Mutant Chronicles, the Collectible Miniatures Game: Starter Set
From: Fantasy Flight Games
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
Mutant Chronicles, the Collectible Miniatures Game: Starter Set is a new Collectible Miniature Game (CMG) from Fantasy Flight Games.
I first encountered the Mutant Chronicles line back in ’93 when the RPG was first released. I had the book and a couple of supplements with the hopes of running it at some point but never did, and I eventual sold off my stuff. I had no idea that the game universe would have such resilience. From Warzone, Doomtrooper, a movie coming out and now the new collectible miniature game, it is like one of the mutant zombies in the game. It just keeps coming back, despite heavy competition from its rival’s game setting, Warhammer 40k.
From page #1: “In the distant future, the solar system, under the control of vast financial blocs known as Megacorporations, is on the brink of disaster.”
If you have not heard of Mutant Chronicles, the game universe is very cool. It takes place in the far future, where nations have been replaced with megacorporations. Each megacorporation is modeled after a dominant culture on Earth – Bauhaus, styled after the culture of continental Europe, the American-influenced Capitol, the Japanese-themed Mishima, and the British-inspired Imperial. There are also other factions called Cybertronic (a technologically advanced faction) and the Brotherhood (a religious faction). All factions use private military forces to fight for resources. Of these factions, the CMG Starter Set only includes three – Capitol, Bauhaus, and the Brotherhood – and there is promise for a future release that will include Imperial.
The solar system has fallen into darkness when humans discovered the 10th planet and released the dark legions of the demons. These demons formed their own factions, serving their own leaders. Factions included Ilian, Algeroth, and Demnogonis. The demon faction included in this starter box is Algeroth, with a promise of a future release of Ilian. With the coming of the dark legions came the Dark Symmetry – a disruption of technology that nearly rendered humans helpless and vulnerable. Falling back to old ways technologically, the humans now fight back, while still fighting amongst themselves.
The CMG puts you in this world, with 54mm-scale, pre-painted, well-made miniatures of each faction. The starter box that I received for review included 6 figures – 3 demonic and 3 human. There are also 52 unit reference cards, 46 command cards, 2 order pool cards, 30 order tokens, 8 custom dice, 40 wood tokens, and 10 victory zone tokens. The packaging of this game is odd because it comes with a lot of stuff, so much so it feels like a complete game. This starter set gives you all you need to get started and all you need more of is minis – thus the collectible side of this game.
The figures are highly detailed and well painted and are on three different color stands – Gold, Silver and Bronze – representing the unit’s rank. They range from single hex figures to 2-hex figures. The key aspect of the figures are the different color stands. Instead of point values, armies have a number of different colored stands.
Included in the starter set are Unit Reference Cards. These cards have a summary of the abilities of each unit. The starter set comes with 52 of these cards, one for each different type of unit. I can only assume that these represent future figures that will come out in this release of the game. I also can only assume that if they have a new release, they will have a new starter set or at least card decks. So from the get-go, you have an idea of all the units that will be available in future releases. Like the figure they represent, these cards have Gold, Silver and Bronze markers on them.
Another type of card included in the starter set is the Command Card. There are 46 included in the box, but I can easily more coming in future expansions. These represent special skills or abilities that can be utilized at specific moments in the game, as defined on the card. Once again, these cards have Gold, Silver and Bronze emblems on them.
There are also Order Tokens, which are Gold, Silver and Bronze. These are assigned to units during play and allow units to take Actions. There are 4 basic actions – move, attack, guard, and use special action.
Army Building: In the starter set rulebook, it explains that there are two types of conflicts that the players can engage in – Skirmishes and Tournament. The primary difference between the two are the Army sizes. This is where the colors of the bases and the card’s emblems come in. In the case of the smaller conflict – the Skirmish – each side is allowed 3 of each color – 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze. The starter set is designed to allow you to play a basic skirmish, with 3 units of each color, and it directs you to get 1 of each color Command card as well as 1 of each color Order Token. This is referred to as 3/3/3. In the case of a Tournament game, it allows 10/10/10. However, in either case, the mix of figures, cards, and tokens do not have to be equal. A player can use any mix of the components available to build his army.
Looking at the rules of the basic skirmish the starter set presented me is where I ran into my first snag. Perhaps it was a misprint, I don’t know. For the Algeroth side, it asks you to pull out Flow of Acid (Gold Command card), Invoke Frenzy (Silver Command card) and Dark Aura (Bronze Command card). However, in reality Flow of Acid is a Silver Command card, Invoke Frenzy is a Gold Command card and Dark Aura is a Gold Command card. So I was left confused. In order to play, you need to obviously correct that and pick 1 of each color out of the cards available to you and not follow their instructions.
From page #1: “ Welcome to a universe under siege.”
Game Play: Game flow has a distinct Fantasy Flight feel to it, which is not a bad thing. In a round, Players alternate turns by placing one and then a second order, face down in front of the unit and executing those orders once two are placed. Each side alternates until they either run out of orders or run out of units to give orders. Once all orders are given and executed, both sides pick up the order tokens and a new round begins.
Each token gives the unit a number of actions. The color of the token does not have to match the base of the unit. Gold gives the unit 3 actions, Silver gives the unit 2 and so on. As mentioned above, there are 4 basic actions – move, attack, guard and use special ability. These are all fairly straight forward.
All units have a default movement unless special abilities affect their movement. Movement involves varying terrain as does attacking. The map has fixed terrain features, so I can only assume that either more maps will soon come out or they will release terrain feature tiles to allow you to customize the map. There are hindering features (to movement), blocking features like walls and debris, as well as open terrain. Certain terrain blocks line of sight (LOS) and others simply give a certain amount of cover.
Attack involves confirming LOS, declaring target, declare support units, attacking and tallying the damage. LOS is blocked by a number of things, including friendly and enemy units. Once LOS is confirmed and the target is declared, supporting units that have not been activated and have LOS as well can join in the fight. This reminds me of Tide of Iron in a lot of ways. The major catch is that you must assign a order token to each supporting unit, taking away tokens for later actions. Also, a supporting unit can not act after the supporting action, so it might be best to use Bronze order tokens for this action.
The dice and damage phases of combat involve the custom set of dice that comes with the starter set. This is probably one area that many will have problems with – the custom dice. These dice are similar to dice included in Doom, The Board Game. There are four colored types (a total of eight dice) – blue, green, red and yellow. Blue and green are for ranged combat and red and yellow are for melee or close combat. They have a number representing accuracy and a number of hit burst symbols. Each unit has colored symbols on their card that represent what dice they can roll.
When the dice are rolled for an attack, if the total accuracy equals or is greater than the number of space between the attacker and the target, then it hits. The total damage is the total hit bursts on the dice. I have always liked this mechanic for a board game, like Doom, but I am not sure it will go over well with the collectible crowd. The fact that they can not use any old pair of dice could be deemed a hindrance.
Much of the attack strategy revolves around what dice you are rolling. The yellow and red dice have shorter accuracy values than the red and blue. So one has to be very aware of their units’ capabilities and the type of battle they are good at.
Guard action is like Op Fire in Tide of Iron or Doom. This is usually the last action a unit should take as it can not do anything after being put on Guard. There is a Guard side to the Order Token that allows you to mark those units “on guard.” When an enemy unit moves within range and LOS of the guarding unit, the guarding unit may make an attack, interrupting the opponent’s action. Once the guarding unit has made the attack, then the token is flipped over. At the end of the round, the player has the option of leaving “on guard” units to remain on guard for the next round, but that does reduce the number of Order Tokens one can use for that round.
Many of the units have special ability effects. These vary from a simple keyword or an ability to a unit action. They could be something as simple as Armor 1 or Flying ability keyword. There also can be ability effect like Elusive or Life Drain. Unit actions are abilities that can be activated by spending a number of actions from an order token assigned to the unit.
Command Cards can be played according to the wording on the card. Players can play one per player turn. There is a number of symbols on the side of the Command Card called Command Icons. These must be equal to or less than the number of Command Icons on the unit it is effecting. Some Command Cards have a buy back value, which allows the player to spend a number of Order Tokens to get the card back.
Victory is determined through victory points. In a Skirmish, victory points are gained through killed enemy units. In a Tournament scale game, in addition to victory points from killed units, there are Victory Zone makers that the players lay out before the start of the game. These Victory Zones have their own point values. A third way to gain victory points is through certain Command Cards.
I should also mention in the rules that there is another option for a larger scale game bigger than Tournament, called Epic. These are done with an army built on the scheme of 90/90/90. There are specific rules on Epic downloadable on the web site.
In conclusion, there are good things about this game and there are bad. I was impressed with their presentation and the quality of their miniatures. The painting is well done and looks sharp. The rules system and army building process is elegant and smooth. I really like the simplicity in the army building process. The use of colors is brilliant. I have always loved the dice mechanic since I played Doom, but using custom dice may not be all that popular with the collectible crowd. I can see how this game can grow and get more complex as more cards and more units are brought in. Overall, I liked the game a lot.
The price is a little high for my tastes. The boosters will range between $10 and $20, so this will involve a considerable investment for the fan. However, I would not expect anything less from Fantasy Flight. I am not sure why they went with the collectible model instead of the AT-43 style model but perhaps that was a price issue as well. The AT-43 base set is a considerable investment as well.
For more details on Fantasy Flight Games and their new Collectible Miniature Game “Mutant Chronicles, the Collectible Miniatures Game: Starter Set” check them out at their website http://www.fantasyflightgames.com, and at all of your local game stores.
Mutant Chronicles, the Collectible Miniatures Game: Starter Set
From: Fantasy Flight Games
Type of Game: Collectible Miniature Game
Publisher by: Christian T. Petersen
Game Design by: Eric M. Lang, Nate French, and Christian T. Petersen
Developed by: Nate French
Editing by: Jeff Tidall
Cover Art by: JP Targete
Additional Art by: JP Targete, Henning Ludvigsen
Number of Pages: 31 page 8.5″X5.5″ rulebook
Game Components Included:
- 6 fixed figures
8 custom dice 100 cards full-color double sided map dozens of tokens full-color rule book
Game Components Not Included: Booster Minis
Retail Price: $ 29.95 (US)
Number of Players: 2 or more
Play Time: 60+ minutes
Website: www.fantasyflightgames.com
Reviewed by: Ron McClung