Yesterday i had the utmost pleasure of being invited for a preview game of Wasteman by its creator, Jason Fairclough at the
ThunderChild Bunker!
Ive got to know Jason quite well over the course of the year so it was great to meet up for a game, and as he's not too far away hopefully the first of many.
I got to see the complete range that we funded from the kickstarter in the flesh (Have it all coming haha) and they are some seriously good toys that we have to look forward too. I also got to see a sneak preview of some models yet to be released... some of which grace these photos so the eagle eyed of you can spot them.
Also hanging around were painted versions of Jack the Dog and Hugh the Finn man! Very cool!
I had to get a shot of the bottle caps, the activation tokens for the game. These along with the bases with integral damage slots are a great idea are part of the unique character of the game. Since they dont have any set rules attached to them you can if wanted drink 5 bottles of your favourite beer and be ready to play... expect a pirate themed posse with Adnams Ghost Ship coming from me asap.
We have seen pics of the rules and MAD cards online but getting to look through them shows the hard work our glorious leader has put into the project and what a great product we will be receiving in a couple of months time.... The books and cards are all completed and the casting of the bases and Behemoths are all in hand and the masters for the main range have gone to casting so soooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!
A side note to those like me who will be KR casing the collection, the bases force the models are roughly a 50mm circle and makes the guys nearly 50mm high so plan your trays in advance... i can see them selling out of those 12 slot light beast trays! The tall guys like the Mutie Brute and Lunar Coalition Alien Emissary will need either 70mm trays or two lie down in 30mm depth ones so be prepared.
Since i had just about the entire existing range painted i picked a 750cps force of 10 models from them and Jason picked from his collection... a prospecting gangfight was chosen where we had to control objectives in our deployment zones by having non injured models within 4 inches:
Turn one kicked off after we deployed our forces, i put my Swyne in the Mootant coop where he could take advantage of the cover and lay down some serious shooting with his hand cannon... Gunslinger and Expert are a great combo.
Both of us had taken traders with Pack Mootants to keep up a supply of fresh MAD cards that would be needed for the fight... also obtainable from vending machines and trade stalls!
Turn two saw the first casualties with the flame thrower guy in the centre screen about to get capped by my Swyne and Mountain & Molehill taken out by a jamming long ranged assault rifle from my Pilgrim at the bottom left.
Turn three had Jason's boss Cactus Jack closing in on my guys and putting some hurt on Pilgrims and killing my Brain Toad before i sent im to space with an alien abduction MAD card haha... this very much set the tone of the game as the aliens were very busy!
Turn four had my Mantis Man engage in the least successful duel with Vinnie D... 3AP and Ninja seemed not enough to take out the invincible Vin!
Turn five and Jack was again abducted but the tide had turned against me with The Gimp killing my Swyne with the chainsaw to the face... Chainsaws are very good as they add a tonne top your damage roll making a kill quite likely! The Gimp was now Target No.1!
The big blue Mutie had a blinder this turn, legging it upfield to contest Jason's objective then being the target of a Nuke MAD card and wounding 5 of the enemy suurounding him.
Turn Six, Jack was back but i thought i'd done enough to stop him but alas no, we both had our last resrves of MAD cards to try and heal or hinder models to secure the objectives... And after a hilarious and close game Jason was able to control both objectives with four fighters to my one! Well played sir!
Crazy Zeus, the Stalwart Trader holding the lines and supplying all the MAD cards from the Pack Mootant!
Vinnie D who held the flank by himself! Legend in his own time haha!
After the game we sat down and chatted about the development processes of the game, model backgrounds and a whole host of other topics... Most important was Jason wanting to know if i thought the game was any good, well that is a resounding yes! Its certainly easy to pick up with a posse pack or two, a deck of MAD cards and a rulebook for some quick 5v5 learning games... but i think the real fun is to be had in the larger games.
Posse packs are around 350/400cps which is fine to start off but playing 1000+ games with 10-20 models and possibly adding a Behemoth like a Rad Dragon or Murmmoth to your side will make for a proper spectacle. There are also rules for creating combat teams of 3+ guys that are equipped the same to activate together, opening up squad tactics and activation efficiency into your force.
I'll stop there as i dont want to spoil all the surprises, but having seen whats in store for us post KS fulfillment all i can say is its going to be wyrd man!
