Sometimes a game comes around which is so cool that you have to write about it to know what’s going on. Lunar is one of these games. Simple mechanics, simple terrain, simple yet thematic mini’s. This is the premise of a game, that still goes under the radar for most people. One needs to see the game to appreciate its genius.
Welcome to the alternate 80s
The Americans lost the space race. The First on the moon were the Russians (USSR). Cosmonauts had managed to make the giant leap for mankind. America is absolutely not happy about losing and are pretty sore losers. A new race is emerging, the one to conquer the moon, or die trying.
To counter the Russians already on the moon, NASA forms astronaut teams to attack the Russian bases. This does not go unnoticed on earth and the Chinese and European space agencies are forming their own teams to countercharge either the Russians or the NASA teams. A war between nations has started. Not on earth, but on the moon, not with armies, but small teams of highly specialized astronauts.
Cooperations smelled the money harvested from the Moon and were trying to set up their own teams, mainly consisting of freelancers and mercenaries. Literally everyone with a bit of money nowadays have entered the war for Moon territories and minerals.
At the time of writing this blog, we have heard about the Indians and the Japanese joining the conflict, which makes every world power then involved. Rumor has it, that there is a conglomeration of lesser wealthy states making a team of their own. Since they still operate in secret, we don’t know much about them yet.
Lunar (Low) Gravity Combat
Of Course where there is war, there is combat, and it’s as brutal as you may expect. There is no use killing a person outright if you can just damage the suit and have oxygen do the heavy lifting. In other words, blunt weapons and knives are way cheaper than bullets and guns. Last are because of that pretty expensive and rare to use. Besides the fact that high velocity weapons are useless when empty. Therefore, the units use pick hammers, knives, beanbag weapons and such.
Pushing an enemy into sharp rocks also does the job, but a combination can also work. Shooting a unit with i.e. a beanbag, makes them get blown backwards. If a model gets pushed backwards as the result of an attack, that is double the “oh shit” moments and double the pain for the model. A good stab also does the job, don’t get me wrong.
Lunar uses Oxygen
Oxygen is the main currency of the game, apart from the material costs. You need credits to equip your team with tools and weapons. It remains yours till the astronaut dies. The amount of oxygen your team can use, depends on what you agree on how big the game is. It will mostly result in about 4 to 6 models.
Models get upgraded or replaced when fallen in a campaign style game. More on that later.
The Lunar Campaign mode
Well actually, now is later, because this is where the game is getting really well-built. As we know of the name Lunar, this game plays on the moon. The moon is pretty far away, and considering we’re still in the late 80s, tech is not as plenty and cheap as we have now, nearing 2025.
This means, that losing a team member takes time to order another team member and better still, costs a lot of money and time. Shuttle’s, depending on which one you ordered, have an amount of oxygen to bring with them. As long as it fits the oxygen demand, a shuttle can be filled with whatever you need.
Shuttles need to travel to the moon. The bigger the shuttle a shuttle is, the slower the shuttle will travel and will take multiple games to reach the player. It always lands post game.
Heroes are born from the ashes of victory, but also defeat. In campaign games, one can choose to add a Lunar Icon in their team. These are special units with more skills than the regular units. Some icons have their own models, others require nothing more than a stat card change. Since Icons are Icons, they also have more cost to them to keep them alive as regular commanders or units.
Apart from the actual Players, one person is assigned Mission Control. He or she can boggle up surprises for the next missions, but also decide on the situation’s the teams fight in/ over. That also means the environmental situation.
A sunny day on the lunar surface…
…or not. There are a couple of situations the battle can be fought in. Since the moon is earths shield against meteor showers and such. One can expect if you pick a fight on the moon, one could be bombarded with said stone hail. It’s not only fluff, but units can actually get hit by a shower and suffer damage. After all, it’s their fault for stepping out in the storms.
And the game?
Well, like I said, you buy your team with equipment and fight over the minerals/ items on the 61 x 61 cm battlefield (2 x 2 ft for the English reading this). Each player has their stat card to live by. If a unit loses all their oxygen before their suit is fixed, they are out of the game.
The game plays with the “I go You go” style of gameplay and is quick, very quick to play. Learning is a matter of reading the rules once and then using the rules as reference. The rest is on the stat cards. If a player completes the game mission, the game ends and is won. If a player is unable to complete the mission, the game is lost.
Would I recommend the game?
That can only be answered with a solid yes, for a couple of reasons:
- Finally an original game, that does not borrow from other producers
- it’s gritty, fast and actually easy to play
- has great campaign options
- loads of fun
- it’s on the moon… terrain building is insanely easy and fast.
- It’s fast to paint and will be perfect for Contrast/ Speedpaint like paints, giving awesome results!
Interested? Where to buy it then?
You can go and buy it at the producers, but they are located in the U.S. For the Americans reading this, that is no problem, but the shipping might be equal to or sometimes even more than the cost for the products you buy. We did solve this for us Europeans, by importing it from the U.S. This saves the customer from taking the much more expensive shipping than we have out of Europe.
At the same time, since we can’t offer everything Black Site Studios have, but can help with obtaining the products, you can choose to get in contact with us to have the products come in with next order.
You can check the products here on our site, or click the link in the menu bar (props if you missed that button) and we ship all over Europe. When your shipping destination is not in the list, get in contact, and we’ll make it happen!
If you came directly to the blog without visiting the frontpage, here it is, so you can read up on all the cool stuff we have written about in the Bloggotron 5000! Have a good read and see you in the next blog!
