15mm Sci Fi
My wife was kind enough to help me play-test my 15mm Sci-Fi ground combat rules Saturday evening. The rules have gone through some major revisions since the first game, months ago. The changes have been effective, as far as achieving my goals of quick-play, simple mechanics and fun. I think they're getting close to being "done."
Last night's game featured my wife running a horde of space bugs (see Starship Troopers) versus the stout infantry of the Red Guard commanded by yours truly.
The large squad on the hill is now being munched on by three enemy squads!
The game ran very well and I found a couple things in need of clarification / rewriting. I've re-done the Close Combat mechanics four times and now I'm very happy with the Close Combat system, except that it isn't as deadly as it should be. Melees were a bit of a slog; it was a bit difficult to kill stands in CC, but that's a simple fix which I've already implemented. It didn't help that my wife's close combat dice rolls were miserable - 80% 1's and 2's. When she'd throw a 5+ her bugs did what they were supposed to.
The scenario itself was never intended to be balanced. It was an experiment to see how long the human force could hold out. I think they did OK. They were able to handle the first wave and probably would have seen them off entirely. Wave two really screwed things up and gave the bug army the upper hand.
Last night's game featured my wife running a horde of space bugs (see Starship Troopers) versus the stout infantry of the Red Guard commanded by yours truly.
Our initial setups. Many of those hills are either recent creations or re-treads done this week.
My boys get the festivities started by blasting away at some distant flying bugs.
I'm starting to think I don't have enough guns for all of these critters.
At the end of turn 1, the bugs were almost upon my troops and I'd made almost no progress in thinning the herd.
Turn 2 starts out well, the nearest squad of flying bugs is destroyed in a hail of gunfire!
But the other group of fliers descends upon my squad between the hills.
On the other side of the hill, the squad with the missile launcher wipes out the elite Orange bugs.
My squads over by the village start to feel the heat from the quick-moving Blues.
Turn 3 begins with the big bug spewing bioplasma towards my squad with the missile launcher, killing a stand.
The squad over by the farm, all the way to my left wipes out a group of Blues!
But the rest of my line is engaged with the horde. Crunch time is now.
And by the end of turn 3, the entire swarm is within striking distance of all of my troops.
The squad all the way on my right is in deep kimchi, and the guys on the hill to the left are about to be in it too.
My left flank isn't much better off.
And then the second wave appears. This is going to hurt.
Turn 5 begins with my right-most squad being eliminated. Boooooooo...
But my left flank squad eliminates yet another squad of the enemy. These guys are turning out to be real bug-smashers!
Bugzilla claims another victim.
Turn 6 and the Exterminators finish off yet another squad of giant space critters!
And it doesn't turn out well for our heroes.
The way it wrapped up. The outcome wasn't in doubt.
The game ran very well and I found a couple things in need of clarification / rewriting. I've re-done the Close Combat mechanics four times and now I'm very happy with the Close Combat system, except that it isn't as deadly as it should be. Melees were a bit of a slog; it was a bit difficult to kill stands in CC, but that's a simple fix which I've already implemented. It didn't help that my wife's close combat dice rolls were miserable - 80% 1's and 2's. When she'd throw a 5+ her bugs did what they were supposed to.
The scenario itself was never intended to be balanced. It was an experiment to see how long the human force could hold out. I think they did OK. They were able to handle the first wave and probably would have seen them off entirely. Wave two really screwed things up and gave the bug army the upper hand.
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