Probando el "Forge of War"/Testing "FoW"

Hace dos fines de semana, aprovechado un lapso de tiempo infinitesimal entre estudio y estudio pudimos probar por fin el "Forge of War". Este juego gratuito tiene un sistema que recuerda al del Epic Armaggedon, pero simplificado y pensado para 28mm.

Two weekends ago,  taking advantage of n infinitesimal lapse of time between studying exams, we could finally try the "Forge of War" rules". This free game has a system which reminds me Epic:Armaggedon, but simplified and in 28mm scale.

El escenario: unos pandilleros han secuestrado al ministro de economía y lo tienen retenido en algún lugar de la antigua zona industrial (esto lo representamos poniendo 3 objetivos, y en uno de los 3 estaba el ministro, tirando al azar al tocar el marcador). Dos unidades militares son enviadas a rescatarlo, mientras toda la escoria de la zona de combate se dirige a la zona para apuntarse a la fiesta (había un montón de unidades de pandilleros. Si estaban fuera de juego, a 4+ entraban por un borde al azar de la mesa).

The scenario: some gangers have kidnapped a minister and they have him hidden somewhere in the old industrial zone (we represented this by putting three blinds on the table, with one of them being the minister, rolling for each marker once a government unit was near it). Two military units are sent to rescue him, while all the scum in the combat zone is trying to get there in order to join the prty (there were a lot of ganger units. ny of them which was out of the game would enter the table via a random border if a 4+ was rolled, rolling every turn for every unit)

La partida empezó bien, con los militares avanzando resueltamente y una escasa presencia pandilleril (solo unas motos que despeinaron a una de las unidades antes de morir horriblemente). Pero poco a poco fue llegando más gente, y las terribles tiradas de mando del jugador militar le pusieron en un compromiso (activaba a 7 u 8 según la unidad con 1D10 y los 9 y 0 iban que volaban).

 The game started well for the government forces, which advanced steadily while there were few gangers present (only a pair of bikers showed up only to be swiftly dispatched). But slowly more gangers joined the fray, and the government's player bad command rolls compromised the entire operation (he needed 7 and 8s for activating the unit and rolled severl 9s and 10s!)

Cuando los marines se acercaban al primer objetivo aparecieron dos bandas y empezaron a haber bajas entre los militares (pero pocas en comparación con las de los pandilleros).

When the government forces were approaching the first blind two gangs showed off and in the ensuing shootout some soldiers died (but not to many compared with the number of gangers killed)

Encima, los motoristas no dejaban de aparecer, y esta vez si que inflingian bajas antes de morir horriblemente.

Worse than that, the bikers were being respawned as fast as they were getting killed, and this time they even managed to kill someone before dying horribly! 

  
- ¡Señor ministro! - 

- Minister! -

 
Al final los marines se la jugaron y tocaron el primer objetivo, ¡que era el ministro! Lo malo es que la cosa ya pintaba muy mal, y tras fallas varias tiradas de mando y aparecer los pandilleros en masa los marines acabaron muertos mientras llevaban al ministro de vuelta.

In the end the soldiers played all-or-nothing and contacted the first marker, which was the minister! But at that time things were going really awry and after failling some more activation rolls and seeing the deployment of all and every single gang unit the soldiers got killed as they were dragging the minister to their lines.

La partida resultó un poco descompensada al final (lo de las bandas era una lotería y salió muy mal al final para el marine), pero es el defecto del juego: que no tiene sistema de puntos, por lo que recomiendan que se usen escenarios o bien otros reglamentos para generar el coste en puntos (de hecho, hay perfiles para todo el 40k, y te recomiendan que hagas los ejércitos con los codex de GW para tener ejércitos compensados). Por otro lado, yo pensaba que podría ser un sistema lento y engorroso, pero acabó resultando ser de los más rápidos, sencillos y divertidos que he probado. Lo próximo es probarlo como sustituto del 40k, y si funciona, ya tenemos Arcana futurista.

In the end the game was a bit unabalanced (the gang deployment roll was something akin to a lottery and it went bad for the government player), but that's the only defect i could find in the game: it has no point system, which is the reason they recommend using either secenarios or another game systems to calculate the point cost (in fact, there are profiles for every 40k army and it is recommended to use GW's codexs in order to generate armies minimally balanced). On the other hand, i had thought this could be a slow and cumbersome system but it ended up being one of the fastest, easiest and funniest game systems i have ever tried. Now we want to use it in order to play in the 40k universe, and if it works, we could have a sci-fi Arcana at last!