Playing Rivet Wars

Last weekend I played a new game! Rivet Wars this time. If you never heard about it before, how to explain...

Well, a pic will do my job better than any words:

 

Weird World War I in cartoons

 

My mate recently got the game and the silly, cartoony aspect of it totally made it worth of a view! The minis are not exactly chibi style, but quite toy-ish, remind me of videogames of old.

 

Tiny, adorable enemies

Quite steampunk too

This WWI parody faces the Allies and the Blight through trenches all over Rivet World. Our first introductory game made us familiar with the basic rules:

 

Tiny war

The turn sequence is quite easy, you deploy, fight with your units, then move the survivors. Depending on the profiles of each unit, you attack with a number of dice. You hit the enemy on a 5+. That simple.

 

Die! Die by my die!

 

This is a bloody massacre!

As you can see, the game has quite a flavour to tiny oldschool videogames, with units advancing and getting stuck in the trenches.

 

Hold the line! Hold the line!

 

The profiles are quite easy to apprehend, so it is all just a matter of properly deploying your units and having good luck with your dice. Allied infantrymen are quite balanced soldiers, while Blight Panzerfausten (is that spelled right?) are more anti-tank oriented, but Blight vehicles are more anti-infantry designed where Allies have heavy mortars, for example. Both armies have specialised units for each role, so the game is fun and balanced.

Once we got the basics, we decided to play a full game. The difference is that you draw some special cards at the beginning of each turn. You have two decks for that, one for secret missions (so you have to accomplish them without the enemy knowing a thing about that) and one for special actions, allowing you determined features for your units. The rest of the turn is just the same.

We chose the 'Death from above!' scenario. Let me transcribe the introduction:

A gallant young officer of the Allies has formulated a daring plan, using the new dirigibles to drop men behind the enemy lines and take them by surprise! The senior staff reviewed the plans in their subterranean command bunker and agreed that it's worth the risk.

So, under this premise, we deployed our troops. Blight can deploy up to 6 points (each kind of unit costs a determined number of points) and Allies can deploy up to 4 points, but can additionally deploy 3 riflemen in any grid (but beware! They will scatter a little...)

 

Ooops! Were we supposed to land here...?

 

Allies managed to deploy their special character, the M2 'Wolverine' armour (on the left of the pic), an infantry meat grinder

 

I'm a mix of Mr. Potato, Iron Man and Captain America

Blight deployed their special character, Jager Erwin Konig, a dreadful sniper, and managed to hold the position:

 

They keep comin', we keep shootin'!

Mr. Potato Murder-o-Matic 1900's series

 

Luck plays quite a role in this game, one turn the Allies were taking over the enemy positions, the next one Blight smashed Allies and regained the positions.

 

They killed Kenny! The sniper has killed Mr. Potato!

 

So it was quite a balanced battle, getting new reinforcements each turn, wave after wave.

 

Static frontline. It's WWI after all

We also were having a draw with victory points!

 

 Then the Blight Empire decided to deploy their truly killer machine...

 

...the Sturmpanzer!

 

Here you have an example of what I was saying before:

 

One minute the Allies have their ranks depleted...

...the next one they have the trench crowded again...

...just to get killed again another minute later.

 

The sniper was finally taken down

But victory was in the Blight's hands by now

 

So this was the game, I hope it helps you to make an idea of it! I actually enjoyed it a lot, the dynamics are quite simple (funny thing, this is the first game where I've seen that you shoot first and move later on), there is a lot of action (a lot!) as there is a terrible number of losses every turn which get replaced by the next wave (just imagine the guy with the whistle calling for the reinforcements) and you get a lot of fun, really!
The aesthetics can be an issue for some people, I know, but I believe the design is just part of the appeal of this game, I find it really funny!

Of course I know what you are about to say... I played with unpainted minis! Sob, sob, I just can't keep the rythm, but I promise I'm not idle! These minis will get onto my workbench as soon as I have the chance...