Saturday Afternoon StarDust: Ground Playtesting

I  put the recently painted SDG cultist army on the table yesterday afternoon for some playtesting. I think it went well and I'm happy with how they played. At their heart, their schtick is "start outnumbered and gain more troops as the game goes." The troops types are solid and don't need much in the way of adjustment. They only ones that do are the large demons who need to be tough enough to engage a full unit of infantry on their own and put up a reasonable fight. I also made it harder for them to be shot to death easily by an idiot with a rifle. Their new special rule:

Lord of Battle – This single-stand Unit gains an additional +3 bonus in Close Combat. Opponents must re-roll successful “Kill” shooting results against this Unit. This Unit completely ignore pin markers, there is no need to place them on this Unit.

Their opponent was the bug army - close combat specialists all about speed and claws. They worked well as usual, but suffered from poor dice rolls (easy to ignore in a playtest situation) and a lack of "things to do" when they'd roll an "8" on their Action Dice. They received a new unique Special Action and a new Special Rule that suits their "neverending hordes" motif.

The new Army Special Rule:
Every time an 8 is rolled on Action Dice, a reinforcement point is earned. Reinforcement points are spent to bring full Units back into the battle at the rate of 1 reinforcement point per infantry stand. Those new Units may enter from the player’s deployment edge just prior to the player rolling Action Dice (so they will generate Action Dice).

And their new Special Action:
Rush (Bugs Only) – A Bug Unit may be given this Action which works like a Full Move granting an extra 2 inches of movement and an additional +1 CC bonus during the turn.

Special Actions typically allow armies to instant-rally units, let squads take a mix of actions or call artillery. For an army that ignore morale, has no need for a mix of actions and currently has no means of calling in artillery (sounds like I need an artillery observer bug), they needed some way to capitalize on Action Dice rolls of an "8." Plus, slowly regenerating units that have been wiped out gives them a little more oomph. On a personal collection note, I also need to pick up something suitable to use as a brain-bug leader type. The bugs desperately need something to keep them pushing forward. A bad Action roll is always painful, but for a one-trick pony like the Bugs, it's a bit moreso.

No fancy terrain for this playtest! Just bare essentials. The cultists hang out and await the swarm.

Worms to the left, fast assault bugs to the right!

These demonic cavalry were on fire against assault after assault! They taught the bugs a thing or two for sure.