Hi Gary, the ATS Robot can be found in the ATS Warfighting Guide number 2,and uses a card deck to drive the game. The original IGO-UGO turn order is discarded, instead you draw a card, and if its for the robot, activate them, if its for the player, you get to activate instead. The ratio of robot/player cards is about 4-1,so it does give you a hard time, but of course units still only activate once per game turn.
Each robot card, has a series of cases, so you begin at the top of the card, and come down, checking each case until you find one that applies, then execute that. In the case of opportunity fire, when you make a move, draw a card and check the bottom, which lists a GF factor, and a THN. Check these against robot units that could potentially fire on your mover and if equal to or lower than that number, they take the shot. (this is the only part of the game that is Real slow, as you recalculate, etc, strongly recommend making notes on scrap paper as you go to save a bit of time).
PLUS SIDE: the system can be used with ANY Ats game or scenario to play either side. You set up both sides and let a random roll determine which side you will play. This breathes new life into your entire collection if you are a solo player.
MINUS SIDE: turns can be much much slower than FTF play, so as a solitaire player, you will need somewhere you can leave the game set up. Don't expect to finish this in an evening, especially when starting out with it as a learner.
Secondly, the operating instructions in the accompanying magazine article are a bit vague. Sometimes it feels like a collection of rough notes, rather than a proper rulebook. Fortunately there is a decent play through article which helps a lot in grasping the concepts.
OVERALL: could use a major review/overhaul to tidy up the presentation, but otherwise I quite like it. Fortunately I am not a rules lawyer, otherwise I would be deeply annoyed at it, in other words, when there is doubt use it to interpret appropriate actions for the robot rather than define them. For what you pay for the magazine, you could do worse than take a look!
Hope this helps bit.
Each robot card, has a series of cases, so you begin at the top of the card, and come down, checking each case until you find one that applies, then execute that. In the case of opportunity fire, when you make a move, draw a card and check the bottom, which lists a GF factor, and a THN. Check these against robot units that could potentially fire on your mover and if equal to or lower than that number, they take the shot. (this is the only part of the game that is Real slow, as you recalculate, etc, strongly recommend making notes on scrap paper as you go to save a bit of time).
PLUS SIDE: the system can be used with ANY Ats game or scenario to play either side. You set up both sides and let a random roll determine which side you will play. This breathes new life into your entire collection if you are a solo player.
MINUS SIDE: turns can be much much slower than FTF play, so as a solitaire player, you will need somewhere you can leave the game set up. Don't expect to finish this in an evening, especially when starting out with it as a learner.
Secondly, the operating instructions in the accompanying magazine article are a bit vague. Sometimes it feels like a collection of rough notes, rather than a proper rulebook. Fortunately there is a decent play through article which helps a lot in grasping the concepts.
OVERALL: could use a major review/overhaul to tidy up the presentation, but otherwise I quite like it. Fortunately I am not a rules lawyer, otherwise I would be deeply annoyed at it, in other words, when there is doubt use it to interpret appropriate actions for the robot rather than define them. For what you pay for the magazine, you could do worse than take a look!
Hope this helps bit.
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