Palladium Books may be known for their roleplaying games but they’ve turned Kickstarter on it’s ear with the launch of Robotech RPG Tactics as the project has already reached nearly a quarter of a million dollars in crowd funding! While Robotech still remains popular nearly thirty years after its original syndication in the U.S. I have to say I’m pleasantly shocked to see the massive backing for the miniatures project!
From Palladium:
Prepare for invasion! Robotech RPG Tactics is a fast paced strategy battle game that expands on the popular Palladium role playing game. Take command of the brave men and women of the United Earth Defense Force to valiantly defend Earth from annihilation. Or, command the alien armies of the Zentraedi Armada to recover an alien artifact of immense power and enslave humankind. Collect your forces from an expanding range of world class game pieces. Relive the massive battles on your tabletop at home to enhance your Robotech RPG adventures or as a stand-alone game.
Robotech RPG Tactics is a battle game in which players build armies of multiple squadrons of mecha to fight it out in scenario driven, objective based game play. Depending on the faction, and their choice of mecha, a player’s army may include anywhere from 2 game pieces to as many as you desire! The rules are scalable from small skirmishes to mass combat with hundreds per side.
Robotech RPG Tactics uses a dynamic turn system. Players trade off activating squadrons during each turn, ensuring that a player never has to sit and wait while his opponent moves and attacks with his entire army. By using alternating activation of squadrons, the game’s action unfolds at a fast and furious pace, allowing large scale battles to be easily carried out in a single evening.
The wide variety of mecha in the boxed game bring to bear the myriad and awesome weapon systems from the Robotech universe to lay waste to your foes. Even the battlefield itself can alter over the course of the game, as buildings are leveled by destruction unleashed during the battle.
Each player receives a number of Command Points each turn based on the number of mecha they have on the field, and the quality of their officers. Command Points are spent throughout the turn on maneuvers such as boosted movement, devastating weapon salvos, breakneck dodging counterattacks, and potent special abilities.
I got in on this at an early bird backer level. I really don’t need another miniatures tactical game. I still haven’t had occasion to use all of the Dust Tactics figures I’ve bought. But hell, I loved Robotech when I was in high school. I knew nothing of the Macek’d Frankenstein nature of the show, I just loved the action and deep storyline. This game, it bypassed my common sense and hit me straight in the nostalgia center of my brain.