| Legions of Steel is an exciting boardgame.
The game portrays battles between Space Commandos and their machine
opponents. The games' history does a decent job of setting up the
background for the game. Here is a short summary:
From an unknown
galaxy, the machines came. Their ships wandered among the periphery,
and eventually settled into mineral rich planets, where massive building
programs commenced. The machine empire grew at a devastating pace, and
soon it became apparent that the galaxy must unite to defend against
this incursion. Galactic races united and formed the Interstellar
League for Mutual Defense against Extragalactics. Eventually, Earth is
contacted by the League and are told of their impending doom. The
league would not deal with multiple Earth governments, so out of the
United Nations grew the U.N.E. or United Nations of Earth. Under the
instruction of the alien races, Earth's technology was quickly upgraded.
Earth, now an accepted member of the League, and its U.N.E. forces are
recognized as some of the most fierce and aggressive fighters in the
galaxy. League commanders recognize the machines are fighting a
battle of attrition - a battle the League can not win, and decide to
make a bold maneuver. They must strike directly at the heart of the
machine production facilities. Underground machine facilities prove to
be invulnerable to orbital bombardment, and the only way to actually
destroy them is to invade, send troops deep into the heart of the planet
- destroying production facilities as they go.
Unlike many board games, Legions of Steel is not played on a map that
uses hexes, but rather is based upon squares. Underground machine
facilities are represented by interlocking terrain grids. These grids
can be placed in various formations to provide a multitude of different
set ups.
I was first attracted to LOS by its miniatures. The machines - or
Nightmares as they are called, look very much like the "exoskeleton"
from the Terminator movies. Furthermore, the Assault Fiend is
absolutely wicked looking. The boxed game comes with nineteen metal
miniatures -- or as Global Games puts it, "over 1 pound of miniatures."
Perhaps a better name for the game would have been Legions of Lead! Of
the nineteen miniatures, ten of them are Nightmares, one is an Assault
Fiend, six Commandos, and two heavy weapons troopers. While the
initial outlay for game does seem to be high, when you consider that the
average price for a miniature these days is anywhere from $3.00 - $5.00,
Legions of Steel is a bargain. For the cost of the miniatures alone,
you get the rules and all the terrain.
Inevitably, a game based on a "square" system, that features space
commandos (or dare we say marines?) against aliens, must be compared to
Space Hulk. I think Legions of Steel is much better than Space
Hulk for the following reasons.
- LOS is based on squares, but Global
Games has taken the diagonals into account in all of their rules. Every
other diagonal crossed is counted as two squares (of movement or
range).
- Rather than relying on a random amount of command points, LOS
has implemented leadership points. These points come from a group's
leaders. This has two effects. First, it makes the leaders much
more valuable. Furthermore it reduces the "luck" factor of the game and
makes the players rely more upon skill.
- Space Hulk relies upon
Overwatch and physical combat, but LOS deemphasises physical combat. In
fact only the Assault Fiend can actually damage others in hand-to-hand
combat. All other combat is ranged. In this game, the machines tend to
excel in ranged combat, while the U.N.E. commandos prefer to close the
range where their weapons perform better.
- The Leadership and Suppression
rules are perhaps the most crucial part of the game. Suppression allows
a figure to control an area. It is basically laying down a field of
fire over multiple squares. Anyone entering these squares is
immediately attacked. The drawback to suppression is a figure is not
allowed to move.
- Leadership allows the commandos to move faster, win initiative, and fire
their weapons better. Machines generally do not have leadership points
available (they make up for this with sheer numbers).
Currently all battles from Legions of Steel take place in the machine
underground facilities, but Global Games informed me they are working on
an outdoor system.
Some details about the game --
- ONE SHOT PER TURN
- Something unique to Legions of Steel is that each
figure only has one fire action it may use during a turn. This fire
action can take place at any time during the turn whether it be before
movement, after movement, during movement, or covering fire. (Covering
fire is a fire action saved for later, and can be used when a target
enters your line of sight). Players must be careful to not "waste" fire
actions. If all figures fire during an "offensive" part of the turn,
you may be leaving your forces open to slaughter in
the next phase.
- SUPPRESSION
- Suppression is a type of automatic fire that is available.
When a figure is suppressing, basically it is "unloading" its weapons
fire at a specific square for the entire turn. Anything that enters
that square, or enters into a direct line of fire to that square is
immediately attacked. Suppression allows players to "dig in" and avoid
the "one shot per turn" penalty as multiple figures may be attacked.
The biggest drawback to suppression is that a figure may not move and
then suppress.
- LEADERSHIP
- Perhaps the trickiest and most confusing rule in the game is
leadership. Leadership points may be used at any time. Actions taking
place by use of leadership points generally take precedent over
any other actions being performed. One example of this is a U.N.E
trooper turns the corner to fire at a Nightmare down the hall. The
nightmare who was "covering" the hallway may now fire. Cover fire takes
place before the U.N.E trooper's fire. If the trooper has leadership
points available to him, several interesting options are available.
Once the machine player announces his cover fire, the trooper can use
his leadership points. One option, is to use the points to move the
trooper out of line of sight of the nightmare. In this case, the
nightmare is still required to fire his one and only covering shot, and
it automatically misses!
Another option, would be to use two leadership points to have the
Trooper fire. In this case, the troopers' fire takes place before the
Nightmare's covering fire. When a figure uses leadership points for
movement, for fire purposes, the figure is considered to remain
stationary. This allows a figure to move around the corner with
leadership, and then start laying suppression fire! Actions taken by
leadership points can become confusing as to when, exactly, they take
place. Just remember the following simple rules of precedence.
- Existing suppression fire (suppression that has already been laid)
always take precedence over any actions, including leadership.
- Leadership actions take place before any "normal" action.
- Covering fire takes precedence over normal fire or normal movement.
- Normal movement or fire actions
take place.
- GRENADES
- Grenades are a type of "indirect" fire available to players.
Figures may throw a grenade around the corner and not be attacked by
cover or suppression fire. U.N.E. commandos have two types of
grenades available to them: Forcewall, and K-Pulse. K-Pulse grenades
are a standard high explosive grenade, capable of destroying machine
nightmares, but are virtually worthless against the assault fiend.
Forcewall grenades, are a "defensive" weapon. Forcewall grenades create
a forcewall in the square they are activated in. This allows a figure
to lay a forcewall around a corner, protect himself from cover or even
suppression fire, and then continue moving. Perhaps the biggest "dirty
trick" in the game involves the use of forcewall grenades. If a
forcewall grenade activates in a square that has a figure in it, that
figure is normally pushed out of the square. Using the scattering
rules, there still is a chance that the figure will not
be pushed out of the square. In this case, the figure is pushed to the
ceiling, crushed, and dies instantly. The dirty trick comes about when
the figure (and specifically an assault fiend) being attacked is in a
hallway. In the hallway, there is a 1/3 chance the fiend will be moved
1 square back, a 1/3 chance he will be killed immediately, and a 1/3
chance he will move forward. If he moves forward, a second grenade has
a 2/3 chance of killing him immediately! This is especially nasty
because this is the only time an assault fiend can be killed in one
shot.
The Machines do not have K-pulse or forcewall grenades, instead
they have nachtmacher or darkness grenades. Units firing into or
through darkness encompass severe penalties.
While not as effective as forcewalls, nachtmachers allow the machines to
move through areas that are being
covered or suppressed. Perhaps the best use of a nachtmacher is known
as the "Death in the Dark." This involves using a nachmacher to create
darkness allowing an assault fiend to move in to physical combat. A
Trooper "covering" have a very slim chance (1 in 6) of gaining a hit
against the assault fiend, and even if it does, the assault fiend can
take two hits before it is killed. Meanwhile the assault fiend has a
75% chance of eliminating what it attacks!
[Gregg's comments were originally published in The Tech Factory, Issue #4,
and may not be republished or reprinted in any fashion (print or electronic)
without their permission.]
|
| Legions of Steel is a big step up from Space Hulk. The main
reason for this can be summed up in one word: options. In particular, the
wide range of firing options (covering, surpressive, auto, spread, etc.) makes
the game a real challenge. It takes a bit of time before new players figure
out how to make the most of their firing action. Also, the choices that
Leadership points provide add a great deal of tactical complexity to the game.
I enjoy playing the Machines so I'll describe them a bit more. The basic job
of the Machine in most games is to prevent the Marines from destroying some
objective by destroying them first. The basic Nightmare unit is more than
adequate for this task. The deadbolt launchers have a wonderful range
advantage over their opponent's standard blaster rifles. This means that
you'll generally have better odds of hitting them when they resort to snap
fire to try and take you down. The Machine's basic plan is to use the
Nightmares to set up commanding firelanes of suppressive fire and then use
more specialized units to flush them out. The standard special unit is the
Mark I Assault Fiend. This monster is built for the close-in attack so don't
let it get clobbered while you try and get it into position.
Recently, we've picked up some more Machine units (which are introduced in
the advanced rulebooks). Here's my capsule reviews on them:
- Mark 1A1 Assault Fiend
- The Hellfire Cannon and Leadership point
make this a fearsome figure. I'd really
rather have this over the standard Mk I
anyday.
- G1B Nightmare
- A variant Nightmare armed with a Thumper grenade
launcher. Stock up on the Prometheus bombs and
Disruptors, you've got more than enough Nachtmachers.
- G1C Nightmare
- Another variant Nightmare with the Negasphere
Generator. This is a great support unit. If the
scenario allows Machine control of the doors, take
as many of these as you can get.
- G3 Predator
- A sturdy little unit, but take lots of cheap
Nightmares to cover it.
- C1 Succubot
- A command robot with 2 points of Leadership and
nothing else. I've got mixed feelings about giving
the Machine Leadership points. On the one hand,
they're really handy sometimes, but they also seem
to detract from the "purity" of tactics required to
play the Machine.
- X1 Runaway
- These things just don't seem to be worth the points.
The concept is neat, but the actual rolls needed to
successfully control the power armor is just too
hard to get.
- G6 Sniperbot
- A fragile unit whose sidearm is a better deal than
its main armament. These just aren't worth it
unless you've got long hallways or rooms to deploy
it in.
- Mark III Assault Fiend
- Saved the best for last. This is the
monster that will have your opponent
quaking in his boots. With 2 Fire Actions,
this guy can make hash out of a line of
troopers with his Hellfire Cannon and
then go on Cover Fire to shut down any
retaliation. A wonderful unit all around.
In the end, Legions of Steel seems to be a fairly balanced, tactically rich
game that has made quite a few converts here. Give it a try. |
