Hi Everyone:
I found this excellent overview of Retro Ragyun demo games organized by Wargames Emporium, the exclusive UK retailer of Hydra Miniatures' products. Here is the complete overview from the Wargames Emporium Facebook page:
"So the martian dust has now settled from Salute 2015 at the weekend, and what a day it was!
I had the privilege of organising and running a participation demo for Hydra Miniature's latest game: Retro Raygun, a pulp sci-fi, quick action skirmish game.
It's a blast from the past as you are reminded of the good ol' days of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and original Star Trek, and that's exactly the theme and concept the game is all about.
In our demo we had the Galacteers lead by the heroic Ace McGuire fight off against the Queen Mechanika and elements of her Robot legion. But Retro Raygun isn't just about my force against your force like most skirmish games. Hydra Miniatures have very much put the emphasis on players being inventive and creating up scenarios in which to relive or rather be inspired by their favourite retro Sci-fi tv episodes. It is a game where scenarios are at its core.
Time is running out and Ace and his Galacteers need to race and upload a virus on to the Robot Legion's latest data console before the Robot Legion uncover their get-away rocket and blow it up. Jane Hunter is held hostage within a secret facility, it's Doctor Zhan's job to enter the facility and search for Jane by unlocking access doors as well as uncover what is being hidden within by Queen Mechanika.
At Salute the scenario we ran was a slightly altered version of one idea from the Retro Raygun Rulebook. Comet the Chimp had stolen the cosmic wrench from the Robot Legion and had locked himself away inside the Relay Station. Queen Mechanika wanted it back. The Galacteers with the assistance of Ace, Jane and Dr Zhan were tasked to rescue Comet and retrieve the cosmic wrench in order to get it off world and away from the Queen's metallic clutches.
The spirit of the game is story, and the rules of the game reflect this fact. Units can perform skills and abilities from ‘Demolitions' to ‘Science', each aids in getting a task or a job done but it won't always be easy…
So how does the game work? Firstly, you roll off to see who wins turn initiative then you grab your activation tokens, these can be homemade tokens (which we did) numbered 1,2,3 etc to the same number of units per side ( you could always use playing cards instead for instance). Then you place these tokens down beside each of your units, the numbers representing which unit will go 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc – but you hide the numbers facedown so you opponent doesn't know the order you are planning. Once all tokens are placed the initiative winner activates the unit with token 1 next to them. Once they have activated and completed their action then your opponent activates their number 1, and you continue taking turns until all units have been activated. When they have, you roll for initiative and the process continues all over again.
When a unit activates it can perform 1 of 3 actions:
1) Full Movement.
2) Combat or Use a Skill
3) Combo: Move half movement and combat or use a skill.
Different modifiers occur depending on what action you choose and the situation in which you do an action (ie: In cover, moved before shooting etc). The game prides itself on the ‘Retro Raygun Rolloff' (RRR) a simple dice roll off involving both players and comparing the results to see if they match or beat each other's numbers. The fact that it is one roll off and not multiple roll offs to perform one action, keeps the game fast pace and not lose momentum gameplay wise.
The game is fierce when it comes to Combat as any successful result of a 6 against a unit concludes in the targeted unit scattering/fleeing off the table. Ouch! My first thoughts were that seems…unforgiving. But as you play you quickly come to see the amount of modifiers you can gain help to keep a unit alive as much as it does to encourage your victim to scatter and run. It also makes you the player feel the predicament your men (or robots) are in, you feel the risks involved and your own adrenaline kicks in when your unit are trying to break into a blast door whilst under fire – you find yourself every RRR shouting for 6's but screaming at your opponent to roll anything but 6.
Retro Raygun is a game that captures the spirit of your favourite Saturday morning Sci-Fi tv episodes and encourages you to embrace that nostalgia to go on adventures of your own."
Retro Raygun is available from Hydra Miniatures hydraminiatures.com and Wargames Emporium wargamesemporium.co.uk
Thanks for reading,
Matt Beauchamp
Hydra Miniatures
hydraminiatures.com
has a painting service do Space Marines.
