"Heavy Gear Blitz: A Review" Topic

Greetings fellow TMPers! Just got back from LoreCon in northern VT where I had the opportunity to finally get a demo of the Heavy Gear Blitz rules. I know a week or so ago there was a bit of a discussion of how different the Blitz system was from the standard Heavy Gear. I figured after having a hands on I'd give my impressions.

Heavy Gear is pretty well known for having a fairly fast and easy system. When the demo staff from Dream Pod 9 explained to myself and my friend that the Blitz rules were actually even faster, I'll admit I was taken a bit aback. Faster and more simple rules tend to seem to leave less room for more interesting tactics, and seem to end up breaking down into two sides charging at each other with the person rolling the most dice winning. Heavy Gear isn't so.

The biggest change from the standard Gear rules is a faster damage system. The basic system remains the same, but instead of rolling on subsystem tables for heavy damage, you instead get blanket modifiers. Light damage means nothing, but get another and it's automatically transferred to a heavy damage. If you're at heavy damage and take a light or greater damage hit, you're gone. The demo game I played was 6 Northern Gears vs. 5 Southern Gears. Including the time spent explaining the new systems, we completed the full game within 45 minutes or so. The advanced rules for saturation fire and such are also faster and a bit more interesting from the standard Heavy Gear system.

From speaking with the Dream Pod 9 staff, Jovian Chronicles and Gear Krieg will be seeing Blitz treatments in the future, with Jovian coming this summer. The greatest praise I can give for a game is when after playing it I'm compelled to pick up stuff for it: $100 USD later and I can say I'm looking forward to playing a Mecha combat game again. If you already play Heavy Gear and are interested in Blitz, I'm told the rules are up on Dream Pod 9's website. I definitely recommend checking it out.

Oh, one last thing. I know some people were concerned about the minis being replaced by paper/cardboard counters for the Gears. No worries, it's fully built for the current Heavy Gear line. And speaking of the minis, I got a chance to check out some of the MiniManiak figures. The Thunderhammer strider is indeed a very solid and nicely detailed chunk of resin. Very, very cool indeed!

The rules can be found here:

PDF link

So if this a "new" rule system, how does this affect the other three or four systems they already had going for Heavy Gear?

I mean one for RPG, one for skirmish, one for "standard", one for mass combat, one for arena and all slightly different rules etc. Does this replace some and /or all of those or is this just another set of rules for them?

dafrca

They lost my interest when they changed scales.

drafca: Its a new ruleset. The main difference is that the game is now in-scale: no more 1"=50m, and this mean you can make terrain, and that our stone heads and (free) paper terrain are actualy usefull!

The Blitz! rules aim at making the miniature game more fun and also to allows for bigger games with varied minis. The other systems are all valid: you can find them in either the CORE rules or the Miniature rules, which you can consider as the "classic" rules if you wish. Those don't really require minis to play, as hex maps and paper counter fill the job perfectly (also available for free on our site). They are perfect for simulating combat in a role-play environement. Blitz is less simulatiosnist, and contain less math and more fun!

It might be argued that Blitz kind of make the Squirmish and dueling rules obsolete or redundant, its a fact. Blitz is in-scale and its a wolrd of diference.

We always tried to make new material that did not invalidate everything that was published before. For example, in Blitz a Hunter is still worth 380TV, has still armor 15, has the same weapon load, the same move, etc. Only the datacard are different, and you can download them for free on our website (as well as the rules).

If you played Heavy Gear before, you won't be lost and will find many cool thing that were not there before, if you never played, you learn the rules in 5 minutes and won't believe its a game for your father. Book-keeping has been reduced to a bare minimum, and we now have Blitz markers(totaly optional) to keep track of the rest.

We are within a dozen mini from having totaly covered all Terranovan factions. This will allows us to expand our range with other colonies and to bring the story forward!

Finaly, I would like to say the the "scale change" occured in 1998. That was last century ;)

-Philippe F. Le CLerc,
DP9

PS:I can't seriously argue that the minis are better now since I sculpt them, but hey :D

Oh, and Lorecon 2 was way cool! Big thanks to everyone who stopped by and tried the game!

-Phil

expand our range with other colonies and to bring the story forward!

This…this is actually happening?! Man, I hope so. I really want to see more combat mounts and remotes. And as for the storyline…you kinda left us on a cliffhanger!

Blitz rules…so, this is 'in-scale'. I like this, but does it mean that the LAC's short range is now a significant fraction of any reasonable table length? Not that I think that's wrong, mind – cover is important for a reason. If the 'max' ranges have been foreshortened, it's a little too 'Battletech-ish' for me.

Or, shall I say, if the ranges have been foreshortened. 'Max' would be only one of them.

Also, will the construction rules work for making Blitz stats?

nvdoyle: We tweeked the range a bit. For example, a Light Autocannon's Extreme range is 48" in Blitz (we still uses the same old Range Bands though)

The idea is to make it work on a reasonable-sized table, while still haveing meaningfull weapon range. A Medium Autocannon (or a Spitting Cobabra's LGM) can shoot 72", the Grizzly's mortar can shoot 120", etc. You obviously can't do that while running ;)

While not totaly realistic, the units can still fire pretty far copared to, oh, lets say 40k ;)

Most basic trooper Gears have a weapon that can shoot 48" and another that can shoot 24" indirectly, and many other can fire 72" or more. Not bad IMO. Of course this is not "the real thing", but you'll admit this is not Battletech either. Taking advantage of any terrain feature become very important.

In any case, you are totaly welcome to keep on using the tactical rule if they suite your taste better! We support them as well, and we'll release the minis and expand the story line anyway! ;)

-Phil

It looks like I'm going to enjoy the HG Blitz rules. I can't wait to see what you do to Jovian Chronicles.

Sounds like a reasonable compromise.

How are infantry going to be handled – one fireteam per base, or so?

Infantry is handled a little differently than in the original game. Infantry is bought per squad. Each infantry squad is made up of three stands and each stand must be at least two inches apart. Rather than having a damage track for each trooper, when a squad is attacked, it loses one stand on light damage, two for heavy, and all on an overkill result.

How many men in a squad and how big of base are they on?

They recommend three figures per 1-inch hex base.

For a pic look on page 12 here: PDF link

I just found pics of the new JC fighters. Fleet scale!

picture

picture

There goes more of my money…

I can't wait to see the re-scaled exo-armors. Also, we need more capital ships! My Jovian fleet needs Corsairs, Alexanders, and a big honking Yrpes battleship.

I'd been waiting to make the jump from Heavy Gear to Jovian until I actually managed to see the minis in person, and was very impressed: so impressed that I'll probably be making an order up to DP9 pretty shortly ( once I finish painting my new Gears, that is ). The Stormbringer alone made my jaw drop to the floor.

Ajbartman: I was in your boat, actually, having been a player in the 1st and 2nd Edition rules and having a considerable amount of old scale RAFM lead. I'll agree with Phillipe/xactoboy: the newer scale is much better. THe poses are way more vibrant, with some nice detailing work. The things being put out under the MiniManiak name are frighteningly good, while the newer sculpts are just great.

About weapon ranges: the majority of the Gears I played with in the demo were using MACs and LACs, and though we tended to stay pretty close to medium range for the majority of the game, the ranges certainly weren't short by an stretch of the imagination. The rules for Snap Fire and Stand By added a pretty interesting element to the game, making it so going first isn't neccesarily the best idea, but still making winning initiative for the round mean something. It felt to me like an interesting compromise between the 2nd ed 40K's Overwatch, and Starship Trooper's reactionary fire. An interesting element.

What puts me off is the counter-y things behind the models. Can you play without them – keeping notes on the datacards, for example, like in 'traditiona' HG?

Oh, and xactoby, when you say "dozen mini from having totaly covered all Terranovan factions", does that mean we'll be seeing CEF human infantry (using GRELs pushes the TVs through the roof, and I get one HPC vs 4 squadrons of TN tanks) and, for that matter, some CEF artillery?

What is the scale for HG?

Hey Phil, how about some print friendly datacards? Say all the north or south datacards on one sheet, without any of the background texturing? I don't want to have to blow an ink cartdrige every time I print out a datacard.

(From someone who has bought every incarnation of HG to come out since DP9101, and most of JC and GK too).

Andrew Paul: The countery things are there pretty much to help remind you of what speed you're moving, what your current modifiers are and what you damage level is at. You can definitely play without them, but I found them to be pretty handy, especially the smaller black ones for marking Snap Fire, Standby, etc. You could easily just mark the datacards, though, as it's what I plan on doing until I can get more Blitz markers.

VonTed: they're 1/144 scale.

No Reserve: Man, I'd so second a call for that. I was thinking about firing up Adobe and OpenOffice to see what kind of modified datacards I can make up. Even on the lower print settings, it's looking like I'd end up eating up ink cartridges on datacards.

Another vote for "printer friendly" data cards!

I'm one of those heretics who prefer 1/144 scale figs over the RAFM figures. They were just too big for the type of game HG was designed to be.

I'm actually a little disappointed in this move. Obviously you can't please all the people all the time but here's my two cents, for what it's worth.
(I've read the blits rules but haven't played by the way)

First: Why fix something that wasn't broke? All my HG games worked fine on regular sized tables, whatever that is, and they went fast enough. I'd say most games didn't last more then two hours, which in my opinion is completely reasonable, even for the MTV generation.

Second: One of the strongest aspects of DP9 is the models they put out. Now they want to attach those models to bright red plastic counter holders, and slot in bright yellow damage counters, which while great for tracking damage, completely ruins the asthetics of the game in my opinion. At this point you might as well just dip those nice HG minis in one or two colors of paint, attach them to a click base and get it over with.

Third: I guess I'm primarily disappointed in this move because HG was always a "mature" gamers game to me. It's rules were elegant, involved but not complex. Plenty of variation and so on and once you got everything to the table it was easy enough to play. This just feels like it's an attempt to pull in all those 40K 4th ed./Wizkidsgames gamers into heavy gear, which in my opinion just can't work since you still have to put the minis together an paint them.

I'll still keep buying the miniatures and playing when I can get a game but I'll beholding on to my old rule books for playing, blitz just doesn't do it for me.

Red5angel: For me, Blitz is another tool in the toolbox. I'm a huge fan of the standard tactical rules, and intend to continue using them for longer playing battles, or for battles involving just a single, or two, cadres. Blitz for me takes the midpoint between the normal Skirmish rules and the Fleet rules. Blitz to me seems to be simply a quicker way to play a game with 30 or so figures a side. I do suggest at least trying it out once, as you might very well find more use for it than you might think. As noted, there's nothing saying you have to use the counters for Blitz, and I should note that Phillipe/Xactoboy stated that they were probably going to rework their looks in the future.

Mark: I like the 1/144 figs alot, even though I still have a number of the RAFM sculpts. I'll probably end up converting the older minis to dueling Gears and building a dedicated arena set up for them. As I'm intending to eventually pick up Fleet minis as well, it'll add another aspect to campaign games, as well as provide a a fun side game to play anyway! I might actually even try to track down a few of the older sculpts for figures I don't yet have (like the Mammoth) for use in the planned "Heavy Gear Arena". I've a feeling many of my friends will enjoy it, sa they're old Solaris VII players.

"Why fix something that wasn't broke? All my HG games worked fine on regular sized tables, whatever that is, and they went fast enough. I'd say most games didn't last more then two hours, which in my opinion is completely reasonable, even for the MTV generation."

I have to disagree. Even with the changes in second and third edition of the tacical rules, there was still too much to digest. Why does each trooper in a tactical squad need their own damage track? Why do I have to remember the seemingly endless lists of perks, flaws, and weapons characteristics for each vehicle? Some of us have lives outside of gaming and trying to keep traqck of all the rules can get to be insane.

"I'll still keep buying the miniatures and playing when I can get a game but I'll beholding on to my old rule books for playing, blitz just doesn't do it for me."

As far as I can see, DP9 isn't abandoning the earlier edtions of HG, just providing an alternate means to play.

This change is the first thing that's gotten me to reconsider picking the game back up since it first came out.

The Blitz rules themselves seem pretty good, a reworking of Lightning Strike from all apearences (I've only read thru the Blitz rules twice) but I have to agree that the Markers look silly at best, and Clicky at worst.

Luckily LS is one of my votes for all time best space battle games.

I'm one of those who was mightily ticked about the scale change when it happened. I understand 'why' it happened (better than most actually) but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

Prices of the minis are a bit steep these days, but understandable to some extent though the tanks and Striders are waaay overpriced.

Won't even go into the pricing on the fleet scale minis or the LS ones.

Starblazer minis found at a dollar a blister at a local con helped me to keep playing though any reasonable spaceship mini will do.

The clan Elementals from Battletech make awesome Exo-armors and there's enough different types out there to be able to put together a nice sized force. add in that you get about 25 or so of them in a blister for about 6 dollars these days.

I spent the past weekend getting a few demo games of both HG Blitz and Tactical. While I was impressed by how streamlined the Blitz rules were. I still found the 'Straight Up' Tactical rules more to my liking.

A few years ago I fooled with the idea of getting into Heavy Gear, but past on it and took up Mech Warrior Dark Ages instead – a momentary lapse into collectible games that will never be repeated.

The Store that is running Heavy Gear has a couple of campaigns using Tactical and plans on running Tournaments with Blitz. I should be getting a ton of Heavy Gear action this spring and summer.

On thing I will say, the Gears paint quick and easy which has been a blessing.

Cheers
Junk Runner

Every time I've tried to open the PDF for Blitz rules I just see a blank window.

I'm fine with skirmish rules, that has worked fine. It took a while for me to warm up to the 1/144 scale, but I've come to prefer it over the old scale. The Northern Strider is still way to expensive so I've only been willing to have 1. I field more tanks and APC than striders anyways.

See I'm still trying to warm up to the 1/144 scale. Don't get me wrong I have a couple of 1/144 GP squads but I also have about 30 gears in the old scale and that's quite a lot to abandon…

Christine…

I definitely feel your pain. I have about 60 gears total of the old stuff, North, South, and Kit-bashed to make Gears they never released (Like an Anolis Refit and an Arrow-Jag) The Scale change (back in the last century as Philippe would say) killed HG here in Central Texas.

What was the old scale?

Does anyone have an old/new side-by-side photo?

The old Heavy Gear minis made by RAFM were 1/87.

The newer 1/144 figs are about 60% the height of the old ones.