Beyond the Gates of Antares

[Chivenger]

Latest episode of Plan of ATK is in my ears and they are talking about Beyond the Gates of Antares from Warlord Games.

The figures look good, and the rules seemed straightforward. What stood out and made me post here is that the action cycle is new to me. Each unit has an Order Die. All the dice for the game go in a bag and they are drawn out one at a time. Seemed like a different idea and could make for some cool, if imbalanced, turns as one player gets a run and then has to suffer the return fire. Maybe like someone with some bad dice in Song of Blades and Heroes...

[jlopatin]

That's also how bolt action\konflikt 47, and test of honor work.

In Konflikt, if you still have order dice in the bag, you can spend one on your opponent's turn to react. It is a neat system, and while I have had some turns where the oponnent gets to move all their guys first, it affords you the opportunity to see their strategy and plan your moves in response. I really enjoy it.

[Eilif]

It can swing a bit, but since every unit get's pulled in a turn, it works quite well and keeps things nice and tense. I'd call it a farily elegant activation mechanic that achieves what it is trying to do. Completely differently in process, but it funcitons as nicely as the SBH activation mchanic.

As for Antares, I read the draft rules when it was first released and it seemed a bit too cruchy. Now that I've enjoyed k47, maybe I'll give it another look, but it's a bit less open feeling than K47 also.

[timlillig]

It has been a while since I flipped through the Antares rules, but from memory they use different types of dice for more elite units, kind of like Tomorrow's War.

I was very interested in it when it was first announced and supposed to have army building rules to use any figures. Since they decided to release their own figures and not support unique armies, I'm a little less interested. I guess I could just use whatever figures I want anyway if we decide to play, so I would try it.

[jlopatin]

I read through Tim's copy, and it sounded more complicated than I was interested in, but if everyone else wanted to give it a go, I would.