Adepticon 2019 Wreck Age

Wreck Age game with 7 other player review….or…..Why playing with 7 other people really kind of sucks.

I saw an opening to try a post-apocalyptic sci-fi mini combat game called Wreck Age. The game world sounds very Fallout but without super mutants, VATS and the associated accoutrement.

Game play was described as a D6 system with rolls made from various character stats. There are turns where players activate a single model at descending initiative steps. During you turn there are a myriad of activities to do: fight, shoot, search, climb, run, jump, throw ,interact with objects and….pretty much anything you want to try with your little miniatures. At least that is what was happening during our game. I had the pleasure of being the only sober person who had never played before and soon that would become both a blessing and a curse.

The game info

The game objective was to meet and speak with some travelling reporter who was just lucky enough to happen upon a town full of various warbands. By doing this your warband could gain points toward victory. There were also secret side objectives each warband would receive on turn two that when achieved would score points. There were  also chances to get points by trying to kill the reporter, trade with the reporter or kill anyone the reporter had interviewed. 

We are farmers. DA, DA, DA, DA, DUM

Warbands were chosen. I didn’t know/ care what to play, so I was given a group of farmers. I was facing off against some crazed drug carnival guys, another group of farmers, some feral beast handlers, a high tech security force, a super scientist/doctor and his flesh slaves, Wreck Age’s version of the Adeptus Mechanicus, some type of not Necromunda  Goliaths and finally a wasteland squad of police.  Players deployed and I chose to turtle up in a corner since I wasn’t sure who to play and what all my little force could do. I wanted to be defensive and just react a bit on turn one. That was my plan anyway. I did get a quick once over of my force with; a two hand grenade guy, a shotgun guy, a sniper rifle guy, an actual mule and then a guy with a beatin’ stick. 

GAME ON….or…..when this all turns to loud drunks trying to talk over each other

I quickly learned that playing defensive was a descent plan. Five of the warbands turned on each other right out of the gate. The feral warband, and my farmers devised a tenuiois alliance to just stay away from each other and the rest kill themselves off. The scientist/doctor guys did their own bit of exploring…like he had played before and knew more about what was going on than everyone else. The combat started. The over talking/ yelling started. I was confused about all the rules. The guy running the game was basically herding cats….then it was turn two. Everyone receives their special objective and the game continues like turn 1. Actually the game really continues to be a mess until the end. It was really just a lot of shouting and a few drunk guys not remembering if they activated guys, what turn it was, who their characters were, etc.  

Woo is this jerk coming around the right side of building?
 No idea, but a shotgun blast to the face will fix whatever his problem is.

Free sight to start shooting everyone else!

First hand grenade toss to wipeout that mess in the middle

All I know is that I had to get points. I was told my pack mule could be filled with stuff and moved off the board for points. That meant I took a turn searching a building and loading “gear” I found onto said mule. I was told I found 40 points (of what seemed a totally random number from the guy running but whatevers). Donkey was ushered off the board to safety. I had my sniper take position in the second floor of a building and began sniping other players, the reporter and people she had spoken too for more points.  My secret objective was to get at least one of my guys into another player’s deployment zone by the end of the game. I managed to do that as well for more points. As we hit the last turn I made a run with my hand grenade guy toward the reporter and two interviewees. The plan was to lob my last grenade and take out all three of the people there for more points. Well that was until  the wasteland police force tossed a stun gas grenade at me and a rest of the people in the area. Of course we all failed the check to not get knocked out. The game ended with me sitting on 160. I thought I was sitting close to the top with scores. 

A cop tosses a stun gas grenade and knocks us all out. What a prick!

The game ended and the guy who won was rocking 200 points!?!? How? What? Why?

Whatever.

Hell, even the next two guys down were 180 points each. What were they doing? What did they do?

Whatever.

By the time it was done I was actually really glad it was just over so I could just get away from these three drunk a-holes.

Wreck Age thoughts?

It seems like it is potentially a good miniature game. However, I’m not entirely sure how it is played, and what can be accomplished/done during the game. It seemed that the guys who played before knew what to do vs. me and the drunks who were pretty clueless to the actual gameplay.
The dude running the game seemed like he was just making up numbers on the fly when it came to stats, rolls needed to hit/wound/etc., the amount of points from searching for and or doing special stuff. It was very unscripted. I have no idea if that is part of the game too or was just something he was doing.

The miniatures aren’t stellar for this game. They need a lot of work. If I was interested in this game I would probably use the minis from that Eden game. They are post apoc world and would fit Wreck Age really well. Plus they would look 1000x better.

There might be a fun tabletop mix of RPG and combat game here, but I’m not sure if I really experienced it properly.

Quick Aside…..

I love the fact Adepticon is very lax with booze at the event. I enjoy the fact I can game and openly drink in a pretty chill environment. However, the downside is you might get a game where three guys are blitzed, confused and yelling over each other while playing. This would be the downside of being very lax with booze at the event.