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wittdooley
05-26-2011, 09:26 AM
Anyone playing, or have played this? I keep looking at it, and it looks intriguing to me. I'd love some thoughts!

vyrago
05-29-2011, 03:56 PM
ive played heavy gear for over 10 years now. the new rules and minis are great!!

awesome system. simple, yet realistic and fun. its 'low' sci-fi...there arent any teleporters or shields. its gritty and has a more modern warfare type feel to it. nothing but good things to say about it.

wittdooley
05-31-2011, 09:27 PM
So... will it satisfy my need for big shooty robots without the abundance of paperwork that is Battletech?

vyrago
05-31-2011, 09:50 PM
Most definitely.

Gears arent large, plodding behemoths of the battlefield like a 'Mech is. Theyre almost more like battlesuits, quick, agile and dangerous in numbers. They fight in squads of 4 or 5, a typical army being roughly 10-15 gears.

The more interesting fights are between the Gears of Terra Nova and the Hovertanks of Earth.

The combat is elegant, yet simple. no tracking of location damage, heat, or even ammunition excepting special weapons.

The other good part about it, is that your 'army' takes alternating turns against your opponent. meaning, I activate a squad, move..shoot..whatever. Then you activate a squad and do the same. we alternate untill all our squads or combat groups have been activated. Its not the crushing wave of 40k, where you helplessly watch your opponent march up, shoot and assault your army before you can do anything.

another great thing: Cover actually matters. for everyone. even a heavily armored support gear can benefit from being in some trees for example.

futhermore: detection and jamming are important elements of the game. Recon elements can be hugely important for detecting enemies and jamming can prevent your enemy from using special actions. (and vice-versa of course)

:)

wittdooley
05-31-2011, 10:11 PM
Sweet info. Based on what they presently ahve in the store, is the 2p Starter a good place to go?

vyrago
06-01-2011, 12:22 AM
the two player starter is pretty basic. you only get 6 gear minis. (3 nothern, 3 southern). at least you'll be able to have some small skirmishes.

The factional starter armies are good deals, you get 10 minis plus a rulebook. now that ive covered all the good points of the game, i'll mention a few of the downsides.

1. finding a game. Naturally, outside of Canada its not very well known and therefore finding a game might be tough. if you've got some friends that are willing to dive in with you and get armies too, you're set.

2. Some armies are very similar. the 3 main terra-novan factions use very similar equipment. They look slightly different and can have different army compositions, but at their core they are similar. 40k players might be say "they all look like Tau crisis suits painted in imperial guard camoflage".

BlackVise
06-01-2011, 07:54 AM
Thanks for the thread and information. I am getting a two player starter set so I can get he FLGS guys to try. vyrago, is this too hard for a 10 year old to play? I wanted to try it with my son as he likes the battle suits.

wittdooley
06-01-2011, 08:41 AM
2. Some armies are very similar. the 3 main terra-novan factions use very similar equipment. They look slightly different and can have different army compositions, but at their core they are similar. 40k players might be say "they all look like Tau crisis suits painted in imperial guard camoflage".

This has been my biggest apprehension: I can't really tell the difference between them. Are there other factions that are notably different? I saw there was one with spider-type walkers...

wittdooley
06-01-2011, 11:05 AM
Also, would you be willing to elaborate on the differences between Heavy Gear, Heavy Gear Blitz, and Heavy Gear Arena?

vyrago
06-01-2011, 04:39 PM
@blackvise: it should be easy enough for a 10 year old. you might want to ignore the support stuff and just stick to a straight up fight. You can add complexity later by adding support options like airstrikes and artillery.


Ok...lets talk about the factions a little. Yes, many are similar. Espescially the Terra Novan factions, they all use the same basic military machines. So, a Northern faction army could appear very similar to Southern Faction army. Much in the same way that one WW2 army looks similar another. 4 factions of Terra Nova use Gears. Just like how in Battletech everyone uses mechs. Earth uses supersoldiers and Hovertanks. Caprice uses spider walkers and the other planets use 'gear like' walkers. things that walk and shoot are a central theme. :)

The differences between them really show in your personal selection and the special rules. So while a Southern Army might look similar to a Northern Army, the Southern Force might be larger and have less skilled pilots. A Northern army might have more longer range type units and snipers.


now the 3 games. Heavy Gear Blitz is the miniatures battle game where armies fight on a tabletop with terrain. Heavy Gear Arena is a Gladiator style miniatures combat game where individual gears fight in an arena. Lastly Heavy Gear is the Roleplaying game, which used to be fully compatible with the miniatures system. Since Blitz and Arena have been updated, you can still combine the RPG with a little work.

wittdooley
06-01-2011, 07:31 PM
@blackvise: it should be easy enough for a 10 year old. you might want to ignore the support stuff and just stick to a straight up fight. You can add complexity later by adding support options like airstrikes and artillery.


Ok...lets talk about the factions a little. Yes, many are similar. Espescially the Terra Novan factions, they all use the same basic military machines. So, a Northern faction army could appear very similar to Southern Faction army. Much in the same way that one WW2 army looks similar another. 4 factions of Terra Nova use Gears. Just like how in Battletech everyone uses mechs. Earth uses supersoldiers and Hovertanks. Caprice uses spider walkers and the other planets use 'gear like' walkers. things that walk and shoot are a central theme. :)

The differences between them really show in your personal selection and the special rules. So while a Southern Army might look similar to a Northern Army, the Southern Force might be larger and have less skilled pilots. A Northern army might have more longer range type units and snipers.


now the 3 games. Heavy Gear Blitz is the miniatures battle game where armies fight on a tabletop with terrain. Heavy Gear Arena is a Gladiator style miniatures combat game where individual gears fight in an arena. Lastly Heavy Gear is the Roleplaying game, which used to be fully compatible with the miniatures system. Since Blitz and Arena have been updated, you can still combine the RPG with a little work.

You're amazing.

Drahazar
06-04-2011, 03:14 PM
Check out mini wargameing web site they have a very good video on heavy gear and about the game and how it works.

Jay Adan
06-17-2011, 12:39 PM
If you're interested - I created this video review of the Heavy Gear Arena rulebook:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLUFS0Dt8E8

Short story version - It's like Blood Bowl with giant stompy powersuits!