So in most things, the sports teams I cheer for, fishing lure companies I tend to support most, and the board games I promote most, I am fiercely Canadian.
But, when it comes to miniature wargaming, the Canadian options are a bit limited.
That said, Canada is home to one of the best miniature gaming companies put there, Dream Pod 9.
Dream Pod 9 has been around for some years now, and while not as well-known as say Warhammer, or WARMACHINE, but they probably should be.
The idea of massive mechanical robots piloted by soldiers for maneuvering the behemoths into battle is an area of fantasy studied in some detail through Japanese fiction. Anime (cartoons) such as Gundam Wing comes to mind when thinking about 'mech' madness.
If you like the idea of your forces girded in armour, sporting huge swords, massive pistols, and shoulder mounted rocket launchers then Dream Pod 9 is going to be right up your alley.
Blitz is a re-working of an older miniature rule set, and that is usually a good thing for newcomers to see as a re-work tends to weed out glitches encountered with an earlier effort.
While 'Gears' are the heart of the gaming system, the forces are bolstered by vehicles and army forces to give players a full range of tactical options on the miniature gaming table.
Dream Pod 9 miniatures are in 144th scale, so the 'Gear Mechs' are about the size of regular army men in the more widely seen 1/28 scale. The 144th scale keeps cost down, and still offers tons of nice detail on the 'Gears'.
The starter kit has both the core Heavy Gear Blitz! Locked & Loaded rulebook and the more recently released Field Manual rules supplement.
Getting both rule sets certainly let's players get a solid understanding of the Heavy Gear game mechanics. If you are an experienced miniature war gamer the mechanics will come to you easily, and for the newcomer, the rule sets are pretty straight forward.
If you do run into a question the game is supported by a forum through the Dream Pod 9 website where fellow games will help you get through any rough spot you encounter.
The rich history of the Heavy Gear universe is also in the Locked & Loaded rulebook, while in the core rulebook are complete army lists for four of the core factions in the game as well as rules for running campaign and objective based games.
The campaign rules are a huge advantage to Heavy Gear, something The army kits are a good value with a bunch of minis and accessories to flesh out one of four different armies in Heavy Gear.
But back to the starter kit. It also includes four D6 dice and a measuring tape, so really do get everything to play.
Dream Pod 9 supports Heavy Gear well too, with new units coming out over time and a magazine Gear Up! covering their full range of games.
In addition to Blitz which allows battles from small skirmishes to large format armies, the Heavy Gear world also offers 'Arena', essentially one-on-one mech fights in an arena setting. It is a great option at a much lower investment.
Highly recommended, and being a Canadian company you are supporting is just a big bonus.
Check it out at www.dp9.com If anyone is interested in this game, or other board games feel free to contact [email protected]
