Introduction to Heavy Gear Blitz!
The following article is intended to act as a basic overview to the game Heavy Gear Blitz as presented in Heavy Gear BLitz: Locked & Loaded. Heavy Gear Blitz! is a fast-paced game combining a lot of modern military concepts with big stompy robots.
Heavy Gear is inspired by anime, specifically grittier series such as Armored Trooper VOTOMS (which was a major inspiration) as opposed to the over-the-top super robot shows. The style of this show and others in the genre is on mecha as fighting vehicles that may be personalized but are ultimately disposable tools.
The story takes place primarily on a former Earth colony known as Terra Nova but extends to other colony worlds and, perhaps, even one day to an earth wracked by war.
History
Heavy Gear Blitz! is the latest wargame rules for the Heavy Gear setting which goes back to the late 90s and has been used for a card game, a hybrid RPG/Tactical game (which had three versions), two computer games, and a rather forgettable Saturday Morning CGI cartoon. (The CGI cartoon is considered a somewhat biased Southern production in canon, and does not reflect the actual game with much accuracy.)
Heavy Gear Blitz! is the newest version and uses similar mechanics to the previous tactical rules but has been edited to truly be a wargame first as opposed to a hybrid which sometimes failed because of trying to do too much. The current rules focus on medium-sized skirmishes of a few Gears, a couple light tanks, and a few squads of infantry working as a combined force.
Heavy Gear Blitz! for 40k players
If you're looking to try Heavy Gear Blitz! and are used to Warhammer 40,000 you shouldn't have too hard a time.
The core rulebook for the game is currently the Heavy Gear Blitz Field Manual. This replaces the earlier Heavy Gear Blitz: Locked and Loaded for the core rules, and both books are |available for free from Drive Thru RPG
. Locked and Loaded is still the current source for Northern and P.R.D.F. army construction rules as well as an overview of the setting.
A 1,000 point Heavy Gear Blitz game is somewhat similar to a 1,000 point Warhammer 40,000 game, but may take a bit longer as individual vehicles move and shoot separately. The Locked & Loaded book includes several 1,000 point army lists to use as a base. Each has 3 or 4 'Combat Groups' which is a squad of vehicles or platoon of infantry. A squad usually has 4-5 Gears, 1 or 2 tanks, or 12 bases of infantry, which represents 40 infantry soldiers.
The Setting
The Heavy Gear setting is pretty deep and complex. before discussing specifics, there's an overall philosophy that it tries to be harder science fiction in both technology and morality. Military technology is relatively realistic and plausible, and the factions fight for reasons that are similarly realistic and plausible. It's hard to say which factions are 'good' and which are 'bad' as this often comes down to relatively fine moral and ethical choices. Even the world-conquering Colonial Expeditionary Force (Earth's unified government attempting to retake the colony worlds) are often painted in a surprisingly good light.
The Heavy Gear setting takes place over four thousand years in the future on Earth and a handful of colony worlds. Mankind has reached out to the stars but never quite built a steady interstellar civilization. Political strife has caused the residents of Earth to turn inward and isolationist and the colony worlds were left to survive for centuries without support from home.The colonies were isolated and grew into strong, independent worlds with their own unique nations, cultures, and technology. The CEF unified the Earth and has attempted to retake the colonies with mixed success. Their worst defeat was on the colony of Terra Nova, where the CEF forces were forced to abandon a massive force as they were driven from the system.
Terra Nova is a harsh but livable world that has been tamed by the inhabitants. The world is dry, but habitable regions with temperate climates exist at each pole, and much of the populace is clustered in city-states at the poles. This has led to the CNCS, the Confederated Northern City States, and the AST, Allied Southern Territories as the world's superpowers. Between them is a massive band of desert known as the Badlands, home to a range of small independent city states including the industrial paradise of Peace River, the CEF encampment of Port Arthur, and countless smaller settlements. The polar superpowers recently fought a massive war that ended when Peace River was devastated by a antimatter bomb planted by the CEF. A hasty alliance is formed and the Terra Novans are striking back at the CEF, who are about to make a second and stronger attempt to invade on their own.
Armory
The Heavy Gears of the title are the Terra Novan's favored military units as the 4 meter tall humanoid walkers are relatively cheap and multi-purpose. Gears have a role in battle between tanks and infantry as quick, sturdy striking units. The North, South, and Peace River each have their own unique designs, and many designs have optional equipment. The primary Gear designs of the Hunter, Jager, and Warrior are rugged and easy to modify, spawning dozens of specialized variants for special battlefield roles. Special chassis have also been designed for tasks such as recon and fire support as well as dedicated 'commando' designs built to be air-dropped behind enemy lines. A unique feature on most Gear designs is the SMS or secondary Movement System: the gears have powered wheels on their feet allowing them to move at high speeds on roadways and other smooth terrain then switch to walker mode to move into broken terrain.
A key concept is that Gears are not overwhelmingly powerful: they're a balance point between Tanks and infantry. They are not as cheap and flexible as infantry, but mount heavier weapons and armor. They are not as well armed and armored as tanks, but can maneuver in built-up terrain and are cheaper than the heavy armor.
The Heavy Gear world extends beyond the Gears, however. Besides tanks and infantry, the Terra Novans also field Striders: large walkers on 2 or 4 legs designed to carry heavy weaponry into terrain no tracked vehicle could make it into.
The colonies and CEF have unique designs of their own. The CEF is known for it's powerful Hovertanks and has recently added Battle Frames to it's arsenal. The Hovertanks were serious threats in the first CEF invasion as they combined high speed with powerful turreted weaponry. The Terra Novans had to use squadrons of Gears in 'wolf pack' tactics against the superior threat. The Hovertanks are much more vulnerable in built-up areas, however, and the CEF has added battle Frames to the force. The Frames are humanoid walkers built with a technology acquired from conquered colonies and Terra Novan Gears captured in battle. They have powerful hover-based SMS to keep up with the tanks and can mount the energy weapons favored by the CEF.
The colonies are slowly being covered. The newest book provides details on Caprice's own Combat Mounts: 4-legged walkers built to handle that world's harsh surface and crowded multi-level city. Future colonies may include smaller 'power armor' units, massive tanks, or stranger things.
Books & Rules
The newest version of the Heavy Gear Blitz! rules can be found in Heavy Gear Blitz! Field Manual: Core Rulebook Companion, meant as a low cost update to the previous version, also provided for free to anyone who purchased the eBook of the previous edition, Heavy Gear Blitz: Locked & Loaded. That iteration, also contained the 'army lists' from the three supplements for the previous version. A major 'army list' expansion was also released titled Black Talon - Return to Cat's Eye. This book includes new army lists, vehicle specifications, and rules for several factions as well as moving the story forward.
The core rules are written cleanly and concisely in less than 60 pages which includes some 'full game' stuff beginners will likely skip and campaign notes. The remainder of the 200 page book is the army lists, background, and reference material.
The game is built around individual units (a single vehicle) which are grouped into combat groups. There's no forced coherency, but certain rules make coherency desirable at times. Each unit has it's own statistics which are detailed on cards included with minis or downloadable from Dream Pod 9. Units have an armor value, maneuvering modes (with a chart detailing the attack and defense modifiers at the three speed bands) and a list of weapons with all modifiers calculated and details shown to minimize book lookups.
The game uses alternating activations by combat group. Units can move and taken a number of actions in a turn (as noted on their card). Actions can be used to move at top speed, activate special gear, or to attack. Attacks are an opposed roll: The attacker rolls a number of d6 dice equal to their attack skill, the defender rolls a number equal to their defense, and the highest die of each is modified (with modifiers) and compared. If the attack roll exceeds the defens roll, a 'Margin of Success' or MoS is calculated by subtracting the two. An interesting twist is that damage is determined by multiplying the MoS by a weapon's Damage Multiplier. This means that a better attack roll means a better hit and both players are kept in the game due to rolling defenses and the alternating activations. Also, the resolution of an attack is two rolls.
The damage is compared to the unit's armor and does light (damage exceeds armor), heavy (twice the armor), or overkill (three times the armor). Units generally have three boxes for damage, but particularly tough or vulnerable units may add or remove boxes. Light and heavy damage remove one or two boxes respectively but an overkill result kills a unit outright. A big part of the game is managing modifiers: Moving at top speed can make a unit difficult to hit, but lowers that unit's attack rolls. Special modifiers can be stacked to make an attack better. For example, a Combat Group's leader can order concentrated fire, the units can get a crossfire bonus, and units can use Target Designator special equipment to set up a strong 'kill shot' from a unit with a weapon like an Anti-tank missile launcher.
The Heavy Gear setting has always favored realistic combat (as much as you can when Big Stompy Robots are part of the setting), and there are several rules that encourage this feel. Units can Forward Observer to guide indirect fire weapons and off-board artillery. some units have Target Designators to go beyond this and paint a target for precision guided weapon strikes. The army has Command Points which are spent to get rerolls, give units extra actions, or other special maneuvers.
Many of these special features trigger Comm Events, which is a special system to simulate the feel of a modern (or futuristic) environment in which communications are jammed. Units can communicate with nearby units easily (encouraging, but not demanding, coherency) but communicating with units outside this range (inclduing off-board assets like artillery and air strikes) requires a roll which can be opposed by units with the ECM perk. This can turn into a sort of duel as other units use their ECCM equipment to help defeat the ECM.
Air cover is part of the game rules based on 'Support Points' which are used to buy various assets not covered by the normal point system (Threat Value) such as bunkers, off-board artillery, or extra command points. Air cover assets are abstracted (at the scale, a bomber's attack run would move over the battlefield in a fraction of a turn) but represented by markers on the board. Bombers are lethal to the heaviest ground units, but have limited attacks and can be countered by enemy fighter strikes.
Miniatures & Factions
The miniatures for Heavy Gear are mostly metals with some larger pieces done in resin. Most Gear miniatures are shipped in multiple pieces: A single leg casting, a torso, two arms, a head, and the distinctive 'v-engine' backpack as well as appropriate weapon sprues.
Most miniatures are sold in either single packs, two packs, or squad boxes. The squad boxes are usually the best deals, but some lists may require unusual combination of Gears and equipment not available in the boxes. Additionally, some upgrade pieces are only found in the squad boxes. Dream Pod 9 does do a component service of some player requested popular parts, and also has pictures of what every model ships with in their online store.
Factions
Building a Heavy Gear Blitz! army is much like other games. Squads are selected to fill an agreed-upon Threat Value (values of 500-1500 are common) and squads have a wide range of options to add additional members, swap vehicles for other optional vehicles, and add skills and equipment. A couple interesting twists to the process are Veterans and Priority Level. Each squad has a second set of options labeled 'Veteran Options.' These are only available if the squad is declared a veteran, and there are a limited number of veteran squads available based on the army's Priority Level (PL). PL is used to provide something similar to the 'force org charts' common to Warhammer 40k, but with a big difference: PL1 is a garrison or disfavored force with limited access to high-end units, veterans, and such. Their requirements are heavy on Core units. A PL4 for is intended to represent an elite 'action movie' team with lots of high-end units and veterans.
PL matters because in the full game a higher PL 4 gets more support, but must fulfill more objectives to beat a lower PL force.
Northern Guard (NG)
The Northern Guard is the allied army of the Northern leagues. This faction can take limited units from the other Northern options (below) to take advantage of their special rules and has some special rules if the optional morale rule is used. They are a somewhat balanced force with a preference for guided weapons.
Norlight Armed Forces (NAF)
The NAF comes from a league of city states known as the Northern Lights Confederacy and is characterized by strong religious beliefs, something that has been extended to all northern armies. The NAF takes this very seriously, though, and can field a chaplain or a warrior-monk in a Gear to raise morale and beat things with a stick.
United Mercantile Federation Army(UMFA)
The UMF is known for taking capitalism to an extreme, and as such their army tends to field a lot of locally-produced advanced Gears.
Western Frontier Protectorate(WFPA)
The Western Frontier Protectorate is often seen as the 'poor cousin' of the other Northern Leagues. It has a somewhat unusual culture compared to the rest of the Northern leagues, as the populace is organized into clans that handle a great deal of issues internally. Also, a policy exists that only those with previous military service can vote or hold office, so much of the League is disenfranchised. While a large percentage of League residents are serving in the WFPA, it is a cash-strapped force and often uses older designs instead of the newer equipment.
Allied Southern Territories
As in the North, the southern Leagues banded together for safety and survival. Unlike the North, the Allied Souther Territories are often considered to be merely puppet-states of the leading nation, the Southern Republic.
Southern Republic Army
The pride of the Southern Republic is the SRA, a force dedicated to honor. This force is well-equipped and well-trained: many units have access to certain specific Veteran upgrades without requiring a Veteran slot. However, this can make the SRA a bit inflexible as it must take expensive upgrades that other armies can forgo.
MILitary Intervention and Counter Insurgency Army (MILICIA)
The 'allied' force of the South is the MILICIA. While staged as the equal to the Northern Guard, the MILICIA is often seen as a 2nd tier army when compared to the prestigious SRA. Officers who dishonor themselves in the SRA may find themselves reassigned to the MILICIA and placed in command of squads of convicted criminals! In it's more admirable moments, when convicts are not in use, the MILICIA has a great feel as a testament to all who have served in infantry forces and similar. They're in the military to protect their homes and families, not for prestige or honor.
Humanist Alliance Protection Force (HAPF)
The Humanist Alliance is a caste-based society. All citizens are tested and assigned to a role as a Preceptor (Scientist/scholar/leader), Protector(military/police), or commoner (everyone else). Everyone is expected to work for the greater good. The League is known for quietly developing several high-tech projects with minimal Southern Republic supervision. Early in the storyline the HA is devastated by a disease known as the 'Theban Blight' which strangely seems to prefer to infect Perceptors. This provides justification for the Southern Republic to move in and take complete control of the nation. A small force of Humanists loyal to the old government continue to fight to free their league.
Mekong Dominion Peacekeepers (MD)
The Mekong Dominion is much like the UMF in the north with a similar focus on capitalism. Inf act, the MD maintains only a small army as it feels it is better to conquer by buying unfriendly nations. Still some military might is needed and it comes in the form of the Peacekeepers, an order of samurai/police that maintain order int he Dominion. The Peacekeepers have one of the few special melee upgrades in the form of Vibrokatana they can equip Gears with.
Eastern Sun Emirates (ESE)
The ESE is a feudal culture: Nobles known as Emirs rule territory and owe fealty to the Patriarch. The ESE is open civil war after the Patriarch declared that he would cede his throne to his last living relative. Some Emirs seek to place themselves or a favored relative of the Patriarch on the throne while others back more sweeping changes to the League. The ESE has no formal army, but the Emirs are each expected to field armies and, due to the civil war, most do. The ESE has access to older designs but it's most interesting twist is that the army selects another faction with which it has ties with. This faction provides support and so an ESE faction may have a squad of Heavy Gears from a Northern or Peace River army in it's ranks!
Peace River
While Peace River tries to stay neutral, it has a difficult time doing so, especially when the CEF invaded. Peace River's controlling military- industrial giant Paxton Arms developed it's own line of Gears to reduce dependencies ont he polar powers. Peace River's armed forces are extremely well-trained and well equipped, but are a bit expensive as a consequence. Due to Paxton's delayed entry into Gear design they an choose to field either polar Gears or home-grown designs for some specialty roles.
Port Arthur Korps (PAK)
When the CEF realized their first attempted conquest of terra Nova was doomed to failure, they retreated and took as much equipment and personnel as they could. Unfortunately, the troop ships did not have the capacity and a massive force was abandoned. They took over a town the CEF had used as a foothold and renamed it Port Arthur in honor of their commander. The Terra Novan armies were too fatigued from the war effort and were unable or unwilling to assault the fortified community that was still well equipped. The community prospered and it's military, the PAK, expanded to maintain the peace in a small nearby region. Over time, they gained a measure of acceptance and are even seen as the rightful government by Badlanders who have prospered from the new-found security. PAK fields the hover tanks and GRELs of the CEF, but also fields Gear squadrons built from salvage and black-market purchases. The GREL infantry and pilots are showing signs of strain from the long deployment without the expected maintenance the cloned soldiers require and have become a bit unstable, however.
The Leagueless
Additionally, there is an army lsit for those wishing to play badland raiders, small-town militias, or others who don't fit the established lists. The Leagueless list is much freer about selecting vehicles than the polar lists but there are strong limits on support options.
CEF
(New in Black Talon - Return to Cat's Eye)
The true CEF are gearing up for a second attempt at conquering Terra Nova. This lists resembles the PAK list but shows the full might of the CEF. The list has the standard CEF Hover Tanks along with the new Battle Frames and the newest iteration of the GRELs: the upgraded FLAILs.
Caprice Liberati/Corporate
(New in Black Talon - Return to Cat's Eye)
Caprice is dominated by corporations and most of these have, officially, pledged loyalty to the CEF who occupy the inhospitable world. They can be fielded as their own entity or as part of a CEF force.
There are also the Liberati. Originally the term applied to the nomadic wasteland families that offered their services to corporate concerns, the term has now expanded to include all who fight against the CEF forces on Caprice. These forces can ally with the Black Talons.
The two forces are similar, but a few rules do separate them: The corporate forces tend to be better trained and equipped, while the Liberati make do with equipment they're able to scrounge or steal.
Black Talons
(New in Black Talon - Return to Cat's Eye)
When the forces of Terra Nova make a truce, Peace River unveils a daring plan to strike back at the CEF. This plan is the formation of the Black Talons, an elite force that is sent to Caprice and other colony worlds to help others fight the CEF and delay the next wave of attacks on Terra Nova. This is an expensive force of elite pilots in highly customized machines.
The Scale Change
The first Heavy Gear miniatures were done by RAFM in the mid 90s and were roughly 1/87th. These miniatures were much larger and the acuracy and detail generally less than the current line. At some point in 1998-1999 miniatures were brought in-house and the scale changed to 1/144 to make them easier to use and cheaper. This was, of course, not a popular decision with quite a number of people.
Almost all miniatures have been revised and updated for Heavy Gear Blitz! In general, weapons have been replaced with chunkier versions that are less likely bend or break under use. The designs of old and new miniatures are very similar, although there's been some size changes to make the bigger Gears 'bigger' and the smaller Gears smaller to exaggerate the difference a bit.
The CEF Hovertank minis were originally created for the Hex-based Tactical rules and were replace with newer, larger, more detailed sculpts. However, the old minis are still usable and have been recreated as a 'Light' hovertank model, which also gives the CEF a bit more variety. Similarly, the CEF Frames were redesigned to look better, but a list of 'standard proxy assignments' allows them to continue to be used.
Building an Army
As mentioned above, an army is built to a specified Threat Value. The Priority Level may be fixed if players agree, or it may be something each player can decide on. Fixed PL games are common in tournaments, or other situations where certain rules may not be used, such as a recommended beginner's game. PL2 is the common option.
If the PL is fixed, then squads are selected to fill the required slots: Combat Groups are marked as Core, Special, Auxilliary, or Elite and a Combat Group may be marked as available to several factions, but in different slots. If PL is not fixed, then the list-builder can run wild, but should probably keep the PL requirements in mind.
Each Combat Group has a specified TV cost for the standard loadout, which is usually 4 or 5 Gears. Recon squads get lighter chassis while dedicated assault squads will be based around heavier chassis equipped with larger weapons. Each Combat Group entry has a selection of options ranging from additional weapons to adding new vehicles to the Combat Group. Some of these can even lower the price of the Combat Group. Most Combat GRrups have a section labeled 'Veteran Options' that provides additional options. To sue these, the Combat Group must be noted as a Veteran group, and Veterans are limited by PL.
Once this is complete, additional squads can be added until the desired TV is met.
Each Faction has several rules that can alter this process slightly. Some provide additional options: For example, the UMF is where the Jaguar is produced, so it has easier access to that design. Others are more drastic: The WFPA is short on funds, and must make several cost-reducing replacements in certain squads. The ESE, as an even more drastic example, has an 'honor guard' that dictates the structure of the rest of the army as well as a rule to represent ties to other factions which allows them to often take a single unit from another faction.
Fun Stuff
Links
http://www.dp9.com/
Gear Garage Army Builder: http://www.dp9.com/geargarage
Big Stompy Robots
"Big Stompy Robots" is a term common on the Dream Pod 9 forums used to indicate the necessary suspension of disbelief that allows for discussion of 'realism' in a setting where 4 meter tall humanoid walker robots are common military vehicles.