Bangarang Battle Report
Also, a review of the game makes for a long post
In this post we're going to be walking through a game of "Bangarang in the Gutterlands".
Teaching someone how to play a new game, or any new skill really, is best done in steps or steps or stages. We can't expect people to want to play a game that they don't enjoy playing. Having a rule book tossed to you and then getting roundly trounced the first time that you play is not usually a pleasant way to learn how to play a game. Pointing this out to a youngster, showing them how to teach someone else how to do something, is a vauluable teaching point.
There is always preparation work to do, and the game of Bangarang is no different. For this game we're going to want to secure dice and the other stuff listed in the rule book. We will need to at least familiarize ourselves with the rules, and make our bead bots. Taking a look at the rules and the bots that we made in the previous post, we have 7-4 Fin and 1-7 Abel.
7-4 Fin is suitable for a representative of the Bead bots or the Uppers, and isn't modeled with any weapons. We could easily add one, but there are rules in the game for unarmed bots to participate. Let's give those a work out. 1-7 Abel is modeled with a flame thrower and crushing claw. The flame thrower has special rules for us to enjoy as well. Let's get our 'Bot sheet filled out and move on to the arena.
We're going to need a clear, flat, playable area of about two square feet. Outside of that area we're going to need about 6 to 12 inches to store dice, drinks, notes and writing implements. Place terrain in the playing area as described in the rules and get ready to go!
We determined initiative as per the rules in the book. Abel won, which was expected given that bead bots (Fin) start with an extra 2 hit points. One of the interesting aspects of the game is that a player has to declare their actions at the start of their turn, without any measurements being taken.
At this point in the game, the first turn, the bots are out of sight from each other and out of weapons range, so both bots moved towards the middle of the game board. Abel's orders were “Turn left 45 degrees and move forward 3 times”. Fin's were similar, “Turn right 45 degrees and go forward, then turn left 45 degrees and go forward twice.” According to the rules, forward movement is done in 4 inch increments.
Turn 2 was much the same, with the exception being that Fin, being unencumbered with weapons, climbed up onto a bridge. By the end of turn 2, the bots could both see each other but were outside of weapons ranges.
On turn 3, Abel again won initiative against Fin and quickly closed the distance between them. His last action of his turn was to cut loose with his flame thrower, which hit and caused damage, but didn't cause anything “interesting” to happen.
Fin removed the blast marker from the flamethrower hit, moved forward 2” and rotated 90 degrees to the left. He dropped down off of the bridge, passing his drop test. Fin then attacked to grapple, which failed, but did allow him to rotate Abel to be facing away from him. Fin then attempted to bash Abel from behind but failed that as well.
Turn 4 sees Abel win initiative again. Abel's controllers have him strafe right 2” and rotate to the left 90 degrees, rotate 45 degrees more to the left and then fire his flame thrower. Unfortunately for Abel he missed.
Fin strafed 2” to the left, turned 22.5 degrees to the left and again strafed left. This put him into grappling / bashing range. Those two attacks both missed, but Fin did spin Abel around again.
Turn 5 starts out differently in that Fin managed to win initiative. He used that to bash Abel in the back three times. The first one missed, but the second one hit, as did the third one.
These hits caused two rolls to occur on the “interesting things” table. The first one because of the special Junker faction rules and the second one because of battle damage. The first one indicated that Abel's hydraulic fluid leak caught fire. This caused an additional 4 points of damage and a blast marker to be placed on Abel. The second one awakens a part of Abel that had previously been inactive. Abel's player picks 'shield', since Fin doesn't have any ranged weapons and this gives him a +1 to his defense.
On his turn, Abel removed the blast marker and used his remaining 2 actions to rotate 180 degrees to be facing Fin.
Initiative for turn 6 went back to Abel. He fires his flamer, advances 1” and uses his crusher claw. The flamethrower hits doing a point of damage and awarding a damage marker. The claw attack misses.
Fin decides to clear the damage marker, preform a grapple / bash attack to spin Abel around again and then bash Abel in the back again. Abel's player declares “Glitch!”. The order of movement was changed so that the 'remove blast marker' is the last action taken. In my understanding of the rules, that means that Fin can't attack until the blast marker is cleared off. If I'm wrong, please tell me in the comments.
Turn 7 sees Abel again win initiative. He fires his flamer 3 times. The first attack misses. Due to the range being 1”, a re-roll is allowed. On the re-roll, a hit is indicated, although nothing special happens. The second attack is also a miss. The re-roll insists that it is a miss. The player decided to use one of his Junker re-rolls and it seems that fate has decreed that this is in fact, a miss. The third attack is a hit, but again nothing exciting happens. All of this adds up to 2 hit points of damage and 2 blast markers on Fin.
Fin used his first two actions to clear off the blast markers, and the third one to advance 1” to attempt to be close enough next turn to manhandle his opponent again.
Moving on to turn 8, Abel keeps the heat on by firing his flamethrower three times. The first two shots miss, even with the range modifiers. The third one finally connects, and is rather exciting as Fin is afflicted with a 'Dead Leg'. He cannot strafe for the rest of the match. He also takes a point of damage and has a blast marker to deal with.
On his turn, Fin's plan was to quickly removed the blast marker and then attempt to grapple / bash followed by a bash. Fin succeeded in spinning Able around, but was unable to penetrate the new shield.
Turn number 9 sees Abel winning initiative. He uses this advantage to spin back around 180 degrees and then sprayed Fin with his flamethrower. Normally Fin would take 1 point of damage. Instead, due to the Phoenix Protocol kicking in, Fin recovers 1 point of damage and gets an extra action on his next turn. Fin does get a blast marker though.
This has turned into a slug fest! Fin cleared off the blast marker and then proceeded to attempt three bash attacks, the first of which was a grapple attack. The bash missed, but Fin is able to spin Abel back around to allow for the next two attacks to be against the vulnerable rear armor. The second bash missed, but the third on hit. Nothing spectacular results from this attack, but the extra attack granted by the Phoenix Protocol resulted in a hit that did “something interesting” happening in the form of rust bugs. Both bots lose three hit points.
Being the less healthy of the two Bots, Abel won initiative. He did two 90 degree turns and used his flamethrower yet again, but to no avail. Fin used the opportunity to go for three attacks. Abel gets spun back around and Fin is able to widen the holes that he had made previously in Abel's back armor, reach in and yank on something critical, ending the match.
This is my first experience with this game, and here are my thoughts regarding the experience.
All in all, I have to say that I found the game enjoyable.
The setting is quite original, suitable for a role playing setting with a little world building. Using a rule set such as Steve Jackson Game's GURPS.
I enjoyed creating both the miniatures and terrain.
The “you go then I go” game mechanic feels natural and fair.
My biggest complaint with the game is the weapon ranges. A flame thrower literally can't shoot across the street. The average person with a pistol can reliably hit human torso sized targets 20 yards away. Rifles can reach out to 300+ yards and vastly farther with training.
My only other complaint is that small portions of the rules are not readable due to the background art.
Give it a try!