by Zac Belado

AE-WWII is a Weird WWII ruleset developed by Darkson Designs and meant to be played using Darkson’s range of “true” 28mm Weird WWII miniatures. AE stands for “Alternative Events” and the game is set in an alternate reality where the events of World War II have been altered by advanced science and the discovery of alien technology. WWII is still being fought past 1945, with a variety of bizarre and horrifying new weapons and genetically altered creatures and humans. The book contains army lists and unit details for the Americans, Germans and Soviets. The 176 page perfect bound full colour rulebook is available from their online store or from other retailers (online and local) for $39.99 US.

The World of AE-WWII

In the world of AE-WWII the war is fueled by technological developments created in the US by Nikola Tesla and in Germany by a scientific revolution brought about by the discovery of an alien spacecraft in Poland. Soviet Russia has fewer technological advancements and instead defends itself with the burgeoning population of psychically active Russian citizens who can turn the power of their minds into weapons. The game is populated not only by soldiers with their familiar Garands, MG42’s and M2 mortars, but also with Tesla Pistols, Rocket Packs, mechanically altered apes, powered armour, robots and paranormal troops.

The first 38 pages of the book examine the background and history of the game and the introductory sections for each faction also provide more detail about the particulars of that nation’s weapons and institutions. The fluff for AE-WWII is quite well written and very engaging and I found that I had quite a good time just skimming through these sections and soaking up the background of the game. The timeline that starts on page 30 of the book helpfully places the alternative historical elements in italics so you can see how the design team has worked their new elements into the actual history of WWII. Even better, at least to my mind, is that some of the more interesting elements in the game such as the Soviet Chuman, half ape half human trooper, are based on actual research that the Soviets attempted. Nothing makes fiction more plausible that an insertion of bizarre reality.

The background makes for good reading and the historical material in the book fits in well with the actual historical events while still providing story options and hooks for the addition of pulp sci-fi weapons, genetic experiments and other goodies. I am not sure which of the writers was responsible for putting this material together but it works well and is fun to read. Most importantly, in game terms, is that it is consistent and provides the required suspension of disbelief that allows you to put giant apes and robots on the field with your American GIs and Wehrmacht troops.

The book

The book itself is perfect bound and printed on semi-gloss stock. The paper, and cover, is slightly thinner than the stock used in, for example, some of the Privateer Press books and that, combined with its size, actually makes it easy to keep the book open at a page without having to crack the binding. The rules and background material is book-ended with a table of contents, reference sheets and, that most important of items, an index. The cover of the rulebook depicts two American troops fighting on a bridge and really gives no clue to the actual contents of the rulebook. It is visually striking but it seems odd that the cover isn’t more indicative of the game.

The book is liberally illustrated with photos of painted Darkson Designs miniatures, colour and black and white concept art, archival photos from WWII and a few photo collages used to help evoke the era. In general the photos are a touch too small for my taste, as they don’t often show the miniatures in enough detail with the exception of the photos in the Faction listings. These are all nice minis so why not show them off? The artwork is all top notch and quite good but it is restricted to the background and faction sections of the book. Most of the photos are “in game” shots and show the miniatures being used on the tabletop with some terrain from Eslo and Pegasus Hobbies.

All of the pages have a medium brown background texture that can sometimes make the pages a bit difficult to read. Especially when combined with the semi-gloss paper stock used. Some of the pull quotes and sidebars are also printed with an even darker brown background that makes the problem a little worse. There is also a bit too much white space between paragraphs, which sometimes provides visual potholes for your eyes as you are reading. The book also doesn’t have any visual clues to help you navigate through the book making it occasionally difficult to find specific sections of the rules.

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Darkson Designs has really aimed high with the production values for this rulebook. The photos are all vibrant, the artwork is very good and professionally done and the book looks very good, but it sets a bar for itself that it doesn’t quite deliver due mostly to the issues mentioned above. Part of the problem is that the expectation for the design and layout for a professional game rulebook has now been set ridiculously high by Privateer Press. Darkson appears to be trying to produce a book of similar quality and it is no surprise that they don’t quite hit it out of the park like the design team from Privateer Press do. Despite my comments this book compares very well with most other rule books on the market.

A slightly more pressing problem is the organization of the book. The rules section flows very well but some information critical to actually building your army and selecting a scenario are split into different areas of the book making it a bit more difficult to assemble your force for a game. You need to jump around the rulebook a little more than I think is necessary and given that it is often a bit difficult to navigate through the book this can sometimes be a bit frustrating. If you pick up a copy I’d recommend getting some Post-It bookmarks for the rulebook to mark out sections of the book.

One of the more interesting aspects of the book was the background information for the war and each faction. I actually had quite a bit of fun reading through this fluff. It is quite well done and I was actually surprised by the amount of detail presented for the game as well for each faction. There are several short stories in the rulebook as well and I wasn’t as impressed by them as I was by the “nonfiction” background sections. Not that there was anything wrong with them but they didn’t capture my interest as much as things like the history of the German Sonderbuero 13.

The rules

The rulebook is broken up into 4 sections:

• History and background (38 pages)
• Core rules (70 pages)
• Faction lists (56 pages)
• Lexicon, index and reference sheets

The Core rules are then broken down into nine sections:

• Characteristics
• Game Play
• Movement
• Combat
• Morale
• Vehicles
• Force Organization
• Scenarios & Objectives
• Campaigns

All units in the game are defined by seven stats:

• Movement (M) - This number represent the number of inches that a model may move for each action point (AP) expended for movement purposes.
• Ranged Combat (RC) - This attribute is the soldier’s ability to strike an opponent using a ranged attack. When no number is listed, the unit or character in question has no ranged attack. Unlike most other attributes, the lower a model’s RC, the better.
• Close Combat (CC) - This is a model’s skill in fighting when things get up close and personal. It represents both his defensive and offensive capabilities when up close.
• Armor (A) - Armor is the amount of protective gear and natural ability to avoid damage that a model possesses. This number may be modified by cover and other factors during game play.
• Strength (S) - The physical strength of a model. This attribute determines the damage a model inflicts when striking an enemy in hand to hand combat.
• Drive (DR) - This number expresses the soldier’s motivation on the battlefield and ability to continue fighting even in the direst of situations. Any model with a Drive of zero routs and may surrender to the enemy. See the Morale section for more information on Drive and its effects.
• Wounds (W) - Some models are able to sustain a number of injuries before being removed as a casualty. When a model suffers its last wound, it is removed from the battlefield.

The number of action points that a model has in the game is not a statistic but is instead dependent on the training level of the model. Units in the game can be Green, Regular, Veteran or Elite giving the model from 1 to 4 APs per activation, respectively. Units are also defined by their role in their faction. Units can be Infantry, Support, Specialist or Experimental (the genetic abominations, Tesla weapons or Psi units). Additionally some units are marked as being Individuals. These units are leaders or lone wolf characters that typically act alone in the game but can also join other units to assist them.

Models in the game can also have special abilities, such as Command or Flight, which give them additional options. There are only 19 of these special abilities in the game for units (a little over a page of text) and most are self-explanatory so they don’t overwhelm the game. Most units do not have one and the majority of units that do have them only have one or two. There are very few units that have as many special rules attached to them as you would find in a game like Warmachine or Confrontation.

Gameplay

The game is played with each player taking turns to activate a detachment (consisting of one to four models) and spending the Action Points for each unit in the detachment. The APs from one model do not need to be spent all at once so you are able to do things like move all the units in a detachment to get them into cover and then fire with them all. Models can spend APs to move, fire, Sprint, Charge and also use them for special abilities such as Command, which raises the Drive of nearby models. Movement rates for most units are small, 3″ usually, and so the Sprint option allows units to move up to three times their Move value at the cost of all of their Action Points. This also means that many units can only slowly advance if they want to fire and that often models spend a lot of time sprinting from firing position to firing position.

The Charge option is similar to Sprint but it allows a unit to attack a model via Close Combat and gives the charging unit a +2 modifier to their CC and S values for the first round of close combat. Terrain rules in the game are relatively simple. Terrain can block movement entirely, can be Difficult Terrain (like rubble or low walls) that applies a half movement penalty or can have no impact on movement. Units that Sprint or Charge can only do so in a straight line and cannot enter Difficult Terrain during the movement, so no sprinting over a wall.

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Ground units have a forward and rear arc. Models can only fire at targets in their front arc and while they can engage units in their rear arc in close combat they do so at a disadvantage and cannot wound those opponents. Models can change their facing once in their activation without the expenditure of APs but further changes require the model to spend 1 AP to turn up to 180 degrees.

Combat

Combat, both ranged and hand-to-hand, is a fairly simple process. With ranged combat a player needs to roll greater than or equal to the unit’s Ranged Combat (RC) value. Firing at more than half the range of the weapon being used by the model adds an additional +1 penalty to fire. There are no other fire modifiers. Cover comes into play to increase the target’s armour value. If a unit hits a target with a ranged shot the weapon’s damage value (typically a D6 plus a static value, 4+D6 for example) is used to determine the final strength of the shot. The player controlling the target rolls a D6, adds the target’s Armour value and also the cover value of any terrain the target is in. If this is equal to or greater than the final strength then the target is safe. If not then it takes one or more wounds.

Units in AE-WWII typically only have one wound unless they are a large creature like the Storm Ape or Buffalo Power Armour, or Individuals who typically have two wounds. If the final strength of a shot or close combat attack is 11 to 14 then the attack does two wounds, if it is 15-19 it does three wounds and for every five points above 15 it does an additional wound. Most weapons in the game only use a single D6 to determine the final strength of their fire but some, like the Bazooka or Panzerschreck roll 2D6 and so can easily begin to take out vehicles or large units quickly.

Close combat proceeds in a similar fashion. Units in close combat roll a D6 and add their CC stat. The highest roll wins the combat and then gets to roll another D6 and add their Strength stat to determine the final strength of their attack. The target of their attack rolls a D6 and adds their armour in an attempt to ward off the blow. Units like the Storm Ape are quite deadly in this sort of situation; with a charge they can roll a final strength value of 14 which is enough to kill Individuals outright.

Weapons

Weapons in the game are rated for range (in inches), Strength, Rate of Fire and can also have special abilities assigned to them such as Move and Fire, Reload and Indirect. For example the stats for the US M2 60mm Mortar are:

Range: 48″
Strength: 5+d6
ROF: 1:2
Special Abilities: Cumbersome, Indirect, 1½” AoE, Reload, Spotter

Rate of Fire indicates how many shots are fired per AP spent firing the weapon. So the M2 requires 2 APs to be spent in order to fire a single round while the German MG42 has an impressive ROF of 5:1 giving it five shots per AP spent. There are 12 Special Abilities that apply to weapons such as Armor Piercing, Reload and Indirect.

There are 33 weapons listed in the game from generic pistols and Grenades to Browning M2s and Tesla Pistols and Soviet Psi-cannons. It is a decent armory for a game considering how many different units are presented in it but if you are a more experienced WWII gamer you may find the weapons a little generic and may find the list a little limited.

Morale

The real core of AE-WWII is the morale system and how it impacts gameplay. Each unit has a Drive (DR) statistic and during the game this value is lowered or, less frequently raised, by game effects. If the value falls to zero (it can never go lower) then the unit routs off the table or surrenders if it is in close combat. There are several ways in which a unit’s Drive can be lowered permanently:

• If the unit loses a model all models in that unit have their Drive lowered by one
• If an Individual loses a wound its Drive is lowered by one
• If a unit is removed from the game as a casualty then each remaining unit in the game has its Drive reduced by one

Units can also have their Drive temporarily lowered by being attacked by a Frightening unit, having a friendly unit in rout, being hit by a Terrifying weapon (such as a Flame Thrower) or by some other Special Abilities like Inspire Terror. Temporary Drive reductions last until the effect is no longer in play or until the unit’s next activation.

Unlike many skirmish or small scale games where morale effects are often limited to a single model or unit, in AE-WWII the effects of morale can ripple through your entire army and you often find yourself, during a game, worried as much about keeping your troops together as you do the scenario objective. There are no “cannon fodder” units in the game. The removal of a unit due to casualties affects your entire force and units routing can cause the rest of your army to break off. This adds an extra element to your decision making while playing and combined with the scenarios in the rulebook makes for a very tense and exciting game.

In our test games I did notice that we often would attempt to affect units in such a way as to reduce their drive or cause them to rout. This seems “gamey” when you think about it but I never found it to be when actually playing the game.

Vehicles

AE-WWII also includes rules for adding vehicles to your games. Vehicles are modeled with the same stats as units with the addition of a Handling (H) stat that determines how easy it is to maneuver the vehicle. When a vehicle turns or runs through Difficult Terrain (or other models) it uses its Handling stat to determine the success of the action. If the vehicle is wounded the Handling value decreases making it more difficult to steer and drive as the vehicle is damaged. Vehicles can be enclosed, open topped, allow for passengers and even have their own dedicated commander.

Vehicles have their own crews, as defined in the vehicle stats, and these can be Drivers, Gunners or Loaders. Unlike other units in the game crew are only allowed to spend APs to perform actions related to their tasks. So Drivers can spend APs to move the vehicle, Gunners to fire and Loaders to reload weapons. To simplify vehicle activations all crew have to spend and resolve their APs at the same time so actions that cost multiple APs, like Sprint for instance, only take effect once the rest of the crew have finished spending all their APs. Models outside of the vehicle are not allowed to draw a line of sight to crew models unless they have a special ability that allows them to do so (such as Snipers). Models can draw a line of sight to passengers in open top vehicles but those passengers benefit from cover.

Unlike ground troops vehicles have four arcs, front, left, right and rear, and some weapons are limited to fire through specific arcs. Each vehicle receives a number of free 90 degree turns equal to its current Handling value and these can be used at any time during its movement to turn the vehicle.

During its movement a vehicle may be required to take a Handling check if:

• The vehicle moves over difficult terrain.
• The vehicle performs any turns during the Sprint action
• The vehicle rams an enemy model or obstacle

When taking a Handling check the player needs to roll lower than or equal to the current Handling value on 1D6. Failing to do so means that vehicle breaks down and needs to be repaired.

Vehicles can engage in combat by either using their weapons to shoot at targets or by attempting to ram opponents. Ramming uses the same process as the regular close combat rules but if the vehicles target wins the roll it has the option of diving out of the way to avoid the vehicle.

The core AE-WWII rulebook has stats for 7 vehicles:

• Jeep Light
• Cargo Truck
• M20 Armored Utility Car
• M2 Half-Track Car
• SdKfz 250 Light Armored Car
• SdKfz 221 Light Armored Car
• BA-64 Armored Car

Sadly, due to a lack of appropriate vehicles we were unable to test how the rules worked in the game. I blame a lack of a decent selection of diecast toys in Canadian toy stores.

The core rules do not have stats for anything larger than armoured cars so you won’t be able to play any games with StuGs or Shermans unless you make your own stats. Also given the relative strength of tanks and infantry support vehicles the addition of these to the game may require some tinkering.

Building an army

One of the more interesting aspects of AE-WWII is the detachment system that is used to build your force for a game. The rulebook defines 8 different types of detachment that can be used a templates to create a force. You can pick from:

• Cavalry Detachment (primarily vehicles)
• Command Detachment (more Elite and Veteran units)
• Experimental Detachment (more Abominations, Tesla Devices or Psi units)
• Infantry Detachment (troops, troops and more troops)
• Motorized Infantry Detachment (troops and vehicles)
• Reconnaissance Detachment (troops and scout vehicles)
• Support Detachments (more guns)
• Veteran Detachment (fewer troops but better quality)

Each detachment gives you various options for building your force. The Detachment Compositions determines how many units are in the detachment and what troop quality they are. The Heroes entry tells you how many of your Individual units can be upgraded to Heroes. There are Restrictions for each detachment that limit the number of Support, Specialist, Infantry or Individual units in a detachment as well as a Vehicle entry that lists the types and number of vehicles available to the detachment if any. Each detachment can take a differing number of Special Orders and finally each detachment has a different set of Options that allow for the force to be customised.

Here is an example of the Command Detachment listing from the book:

Detachment Composition
1 Elite Selection, 2 Veteran Selections, 2 Regular Selections

Heroes
Two Individuals may be upgraded to a Hero, as long as those Individuals have this option.

Restrictions
At least half (round up) of the units in a Command Detachment must be of the Infantry, Specialist, or Support troop type.

Vehicles
Command Detachments may select any one vehicle with the Light Command role.

Special Orders
Command Detachments may select two Special Orders from the following list: Artillery Support, Broken Axle, Change of Orders, Coordinated Attack, Daredevil Driver, Faulty Technology, Fix Bayonets, Jury-Rig, Keep Moving, Miscommunication, Momentum, Scouts, Spy, Stragglers, Surrender, Surveyed Ground, Take Cover and Tertiary Objective.

Options
Players have the option of removing two unit selections and exchanging each of them for the following: another unit selection of a lower Training Level, upgrade an additional Individual to a Hero, an additional Special Order, upgrade an existing unit’s TL by one (Green to Regular, etc),

The Special Orders are picked from a list of twenty described in the rulebook. These are army wide “feats” that can be used once per game to delay enemy units deploying, drop an artillery barrage, change your opponent’s objectives, make your troops activate twice or try to make an enemy unit surrender. They are dirty tricks that you can play on your opponent but unlike Feats in Warmachine and Hordes these are rarely game breakers and are more “road bumps” for your opponent.

Typically each detachment is able to have one Hero and then has a varying number of Elite, Veteran, Regular and Green troop options that can either be used to “buy” units or can be traded in to upgrade units. So the same Detachment template can be used to build an American Command Detachment that has a Jeep, two Heroes and some Regular troops that are upgraded to veterans or to build a German Command Detachment with two heroes leading a mass of troops. Each army has a specialist model, such as the Mad Doktor for the Germans, which allows them access to Experimental units in Detachments. So you can build a German Infantry Detachment but use the Mad Doktor to add Emaciated Troopers or Storm Apes to the force. This simple mechanic helps to balance out these units and still allow you to access them regardless of the Detachment type you are using.

The detachment system follows the design methodology of the rest of the game in that it provides a simple mechanism to create a distinct and unique force without a lot of complicated rules or point costs. In fact there are no point values in the game at all. The detachment system works without any recourse to points. Units are rated by their Training level (Elite, Veteran, Regular and Green).

This is no small feat, if only because we gamers appear to be fascinated with point values, but it appears to work. None of our test games were unbalanced and there don’t appear to be any real balance issues with the units and vehicles listed in the rulebook.

Factions and units

The core AE-WWII rulebook ships with three factions; Germans, Americans and Soviets. Each is defined by a distinct technological path that they have followed and informs their choice of units in the game. The Germans have used the alien secrets they have found to experiment on humans and animals to create physical abominations. The Americans have their troops bolstered with scientific creations based on the work of Nicola Tesla such as Powered Armour and Robots. The Soviets have their own brand of human hybridization but primarily rely on the psionic abilities of their troops to overpower their enemies.

The three factions are introduced with an extensive introductory section that describes the background of the country and the factors that lead to the development of their particular technologies and units. As with the rest of the rulebook this material is well written and engaging. Each section also has hints about possible units or technologies that we may see in future AE-WWII expansions. Each faction has between 13 to 15 units:

Units can be Infantry, Individuals, Specialists, Support or Experimental (Tesla Devices, Abominations or Psi). These categories are used in the detachment templates to limit the types and number of units that a player can access. Experimental units typically require the “purchase” of another unit like a Mechanic or Mad Doktor, Support units are restricted to one per three Infantry units and Infantry and Specialists have no restrictions. In addition the Detachment can place additional restrictions on unit purchases such as allowing no vehicle upgrades, setting a minimum limit on Infantry purchases or lifting the limitation on Experimental units. The number of models in a unit varies based on the base experience level of the unit. So Regular units have two models, Green have three or more and Elite and Veteran units have one model. If you upgrade a unit it does not decrease the number of models available.

Each unit is defined by the number of troops, the weapons they carry and the Special Abilities they have as well as upgrade options for the unit. Upgrade options include things such as increasing the Training Level of the unit, swapping weapons or allowing an Individual to become a Hero.

The “weird war” units in the game are unique and interesting and the rest of the factions are rounded out with Regular and Green troop and support choices based on the historical armies. Darkson Designs has done a good job of defining a focus for each faction and sticking to it with their new units, while still making the game seem based on WWII. The Germans still have MG43s, Wehrmacht troops in feldgrau and Volkstrurm troops. The Americans are lead by Airborne troops and GIs. The fact that these units are then accompanied by Storm Apes, Robots and Rocket troops doesn’t take you totally out of the WWII setting but still adds enough “weird war” elements to the game to make it stand out.

At the time of writing this review Darkson does not currently have miniatures available for all of the units listed in the game, but is releasing new models every month. Rumour has it that the Soviets will see a few new figures in the next few days. Until they do though you will have to make due with proxies for some things like the Rohlingsoldat, dog units and some of the troops.

Scenarios

A game of AE-WWII begins with determining what type of scenario you are going to play. These can be either Planned or Unplanned scenarios. Planned scenarios represent engagements where both sides are aware of the upcoming battle and Unplanned scenarios are fights that one or both sides stumble into unaware. Aside from the thematic hooks these scenarios are prepared for in two different ways. If you are playing a Planned scenario you first choose the scenario, choose attacker and defender, build your army and then deploy. In an Unplanned scenario you first pick your army, then choose a scenario, choose attacker and defender and then finally deploy.

Each scenario has a Primary objective. This is typically a contested objective such as control of a terrain piece, protecting a unit or moving units off the board. The onus is typically on the attacker to achieve the Primary objective and if this is not completed then the defender is judged to have obtained it. Each player also secretly picks a Secondary objective before deployment. There are generic objectives, such as assassinating a unit as well as faction specific objectives such as field testing a Tesla unit by keeping it on the table for the length of the game. Players show these objectives at the end of the game to allow their opponent to see if they were successful in attaining them. The elimination of the enemy is a final objective and if you manage to eliminate, as casualties, two-thirds of the opponent’s troops then you can claim this Attrition objective. Only one player can claim the Primary objective but each player can claim their Secondary objectives and it is theoretically possible for both to also claim the Attrition objective. The player who claims the most objectives at the end of the game is the winner.

The rulebook has twelve scenarios, six Planned and six Unplanned, and there are quite a few different types of missions available to players including terrain control, escorts, foraging, capturing enemy units and bunker assaults. For the review we played the Push the Line, Last Patrol and Welcome to Hell scenarios. The latter is an Unplanned scenario which is played on a battlefield that is being bombed by aircraft. The scenarios all appear quite fun and are very simple with no complex rules or victory conditions.

The rulebook also contains an extensive campaign system, with suggestions for building a structure for your gaming, with a sample map based campaign that revolves around the American attempt to retake the city of Nyons.

Playing the game

Play in AE-WWII uses an alternating activation with players taking turns to activate a unit and spending APs for each of the models in the unit. Since models do not have to spend all of their APs before moving or firing with another model in the same unit it is easy to have your troops do things like dash across a road and then fire all in unison. As befits a WWII game there is a lot of ranged combat with players hunkering their troops down in cover while trying to suppress their opponents or moving forward to try to attack in hand-to-hand.

We found that we needed a fair bit of cover to play the game. Almost every unit in the game has a ranged weapon and many weapons can fire multiple shots per AP spent (some MGs can fire four or five) so there is a lot of lead flying in the air during the game. Our first test game was spent with an amount of terrain suitable for Warmachine and we found that troops were quickly being shot down. Our subsequent games used about half again as much terrain, including some suitable sandbag emplacements, and found that the game played a lot better.

The combat system, for ranged and close combat, is very basic. There are not a lot of modifiers or special cases in the game so it doesn’t take you very long to master the rules and concentrate on playing. Despite the use of a D6 system the game doesn’t have that feeling of sameness about the units that afflicts some games such as Lord of the Rings. This is mostly due to the addition of the “wierd war” units to the game but also because of you ability to upgrade models when building your army.

Most units in the game have a 4+ or 5+ Ranged Combat value making hitting with weapons at range rather rare. Suppression is a very effective tactic in the game especially for units with 5+ RC values. Artillery, grenades and mortars are, to my mind, a bit too prone to deviation and are often quite ineffective. Mortars and artillery are also unable to suppress models which further limits their use in the game.

The morale system manages to dominate the game without doing so in an overwhelming manner. You need to mange your troops and keep their Drive levels up or they will rout or surrender. At the same time you are trying to lower your opponent’s unit’s Drive to push them off the battlefield. Despite the rather gamey aspects of some of this it actually appears to work well. Your army will flee if you just throw it at the enemy and you can’t toss aside your Green troops in this game like you can in many other tabletop games. If you are going to push troops out to attack an enemy position you need to make sure that the potential losses will be worth the effort.

Movement rates are noticeably shorter than in other similar games and this often forces you to use the Sprint action, at the cost of all of your model’s AP, to cover any significant distances. Troops then tend to move from cover to cover and then fire with only some units being able to move and fire, giving them a unique advantage.

All of our test games came to a suitable conclusion in about two hours each. Despite making some mistakes with scenario set-up and army building options all of our games were quite balanced and a lot of fun. Most scenarios in AE-WWII are six turn games and we averaged about 15 models a side for all of the test games we played. The core rules for AE-WWII are quite simple and we were able to play without much reference to the rulebook after our first game.

Conclusion

AE-WWII is not a complex game. The combat system is very streamlined and built to play quick games without bogging down. If you are looking for a detailed combat system with a lot of options and precision then this isn’t the game for you. AE-WWII builds an alternative background around the events of WWII and provides you with some fantastical units with which to add to the WWII setting in order to play some fun games.

The majority of the options in the game are built into the detachment and scenario system and not in the combat system. A lot of the fun of the game comes from building interesting detachments and trying out different unit options, upgrades and hero combinations.

There is not a lot of granularity in the stats and combat results. There is still a lot of differences between many of the units in the game but the basic troops are fairly generic. You may find this fitting given that the focus of the game is on the new “weird” units and abilities. These units are all quite distinct and stand out from the rest of the units in the game.

The detachment system and the various upgrades that you can apply to the units you purchase make it easy to create unique armies for each game. There is quite an incredible amount of variety possible in the system and it is interesting to see that not only was Darkson Designs able to build an army building system with no point values but also to create a system that provided as much opportunity for experimentation without burdening the player with a lot of options they might never use.

Some people may find the combat system a little too simple. I have to say that I was quite surprised by the lack of complexity but we also had a lot of fun during the games we played and I don’t ever remember being limited by the combat rules or the use of a D6 resolution system. It is obvious that the focus of the rules are to provide gamers with a fun and quick game and not necessarily to be the most accurate WWII simulation.

The rulebook is a little disorganized. Well perhaps this is an unjust characterisation. The information in the book is presented in a very logical order its just that when using the rulebook to build your army you want to have that information in an order that suits army building and not the narrative structure of the rules. I would have liked to do less page flipping in order to build my forces for the game. There is also some critical rules information, like the restriction on Support units in a force, that aren’t in the Detachment building section at all. The book is still very readable and usable but you may need some bookmarks to help make it easier to use when building a force.

Pros

• Fun background and great new Weird War units
• Unique and interesting army building system
• Morale driven game system makes for interesting games
• Great art
• Fun game that doesn’t bog down

Cons

• Semi gloss paper and dark backgrounds make reading the book difficult in some conditions
• Rules could have been better organized
• Some people may be put off by the simple combat system
• Weapon stats don’t have a lot of variation