Dark Age Apocalypse

I got a Dark Age Apocalypse rule book and initial thought are very positive. The quality of the rule book is excellent and hard covered to boot. As soon as I read the initiative rule "the player who won may choose to make another player go first and can even specify exactly which Individual or Squad that player must Activate" it brought a smile to my face. Yeah, this is a rule that usually really irks me and lots of systems you HAVE to go first.

Then I read the LOS rule "Some Dark Age miniatures have elaborate poses, which elevate them into the air or lay them flat on the ground. These poses do not apply to any game mechanics" and another smile. A very good start Dark Age rule writers! The rest of the rules seem logical and well thought out. For example; To work out the Target Number for a close combat you add the weapons assault value and the targets defense value (high DF is bad) to get the TN e.g. A warchiefs Halberd (AS = 9) is attacking a Buzz Blade (DF = 4) So the TN = 13. If you roll a D20 and get 13 or under you have hit. If the Warchied had rolled say a 12, then the Buzzblade would have to roll a TN of his armor (14) - Halberds power of 5 = 9 of a D20. Probability is not so good this time (45%) . Also because of the power of the halberd is x2 the buzz blade has to make 2 saves! (20%)

A roll of 1 is an automatic success and a roll of 20 is a critical failure. Another nice rule is the "mal" of the weapon. The "mal" is the Malfunction of the weapon and some are not very reliable e.g. A Bullys Slug Gun has a "mal" of 18 so if he rolls a 18,19 or 20 then the weapon has malfunctioned and the Bully is hit by his own Slug Gun. Bugger.

I have not quite finished reading ( and working out) the chapters on Morale, Casting and Scenarios but there seems to be at least 20 scenarios to choose from. Yeah x2. I hate it when rules books do not have any missions included so excellent work again Dark Age.

So a very good if not excellent rule set. Were the models going to be any good was the next question. I shouldn't have worried. As soon as I saw "Mongo" I was convinced that this could be a very rewarding game to play and at collect.

Also the Skarrd and this guy look pretty mean as well

I have ordered a Dark Age Apocalypse Forcelist so I can work out what to do, but I think the Outcasts and Skarrd look very cool.