Dave's TF Artifact Review:
     
     Transformers Armada: Battle for Cybertron Game

     Well, I bought this early in September, but it took me a month and a
half to get someone to play against, and even that was just a shrot game.
Still, I think I have enough data do meaningfully review it now.

CAPSULE

     Nice game pieces, decent system with fairly clear rules but a few
serious flaws.  Good overall production values.  Recommended.  $19.99 at
TRU.  


RANT

     This game is based on the Star Wars Duels game that came out a few years
back, and is intended to roughly simulate combats between various characters
from Armada.  This is not a Street Fighter style balanced fight, however.
Expect Megatron to stomp Hot Shot pretty reliably, for instance.
     Ages 8 and up, 2-6 players.

Packaging

     The box is 16" (40cm) wide, 10.5" (27cm) tall and 2.5" (6cm) thick, and
the dominant colors are the first year Armada red and blue swirl.  The left
side of the front has a closeup of Megatron and Prime facing off.  The right
side is a window to show the play pieces.  The side borders just have the
logo and name.  The bottom has a small pic of Demolishor blasting Hot Shot in
addition to the logo/name and "Create Your Own Robot Battles," the top is
similar but with Cyclonus versus Red Alert.  The back shows the four game
maps, a few of the cards, and the Demolishor and Smokescreen figurs facing
off.  
     Back of the box text:
     THE BATTLE FOR ULTIMATE CONTROL!  The AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS have been
engaged in a galactic war for many years.  Now you can bring these battles to
life.  Pick your favorite character and get ready to fight!  Stage your
battle in 1 of 4 different locations.  Can OPTIMUS PRIME defeat MEGATRON?
Will RED ALERT overpower DEMOLISHOR?  Play your cards and see.  With 8
TRANSFORMERS characters and over 250 cards, there's a new outcome nearly
every time you play.

     Contents: 8 figures, 2 double-sided map cards, 252 cards (which need to
be sorted out into decks), 10 wound markers, 8 character charts, 1 die, 8
rubber bands (nice touch!), rules.

     When you open the box, there's a black plastic tray with clear plastic
cover that contains the figures and the die.  The cards are in two
shrink-wrapped blocks, with rubber bands supplied for the decks.  The
character charts and wound markers are all in punch-out sheets, as are the
two map cards.  The character charts are on thin cardstock, the counters and
maps on thick cardboard.

     To prep for the game, you have to punch out all the stuff and then sort
the 252 cards into 8 decks and a quartet of rules-reminder cards.  The tray
with the figures is taped shut.

The Cards

     Each of the eight characters has a 31 card deck and one status card.
The backs of each deck use the packaging art for the characters, except for
Hot Shot, who seems to have new art (Prime gets his Supercon pic).  Each also
has their own colors, so you can tell the cards apart quickly if, say, you're
sorting all 252 cards into piles.
     The play cards are 2" (5cm) wide and 3" (8cm) tall.  The most common
sort is the basic combat card, which has the main character art, plus both an
attack and a defense number.  Next are dedicated all-attack or all-defense
cards with various pieces of art (shots of Mini-Cons, vehicle modes, etc).
Finally, there's a few specials in each deck, representing things that can be
done other than combat.  While there's a lot of duplication (i.e. it might
have a new name, but you'll see essentially the same card in multiple decks),
each character has at least one or two totally unique cards, like Megatron's
huge blast that forces an entire hand discard, or Starscream's Delusions of
Grandeur that gambles on the outcome of an attack.
     The status cards are 4.75" (12cm) wide and just a little bit less than
that in height.  There's a blue circle at undamaged and a red one at
destroyed.  Megatron is the toughest, at 23 damage to destroy.  Red Alert,
oddly, is the weakest, at 16 damage to destroy.  I'll leave it to others to
do statistical analysis on the cards to see if Red Alert has any compensating
advantage.  }->

The Maps

     Each map board is thick cardboard 13.5" (34cm) long and 9.5" (24cm)
wide, with squares 3.5cm large drawn on it.  Each has maps on both sides, and
both maps have "impassable terrain" bits that do not have the square borders
coming through them.  These bits cannot be moved or attacked through.
Starting locations for all figures are labeled on each map, to ensure that
you never start out being able to shoot someone without moving.
     Map 1 has the Desert Arena (a canyon with outcroppings as obstacles) and
the Rain Forest Assault Arena (with LOTS of heavy tree obstacles).  Rain
Forest is probably the most likely to force close-in combat.
     Map 2 has AUTOBOT'S Mountain Base in blue on one side with only a big
pillar for blocking, and MEGATRON'S Throne Room on the other in red with
several little pieces of terrain.  Both of these maps favor longer range
combat.
     Each map has the name of the game on one of the bits of terrain.

The Die

     A normal-sized six-sided die, with the following on its faces: 3, 4, 5
All 2, All 3, All 4.  The "All" sides are for one of the advanced games,
where you get to use two figures at once.  Otherwise they work as regular
numbers.
     So, in the normal game, it's 2 3 3 4 4 5, a so-called "normed" die, with
an average of 3.5 squares of movement.  In the relevant advanced game, you
count the All results as double since you move both figures, so the average
becomes an allowed 5 squares total.

The Figures

     Okay, this is why I got the game, and why many of you out there are
thinking about it.  In general, they're better molds than the Bubble Twist
decoys, with decent but not great paint jobs.  All the figures are glued to
oval bases 3cm on their long axis (circular for Prime and Megatron), 2.4cm on
the short axes.  Except for Cyclonus, the bases are long in the side to side
direction.  White for the Autobots, black bases for the Decepticons.  I'm
just going to give measurements in centimeters for little things like this,
it's 2.54cm to 1" if you need to know.  }->
     In the order they're on the tray, left to right and top to bottom:
     Optimus Prime: This is the Super Base cab, not the Supercon version,
even though the cards show Supercon Prime.  6cm tall, striding forward with
both fists forward, gun in the right hand.  Prime is made from dark blue
plastic, with kinda globby thick paint for the rest of the colors, especially
the black.  
     Megatron: 5.5cm tall at the head, 7cm tall at the shoulders.  His arms
are held out to the sides, and he's stepping forward a little with his left
leg, so he's more posed than the actual toy is capable of.  Heh.  Seems to be
made of light gray plastic.  Compared to the original toy, the purple is too
dark, the green too bright, and there's no orange on the horns.  Otherwise,
pretty close.
     Hot Shot: 3.7cm at the head, 5cm counting the deployed axle cannon.  He
has his visor down.  Colors are pretty accurate except for the lack of
details on the feet and hood.  Obviously cast from yellow plastic.  Has his
right arm raised in a way impossible for the toy.  It's clear that this one
was put together from multiple pieces, as the borders between pieces aren't
covered in globby paint.
     Demolishor: 4.5cm tall at the head, 5.5cm at the missiles.  Good colors
painted onto the light tan plastic, and a niec touch in that they included
the "chair" found on the toy.  Proportions are a bit warped, though, making
him even more of a thunderthighs than seen in the toy.
     Starscream: 5.5cm at the head, 7.3cm at the raised sword.  Striding
forward with sword in left hand and raised over his head.  This one had the
potential to be the best-looking of the batch...the molding is great, and
while it could use a bit more yellow paint, it's got good colors.  However,
it looks like it was assembled a bit sloppily, making the chest look weird.
Also, the boots are solid gray rather than black with gray tail bits.  Still,
quite nice, especially compared to the Bubble Twist version.  Oh, and this
one is 4.5cm front to back, and is the most responsible for how deep the tray
has to be.  Gray plastic.
     Red Alert: 5.3cm tall and made from dark blue plastic.  Has the same
scrawny weird proportions as the toy, although the leg panels are smaller and
less intrustive.  A lack of anything but white on the hood and doors makes it
look kinda lame.  Just standing there with legs apart and left arm raised
with one tool on it.  The tool is unpainted, and it kinda looks like Red
Alert is giving someone the finger.
     Smokescreen: A tiny 3.5cm tall at the head, 4.5cm at the raised right
arm.  The crane is 3.5cm long.  The plastic is orange, with dark blue, gray,
and light blue (face only) paint.  The wheels are dark blue rather than
black, but the figure otherwise looks pretty good.  Pose is walking forward
with right arm raised.
     Cyclonus: 4.5cm tall at the head, 5.7cm tall at the rotor.  Base is long
in the front to back direction, unlike the other small guys, since Cyclonus
is striding forward with a pretty long stride.  Cyclonus-blue plastic with
very light gray, dark blue and dark tan paints, plus orange face.  The arms
are miscolored, and the missiles painted blue rather than tan.

The Rules

     The game is fairly simple, and the basic game is intended for one on one
fighting.  There's also rules for team play and larger "every bot for
himself" games, but they're a bit sketchy and leave out important details.
     My main complaint about the game as presented is that it encourages what
we call Turtling in gaming circles.  In other words, the best tactic is so
sit back for several turns and gather strength before venturing out from
behind cover.
     Here's my reasoning. 

     Givens:
     The game starts you with a hand of 4 cards.
     The maximum hand size is 10 cards.
     Standard attack/defense cards almost always lose to dedicated attack or
dedicated defense cards, but are also much more common.
     On your turn, you may take two actions after moving, those actions being
worked out as either attack twice, draw two cards, or attack once and draw
one card.
     You start out of line of fire, and most maps allow you to stay out of
line of fire for several turns, depending on how your opponent rolls and
whether he's interested in closing with you.

     Conclusions:
     Since you don't want to risk attacking or defending until you have the
better dedicated combat cards, it makes no sense to engage until after three
turns have passed and you've drawn up to your maximum hand.  In fact, you're
even better off if you start discarding and keep drawing until all your
dedicated attack/defense cards are in your hand.

     To de-turtle the game, I suggest the following rules modifications:

     1) You start the game with 10 cards.
     2) You cannot draw a card if you have 10 cards already.  You only
discard if a card directs you to discard: you cannot discard just to be able
to draw a new card if you already have 10 cards.
     3) You may pass on one or both of your actions if you do not want to
play a card and cannot draw one.

     This way, you have your full strength right away, and can't go fishing
for better cards until you start attacking.  It's now to your advantage to
rush into the fight unless you managed to get some Specials you can play in
your initial hand.

     The multiplayer rules, as mentioned, are a little vague.  Specifically,
they don't say anything about what happens if you have multiple valid targets
after moving.  I presume you'd have to use a card for each target, but
suggest an alternative.

     If you ever have multiple valid targets, you may attack all of them with
a single attack card.  Each lays down a defense card.  If they are on the
same team, they may confer.  If they are not on the same team (i.e. a Free
For All combat), they may NOT confer.  The best defense card is applied
against the attack, and all targets split the damage that gets through, split
as evenly as possible (attacker gets to decide which targets get the extra
points).  If any damage gets through, however, every target takes at least 1
point of damage, even if there's more targets than points of damage. 

     Overall, it plays pretty quickly, as long as you discourage turtling.
And in a free-for-all, the key to playing one of the weaker characters is to
just look harmless and try to wait until the big guys take each other out.

     Dave Van Domelen, would probably be tinkering with the rules even if
there weren't problems, of course....