""Warfare in the Age of Madness" now available!" Topic

We're very happy to announce our first game release, "Warfare in the Age of Madness". Set in a dark near future, the tabletop miniatures game is designed for use with 15mm figures.

Each player leads his unique company-sized force in a fight to survive by securing civilization's leftovers as well as gear dropped by casualties and even the enemy field camp. Battlefield hazards include booby traps, marauders, and hordes of the "Infected" roaming the land. Real-world tactics such as overwatch, fire-and-maneuver, and shoot-n-scoot are well rewarded making the game equally useful when recreating past and current conflicts.

Armies generally consist of 9-12 elements with each element being a stand of 2-5 infantry figures or 1 vehicle model. The number of figures on a base and the size/shape of a base don't matter allowing you to use your existing armies without the need to re-base. With about 30 or so 15mm figures and a few vehicles you're ready to play!

Instead of using pre-set "factions" armies are completely customizable and can represent a force themed on your hometown, your alma mater, or even your former army unit. There are no "blue-on-blue" battles because global civilization has collapsed and every opposing force is an enemy.

Gear includes small arms such as assault rifles, MGs, and LAWs, as well as mortars and soft and armored fighting vehicles. The vehicle design rules allow you to recreate real-world vehicles or to develop your own using sci-fi models or even mechs!

The game is designed for play on typical dining room and kitchen tables and uses only 6-sided dice. All measurements are in "bounds" with 1 bound equaling 4" or 10cm making the game fully compatible with both metric and imperial measurement systems.

For more information please visit WarfareInTheAgeOfMadness.com There you can access our shop and also download the free Quick Reference Sheet and game markers.

And Rebel Minis is having a sale now, this would be a great inexpensive set to get and play just about anything. You could have fun popping open some of the Doomsday Preppers compounds
Does it have rules for drones?
Mark

No "separate" drone elements at the moment for a couple of reasons but they are definitely abstracted into the system.

First, recon and comm technology are currently abstracted into a force's network ComSpan range which represents its situational awareness and communications capability. A high tech force with lots of gadgets could have a poor ComSpan range (think Lt Gorman from the movie Aliens…despite his great gear he had little command and control over his troops). A low tech force with excellent local knowledge and an extensive network of runners might have a broad ComSpan range (think VC from the Vietnam war). So drones can be thought as being part of force's ComSpan range.

Second, this being post-collapse, air assets such as drones and helos are far more valuable for scouting for potential supply caches (e.g. abandoned long-haul trucks) than risking them in a tactical fight where they might be shot down. It's also assumed that such assets are monitoring the area for other forces drawn to the sound of the guns. This is also why there's a strict game turn limit: at some point you need to bug out to prevent yourself from being surrounded by interlopers.

So, in a way, drones are in there, just not as specific element types maneuvering on their own. However, one of my armies includes Khurasan's "Not Halo Troops" which has some excellent recon troop models. My recon element uses their Drone model to represent its status as a recon element.

That being said, we're working on a free download that provides pre-calculated point costs for real-world vehicles and additional gear such as drones, helos, arty, etc. For now the game is very tightly focused on providing a fast, inexpensive, and very entertaining small unit action experience. Later we'll expand it to include a broader array of conventional forces.

We're also going to release for free the underlying unit and weapon construction system so that players can design their own infantry elements and weapons. This will include the spreadsheet used to calculate point costs and rationale for various stat values.

The main rulebook functions along the lines of "AK-47 Republic" in that weapons such as tanks and ATGMs are generic classes (but there are multiple variations on such weapons rather than AK's limited selection). We're hoping that gamers will enjoy our "open source" approach and have fun creating gear that they feel is spot on.

I like the look of this a lot. I'm intrigued by what I've read about the game mechanics, and definitely intrigued by the game setting/concept.

I'm less enthusiastic about Lulu, though. Any plans on going with something like Wargame Vault and selling it as a PDF?

We're trying to get a printed version on Wargame Vault but to no avail so far (no plans to sell as PDF). WV seems to outsource printing to a third party and we've hit a bit of a hitch with them.

We had a bunch of promotional copies printed through Lulu and they came out beautifully. I was a skeptic until I tried them and now wouldn't hesitate to order from them. Lulu cites some rather extensive printing and shipping times using snail mail but I think that's just to manage expectations. Our orders and those of some friends arrived in a little over a week.

Regarding the setting and mechanics it's all about convenience and intense gaming. In most cases pre-packaged platoon packs like those sold by Battlefront provide a complete army. Just add a mortar element or other heavy weapons and a vehicle or two and you're off an running. The vehicle design rules also let you kit-bash to save money too.

We're most proud of the victory point system. In most modern gaming taking a hill or killing X enemies nets a victory. But in WAM securing terrain allows your troops to scavenge/secure supply caches. So there's a very direct, tangible reason to take and hold certain positions instead of an abstract, off-board reason. My 14-year old loves chess and thinks of WAM as chess with automatic weapons given how important angles and positioning are.

As for casualties, killing an enemy gets you nothing as far as VP are concerned until you secure their gear/loot. This creates "dynamic objectives" as casualties mount. This also provides strong incentives to manage your own troops well. Getting them killed doesn't automatically give up VP but if they're left isolated and then killed it could be easy VP for the enemy. Sometimes you'll find yourself needing to fight for your own casualties just to deny them to the enemy.

During playtests over the years most games came down to just a VP or 2 in difference and we had many ties. We also carefully tested extremely different force types. My 14-year old loves close assault (he'll play COD with knife and pistol only) and has managed to win a lot of games. My 12-year old prefers "gun lines" like dear old dad. But we also had some blow outs if players ignored their force's strength and weaknesses.

For example, I once brought a heavy mech in to close to my older son's troops. He used smoke and concealment to sneak in close and scored a mobility kill on the mech (we imagined they knee-capped it). Once immobilized he easily close assaulted it with demo charges and blew it up.

But in another case he was too slow in advancing and his brother established a solid defensive position blocking a large portion of his force. He was out of smoke and couldn't cross an open area without getting hammered by MGs. Had he advanced sooner he would have been across the open ground and into a forest before his brother could get into position.

I've purchased rules published by LuLu twice. Printed within 3 days after ordering and in my hands less than a week after publication. Top jobs both times.

Thought the title referred to a set of rules for contemporary conflicts!

Lulu is quite nice nowadays actually. I seem to recall they have issues with overcharging for international shipping though, but the book quality is quite good.

"Warfare in the Age of Madness" … "

I thought you were talking about what is currently going on in Iraq, Gaza, Syria, Afghanistan, the Ukraine, Libya, much of Africa, etc. …

we considered using the title for a Thanksgiving Day dinner simulator…

:-)

Seriously though, we also play Syria, Afghanistan, etc. with the rules. The setting just gives us an excuse to field lots of different armies against one another (eg Fort Benning mech infantry vs Georgia militia.)

Seems that you could basically use the system for just about any 20th Century conflict. I haven't read the rules, so I may be wrong of course. Given some tweeks, it looks like you could 'do' just about any period. I'm saving my pennies for this one ;)

That is correct. It originated for our 15mm WWII collection. My sons pushed me towards moderns. We plan to release a WWII version this fall assuming that sports, boy scouts, work, etc. don't get in the way. All of the data exists from the original work. Just need to transfer it to the "evolved" system and tweak where appropriate.

We're going to push hard over next couple of days to release our real-world TO&Es as a free PDF. Lots of interest in that. It will include force structures and recommended unit ratings for those who enjoy scenario-based gaming and point values based on the WAM army list structure for pick up games. Just need to tidy it up for public consumption. Will probably make it a living document in case others want to contrbute.

… gives us an excuse to field lots of different armies against one another (eg Fort Benning mech infantry vs Georgia militia.) …

I commanded a Mech Co.(M113) at Benning in the late '80s !

Well, our cover features Benning mech infantry elements under the command of Captain Art Vandelay engaging Georgia militia in LaGrange, GA. The militia's technicals sport CSA and GT flags.

: -)

Yes, we are also Seinfeld fans.

I hope you'll reconsider the PDF version. That's pretty much the only way I buy minis rules these days.

Yeah, if there were a cheaper (slightly) PDF I'd buy it now. As is I'll have to wait for reviews. ( though it does sound right up my alley to scratch the scale above FoF or 5150 battalion commander )

I sold off all my M113s models and got these Hammer's Slammers M9s –

Wish I had these instead of my Mech Companie's M113s at Benning !

The rules include hovercraft. My friend's son insisted on them.

In the game's near future context they're not Slammer's fusion monsters. They're fast across open ground and over water but don't like rough terrain such as woods and carry only very light armor and weapons.

They won't survive in a slug fest but can deliver troops to objectives really fast.

In one game my son's friend used a hover craft to conduct a deep raid on my son's field camp. He almost captured it but hung around too long in a firefight against infantry in a building. They shot up the hovercraft, grounded it, and then an armored car finished it off with a low velocity gun.

Yes, a lightly armored GEV/ACV won't survive long in many cases … that is why the Slammer AFVs are pretty heavy duty …

I also think a PDF option would be a great idea. We are in the XXI century, we must save the forests (and avoid paying 10$ in shipping expenses is neat too).

Anyway, these rules look really interesting.