Sergeants Miniatures Game thoughts

Started by Arctic Blast, September 01, 2012, 01:12:56 PM

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Arctic Blast

Had a chance to play it a couple of times, so I thought I'd get some conclusions down.

If you don't know what the game is, check it out here : http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/101929/sergeants-miniatures-game

I didn't have access to a decent camera, so I have no pictures at all. Yay for text walls!

Components : Really high quality. You get 16 puzzle tiles that make up the board, plus 2 landmark tiles that are each the size of 4 standard tiles. All of them are double sided. The Road to Carentan expansion adds another 16/2 tile mix. The base game now comes with 5 figures per side (used to be 4, but they reworked the border pieces for the map board. Those have been shrunk down and they replaced the areas to place cards and such with player boards with the same, then turned the production savings in to another figure per side. If you've previously ordered anything SMG related, your next order from Lost Battalion will include the new boards, the smaller borders, and the 5th guy per side). All are pre-painted 28 mm. figures, and they look really good. The cards are glossy and really feel like excellent quality. You'd really have to bend on these things to mess them up.

My only con for this is the glue dots. The only assembly you need to do is gluing the figures to the character bases, and this is easy. Thing is, I did this 2 weeks ago and some of the glue is still tacky. Not sure what the deal is with that. I'll have to find a way to get that to totally dry, though.

One quick note for anyone who does pick this up, once you've punched out the board tiles, grenade/spotted markers, unit bases and Pinned markers, WIPE THE EDGES DOWN. The amount of soot on there is pretty substantial. I have never seen anything like it in another game...must have something to do with their laser cut process.

The troops : One of the drawing cards for the game is the randomization of troops. If you order 10 packs of riflemen, you'll get 40 guys with unique, randomly generated characteristics different from what your buddy has. There are a few guys of the Character troop type (3 of the 5 for each side in the Day of Days base game are characters), meaning everyone's version of that soldier is exactly the same, but that's it.

Aside from Characters, you have Leaders and Privates. All of them come with a VP cost of anywhere from 2-8 points, with their cost/value dependent on their ratings and their deck of 7 Action cards. Leaders come with three different possible ranks, with the higher ranks costing more points but having much higher capabilities in the game.

There's a fair amount available for troops. Leaders are sold individually at $20 a pop, while the various squads (rifle teams, machine gun teams, BAR squads, etc.) are $40 a shot for 4 guys. You can also buy an Assault Squad for the Germans and the Americans : each of those gives you a rifle squad, machine gun squad and 2 leaders for $100. Big chunk of change, but it works out to saving $20 overall.

The Game : It's entirely card based. After you set up the board, you create a Story Deck for that scenario (6 in Day of Days, 14 in Road to Carentan), with what cards to exclude being part of the setup instructions. Every turn of the game, three of these cards are laid out in order. Along the bottom, certain random events can trigger if 2 banner pieces 'line up' properly across a couple of cards. But the main part of them is the order types allowed at the top. They'll mention two of the four possibilities (Shoot, Move, Hide, Look).

Each player draws a hand of cards from the combined Action cards of all of the troops they're using. Every single Action card is of one of those 4 order types. You choose one to play against each of the 3 story cards that fits one of the two orders allowed (So, a 'Shoot then Look' story card can have a Shoot or Look action played to it. Shoot actions would go first, then Look). The soldier whose name is on the card can do that action, as well as a number of other troops specified on the card. As well, you may be able to do bonus actions...maybe he has a 'Rally 2 men' phrase in his Hide order box, meaning that playing one of his Hide cards lets him Rally 2 Pinned troops.

The game tends to flow pretty well, though early turns are going to be a bit stop and start as you 'get to know' the abilities of your guys and how they can interact with each other effectively. One thing that I really enjoyed was how much Initiative also flows during the game. If one player plays an Action card to the first order on a Story card, and the other plays an Action card to the second order, the one playing to the first goes first. But if they both go after the same order, whoever has initiative goes first. And determining that is simple : if you have the most cards, you have initiative. Tie breaks after that are for the highest value VP soldier in play and the lowest dog tab number soldier in play. Since you can Draw cards for some Look actions, Stash cards for some Hide actions, and troops are constantly getting fired at and killed, all of these factors are very fluid.

Combat is simple as well. You can fire at any Spotted soldier (they become spotted through a successful Look action or if they've fired a gun). Every trooper has a range for Close, Short and Long range fire based on his abilities and his weapon. You'll draw an Action card and look at the range you're at plus any longer range...so, if you're within Close range, you'll check the Close and Long range boxes on that card. If you see a Miss, nothing happens. If you see a hit or multiple hits, your opponent will draw an action card for each of them and check the damage box. Zip means it did nothing, Pin means his targeted soldier is Pinned and all ratings are halved, Wound means he flips that guy's card over to the Wounded (less effective) side and Kill means he's done. A second Wound to an already wounded soldier is also a kill. If your guy has an automatic weapon, he might also score a Hit+. You can choose to have an additional hit check for that soldier OR for any other soldier within 2 inches of him on the board, regardless of range changes. You then draw another card, and if you get another Hit+ you get to score ANOTHER hit, and so on.

This is where using a bunch of cheap grunts will absolutely kill you. You've possibly loaded your deck down with a whole load of cards with Miss results, so that even your good unit members can't hit the broad side of a barn. Or maybe they were cheap because they have a LOT of Kill wound results in their deck. Now half your team is dead before you've fired a shot.

Customer service : When my order showed up, it was missing the Day of Days story deck, meaning it was totally unplayable. Kind of annoying (especially since this was the second game order in a week which had suffered this problem), but I had a response to my email to their support people within an hour, and the replacement deck showed up within a week and a half (which is pretty good for mail from Maryland to central Alberta). they followed up while I was waiting to see if it had shown up yet, and they've since sent me an email asking for my thoughts on the game. So all in all, pretty good.

Playing solo : I haven't tried this yet, but I will. I suspect that it will work pretty well. Sure, you'll know the objectives of both sides (Each player draws an Order card for the scenario at the start of the game, so scenario objectives fluctuate from game to game), but everything else is going to be pretty random. The way that Initiative flows and the unknown nature of what Action cards you'll have from round to round would seem to help this work as a solo game, so long as you can get yourself play both sides to the best of their abilities.

Cost : It's hefty. The base game is $100. The expansion is $65. And that initial investment can be painful, because you really need the bigger boards the expansion brings to get the most out of it...but then you need more guys to fill out the bigger boards. Apparently there IS a big expansion called 'The Causeway' in the works that will have a hefty price tag, but will cost less than buying in with the game, expansion and 2 Assault Squads (which is what I did) and give you a ton of tiles and soldiers. But for now, that isn't an option. Do your research and figure out if it sounds interesting. You don't NEED 2 assault squads, but I'd suggest another Leader and a rifle team for each side if you get the expansion.

One cost savings : Shipping is dirt cheap. Spending $150 (so, the game and expansion) or more is going to cost a whipping $6.95 domestic or $15.95 to Canada or $34.95 Internationally. They're eating a lot of freight charges to make the game at least a bit more attractive. They have also made the game available in a few retailers : I know that Noble Knight carries it in the States.

Conclusion : I like it. I like the flow of the game. I like that teaching it isn't very difficult at all. I like the direction they're going with the system (the last release was Hasty Fighting Positions, a set of foxholes you can add to the board).

I see some more squads and some fighting positions in my future...sorry, wallet.



LongBlade

Arctic, that's a great summary. Heck, we could publish that on the front page.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

bob48

Excellent write-up - many thanks Arctic.
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

Arctic Blast

A couple of things I neglected to mention before!

1. This game gets big. If you're playing a good chunk of the Road to Carentan expansion scenarios, they're building boards out of a lot of tiles from it and the base game combined. So you either need a couple of tables of similar height that you can pull together, or you're playing on the floor. Of course, I'd imagine that's fairly typical of any sort of tabletop minis game.

2. Storage. I put all of the tiles from both the game and expansion in the base game box (I do this with games whenever possible. Why lug a stack of boxes around when it can all go in to one?), and both story decks are in there in the boxes they shipped in (standard card deck boxes). Right now, I have the soldier cards and their action cards in 4 baggies - 1 each for German and American leaders, 1 each for German and American troops - ordered by VP value. I think I'll order a couple of plain 400-600 card capacity card boxes in my next game order and use those instead, maybe using index cards for some quick and dirty dividers.

All of my figures are in a Plano box (pretty sure it's a 3700 model), divided up by type (Leaders, Characters, the 2 man machine gun teams, then value of infantry) and force. The tokens, rulers, blast templates and extra glue dots are all in there as well with plenty of room for several additional squads.

What I'm going to do if the Causeway expansion ends up being as big as it sounds like it might, I have no idea.  :o ;D

Quote from: LongBladeArctic, that's a great summary. Heck, we could publish that on the front page.

Sure, go ahead if you'd like to.  :)

Quote from: bob48Excellent write-up - many thanks Arctic

You're welcome. I'll post another update once I get a chance to try a couple of solo outings and let you know how it goes.

Barthheart

Great write up Arctic.

What's the foot print of the large scenario you've played or is in the game?

If my math is right you spent about $400! Which sounds like the setup I'd like to get..... How to convince my wife.....  :o :-[


bob48

Oh boy - I have just been on Lost Bat's site and drooled over the goodies therein. i think you can justify (to yourself anyway) an investment of thin nature if the product is of such obviously good quality, and provided that there is plenty of re-playability in the system.

I've been wanting a well structured and reasonable fast playing game on this scale and period for a long time, but without the problems of scenery and figure painting, and suspected that this game would fill the bill.

Arctics excellent analysis has certainly helped me decide - now its just a matter of seeing if I can make the money available and look for a UK retailer (and convince the wife what a wonderful Christmas present it would be!)
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

TheCommandTent

Sure sounds interesting.  However, it seems like alot money to invest in the system for it to not be a full blown miniatures game.  Although I guess the map boards save you from having to make/buy terrain.
"No wants, no needs, we weren't meant for that, none of us.  Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is."

Arctic Blast

Quote from: Barthheart on September 01, 2012, 03:27:08 PM
Great write up Arctic.

What's the foot print of the large scenario you've played or is in the game?

If my math is right you spent about $400! Which sounds like the setup I'd like to get..... How to convince my wife.....  :o :-[

Hmmm...tell you what, I'll set up the biggest board they have in the scenario book for my solo effort tomorrow and measure out the dimensions. Looks like there's one 10x4 tile in the book, plus a couple of 8x6.

I ended up spending $365, plus about $20 for shipping. So yeah, you're pretty close. Did a lot of research before diving in to that extent. A LOT.  ;D

Quote from: bob48Oh boy - I have just been on Lost Bat's site and drooled over the goodies therein. i think you can justify (to yourself anyway) an investment of thin nature if the product is of such obviously good quality, and provided that there is plenty of re-playability in the system.

I've been wanting a well structured and reasonable fast playing game on this scale and period for a long time, but without the problems of scenery and figure painting, and suspected that this game would fill the bill.

Arctics excellent analysis has certainly helped me decide - now its just a matter of seeing if I can make the money available and look for a UK retailer (and convince the wife what a wonderful Christmas present it would be!
)

Yeah, I know the feeling. It's scary how easily I could blow most of a paycheck over there.  :o

From poking around on BGG, it seems the next release will be  La Fiere Bridge. Don't know much about it beyond people who have played in convention tournaments got to test drive it. After that, more 3D terrain is in the works, Equipment & Tactics decks, Engineers, Scouts, Officers and Snipers. And they've made mention of The Red Devils, so it seems the Brits are on the way...maybe some new Germans as well? So yeah...I see a lot of my dollars flying away to Lost Battalion.

I know that there were requests on BGG for a UK retail outlet. I'd honestly suggest sending their customer service an email and asking if that came to fruition or not. They seem to be very responsive to stuff like that.

Quote from: TheCommandTentSure sounds interesting.  However, it seems like alot money to invest in the system for it to not be a full blown miniatures game.  Although I guess the map boards save you from having to make/buy terrain.

There is terrain on the boards. Actually, I completely forgot to even mention any of this.

There are modifiers on every tile that can affect Look, Move, Hide and/or Shoot ratings. So a wooded tile will adversely affect shoot range, a swamp tile messes up your movement rate, and so on.

Also, though there aren't LOS rules in the game, you could pretty easily integrate them without any fuss. And some people do add 3D terrain and buildings to their games...since the figures are 28mm., there is a lot of stuff out there in that scale.


Double Deuce

#8
Quote from: Arctic Blast on September 02, 2012, 01:58:30 AMI ended up spending $365, plus about $20 for shipping. So yeah, you're pretty close. Did a lot of research before diving in to that extent. A LOT.  ;D

Ouch! That system is starting to sound like an ASL investment. They reel you in with the base game and then next thing you know you have a small fortune invested in it.

Barthheart

Quote from: Arctic Blast on September 02, 2012, 01:58:30 AM
Quote from: Barthheart on September 01, 2012, 03:27:08 PM
Great write up Arctic.

What's the foot print of the large scenario you've played or is in the game?

If my math is right you spent about $400! Which sounds like the setup I'd like to get..... How to convince my wife.....  :o :-[

Hmmm...tell you what, I'll set up the biggest board they have in the scenario book for my solo effort tomorrow and measure out the dimensions. Looks like there's one 10x4 tile in the book, plus a couple of 8x6.

I ended up spending $365, plus about $20 for shipping. So yeah, you're pretty close. Did a lot of research before diving in to that extent. A LOT.  ;D
...

Did you get nailed for any duties coming across the border?

Arctic Blast

#10
Okay, turns out the biggest setups aren't super monstrous. The 8x6 maps are about 3.5 feet by 2.75 feet. the 10x4 is around 2.25 feet wide, but over 4 feet long. So those might be table ready. But if you're going to custom up a bigger board, or add upcoming expansion materials, that isn't going to be the case for long.

And I tried a solo game...and it works. It actually works fairly well. The constant switch and flow of initiative doesn't let you 'pre plan' moves for both sides much at all, which is a positive in my books. You're constantly having to switch strategies on the fly.

I also brought out the machine guns for the first time. They're pretty expensive, at a total of 10 VP for the gunner and his assistant, but the Americans were playing a defensive role so it worked. Good grief can they be devastating if supported well!
Quote from: Double Deuce
Ouch! That system is starting to sound like an ASL investment. They reel you in with the base game and then next thing you know you have a small fortune invested in it.

Which is funny, considering how often I have a laugh at hardcore ASL'ers with their thousands of dollars worth of stuff... :-[ ;) Now I'm not only in to this and planning to get more as time goes on, I also find myself eying Dust Tactics (which can be blown out in to a full tabletop minis war game with Dust Warfare) a bit more seriously.

Actually, I think this is pretty much the model for every tabletop minis system in existence. And if they can't get you with new units regularly appearing on the market, they'll just issue a new rule set every 2 years that turns your previous stuff in to an antique.

Quote from: BarthheartDid you get nailed for any duties coming across the border?

Actually, no. And that's weird. The last 2 orders I've made from Noble Knight have had a Customs Handling fee added to them. I got the same fee on the Doom board game and expansion that I just got yesterday via a BGG auction from some dude in Cleveland. Yet my order of this had nothing like that added to it.

Begin angry sidebar

Not that I'm complaining, because it's a BS fee. Not only do they charge you for handling the package (which is WHAT THE ALREADY GET PAID TO DO. Man, can I start charging handling fees for prepping cargo at work?), they charge you GST. But not GST based on the handling fee...it's based on the stated purchase amount declared on the customs form! Yes, they get to charge tax on the value of an entire game order that they didn't pick, pack or ship. Because THAT makes sense.  >:(

/sidebar

Arctic Blast

HOLY THREAD NECROMANCY, BATMAN!

So, I go to get my mail yesterday, and on top is an envelope from Lost Battalion Games.

Inside is a card talking about their plans for 2013 (3D terrain, buildings, new specialist troops, The Red Devils, 3 big expansions, and a terrain expansion). Also included were 2 little decks of cards. Basically, they sent out freebies to EVERYONE who has purchased at least the base game that includes some of the new cards (Tactics, Personalized Story and Command) for 2 of the characters that are in every base set. I haven't gone and read the new ruleset that covers how these work yet, so I can't really comment on them that much. But it's definitely pretty cool to get them.

It is of course also brilliant marketing...NO wallet, you've been used enough! GET BACK IN THAT POCKET!

bob48

Aw, man Arctic - you'll get me wantin' again..........now I have visit the Lost Bat site and drool down the front of my shirt  >:(
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

Arctic Blast

I made the same mistake. The 2nd expansion and Pontigou Farm are now up for pre-order. Son of a bitch...

bob48

Those buildings look so cool. I started to work out how much it would cost for all the existing stuff - and gave up! It would require a nice Lotto win  :(
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!