Sodapop posted up the current draft rules for Relic Knights. I've read them over, and I'm very excited. Dice hate me, and hate them too. For that reason, any game that does away with them intrigues me. I suppose that means I should be all over Malifaux. Any game with super-robot-anime-explosions should also interest me, but I could never get into Infinity either. I guess I needed both in one colorful package. That's defiantly Relic Knights.
Any way...the rules. It's a skirmish game. Generally pretty close to Warmachine in game sizes. Game are played on 3x3 tables with ample terrain(2-3 pieces per sqft). Most of the basic mechanics are handled very simply in a straight forward fashion. Models have no facings. Guns can shoot whatever they can see. Terrain that you're bigger than you can just run right over. Terrain and miniatures have a size stat to determine what does or does not block line of site. Otherwise its TLOS.
The game uses alternating activation. You have an active model and then a ready queue of the next 2-3 models you plan on activating in order. Each player activates one model at a time, and when they finish the other player activates the first model in his queue. During an activation models can take an initial move, take an action, and then perform a follow up move. The game has very fast movement. Most units will end up moving 8-9 inches in a turn. Princess Malya, one of the faster characters, when fully charged can move 28' inches in a turn.
I mentioned that the game is dice-less. The game uses a deck of esper cards to function as the random generator mechanic for the game. Esper cards have two colors on them. The primary color is worth two esper points for that color, the minor color is worth one. Any action you can perform has an esper cost. For example an attack might cost 2 green and 1 yellow. You start off with a hand size of 5, and when you make an attack you draw extra cards up to your attack skill. If you pay for an attack it's automatically successful. You opponent's models will also have defensive abilities that they can use by paying cards out of their own hand. They can reduce or even fully negate the effects of the attack. Attack and Defensive abilities also have tiers. This allows high level attacks to trump low level defenses.
What makes the esper mechanic truly interesting is that units can bank esper energy during the game. Some characters can do it by forfeiting their action, other more powerful characters generate stored esper automatically. Stored esper can be shifted around units kind of like focus in Warmachine. It can be spent by the model storing it just like cards from your hand. This allows characters to pull off their cooler abilities without being totally dependent on the luck of the draw.
It looks to be a very interesting game. I'm going to have a difficult and fustrating 8+ months waiting for the kickstarter minis to arrive.
