Tomorrow's War Review

[Pijlie]

Is there life after Warhammer 40K? Are there  any other relevant SF rulesets for the forward-looking wargamer? |Actually: there are quite a few. Let's put the spot on my favorite: Tomorrow's War by Ambush Alley Games.



TW is a "hard" science fiction ruleset wherein players control several 6-10 man squads and/or vehicles. The "science" is the result of extrapolating known scientific data. That makes the weapons, tactics, vehicles and terrain resemble what we might encounter on the modern battlefield, but without the boring constraints of reality. This offers the opportunity to work with robots, AI drones, Mechs, anti-grav vehicles, spacesuits and the like.



Read more about TW here:

http://pijlieblog.blogspot.nl/2015/10/tomorrows-war-reviewed.html

[Vermis]

Nice one, thanks. I've sometimes wondered about this set.

Reaction Tests determine whether the Active or the Passive player may act first. These (re)actions in turn may provoke reactions by other Active or Passive units, until there is no one left to respond to someone and the Active player resumes the normal order. This gives a smooth and dynamic string of events

Good to hear it! Though it still sounds like it might slow the game a wee bit. (It makes me think about all the card duels and fate cheating in Malifaux, when a model takes an action) What's the longest reaction chain you've seen?

[Pijlie]

Well, I can't really say as I never timed it. But since TW tables usually have a lot of cover lines of sight tend to be limited in general. As reactions are triggered by visuals so are these. And the procedure is quite fast. It's a bit like this:

Human squad A is Active and announces to run across the road. They will cross the view of Alien (Passive) squad A which announces it wil fire at them. Human squad B sees the aliens attempt firing and announces that it will provide covering fire. Both players roll for each acting and reacting squad. Human B wins, then Human A and then Alien A. So human B may fire at the aliens. Human A may run across the street before the Alien can shoot and the Aliend has no one to shoot at.

That's about it. Chains are usually no longer than that. And of course if Human A stays out of sight, no one may react.

[SgtHulka]

Sounds really cool.

[YPU]

I've been on the fence about these rules for ages, I suppose I should give them an actual try some time now.

[The_Beast]

We REALLY must have misread that, because reaction suddenly became infinite recursion, and we never figured out who shot whom.

Wish I could remember to whom I lent my book last...

Doug

[Pijlie]

Once having spend an action, you can never react to a reaction in that same turn. Every unit only gets one go in a turn.  You can spend your activation on either a reaction or am action, but not both. Simply state your intentions, roll the reaction tests and place the dice next to the unit the score belongs to. That's all. But I admit it helps having it explained to you by someone who already knows the rules.

[Warren Abox]

Once having spend an action, you can never react to a reaction in that same turn. Every unit only gets one go in a turn.  You can spend your activation on either a reaction or am action, but not both. Simply state your intentions, roll the reaction tests and place the dice next to the unit the score belongs to. That's all. But I admit it helps having it explained to you by someone who already knows the rules.

Ain't that the truth.  My son and I had a devil of a time figuring out how to play this game.  We were both weaned on IGOUGO and couldn't really get our heads around how the flow of the game worked until we had played it a few times.  Yours is the best description I've read yet.   Even now it still feels like we're missing something.  If I had a little more gumption, I'd like to have somebody who already knows how to play (either TW or one of the other Ambush Alley games) sit down at a table and walk me through, just to make sure I'm not missing anything.

[sundayhero]

Great review !

By the way, it would be great to watch a complete game video of this game, played by specialists on youtube ! It's often more instructive that reading a rulebook or diagrams, in my humble opinion. g

[Warren Abox]

Great review !

By the way, it would be great to watch a complete game video of this game, played by specialists on youtube ! It's often more instructive that reading a rulebook or diagrams, in my humble opinion. g

Not a big fan of "actual play" videocasts, but that sounds like something I would watch.  Let me know if you ever find one.

[sundayhero]

Personaly I don't like "example" videos (for instance, how to shoot video, how to move video, etc...) a real gaming session video is a lot more instructive, and also give a good clue on how the game flow is : fast game, sluggish game, you also see how much the gamers has to refer to book or QRS, etc...

Last video I saw was about Lion Rampant, and it was a good way to see the fluidity of the game, and its straight forward mechanics, for instance.

[seldon]

If you can get a copy of the pre-Osprey force on force on ebay or so the reaction system was explained way better.. they had a nice flow chart...

I think the Osprey editions for some reason constrained that part of the rules too much, don't know why... and unfortunately I stopped playing because people had different interpretations which created a problem for club pick up games.. I would run a game where I'm GM though since they are good set of rules at core ( though I'd change some of the morale mechanics, rolling one die per figure standing for morale provides oscillating chances of pass rather than an increasingly difficult morale check as you take casualties ).


The scenario book they released is even very good as a source of ideas and a very nice product !!

cheers
Francisco

[Creaky]

I've experimented briefly with Tomorrows War, but found the rulebook itself a chug to get through and tough to follow, went online and found that I wasn't entirely alone with that, but that the rules (once you understand them) are pretty simple.  Maybe I just need to give it another shot, but I remember thinking at the time that a series of decent video tutorials would probably set me straight on it. 

I do love that it's a very 'generic' set of rules. I can use a pre-existing 40k collection, star wars, or near future stuff - that feature makes it great value for me (if I can get my head around it) and is where a lot of recent sci-fi releases loose me (Beyond the Gates of Antares, for example - really wish it was a more generic rule set with just an 'officially' supported setting, rather like the one in Tomorrows War).

[YPU]

Sounds like we could do with a "how to play" video or something. Somebody who actually clearly explains how it works with an example.

[sundayhero]

Sure it would be interesting. I can "feel" the potential of these game mechanics, but I 'm too dumb to properly understand and play them (even if I bought FoF)