What is Beat Em Up?

Beat Em Up Miniature Game is a tile based action game in the style of side scrolling fighting video game of the 80s and 90s.   Likes these games 1-4 players journey through the landscape battling through hordes of thugs and goons that flood the screen.  Then in certain rounds bosses may appear.  Well, this is pretty close to how Beat Em Up plays too.  The game is played across a series of 20cm x 20cm tiles called Zones.  Each Zone is divided into 36 squares.  These squares are way the characters move around the Zones.

Playing Beat Em Up

Beat Em Up is about cooperative play so up to 4 players will each control a hero.  The heroes must work together in order to complete the game.  This means strategising how best to use each character and how to move around the Zones, sharing power ups, and generally supporting each other so no single character is overwhelmed with enemies.  The final player is the Games Master.  This player controls the bad guys and is essentially the person that controls the game.  This is usually the most experienced person that plays or the person that created the scenario.

Dice

Beat Em Up uses the same Traders Galaxy proprietary dice that all our games use. These dice are D3 based but have some blanks which count as misses in the game.  This means that the dice can sometimes be unpredictable so its always a good idea to keep a medical kit handy.  Like all Traders Galaxy games combat is usually a dice off between attack dice a shield/block dice, although there is a little more nuance than that such as th eability to power up attacks or defences, or the ability to use terrain to cause your opponent to forfeit attacks.

Strategy Rating

Beat Em Up does not have “turns” like in many other miniature games.  Instead characters activate in Strategy Rating order in a continuous loop from lowest to highest and then back to lowest.  This is perhaps the strangest part of Beat Em Up for veteran gamers.  Things that would normally trigger at a turn end such as resetting abilities or power ups are instead done when the characters move to the next Zone.

Zones

As I mentioned above, Zones refer to each tile of 6×6 squares.  These Zones and how they work is core to the game of Beat Em Up.  Once the players have entered a Zone the Games Master draws a Spawn card to determine how many and what type of enemies are in that Zone.  They will then set up those enemies on the opposite side of the Zone to the Heroes.  All movement between Zones are locked EXCEPT any previously cleared Zones.  This means that the Heroes must clear a Zone before they can proceed to a new Zone.  HOWEVER, it is possible for players to be knocked back into an old Zone which will cause a respawning of bad guys in that Zone also creating a larger “Double Zone”.  Only when all enemies then get cleared from the Double Zone can a new Zone be entered.  Too bad if you are then knocked back again into a Triple Zone, that would be almost certain death!

Activations

Each model or unit in BotWar will have 2 Activations available.  Activations can be – Move, Close Attack, Ranged Attack and Super Ability.  The caveat is that these can be performed in any order or any quantity up to 2.  So Move, Move.  Or Shoot and Move or Move and Shoot.

Heroic Abilities

Now it wouldn’t be Beat Em Up if the characters didn’t have all manner of cool fighting moves they can execute on the enemy.  Each player and some of the bad guys get Heroic Tokens, and these can be shared to allow characters to pull off some awesome moves such as Rising Dragon Punches, Supplexes or Tiger Leaps.  Spend your Heroic Tokens wisely so you have enough to last the Zone!

Terrain and Power Ups

Terrain in Beat Em Up is really important and you need to have a clear strategy on how to use it most effectively.  All Terrain is interactive, and under most terrain are cool power ups or weapons.  Pick up terrain and throw it at your enemies or just smash it to reveal a power up, you decide.  Grab power ups like the rare 1Up Extra Life, medical kits, super strength or even money to spend later on new moves!  Or perhaps pick up a weapon like a sword or knife and really deal the damage.  But be careful, if you are knocked back with a weapon you will drop it and then your enemies could pick it up!

Summary

All Traders Galaxy games are designed for fun interaction.  The more exciting moments per game the better in our opinion. Beat Em Up will have you talking about boss fights for days after.  Or about the time you found a bat and went to town on the Thugs and Goons single handed while your team mates sat back.  Or about the time you spawned the secret boss character at the same time as the mid level boss character.  Beat Em Up has all that and more.  And when you feel like all the street fighting is over, flip over the tiles and take your Traders Galaxy fantasy miniatures into the Snake Cult dungeon, laying the beat down on hordes of skeletons or Snake Cult barbarians.