A game that caught my eye at GenCon was a RoboTech themed game. RoboTech, for those who aren’t aware, is a mid 80s anime. The booth had a display with a larger tower defense style game and a smaller dice based game. I tried the smaller game since it seemed to be more mech based (I like mech aesthetics). RoboTech: Ace Pilot is composed of a 3×3 stack of tiles placed in front of a layout of characters from the series and some game specific dice. It plays 2 to 4 players and easily takes less than 30 minutes.
The mechanics for play are fairly simple. A player starts by rolling five dice to see what characters they can use from the available pool. Each player is allowed two rerolls to see if they can get their ideal characters and abilities. Once a character is used it cannot be used again until the end of the round.
The object is to gain as many victory points as possible, denoted on tiles in the 3×3 stacks. Each character’s ability allows them to damage certain tiles in the stacks. The game ends when one of the stacks is emptied. As the game is played, upgrades are available to change a player’s fighting style. While you are definitely trying to out do your opponent and gain more points, the game does not involve players directly attacking other players.
Who is this game for? Robotech fans. I find it hard to see someone without an interest in RoboTech choosing to pick it up and play out of the blue. However, the game is pretty intuitive to play and you do not need to know anything about RoboTech in order to play and enjoy it. The grid structures on the cards are a nice touch and a fun mechanic. It plays quickly and could be played between other games.
Ross Blythe is a Chicago based gamer interested in all things tabletop. He enjoys reading history as well as fiction, and so has a soft spot for historical wargames like Pike & Shotte. For the campaigns he runs as a DM he often looks to history for inspiration, for the lessons of the past to challenge the players at his table.