern', so I'm good with it being here at least.

Then again I said the same thing about SDZA too, so I might not be the best judge. 

[Visceral Impact Studios]

Soldier,

We've received a ton of requests for a PDF version so we decided to release one. If you forward your Lulu proof of purchase to VisceralImpactStudios@gmail.com we'll send you a PDF edition for free since you already purchased the print version. We won't be doing a print+PDF version so this is only for those who purchased prior to August 29, 2014.

For those interested in the PDF edition please visit WarfareInTheAgeOfMadness.com

Thanks!

Tim

[soldieroftheline]

Done! Thanks Tim

Rob