Beyond the Astronomicon

Tactical Strike Review

by Tristan Lange

 

By way of easy introduction, I guess that Tactical Strike is similar to Warzone and Warhammer 40,000 in that it's game of that style, this is where the similarities end, and I will reinforce again to the GW fanboys that TS is not a copy of 40k, it's a completely different game, whoever told you that is about as intelligent as the game designers at GW. (Interesting how Warzone players never make that misconception). Now, on with  the article...

Well then, what is it that makes Tactical strike different from other games? Well in a nutshell it’s a game made by gamers for gamers, this means that unlike other gaming systems, all the rules are thoroughly covered with out leaving those little gaps which are claimed to be "unavoidable", all the real life situations and strategies which can be found in a real battles can and do take place in Tactical Strike, and most importantly all of the strategy and savage fighting which other games boast can take place without the need to consult the rules every 5 minutes and without the complications which continually cause those arguments that we'd all  rather forget.

As well as this general design factor there’s the point system, by having higher base costs for troops there is more room for differentiation between troops, vehicles, weapons etc. This means that the weapons, armour, troops and such are all distinctly different, rather than being the same guy with a better gun and a different special ability.

Secondly, TS is a D20 - based system, which also allows more variation between troops, vehicles etc. By using this there is an obvious difference between untrained and elite troops. With more points to "throw around", there is more to change, and experiment with, this will hopefully be another point of the game that players will like, let me stress again if there’s anything that you like/don’t like/want changed, or just want to comment on in any way feel free to tell us (us being the  present design team)  and your comments will be heard, believe me. You’re the ones playing the game and your feedback counts.

Ranged combat is also handled differently from other systems. In TS it's all done with one roll. Either you kill them (or damage them in the case of creatures etc that can sustain large amounts of damage) or you don't, not you get through the fields and armour but it doesn't wound and you've wasted even more time. This makes cuts down on unnecessary dice rolling and makes the game faster to play. The Roll to hit/Shooting equation being:

Basic shooting skill (T)
    - Defender's total resilience (R) (Natural and armour, fields etc)
    +/- Targeting modifiers
    +/- Equipment modifiers
    + weapon strength

As can be seen this resolves the whole "shot" in ONE dice roll. The   primary purpose of this being speed of play, others being simplicity and realism. This is all done with D20's, as is everything else in the game apart from scatter, which uses D10's. Close combat is handled in a similar fashion, and damage is dealt with a plethora of weapons and other weapons to make sure whoever you knock down doesn't get back up again in a hurry. The equation for close combat is as follows:

Enigma Space DwarfBase (C) score (attacker)
    -Defender's total resilience (R)
    + attacker's total strength
    +/- Targeting modifiers.

The turn sequence in TS is similar to many others being:

  1. Psychic phase
  2. Action phase (where all the movement, shooting, close combat etc takes place)
  3. Rally phase

This is a turn sequence similar to games like Warzone in that armies do not take turns moving, shooting etc, but activation of units is done on a unit by unit basis.  This is an  obvious step forward from Napoleonic-style wargames where armies take turns in moving, Warzone players will already be familiar with this.

I guess by now you're wondering what new miniatures you need to buy, well the answer is NONE. Tactical Strike accommodates any 25mm-28mm scale miniatures you already have, and you can use miniatures  and vehicles from companies that make miniatures in that scale. Vehicles are the same but you can use any 1/35 (or so) scale models you have, there are weapons aplenty to arm all these miniatures as well. Enigma are working on new miniatures all the time and there are vehicle packs and vehicle-related kits in the works. If anybody wants it I'll do a list of miniatures suitable for TS for next issue :)

Enigma Chaos Marine Bike and Rider

Well that's about it for now, there is an awful lot I haven't covered in this (brief) introduction and that pains me somewhat, but I'll be doing regular articles on TS for the webzine so there'll be plenty more to read.

If you have ANY questions/comments about TS feel free to mail me at kveldulv@mindless.com or ICQ me,  (# 22005948), I'll be more than happy to talk to you :-)

Before I go here are a few useful links for you to get some more information:

Hope they help.

Take it easy.

 

Enigma Miniatures, Storm Marines,, Tactical Strike are all trademarks of Enigma Miniatures.
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