Scrappers - Post Apocalytpic skirmishes in 28mm

"...must not get sucked into any new games, must not get sucked into any new games..."

Scrappers is a Post Apocalyptic skirmish game from Osprey Games, by Robert A. Faust and Andrew N. Davies.   I picked up the rulebook on a sale for £9.99 as I liked the look of the front cover - 

 Set in a near Earth future (2320 something), humanity has been wrecked by a selection of AI's who had been created for the greater good of humanity.  One AI (ARES) was built for terraforming planets, another (ATHENA) was built for protection of the planet from meteors etc,and another (GAIA) designed for controlling all the robots and automated systems of the planet.

As they all became self aware, GAIA realised that ARES was in love with ATHENA . Jealous with rage, GAIA sabotaged ARES and caused him (it?) to turn the terraforming tools on the Earth, killing millions and millions of people and causing most of the indigenous life to be destroyed.

Predictably the humans remaining shut down ARES by pulling the plug, and stricken with AI grieg ATHENA turned her weapon systems onto the pink squishy humans who had murdered her lover, killing pretty much everyone else and turning the planet into a  radioactive wasteland.

The combination of the Terraforming protocols (the Triple Helix Effect) and the radioactive poisoning created unpleasant new plant and lifeforms, and mutated many other creatures.  ATHENA and GAIA still exist, however ATHENA now believes she is the goddess ruling over her ruined city, existing inside the servers and machines that still exist, and GAIA has manifested herself into a network of sub-forest bio-electrical nanotech systems, bel;ieving herself to be a manifestation of an ancient Earth Goddess.

There are several Factions vying for resources and scrap tech - these are 

• Architechs - these seem to be the good guys, a group of humans who survived inside a giant 'Arcology' and who are good at finding and using tech.

• Ecotopians -  Kind of druidy forest dwelling sci-fi dudes, using tech and weapons forged from natural (or bio-nanotech) materials.  I think these guys are like Ewoks.

• Freelancers - general humans surviving by trading tech they find or steal.

• Gamma Lords - radioactively affected mutants or 'Numans'  they have a zone which they protect from True Humans and believe themselves a higher race.

• Palladium ATHENA -Cybernetic robot dudes built and commanded by ATHENA, twisted to believe that all humans (True Humans and Numans) should die.

• Sons of Entropy - some sort of Post Apocalyptic death cult, Mad Max style anarchists.

• The Purge - sort of semi-religious cult preaching death to mutants, Inquisitor style who believe the Earth is in purgatory and purging all mutants will bring peace. 

Every faction has a Feature or special rule, and each faction is restricted as to the amount of types of characters (Humans, Mutants or Synthetics) they can take.

each faction also has a rival faction as follows - 

• Architects are rivals with Sons of Entropy
• Ecotopians are rivals with Palladium Athena
• Freelancers are rivals with other Freelancers
• Gamma Lords are rivals with The Purge

Fighting against a rival faction confers a special feature.

The idea is to build a Scrapper 'Crew' and then fight over loot tokens, and then at the end of the game there is a period of consolidation where you find out what your tokens represent, which can then be used to equip your troops for the next game. 

Miniatures are WYSIWYG which I've always liked - rather than list building, it's a case of potentially checking whats in your bits box or seeing a cool mini you like, and seeing how it would fit into your 'crew'.  This method reminds me somewhat of the original Rogue Trader 40k, where you picked up miniatures and then worked out what weapons they had on them.

Crews are made up of 3-15 or 20 models sepending on Faction, made up of a single Commander model, a number (0-2 usually depending on faction)of Veterans and then the rest Troops.  They have ratings and can have traits to further customise them, different Factions conferring different options for traits alongside some core traits, and also type (Human, Mutant or Synthetic) traits as well.

After this comes gear, covering Weapons, Armor and Equipment.  Everything is bought with 'Supply Points', models, ratings, traits and 'Gear'.  Gear comes in different forms, Common, Scarce or Artifact levels.  you can purchase Common and Scarce items for your Supply Points, but Artifacts need to be found in game.

Dice rolls are all D10s, and every roll is countered by the opponent regardless of what it is for, which is an interesting mechanic.  Activation is by tokens, units might not get an action token in a round.  Players roll off for initiative (or 'Edge') and that player decides who goes first, then the turn is played unit by unit in an IGOUGO format.


I'm hoping to put together a couple of crews, some terrain etc and see how this plays - there are plenty of sci-fi miniatures out there to choose from!