Well, that's the campaign over. How was it really?
The rules work well and are simple enough to implement. I like the whole 5 Distance from Place series of rules, because they are easy to administer when playing solo and do not cause me a headache. There are differences between each book that give a slightly different feel to the games. Forgotten Ruin worked on that basis. If you want a game where modern soldiers go up against hordes of fantasy critters, it will give you that game.
One element of Forgotten Ruin that was particularly cool was the transformation of soldiers. Because of the magical environment, they "mutated", so I wound up with a paladin, a werecat and a beastman in my troop. I avoided problems of finding appropriate figures by using ones that wore full body armour, thus obviating the need to do head swaps or conversions, and by avoiding transformations that would not be concealed by that armour. If I had rolled up the centaur transformation, I would have needed to seriously look around for new figures and do some conversion work. I would also have had the character make lots of jokes about being hung like a horse, so the storytelling could have been entertaining, although not necessarily to everyone's tastes.
Where it did not work as well for me was in the missions. They all felt a bit samey. Essentially, my team went in, did a lot of shooting and grabbed the objectives, whatever they were. It was not always plain sailing, but mostly it was a simple matter of applying as much firepower as possible to the problem until it went away. This led to me struggling to choose to go after any artefacts in the run-up to the final battle. I was really not sure if I could be bothered or if I should just get on with the final battle and not worry about the potential three other games.
In the campaign, you fight your way through twelve areas and pacify them. Then there is the choice to go after up to three artefacts to help you in the final battle, after which you fight out that final battle against hordes of enemies with last person standing being the winner. That means thirteen to sixteen potential missions. You can take a break to let your troops recover, resulting in one fewer mission to fight, but I decided early on that I would only do that if my troop leader took a bad hit. Given that the three artefact missions were just a race across to the artefact and then back to your starting lines, the missions did not seem that interesting so I went straight for the grand finale.
I had also not planned ahead properly, and reached the final battle suddenly realising that I did not have enough friendly force figures. Fortunately, I was able to sub in some Red Redemptionist Rebels as the supporting troop. This would not have been a problem if I lived in the same country as most of my figures, but that is a whole other gripe. Still, it did force me to get on and paint the Rebels, so it was not a wholly bad thing. I have had some of those figures since the 80s, and they were still unpainted!
One other issue I had with the campaign was the abilities and weapons of my soldiers. I kept forgetting to use the abilities. I should have made cards for the abilities and for the weapons to remind me.
Overall, the game was an amusing diversion. I am not sure I would want to play it as an extended campaign. At times it felt like it did not have enough depth, and I did not really engage with the characters in the same way that I normally do. For that reason, I am uncertain whether I shall pick up Tiger Troop and send them on more adventures, but perhaps the urge will strike again. As I type this, I am thinking about the possibility of converting figures for the game, which would be a good reason to dive in once more.
It might also be fun to set up individual scenarios to play with a friend rather than to run through the full campaign once more. The game would probably feel quite different for the special forces player if the enemy were controlled by another person instead of the system, and it would likely have a very colonial wars feel to it too.
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