I have been a fan of David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series for a
long time now. Pretty much as long as I've been a miniatures gamer in fact.
So it might seem curious that I only recently got the official Hammer's
Slammers miniature game, don't you think?
The thing is I was curious about when I heard the initial news, but the plans to do it in 28mm did not really match my vision of Slammers combat and the multiple publications got a bit confusing. Then I pretty much missed the publication of the final definitive version until the whole history of the game line was a subject of an article in Miniature Wargames magazine.
The article got me interested in the subject again and I promptly ordered Hammer's Slammers The Crucible.
First Impressions
The final definitive "everything and the kitchen sink" -edition is
a heavyweight full color hardback book and it is absolutely gorgeous
to look at. Considering the production value presented here I have
absolutely no beef with the price. You can get a whole lot less
for the same money.
The book is lavishly illustrated with quality photos of superbly painted miniatures in addition to drawn art. In addition some of the photos have been retouched to add powergun beams etc. Nice touch.
Contents include general background, history of the Slammers, unit details and listings for more mercenary companies and other combatants than I can reliably count, the actual rules and a modelling section by none other than Kevin Dallimore himself. There are also cut-out unit reference cards but I will much rather download these from their website than mutilate my book.
In Use
I've yet to play an actual game, but at this stage I don't really care.
The book is worth the money simply as a reference work on the Slammers.
The stunning photography and modelling section are an added bonus.
But how about the rules? They are a pretty basic d6-based affair, with emphasis on troop quality and leadership. There is an endearing dearth of special rules, which I like.
I can not help but draw comparison to Flames of War. The basing is similar (individual vehicles and fireteams of infantry), the forces are roughly similar size and there is some similarity in basic mechanics. Slammers is, however slightly simpler in basic rules and lacking the quagmire of special rules FoW has.
The real beauty of the rules is in the command mechanism.
Forces are divided into detachments (small games can be a single
detachment on each side). Each detachment gets an allocation of
leadership points to actually move its fireteams and vehicles (tactical
units or TUs). A TU may be moved multiple times at increasing cost
and leftover points can be saved for special effects like calling
in artillery strikes. Each TU within the detachment acts individually and
there are no cohesion requirements.
As better quality troops have smaller detachments and better leaders, they are able to move much more coherently and effectively while large low quality formations will struggle to get everyone moving. They can still shoot, which makes them useful in static defense.
There are some bookkeeping requirements as vehicles can suffer permanent damage effects and infantry stands can get multiple suppression markers.
It should be noted that the game features many units with
weapons that can shoot literally into the stratosphere. This is a
feature of the setting and I'm glad to see it wasn't dumbed down
for the game. Consequently you will need lots of line of sight
breaking terrain or the games will quickly devolve into boring
dice-offs.
Slammers has always been about the armor and the role of infantry in this game is to get shot. A lot. Don't underestimate buzzbombs, though, they are among the best anti-armor weapons in the game.
All is not happiness and sunshine in slammerverse, though. The ordering of the book is a bit odd as the unit listings ("army lists") appear before the actual rules, so you end up reading pages and pages about TUs and LV scores before they actually bother to explain what these terms mean. Some color choices make certain bits of text a bit hard to read. And especially given that this is an evolution version, some more editing might have been nice as there are e.g. some contradictory passages in the text.
But these are all minor quibbles. This is not a competetion rules set where being able to refer to the exact wording of subsection 13.4.56. is paramount.
Verdict
The only real question about this game is the question of scale. Which
scale figures to get? Official Slammers vehicles are available in
28mm, 15mm and 6mm though they are only really needed for the Slammers
themselves. Other sci-fi vehicles can be used for everything else
just like they have done in the book itself.
There is only one example scenario in the book, but as I see it that's what the original stories are for.
This is not a generic sci-fi rules set. If you have no interest in the Slammerverse, go read one of the books. Then if you still have no interest, you are probably better served by some other game.
Hmmm... don't I actually already have a pile of 15mm infantry with low-tech assault rifles and buzzbombs?
maxxon
Sucks!
