Wasteman - the wait, the rules and a game or two.

So back in March I backed this 32mm post apocalyptic gang warfare game on Kickstarter (KS) at the pledge level of:

Brawl

-2x Posse Packs of your choice 
-Full colour Rulebook 
-Deck of M.A.D cards 
-Radical Trevor the Kickstarter Exclusive figure 

With the intended delivery of November. The creator (Jason Fairclough) kept us well informed throughout the months and then in November announced delays due to personal and supplier issues. In December Jason announced that only the models, rulebook, unit cards and MAD cards had been received but the bases, tokens and dice hadn't. So instead of delaying the items further Jason started shipping. And the wait began....

...and I waited, while Facebook filled with pictures of received pledges...

....and waited as more people got theirs and those people who first received theirs posted on Facebook  their painted models, and posted battle reports...

...and waited. In this time I learnt that I'm quite impatient. Getting frustrated by the lack of parcel, slowly becoming a petulant teenager again (instead of the 30 something I actually am) "I don't want it anyway!" "It's going to suck!" " you're not my real mum!" Well maybe not the latter.

Then it arrived; I opened the box with an uninterested casualness and was greeted by the perfect explanation to the delay.

My two posses were in retail packaging (minus the dice); a very pleasant and unexpected surprise (previous backed KS from other companies have just sent the items in clear plastic bags), the KS freebies were in their own bags with stat cards, my add ons were also in their own bag with their cards and the rulebook was wrapped in a plastic bag with the shrink wrap M.A.D. cards (Beautiful B-Movie style random event cards; more detail below).

The effort in the packaging was impressive and I finally, truly, understood the cause of the delay in shipping - of which I humbly apologise for my impatient attitude.

After a quick inspection of the models (a more detailed post on them in the next few weeks), I started perusing the rulebook...which, I feel, is a work of art! Beautifully crisp photos, and great illustrations. The rules are wonderfully simplistic (more details on that to follow); written amusingly tongue in cheek and peppered with gaming references. Which makes for an enjoyable read.

Now as with every first edition, the rulebook isn't perfect (sorry Jason). There are spelling and grammar mistakes (not that I'm in any place to comment), as well as the biggest bugbear to the gaming community: lists not in alphabetical order. But these are small items, to me anyway, and in no way distract from the rules themselves.

Which ties me nicely to the rules:
Wasteman uses D10, which is a change from D6. (Especially since "All quiet of Martian front" company Alien Dungeon collapsed leaving me with lots of D10 in my collection for a redundant game). Wasteman is recommended to be played on a 3x3 board, with points of around 500 or 1000. Each figure has their own stat cards and I believe all models in the Thunderchild miniatures range now has them.

Example of Cyborgs unit cards

There are 5 activation's a turn (individual models or combat group (models grouped together with the same items)); with each model/combat group having their own number of actions points to be spent. Now you can use the bottlecaps that come with the posse packs to mark which models have activated.

Action points (AP) can be spent moving, hiding, shooting, or using a skill.

Movement
A set movement value for everyone, unless certain skills are bought.

Hiding
Self explanatory - making the model harder to hit.

Shooting
A simplistic case of weapon power vs armour table. There are adjustments for scenery, distance, and even when you have already taken damage. Which leads on nicely to damage.

After a successful hit you then roll on a damage table where the effects can range from simple reduction in AP to death! Random chance in the wasteland!

M.A.D Cards

Talking of random chance; the M.A.D cards. You build a deck of 20 cards and each take 5 of your choosing. These are cards with different effects that can be played at any part of the game.  From healing members of your posse to abducting someone for a turn...yes the wasteland is a random place

M.A.D. Cards - with rules covered to prevent copying...

That's the rules at the core. Further to the core rules there are rules for weapons, armour, skills, special effects and character/syndicate creation.
This does result in a little flicking between pages to understand what does what, but who doesn't have to do that with a new game?!
That said I have created a spreadsheet (which be found on the facebook group), with Jason's permission, with all the details for quick reference. As well as producing a rudimentary character creation sheet which shows all the details in one place.

So as an overview the rules are simplistic and easy to play. To the point during my first game I was able to advise the required dice roll to my opponent when armour and weapon power was announced.

How does it play?
So in light of the above my friend (Grum) and I decided to put it into action and we played two games:

The first game started on a 2x2 board, playing the "brawl" mission and using an official posse each (Grum used Militia and I used Cybjorgs); as such points were less than 500. With scatter terrain littering the battlefield. We were on top of each others posse within 1 turn, quickly gunning each other down. Result: Cybjorg victory.

The second game was on a 3x4 board again playing the brawl mission, but with 750 points. I used the Cybjorgs posse in addition to "4 chaingun brutes" (Mantic deadzone plague troopers). While Grum used his "brotherhood of steel" (based on the Fallout group, using the lunar coalition syndicate rules and dreamforge eisenkern valkirs models). In addition we also introduced M.A.D. card's, although we randomly selected ours. Grums brotherhood were tooled up and absolutely destroyed my Cybjorgs. But using the mad cards resulted in some random but amusing events. Result: Brotherhood victory.

Both games were played within an hour, which reflects how quick this game is, especially using Brawl, which is very good to use to get to grips with the rules before trying the other missions which have other aspects.

You'll have noticed that with 1 victory each, a deciding game is required in the future!