Post by Adam on Jul 14, 2008 14:48:13 GMT -5
So myself and Casinha (Wyn) finally managed to get some playtesting done! I won't go into full battle reports because I don't remember the minutiae well enough, but there's nevertheless stuff to report.
We played two games, a 3000 cog and a 6000 cog, on my bedroom floor using books and proxies. (Advantage of being a Tyranid player? LOTS of DoS-sized models to proxy with.) The first game was more of a trial than anything, but demonstrated immediately the value of aggressive play. I, as per my 'Nid and Cryx experience, hurled myself at Wyn's army as fast as I possibly could. Wyn, following previous 40K experience as a Necron player, was more defensive.
We were using identical teams, but I had two advantages - my aggressive playstyle and first turn. The advantage of first turn is very strong when it's easy to nuke a mech or two in a turn (and we only had 4 per side). Wyn capitulated after the second turn due to the fact that he was pretty much screwed (he had two mechs left, one of which was stunned) and we might as well continue with the 6000 game.
This was a lot more interesting. We played on the proper-sized area with a bit more terrain (read: more books) to fill the space. I marked an objective, but ended up running past it by and large anyway, to get at him. However, playing it (with frequent breaks to discuss stuff) gave us a good opportunity to both try out the game, to shudder at the sheer brutality with which things got hurt (I caused 90 damage on a super-heavy once with a salvo of some 18 missile shots!), and play around with it.
The game rules seem fairly intact. We didn't really need minutiae, which is odd, because there's a lot of them. I guess the interactions between x and y upgrade don't come up in games all that often, which is good.
One problem became immediately apparent. For Wyn, my turns sucked. He sat there for half an hour plus while I (slowly) pounded one or two mechs a turn into scrap metal. Rolling and adding all those dice for an entire team in a turn takes a LONG time. I would've suffered the same thing if more of Wyn's guys had been in LOS to shoot me back. So we decided to try the alternate model activation: I move-shoot-assault with one guy, he does the same, etc.
Despite my original thoughts on alternate turn systems - that they'd decrement the team tactics and so on - I found that it actually works better. I mean you can dodge enemy fire by running out of LOS, but if you do that your own firepower is annulled, and DoS relies on aggressive play. Indeed it even promotes this, by taking out the option of clustering in one corner and nuking the 2 mechs that can see you. And it's a LOT more fun.
Other ideas to work on involved reducing the sheer amount of stuff to roll. From our session has spawned a massive number of new or reborn ideas. These are landing in the Rule Ideas forum ASAP.
So yeah, another playtesting session, another complete overhaul of the game! All in the name of fun!
We played two games, a 3000 cog and a 6000 cog, on my bedroom floor using books and proxies. (Advantage of being a Tyranid player? LOTS of DoS-sized models to proxy with.) The first game was more of a trial than anything, but demonstrated immediately the value of aggressive play. I, as per my 'Nid and Cryx experience, hurled myself at Wyn's army as fast as I possibly could. Wyn, following previous 40K experience as a Necron player, was more defensive.
We were using identical teams, but I had two advantages - my aggressive playstyle and first turn. The advantage of first turn is very strong when it's easy to nuke a mech or two in a turn (and we only had 4 per side). Wyn capitulated after the second turn due to the fact that he was pretty much screwed (he had two mechs left, one of which was stunned) and we might as well continue with the 6000 game.
This was a lot more interesting. We played on the proper-sized area with a bit more terrain (read: more books) to fill the space. I marked an objective, but ended up running past it by and large anyway, to get at him. However, playing it (with frequent breaks to discuss stuff) gave us a good opportunity to both try out the game, to shudder at the sheer brutality with which things got hurt (I caused 90 damage on a super-heavy once with a salvo of some 18 missile shots!), and play around with it.
The game rules seem fairly intact. We didn't really need minutiae, which is odd, because there's a lot of them. I guess the interactions between x and y upgrade don't come up in games all that often, which is good.
One problem became immediately apparent. For Wyn, my turns sucked. He sat there for half an hour plus while I (slowly) pounded one or two mechs a turn into scrap metal. Rolling and adding all those dice for an entire team in a turn takes a LONG time. I would've suffered the same thing if more of Wyn's guys had been in LOS to shoot me back. So we decided to try the alternate model activation: I move-shoot-assault with one guy, he does the same, etc.
Despite my original thoughts on alternate turn systems - that they'd decrement the team tactics and so on - I found that it actually works better. I mean you can dodge enemy fire by running out of LOS, but if you do that your own firepower is annulled, and DoS relies on aggressive play. Indeed it even promotes this, by taking out the option of clustering in one corner and nuking the 2 mechs that can see you. And it's a LOT more fun.
Other ideas to work on involved reducing the sheer amount of stuff to roll. From our session has spawned a massive number of new or reborn ideas. These are landing in the Rule Ideas forum ASAP.
So yeah, another playtesting session, another complete overhaul of the game! All in the name of fun!
