Thursday 17 May 2018

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.



16 comments:

  1. Excellent review. Sounds like a good set of rules...just hide it from Ray. The poor boy will forth at the mouth and have a fit.

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    1. Thank you lee. I can already hear Ray Frown from about 20 miles away! I am very pleased with you commenting as I can imagine you playing this set of rules with a different group than the Rejects.

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  2. Nice review Clint, sounds like it could be a lot of fun, as you say though limited by the available resources

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    1. Thank you Dave. I agree it is limited and each car from Eureka is about £25 in the UK. However that just makes it fun to make them.

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  3. A very concise review, Clint. Whilst i do like "Car Wars" style games, I prefer them to be more modern or futuristic. That said, I can see the appeal of this era and I've seen some fantastic conversions or scratch-built cars on the Lead Adventurers Forum. (Worth browsing for inspiration).

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    1. Thank you Bryan. Back in the day I was a big Car wars fan. If you like modern/futuristic maybe "Gaslands" is more for you. I shall check the lead adventurers Forum inspiration is always appreciated.

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  4. This is a set of rules that I have noticed, though my interest doesn't go as far as buying them. Seems to me that they would work very well as a convention public participation game...

    As for the "wasted space" - it depends. If there are pictures, quotes, diagrams or whatever that add to the atmosphere then that can be very inspirational (I'm thinking especially of all the little quotes throughout the Frostgrave series of rule books; they really stir the imagination). On the other hand, the double spread of almost-identical car sheets in your example above does seem a bit redundant!

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    1. Thank you Colgar. Let us be fair and say that while there is some wasted space the pics are good and young players will especially like them. However a very quick search of the internet will render just as good results. I do understand the reason for their inclusion as it does make the rule booklet more visually appealing. On a personal level I do not need this approach though and while not a criticism of those that do I have to wonder why I am paying for it.There are some quotes but nothing worth talking about in my opinion and while I said there was no background they have included some characters. But to me the characters are superfluous and take up valuable space which could be used to give a background world for the game. Or left out and reduced the page count and the cost.

      All reviews are personal and the reviewer will bring their own prejudices. As mentioned I grew up with Table Top Games rules so I have come to accept that things have changed and that more "fluff" is in all sets of rules these days. However that does not mean I have to enjoy the indulgent "fluff" that I do encounter.

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  5. Terrific posting, Clint. Bizarrely, I own most of the “Eureka” cars - having bought them direct from Australia (which was bizarrely a hell of a lot cheaper than the cost of buying them in the UK even including P&P!?!), but not the rules. So I was very interested in your thoughts on the game. Very tempting... ;-)

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    1. Thank you Blax. Please do not be put off by anything I write. I do like the rules and think they will work well. I am currently converting a vehicle for this set. I was very interested in you saying they were cheaper to buy in Australia even with the postage. I shall look into that.

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  6. I think these days in the ever burgoning rules market, a glossy padded-out rule-book seems a necessity rather than the old typewritten rules I remember buying (and selling!).
    The game has an interesting mechanic but seemingly not dunbed own, which is a good thing in my book. I still don't understand the point of the game though and will be looking for reviews of how the cars move, turn , crash etc.
    Thanks for the intial review.

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    1. Thank you Joe. I did not cover moving or turning as I did not want to give too much away. But the rules are simple and easy to pick up and they fit well with the rest of the rules.

      As for the point of the game I would suggest it is to have fun with model cars in a 1930's setting. It does not go any deeper than that really. In the same way as we can reduce any set of rules to a one or maybe 2 line description. But taking a reductionist attitude is no help to anyone. If you don't get it you don't get it. Personally I don't really get golf and yet there are millions that do!

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    1. Thank you Tamsin. I will say again I do like the rules and I do think they are very good. When writing a review I never know how much to put in and how much to leave out. So I hope I have included enough to get people interested.

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  8. Like Bryan I like the more dystopian car games like Gaslands, but I have to admit that I’m more than a little curious about this

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    1. Thank you Andy. As there is no background you can be as dystopian as you choose as long as it is set in the 1930's. Gasslands is a good set of rules and I am not knocking it. I have a copy. Personally however I prefer these of the two rule sets but it is all personal choice.

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