Hammers of Faith: Armies of the North
Published by Dream Pod 9
MSRP: 19.95 US
Last month DP9 released the first supplement for the revitalized Heavy Gear Blitz! miniature wargame line. Hammers of Faith is an army book which fleshes out the forces of the Confederated Northern City States and their constituent leagues. The book provides more information about the background of the CNCS, essential for new players who have no previous experience with the game, as well as a more detailed army list.
The Sizzle:
The cover follows the pattern of the first book with a motion blurred action shot of one of the game’s eponymous Heavy Gears. This time the books star is a Kodiak Heavy Gear piloted by a Sorrento Revisionist Warrior Monk. The cover is fitting, Warrior Monk Gears are introduced in this supplement.
The book is 64 pages of background, rules and datacards. There are 8 pages in the middle of book which are printed in colour. DP9 uses this section to describe the different Gears and equipment used by the CNCS. Included is a picture of a miniature representing each unit. This is great both as a painting guide and as a unit recognition guide. One of the complaints about the rulebook was the lack of pictures of miniatures. DP9 is definitely starting to understand that they’re producing a miniature game and not a tactical RPG.
Another change is the art in the book. There are a lot of new names in the credits and the diversity is visible in the art. For those most part, the art holds up. There are, unfortunately, a few pieces which aren’t of the same high quality one expects from a DP9 product. Also, slightly puzzling is the appearance of some blurry logos, poorly trimmed pieces and badly resized images which show definite pixellation. I’ve seen these pieces in other books looking fine, so I wonder if there was perhaps a printing problem, or low resolution web-versions were used accidentally.
I don’t want to harp on this, the content is definitely more important in the long run. Unfortunately art is the first thing people notice when they flip through a book. Early DP9 products almost sold themselves on art alone, especially since the games proved to have the exact same atmosphere promised by the art. Fortunately, this is not the case here. The content is better than the art would suggest and I hope people give the game the attention it deserves.
The Steak:
The book itself read quickly. It was well written and the few rules were clear and easy to understand. I would like to point out that the company stated that they were going to make a real effort to clean up the typos and spelling mistakes that tend to taint their books. The main rulebook was noted for being much better then previous efforts. Hammers of Faith passed a first read-through without any errors found. Not that there isn’t any, just that I didn’t notice them when I read it the first time. In my opinion this is practically perfect and the effort is appreciated by this reviewer.
The book begins much like the main rulebook, with an introduction from John Buckmaster and some history of the CNCS and its member leagues. The background is nice and focused, great for new players and old hands alike. Compared to other books I’ve read DP9 focused on the important points; the Northern Military and its history. I have a large collection of Heavy Gear books from previous editions and I know the wealth of information available, as well as the amount of willpower it would take to leave much of it out, being longwinded myself.
After the concise history lesson is an explanation of the organization of the various forces of the North. Fortunately the background of the nation has its various militaries following a standardized organization in order to foster cooperation. I do not envy DP9 having to provide the same information on the more diverse Allied Southern Territories. There is also basic information on operational and strategic doctrines.
For those players who want to play something other than a standard Northern Guard army, there are league-specific army lists. These army lists, or field guides, as they are referred to in the book, are larger than the original, get-you-by field guides. There are special rules for each, the force composition rules are expanded to show different levels of Threat Value (Heavy Gear’s version of a point system). Instead of the standard ‘per 1000 points’ tables, there are entries for 750 TV, 1500 TV, 3000 TV and 3000 TV +. This gives the designer more control of balance at varying levels.
To go with the field guides are the squad compositions and values used for all four guides. DP9 has also expanded this area, with more types of Gear squads such as Dragoons, Airborne and Rangers.
My favorite part of the book is the Regiments of Note. These are descriptions of specific regiments, their colour schemes, history and minor special rules that, combined with the field guides, really give players a lot of choice when building an army. Some of the regiments are new and some will be familiar to veteran players. One in particular, obviously part of John Buckmaster’s hidden agenda, is personally insulting to me. That’s because I live in Ottawa, the home of the other, and less currently-a-CFL-franchise, Rough Riders.
The book ends with some errata and then datacards for all the units mentioned in the book. There are some optional rules mixed in with the errata, but not much. Fans without internet access will cheer the inclusion of the errata. Sometimes it’s not being perfect, it’s being able to fix your mistakes that counts.
The Verdict
This is a good, solid expansion for Heavy Gear Blitz! It gives northern players many more options when building forces and really adds to the game. The book is lean, there is little wasted space or filler added to inflate a page count. It looks like DP9 had some good ideas for making the game more interesting and implemented them well. I would say that if you play Blitz! this is a definite must-have. I’m looking forward to future army books, even though I am a Northie through-and-through.
Tyler
Images marked as such are copyright Dream Pod 9, Inc. Used without permission for review purposes. No challenge to copyright intended.
