First Game

Robotech nerdiness follows:

After the Thanksgiving Round 2 festivities, John and I sat down to walk through the rules of our new game.

We played a simple skirmish.

John's forces:

2 VF-1As

My forces:

6 Regults (Battlepods)

The terrain:

A cat toy that spins around and projects a laser (from Genevieve and Chris), a box painted like a house full of Carrie's nail care products, and a small Amazon box. Classy, I know.

We could have played a larger game, but I'm glad we didn't. It was late, and a lot of the rules required lots of hunting and reading to make sure we knew what we were doing. We were both too tired to finish, so no one really won or lost.

Here are my first impressions/opinions.

The Rules

Robotech RPG Tactics seems like a strange union of a 'war game' and an RPG. It leans more towards an RPG. I could see where someone could compare it to what I remember of Warhammer 40k's 2nd edition.

Games require a balance of streamlined rules and options for variety. The rules need to be streamlined to allow for ease of play, learning, and pacing. That same rule-set needs to offer options, or players will quickly become bored or find the single optimal strategy. Too many options makes for inefficient play with longer turns, think time, and rules lawyers. Too few options leads to simpler games with simpler strategies (tic-tac-toe).

In my experience, a 'war game' is usually more streamlined than an RPG and has a larger scope. There will be casualties. An RPG usually focuses on fewer units or an individual. The typical character trends towards more heroic than general issued grunt.

Units in Robotech have a lot of options. For ranged defense, any unit can try to dodge, roll with impact to take less damage, or shoot down incoming missiles. Incoming missiles can be shot down with a standard weapon by using a command point, for free with an anti-missile system (if present), or even with an anti-missile missile (if present). Missiles can be dodged if they are in a volley of 3 or less, but not if they're in swarms of four or more, and any unit that would fall under a blast template can also try and shoot down the missiles, dodge, and/roll with the impact.

But wait! There's more! When in close formation, units can choose to intentionally split the damage with one unit beside them. This seems to be a necessity in Zentradei tactics.

For example: John shot and hit one of my Pods. He did 6 damage. My pod can only take 5 damage before it's destroyed. I choose to split the damage between two pods (3 damage each). I then used command points to have each pod roll with the impact and take 1 damage instead of the three. We triple checked the rules and, yes, the fractions rounded down. Normally, regults would not have many command points, but under skirmish rules their "Life is Cheap" rule is negated(...I think).

When I shot back I received a bonus for being in close ranks, because my gunnery skill was less than the number of pods. John did not get this bonus in battleoid form, because his gunnery was higher than the number of models, but he did get it when he switched to guardian and his gunnery skill was lowered.

Some units have 8 different attacks they can choose from in hand to hand: Punch, kick, power punch, leap kick, club, stomp, body block, and I think there was a grapple, too. The rulebook is upstairs near my sleeping wife, or I'd check.

So, lots of options. That's why I said that this game leans more towards an RPG. The rulebook contains options for campaigns and how to convert characters from the Robotech RPG for use in Robotech RPG Tactics.

The 'RPG' in the game's title is a giveaway in hindsight.

All of the different options fit the source material. Countless missiles explode like popcorn in the episodes. Mecha roll around on the ground, dive behind cover, and Rick tabletops a regult in the 2nd episode by smashing into it's legs. My first impression is that the designers memorized the rules, because they were so intimate with them, and succumbed to option-creep. They kept adding in more and more actions and special cases to make things interesting and the flow of the game was slowed as a result.

Streamlining Issues

The dice are a good example of where I feel some of the speed of play issues show.

When John and I used to play W40k (3rd edition), we would count up all of the attacks of the same type, roll a bunch of dice, and pull out the dice that were successful. The defender rolled their saves with the successful die and picked out any successful rolls. The remaining dice were tallied up for wounds. We could roll a handful of 24 dice (12 tau with rapid fire) and sort out the surviving space marines in 10-20 seconds if we weren't pointing and laughing or complaining about luck or what have you.

In Robotech, there are times you have to remember what each individual roll was. In hand to hand combat, the aggressor rolls a die and the defender rolls a die for every attack. Units can have multiple attacks either through their characteristics or by spending command points. As a test, I kicked, leap kicked, body blocked, and stomped one of John's mechs by blowing all of my command points on one regult. I had to roll my kick; John rolled to parry. I rolled my leap kick; John rolled to parry. I rolled my body block; John rolled to parry. I got to skip rolling for the stomp, because none of my other attacks hit and that causes an automatic miss with a stomp attack. I couldn't roll in mass, because each attack had to be countered by a single roll. If I had rolled in mass and allowed John to roll in mass, we would have argued over if he would be allowed to have his 5 counter my 4 vs his 5 should have been used to counter the 6 I rolled for a kick, etc.

If the unit count for a typical game was small, then all of the dice rolling may not be an issue. However, by my count an average Zentradei force will field at least 27 Battlepods. The suggested point value for a standard game is 300 pts. An Attrition Squard of 12 Regult Battlepods costs 70 pts. Someone trying to min-max the system could take 48 battlepods. A standard Attack Squad is 80 pts for a Glaug (Officer's Pod) and 9 Regults. Three attack squads for 240 points will have 3 Glaugs and 27 Regults.

Lots of options for lots of units could equal lots and lots of time to get through a game. I don't know yet, because I haven't played a large game.

Some of the rules could be tightened up, too. Units with hover a -1 to hit. A VF in fighter mode has a defense of 6. It's defense reduces to 5 in guardian mode, but it gains hover and is -1 to hit. Why not just keep the guardian's defense at 6? A defense of 6 is basically the same as a defense of 5 where the enemy has one to hit, but it's easier to say "defense of 6." Yes, there may be special rules where hover may be negated, but the vast majority of the time it would make things easier. No one would need to flip pages to check what special rules applied. I think this could easily be FAQ'd or addressed as the game develops/evolves. Nothing competitive ever gets everything right the first go around.

Models

At this point, I've assembled 21 Regults, 4 Artillery Pods, 2 Recon Pods, 2 Glaugs, a salvage ship, 6 VFs (5 1As and a 1J), 2 Spartans, and 2 Phalanx.

I've started to try and assemble some 'real' terrain, too. Dropzone Commander had some free downloads for printouts. It looks fun, too! I spent too much on Robotech to buy anything else, but as a marketing ploy they got me to look into it.

I started with the UEDF. Some of the models I've built were a total pain in the butt. I switched over to the Zentradei and things moved so much quicker and easier until I hit the recon pod and glaug. I like the way everything looks, but I'm not looking forward to painting everything. I will probably try to make more terrain before I take a deep breath and go back to the assembling more VFs.

Strategies

The UEDF looks like they're more powerful than the Zentradei at first glance. John pointed out that maybe the upcoming elites for the Zentradei Armada may change that (Female Power Armors, ftw?). For now, it looks like the Zentradei may need to risk walking around in big groups. Glaugs can replace dead regults within 8", they get a bonus to their accuracy, and they can divvy up damage with their friends. Plus, if the UEDF does launch missiles with the blast ability multiple units can try to shoot down the missiles.

The UEDF, on the other hand, can do a lot of everything (which fits the source material!).

Final thoughts

I've only played one game. I've spent almost as much time writing this post as I did playing it! Here's what I think

Robotech RPG Tactics appears to be a time intensive and subpar war game. There seems to be lots of different rules and options which will bog down early play and learning. One side (the UEDF) seems much more attractive than the other (Zentradei). The models take more work than I'm used to, have lots of little parts, and have limited poses. They do look nifty when done.

On the other hand, the game looks like it would do very well if an experienced player was the GM and ran a campaign. There are enough "Don't let me die!" and "Look out, sir!" options to keep characters or squads alive (especially if the GM isn't cutthroat). I don't think I will ever convince my wife to play a head to head standard game with me, but there may be a chance I could get her to try a story-driven scenario (the odds aren't great, though). If my son was older, I could definitely see myself GMing for him as he led a squad against the Zentradei horde. I'd probably have to remind him of rules throughout.

The bottom line for me: I loved Robotech as a kid and I have spent enough time and cash on this game that I don't plan on giving up on it. I have my reservations, and I may have to house rule some things after I've played more. Who knows when that will be, though. I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone else. I think your average role-player won't want to deal with all the models and your average tabletop war gamer would want a tighter set of rules. I don't really have enough experience to say for sure.