Review - WtNW: Conflict on Mars!

After the reviews of When the Navy Walked by ArmChairGeneral, the full ruleset and Quick Play, it's time for a look at Conflict on Mars!, the imminent first supplement.

It's worth noting the document I have access to is a review copy only, so specific details of content and layout may change prior to release, which is due in around a week.

For those who are new to it, When the Navy Walked is essentially three things.

First, it's an evocative and challenging Victorian and Edwardian sci-fi setting, steampunk blended with the sword and planet and lost world genres. Second, it's a low-downtime, command-driven ruleset for wargaming in a range of scales. Third, it's a useful unit and army construction system, an alternative tool kit for the creative wargamer.

Conflict on Mars! manages to offer something new in each of these areas.

Since the very earliest read through the game background I've been interested in the supplement for the first aspect most of all. ArmChairGeneral's participation in the A to Z Challenge has kept the attention and given us lots of new material, covering subjects running from the men and their machines, through prehistoric creatures and Atlantians, to aliens and exotic technologies; overall more insight into the WtNW universe. Conflict on Mars! goes a step further in breadth and depth, and in fact what really stands out about the supplement is its scope, and the sense of a living world.

The well-written, four-page History of Mars section begins big, with a creation story, the introduction of a supreme Intellect and existential threats to the Aether and Void in the form of the Dark Ones. It moves on quickly through the creation of the telepathic and amphibious Skvani - ocean-dwellers on a still far distant Mars - the attack of the Lalk and the production of the slave race of the Grays. Again, those challenges.

An immense disaster has this unfamiliar Mars made a wandering world, travelling through the Aether conducting horrific experiments in search of new life, and eventually arriving at its new home in this galaxy, leading to a cuckoo-like destruction and the relocation of a formerly dominant lifeform to the centre of the Earth and to Venus...

The subsequent Cataclysm - reflected in the optional rules - sees new post-apocalyptic civilisations founded by the slave races of the Ruan, the Gaal, the Askavaal and the Balee, otherwise known as the Red, Green and White Martians and Beastmen. With the Grays, these make five of the six new game factions introduced.

Into this mix come the colonisers of late 19th- and early 20th-century Earth, which sees their introduction to lighter-than-air gaswood, but also leads eventually to the Red Wars and, unforeseen, the return of the Overlords, that sixth faction.

All of the six factions get their own dedicated description too, four illustrated with simple, but engaging black-and-white drawings. The proportion of the book dedicated to this gives it more the feel of a roleplaying sourcebook than a wargaming supplement, though it fits well with the WtNW approach to force creation, more of which later. There's certainly plenty of inspiration for designing new units, and scenarios too.

But we do then move into the rules, and here get one or two surprises.

First of all we have two new classifications - Creatures and Behemoths - more or less equivalent to Machines and Capital Units, with terms changing from mechanical- to organic-sounding, and two new tables later in the document to better reflect the nature. There's the usual full definition for each, but fortunately little extra to learn.

We also get fully new mechanics in several areas, with combat between flying units, a new order to issue and a range of optional rules.

The aerial combat rules cover Grappling, Boarding, Melee, Scuttling and Prizes, and a timely example removed my one concern about clarity. These mean pure air battles become more viable and fun, though do need a little recording of relative strengths on board each vessel, if not on paper then perhaps with spare counters or unused models.

The new order is Recon, a useful option which allows units equipped with the 'Ranger' Edge to scout beyond command range. It not only adds character, but gives a useful 'fire-and-forget' capability to a stretched commander.

The optional rules cover several subjects, one of which is no less than an alternative approach to the command system at the heart of the game. It removes the random element completely, as well as the need for division, eliminating the fractions and the problems they can bring. How you feel about this will depend on how you feel about chance in wargames in general. For me, a healthy dose of frustrated plans is a good thing, but I appreciate the speed of the new approach. The alternative also includes a simple rule for taking rank into account, which ought to mean fun as losses start to tell.

That this alternative should be here at all is interesting. It arguably makes playing with Conflict on Mars! forces easier, but may simply be the result of feedback. Of course, the approach also makes the supplement useful to players not wanting the Martian factions, which is a shrewd move, especially given the likely price, low enough to tempt all parties into the buy, as with the choice between the full rules pdf and Quick Play.

The remaining optional rules are Mars-specific, and simple and characterful again, for weather conditions, the lower Martian gravity and quicksand. What adds to the fun is the knowledge that this is not the Mars we know, but one truer to the pulp fiction.

Next up are the scenarios, six of them, and as might be expected these give more insight into the wider game world, and ways the game might be played. There are colourful maps like those in the Quick Play pdf, but for me these are even better. They are clear in what they show, bright without being garish and evoke the colours and textures of this view of the Martian landscape, and the urban areas are especially well done. One map even shows a palace with radiating streets, heavy with structures.

Here most of the scenarios have extensive force lists for easy checking, though the full pdf is referenced too. There are units for all of the six new factions, including some of those Creatures and Behemoths - tripods too - as well as Earth forces. It's hard to look through the names and equipment and not want to get straight to work modelling them. ArmChairGeneral has been heading off this need recently too, and if you follow his blog you'll have seen and heard about various options, including original WtNW miniatures.

I'll say here I like very much the approach to lists, which is the same as in the earlier documents. Rather than fixed units, true for every army, the supplement gives us those used in these particular cases, and if we want to see them as standards we can, but can equally well use the construction rules in the full ruleset to create our own takes.

Lists and tables aside, Conflict on Mars! is rounded out with another hefty dose of the colourful Edges and Flaws, i.e. modifications to units raising or lower base points cost. Some are universal, limited by unit type, while others are specific to new factions, again making the set as a whole potentially useful for all players.

One final point worthy of mention is the artwork produced for the project by Scrying Eye Games. I've used two of the pieces here, with ArmChairGeneral's permission. As can be seen, it has a great antique feel, suggestive of etchings, and it brings a darker mood. I've mentioned the homebrew effect of the earlier elements in the system, but that's much less obvious this time round. The leatherbound effect on the cover works well too, and even the design of the page edging is a variation on that in the earlier documents. In the few months since I first looked at an ArmChairGeneral product, things have come a long way. The ambition isn't letting up and the results are clear to see.

I can only finish by saying how impressed I am with what Conflict on Mars! manages. For its size and apparent simplicity, it offers an extension to the game world with a long history and a vibrant present, fleshes this out with immediately useable units, scenarios and supporting elements like the weather and low gravity, and even expands the basic system through the rules for aerial combat and options for command.

Those options may hint at ongoing development, but as with any game of the complexity of When the Navy Walked, potential for tweaking is almost a given, and recognition and rapid improvement by the designers can only be a good thing. The player base is also likely to be the kind that tweaks and has tweaked various aspects to match personal preference. Key of course is the fact that these remain options only, no more than alternative ways to play the game.

In summary then, as an addition to a wargamer's armoury - and a pulp sci-fi fan's mental furniture - I feel Conflict on Mars! does deliver, and it certainly represents a sizeable step forward in the development of When the Navy Walked as a setting, system and brand.

Details of release and pricing I don't yet know, but I'm sure ArmChairGeneral will put the information out as soon as it's final, and you can keep up to date with developments as ever through the blog, website or page at Wargame Vault.

Update: Layout changes have been announced. I've seen at least a part of the borders
             mentioned and they are even more evocative than those in the review copy.

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