Post by Gilvan Blight on Apr 16, 2008 9:02:43 GMT -5
Quickly: simplified with less warband building restrictions.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]Wizards of the Coast recently released a new version of their Dungeons and Dragons collectible miniature game. This version totally re-vamps the rules streamlining them and incorporating all of the suggestions and improvements that were found during the run of 1st edition. This latest version is also designed to be closer to and run better with the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition.
The starter set comes with a pre-set group of 5 minis. There is a Wilderness warband of one Small Green Dragon and a Yuan-Ti. The opposing Civilization warband contains a Human Sellsword, A Dwarf Fighter and an Elven Warlock (I can't remember their exact classes). In addition to the minis there are two double sided map sheets, with a total of 5 maps. 2 of the maps are half the size and are intended for games with Warbands under 100 points. A set of counters and the rules are also included.
The rules are full colour with lots of examples and very easy to understand. There is a set of quick play rules at the beginning as well as some intermediate rules for playing with the minis that come in the set. Rules for about 5 different styles of gameplay are included. These include the traditional 200 point Assault game that most players are used to from the original release. There are also some new ones like Bounty (where players get extra points for destroying enemy models) and a King of the Hill style game (where you only score points for victory areas if you are the only faction in them, and they score extra points). Oddly there are no rules for Epic play.
Due to the amount of rules changes, even the stats on each creature have changed. This means that this new set is incompatible with previous releases. Now WotC has been releasing updated stat cards in PDF format so you can update your old sets, but they have only finished two sets thus far.
The first change you will notice with the new set is the elimination of the old Alignment based Warband building rules. Instead of being based on the traditional alignments, now Warbands are based on territory mainly with alignment being a minor aspect. There are 4 different Factions: Borderlands, Civilization, Underdark and Wilderness. All of your minis in your Warband must come from the same faction. Also every mini has an alignment with over 80% being neutral. You can include any number of neutral characters, but if you have a good mini you cannot have an evil one and vice versa. Also, most miniatures belong to multiple factions. This means that warband building is much less restrictive then the old rules.
Heres a quick list of other rules changes that are significant: Charging doesn't have to be in a straight line or even against the nearest opponent. Ranged attacks don't have to be on the nearest opponent (unless it says so on the attack). There is no more morale check, now after going to half hit points a model is 'bloodied' and many attacks and abilities do extra damage to bloodied creatures. There are no more leader and zone of control rules. Leaders have been replaced by Champions. The person with the higher champion gets to re-roll the initial role for choosing a map, and they get to re-roll initiative checks (as apposed to adding their leader level). Also the have a set of champion abilities that are used up like any other special power, and no longer have abilities that give mass effects to your entire warband. Blast area spells and abilities no longer use a template, you now just count the number of squares away from an origin point. Moving diagonally now always costs 1 square. There are probably other changes I am forgetting right now, but overall everything seems to have been made simpler to figure out and less complex.
Along with the starter set, the first set of boosters has been released. The set is called Dungeons of Dread and contains a lot of the 'traditional' D&D monsters. Each set contains 8 minis, 1 rare, 2 uncommon and 5 commons (actually it may be 3 uncommon, it doesn't say on their website). There are 60 figures in the set and they come from a wide variety of factions with most having a neutral alignment.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]The first thing that made me smile was seeing all the classic creatures. My first booster contained a Knoll, an Orc, A Kobold, A Bullette, A Mind Flayer, A Gargoyle, A Giant Centipede and a Bugbear. You don't get more traditional then that. These will all be great for playing the RPG. For people like me who got into the first edition late, this is a welcome addition, as I need more 'basic' creatures. The rules for this were a bit easier to learn then the old rules, especially in areas like Line of Effect, Line of Sight and Cover. Area effects are also clearer. The new warband building rules are also a welcome addition as my wife and I decided, with the old game, she would play good and I would play Evil, and we were having a heck of a time finding Good guys for her in the existing sets. Now she can play good and still field any of the neutrals that fit her region and I can play evil and pick from a similar pool of neutrals. The rules for moving diagonal are a welcome change, as I hated trying to keep track of whether it was an even or an odd move. The fact they give you rules for playing smaller/shorter games on half maps is pretty cool, good for both learning the game as well as when you don't have as much time to play.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]Still a lot of rules issues. For a release that was supposed to fix a lot of the rules problems in the old set, there is already an 8 page errata and FAQ out there. In our game we were flummoxed by Ongoing damage and when it happens, when you get to save. Also in the glossary under Opportunity Attacks it says that a melee attack causes an attack of opportunity (I did verify it Ian, page 45, bottom right). This is completely opposite every other part of the book and obviously wrong. Another glaring omission from the rules is any scenario for under 100 points. It notes you can play assault with less then 200 but then fails to let you know how many points standing in a victory area is worth. Also, the Warbands that come with the game are 54 and 56 points... that's not even one of the set point limits, and it just seems dumb to not have a 50 point warband with a 50 point scenario included in the basic set. Lastly: the game is still collectible and thus the distribution on tough and cool minis still sucks.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]The paint jobs! Man I think they swapped to a new company to make these ones and I sure hope they are saving money. The paint jobs on D&D minis never were that great, but what I have seen of the new set is horrible. My Mind Flayer, the one Rare I have is terrible looking. It seems they swapped to a new glossier paint that makes the minis look even more like cheap plastic toys. Some of the sculpts are also horrid. The orc I got is terrible looking. It look like a McDonald's Happy Meal Toy. Thankfully this is less a problem then the paints as some of the new minis are really cool looking (like the Bullette). The other major problem is I can't use my shelf full of minis from the previous edition of the game. Sure WotC is SLOWLY releasing rules for the previous sets, but it's going to take a year before I can use all my minis, plus it doesn't look like they are going to update the Gargantuan Dragons at all. This is frustrating to say the least as I only got into D&D minis a few months back.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]All in all I am happy to see the classic creatures and glad to add them to my collection for use when roleplaying. I think I like the new streamlined rules but I'm still not certain. The game definitely seems to have lost some of it's strategic element, mainly due to not having the "in command" and morale rules, as well as not having to target the closest enemies. It does seem to play quicker though, which is often a bonus. Unfortunately this is the new edition so if you want to play in local events, you are pretty much stuck with the new edition. It's definitely not a bad update, the new faction rules make for much better warband building rules, definitely eliminating a lot of the originals restrictions. I did enjoy playing it, but think I may break out the old rules and minis now and then. It will be interesting to see how this 'integrates' with 4th edition when it's released. Would I recommend it? If you want traditional minis for use in your rpg and cards with 4th edition stats on the back (which I can't even figure out) then Yes. Along with that you will end up with a good Miniature game. If you don't plan on using them for any more then playing D&D minis, then you still probably want to pick it up as it's going to be the only way to play soon enough as all new sets will use these new rules. If you haven't gotten into D&D minis yet? Then it's your call. Nows the time to get in on the ground floor, and you won't have any previous knowledge of the old rules to bias you. So yeah I guess I recommend this one.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]Wizards of the Coast recently released a new version of their Dungeons and Dragons collectible miniature game. This version totally re-vamps the rules streamlining them and incorporating all of the suggestions and improvements that were found during the run of 1st edition. This latest version is also designed to be closer to and run better with the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition.
The starter set comes with a pre-set group of 5 minis. There is a Wilderness warband of one Small Green Dragon and a Yuan-Ti. The opposing Civilization warband contains a Human Sellsword, A Dwarf Fighter and an Elven Warlock (I can't remember their exact classes). In addition to the minis there are two double sided map sheets, with a total of 5 maps. 2 of the maps are half the size and are intended for games with Warbands under 100 points. A set of counters and the rules are also included.
The rules are full colour with lots of examples and very easy to understand. There is a set of quick play rules at the beginning as well as some intermediate rules for playing with the minis that come in the set. Rules for about 5 different styles of gameplay are included. These include the traditional 200 point Assault game that most players are used to from the original release. There are also some new ones like Bounty (where players get extra points for destroying enemy models) and a King of the Hill style game (where you only score points for victory areas if you are the only faction in them, and they score extra points). Oddly there are no rules for Epic play.
Due to the amount of rules changes, even the stats on each creature have changed. This means that this new set is incompatible with previous releases. Now WotC has been releasing updated stat cards in PDF format so you can update your old sets, but they have only finished two sets thus far.
The first change you will notice with the new set is the elimination of the old Alignment based Warband building rules. Instead of being based on the traditional alignments, now Warbands are based on territory mainly with alignment being a minor aspect. There are 4 different Factions: Borderlands, Civilization, Underdark and Wilderness. All of your minis in your Warband must come from the same faction. Also every mini has an alignment with over 80% being neutral. You can include any number of neutral characters, but if you have a good mini you cannot have an evil one and vice versa. Also, most miniatures belong to multiple factions. This means that warband building is much less restrictive then the old rules.
Heres a quick list of other rules changes that are significant: Charging doesn't have to be in a straight line or even against the nearest opponent. Ranged attacks don't have to be on the nearest opponent (unless it says so on the attack). There is no more morale check, now after going to half hit points a model is 'bloodied' and many attacks and abilities do extra damage to bloodied creatures. There are no more leader and zone of control rules. Leaders have been replaced by Champions. The person with the higher champion gets to re-roll the initial role for choosing a map, and they get to re-roll initiative checks (as apposed to adding their leader level). Also the have a set of champion abilities that are used up like any other special power, and no longer have abilities that give mass effects to your entire warband. Blast area spells and abilities no longer use a template, you now just count the number of squares away from an origin point. Moving diagonally now always costs 1 square. There are probably other changes I am forgetting right now, but overall everything seems to have been made simpler to figure out and less complex.
Along with the starter set, the first set of boosters has been released. The set is called Dungeons of Dread and contains a lot of the 'traditional' D&D monsters. Each set contains 8 minis, 1 rare, 2 uncommon and 5 commons (actually it may be 3 uncommon, it doesn't say on their website). There are 60 figures in the set and they come from a wide variety of factions with most having a neutral alignment.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]The first thing that made me smile was seeing all the classic creatures. My first booster contained a Knoll, an Orc, A Kobold, A Bullette, A Mind Flayer, A Gargoyle, A Giant Centipede and a Bugbear. You don't get more traditional then that. These will all be great for playing the RPG. For people like me who got into the first edition late, this is a welcome addition, as I need more 'basic' creatures. The rules for this were a bit easier to learn then the old rules, especially in areas like Line of Effect, Line of Sight and Cover. Area effects are also clearer. The new warband building rules are also a welcome addition as my wife and I decided, with the old game, she would play good and I would play Evil, and we were having a heck of a time finding Good guys for her in the existing sets. Now she can play good and still field any of the neutrals that fit her region and I can play evil and pick from a similar pool of neutrals. The rules for moving diagonal are a welcome change, as I hated trying to keep track of whether it was an even or an odd move. The fact they give you rules for playing smaller/shorter games on half maps is pretty cool, good for both learning the game as well as when you don't have as much time to play.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]Still a lot of rules issues. For a release that was supposed to fix a lot of the rules problems in the old set, there is already an 8 page errata and FAQ out there. In our game we were flummoxed by Ongoing damage and when it happens, when you get to save. Also in the glossary under Opportunity Attacks it says that a melee attack causes an attack of opportunity (I did verify it Ian, page 45, bottom right). This is completely opposite every other part of the book and obviously wrong. Another glaring omission from the rules is any scenario for under 100 points. It notes you can play assault with less then 200 but then fails to let you know how many points standing in a victory area is worth. Also, the Warbands that come with the game are 54 and 56 points... that's not even one of the set point limits, and it just seems dumb to not have a 50 point warband with a 50 point scenario included in the basic set. Lastly: the game is still collectible and thus the distribution on tough and cool minis still sucks.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]The paint jobs! Man I think they swapped to a new company to make these ones and I sure hope they are saving money. The paint jobs on D&D minis never were that great, but what I have seen of the new set is horrible. My Mind Flayer, the one Rare I have is terrible looking. It seems they swapped to a new glossier paint that makes the minis look even more like cheap plastic toys. Some of the sculpts are also horrid. The orc I got is terrible looking. It look like a McDonald's Happy Meal Toy. Thankfully this is less a problem then the paints as some of the new minis are really cool looking (like the Bullette). The other major problem is I can't use my shelf full of minis from the previous edition of the game. Sure WotC is SLOWLY releasing rules for the previous sets, but it's going to take a year before I can use all my minis, plus it doesn't look like they are going to update the Gargantuan Dragons at all. This is frustrating to say the least as I only got into D&D minis a few months back.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]All in all I am happy to see the classic creatures and glad to add them to my collection for use when roleplaying. I think I like the new streamlined rules but I'm still not certain. The game definitely seems to have lost some of it's strategic element, mainly due to not having the "in command" and morale rules, as well as not having to target the closest enemies. It does seem to play quicker though, which is often a bonus. Unfortunately this is the new edition so if you want to play in local events, you are pretty much stuck with the new edition. It's definitely not a bad update, the new faction rules make for much better warband building rules, definitely eliminating a lot of the originals restrictions. I did enjoy playing it, but think I may break out the old rules and minis now and then. It will be interesting to see how this 'integrates' with 4th edition when it's released. Would I recommend it? If you want traditional minis for use in your rpg and cards with 4th edition stats on the back (which I can't even figure out) then Yes. Along with that you will end up with a good Miniature game. If you don't plan on using them for any more then playing D&D minis, then you still probably want to pick it up as it's going to be the only way to play soon enough as all new sets will use these new rules. If you haven't gotten into D&D minis yet? Then it's your call. Nows the time to get in on the ground floor, and you won't have any previous knowledge of the old rules to bias you. So yeah I guess I recommend this one.