Metropolis is the result of an evolution process that started in 2000 with the release of Void game system.
First evolution was Void1.1, a fast, tactical and simple but efficient rule set.
Second (r)evolution occured in 2005. Scale shrank to single man strike action instead of unit-scale. More detailled, adding many parameters to detail the action (suppressive effects of fire, training, ...). Game stood fast and furious but limited to small scale strikes.
Then, here comes Metropolis, son of Void, including some concepts created for Urban War. This one will gring back former Void players in UM sphere and drive UW players to enter large scale battles.


Rules
They are mainly made of Void ones and reuse many ideas : Alternate Unit Activation, D10 (progressivity in actions difficulty, good simulation of troop quality), movement game (more tactical than throwing bags of dices) . Result is quick and smart.
Some new concepts come from Urban War but have been heavily adapted to new game scale : Troop Quality, Shock and Suppression!
Urban War and Metropolis will share 90% of the ruleset with light differences enabling each one to be really good in its own scale :

• Metro focus on squad. You'll field tens of foot soldiers, big Power Armour and Vehicles in large scale battles.
• Urban War allows to play small-scale skirmishes. The individual model system enables large variety of tactical choices.
  

Let's have a closer look to the differences between Void and Metropolis and between Urban War and Metropolis.

Moral

• Shock is a tactical aspect of the game that allow to lock down some unit that are difficult to eliminate, either because of high Toughness or big amount of miniatures. But CLAUs (big armoured gears) are immune to... It is mandatory to hit them hard! Shock tests have to be performed as soon as a unit has taken a number of Hits equal to half its remaining Wounds.
  
• Calibre allow to distinguish Green and Vet' Units but unlike Urban War, bonuses are automatic, not random. This speeds up the game and is adapted to the games's scale. units get a Bonus equal to their Calibre stat.
  

Calibre
Beside Command bonuses, a high Calibre unit will move, shoot (at a lower Calibre target) and Fight (against a lower Calibre opponent) better. Such a unit will also react better.

Templates
Templates are less powerfull than they were in Void but a bit more than in Urban War (where they were allmost useless).

• Directly placed templates can now deviate or miss totally which make them less deadly and more fun.
• Circular templates don't have the same power in all the area they cover. Damage is half in the "external" area. This decrease the template power but less than in Urban War where only the miniature directly under the center of the template took full Damage.
• Speculative shots are now less difficult (-1 to Hit instead of -2).
  

Close combat

• Striking order is now ruled by the Strike Rank. Foes strike is the decreasing order of the Strike Rank.
• Strike Rank is basically equal to Calibre. A lot of modifiers can be applied but no dice roll is added.

Leader
Le leader de détachement permet de booster les capacités des unités en faisant bénéficier de son Commandement les unités à moins de 9 pouces.
Les personnages vont devenir de vrais chefs d'armée et plus uniquement des héros.


Special abilities
Apart the abilities already existing in Urban War, new ones have appeared. They allow to play big size miniatures, especially CLAUs. With these rules, such miniatures have really specific rules that make them deadly against standard troopers or small vehicles.

Impervious
Allow to get back from Close Combat automatically (if the Size of the model is at least equal to the one of the opponent +2).

Long Reach
Allow to allocate Hits to miniatures in base to base contact with engaged opponents (if the Size of the model is at least equal to the one of the opponent +2).

Shunt
Move of such miniatures is not stopped when an ennemy is engaged... Isntead of this, engaged minis are moved along with the charging one (if the Size of the model is at least equal to the one of the opponent +2).

Sweep Attack
Allow to attack all opponents in base to base contact (if the Size of the model is at least equal to the one of the opponent +2).


Army lists

• 7 complete army lists with a dozen of units, special characters, lots of specialists (Heavy Weapons, Snipers, etc...) and options.
• Some factions can ally.
  
• Militia that could ally to toher factions is no more part of the lists.

Layout

• 132 pages book all in color including Artworks from Christophe Madura and Clint Langley.
• Layout is clear and easy to read (fonts, formatting).
  
• La table des matières est très complète.
• Quick ref sheet, templates and token included.
• Weapons and Special Rules lists are clearly separated and alphabetically or.

Price and availability

• Available for free as a downloadable PDF.
  
• Book is available.
• Price is £15 / $­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­30.

What's next?

• See Release Schedule for more information.

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