Monthly Feature: Heavy Gear Blitz Review

Heavy Gear Blitz. Image copyright Dream Pod 9, Inc.

I guess I need to preface this review by stating that I’ve always been a fan of Dream Pod 9 (DP9), although I’ve not really been playing their games in the last few years. I stopped buying new Heavy Gear stuff right after 2nd Edition, same with Tribe 8. I wasn’t upset with the new edition, I just re-focused my spending to other games and hobbies. Perhaps you could say that I grew apart from the company.

When I was purchasing Dream Pod 9 products back in the 90′s, I was more into roleplaying games and less into wargames. Over the years I’ve drifted away from roleplaying and focused most of my attention on wargaming. I wasn’t really a big fan of Heavy Gear Tactical, the miniatures version of the Heavy Gear RPG. It was clunky, it was slow, and I never really played it after a few first tries.

I kept in touch with the company, watched the launch of Gear Krieg with interest and basically poked my head in from time to time. This time, when I decided to check on DP9, I found they’d launched a new version of their Heavy Gear wargame, a streamlined, fast play version called Heavy Gear Blitz. One of the best things about Heavy Gear was the realism and detail. Would streamlining the game sacrifice it’s greatness? I knew I had to buy the game and find out.

The Book

First impressions are everything, before you can even comment on the rules you are exposed to the rules delivery system: the book. My first impression of the book was that it was typical of DP9′s products, nice, shiny cover, good binding (none of my books, some over 10 years old, have lost pages) and a black and white interior. The last game book I read was Margaret Weis Productions’ Serenity, which was glossy colour throughout, including a starfield background that made the text difficult to read. Heavy Gear Blitz does have a textured background, but all text is enclosed in boxes with a white background. This creates great visual interest without ever sacrificing readability, something very important to what is essentially reference material.

The first page of the book is a table of contents, very important for a rulebook. There is no index, but the table of contents is detailed enough that it should be possible to find what you’re looking for using it alone. The book’s organization is good, if a little quirky in places. There’s a chapter called The Game, which contains the majority of rules, but not ECM/ECCM. There is also an Advanced Rules chapter, which contains rules which aren’t required to play the game, but definately add more to the experience. Morale rules are found here, which is strange but acceptable. ECM/ECCM has it’s own chapter. This may seem wierd at first, but I believe the book is organized this way to make the table of contents more useful. By upgrading ECM/ECCM to full chapter status, DP9 is then able to split the ECM/ECCM rules into different sections and list them as part of the ECM/ECCM chapter in the table of contents.

The last organizational oddity is that the Scenario chapter comes after the Field Guides (essentially armylists), instead of after the Advanced Rules. So, the chapters go Advanced Rules, Field Guides (armylists), Scenarios, Data Cards, which is where the stats of the individual units referenced by the Field Guides are located. Advanced Rules, Scenarios, Field Guides, Data Cards would make more sense.

These two organizational oddities are the only complaints to be found about the layout of the book. The rules come in intuitive chunks and are quick and easy to reference. The writing was clear and concise, without being overly flowery or terse. Grammar and spelling was the best I’ve seen from DP9, and better than the majority of game material being produced today.

Before the book starts explaining the game rules there is a brief background on the game universe. It explains where the game takes place and a bit of the history of the major players. It is by no-means a complete and detailed breakdown of the universe. Looking at DP9′s huge library of Heavy Gear supplements shows that this would be impossible. Indeed, it seems that DP9 has focused on keeping the book small and slim. Old fans won’t want a rehash of material they probably already know, and a new fan will be more interested in the rules at first. This book is pure wargame and I think comes off better for it.

The book is full of the art that DP9 fans have come to expect: anime-inspired action shots which may fool a few new fans into believing that they are screen captures from an actual cartoon. In fact, for those that have any other Heavy Gear books will recognize some, if not all of the art. There are very few pictures of the miniatures or the game in progress. I think this is because DP9 is still getting used to the concept that the game is pure wargame, rather than a combination of RPG and Wargame. Fortunately, the rules don’t have the same problem. Honestly, I don’t care that the book contains some of my favorite drawings from the 1st Edition rulebook instead of new art mades specifically for this edition. The point of this book are the rules.

I’ve started painting some older miniatures. They’re the same scale and will work fine with the new stuff.

The Rules

One of the big differences between a wargame and a roleplaying game or even miniature rules for a roleplaying game is the focus of the rules. Rules in RPGs tend to be more scattered and indestinct, designed to answer the types of situations that arise during a RPG session. Mixed in with the rules are liberal amounts of background and flavour to help players figure out how the game should be played. Descriptions of people, places and event take up more space in a RPG than a wargame. After reading through the rules for Heavy Gear Blitz I can honestly say that DP9 understood that they were making a wargame, that they need to focus on rules for playing the game and not information on the setting for the game. Throughout the book rules are stated clearly, with little language to cause confusion in applying the rules. One of the rules designers, John Buckmaster, says in the book’s introduction that the goal was “…a tighter, more focused Heavy Gear.” The rules support this goal and I look forward to playing the game myself.

One of the things that strikes me about the rules is that they are so tight that there’s not a whole lot to remember. What rules there are do everything they need to do without needing extra clarification or exceptions to make things fit. Move, attack, fight. It’s all there, it’s all clear. In previous versions it was easy to bog down on auxiliary systems and vehicle traits and flaws, both in the myriad options they introduce, but also how each one is handled in game. In Blitz the list of auxiliary systems is shortened to a few key items by amalgamating many different traits, flaws, etc that all served the same purpose but had slightly different rules. For example, in the section explaining how to convert Gear designs from old versions of the game, the book suggest that the following perks be represented by Sturdy Boxes: Reinforced Crew, Reinforced Chassis, Emergency Medical, HEAT Armour, Ammo/Fuel Containment System and Easy to Modify. Sturdy Boxes is a simple rule where the first level of damage is ignored. Five or six complicated perks reduced to one simple rule.

The only negative that can be found in the streamlined rules is the simplicity. Players who use the tactical rules as an extension of the roleplaying game may find that the game lacks the detail they are used to. Although it made the tactical rules hard to play as a wargame, as an RPG miniature game, where each Gear is controlled by it’s own player, the complexity can be a good thing. I wonder if DP9 will now merge the former tactical rules into new RPG material, to allow RPG players access to that detail. However, mentioning this lack of RPG detail is like complaining that a Formula One racer isn’t good for grocery shopping. This is a wargame and the rules fill this purpose perfectly.

Game Aids

The Heavy Gear Counters. Image copyright Dream Pod 9, Inc.

I’m a big fan of each miniature having a little stat card in games. It’s a trend that appears to have hit its stride with Rackham’s Confrontation where the unit’s stat card was included in the miniature’s blister. Although it isn’t necessary to have a seperate datacard for each Gear, any book-keeping can be done through counters, it is something that I personally like about the system. Since the miniatures I’m painting right now are pre-blitz I’ve downloaded and printed the datacards available on the DP9 website. In order to keep track of data during the game without having to print out new cards every game I’ve purchased some red and blue-backed plastic card protectors for the Allied Sourthern Territories (AST) and Confederated Northern City States (CNCS) forces I have. If I collect Peace River (PRDF) I will get some grey-backed card protectors. I’ve also picked up some fine-tipped overhead projector markers to record information. I love the idea of having unit stats at my fingerprints, although I know it’s not for everybody.

My copy of Heavy Gear came with a seperate sheet of un-cut colour counters. The counters aren’t really explained well in the book as I believe they are from a previous incarnation of the game when counters featured more heavily. Specifically DP9 has produced a counter pack, replacing the various action counters with a single specialty D6 per unit and a number of coloured chits to denote damage. My guess is that DP9 had printed these and decided to include them instead of letting them go to waste. They aren’t useless. For one, it means you don’t have to buy the counter packs to play. Plus, there are various counters which could be used for a number of game effects, such as target designation, multiple-attacker-penalty, etc.

When I purchased the rulebook I also picked up a pack of the new counters. If you want to use these counters you will be buying one pack per 5 units, or roughly one squad. They contain 5 of the action dice used to denote a unit’s movement and whether it’s been activated or not, as well as 5 yellow, 5 orange and 5 red plastic chits to mark damage. The counters are nice enough, I’m buying them for the dice, not the plastic chits. I’ll probably replace those with smoke plumes or something. Fortunately Heavy Gear doesn’t use a whole lot of units per side, so I won’t have that many counters to purchase.

The Miniatures

To coincide with the release of the new game DP9 has announced that they are resculpting roughly 90% of their miniature line. It seems the work is being done by Philippe Le Clerc of Minimaniak fame. I picked up a Northern General Purpose Squad to start building up my forces. I’ve only started the initial mold-line cleaning and general eyeballing of the miniatures. So far they look very good. There are some noticable changes to the style of the miniature which the sculptor explains as trying to return to the original illustrations of the game. The miniatures look good, with seperate heads, torsos, legs, arms, V-engines and weapons. The seperate weapons allow DP9 to include a sprue of optional weapons so that with a basic squad box you can build some of the upgrades available in the army list.

The thing that strikes me about the new sculpts is the absurdity of Heavy Gear fans, myself included. For some reason we feel abused if the models don’t match the illustrations exactly. This is something akin to historical wargamers who worry about button patterns of different Napoleonic British regiments. Most other sci-fi games don’t seem to have the same problem when the manufacturer changes the design of their models. In most Sci-fi wargames, the miniatures are the imagary. It speaks highly of the art, specifically DP9′s main artist for many years, Ghislain Barbe, that it is held in higher regard than the miniatures the game is played with.

New miniatures are being released to go with the new rules. Image copyright Dream Pod 9, Inc.

I’ve decided to look past all that and enjoy the new miniatures. The last miniatures I purchased for Heavy Gear had the head, torso, rocket pod, and legs all in one piece, with only the arms, weapon pre-attached, and V-engine seperate. The attention to detail on the new miniatures is excellent, with kneeling, standing and running poses possible. Philippe Le Clerc has even detailed the Secondary Movement System (SMS) on the feet which are off the ground, including a wheel in the arch of the foot which swings down when the unit goes to SMS mode. Very nice and I’m really looking forward to painting these up.

The Problems

The Heavy Gear Blitz Rulebook is not perfect. There are too many errors and typos which affect comprehension of the rules to be ignored. I’ve had to mark up my rulebook with pencil and post-it notes so that the errata will not cause problems during gameplay. This is not to say that the book contains more errata than the average game. Errata is common for almost all games, from polished boardgames sold in large bookstores to games like Heavy Gear Blitz produced by relatively small companies like DP9. This doesn’t kill the game, but it also doesn’t make it any more acceptable. The errors range from improper wording, such as saying “attack” instead of “attacker,” to incorrect ranges for weapons and point values for units. The datacards are not immune to errors either, meaning that until DP9 produces new downloadable datacards and changes the one in the boxed sets, each one will have to be editted by hand, reducing some of the shiney goodness that such play-aids add to the game.

There are also the minor organization issues mentioned above, plus not enough pictures of the miniatures in a game. A painting and camo guide would not have gone amiss. They are minor, like wishing your car had an audio input jack for a MP3 in the standard stereo system, and don’t detract from the game as a whole.

The Verdict

In the end, I am very happy with this book. The production value is good, the rules are excellent and clearly written. It’s black and white, so not as shiney as some books, but colour printing costs money which the consumer bears, so I’m happy to not have to pay extra for colour. The only complaint is the errata, but that is fairly minor. Dream Pod 9 seems to have a potential hit on the game, all that is left is for more people to learn about it and the popularity to grow.

Next weeks update will be delayed, as will any of my weekly updates that follow directly a monthly update. It seems a shame to put so much work into something and not have it the first thing on the website.

Tyler

Images marked as such are copyright Dream Pod 9, Inc. Used without permission for review purposes. No challenge to copyright intended.

• Pin It
• Share
• Tweet