Let’s get Nuts
by Mitch Reed
We recently got a draft of the NUTS! 4th Edition which is currently wrapping up its Kickstarter Campaign. NUTS! Has been around since 2006 and this new edition represents the latest work of its developers to get a good WW2 miniatures skirmish game into the hands of our community.
Having played many WW2 skirmish games over the years, I can admit that many games share some of the same feel as others in the market and the experience often gets stale. NUTS! does not fall into that paradigm. While it shares many mechanics with other games (hard to avoid), it does have a lot of different rules that piqued my interest.
NUTS! 4th Edition is a single book that is almost 100 pages and covers all of the basic rules you need to play the game. In order to create a force from the war you will need to purchase one of the campaign books that cover the eastern and western fronts along with books about North Africa and the Pacific theaters.
Gameplay
The game revolves around a D6 system and can be played at any scale. Being scale agnostic should widen its appeal to many gamers. The determination of actions is simple, 1-3 means you succeed and 4-6 means you fail.
NUTS! is very unique in its activation system. The book states up front that is not a simple I-Go-You-Go system, and uses the THW Reaction System. This mechanic is based on a number of factors such as line of sight and the posture of the two forces when they come within proximity.
I always hear that many skirmish games do not have opportunity fire. After reading and playing some of the game in preparation for this piece, I think gamers who desire this mechanic will really like NUTS!
Another interesting thing about NUTS! is how it has some Role Playing Game flavor to it. Being played on a 3’x3’ table your force is normally a few squads under the command of a junior officer or NCOs, so it has a small model count. As you create this force, you give the individual soldiers attributes and characteristics that translate into how they perform in the game. This may appeal to both RPG and miniatures gamers and I feel it could keep the game fresh and playable over a long period.
The final mechanic I want to bring up is how NUTS! has rules that allow both for solo play, and for playing an extended campaign using the same set of soldiers over many battles if they can stay alive.
While many board wargames have solo play, few if any miniatures games have a set of rules and the corresponding tables to allow you do so. Once again, I think this to will appeal to many gamers who have wanted a deeper play experience or play solo. NUTS! also has mechanics for
cooperative play which I really like.
A recurring challenge of two-player wargames is to play it with a group of players sharing the same table.
NUTS! is written so it allows you to play this game with as many gamers as you can stuff into a FLGS.
I told other NDNG staff members about this game, and when asked to describe it I said, “it is like Bolt Action, Advanced
Squad Leader and War Stories in one game”. I think that is a fair and honest sound bite about NUTS!
However, the game is very chart heavy. The designer addresses that in the rulebook, instructing that players should approach the game as a sandbox. Players are encouraged to pare and tailor the game to the exact experience they want to have. You’ve no worry that the NUTS! designers will confiscate your dice if you choose the game design elements to fit your gaming style.
This approach indicates to me that the development team is made up of very seasoned gamers who never found that one game that will give them the gaming experience they have been looking for. It really, in a not-subtle way, tells the community that this game is unlike all of the rest of the games on the market and they understand what gamers want in a game.
I did play out some of the mechanics here at the NDNG bunker. The game plays so differently than other games. I was constantly reading and re-reading the rules. A lot of this was due to “rules creep” from playing so many other systems; however, after a while, I got the hang of some of the mechanics.
So if you pick up NUTS! it is best to treat it like an aircraft sim ride; “check your brain at the door and react to what is going on in front of you”. I wonder what a gamer who is brand new to miniature skirmish gaming would think of the game. I suspect they would like it.
My playtests took longer than the game designers indicated was normal for gameplay, since I was learning the rules. Once a player gets the hang of the mechanics, a game should last about two hours. However, I really suggest that players go over the mechanics in a playtest, and decide on how many of the mechanics they want to include in their games.
The Books
I was also given the four campaign books to review and they are expansive and perhaps exhaustive. The books are about 80 pages each, except for the Pacific book which is almost 200 pages.
Looking at what forces are included in the books I did not find any gaping holes in the library. You get all of the units to include tanks, aircraft, and guns that saw action in the war. Each book is broken down with a focus on specific battles; each with a bit of background, force lists, and how to set up the game table for that fight. This is wonderful for players who love narrative scenarios.
Is NUTS! for everyone? I would say no, but what game really is?
Does the fact that it is very deep make it a more realistic game? Of course not, it is a game and no game is ever close to being realistic. I feel the target audience here is gamers who are disappointed in other WWII games that lacked one thing or another. I found NUTS! straightforward, yet deep enough not to insult a gamer’s intelligence by playing a game of “rock-paper-scissors”. If anything mentioned above piques your interest, I would suggest getting in on the Kickstarter, or signing on to the upcoming late-backers offering once the campaign ends. I think you will be impressed with NUTS!