A look at: Patrol Angis

Recently I have been scouring the web for information on Patrol Angis, the new set of rules
from Gavin and co at The Ion Age. I was intrigued by the description of the rules and the setting
but could not find a great deal more than what was on the website. So naturally I thought 'what
the heck, they are only £10' and bought a copy! To make up for the lack of information
available, I thought I'd give my initial thoughts here.

The Book

The book itself is a very well presented A5 size publication with full colour cover and black
and white images inside. It has seriously started to make me wonder why more rules are not
this size! It means they can easily be rested on the table during a game for quick reference and
it also makes them easy to handle or hold in one hand while the other one is rolling dice or
holding a refreshing beverage. Good thinking, chaps!
The Background

The first 20 or so pages of the book deal with the background to the setting, which could be
described in a nutshell as being the Wars of the Roses in a Space Opera setting. While the rules
could be used with other miniatures, the setting and content of the book is obviously geared to
the Ion Age range. What is different about this book is that, while my usual inclination is to
discard the fluff and just play with my existing figures, reading this particular background has
really got me wanting to play the rules with the Ion Age figures and in the Ion Age setting. I
really wasn't expecting to feel that strongly, but the background in the book is highly interesting
and different to other things I have read.

Force Organisation

The rules say they are aimed at each player having a platoon sized force. This immediately
made me think of three squads plus a command group on each side, but I was wrong! While
this gives an idea of the number of figures you might expect to field, you actually have quite a
lot of flexibility in how your force is organised. You can choose to deploy in squads, sure, but
you can decide to split your squads into fire teams or even smaller units if you wish. So there
is actually a good amount of decision making in terms of how you wish to deploy your platoon
and you would want to think a bit about how you might use your options to achieve your
objectives.
The elements you decide to deploy are organised in a fixed way, as shown by the picture of
suggested movement trays:

It should be noted that this book contains rules for infantry, power armour and infantry-sized
vehicles, such as bikes. Larger vehicles and how they fit into the force structure will be covered
in a future book.

Core Mechanics

Unusually for a game of this type, the core mechanic is an intriguing command and control
mechanism. Initiative is a d6 roll, but the higher roll determines how many activation tokens
are received by each side. The side which loses initiative gets the number shown on the die,
the winning side gets that number plus one. So if the initiative roll was 3 and 5, the side which
won gets 6 tokens and the side which lost gets 5. A good way to give a little edge to the winner
without being overpowering.

Starting with the side that lost initiative, players then take it in turns to place an activation token
next to an element in their force. Unless specified, an element can be assigned any number of
tokens during this process. This is an interesting mechanic which leads to you trying to out
guess and out plan your opponent before you have even touched a miniature!
During the main part of the turn, starting with the side with initiative, the player removes an
activation token from an element and chooses what that element will do. There are no less than
11 (well, 10 and the option to pass!) choices to select from and these cover moving and firing,
rapid moving, precise firing, overwatch, reorganisation, recovering morale, digging in for self
protection and lots more. To add to this, elements which are fired upon can also use activation
tokens to negate hits against them, so you may have to make a tough choice about taking
casualties or keeping your head down for a turn, which in effect is a neat little pinning
mechanic!

Now let's be clear, fire combat in this game can be pretty deadly! All rolls to hit are made with
a d8 and have a basic target of 2+. That's right, there is only a 1 in 8 chance of missing a target
in the open! Of course, terrain modifiers come into play and each item of terrain provides a
bonus from +1 to +3 depending on how much of the LOS crosses it. If there is terrain along
more than 10cm of the LOS then no fire is possible. The max terrain modifier is +4. So terrain
starts to be rather important in this game! Any hit figures can make an armour save roll, which
is a 4+ modified by the armour worn and the penetration of the weapon.

Taking casualties results in the need to make morale tests. Failing a test results in the loss of
an activation token if the element has one, or the gain of a 're-motivation' token if they do not.
The re-motivation token has to be removed with an activation before any other action can be
taken.

Lets not forget that you only get between 1 and 7 activation markers each turn (skewed toward
the high end as the winning roll determines the number). So if your force consists of smaller
elements then you have some tough choices to make when allocating them. And it gets even
harder when morale checks force you to remove them or waste one next turn to re-motivate an
element.

Other Rules

After the main rules section, there are a couple of pages outlining a series of special rules which
may apply to units, covering things like jet packs, medics, snipers and special gear. There is
also a section on solo play, which will be largely familiar to players of Flintloque. Then there
are 10 pages of stats for the various forces available and some 'fluff' on the types of weapons
and armour available. The book ends with some brief designer's notes and some additional
background which outline the 'rules' of the setting in terms of why certain technology exists
and why the universe works the way it does.
My Thoughts

I have to say I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I was expecting something solid, fun
and playable. What I found when I read the rules was all of those but arranged around a
command and control system that I have not come across before in a sci-fi rule set and some
nicely brutal combat rules that punish commanders who think acceptable battle strategy is
advancing across open ground.

I also found myself really getting drawn into the background and enjoying it, it manages to feel
'fun' but also have a nice amount of detail to it.

My only slight criticism at this point would be that I found some of the rules sections to be a
little unclear. My questions were answered by the examples, however, so there were no
problems left after I had read them, although I prefer examples to be optional rather than
required reading. But that is a minor point in an otherwise excellent looking set of rules.

There is a lot crammed into the 64 page book and the rules themselves do not take up a massive
amount of it (about 17 pages for the core rules). But at the same time I am left with the feeling
that they present a lot of tactical challenges in a deceptively simple package.

I have often described rules by this designer as being quite 'old-school'. In this case I don't think
that is true at all. I think these are a modern set of rules which will let players fight 'old-school'
type battles they way they remember them being rather than the way they actually were (i.e
bogged down in loads of die rolls and endless charts and tables!).

I would highly recommend these rules to anyone who is either drawn to the accompanying
miniatures range or interested in a more tactically challenging sci-fi game which is still simple
to play.