"AE Bounty Rulebook/Game Review..." Topic

Today I posted an in-depth look at the game of AE Bounty itself and the AE Bounty Rulebook from Darkson Designs…

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Enjoy!

Aside from the lack of vehicle rules, the game also badly needs official mechanics for overwatch fire IME. Fast melee oriented models absoutely dominate spaceship scenarios or any terrain-cluttered table, especially since they'll invariably have the Flight special rule. Shooters can't currently interdict their movement except via suppressive fire, which requires line of sight to the target – and you generally won't have line of sight until too late, when models can walk into combat from a 12 to 18 inches away and still swing at the end of that movement. Even without speed-demon melee monsters, the inability to "cover" a corridor or hatch lets models move across lines of fire with impunity as long as they end their activations out of sight. Unrealistic, frustrating, and tactically limiting.

Writing your own "snap fire" rules are a fairly simple exercise (there were at least two versions suggested on the Darkson forums last time I looked, my own included) but they should have been in the book from word one.

Other than that and the lack of vehicle rules, yeah, very good game. Lots of potential.

Incidentally, you're entirely correct about the ease of using models from other games – my own horrendously unsuccessful crew is composed entirely of Kryomek figs:

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Good points Battle Works. I have the ranged mentality when it comes to most of these games, and I've only played with a small group of friends and family for the most part recently, because the local gaming club closed shop this summer. So tactically I haven't ran into those problems yet, because I haven't played too many people who could wipe me out, like those who I used to play with from the club. lol

However, as you explained the issue, I can see how that would be a pain.

Regardless it has great potential, and even with those issues present, it's still a brand new game, and the issues that exist aren't issues that couldn't be addressed by a FAQ, or via an Over the Wire before long.

Btw, I saw those figs the other day in a post you made somewhere, very nice crew man. THAT's exactly what makes AE Bounty so cool, because there's so many Sci-fi models out there, that the possibilities are truly endless, and we now have a flexible and fun game to use most any of them in.

Best of all the buy in to play AE Bounty is wicked cheap at just $25 USD for the rulebook, which btw, I absolutely love since it's the size that it is.

I suspect it would play well in 15mm scale, too, even without modifying ranges and movement. Even cheaper that way (not that a half-dozen or so models in an average crew is expensive anyway) and the terrain you could put together (especially for starship games) would be phenomenal. And there's so much great 15mm scifi on the market these days, right?

Good review. I've only played once, using Rogue Trader era 40K figures, and thought it was a lot of fun. I too thought an overwatch or opportunity fire rule is much in need.

I thought about 15mm as well, but I still think cutting movement down a little would be needed. I mean imagine 3x movement with those tiny little s? It would look odd, and that's covering a lot of ground in 15mm scale.

I'm almost certain the word that was bleeped was "things" why would they bleep that word in the post above?

You'd have to reduce ranges as well to maintain play balance – and even in 28mm, troops move too fast to be entirely reasonable. Too easy to build troops with base moves of 5 or 6, allowing them to sprint or charge as far or farther than an SMG can shoot. A really tricked-out Move 7 elite can manage to just move (elites never sprint, and rarely charge except for the bonuses) farther than most rifles can fire.

BattleWorks,

I can't think of too many new games that couldn't be somewhat broken in a matter of weeks after release of the 1st edition by the power-gamer crowd.

I'm sure the issues that exist that the cheesers can exploit will be addressed before long tho.

I have a friend who is such a nice guy, but he's the absolute worst person to want to play versus, because he's "that" guy who is soooooo tactically adept, that he has the whole game planned out ahead of time, even with a plan B in place.

He's the one who will break most any game, or exploit any rule or combo of rules to pull off stuff most will almost never think of. I can't say exploit either, because he's honorable, but just that guy who will find every possible rule to his advantage. It drives me nuts, because I'm more of a hobby enthusiast, than the very best tactician. lol

I play and understand all of the rules, but don't ask me to win every time. lol

There's nothing especially broken about fast melee types – they're one-trick ponies, and have to pass on a lot of good equipment to get that high speed, but they do have uses, especially in scenarios where covering ground is important. But they are kinda silly to watch on the table, and if you do 15mm and reduce the move distances, you'd also need to reduce the ranges proportionately. That's all I was really saying.

Honestly, anybody with one free equipment slot can be pretty good at covering ground fast – all it takes is a personal teleporter.