FSD Playtest 1

 First playtest of FSD.  Still in alpha.

Not having mechs, will use hover tanks instead.  Instead of power fist, will give them a 2D8 cannon instead.

Scenario changes:

2x2 board (9MUx9MU)

Only imperials want to destroy tower.  Locals get same VP if tower stands at end of turn 6.  Only locals get the deploy benefit from side towers.

Scenario: Imperials are pacifying local resistance.  Or Freedom Fighters are standing up against overwhelming totalitarian doom.  A small task force has been sent to destroy the last off-world beacon.  The locals must hold the beacon as long as possible (6 turns) in order to get out a cry for help.

The comm towers are the main objectives, Imperials get bonus points for destroying the center pylon.  Trucks are secondary objectives.  Nobody bothered with the trucks.

The starting Imperial force.  They had another Zeno in reserve.  Gave them a 4th mid-game.  A better mix might have been 3 Zeno and 2 Socrates, or more infantry.  They also had various support options in reserve.

The local defenders.  A scout team with a guided missile support option is a great combo.  

Setup:2x Zeno will go for south tower, Socrates and battle droids for center, Heavy Droids for north tower.  (Note, I started playing the game solo, so that was the plan.  However, my gaming buddy got interested and joined in, resulting in a much more dynamic game!)

Turn 1:  Imps get initiative.  (Read initiative rules wrong, so they kept initiative most of the game.  Figured it out later.  Rule was clearly written, I just missed it.)

IMP:

Place 1 die on fire control AI

Placd 1+2 on Socrates rocket pods

Placed 1 on zeno for jump, 2 on other.  Used 3rd AD to activate one Zeno, his command to bring the other.  They jump 4 DU

Pretty sure I did this right.  My turn to activate somebody.  I place a die on each Zeno of the correct number so they can use their jump ability.  I then use a 3rd AD to activate Zeno #1.  He uses his Command to activate Zeno #2, and they jump halfway across the board, securing the first objective.  Cool!

Zeno 1 shoots MG at tank 1.  Rolls 2, 5, 6  Tank gets +1D for range, so 2 hits.  Tank rolls for each hit, saves 1.  Tank 1 takes 1 armor damage.

Zeno 2 shoots MG at tank 2.  5,6, 6!  Tank saves 2.  Tank takes a weapon damage.

(Note:  Since both moved and shot, neither had an action left to "contest" the tower.  So they should not have gotten a victory card, right?)

REB:

Place a couple dice on cards.  Place AD on mobile artillery, and 5 on the area affect cannon.  Moves forward and rolls 2D8 against both Zenos.  Zeno 1 saves, Zeno 2 takes 1 hit.  Damage roll is 1!  Dead Zeno!

IMP:  Only 1 AD left.  Activates Heavy droids, they move.  

REB:  Both tanks move forward and fire main cannons at remaining Zeno.  1 complete save.  Damaged tank, rolling 2D6 instead of 2D8, scores a kill!  

Note:  Both Zenos died quickly the first turn. So I gave an additional reinforcement later on.  A points table will help with this)

A short-lived capture.  The Zeno's both hit at long range, causing damage.  But the return fire next phase killed them both.

Turn 2:

Each side drew a reinforcement, neither could play.

Imps went first, moved up heavy droids, caused reboot for artillery.

Rebs rebooted the artillery piece.

(Note:  Gaming buddy got a lot of reboots, not many kills.  At first frustrated, he figured out that reboot was sometimes a better result, causing me to eat up AD on a unit that couldn't do anything)

Imps:  Socrates fires twice (different cannons).  2nd wound on tank 1, destroyed tank 2.

(We were playing that the "Fire" action let you shoot your free weapon and any weapon you had spent dice on.  Not sure if this is correct, because of the "fire base" rule on one unit)

rebs
:  infantry advances at the double.  (It does say that you can move twice.  So can you shoot twice if you don't move?)

Imps:  battle droids move up, take out 1 infantry stand.  First chance to see what "pinned" does.  I like the mechanic.

Rebs:  Heavy tank moves up, fires on heavy droids

1 hit and pin.  (Droids had "disciplined" listed on their card.  Does not appear in the rules.  "Unpinnable" does.  But according to game designer, not the same thing.  Droids can be pinned.)

double pass

Zenos are dead, my wounded tank in the foreground.  He died soon after.  Artillery is hiding behind the objective, but got hit anyway.  Spent most of the game rebooting.

Turn 3. 

IMP win again.

Reinforcement zeno advances, fires on infantry, misses.

Infantry grenades back, misses.

Imp heavy droids railgun arty again, reboot again.

REB:  Heavy tank causes reboot on Zeno.

IMP:  battle droids shoot. No damage.

REB:  Med tank moves, shoots Socrates, no damage.

IMP:  Socrates jumps behind medium tank, kills it.  Jump ability rocks!  I really need to pre-place dice on cards for "overwatch"

Turn 4: 

IMP win again.

Gave IMP another Zeno.

IMP:  Socrates jumps behind heavy tank, causes reboot.

REBS:  The infantry squad with NCO sitting on the center objective is surrounded by enemies.  In desperation, the NCO calls in a Danger close mortar attack, right on his own position.  The attack looked impressive, but hit nothing on either side.

Eye candy photo.  Wasted 4 action dice for zero effect.

IMP: droids fire on heavy tank, kills it.

REB: Arty direct fires on Socrates, armor damage.

Socrates attacks the heavy tank, and then gets shot from behind

Turn 5:

IMP win init

Socrates spins and shoots at the artillery, causing reboot.

REB:  guided missile damages weapon on Socrates.  The scouts love this weapon!

IMP:  Zeno reboots

REB:  Arty reboots

IMP:  Heavy droids railgun arty, kills it.

REB:  mortar barrage takes out Zeno.

Turn 6:

REB win init.  Finally read the rule correctly.

Guided missile into Socrates causes reboot

IMP:  Since it is last turn, tries a new support card.  Calls in orbital strike.  It hits almost everybody on the board.  Of everything hit, the Tower takes 1 damage.  The squad at the north tower was wiped out.  Everybody else either was missed or saved.  Orbital strike card seemed very underpowered.

IMP:  battle droids fire on tower. heavy droids fire on tower, tower lives.

Game over.

REBS win on victory points.  Probably.

Rebs killed 3 Zeno, 1 stand battle droids 1 stand heavy droid.

IMPS killed:  2 medium tanks, 1 light arty, 1 heavy tank, and tank commander.  1 stand infantry.

Nobody got secondary objectives, Rebs controlled more towers.  

These are the notes I jotted down during game play, in no particular order:

• Railguns could be stronger.  2D8 instead of 1D8
• make satellite uplink support card reusable (underpowered as a one-shot)
• Droids had "disciplined" listed.  Is that "unpinnable"?
• Add a list of default actions.  Was unclear if you could fire once using the "free" action, and once using the action with dice.
• Scouts using camouflage:  What is "offensive" actions?  I put a squad of scouts on the board, in camo.  They then never shot at anything, just kept calling in guided missile shots onto units.  Felt right to me. (solved, game designer agrees)
• Don't like the "must target closest unit" rule.  Sometimes, even if 2 units are in the open, you really want to hit the further away unit (like to stop them from doing something important).

How do reinforcements work?  From the rules, this is what I assume:

1) pick all the possible units up to points limit

2) decide what will deploy on board based on scenario rules.

3) all other cards get shuffled face down.

4) at the beginning of each turn after turn 1, draw 1 face-down card and add to hand.

Overall thoughts:

Love the dice mechanic.  The base of the game, the core mechanic.  Allocating dice to actions is great.  You really have to plan ahead.  

Maybe add 2 cards (or a "dashboard") per side:  "Action Dice" and "Spent Dice".  As you exhaust cards and dice, the spent dice go to the "spent" pool, so you know which ones to roll next turn. (Some dice can stay on cards even when turned sideways).  Maybe add some pictures of cards and dice.