Depot raid - yet another playtest...

Had another re-think about some quick sci-fi rules using an 8x8 grid system. I want to make a quick game, easily understood and played on a small gaming area (some common current gaming themes). It seemed a good opportunity to roll out some of the recently painted figures.

The usual thinking dilemma was how to make an interesting, dynamic turn system with some unpredictable unit activations as part of the action. Again I have decided to use my custom dice with use of symbols and colors to indicate shooting, morale and follow-up actions

Here is a short summary of the action. Whilst there seems many turns, each turn revolved around a initiative dice roll which sometimes caused no action at all.

Turns 1-3 marauders advance up their right flank. CDF move a section to meet threat

Turn 5 - marauders charge into close combat, take a casualty and fall back 2 spaces, CDF fall back a space

Turns 6 - 8 CDF move a central section to pot shot, pushing back a marauder unit

Turns 9 - 12 CDF continue to shoot at marauders, causing a few casualties. Marauders finally begin to move

Turns 12 - 14 marauders finally have an effect in close combat on right flank. CDF troops continue to shoot with little affect, but accumulate several kudos. They also re-activated several times to continue shooting.

Throughout the runthrough I was considering the interactions of the dice and their effects on unit stats. I wanted the marauders to be short of shooting, tough to retreat, and hard in close combat (modern day Celts if you please). The CDF were to be standard troopers, with good fire discipline until the enemy closed for assault, when the trooper's resolve would falter slightly.

From playing the game the changes I considered were:

Initially to lower the marauder unit activation value to 2

Swapped the role of circles and exclamation marks on the dice, increased activation costs of all units as circles now contribute kudos (kudos can be added to the intitiative dice at the start of a player turn)

Changed role of kudos to add to initiative dice rather than allow units to activate out of turn; the exclamation marks provide the opportunity for a unit to deactivate again

Will have another go and apply the new ideas to see their affects from the start of a game.

 

Posted with Blogsy