Solo Playtest AAR - New Sci Fi

Last week while I was enjoying doing nothing I had a chance to test out a game idea I'd been kicking around for a little while. This is a result of StarDust: Ground. SD:G is a fine game but parts of it are slow, which limits the practical number of units on the tabletop - too many units = really damn slow. All gamers want more stuff on the tabletop and a game that MOVES. No constant stopping and starting. To that end, I again poached bits of my favorite games and reassembled them into a Frankenstein's Monster.

Design Goal 1 - single die roll resolves a combat event. No Hit/Wound/Save crap. I'm going to use a d20 this time around; 5% per pip is a dream to work with.

Design Goal 2 - short weapon ranges means movement becomes more important. I like dynamic battles featuring dramatic flanking, etc.

Design Goal 3 - adaptability. I hope to be able to use the game for multiple genres at some point in the future.

So, what I did was crank out some mathematically appropriate stats for my small collection of Epic Space Marine minis, put together a 4 X 4 table and gave it a go!

The table layout. The Space Wolves are defending two objectives - a farm and a bridge. They've got what amounts to a partial company at each location. They also have two Razorbacks coming up the road in reserve and two Whirlwind rocket launchers on the hill to the rear.

The Marines are all dug-in, expecting trouble.

The Orks enter the battlefield. There are loads of boyz in those vehicles heading up the road.

The Whirldwinds are accurate but ineffective.

The Kult of Speed's next move is to get out of sight! No point charging a dug-in opponent.

Space Marine fire again is spotty. Two battlewagons are suppressed as is one Katapult. These Space Wolves are going to have a serious problem with such bad shooting early on!

The following turn, the Death Skulls make it to the bridge and disembark! The Kult of Speed swings to their right to support the assault. The Space Wolves at the bridge are in big trouble.

I'd put the Ork leaders in the front battlewagons, figuring they're the type of guys to lead from the front. They were fortunate to not get picked off my Land Raiders' Lascannons on the ride in.

The thin grey line is getting swamped.

After the initial round of shooting and melee, the Space Wolves have lost two stands and a Land Raider, the Orks lost a boss, some boyz and taken a few suppression hits. WAAAAAGH!

Overview at the end of turn 4. The right side is getting overrun. I was very much tempted to uproot the group guarding the farm, but figured they were better off in their positions and would likely be outmaneuvered anyway.

But on turn 5, some Blood Claws reserves arrive and pounce on the big guns in the back! This is exactly what the Space Wolves needed to let some of the steam out of the Ork attack.

An apocalyptic wall of gunfire from the Orks is unleashed at the beleaguered Space Marines as greenskin vehicles cross the bridge.

The Razorbacks have moved in behind the Kult. 

The Trakor Kannons are destroyed, but the Katapults are not fazed by the Land Speeders' melta weapons!

The defenders at the bridge are virtually wiped out. The only remaining Marine unit is a single Land Raider. Space Wolves are tenacious as hell and this crew is no exception - the morale test is passed and they howl "bring it on!" to the green horde!

Crucially, the Space Wolves win initiative and the Orks must move first. They begin to move towards the farm, having bagged the bridge. The Blood Claw bikers and speeders get away from the Ork artillery who had pivoted to attack and slam into the back of the Death Skulls and Kult! Classic wolves, nipping at the heels of their foes.

The Razorbacks quickly dispatch two Kult vehicles. Wow!

Meanwhile, the Blood Claws make in immediate impact accounting for another Kult vehicle and boyz stand.

A moment later, the Orks get some revenge, the Kult swarms the Razorbacks destroying one, but the Blood Claws continue their reign of terror amongst the Death Skulls, taking out three more stands and a battlewagon, but lost a Biker in the fighting. 

The following turn, the Orks have the farm surrounded and prepare to start bombarding them.

The Katapults, avenging their earlier misfortunes, catch the surviving Razorback, exposed on the hill. 

Great dice rolls result in its destruction. So much for the Razorbacks! 

But the rest of the Space Wolves offer up a terrific round of shooting (for a change!) and the massive Death Skulls mob is taken under 50% strength. They promptly fail their morale test. The Kult of Speed joins the Death Skulls battlewagons in retreat, always eager to drive Drive DRIVE!

Wow, what a fun little game that turned into. For what was supposed to be a simple test of game mechanics, it evolved into a great swirling battle. The Space Wolves who got absolutely crushed at the outset and had the WORST dice roll imaginable, really managed to get it turned around and kept it together long enough to run off the Orks. The Space Marines only consistently good die rolls were morale - they never failed once. The Orks were shockingly good at recovering from Suppressions, but I'm chalking that up to dumb dice.

So what did I learn? I like the way the game handled a lot. I could run this for strangers and not have to explain much at all. I need to put rules for calling in artillery, morale and a few other things on paper. I also need to adjust a few specific stats. The Whirlwinds were miserable, which may have just been shabby dice, but I still think I'll improve their ability to kill infantry. I also need to re-do the defensive values for the Kult of Speed stuff - they need to be vulnerable to anti-infantry weapons as well as anti-vehicle. Easy enough.

I hope to show it off again some time soon!

Dystopian Wars - AAR - French and British Desert Duel

Ziggy and I had a chance to play Dystopian Wars Saturday evening. I thought it was high time my French land forces get a work out, so we both put together 1000-point lists and the table was set for a rumble in the Libyan desert.

My army list:
1 Masaulle mobile airfield
1 Bastille land ship (w/ cloud generator)
3 L'Aman heavy tanks
3 R-6 medium tanks
3 Marteau bombard artillery
5 FT-12 small tanks

The British:
1 Brunel mobile airfield (w/ shield generator)
1 Sovereign Mk.3 land ship
3 Armstrong medium tanks
1 Steward heavy tank
3 Foxhound light tanks
5 Terrier small tanks
3 Cromwell bombard artillery

We each took one Recon plane and the balance of the SAS were fighters. We've become accustomed to having an air battle to begin with. Whichever side has SAS left over is then free to re-arm their planes and stick it to the loser of the air battle.

On with the battle!

Our forces arrayed. The mobile airfields stared evilly at one another.

My orders. I'm OK with this.

Right out of the gates, we moved fighters towards eachother. In moments we'd each lost an entire squadron. Zig had one more group than me so I'd have to figure out how to account for that.

The Sovereign snaps off some long-ranged fire at an FT-12 and retires it.

My Bastille hits the big Brit with a corrosive blast from its bombard. Huzzah!

The Steward's fore gun smashed a L'aman. who in turn melt down a Foxhound. The Foxhounds respond by finishing off the damaged L'aman.  

At the end of turn 1, the Brits had scored 130 points, the French just 35.

The Steward continues its reign of terror on my right, hosing down another L'aman. BTW, any KOB players who aren't using those things are doing it wrong.

But the powerful heat lances from the L'amans melt down another Foxhound!

My bombards get to work on the hated Steward, landing a Nav Lock crit.

The Terriers wreck a third FT-12. The FT-12s are having a miserable time of it.

But the big guys are where it's at as my Bastille opens up on the Brunel at optimum range, disabling the generator, settings fires and killing crew!

The Cromwells seek revenge on the Masaulle, ranging-in easily. A shimmer develops within the explosions and moments later...

The massive vehicle is transported hundreds of yards to its rear! Not pictured here is the glorious death of the rightly-despised Steward heavy tank. I'm reasonably sure that the Masaulle killed it with its fore guns before being Flared.

So, at the end of turn 2 the French were up to 200 points, the Brits were at 155.

The situation at the start of turn 3.

The Armstrongs move forward into prime position. Another Sturginium Flare results in a dead L'aman and an R-6 also takes critical damage.

The burning Brunel finishes off the poor R-6.

My last L'aman blasts the carrier with its heat lance causing yet another crit! It is now carrying a Nav Lock, Corrosion, three Fires, Shredded Defenses and eight damage. It won't be long now! Zig had used an Espionage card to nullify a Devastating Munitions card on that shot.

But just as things were looking up, the Terriers rip into my command tank, wrecking the steering mechanisms.

The captain of the Masaulle orders his engineers to push the engines as hard as they can. (Stoke the Engines for an extra 3" move) The massive vehicle lurches forward back into arc of the Brunel. In the end, the rockets impacted and finished off the British carrier. A worthy foe if there ever was one!

The Sovereign does what it does best and finishes off my FT-12 group and puts another critical hit on my Bastille. Now the engines are fouled up! Gah!

Winding down the turn, my bombards crush an Armstrong and crit another. Hehehe.

Not to be outdone, the Cromwells double-crit my last L'aman, finishing off that squadron.

The score is now 505 for the French and 445 for the British. Still a very tight game!

Turn 4. The armies are very thin now. My Bastille managed to repair both critical effects! Zig played Radio Intercept an gained the initiative this turn.

The Terriers begin by critting my Bastille yet again, causing Chaos and Disarray. The French landship responds by causing a bit of damage to the Sovereign with its heat lance. Weapon efficacy was low with all the damage my command tank had taken.

The still dangerous Sovereign unloads on everything it can, wrecking an R-6 and finishing off my Bastille. Boooooooo.

My final shots with the bombards were at the Mk.3. Their corrosive munitions caused a Fusion Leak, for a total of FOUR corrosion markers. Hehehe.

The the end of turn 4, I'd scored 640 points, Ziggy was at 660. We'd both hit out 70% objective easily the following turn so called the game there, a draw. A well-fought brawl for both of us.

That was about a tight a game as we've ever played, and it's been a lot of games for us! The two forces are very closely matched and as much as Zig enjoys belly-aching about "Cheese Lances," The omni-present Guardian Shields on the British side are just as miserable to deal with. The Sturginium Flare on my Masaulle I think may have saved it. All of a sudden it was WAAAAY out of range and arc, so it became a non-threat which kept it alive and powerful longer than I expected, especially with no Cloud Generator.

I'm sold on the French bombards - I love them. Next time I'll have to combine them with the Furieux Scout Fliers, another favorite French unit of mine.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving / regular weekend in other parts of the world.