MERCS Faction Focus: Keizai Waza

 Today we will be taking a look at the Keizai Waza faction for the MERCS Miniatures game. For Those of you who did not catch our first article of the series you should check it out here for more info on the game. For those of you who have been following along but want to know more read on.

Keizai Waza Overview

Keizai waza bring some very neat toys to the battle. While your bringing guns they’re bringing tactical nukes. They also all wear nuclear powered armored suits that even when their armor fails they only suffer –1 MP. Meaning they may be a tad slower to get around the field but they’re not going to be sittings ducks just because you managed to take out their armor.

The next thing that makes these guys dangerous is their Budo ability. When a waza is blooded they now get +1 to all rolls. So taking these two corporate abilities into account you better make sure you kill them off and not just clip them because they’e going to come back at you with a vengeance.

There are a few personal abilities and weapon effects that the Waza have access to that really start to add up. They are likely to be a difficult force to get the hang of but once you get your timing and positioning right there is not much in the game they will have a hard time taking out with a bit of concerted fire power.

Most importantly don’t loose your Daimyo, Pathfinder or Forward Observer as you will need all three to launch your Tactical Nuke.

Corporat Abilities:

Nuclear Armor: Only –1 MP if armor fails
Budo:  Blooded Waza get +1 to all rolls.

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Tags: CCC, Faction Breakdown, FCC, Keizai Waza, Kem-Var, MERCS, Sefadu, USCR

MERCS Faction Focus: FCC

Today we will be taking a look at the FCC faction for the MERCS Miniatures game. For Those of you who did not catch our first article of the series you should check it out here for more info on the game. For those of you who have been following along but want to know more read on.

FCC Overview

The FCC is a difficult faction to play. It is strongly advised that players who are new to the game not play them until they have learned the ins and outs of the game and the various Megacorps.

The FCC is basically a terrorist cell that sometimes is added with the use of Megacorp assets if their agendas are aligned.  This is represented in game by the Black Ops corporate Ability. While you can take units from a Megacorp choosing the right one can be hard as they loose the use of their Personal Abilities. This makes some models entirely useless options to the FCC right off the bat.

The FCC also has the Debris Crawl special ability. When used properly this ability can help them move around the battlefield and ignore enemies using Overwatch of who are laying down areas of Suppression.  If used wrong you will still find yourself suffering from these effects.

Note: While you can play a force comprised entirely of FCC it would be wise to take the Liaison model if you plan to use Black Ops as he can make sure that they get to use their corporate abilities.

Also keep in mind that you can never take black ops members from the Megacorp you are going to be fighting against.

Corporate Abilities:

Black Ops: Other Con members can be used as FCC
Debris Crawl: Teleport with no failure chance, -1 MP, Bound friendly

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Tags: CCC, FCC, Kem-Var, MERCS, Sefadu, USCR

MERCS Faction Focus: Sefadu

Today we will be taking a look at the Sefadu faction for the MERCS Miniatures game. For Those of you who did not catch our first article of the series you should check it out here for more info on the game. For those of you who have been following along but want to know more read on.

Sefadu Overview

Sefadu is a highly mobile yet lightly armored Megacorp. Other Megacorps are going to have a hard time trying to keep the Sefadu pinned down and will need to choose their targets wisely lest they be overrun.

All the units in Sefadu have the Fearless ability, so even when they take a courage check and fail they will only be suffering a –2 to their rolls. If they succeed they suffer no penalties to their actions.

They also posses mobile that means they don’t get penalized as harshly as the other corporations units do for using the Fire & Move CCM. This allows Sefadu to play a great run and gun style of game.

Corporate Abilities:

Fearless: No penalty to successful courage checks, -2 if failed Courage check
Mobile: Fire & Move CCM penalty is +1 FN

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Tags: CCC, FCC, Kem-Var, MERCS, Sefadu, USCR

MERCS Faction Focus: KEMVAR

Today we will be taking a look at the Kemvar faction for the MERCS Miniatures game. For Those of you who did not catch our first article of the series you should check it out here for more info on the game. For those of you who have been following along but want to know more read on.

KEMVAR Overview

Kemvar is a very flexible and highly mobile force on the battlefield. Their active camouflage gives them the ability to leave themselves out in the open and still be considered in half cover, and when they do have half cover they are considered to have full cover. This will leave your enemy constantly needing to reposition to try to get better avenues of fire.

 The gas mask makes them immune to airborne toxins and while there isn’t a great use for that now there are more forces on the way and it would be likely that the nearest enemy Megacon Texico would be using some.

 The Kemvar also have a unique grenade that has some unknown creature within that when released burrows underneath the enemy armor to attack.  This makes it ideal against high armor target they may not be able to hurt with their more conventional weaponry.

 Corporate Abilities:

Active Camouflage: Grants Stealth: +1 to cover.
Gas mask: Immune to airborne toxins.

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Tags: CCC, FCC, Kem-Var, MERCS, Sefadu, USCR

MERCS Faction Focus:USCR

Today we will be taking a look at the USCR faction for the MERCS Miniatures game. For Those of you who did not catch our first article of the series you should check it out here for more info on the game. For those of you who have been following along but want to know more read on.

USCR Overview

The USCR forces work best as a slowly advancing tight group that can focus their fire on priority target and take them out quickly. Keep an eye out for enemy models trying to engage you on the flank or from the rear in hand to hand combat. While their high armor ratings will help keep them safe from inferior strength weaponry it doesn’t make them immortal

All USCR models have the Intimidate ability so make sure to make good use of this by using suppression fire to lock down areas of the battle field and direct models into the lines of fire that you want them to be in.

Also keep in mind that almost none of the USCR models can use the Fire & Move CCM so make sure you are very careful about where and when you move your models. Have a plan for where you’re going and stick to it or you could be caught with your pants down.

Who has the Fire & Move CCM you may ask? the USCR Booster has it making him the more mobile  run and gun member of the team

Corporate Abilities:

Dense: Str 1 weapons require no armor check
Intimidate: +1 to any opponent Courage checks.

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Tags: MERCS, Miniature Game, Sci-fi, Skirmish, Squad, tactics, USCR

MERCS Faction Focus: CCC – Yellow Jackets

Today we will be taking a look at the CCC – Yellow Jackets one of the factions for the MERCS Miniatures game. For Those of you who did not catch our first article of the series you should check it out here for more info on the game. For those of you who have been following along but want to know more read on.

CCC Overview

One of the things to pay attention to with CCC is to make sure they stick together and don’t spread themselves to thin. When used to good effect in covering each other and working together to move up the field they can present quite the challenge to your opponent.

The CCC is a very flexible force when played properly; they can do well in Hand to hand or in ranged fire fights. One of their strongest benefits is their Nanite Armor which is not only hard to break but can self repair over a couple of turns.

With the Heavy Assault and the Incinerator CCC have two heavy support options to choose from. This gives them some versatility in choice of the type of heavy they want to use or they can use both and really have a pair of models to be reckoned with.

Corporae Abilities:

Nanite Armor: -1 to repair rolls; self heals after 2 rounds
Reliable: Low Failure rate

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Tags: CCC, MERCS, Miniature Game, Sci-fi, Skirmish, Squad, tactics, Yellow Jackets

For our original overview of the MERCS game you can take a peek at our original article here.

This time However I wanted to take some time to discuss a bit more about the game before we start into our series where we take a bit re of a look at the specifics of the units for each faction in the world of MERCS.

For those of you who want the readers digest version of the Article MERCS is a 28mm sci-fi skirmish game that can be played on a 2ft x 3ft or 3ft by 3ft table. It can also be played with two-dimensional maps akin to what one would see used for D&D minis or Heroclix or you could play using a table filled with amazing custom three-dimensional terrain.

Looking at the Mechanics

The game utilizes cards that not only have the information you need to play the game for each miniature but these cards are also used for movement, firing distances and Area of effect templates.

Lastly Mercs is a game that uses a d10 to resolve all of the actions. In MERCS you want to roll high so 10= good 1 = bad.

Now lets take a look at a little turn synopsis for MERCS  as well as the chain of Occurrence and then talk a little bit about some of the neat game mechanics.

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Tags: CCC, FCC, Kemvar, MERC Minis, MERCS, Sefadu, USCR

I have recently had time to Interview Keith Low  the concept artist for the new Sci-Fi skirmish game called MERCS. My purpose is to interrogate this MERC Informant and find out more on what makes him tick.

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Tags: DTAC, MERCS

I have recently captured the infamous Brian Shotton game designer and author of the new Sci-Fi skirmish game called MERCS. My purpose is to interrogate this MERC leader and find out more on what makes him and this new game tick. So lets get on with the interrogation.

*WARNING* Not for the faint of heart *WARNING*

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Tags: CCC, DTAC, Interview, Keizai Waza, Kem-Var, Kemvar, MERCS, Sefadu, USCR

Welcome to back to Basics Boot Camp.

In the second part of our video lesson we continue with our basics of MERCS and get a little more into game play and playing on the battle field.

In Lesson one we cover the MERCS cards. How to read them, how to use them and what makes the unique to the game.

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Tags: Beginners, CCC, DTAC, FCC, Kemvar, MERCS, tactics, USCR, Video