Aura Battler: Dunbine hex and chit wargame

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ennui
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2015 11:20 am

Aura Battler: Dunbine hex and chit wargame

As I get older I find my tastes moving away from the realm of video games and into RPGs and board games, where face to face encounters and ad hoc house-ruling is possible. The SRW games have long been favorites of mine, so eventually I started looking into the old hex-and-chit wargames based on the robot shows from the 80s.

Dunbine is my favorite show forever, so I got my hands on a copy of Aura Battler. The game plays on a large hex map of Byston Wells. Each player generally controls 1-3 aura battlers, and each turn both players secretly choose their action for the round. Both players reveal and move at the same time, then one player will have attack priority based on the type of attack and several other factors. Rinse and repeat until one player is left. If you've played the X-Wing miniatures game, it is somewhat similar to that.

The thing about this game is the sheer number of charts. There are 12 pages of charts, including the aura power of each character you can use, the aura power of each aura battler, the power of each weapon, the dodge rate of each possible action, etc. I had to make a spreadsheet to reduce the time each turn took from 20 minutes to 5.

There is a campaign mode in here, where each historic side has a list of pilots and suits they can use, and if they're killed, they're gone for good. I can imagine playing this 6 players (or more!), each player controlling their own aura battler in an insane melee.

Is this of interest to anyone? I've yet to meet anyone else who shares my love of mecha and cardboard wargames :)
Crosswire40
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2013 5:02 pm
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Re: Aura Battler: Dunbine hex and chit wargame

This is honestly pretty cool! I've always been a fan of RPG, but it's been difficult to find good mecha related games. Finding out there's a a hex war game about Aura Battler Dunbine is like finding out they make strawberry flavored chocolate that doesn't give me diabetes. I'd love to know more about this, if you can post pictures or give any info on who made it that would be awesome.
ennui
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2015 11:20 am

Re: Aura Battler: Dunbine hex and chit wargame

This was made in 1983 by Tsukuda Hobby.
Here's the Boardgame Geek entry on it:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/610 ... er-dunbine

Tsukuda Hobby made quite a few games in this series, from Gundam to L-Gaim to Xabungle. They vary in complexity and scope, and one of the Gundam games was recently reprinted.

Unfortunately I only own the Dunbine game at the moment so I can't speak to the quality of any of the others...
Cmb300
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2022 7:05 pm

Re: Aura Battler: Dunbine hex and chit wargame

Probably a shot in the dark since this was posted so long ago but if the manuals and other reading parts are in English is there any way you could send scans of them to me or even ones in Japanese would work? I'm trying to get an English copy of the game myself but it's proving difficult so me and some freinds are thinking of 3d printing actual figures and recreating the game to play together ^^
False Prophet
Posts: 955
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2015 7:40 am

Re: Aura Battler: Dunbine hex and chit wargame

Zimmerit has a pretty detailed article on Tsukuda Hobby that you might want to check out: https://www.zimmerit.moe/anime-simulation-games-1980s/

Also, is there a lot of Yoshiyuki Takani's artworks in the box?
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