Ball and Chain

Gomi Designs
24pp - £3.95

Ball & Chain is a set of simple, fast-play fantasy skirmish rules, intended for games of up to a couple of dozen figures a side, in either 15mm or 25mm scale. As such, it's ideal for novices, who won't have to invest much in figures, or roleplayers with a small collection of miniatures, who like the idea of trying out a tabletop game or two.

In keeping with the game's emphasis on individuals, each figure is defined in terms of their armour, weapons, overall fighting ability, and current morale. Some may also have special abilities, like unusual strength, or Heroic stature. All these are factored into two simple statistics; an Attack Modifier, and a Defence Modifier. When the figure is involved in combat, the player rolls a percentile die, adds the aggressor's Attack Modifier, subtracts the target's Defence Modifier, and compares the total with a results table. A high score means a kill or a severe wound, a low one no effect or a critical fumble. Simple, elegant, and extremely effective.

Wounds and deteriorating morale make a figure fight less effectively. Once again, this is all factored in to their Attrack and Defence modifiers.

What gives fantasy gaming its own special flavour, though, is the magic and monsters. Monsters aren't a problem in Ball & Chain; they can be defined as easily as any other figure. Luckily the magic system is as simple and elegant as the rest of the rules too. Wizards cast spells by expending magic points, and rolling under their current total on a D100. Clerical magic works automatically, but their deity will only intervene a few times on their behalf.

The game comes complete with a photocopiable record sheet for the forces involved, and a set of cardboard counters to cut out; these show the current status of each figure on the table.

I'm extremely impressed with this product; it's become my rule set of choice for fantasy skirmish games.

Product supplied by: Gomi Designs

Cold Iron

Felix Enterprises, £3.95, 40 pgs.

Fantasy wargames can start to get a little stereotyped; elves are hippy tree-huggers, orcs are big, dim, and violent, dwarves are short and stroppy, and everyone hates everyone else. Line 'em up and roll the dice...

If this sounds familiar, Cold Iron could be just what you need to put a little spice back into your fantasy battles. A neat, well laid-out A4 booklet, containing six well-crafted scenarios that get a long way away from predictable stereotypes. Although they're perfectly playable as stand-alone engagements, most players will want to run them as the designer intended, as part of a continuing campaign.

The twist is that, instead of a conventional clash between different races, the battles are between opposing factions in a civil war among the dwarves. This is one of those ideas that's so brilliant it's obvious, once someone else thought of it first...

Each scenario is clearly set out, with an initial paragraph or two filling in the background to the engagement; what each side's doing there, their orders and motivation, and so on. Subsequent sections elaborate on the type of engagement (Opposed River Crossing, Desperate Last Stand, and the like), battlefield conditions (Dry and Sunny, Muddy and Slippery, that sort of thing), significant terrain features, victory conditions for each side, special rules applying to this battle (like the presence of a renowned hero on one side or the other, or the chance of wet weather rendering gunpowder weapons useless), and the forces involved.

All this data is presented descriptively, allowing you to apply whatever rule modifications are appropriate for the rule set you prefer. I'd guess Warhammer, Raven, and Hordes of the Things will be particularly popular.

All in all, a superb product, well worth the asking price. Felix tell me that this is intended as the first release in a range of generic scenario packs for SF, Fantasy, and historical wargames; if they can maintain these standards, it's a range no tabletop gamer will be able to ignore.

Product supplied by: Felix Enterprises

High Crusade

Wessex Games, 20pp, £2.50

High Crusade has been around for a couple of years now, but the arrival of a second edition makes it worth taking another look at. Many of the revisions are purely cosmetic; it's now in an easier-to-read A4 format, instead of the old A5 booklet, and the army lists at the back have been expanded. As well as the stats for Alternative Armies' Ion Age figure range, a new appendix provides stats for Ground Zero Games' Stargrunt miniatures, thus making it easier to link High Crusade and Iron Cow scenarios into a single campaign.

The rules themselves are as simple and elegant as they ever were. Players issue their fireteams with orders at the start of every turn, and their opponents attempt to jam them, issuing spurious orders of their own if they succeed. The type of orders a team receives will affect their ability to move and shoot in that turn.

Combat itself follows the pattern familiar from Steve Blease's other games, Flintloque and Iron Cow, where a single percentile roll determines the chance of a hit, and the damage caused. Morale is treated more abstractly than in Flintloque, however.

There are gaps in the system, most notably a lack of vehicle rules, but these are easy enough to work out if you want them. What you do get is a set of simple, fast play rules for infantry skirmishes, intended as a basic introductory set for the wargaming novice, but which experienced players will find subtle and challenging enough for an enjoyable evening's play. And when you consider that you can buy High Crusade and all the figures you'll need for a quarter the price of Warhammer 40K, it's hard to think of a better introduction to SF skirmish gaming.

Kawaii 5.0 Anime

Flaky Panda Productions, 32pp - £3.50

Kawaii, in case you didn't know, is Japanese for 'cute.' Kawaii is very big in anime, but most of the miniatures games based on the genre take their inspiration from the cyberpunk scenarios of urban combat. Kawaii 5.0 is rooted in the other style of anime mayhem, where big guns and psychic blasts are deployed in the services of slapstick.

Each figure on the table is defined by a set of stats, in the same manner as a role-playing character. Attempting to do something involves rolling against a task die, modified for difficulty, and by any skills the character possesses. Combat is resolved by opposing rolls made by each character. All very simple and elegant. If I did have a quibble it would be the minor one that weapon ranges seem far too short for 25mm scale figures, but that would probably mean I was in grave danger of taking the whole thing much too seriously.

These rules are strongly recommended for manga/anime fans of all persuasions, especially those with an existing collection of Pandamonium figures; mainstream wargamers will probably find them a little too specialised. But within their niche, they do what they set out to do extremely well.

Product supplied by: Flaky Panda Productions

Mecha Carnage

Gomi Designs, 36pp - £4.50

Mecha Carnage fills a long-vacant niche in the SF wargaming field; a simple, fast-play set of rules for simulating the sort of battles between giant robots which are commonplace in anime. Previous sets of this kind have fallen down in several ways; Battletech is too slow and complicated for anything more than simple skirmish scenarios, both it and Mekton rely on hex sheets to regulate movement, Titan Legions is embedded firmly in the GW house universe and its attendant gothic spiky silliness, and so on.

Mecha Carnage, on the other hand, succeeds brilliantly in capturing the fast, freewheeling action most of us are now familiar with from our favourite cartoons, and transferring it to the wargaming table. Although the rules are intended for 1/300th scale miniatures, allowing you to take full advantage of the many ranges of models currently available, other sizes are possible if you adjust the ground scales accordingly.

The rulebook is clearly and simply laid out, following the introduction with the mecha design rules. These are dead easy to get to grips with, allowing you to reproduce almost anything you've seen on screen or in a comic, or can come up with for yourself. Once you've defined the size and tech level of the mecha, you choose how fast, agile, and heavily armoured it is; all these criteria have to be traded off against one another. Then the fun bit; choosing the weapons. These are defined in broad, generic terms, allowing you to tailor them to your campaign environment.

All the rules for transforming or combining mecha are factored in at this stage, and work smoothly and easily in play. Furthermore, the same design process is used to define the abilities of conventional vehicles and infantry units; a neat touch, which makes it easy to remember the abilities of the various 'mech fodder' units.

The turn sequence and movement rules come next, explained clearly and succinctly. Then, finally, combat; your chance to find out how well your brilliant mecha design actually works. As you'd expect from an anime game, this is fast and furious, with an ingenious critical hits system which can leave you in real trouble, real quick. And if all your weapons are down, you'll just have to get in there and slug it out in true anime hero fashion.

As a final finishing touch, the game comes complete with a sheet of cut-out counters, and a quick reference card with all the major rules neatly summarised on it.

If manga, anime, and mecha are your cup of o-cha, then this is the game you've been waiting for.

Product supplied by: Gomi Designs

Slaughter Ball

Gomi Designs, £1.95

No one can accuse Gomi Designs of letting the grass grow under their feet. Most new games companies start by releasing a single game; Gomi launched three simultaneously. Two are tabletop games, reviewed elsewhere; the third, Slaughter Ball, a budget board game.

You could be excused for not realising this at first, though, as it's presented in the same format as the rest of their products; an A5 booklet, with a sheet of cardboard counters bound into the middle. This time the sheet also contains a playing board, representing the Slaughter Ball pitch.

The object of the game is simple; the first team to score three goals, by getting the ball into the back row of squares in their opponent's half of the pitch, wins. Or, alternatively, the last team with any players left on the pitch wins. The problem is, at the end of every turn, a Random Event happens in one of the squares. A player who happens to be there at the time can be randomly relocated by teleporter or trampoline, fall down a hole, get blown to bits, or pulped, coyote-like, by a falling boulder. And once they've arrived, the hazards don't go away.

This is all as fast, silly, and fun as it sounds. The board and counters are a bit flimsy, but what do you expect for under two quid? I suspect a lot of players will be making up a larger, more robust pitch, and converting some Gridiron Heroes or Blood Bowl miniatures to use on it. On the other hand, if you do that, it won't fit in your pocket any more. Worth a look, or, at that price, simply taking a flyer on the next time you order one of their other games, or some miniatures.

Product supplied by: Gomi Designs

Star Grunt II

Ground Zero Games, 72pp - £11.95

With the highly acclaimed Dirtside II and the multiple award-winning Full Thrust already in its inventory, Ground Zero Games had a lot to live up to with its new 25mm SF skirmish system. It has, however, risen to the challenge magnificently.

As the title implies, this is a complete revision and updating of the original Stargrunt rules; a revision so complete that little of the original remains, apart from the name. The end result is a system so streamlined that platoon to company sized actions can be fought out in a single afternoon; in terms of speed and playability, it's streets ahead of any other game of its kind I can think of.

The core concept is that troop units are treated as a single entity, which move and shoot as one; instead of each individual figure targeting another, the entire squad lays down fire against an enemy unit, which is, of course, what happens in real life. Factors such as the quality of the troops, their leadership, the weapons they're equipped with, and their range to the target are factored into simple opposing die rolls. If the attacker wins, and inflicts casualties, another couple of rolls determines which figures are hit, and whether they're killed, wounded, or able to continue fighting after the medic's patched them up.

A crucial difference between Stargrunt and most other games of this type is that the overall fighting effectiveness of a unit is far more dependant on psychological factors than the hardware they're carrying. Well trained, well motivated troops with good leadership can often prevail against a larger, better equipped force with lower morale, or a shaky chain of command; the system rewards good tactics, and is very unforgiving of poor decisions. Unit commanders have the ability to transfer extra actions to their subordinates, and thus need to be protected; losing even a junior officer can be very costly, leaving half your forces pinned down and unable to advance.

There's a lot more to Stargrunt than just a set of infantry combat rules, though. Vehicle combat is covered in some detail, allowing players to use APCs and other transport assets, either to enhance their mobility, or for close support. A complete set of design rules is included, cross-compatible with Dirtside II, allowing you to define abilities for whatever models you have to hand. Indeed, GZG consider the whole game to be generic, encouraging players to tailor it to whatever background they like, or figure collections they may already possess.

Their own, optional, house universe takes up no more than six pages at the back; a welcome contrast to some other companies, whose game books consist of half a dozen pages of rules and fifty-odd of bad fiction, padding and waffle masquerading as 'campaign background.'

Advanced rules cover topics like calling for artillery support, air operations (including airmobile assaults with VTOLs or dropships, and the annoying possibility of losing some of your assets to the enemy's air defences before they even make it to the tabletop), casevac, taking and interrogating prisoners, and the ever-popular mine clearance. This is, without a doubt, the most comprehensive set of SF miniatures rules you're ever likely to buy.

You also get two sheets of full colour die-cut counters, and a handy quick reference card with all the main rules clearly and succinctly summarised.

If you play any kind of game with 25mm or 15mm SF miniatures, you need a copy of these rules, if only to see what you're missing. For my money they're the best set of SF skirmish rules on the market today, with everything else a long way behind.

Product supplied by: Ground Zero Games

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