Albedo Combat Patrol 164 (also know as just Albedo Combat Patrol or ACP164) is a miniatures-based tabletop war game released by the British company Sally 4th in 2018 and based in Steve Gallacci's Albedo: Erma Felna EDF, a long-running furry comic. It's also the first official product based in the comic since 2004 since the Platinum Catalyst RPG game.
The game is notorious for two reasons: Besides following the same premise of the comic and the previous tabletop RPG games, ACP164 changes the formula a bit by including miniatures, making the gameplay more visual than the other games. Also, the game is notorious for another big reason, story-wise: This is the first official product from the franchise that depicts the First Lepine War, the very first war Kanoc Felna, Erma Felna's father, fought in his younger days along with Joseph Arrat. Keep in mind that war was previously a Noodle Incident in the backstory of the comic, and it was rarely described outside some mentions out there and also in some side-stories.
As an additional note, the game is also compatible with the previous RPGs, at least on regards with the use of the miniatures, so you can use either rules in the way you see fit.
More information about the game can be found here
and their official website. Also, a succesful Kickstarter campaign began at October 2018 for funding the game.
Albedo Combat Patrol 164 provides examples of:
- Actionized Sequel: Or prequel in this case. Unlike the previous games, when the action was much sporadic and slower, Sally 4th promised the gameplay will be much faster compared with the other RPGs based in the comic.
- Darker and Edgier: Since the game takes place during the First Lepine War, which was a very brutal conflict to begin with, according with the comic and the previous games, this is a given.
- Fictional Document:
- The manual of the game is also an in-universe propaganda piece from the EDF with the intent to both identify and describe the ILR for both the players and the soldiers in-story and also to demonize the ILR.
- Also overlapping with Framing Device, the player's sourcebook is also an in-universe book written by an ILR scholar regarding the story of the First Lepine War and its aftermath.
- New Work, Recycled Graphics:
- Unlike previous RPG adaptations of the comic, when Gallacci did new art for the games along with art from the comics itself, with the sole exception of the last expasion module for the Platinum Catalyst reboot, all the Gallacci art in the game and in the manuals is recycled from the comics, with the new art being limited to photos from the miniatures and the scenarios, very likely because he had done very few Albedo related art since 2005. This is finally averted at December 2018, when Gallacci started to include line art for the game, through he only made about four pieces of original art, all of them included in his FurAffinity page.
- The same trope was extented to their Kickstarter campaign for the graphics used in the stretch goals, as the art for some of the goes, such for the EDF Badger and Bear miniatures are basically random art taken out from the internet, as the rest of the art used in the remaining goals are from either from the comics or from photos of the game.
- Unlike previous RPG adaptations of the comic, when Gallacci did new art for the games along with art from the comics itself, with the sole exception of the last expasion module for the Platinum Catalyst reboot, all the Gallacci art in the game and in the manuals is recycled from the comics, with the new art being limited to photos from the miniatures and the scenarios, very likely because he had done very few Albedo related art since 2005. This is finally averted at December 2018, when Gallacci started to include line art for the game, through he only made about four
- Prequel: From the comic, as it depicts the First Lepine War, a conflict which was barely described in the previous RPGs and in the comic itself. In fact, the name of the game makes reference with the year the war takes place: SD 164
