Playtest Opens For MERCS 2.5 From Fifth Angel Studios
April 19, 2021 by avernos
If you missed the news over the last few months that Fifth Angel Studios have picked MERCS with a view to resurrecting this futuristic game of corporate espionage and black ops. Late last year they laid out their plans for 2021 starting with setting
MERCS // Fifth Angel Studios
Late last year they laid out their plans for 2021 starting with setting up the website to make the stock of miniatures they have available once more and now they are moving onto phase two, a soft launch of a tidied up 2nd edition.
Over in the files section you can download everything you need to get into the game and help out with the playtesting. This 2.5 edition will be familiar to players of the last edition but Fifth Angel is already making tweaks to the game to improve gameplay and also make it more mission-focused rather than throwing your miniatures and your luck at your opponent and hoping for the best.
In a world where Megacons rule the roost, it makes more sense to drill down and focus on the mission and the tactics required to pull it off, wasting money on dead mercs helps no one's bottom line!
Mercs // Texico Leader
Some things to be aware of for the living rulebook as it stands, it is very much a work in progress for playtesting and feedback and so it won't be the all singing all dancing visual feast that they plan for the 3.0 version to be when they get to print, but it is a version that they hope will be played by both veterans and also new players and in doing so make a game that is not only accessible to both but also engaging and fun.
Operation Shadow Dragon
Living Rulebook Plans
- Missions and Maps - Not all of the Missions have been fully tested, so please provide any constructive feedback you have when playing through them. The Maps are still being made, Thomas is hammering through my rough layouts as quickly as he can and the plan is to have them done by 4/26.
- Reference Cards - the current Reference Cards are just temporary. You all have seen the redesign and how they will look, but laying out 123 cards is very time consuming and will take a bit of time to complete. The current cards do not have the Keywords and Personal Abilities on the backs, so you will have to refer to the rules doc for this info for now. The models with Template weapons are also missing the visual for the Template, but the Template title is on the card. Target completion date is 4/7.
- Contingency Cards - These are new, so the current version is the initial iteration, the look may change as we further evolve the graphic design, but they are easily readable and usable. These also didn’t get as much testing as I’d like, so please provide any constructive feedback as you get in games with them. Target completion date is TBD.
- Corporate Trait/Movement Template Cards - These have been updated to reflect the new rules, but they still need to be updated to the new look. Target completion date is TBD.
- The rules doc is boring to look at. It’s just words. Thomas and I are redesigning the look of the game, a 2.5 visual update will happen, but the core focus for a new rulebook is 3.0. But we hope to have this done by the end of May.
"In a world where Megacons rule the roost, it makes more sense to drill down and focus on the mission and the tactics required to pull it off, wasting money on dead mercs helps no one's bottom line!"
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Sounds well worth a good look over.
I have USCR painted somewhere and Kem Var unpainted just there *points*
Tempted.
well the first thing they did was fold in the errata so it may be worth having a butchers at that. I never paid a huge amount of attention to them the first time around but the miniatures are gorgeous.
Very curious about this… It’s always tough to try to ‘update’ games that have been out of the spotlight for a while… and how much has changed since the last edition? How much are the new publishers/designers going to re-write or dismantle what was there? (not saying any of this in a bad way! just super curious as there are so many more games on the market now than when Mercs 1.0 first came out). And then that doesn’t even get into how the models get updated (or not)… I’m also just currently having one of those biannual “OMG I… Read more »
they’ve gone into it more on their initial facepage blogs but right out of the gate the plan isn’t to reinvent the wheel. 2.5 folds in the errata and does some cleanup work on rules and keywords. I think they’re aiming to get it nailed down and then 3rd will be that as a physical product with new layout and the like inside. Model wise they have all the tooling and moulds so I don’t believe they’re planning anything new modelwise in the short term, the first difficulty is just getting what they have out there and that is going… Read more »
@zorg it’s well worth looking over. I’ve been a fan since 1st edition and enjoyed everything since. Neat minis, cool background and unique mechanics. @somegeezer only 2? Lol, I have them all and most are actually painted. @avernos the models are gorgeous and an army is just ten models. List building is super simple. Choose a mission, choose an opponent, choose five models. Done. @jahatch28 I have too much stuff! is a real thing. I personally have been a fan almost since the beginning and kept up with it with every version and the ups and downs of the IP.… Read more »
thanks for the recommendations.
This is really cool to see. MERCS is such a great game.
As someone who has played MERCs since 1st Ed., there have been some changes that I have welcomed gladly, and some very begrudgingly. I will be watching (or lurking quietly) with a fair bit of interest to see how the team at 5th Angel Studios do with the rules. Will they update to a 3.0 version of the rules, or will it be more of a re-interpretation of the rules as a 3.0 / 1.0 hybrid to make it more of their own beast. I will be getting the next edition of the rules regardless, and if I dislike them,….… Read more »
The biggest problem here is that the minis they’re selling are the PVC minis from MERCS Recon. Those were absolutely awful.
The original metals were excellent quality, but the stuff that came out of the Recon kickstarter looked as if someone had taken the metals, melted them just a bit, let them cool and then copied them with a low-resolution 3d scanner.
Hey guys, I was part of the play tests leading up to the release of 2.5 to the public. I have to say the team at FifthAngel where very receptive to good ideas and careful at walking the tight rope of keeping the games unique feel and updating the rules to the changing skirmish game market. Just like anything there are some substantial changes, some of which were very necessary and others to fit the new direction the game is set on.