ScrapYard Armory

Glengarry?  Never heard of the place.  But I do know a little bit about the Grey Death Legion (GDL) and I even made a convention scenario revolving around the Skye Rangers.  Jason Schmetzer is back at the helm for this trip to the Federated Commonwealth and the ever rebellious and entertaining Skye March.

Sticks in the Wind

An aptly named short fiction that rides shotgun with a GDL hovertank on an impossible mission.  Just like Mr. Schmetzer’s last work on Misery, I enjoyed the story and it helped to set the mood for the overall campaign.  No bit of fiction is going to make or break a Turning Points PDF, but they do add to the overall delivery of the PDF.

Glengarry

Glengarry is given a fine historical brief  with interesting details covering its rise, decline and eventual arrival of the Legion.  I have to admit this particular world has a lot of interesting history to it.  It was a world victimized by the fall of the Star League and reads like a Succession War stereotype.  While mostly forgotten, the withered remains of a great planet will host at least one conflict worthy of a Turning Points PDF.

As expected, mapsheet tables and optional rules are provided for those seeking a little more direction for their campaigns or individual missions.

Random Assignment Tables

Random assignment tables are not new for the Turning Points series but the added infantry and vehicle charts are.  The vehicle and infantry charts are brief, only 1D6 options but they add an extra bit of flavor for this relatively recent era.  I love the extra incentive to run combined arms.  It is not done enough in my opinion.

The Battle of Glengarry

This section covers the story of Glengarry from the onset of rebellion to the final gasp of the desperate Skye forces.  It’s quite a read.  It really makes me want to read the full story in Day/Blood of Heroes.  What really attracts me is the small unit actions that make up the majority of combat.  Instead of regiments locked in feverish combat, we have reinforced companies struggling to catch landing forces in a struggle with the enemy combined with a race against time.

Together with the opening fiction, we have a pro-GDL feel for the campaign.

Commanders

Following the lead set by Misery, each force Commander is detailed in full with history from origins to the current battle.  A special abilities section under each commander details the RPG stats but doesn’t include anything that could be used in a non-roleplaying situation.

Nothing too fancy here, but then again I just got done reading Misery.  Not every commander can be as cool as Jaime Wolf, now can they?

Combatants

The combatants section for Glengarry is the shortest I’ve ever seen in a Turning Point PDF.  Only three distinct units are involved.

Happily, the notes section omitted from Galtor and Misery has returned!  I’m ecstatic to see these back in the lineup.  They are brief but informative and together help to paint a bigger picture than these dry combatants reports could provide alone.

Special abilities are the usual suspects except for the Communications Disruption for GDL Second Battalion.  I don’t know exactly why but for some reason I don’t think I’ve seen this particular ability before.  I’m familiar with Overrun, Forcing the Initiative, Banking Initiative and so on but this one caught me off guard.  Seems this is located right in the same section of Tactical Operations.  It’s something I have apparently missed for some time but am glad to see it pulled into the campaign.

Tracks

Glengarry has seven tracks, on the high side for the Turning Points series.  Sadly there are a few missing page references (see p. XX) that made it through editing.

From start to finish Glengarry encourages the use of combined arms.  Unit mixes are dictated in the Attacker and Defender sections for many of the opening tracks.  After a while, I’m sure that the players would use all of the provided RAT tables as a matter of principle.

The quality of the tracks begins strong but goes downhill quickly.  The dependence on Tactical Operations special rules and terrain rules for optional bonuses is mundane and uninspired.  The selection of objectives are almost completely Destroy the Enemy or Survive the Battle varieties.  I’ve said it before, players don’t need extra incentive to go destroy the enemy.  We do that anyways.  More varied objectives would have been appreciated.

I felt that the terrain recommendation for Bake Until Warm could have been better.  A primarily flat playing area may very well be representative of the Glengarry spaceport but just thinking about playing a game with the back of mapsheets makes me cringe.  Isn’t there a spaceport map in Mat Set 7 that would have fit the bill?

Speaking of terrain, I felt that the terrain for Companion at Ryco Pass was a missed opportunity to do something different and memorable.  Something very unique could have been done similar to Mount Shanyu from JTP: Dieron.  Same thing with the objectives.  I am sure that using the section of the story covered by this track, there could have been some better objectives.

I don’t want to sound too negative.  The first two tracks Prison Break and Bake Until Warm are outstanding (terrain excluded for Bake Until Warm).  The combined arms emphasis is also an excellent hook.  Ultimately I feel the tracks hit the middle of the road.  Not amazing but interesting enough to want to take it for a spin or two.

Record Sheets

We only get two custom units and only one of them is interesting.  Zeus Leonidas is the custom ride of the Skye Commander.  It’s a frightening display of advanced weaponry that still maintains the tactical feel of the original.  A massive XL engine allows for some impressive weapons to back up the bravado this commander has when he is leading his troops on combat drops.

The second unit is a PPC Hover tank.  Basically a PPC with an industrial fan duct taped to it.  Not much to say, but it does fit the story in some odd way.

It’s interesting that the leaders of the GDL decided to take stock designs and are not represented here with unique variants.

The Final Word

Glengarry has a great story to build upon.  It is everything we expect from the Turning Points series with some excellent and some sub-par tracks for scenario and campaign players alike.

Sure Glengarry isn’t going to topple Galtor or Sian from my all time favorite list but it does have its redeemable qualities.