MERCS Recon

[Vasa]

MegaconGames created this Kickstarter two years ago. The miniatures arrived and I painted some security forces and civilians (needed for boardgame), but also two teams (EU Inc. and KemVar) to test the tabletop rules for this game too. My children liked it and we spent a coouple of evenings having a great fun. Currently, I am painting the GCC Team. There is 12 different teams, but you do not get all minis for one Team (max. 10). But with the Kickstarter, the selection is really great and the Quality is still good.

Civilians:


SecFor I:


SecFor II:


SecFor III:


SecFor IV:


EU Inc:


KemVar:

[OSHIROmodels]

Great stuff 

cheers

James

[Dentatus]

Nice job on those. Minis are plastic, correct?

How are the rules? I tried MERCS several times but combat felt boggy and I found the card movement more annoying than helpful.

I want to think about the game, not the rules.

[rwwin]

Nice job getting those figures painted.  I'm still playing with mine in the raw plastic  (so many things to paint!).  On the civilians, I added in a bunch of unarmed heroclix figures to help flesh out the numbers and keep from having to use the tokens.

How are the rules? I tried MERCS several times but combat felt boggy and I found the card movement more annoying than helpful.

I want to think about the game, not the rules.

My sons and I have played it a few times and it's fun, but there is a ton of record keeping.  Also, the climax of the game (the breach and clear maneuver) feels contrived.  You spend most of the game fighting your way through a building skirmish style knowing where the OPFOR are at only to enter the last room and face a bunch of new, unknown OPFOR in more of an abstract way than the rest of the game. 

An important thing to know is that the retail core box doesn't come with all the figures Vasa's painted up.  You only get 20 figures (5 mercs for each faction, 5 level II OPFOR with shotguns and 5 Level III OPFOR with SMGs).  The box has tokens for the rest. The other figures came as extras with the kickstarter.  At least for now they'll be a pain to track down.

[commissarmoody]

Darn, I was going to asking if they sale the Civilian figs.

[rwwin]

They've said they intend to but I don't know when.  With all the problems the kickstarter had, it mibht be a while before any of the extras make it to retail.

[Vasa]

Another group has been finished. This time it is GCC.

[Major_Gilbear]

Good work with these!

I have a fair few of the MERCS figures, and I really like the background, but...

I tried MERCS several times but combat felt boggy and I found the card movement more annoying than helpful.

This is a great summary of the main miniatures game: boggy and annoying.

I'm glad the boardgame versions at least seem to be more fun!

[mellis1644]

Really cool paint jobs. I have started to do my ones. I doubt I'll get to how nice yours look.

[Dentatus]

Glad to hear I wasn't the only one who struggled with MERCS. My local game shop supported it for a while but it never took off. It's one thing to be clever, another to be gimmicky, and still another think the wheel needs reinventing. IMO, rules should support the game, disappear into the background of the mission/story, rather than constantly impose and interrupt. A fellow hobbyist once said you know it's a good game if after the battle you talk about the game and not the rules. That's my gold standard these days.   

That said, I'm a fan of those security figs and have a soft spot for the KemVar. Might have to stalk eBay for a set, even if they are plastic.

[Daeothar]

We don't see much Megacon Games products here on LAF, so this is a treat. And you did a great job on the minis! I have the Kickstarter as well, with (most of) the trimmings, and it certainly is a huge bunch of minis to get your teeth into. But you've already made a sizable dent by the looks of it. Most impressive.

I will probably not play or use my set, and it's currently up for sale, as I found that my preferences lie more with Inifity. Especially now that I read that the tabletop version is not as fluid and simple as I hoped it would be (I already used to jokingly refer to Mercs as Infinity's 'special' cousin  ). Megacon does have a history of convoluted gameplay, with many fiddly rules and tiny tokens, so that was to be expected. It works for Myth though, and our group really likes it and it gets quite some play time.

But the Recon minis are also more in the range of 32mm as opposed to 28mm, which means they'll not mesh well with my exisitng collection.

Keep it up though; I especially like what you have done with those civilians!

[Captain Blood]

Lovely paintwork Vasa 

Richard

[Vasa]

Thanks a lot for your comments. The miniatures are pretty ok and nice to paint. I will select now some other team and paint it. I try to follow the colour scheme as it is in the rulebook.

@Rules: to be honest, I didn't play the tabletop game yet. Although my kids are pushing me into it. So I hope we will try it in a couple of weeks. I will post my opinion here. A big step ahead is that you can measure with a tape now too. And for me the new rules (V 2.0) are easy to read.
On the other side I am very pleased with the boardgame version of the game (Mercs Recon). In the club we had also a game evening and the colleague found it interessting too.

[JayOBedlam]

Nice painting! The Recon minis are a bit hit and miss, I've only just cracked open my Kickkstarter edition in the last few days. Gonna use the best ones to play Rogue Stars when it arrives

[mellis1644]

Funny I have not played the game but got the KS for similar reasons to many here it seems. The board game to me seems ok after a play though or two but I got this figs as much for generic near modern games as for Mercs. I have still to even play the actual MERCS tabletop game. The figs are ok (not wonderful but pretty good) but were a great deal compared to buying something like them without the KS.