[DL] RangeWars: First Look

[Xotzil@aol.com]

Wouldn't you KNOW that they'd release this just before Origins, so the lure of a discount from my FLGS makes me buy this over my Origins budget. Grrrr. Bastiches (and this is coming from one, so I can say that).

Anywho, I broke down and bought one of each box. I didn't do too badly as far as getting flats go...I'm currently 16 flats short of a full set (there are 71 unique flats, and 32 of those are fixed in the starters). I have also, if anyone is interested, compiled a list of all the disks I have as well as what flats they're on. It's in an Excel spreadsheet, so if you're interested, e-mail me private like, and I'll send it along (I'm still sadly web-illiterate, or I'd just post it to a website of my own design, but I'm working on it...).

In your starter box, you get eight flats, four fixed, and four random. Of your four fixed, one contains your "home," four brass bullets, four silver bullets and a Town Well. A second contains your "cards" (Ace through King of your suit and colour), three Jokers and three more brass bullets. The remaining two contain generic disks from your own outfit.

For those who have played DiskWars before (and if you haven't, shame on you...it's a nifty little game and not all that expensive to play), most of this will be pretty old hat, but there are a few changes.

First, you use your thirteen cards to "activate" your disks. If you don't lay a card down on the disk, it doesn't get to act this turn. You also may want to keep cards back, because they are used to power spells as well. For example: the miracle "Consecrate Weapon" requires you to "spend" a five or higher and a Jack or higher from your hand in order to make the spell go off. You also must put a card on your Blessed to allow him to take an action. This means putting card on the Blessed during the Deal phase, and then holding back two cards in your hand to play to activate the spell. You only have thirteen cards, so plan your spell use wisely.

The Shooting mechanic is different from DiskWars as well. In DiskWars, if you were shooting arrows at someone, you took the arrow disks, stacked them on another disk, lifted them a foot above your target and let them fall. If they landed on the target, they hit. If they landed on one of your own disks, IT got hit...if it missed everything, it missed.

In RangeWars, it works like this. Find out how many bullets your shooter is worth (there are gun and rifle icons on the bottom of the disk. Guns can shoot up to 6" away, Rifles up to 12"). Take a bullet counter for each bullet shown on the disk minus modifiers (if a Dude moves and then shoots, he loses one bullet to toss...if the target has the Sneaky trait, you toss one less bullet, and there are a few more). Shake the bullets in your hand and drop them. Bullet side up, one point of damage (two if your dude is shooting Silver bullets). Bullet side down, no damage. Simple eh?

There is also a "Lucky Shot" mechanic. If the Dude has a joker next to his/her bullets, you toss three jokers as well. If all three come up as Dead Jokers, the disk you are aiming at it aced. Period.

Another mechanic that is slightly changed from DiskWars is HTH combat. In DiskWars, there were three traits to keep track of HTH...Attack, Defense and Vigor. RW makes do with two. Brawlin and Vigor.

If, in the course of moving your disks around, you overlay (or "pin") another disk, those two disks Brawl when you reach the Brawlin phase. Toss bullets equal to the Brawl rating of your disk. Bullet side up, point of damage. Bullet side down, no damage. If the damage the disk takes in the Brawlin phase is ultimately equal to its Vigor, the disk is Knocked Out, and returned to your Gang Stack. If it exceeds it in the Brawlin phase, the disk is Aced and removed from play.

The dynamic for army building is pretty standard. 75% of the dudes you recruit must come from your own outfit. The rest may include any disks that either match the COLOUR of your outfit, or the SUIT of your outfit. Eight outfits, eight combinations (red and black clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades).

The Art: Some of the art is kyped from various sourcebooks already on the market, sharpened up and colourized. In many cases, this isn't a big deal, and it looks quite nice as a result. It's kind of disconcerting, however (and, call me a pedant if you will) to see a picture that I've always recognized as the definitive portrait of One-Eye Ketchum, or Ronan Lynch, only to be told that it's actually someone else in this instance. Not a super minus, just kind of a pity, though to cut costs to get the game off the ground, quite understandable.

My offer still stands, too. Anyone at Origins who wants to get together to toss Jokers or Bullets, lemme know. We can set a time to meet at Pinnacle's booth or something and see how it goes.

This really is a spiffy little game, folks. If you've got $10 to spare, check it out.

--Jacques