Wednesday, October 06, 2010

USEME game #1

Our first outing with USE ME rules. They are ultra simple as advertised. I liked how they played, and Think they could easily be tweaked to what i want from a game right now.
Here's what i don't like or am skeptical of at this point.
Missing dedicated CC and Infantry AT weapons, also suppression or morale.
1" template, why bother you are only going to hit one unit unless you are stacked on top of each other.
No Quick Action Sheet in the book itself.
What I like, intuitive, simple, seems to give decent results, appears very adaptable.
5 characteristics or values to each unit basic building block in the book is a single mini,
1, Type -Infantry, Lt, Hvy or Super Heavy Vehicle.
2. Elan - quality
3. Movement rate
4. Weapon
5. Armored yes or no

Initiative is determined by dicing then Elan 6's go per initiative order then 5's etc etc
Infantry is grouped into squads with a designated leader. Move the leader then group the rest of the squad in cohesion.
Squad to squad shooting is determined from leader to leader. Flunkies die first.
You can do 2 actions each turn, and you can do 2 of the same action however the second time you are penalized.

Everything is D6,
Shooting get a modified 4,5,6 to hit.
Penetration is an opposed modified roll. A heavy tank is +3 defense, and the best penetration bonus is a +1 so good luck.
Each mini can take 2 hits before death.
Winged, Struck, then Killed
It also gets progressively worse as it takes hits.


Our sides were
Earth Force Marines
2 squads of a Leader, 2 riflemen, a heavy laser, and rocket launcher -Elan 5
2 light gunships - Elan 4
1 tank -Elan 4

allied with
Mujhadden
2 squads of a Leader, 3 riflemen, and a rocket. Elan 3
2 mortars Elan 3
2 tanks ELan 4
2 artillery strikes.

VS
Corporation
2 squads of a Leader, 6 riflemen, and a rocket. Elan 5
1 HVY Mech Elan 4
2 Lt gun crabs Elan 3

allied with
2 squads of leader and 14 GIANT ants Elan 3
1 Lt helicopter gunship Elan 4

Considering it was our first game, I was the only person to have read the rules, and I hadn't played it yet either, it went very well. Much better I would say than our last game of Future War Commander, and that was about my 12th game of it, 3rd with those players. Granted Future War Commander is a much more involved game, and i'm sure it will do whatever it is i'm trying to do, However,,,
and anyhow how involved exactly do things need to be.
StarGrunt is probably my favorite system, but the math overwhelms a lot of people. Even though I have a kind of tourettes response to SG dice, blurting out the answer i.e. "2 hits and 3 chances on a D6 for another one." It can get a little taxing. + SG doesn't hold up as well in larger battles, or so everyone says I never tired it.
The point of that diversion, USE ME is not as complex as those other games, and it doesn't necessarily need to be either.
The fact that out of the gate we were able to use, Infantry, gunships, mechs, tanks, mortars, and off board arty says it all.
Now here are some pics from our game, I'll add some captions later.

3 comments:

Omer Golan-Joel said...

Great review - and I love how you've painted those Rebel Minis dropships.

USE ME looks like a great system; I've received my copy a week or so ago, and once my terrain project will be finished, I'll start running games with my spouse using the USE ME rules (which are, IMO, a great way to introduce people to wargaming).

mwowm said...

Thanks,
The Earth Force Marines are Dave's, i passed on the complement.

The Barking Editor said...

Great report and a good gaming table too. I read your comments on the Notables Yahoo Group and will reply on their too.

Regards,

Gavin Syme
(Author of USE ME)