A new game has been entering the school yard and its called heavy gear. Beasts of War has been doing a large thing on it with the release of NuCoal a new faction for the Heavy Gear game. Beasts of War has also done two how to play heavy gear videos [url]http://www.beastsofw...ar-blitz-part1/[/url] which is what caught my attention. And so I looked into the game further.
This game is a combined force's type of game. The Gears are around 15ft tall and are piloted by pilots with neural helmets and the sit in these gears with there head just up into the head cavity of the gear it self. The gear themselves look to be inspired from the anime Armored trooper Votoms. For they have Wheels or tank treads which they can activate to move at faster speeds. There are infantry, Tanks and aircraft in the game. Aircraft and Artillery is bought using Support points (SP) which you receive a certain amount according to the point size of the game. You also get Objective points which you roll on a table and you can get a category Offensive, Defensive or standard missions. which have a selection of objectives you spend you OP on for what mission you will take on and that is how you will when the game.
This game is a I go you go type set up. You roll for Initiative and the winner can choose a squad and then activate a gear move him and use his 1 or many actions for Attacks, Forward Observations, or ECM, ECCM warfare or he can save it for reaction fire. Then you move the next guy in the squad till you have moved all gears in the unit then the opponate moves a unit then you then him and so on till all have been activated. This makes for a very interesting game as it makes you have to react or act differently depending on how and where your opponate moves. This game also uses modifiers for range cover and if you are standing still, at combat speed or top speed. All this can affect your ability to Hit or defend from a attack.
The base Attack and Defense is 2 for most units in heavy gear. Basically you role two dice to attack and the defender rolls 2 dice to defend you both take the highest and add or subtract the modifiers. You both are looking to get a margin of success so say I get a total of a 5 and he gets a 3 for defense I got a margin of success of 2 which I take and times it by the damage power of the weapon say X8 for a LAC(Light Auto cannon) That would be 16 Which I then look at my oppents card and if his Armour is say 15 I do one box of damage. Now if I did twice his Armour value I do two box's of damage and if I meet his over kill value he blows up straight away.
This game is about setting up your guys to to take your objectives and to get modifiers built up on enemies to lower there deference like Indirect fire they would receive a -1 to there defense roll or getting attacked from behind would give them a -1 to defense. Combining shots from multiple directions would also give a -1. Every unit in the game has a stat card which gives all the important info [url]http://www.dp9.com//...0Skirmisher.pdf[/url]
The Data cards are free to download from DP9s website and also comes in there books. They also have a free to download program called gear garage which is fan made and supported by DP9 for heavy gear
[url]http://www.dp9.com/i...=241&Itemid=242[/url]
DP9 as a company are great in my opinion as they are regularly on there forums [url]http://dp9forum.com/[/url] and talk with the customers as well as answer questions. They Also produce two web magazines one is Aurora
[url]http://www.dp9.com/i...d=15&Itemid=101[/url] which covers Heavy gear, Gear Kreig, Jovian chronicles and other items. This Mag also is where people can submit to DP9 Home brewed rules new Regiments or there own fan made story's for other people to enjoy or try out in there shop. Which I have found some neat Ideas and tried them out after reading a Aurora article by a guy on the forums.
Another Webzine they have is specific to heavy Gear called Gear up.
[url]http://www.dp9.com/i...=213&Itemid=245[/url]
It contains new info Errata new rules story's, Sinerios or changes and is also free to download from Drive Thru RPG. It is a great mag and has lots of neat stuff to read.
I have really enjoyed playing Heavy Gear and hope to see this company continue with there great support of the community and the great game of heavy gear and hopefully GOG.com will get the Heavy Gear computer games up on there website as those where lots of fun. I plan to do more articles on the Factions of heavy Gear and on the Fluff as well as there is a lot to write about.