An Obsession With Miniature Table Top Games

Copyright DP9 2010

There is always a rush, a sense of excitement when a company whose game your following releases an expansion. The promise of new fiction to read, new units to field and new models to paint, it’s all quite invigorating. It often leaves us fanboys frothing at the mouth, waiting expectantly for the latest serving of make-believe for us to gorge upon. Well that’s how it is for me at any rate; I guess it’s the collector in me.

However sometimes expectations and reality don’t really match up, a worst case scenario would be akin to what happen to that poor sod in the film “500 days of Summer” where he accepts an invite from his ex girlfriend to a party expecting that they will get back together only to realize when he gets there that its her engagement do. Thankfully this is not one of those times, eagerly awaited and released with a slew of accompanying discounts for related products, ODBD is a joy to behold. The book is filled with page upon page of top quality artwork and accompanying fiction makes for a fun read.

Just so no one can accuse me of being biased, I took my time to try pick this new offering apart before embarking on this review. Try as I might there wasn’t much ammo to be found, the worst thing I found was a cumulative error which starts on one of the datacards and proceeds to present itself on every character card in which that model is used and there are only 2 of them. So enough talk about the “issues” with ODBD – every product has them, get over it already! – and on to the unabashed gushing.

Naughty naughty!

First up the artwork in this thing is amazing, DP9’s current resident artist Mariko has done a masterful job of bringing to life the game world through her illustrations. The art is completely different from the dated anime style used in the core rulebook and continues in the direction started in DP9’s previous offering, “Terra Nova Gambit”. One thing I consider to be a nice touch are the photoshoped action shots of the various models. My favourite is the one where a Killer Koala Heavy Gear is unleashing its flame thrower on some poor unseen victim. It my opinion that such quality photo manipulation goes a long way towards capturing the hearts and minds of audiences and is just as important as the game itself.

The new stuff

The old stuff

Next is the diversity of content. For the uninitiated, Heavy Gear started off as an RPG way back in the day. Currently the RPG is in its third (or is that fourth?? I don’t really know nor care) iteration. The reason why I’m pointing this out is because ODBD contains quite a wealth of info for the RPG as well. All the new characters (major, minor NPC and Gears) are fully statted out and ready to play if you swing that way, they even go as far to provide plot hooks for adventurers. Now I don’t play RPG’s at all (unless PC games count), so I can’t really comment on the significance of this addition but I must admit, that being able to flip through all the extra stuff that usually gets cut from a universes wargaming version made for quite an interesting read. I especially liked the piece on the Koala’s development as it gave quite a bit of flavour to what would otherwise be just another squad option.

I found that the wargame scenarios provided with the book were a nice touch. Though they aren’t really campaign friendly, they do allow players to play out significant milestones in the protagonist regiments history. In hindsight I think that this is actually more for the RPG as they tie in nicely with the scenarios hooks and provide interesting center pieces for the more action oriented group.

Burn baby! BURN!

Did you really think I'd let you see the new RPG stuff?

Despite the fact that this book is mainly a Northern release, the guys DP9 were astute enough to realize that it needs to appeal to players of other factions. As such the South and CEF get honorable mentions especially in the “War of the Alliance – aka WotA” section. This in effects opens up an aspect of Blitz that I think a lot of players have been waiting for, for a long time ie historical scenarios. I for one have been scratching my head trying to figure out how to do a St. Vincent’s War era army list just for the fun of it, I’ll probably still have to wait a while for that but in the mean time I can keep myself occupied with all the WotA stuff being offered.

One of the most controversial additions to Blitz in DP9’s last offering was the introduction of special characters. DP9 has continued in this direction for ODBD, a decision I think that will reap dividends in the future. Let’s face it nobody wants to play a game where everyone is anonymous, the addition of special characters adds drama and flavour to any game. Whether you as the player choose to use them or not, well that’s entirely up to you. What I find most interesting about the characters offered here is the fact that not all of them are combatants, in fact I personally feel that the most interesting of the lot are actually the two grease monkeys. Finally a reason for us to go out and buy those Camel trucks

Final thoughts, ODBD is a solid book worthy of the mere USD15 that it cost and the time it takes to download (which isn’t actually that long). Even if you don’t play the North or WFPA especially, this book has a lot to offer as its chock full of pretty pictures and interesting tall tales. If you’re sitting on the fence wondering whether you should get this then stop and go click on that little button that says “add to cart” if only just for completeness.