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From publisher blurb:
Gears turn, pistons shudder and the engine of war roars to life.
War is no stranger to this or any other world of men. This war is different. A tireless army borne of the blacksmith's forge and the sorcerer's art rises in the hidden places of the world. Relentless, powerful and merciless engines of conquest march by day and night.
Every wall cracks, every tower falls and every city burns at their passing. Their master has no desire for prisoners or hostages. It is a campaign driven by destruction, not conquest. The refugees seek protection in the fortresses and castles of noble orders and ironhanded tyrants alike. Yet the industry of war marches to these havens, intent on tearing them asunder.
The call has gone out already. Soldiers and mercenaries from across the known realms ready their weapons to face the oncoming horde. Among those that go to face the ceaseless assault of the machine only the most heroic of their number have any hope of victory. Anything less is merely fuel for the enemy's forge.
Features:
Three new golems designed for siege warfare. The ballista golem, the catapult golem and the ram golem. These terrifying engines of war take assistance from a humanoid operator to tear down defenses and ravage the enemy.
The Gear Golem. Translated from the modern rules set into the revised 3.5 rules set. The gear golem is the manifestation of the mechanization of war; a remorseless, whirling automaton of death that grinds all that stands before it into pulp.
Rules for non-standard siege ammunition. Rain death from above in the form of alchemist's fire, rotting corpses, a hail of arrows and more.
Non-Player Characters: Dyzan Setclaar is the mastermind who invented the siege golems. Who is this seemingly harmless man and why does he wage war across the realm? Mrymidia, Dyzan's bodyguard, is a marilith rebuilt into a horrifying half-golem abomination. Dyzan's forces, an army of hobgoblins, are also provided with six different ready-to-use NPC stat blocks including ground troops, archers, scouts, siege engineers, golem operators and elite guards.
Multi-genre Support: All monsters are provided with variant background ideas for incorporating the material into modern fantasy, modern sci-fi, post-apocalyptic and space opera campaigns to make quick adaptation easy.
Variant Rules Support: Like all Octavirate products, Octavirate Presents: the Gears of War provides quick-reference variant rules support for each creature and NPC. In addition to the standard rules for wounds/vitality, defense bonus, armor as damage reduction, modern/3.0 damage reduction, sanity loss, taint, magic rating, spell points, honor and reputation this volume presents customized variant rules for manufacturing the included golems under the modern rules set and presents technological analogue ideas with prices in purchase DC and in credits.
The Gears of War can serve as a one-shot adventure scenario or the backbone of a campaign or a short series of adventures. The PCs involvement can be as simple as escorting a group of refugees through enemy lines or as complex as spearheading a massive counter-offensive into territory held by the hobgoblin armies. Each entry works on its own or together as part of the larger scenario.
- Clear core mechanics are described
- Demonstrates deck-building and strategic combat
- Acknowledges prototype status of components
- Rules and components are not final
- Some details are not fully explained in the short preview
- faction-based political power struggles with battlefield combat
- Midlands
- strategic, leader-driven card combat
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card_battle — Cards engage in battles to reduce opponents' health and defend.
- Combat: Deck/Hand — Cards engage in battles to reduce opponents' health and defend.
- Compound Scoring — Most health points at the end of a round wins the round; first to win two rounds wins the game.
- Deck Building — Round setup involves selecting a leader and combining gold, silver, and iron cards to form a 10-card deck.
- deck_construction — Round setup involves selecting a leader and combining gold, silver, and iron cards to form a 10-card deck.
- defense_first_targeting — Some cards have defense that must be reduced before health.
- draw_rules — Players draw from a faction reserve and the common deck each round; holding cards strategically is important.
- Hand Management — Players manage a hand of cards to deploy to two rows or pass.
- items_deck — An items deck provides ongoing powers that affect play.
- leader_driven_effects — Leader choice can enable certain actions or card effects.
- round_based_scoring — Most health points at the end of a round wins the round; first to win two rounds wins the game.
- special_abilities_and_combos — Certain cards have special triggers and potential card combos.
- two_row_battlefield — Units are deployed to two rows on a battlefield.
- variant_modes — Variants include quick play with a subset of cards.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the game plays two to four players with mechanics such as hand management and card battle the game is light to medium complexity
- you start your first round by choosing a faction and picking a leader then pick at most two gold and three silver boarded cards and five iron boarded cards to form total of 10 cards
- The player who has the most health points at the end of the round wins the round and first player to win two rounds wins the game
- you deploy ... to the two rows of Battlefield strategically and responding tactically to opponent's moves
- this mushroom grow M mushroom will deal three points of damage to all unit in any row
- it lets you move another unit in the next Roar to where it is and adding two health and two defense points to that unit
- there are ways to combo your cards
- the factions may have different strategies and fields nor KES Reich has lots of artillery and can manipulate them to its advantage
- The Art of War can be played one versus one three to four plays against each other or team versus Team
- the components featured in this video are prototype so rules and artwork are not final