Desert Wars Tabele Top Miniatures Strategy Game, Would you Buy it?, Spun Off of the Runners vs. Teh Army Thread Options

[stevebugge]

This actually started off as a sarcastic comment for cheap laughs, but thinking on it if it were done well it might actually be a cool idea

Somewhere deep in to the thread about runners vs. the regular army someone suggested statting out a division or so. Of course the next jump was to suggest that Catalyst put out a Table Top Strategy game. Someone else pointed out that FASA did this once with the DMZ produtc years back.

So the question is, if a good rule set and quality miniatures were part of the equation, would a Desert Wars Table Top Minatures tactical / Strategy game be something you'd be interested in?

[SkepticInc]

Squad based combat with riggers, spirits, rocket launchers and other things that go boom? Oh yes. It'd need to be modular, maybe a bit like the old Necromunda game (how I miss it).

[Wounded Ronin]

I don't really care about minis, but I'd always be down to try a good tactical board game.

If it was set in SR, though, it would need an 80s soundtrack to go with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjY_uSSncQw (I set this as some of the background music to my modded-up Jagged Alliance 2 software.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJv5qLsLYoo...feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUjIA3Rt7gk

[CanRay]

I wish I could afford something like that, but Mini Games are way out of my price ability.

Hard enough keeping me in dice and books.

[AStarshipforAnts]

Honestly, I'd probably just buy a few of the minis, even if I didn't buy the game. It's the magpie in me.

[Brazilian_Shinob...]

Honestly, I'd probably just buy a few of the minis, even if I didn't buy the game. It's the magpie in me.

Ooh! Sooo shinyyyyy!
I feel your pain brother.

[AStarshipforAnts]

Ooh! Sooo shinyyyyy!
I feel your pain brother.

If there was a Gauss Rifle mini, I'd buy three. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[Platinum]

Doesn't even need to have nice figures. I just want decent rules. nothing based on 4 please.

[Shinobi Killfist]

I wish I could afford something like that, but Mini Games are way out of my price ability.

Hard enough keeping me in dice and books.

Well collectible mini games are expensive. But mini games in general don't have to be. If you have 2000 unit points, does it really matter if its made up of actual minis or just homemade cardboard pieces with a name on them?

[SkepticInc]

Well collectible mini games are expensive. But mini games in general don't have to be. If you have 2000 unit points, does it really matter if its made up of actual minis or just homemade cardboard pieces with a name on them?

Point. Anyone who wants to use minis probably already has a bunch of Warhammer 20,000 figs.

So, what kind of rules would the game use? Would you be designing characters the same as always, or be buying template troops with these here "unit points" of which you speak.

[Drace]

Wow, drool......

Well since I collect and play mordhiem and Necromunda, as well as 40k and fantasy, reaper and a few others I would easily be persuaded to buy this, even if it sucked.

And for models, most of the brands cost roughly 6-12 for a pair of models and some box sets with up to 20 models can cost 35. If it is a squad based game then it could cost as little 70 for a good starter "squad" which is the equivalent of several SR books, and we all buy those.

If it is a "army" based game, your looking at a few hundred with alot of repetetive 'stock' models.

As for rules, I would go skirmish. Have certain nations/corps/factions as teams that have pre set classes/careers (guard, soldier, mage, medic, commander, seargent, spec-ops, etc) with names and their concept fine tuned to make sense for that faction (Aztech: Leapord and Jag guards, Blood Mage etc) Allow them to be geared individually as models or as teams of 1-3 models with a set selection of weapons that are appropriate (no LMG for spec ops, and no dikoted officer sabre for the grunts) and allow teams to hire 'runners' which are specialists that have to be paid for each game and cover the SR archtypes (Hackers, TMs, Riggers, Sams, Mage, Adept etc). These are hireable by any faction.

For campaigns you can have factions gaining properties (RR facilities, Drug labs, weapon/ware production plants, shipping lanes) and battles can be fought to destroy or disrupt enemy property.

[nemafow]

I would go skirmish rules too, I don't think we need another 'army' type game.

[Red_Cap]

I would go skirmish rules too, I don't think we need another 'army' type game.

QFT. Something sized like War Machine before they went crazy and introduced rules for point levels beyond 750 (or whatever that translates to now in Mk.II rules). Secrets of the Third Reich uses a platoon structure for its standard game sizes so that might be a decent starting point for a ruleset.

[Laodicea]

I might be interested if the game was distinctivly shadowrunny.

What does a figurine of an astrally projecting mage look like?

[SkepticInc]

I might be interested if the game was distinctivly shadowrunny.

What does a figurine of an astrally projecting mage look like?

Transparent plastic with a multicolored blinky LED inside. Maybe an embedded speaker to make cool mystical noises.

Probably just the transparent plastic.

[Lansdren]

Its one of those things I could get behind if done well. But something makes me think it would never happen

[Warlordtheft]

QFT. Something sized like War Machine before they went crazy and introduced rules for point levels beyond 750 (or whatever that translates to now in Mk.II rules). Secrets of the Third Reich uses a platoon structure for its standard game sizes so that might be a decent starting point for a ruleset.

They had rules for 750+ points in the original Prime book (in MKII this is about 50 pts). Personally a squad as the base unit, with less than 50 models on each side is probably the most people can deal with before it turns into a slugfest (at 28 MM scale). My war machine games typically involve 20 to 30 models (35 points) though sometime less depending on the army list.

[noonesshowmonkey]

I don't really care about minis, but I'd always be down to try a good tactical board game.

If it was set in SR, though, it would need an 80s soundtrack to go with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjY_uSSncQw (I set this as some of the background music to my modded-up Jagged Alliance 2 software.)

...

I loved JA and JA2 so much. I wrote mods for JA2 once upon a time. And fanfic. Oh, having so much free time in school!

JA2 is one of the finest games ever made.

[Piersdrach]

Well Infinity has a Shadowrun "feel" to it.

Heck you could just do Rezolution that pretty much is a Shadowrun ripoff.

[Wounded Ronin]

I loved JA and JA2 so much. I wrote mods for JA2 once upon a time. And fanfic. Oh, having so much free time in school!

JA2 is one of the finest games ever made.

Check out The Bear's Pit for the most epic JA2 modding ever.

[Critias]

...maybe a bit like the old Necromunda game (how I miss it).

Necromunda's still around, for the record. You can even download the rulebook -- legally -- for completely free, just like with Blood Bowl. Mini's are still for sale, and even though company support is weak, the game's very much not dead.

[BlueMax]

I would buy this... I would buy extra copies if it integrated well with SR4A.

Ala A Time of War's integration with Total Warfare

BlueMax

[noonesshowmonkey]

Check out The Bear's Pit for the most epic JA2 modding ever.

Thats where my old mods were published. I been deep in that pit for the past - my god - ten years? Nearly ten?

[SkepticInc]

Would you want this game to be played at the base level of infantry, or would the base unit be something like a heavy drone, big spirits, and tanks? Scale would sort of matter. You would, in my ever humble opinion, want to have something that had a distinctly different feel that was still the SR feel, but where you could still work in roleplay. I'm a fan of running minigames in my real life games sometimes, such as switching to a strategy board game with the game world map to let players take territory, then switching back to roleplay in the new power set up. I would think people would still want their Shadowrunner characters still able to directly take part in the game. I also think I might have just offered up enough limitations that they get mutually exclusive. Ah well.