Assault on Fortress Moon- PulpyRetro Scifi Boardgame with Gusto!

So, we get a lot of requests to review Kickstarters. Honestly, probably enough to make a whole separate channel for them.  Most of them do not have miniatures, and therefore we never show them (because, that's kinda our thing... sometimes I wonder if people read the Blog before submitting). So, I was about halfway through one such email when I got to the sentence "It's a strategic tabletop wargame where retro scifi miniatures fight for control of the Moon!" And just like that, Assault on Fortress Moon has my credit card jumping out of my wallet. 

Come on now, who doesn't want to
shoot their old man with a blaster?

If you're a regular reader, you know I want you to show me something creative in your Kickstarter video.  Give me a feel for why you have a passion for gaming.  That's important.  It's one thing to support someone trying to run a business, but it's far more important to support someone's dream and vision for playing games.  For Alex Huntley of Arcworlde, it's the "nostalgic era" of Wargaming that happened when he was in diapers.  For Sebastian of Cyntopia, it was showing an intro video acted out giving me an idea of what they see in their minds when they play games.  On this project, it's a father and son having fun shooting each other with rayguns.  That. That right there.  The momentary joy you felt even just reading the phrase- that's what Wargaming is supposed to be.  That's why projects like this are worth backing- because they remember to put in a double dose of the fun.

Wimpy mushy stuff over- what's in this one then?  Well, like all good Pulp Scifi it starts with an alternate earth in the fifties.  Ahh, the fifties, when we were expecting hovercars and robotic house staff and the World of Tomorrow by the end of the century.  In this one, World War Two was still going strong, and a combination of advances made during the war and a lack of remaining resources led the superpowers to establish mining colonies on the moon, harvesting a superfuel known as Element X. (Ed Wood would be proud.) Somewhere along the way, the luna colonists decide they have more in common with each other than where they came from, and they basic end the Unending War by shutting off the supply line.  The remaining three Superpowers form together to use their remaining resources to take the moon back.  There's your story.

2-4 players:  Luna Colonists, and up to three Superpowers.  Game length varies based on scenario, with your average pickup game being about three hours. Gameplay is a combination of resource management building, tactical deployment, and combat, with some random elements of cardplay thrown in to make sure the game is never repetitive.

A stompy robot named M.O.M.
You can't go wrong with those!

If you're just in it for the minis (because let's face it, us tabletop wargamers are always looking for more soldierdolls) there's a few good options here.  While the humans and robots are a bit small for 28mm fare (measuring about 25mm), the other game pieces such as the ships will make excellent components for 10mm (I'm looking at you, Dropzone Commander) or even 15mm wargame vehicles.  Additionally, those robots will look positively stompy in anything 15mm, such as Shattered Verse: Resurgence for example.

Okay, so you want to back this one... where's the sweet spot?  Well, at the moment, there isn't much of one.  If you just want to help see this happen but don't care about getting the finished game version, a $25 pledge for Print and Play plus some extras isn't a bad way to go.  If you want the finished product but not much else, $65 gets you there. For the "Kickstarter Exclusive" crowd, the $75 pledge gets you limited content in the form of KS only cards.  There's also an addon of more models from one of the factions for $15.  And really, for a stompy robot afficianado like myself, that's a winner.  $80 for the full game, and an extra set of Luna Faction models for ten more M.O.M.s is a winner.  Depending on your style of game, that $15 to net you ten more SAM tracked vehicles (plus other figures) might not be a bad way to go either. Really, the only wrong pledge on this one is not pledging.

So, all you space cadets, polish up your bubble helmets, drop in your pledge, and prepare for the Assault on Fortress Moon.  I'll see you on the other side of the table.


The Second Class Elitist