10/30/2011

AE Bounty first game.

Today we finally tried the ruleset AE Bounty by Darkson Designs, the Mordheim game set in sci-fi context.
The best part of this ruleset is the designing of a warband or crew. For this first occasion I wen for a simple group with few models (only six) and all of them human and with similar gears. One sergeant hero unkillable, 2 Old Guard veterans, one hitter with rocket launcher and two regular hired guns, all armed with a variety of range weapons to experiment with.
My buddy chose a bit more exotic pirate crew with half of their members specialized in hand to hand combat.

We played the unplanned scenario Ambush with me being the attacker. I deployed his troops in the middle and then deployed mine on the right border and a unit behind the bunker's wall in hidden deployment thanks to the dirty trick Scout.



My buddy thought range weapons were not so deadly at long range and risked all his hand to hand troops in the open, which resulted into a slaughter. None of his hand to hand troops reached melee, but the rest wearing medium armour killed most of my men. In the end there were only left my sergeant against his captain. The game was a bit boring as the objective was simply to kill or rout each other.




It was our first game and lasted about one hour, so we decided to play a new scenario called Hostage situation (there are 18 scenarios plus 12 secondary objectives). This time I was defender with three hostages (innocent nuns) that I had to take out of the table whereas my buddy had to stopped me from doing it. The game lasted six turns and I started in the centre of the table.




As the hostages could escape if nobody within six inches was to controlled them, I chose to put my toughest unit next to them, my Sergeant. Again I surprised my opponent with my Old Guard veteran squad with three activations, who blasted away all his melee troops. The rest were too slow to catch me and although I suffered a few casualties I could easily escape with the hostages and win the game.




This time there was a more specific objective and the game was fun, and faster. Generally speaking, we liked the game as it is easy and fast to play yet it has a lot of flavour. It has many many possibilities in order to design your crew, a good number of scenarios, experience and rewards and campaigns, some inside starships as well!


Next weekend we will run a few games inside a starship and see how it goes.

6 comments:

  1. Very interested to see your account of AE Bounty. I have the rules but they haven't really grabbed me, not like 5150: New Beginnings.

    I also find the AE Bounty rules hard to read with tiny print on a grey background, but that could just mean I'm getting old :(

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  2. 5150NB and AE Bounty are totally and completely different products meanst for different kind of games and cannot be compared IMHO; it would be like comparing chess and ludo, and I play both depending on the occasion.
    AE Bounty is to be play ala Mordheim, being the fun part designing your crew and gaining experience in a set campaign. Whereas 5150NB is quite more opened to be played, in any way you feel like, and with mechanics oriented to other types of games.
    I read the rules in my PC and did not find any difficulty in reading them, so you're truly getting old ;-)
    Cheers,

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  3. Thanks for the review, as I love these types of games. I am still in the hunt for my SciFi Mordheim fix and will keep these in mind. I just can leave Gorkamorka behind.
    Noel

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  4. Noel, if you are looking for a sci-fi Mordheim AE Bounty if what you need.
    Cheers,

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  5. Nice to see some AE:B action, looking forward to more. I whipped up a couple of warbands for this, but sadly they never hit dirtside.

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  6. Well, half the game is designing your crews, then you have play somehow some of AE Bounty ;-)

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