Time for some more MERCS love?
March 5, 2011 by lloyd
The first time I saw anything about this game, Adam was chatting to a guy called Keith at Gen Con 2010, who turned out to be the artist who created the illustrations for the entire MERCS game... and I think he’s doing a fantastic job. I might be wrong, but I think he’s one of two main partners that created MERCS Miniatures?
One should never underestimate the power of striking visuals to go with a new gaming system. Even though we know we shouldn’t, in the world of tabletop gaming we're generally suckers for judging a book by its cover... well, I know I am, but that’s only natural, as we are engrossed in a hobby based upon the need for pretty looking miniatures.
Luckily for us MERCS delivers big time!
With a wealth of good-looking minis to go with their excellent rulebook and stat cards. In fact... Let's just take some time to look at the factions and I guarantee you will struggle to convince yourself that you don’t need these.
Does anyone else think that these would work well alongside some Infinity minis? Here's a link to their scale guide: http://www.mercsminis.com/Scale.php
Now I haven’t yet had the chance to play the game, so my fascination with it is based solely on its looks... well almost.
Something makes me want to give this game a shot.
I think it’s that the game dynamics are heavily based on a card system and not in the same way as say Malifaux.
Oh no! In MERCS you use cards to measure movement and where you can fire...that...and the cards just look damn cool with notches cut in them that slide around a mini’s base!
In fact the MERCS site says “You and your friend literally need only one card and one miniature to play MERCS!” how cool is that?
Ah wait... I think you probably need a big hardbacked rulebook too after all... it wouldn’t be a proper tabletop game without a book you can KO your mate with when they beat you!
Anyway guys this is game I’m going to keep an eye on and I want to know what you think about it.
Have we got any players here on Beasts of War and if so, maybe it’s time to get a MERCS group up and running?
BoW Lloyd
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Keeping my eye on this one…need to finish my Infinity, Malifaux, MonPoc and Warmachine stuff before commiting to something new…its bound to be epic fail. The artwork means it MUST be good 😉
Looks great… wonder how it plays?
After looking at the website, I like the idea you can buy every miniature they make for about 200 bones.
My friend sculpted almost all of the minis for this game expect for the USCR. I’ve been watching this game develop since the first miniature was done. I’d definitely give it a shot. It’s extremely well done.
The artwork is fantastic, and the sculpts seem cool. If the rules are decent, I’ll give it a try.
I generally feel that way about most minis games, which is why I’ve never tried Malifaux.
The rules seem like fun, but I don’t really dig the sculpts at all. The art style reminds me a bit of the awkward goth illustrations an old classmate of mine used to draw in the margins of his notebook.
I’m liking this. I’ll look into it.
The following is taken from tenabrae posts on another forum and modified by me using my experiences.
Points cost.
No points cost, you pick a total of 5 models to use. There are restrictions of army composition but nI cant comment here as I only tried USCR.
Moving
Moving is what makes this game unique. It is there “THING”. When you move, you move using cards. The cards have 4 notches. You move by placing the card in front of the mini. The bottom of the card has a semi-circle notch. The mini is then able to move to one of the other 3 notches. This limits the distance the mini is able to move and the direction the mini is able to move. Also you are only able to change facing once per move. This change is limited to 90 degrees. You can chose to change facing at the start of the move or at the end. Now to make the game less restrictive there is a rule called snap to cover. This allows you to move a base length towards cover or a friendly mini.
Shooting
Range is unlimited but unless otherwise stated you cannot move and shoot. Heavies need to set there weapons. Heavies tend to use templates which allow you to hit multiple models but is risky as you can shoot your own men.
Snipers
I played USCR so my experience is limited here. The USCR snipers uses a weapon that is an Anchor gun. Limited damage but when it hits it locks the target in place. Very cool and very useful. Other faction snipers tend to have high damage weapons. These weapons are limited by the rule of Load and aim. The just means the mini must wait a few turns after firing.
Suppression (something any model with a semi or full auto weapon can do) basically means if you’re acting under suppression you make a morale test to do anything, it doesn’t cause damage. Again using USCR I found this very useful.
Overwatch, didnt really use this but basically means -1 to hit anyone you decide to shoot at.
Close combat
meh, didnt have any CC in my army so cant comment.
Problems
3d terrain. Most of us will have terrain setup for 40k. You will struggle to play games on a 40k table. The reaon for this is the card movement system. 40K terrain tends to be ruins, this means the ruins will get in the way of the cards. Also minis cannot jump over objects, so any walls, pipes etc block movement. If you are interested in playing MERCS you will need to make specific terrain for the game or just play on a 2d table. The type of terrain we are thinking of making are:
Warehouse – heaps of barrels crates etc stacked up.
Carpark – cars and trucks blocking movement and LoS
The next bit I’ll leave to tenabrae
Probably the biggest problem with the game is the rules are written by someone who knows how to play it and has forgotten that not everyone else does. There are a bunch of things that you can easily read into it but aren’t clearly stated and really a look at their forums is needed to fully grasp some of the concepts. e.g. grenades have a throwing range, it never tells you how to measure this range explicitly though it does tell you when moving with cards to lay them next to each other, so you can infer throwing works this way, but they don’t tell you outright (and a quick trip to their forum will
clarify it).
The minis are gorgeous but what you have described sounds very unappealing. I like 3d terrain and ruling that troops can climb or move over obstacles is bleh. I may still have to pick up the Yellow Jackets and use them in some home brew war game though.
they look awesome but i need to finish my warlord games romans
I like the game. It was fun and quick but it was tactical. The minis look great, the rule book is beautiful the cards are a bit meh.
I should say that the game is cheap to get into. All up I spent around $79 Au. Thats dirt cheap for 5 models, set of cards and the rule book.
These look very nice, I really want to get my hands on that dude with the heavy machine gun. Once I get my latest 40k toys done I will be sure to check it out…. unless of course GW doesn’t drive me into the poor house before that point.
Looks really nice, But the non compatible size with any of the common standards is what will keep me from buying the system.
Atm I already have 1/1200, 1/300, 6mm, 10mm/Nscale, 15mm/H0scale, and 28mm Tables and Terrain. Another Scale is just not viable.
HI lloyd, I noticed that you mentioned that you thought the mercs minatures were 35mm scale. I might be wrong but I noticed after a quick perusal of their site that they have them listed as falling under the 28mm herioc scale:
http://www.mercsminis.com/Scale.php
As for the mini’s as I cant comment on the game – I like the direction we are seeing from some companies now with the slightly more high tech less archaic look to Sci Fi. Again a skirmish game apepals to me. (Was a massive fan of mordheim et al back in the day).
Thanks for the quick round up of the style of the game, karebarez. Not sure that that made me want to play the game but I am still definately intrested in the minis.
Hi @succurso your right. I read the wrong thing somewhere (have edited the story), so this is great for most people these will slot in nicely with their other minis.
Interestingly enough, I’m going to go pick up my rulebook for this game at Gamma Ray Games in Seattle on Tuesday!
I’m very interested in trying it out.
LOVE that mini on the homepage link with the massive gun! awesome
Look like I might have a use for my at-43 stuff after all with there tiles and low Walls 🙂
I can imagine the use of cards to move your minis being quite awkward.
Actually, the cards for movement thing is some thing I thought was cool. In my experience, at least 50% (or more) of the arguments I see in wargaming are about incorrect measuring. It allows no room for slippage of a half inch here or there. But yeah, with terrain, it might be awkward.
After interviewing Keith about the game at GenCon 2010, I got to play in demo later that day or the next. Being a nut for skirmish games, I did really enjoy it. The card mechanic is interesting, but does take a bit of getting used to if you use a lot of terrain. It’s not bad, though, and the rules system is very well thought out. The artwork and sculpts are excellent, of course. I left GenCon with a bunch of the minis and would have left with the book, too, but it was delayed due to Customs or something. Looking forward to getting my hands on a copy from my local shop. Hopefully they’ll be at Adepticon? I’d like to talk to them again now that the book’s out.
This looks pretty cool. I like the small scale of the game. Keeps the costs down. Can buy the entire game for $200 on their website.
Well thanks to your guys report I joined the games community and have placed my order with them as well. Looking forward to reading the rulebook.
I have been playing this game for a few weeks now. I have about a dozen or so matches under my belt and I can safely say that the card mechanic for movement is not an issue in 3d terrain. What people don’t seem to realize is that you can turn the card on its side and use it for movement. Its designed that way, and even shown that way in the rulebook. I have played this game on tables densely packed with terrain for infinity and it worked fine. I won’t lie though, it does take some getting used to. If you do try this game, please please please use the advanced combat rules. It makes all the difference in the work in how the game plays.
Does anyone know why every figure has 3 health except for the ones with 4 and “as tough as they come”?
Does “as tough as…” do anything else besides give +1 blood, or did these guys get a deal on printing?