Sometimes you just need to run into the woods and hide away from the rest of the world for a few days. Recently, I did just that with Robin and our friends Blair and Tom (visiting from Sweden!). Aside from the usual cabin activities your required to do – build big Jesus fires (a fire so big you look at it and go “Jesus!”), hanging out by the lake and finding all kinds of bones and shells and what not, and generally chilling – Blair and I also figured isolation time was perfect for some kitbashing and gaming action.
I brought up the free rules for Flame of Orion as well as a whole gang of mechs to serve as the base for our kit bashes. Since it was both our first time with the rule set, and rolling on tables is hype as hell, we rolled up 4 mechs each using the Quick Play rules then set out to build them out of the bits we brought with us. As you can see from the pictures below, I think we did a pretty good job. Note – when packing baking soda for weathering/dealing with my dry time impatience, definitely make it look like a tightly rolled up zip-lock bag of a certain illicit substance. Winning move of the weekend for sure.
Along with the rules and stuff for mini’s I also brought the cardboard pack in building from the Battletech Alpha Strike starter set. At home I love a hyper detailed board with all kinds of bits, bobs and textures but for a travel set of terrain these came in clutch. They are detailed enough to be way better than playing with classic tablehammer type terrain made from books and salt shakers, while being super easy to bring with you due to being able to be unfolded and packed back up flat. I’m sure there’s eventually going to be wear and tear from the construction/deconstruction of them over time, but that’s just going to make them more grimdark right?
But let’s talk about Flames of Orion itself and not paper buildings. Flames of Orion is a game of mech based combat under a Dying Sun (I’m sensing a theme with the games I’m getting into this year. I wonder if this sun may also be rotting a bit?) from Steve (of Under the Dice and Hive Scum fame/infamy)that has been kicking around in alpha and beta versions for a couple years, but was recently published in it’s official form thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign. I actually missed out on the Kickstarter, so I picked up a copy from the Under the Dice website once I was able to.
The rules themselves are easy to grasp if you’ve got a bit of experience with skirmish wargaming, and even if you don’t I can’t imagine it would pose much of a challenge. It might just take a bit longer to get into the swing of things, but I can’t imagine that much longer once a round is played and you see the core concepts in action. It’s all the things you would expect a game about big mechs doing battle in ruined cityscapes and desolate wastelands – lots of weapons, the chance to explode not only due to being hit but by overheating, and chain explosions that level city blocks. So many chain explosions.
Blair and I banged out a few games over the weekend, in between the aforementioned cabin stuff, and were able to easily link them together using the post-game rules and making improvements to our mechs between games. We didn’t use the stuff from the advanced rules like experience gain or anything as we both wanted to get a firm grasp on how the game works before adding in a bit more. Now that our knowledge of that is solidified, I can’t wait to start a proper campaign and grow my mercenary company The Choir of Ash into the top mercs working in the Orion sector.
Suffice it to say, I think I’ve found my new hyper fixation game for a while. I’ve already started to build a 2’x2′ modular city board (HEAVILY influenced by the powerful Eric’s Hobby Workshop’s video on how he built his board) to play future games on. Using the offcuts of XPS foam I’ve been exploring the world of building 6mm scale terrain in the form of a bunch of Brutalist style buildings. I’ve never worked in this scale before and so far I’m loving the change in approach to creating terrain. It really lets you create the Mega-City One of your dreams without taking over your entire house with large terrain pieces which is a huge plus for those of us with limited space. You can see my progress spam over on my Instagram but I’ll eventually do up a post about them here as well once I’ve got a decent amount completed.
Check out the free rules over on Under The Dice to get a taste of how Flames works, then hop on the Discord for tons of inspiration and a cool community. Once that’s’ done either grab the full PDF rules that include more art and the campaign or ever better order the printed rulebook because holding a rulebook in your hands will always feel better than reading things off a screen when gaming.
-Scott
Drunk in a Space Hulk 