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In keeping with my long history of never letting well enough alone, I’ve felt an urge to try out yet another rule system I’ve had but never played: Strike Legion Tactical. The rules seem to be very ambitious in covering as much territory as they possibly can manage, although at the core they’re pretty straightforward. So with a little dive into MAATAC miniatures soon to start, and a few sets of unpainted 3mm armies from Microworld and O8 on hand, I’m feeling like trying this one out at last. I’ve proven to myself that I can set up some convincing terrain, and so it’s time for a throw at this.
Step one: rules markers. The ones in the book have a lot of gradients that are hard to read, but because electronic warfare is part of the game you need to set out some counters to show your units’ offensive/defensive stances. So a little graphic arts tinkering later, I have the counters ready.
Yet again, not being able to let well enough alone, I made a second set on a die cutting template (double sided) and sent them off to the press I used for my Epic cards. That will be a nicer and more durable product than the above but both are workable for the time being. So off we go!Would love to hear if anyone else has had experience with the game and what you thought. It seems to have a lot of tooth to it, lots of tech but several levels of command and maneuvering, and room to do a lot of different styles of game. I found the expansion that introduces superheavy tanks particularly interesting, since I’m always looking for games that span that gap without just making BOLO-like vehicles feel like Very Big Tanks, but rather like something unto themselves.
I also have this and am waiting for you to let us know how it plays. I was very put off when right away the rules state you have to be within 1″ (don’t remember the game scale it is a good distance but not long (I think much less than a kilometer). Thinking back to the second Alien movie (Aliens), and Striker, your commanding troops didn’t have to be close to the action if the grunts were equipped with sensors or video that they could access. So this whole “gotta be right close” felt wrong and frankly I couldn’t get past it to check out the rest of the rules. One other thing, and I don’t remember if it was these rules or another set, another game I read had an overly simplistic game effect of electronic warfare. Basically each side decided on how many “points” of EW and whether it was attack or defend, or I guess a mix. The net result was a + or – applied to all combat rolls that game turn. Too simplistic for my tastes although possibly a good representation for a very streamlined game effect. Anyone remember where this came from?
I don’t remember the command thing but you are thinking of SLT with the offensive/defensive EW. It’s pretty simple at its base but it does have other rules that make it more complex. Scouts for example let you lend additional bonuses to units they’re attached to, using “Scout EW” and there’s a lot on C3 and other recon tech that I haven’t gotten to yet. Like you I think it’s kind of a misnomer to call that “electronic warfare” but there also seems to be rather a robust system for using computer viruses, scrambling, etc. as “special weapons” that might be more like what you have in mind.
The counters just came off the press! The front to back registration is a little skewed but still ample. And the colors came out way better than I expected!
By the way, if anyone wants their own counter sets, I posted the files (with the author’s kind permission) on the Strike Legion Facebook group, with instructions on how and where to get them made.
So I much prefer paper to plastic, and although I have an iPad and all that, I ordered a print copy of the Strike Legion rulebook. It’s surprisingly good quality for print on demand, well cut and not warped. A very good edition to have.
Glued, not sewn, and with no calico binding sheet, but one can’t expect too much of POD.
When you sew together sheaves of paper to make a book, you then stack those, bind them together, and glue a piece of fabric down the spine to hold it all together. That’s the “calico” that you see at the ends of the spine. It keeps the bundles of pages from falling out. You can see it in higher quality bindings.
I played a very simple intro game over the weekend just to learn the rules and it’s pretty straightforward. You set your EW ratings, then off you go. The weapons all have different effects, which is pretty cool. The basic structure of the game is easy to follow – the wealth of special rules you can add is what adds complexity, and having a paper copy to flip through definitely makes the process easier. For me anyway.
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