Legions of Steel Forum
Legions of Steel => General Discussion => Topic started by: sergeant_hastp on March 03, 2011, 02:26:29 PM
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What things can you specifically point to about the Legions of Steel Universe that you really love?
For me, I have always loved the anecdote about how the UNE got the nickname Earth Dogs.
It rings true, both the official 'spin' and the actual event that triggered it.
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Earth Dogs bit (or is that Earth Dogs bite ;) )
That humans are not the top of game in the universe (we have to fight to prove it of course)
Alien history older than human.
Fast play, sensible play and cool figures (drawings).
Dave Chase
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The game mechanics boiled down to just the essentials. One die roll for fire determination but still gave you lots of tactical choices.
The races each had a unique flavor and played differently with strengths and weeknesses but still balanced enough that one race did not overpower the game.
Charles
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I came from 40K, Necromunda, and Bloodbowl, and a diet of sci-fi, much of it mediocre. Here's what blew my mind:
GUNS KILL PEOPLE!
There's a lot of actual dying in this game (as opposed to 40K pillowfights where everyone gets shot 18 times)!
Great Merciful CRAP this game plays fast! Every time I pick up the dice something happens!
So yeah. LOS was fast and tight, and unlike 40K where the blood and thunder is all in the fluff, it felt deadly, dangerous, and bloody in play.
I also liked the pared-down sci-fi that gave enough details for a concrete universe but then left almost everything open for the imagination. It avoided several of the cliches of big-picture sci-fi pertaining to obvious wish-fulfillment "and then aliens showed up and disproved religion/ instituted new totally awesome government run by boffins especially those in the author's field/ legalised pot" although, on the subject of wish-fulfillment, was any of it written by a Canadian infantryman?
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In one of Tom Frank's illustrations he had grafitti that read "Earth Dogs Die Hard!". We all fell in love with the line so I thought it deserved a backstory. With a nod to Porno for Pyros I came up with that little vignette.
When Marco and I sat down to alphatest the rules, we knew we were onto something but - in a grid of hallways with no real cover - it was TOO deadly. Even without suppression it heavily favoured the defenders. Grenades were introduced to provide portable cover and aid in room clearing. The term "Nachtmachers" is borrowed from an '80s indie comic called American Flagg.
At the time LOS was being developed I was a mastercorporal with the reserves as an engineer but I was trained at the Royal Canadian Regiment by the airborne (before they got disbanded). I got my sergeant's stripes a couple years later.
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And yes, the powered infantry battalion is based on a Canadian mechanized infantry battalion circa 1992 with the addition of the commando company, EW troop and assault platoon.
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I like playing with house rules and some of the scenarios that were written by a talented friend of mine.
I also like that the game was versatile for indoor and outdoor settings. Made for some interesting campaigns.
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Another thing that occured to me...
In Planetstorm, there was a little bit of fluff about the U.N.E. being power-armour trained at New Meaford training grounds...aka 'New Mudford'.
At the time of that reading, I was an instructor at the actual, 'original' Meaford training center, and introducing my fellow army instructors to the game.
When I would drive by the old Sherman and Centurion tank monuments from then on, I always used to picture a Heavy Assault Trooper RXS monument standing alongside.
Ironically....I now work in the area of that very base.
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In Planetstorm, there was a little bit of fluff about the U.N.E. being power-armour trained at New Meaford training grounds...aka 'New Mudford'.
I don't recall that so one of us is on drugs.
Mind you, it wouldn't be a bad idea to accustom troops to rather inhospitible conditions.
It sucked because CFTAs have crappy messes.
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I have Planetstorm out in my shed. I can adjudicate this dispute.
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Clark, you are officially on drugs.
*Theatrical Clearing of Throat*
Reference:
Planetstorm book:
Page 58, write up for Figure 10. Heavy Assault Trooper in Behemoth RXS, 2nd Co., 3rd Independent Assault Bn.
Last Paragraph:
"This Behemoth, "Woolly Bully", survived the entire Planetstorm campaign, racking up an impressive number of kills. After a brief promotional tour of Earth it was assigned to the Advanced Power Infantry Training School on New Meaford (also known as "New Mudford), where its original pilot, Lieut.Col.B Woolever was C.O."
I say 'just say no' to drugs.
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Ha ha! I don't remember it because I didn't write it. Brian Woolever was a player and one of our crew at Gen Con. Tom Frank liked to use names of friends and other players for his artwork. He did the colour plates and wrote the accompanying descriptions.
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After a brief promotional tour of Earth it was assigned to the Advanced Power Infantry Training School on New Meaford (also known as "New Mudford), where its original pilot, Lieut.Col.B Woolever was C.O."
No wonder Wooly became so intolerable afterwards. Tom made him an officer! Still trying to figure out what I did wrong to him to get "my" write-up. Kick-ass Hero? No! Unit-saving martyr? No! A treacherous machine stuck in a Pioneer suit?
I mean, it's awesome, but I normally only see the word traitor attatched to my name during a game of Diplomacy....
and now this board.
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So YOU'RE the dirty machine traitor!!!!
LMAO.
sorry. That's a great litle anecdote too. :)
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A victim of Tom Frank's creative evil genius. ;D
There are lots of people immortalized as troopers. Botos "Payday" was a buddy of Tom's. Heavy assault trooper Tia Mohamed of the Misfits is a girl Marco and I met in Australia. Even Steve Patterson is part of Tom and Wes's gaming group. I didn't know this when I turned him into the most bad ass sergeant around. Suffice to say that the real Stevo does not strike one as being a decorated combat veteran, but he did contribute some short fiction to Junction Point. Corporal Street (Scenario Pack, page 33) was Dave Mackay's nod to Tim Bradstreet. I am told that our Fantasian boxer / underwear model (page 51, Alien Sourcebook) has "Calvin Klein" written in cyrillic on his waistband. Tom left a lot of other Easter eggs in his illustrations like Machine control panels playing an 8-track of the Kiss Destroyer album.
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Yeah, I and my friends noticed some of those things. Loved that in the images. It made the game seem more like friends playing together.
Dave Chase
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I came from 40K, Necromunda, and Bloodbowl, and a diet of sci-fi, much of it mediocre. Here's what blew my mind:
GUNS KILL PEOPLE!
There's a lot of actual dying in this game (as opposed to 40K pillowfights where everyone gets shot 18 times)!
Great Merciful CRAP this game plays fast! Every time I pick up the dice something happens!
So yeah. LOS was fast and tight, and unlike 40K where the blood and thunder is all in the fluff, it felt deadly, dangerous, and bloody in play.
I also liked the pared-down sci-fi that gave enough details for a concrete universe but then left almost everything open for the imagination. It avoided several of the cliches of big-picture sci-fi pertaining to obvious wish-fulfillment "and then aliens showed up and disproved religion/ instituted new totally awesome government run by boffins especially those in the author's field/ legalised pot" although, on the subject of wish-fulfillment, was any of it written by a Canadian infantryman?
What frustrated me about "the other game" is that you shoot the SOB and he still runs away. I was one of the best shots in my regiment (but I would be hard pressed to compete with the infantry) and I could knock a Loonie out of a bullseye at 100 metres (50" in game). In close combat you can take out a man in a fraction of a second if you are at 10 metres or less. On the other hand, if you are running about like a maniac and covering -2 then you won't be hitting much if you run into trouble.
I speak through my characters but tried to not construct a universe that embodied all of my views. At this point, I prefer to ask questions rather than give answers. When I am a retired curmudgeon that will probably change, but we have another 20 years to wait for that .
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Yeah, I and my friends noticed some of those things. Loved that in the images. It made the game seem more like friends playing together.
Dave Chase
I had mixed feeling about it at first because it was like he wasn't taking the game seriously. Then I gave my head a shake and said WTF, how serious can you take a game? There is a tension there because I'd like people to take something meaningful away from LOS but I also want it to be good, meaningless fun.
A target would be to create a decent combat simulation that cops and soldiers could learn from. I'm still not sure if that is possible, I know we are on the right track given the response from protective service members who have played.
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Tom left a lot of other Easter eggs in his illustrations like Machine control panels playing an 8-track of the Kiss Destroyer album.
I always chuckle when I see that one. That and what looks like the Mortal Kombat video game on one of the screens in that pic.
I had mixed feeling about it at first because it was like he wasn't taking the game seriously. Then I gave my head a shake and said WTF, how serious can you take a game? There is a tension there because I'd like people to take something meaningful away from LOS but I also want it to be good, meaningless fun.
I would have been concerned about that too - there is a line that can be crossed where getting absorbed in the fictional world is disrupted by silliness. I'll be honest, the one I didn't like was the piece Dave Mackay did of the MkII & the Commando slugging it out over a pile of rubble & body parts. Star Wars Storm Trooper helmets is one thing, but Krusty the Clown's head? Funny but maybe inappropriate? And let me say for the record, I always really liked Dave's art a lot, otherwise. His pic of the damaged Sniperbot head is still one of my all-time favourites, and I also really liked any of his drawings of Nightmares the best.