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Wreck Age - A review

Being the busy man that I am, I almost missed this: a couple months ago, Hyacinth games revealed the new version of their post-apocalyptic tabletop miniature wargame! Yes, we're talking about "Wreck Age", one of the most interesting games in the post-apocalyptic skirmish game scene. This time, in their Second Edition of the rules, Hyacinth Games came out with many new in-game treats that make the universe even deeper and more interesting. I was lucky enough to get a copy of the full rulebook for review so I spent a couple weeks reading it in depth. Here are my thoughts.

Warning: really long post. I tried to keep it short... and this is the result.

First things first: This blog is still young and the reader base is still quite small so I was really surprised when Hyacinth Games accepted my request for a copy of the game to review. Being this the very first time something like this happens and not being a native English speaker, it took me a lot of time and effort to try and make it as enjoyable as possible. These things said, if you feel like you really don't want to read through the whole review, here is the TL:DR:

This game is freaking awesome. Go buy it. Now!

Now that I got your attention, let's move on to the review.

The story

When you first open the book, you immediately find yourself immersed in what looks like the ordinary day of some random people messing around while doing their stuff. Nothing special. Everything feels dry, dusty and incredibly dirty and the post-collapse world feels really desolated. As the story unravels in front of your eyes, you slowly start to realize you were unknowingly assisting to one of the encounters that future-you will play in the game.

So, what's going on in this dusty and pitiful world? The answer is given to you in the form of a collection of historical records that are supposed to help the reader locate himself in the space-time continuum. You, therefore, get to better understand the events that brought humanity on the brink of extinction and you will learn that the game is set in a close future where the most dreadful catastrophic prophecies came true and the worst-case scenario wasn't even close to describing what really happened after the collapse. The elites fled the crumbling society, heading to the stars while leaving behind all sort of fights for resources as well as food and water; people even being forced to cannibalize each other to allow the communities to survive this apocalypse. It is here that you first encounter strange names referring to those groups that came into existence in the disorganized chaos that followed the planet collapse. These factions competing for the world domination or just for their right to existence, are the big groups from which the players will have to choose their characters while creating the rosters to field in the game encounters. I will get back to them in a future post because there are really too many things to discuss here.

Book artwork

Wreck Age artwork is astounding. If you exclude the pictures of the actual models used to explain the rules, all the graphic elements you find in the book have this hand-drawn old-fashioned look that makes them fit perfectly in the story. Muted tones and subtle traits make up for a mix that's really spot-on and will contribute to your full immersion in the post-collapse atmosphere. Just a look at those figures and my imagination started flashing with many ideas for writing my own encounters, stories, and scenarios. In my opinion, this is one of the best aspects of this game as a whole: no matter what you're reading, whether the rules or the fluff, the book is packed with small inspirational bits. They are the fire starter for your dormant ideas. Moreover, if you are familiar with the Fallout franchise, rest assured this book will be able to channel the same kind of sensations without being “just another rip-off” of the famous saga.

The rules

This is not going to be a 1.0 vs. 2.0 rules comparison: I think the first edition is not even available anymore and you should really go buy second anyway. I will just briefly describe the gameplay and point out what I find really interesting in these rules.

Even though it's a skirmish miniature war game, Wreck Age is not particularly lightweight when it comes to the rules. This does not mean that it's rule-heavy either, don't take me wrong. I just mean that we are far away from 40k or AoS where you just keep hurling wheelbarrows full of dice and just go like: "Yay... I'm just here hittin' a bunch of Target Numbers!". Wreck Age, on the other hand, is more RPG oriented, more story-focused and tries to add some realistic element to help you immerse in the game. It feels way more like Mercs 2.0, another really interesting skirmish game: rules are easy to learn but deep/flexible enough to keep you going for a long time. The authors seem to want you to sit down and tell your story through encounters and gave you all the rules you need to set up an RPG-like campaign game. Directly in the main book.

Activation and Actions

The game is based on an IgoUgo activation, where you keep activating one single character after the other until you're done. It's not all about shooting though and each activated character has a certain degree of freedom in what he can do. To show this, the game uses an Action Points based turn activation. This AP system is responsible for adding a lot to the realism of the gaming experience; you can, in fact, spend your turn running around shooting at your foes but also ignore them and just interact with the environment. It goes without saying that highly skilled characters will have more AP available to do more stuff. And believe me: there are a lot of actions you can do. Some really weird like spending 2AP to "Harvest". When I first saw this, I was: yeah, you're shooting at me with a Laser cannon but, hey! I should just sit down and harvest some algae from this pond! Well, don't forget, the importance of the story: harvesting may be worth victory points in that game. Another action I really enjoy envisioning is "Communicate". Your character may shout or use a radio to communicate something to his comrades: do you have to open a locked safe but the combination is stored somewhere else? You split your squad and send one group looking for the code and the other to the safe itself so there's no need to be exposed to enemy fire two times. This also opens up for some nasty tactics. There are also combat-oriented actions like the "Go Prone" that give you a free advantage that also comes with a hidden cost: if you want to get up from prone it will then cost you 2 APs (in-game equivalent of time), meaning that, yes, you may be a harder target to hit from the distance but you may very well also be dead meat if somebody near you decides to come and shoot you point blank. Think about how realistic all this feels: you are prone to the ground, hiding behind a shipping crate. You hear the sound of footsteps on the gravel behind you but you don't have enough time to get up and react. Puff... you're a goner.

Shooting and Fighting

When it comes to shooting and fighting, tabletop wargames usually play very similarly so there's no real need to dive deeply into the mechanics. Also, you can grab that in two seconds when you read the book. I think reviews that do that are kind of missing the point so just a couple of notable feats of the kill-each-other part of the rules.

Cover matters – More: it does matter a lot. Covers come in three different tiers granting you visible benefits against ranged attacks while simultaneously nerfing the attack itself. Don't ask me why but this feat seems to get lost in big games while skirmish games usually implement it. Moreover, you can see a fairly consistent approach to this theme; I mean, if you are a veteran Mercs player, learning how cover works in Wreck Age is a matter of seconds. Easy, fast to apply in-game and realistic. Digging it.

Range – Range is also a thing in Wreck Age. Which is not surprising, to be honest. I'm always more surprised when there is "no" range (do you hear me GW?). Being able to shoot at a long distance is fine and probably a characteristic of your weapon but having the same TN when in close and long range, doesn't make any sense. In Wreck Age, range works like it should and I'm very happy with that.

Overkill – We have seen it in Fallout 1 and 2... you know when you spray a foe with bullets and you see him splattering around? That! The hilarious thing is that your party members with LOS will require a nerves test after seeing this. Because it's a nasty thing to see... which brings us to...

Morale – Morale can affect the outcome of the encounters and it does it incrementally during the game. You can receive suppression markers that limit your actions when you are shot or, as already pointed out when you witness one of your buddies exploding to pieces. You can actually feel the panic building up to the point where your characters will start fleeing the game field.

Weapon malfunctions – Weapons in the Wilds are improvised or really old and beaten up. They can blow up in your face... wear protective goggles!

I think all the above points add to the game atmosphere and its credibility: it's very important to be able to feel/perceive your characters emotions, even if you know that you're just playing a game, that adds a lot to the overall experience. Not to mention that mechanics behave in a realistic way and for me, that's 90% of the overall rating in a game.

RPG aspects

This is the less table-top-ish part of the rules but it's a big part of the game. In Wreck Age, you don't have an "army book" where you go and cherry pick pre-assembled units looking for cost-effective ones or for in-army synergy. Just like you do in RPGs, you create a group of characters putting together various combinations of training levels, archetypes, feats, and traits to obtain a functional team. Easier said than done; at least at first sight. The system is not complicated per se but if you don’t approach the game with a solid RPG background this section of the book may scare you. The after-taste of the character creation is also totally different from, let’s say, 40k or AoS. Characters are not pre-made with 2/3 fixed special abilities and interchangeable weapons. In Wreck Age you can build your guys from scratch. It’s a big step to take for the beginner. Also, always bear in mind you’ll have to pay for your characters and the unit price will be mainly dictated by the extras you got. Note that I used the term "pay" loosely here: there's no currency in the future where Wreck Age takes place. The rules, in fact, use the term Resource Unit, trying to resemble the fact that you actually have a community backing you up, using their resources for giving you training and equipment. The fact authors decided not to go with the standard term "points" and to adopt this system shows you the care for the details in the whole narrative.

Why is the narrative so important? Well, this was a hybrid tabletop/RPG game and this aspect carries on to this second edition. You can play the game as isolated encounters (choosing a scenario, for example) or you can set up a story. That’s why you see in the rules the recurring figure of the “Narrator”: he is basically the DM that tells you the story and moderates the encounters, the interaction with the environment etc. You may decide to stick to a set of pre-designed scenarios or you can choose somebody in your gaming group who likes to tell stories and have him design either the encounters or a full campaign story. The second half of the book gives you all the info to do that. For example, you can find rules that tell you how to train those that survived the encounter, how to restock your used items or how to trade them for additional RUs to use on something else. I think this doesn’t require any explanation because it is also how many video game RPGs play and I’m sure everybody can handle this really easily. More interesting is the how you set up for random encounters during your adventure. This is done with a dice-based system that will lead you to one place or another according to the number of duplicate results you get when rolling dice: you can roll two “1″ and stumble upon a Zoo or with better luck, roll six “6″ and find a survivalist villa! Of course, you also have everything in between. Chances are pretty slim so it is very unlike you will end up in such a gorgeous location but this doesn’t mean you can just play that as a single encounter if you do so desire.

Another really innovative concept that is used in the campaign mode of the game is the “Community Creation”. Yes, that’s right: I said that you can create your community of people. You can simulate the creation of a small village that supports you with dedicated production structures (like farms or a distillery... for booze), sanitary structures to cure your characters (infirmary) or a scrapyard to look for valuable stuff to refurbish. All these structures provide the community with some sort of output usually RUs to be used in the community or for character advancement. Here’s where the concept of using RUs to develop your characters starts to make sense: you have upkeep costs (RUs or other resources) for the facility to produce but you also have to invest in your characters. That’s how life goes by in the Wilds.

In this section of the book, you do indeed get a load of information that it’s hard to digest but will broaden the things you can do up to the level of building and managing your own village. Whether you like it or not, this is a level of depth that is rarely seen in tabletop wargames. It’s there for you to use if you want but it’s not “required” so you can just skip it entirely if you want. I still think you should give it at least a quick read because you can get a lot of inspiration to use when creating your own encounters.

Miniatures

If you read this blog you probably know that I'm a sucker for small indie productions and one of the reasons for this are the high-quality miniatures you usually get. Like the stuff from Megacon Games (seriously, those minis are great!!). The same is true for Wreck Age. From what I can see, minis do not have that ultra-CG look that's getting everywhere these days and they still look hand sculpted like Reaper stuff but more dynamic and with more detail. This goodness, however, comes at a price. Literally. The miniatures are more on the expensive side: just head for Hyacinth web shop and you will soon realize that a figure will cost you around 7-8 bucks. On average. The game is a skirmish so you don't need that many models but still, collecting many factions may be a substantial monetary investment. As a result of this, convincing people around you to start playing this game may be expensive: you will need at least two complete forces to demo the game and that will cost you some money. In addition, you can't neglect shipping costs if you are not in the US. Judging from the eBay costs, international shipping is getting increasingly expensive over time but it looks like Hyacinth Games is shipping your packages almost at cost so, kudos to them for this.... but it will still cost me 25 bucks to ship from the US to Japan.

Final thoughts

If you couldn’t tell it already, I’m really digging this game. Well, at least 85% of it, for sure. Everything starting from the story to the miniatures is spot-on and the rules are easy enough for you to pick up straight from the book. I see a lot of potential and replayability in this title. There are some things I think may be reworked a little bit though. For example, all in this game is geared towards realism and to building the atmosphere, up to the level that the excess of realism sometimes makes the game a little bit too hard. Or too fast. Because you know that in real life a couple shots are more than enough to incapacitate you right? There are no "wounds" in the Wilds and a game’s outcome swings pretty fast with just a matter of a hit or miss shot. If you don't like this kind of game then Wreck Age is probably not for you. But if you like the immersion you get from realistic games... then you're gonna love it! Another good example is the character selection phase. Even if you are guided through the process, there’s still something that may turn down tabletop wargamers purists. I don’t know what it is but character creation requires a good dose of concentration and you don’t have a lot of that during casual games or, worst, when demoing to your friends. You can bypass this problem easily by creating your groups beforehand but this step feels a little bit like an entry barrier. Maybe that’s why they have cards coming with the miniatures; like a “preset character” you just pick up to play. I may investigate more on this aspect.

So, before closing the review here is a bullet list of what I like and what I do not that summarize all the things I said above.

What I like:

Realism at its best

Very good background story.

Easy to learn tabletop rules

Games/Encounters play fast

Customizable (※)

A lot of fancy weapons

Good artwork / Miniatures

Low start cost if compared to other games.

(※) Maybe this depends on your overall preferences with games. You may not like it if you like to be told what to do all the time.

What I don’t like

Sometimes it feels almost too realistic (feels like you are dying too easily, especially if you come from big-scale games).

Character selection may be too complicated for beginners. I would suggest putting a full-fledged tutorial on YT to explain it visually.

I don’t really get the meaning of the cards. They show up at the beginning and then they vanish. Maybe they’re aids for character creation as I said before but it’s not clear.

Not game-related but the company should be more present on the social media. Maybe it won’t change anything. Maybe it will. A lot of people that I know have never heard about the game.

Before concluding this long, long review, I want to thank the guys at Hyacinth games for giving me the rules to review: I enjoyed so much writing the review while also reading the new rulebook as a gamer. And let me tell you that I will definitely try to bring on board some of the players around my area. In the case I succeed at setting up some demo games, I will try to record a couple batreps to give you a visual demo of how the game plays. I also heard that Uncle Atom from Tabletop Minions (link) is kicking around the idea of starting filming Wreck Age batreps. His channel is many degrees of magnitude bigger than my blog so that will definitely help the game to spread a little bit more. It's a real pity that this is not more widespread but I believe in the intrinsic quality of the game and I'm sure that it will eventually take off. If you do believe this game is worth a try, just say it aloud! Show this and other reviews to your social media followers. Tell them it might be a nice game to dive into. Whatever you do, try to keep all this alive because a rules set that gives you this degree of freedom must be promoted as much as possible. I know that, with GW being so over-active lately, this may not be a good time to release new rules but there are people out there that would love this game and don't get a chance to hear about it. Let' bring this to their attention. Meanwhile, here are some links for you to gather more info:

Game homepage and online shop: www.wreck-age.net

Twitter: @WreckAgeRPG

Youtube video demos/tutorials (few, but still...): here.

See you next week, guys.

… game on!