Maximillian 34 (Kind of Review)

Each to their own. And As I have been banging on about Dieselpunk for more than a year you might guess (correctly) that this is my cup of tea!

Ok what do you get? A full colour, soft back, stapled rule set 54 pages in all. 

Production: I would say a lot of time, effort and energy has gone into the production values of this set of rules. Which is not to say they are well padded with junk, however there are a lot of Photos and a lot of things that could easily have been condensed. (More of this later). The booklet when you pick it up feels of good quality and is a pleasure to flick though. Being stapled is not a bad thing it allows the pages to be turned very easily with no fear of it falling apart in your hands. Overall I do like the production, it is so much better than many rule books as it feels as if the whole thing was a passion project and not started just to take money from the gamer. Good Quality throughout the book.

Pictures: I am an old school wargamer who grew up on Table top Games rules. As such I like the whole thing to be about the rules. It is after all what I am paying for. As you can see to the right there is a lot of "wasted" space. The Contents and the introduction could quite easily be put o one page on the inside cover. and not 2 pages in. These are VERY Minor gripes though. The Pics of the minis are good and the minis well painted and overall the layout is fine. It has a nice mix of 1930's pics (mostly associated with either war or racing, seriously what else did we expect) Pics of minis, diagrams and film poster(for modern films set in the 1930's or 1930's style adverts. Overall the pictures do add to the rules But as they an take up 1/2 a page (or in the pages above 1/3rd of a page) I do wonder if they may have been better on the internet or just reduced in size. Again only a minor gripe as they are all relevant and do add some flavour to the rules booklet.

Mechanics: Yep how does it play? The answer is that the rules are simple. I mean that comment to be positive. They are so much easier than Car wars by Steve Jackson. Players are allowed to premeasure and are not forced to make abstract judgements about corners or distances. There is even a nice rule suggestion that anyone taking this too far buys the other players a drink. I am guessing NOT a Cup of water! Most of the mechanics revolve around a player rolling 2 different coloured d6, with more or less D6 depending on circumstances. With only 5's and 6's counting simply add the positive dice and take away the negative dice to determine a result. As most wargamers have D6 in a variety of colours this is not much of a hardship. So all moving and shooting mechanics are very simple and logical and straight forward. mechanics for shooting and moving are similar but not the same. Which lends to consistency and logic and not having to learn 2 different mechanics to complete a game turn. Again overall the mechanics are good , sound, quick the learn and logical. Range for example is for every FULL 12" you add one negative dice.
 So 0-12" no dice added, 12+"-24" a negative dice added, 24+"-36" two negative dice are added to the dice roll (and so on ever 12" an extra die is added). Like I said Simple and effective an straight forward. So Simple logical and straight forward that it is easy to explain as a show game for participation purposes!

There is a section on Building the cars to play the game ( NOT a section on Model making but all the starts needed and there are not too many.)
A couple of weapons have been left out, no smokescreens for example, but no silly weapons have been included either. |So a very healthy 1930's feel is maintained.

Overall the mechanics are very sound.

 Background: There is no Background. This maybe to include more options, So "Back of Beyond" Very British Civil war" "A Right Bloody mess!" (I think that is what they call the Australian Civil war (fictional before anyone questions the notion)), "Crimson Skies" (but on the ground) or your own dystopian alternative history are all playable. Just remember the 1930's and you can't go far wrong. I personally like background in these types of games. to me it is more useful and interesting than pictures, but each to tier own.

Negatives: There is in my opinion too much wasted space.  Take the double page spread above and to the right. If the publisher and games designer feels this is absolutely essential to the rules (you  may guess that I do not)Putting it all on a single page should be quite sufficient, not a page for each vehicle. I do realise that the publisher does try to make the page numbers devisable by 4 but as there are more than 4 pages of "Fluff" I feel it could be reduced.


Conclusion: I will admit to being bias towards this period so please be aware of that before I sum up. The rules are clear enough for a dyslexic (I am one) to understand. They are not complex and they are (to me at least) logical. The main drawback is the lack of vehicles that are available without conversion and model making. I know at my club if the rules take off there will be some "GOD AWEFUL!" contraptions . I guess at many other clubs as well. Therefore I have 3 choices. 1) Make everything myself. (this is currently my favourite option). 2) make players stick to the official Eureka miniatures (I know this will be limiting) or 3) just put up with it (he types through gritted teeth).
Overall I am impressed and look forward to getting some vehicles done and up and running.

Thanks for reading al this. If you have any questions more than happy to answer them. If no questions comment as you choose or choose not to comment. I am happy either way.

Take care, have fun and paint/game if you can.