Anatomy of a Playtest 5: Power Up!

Last weekend Tom and I got together again to do some more playtesting.  This time we only played a couple of games but they involved more Frames because of the rules we were trying.  The first game was a test of the Power Up Stations rules alone.  The second was Power Up Stations with the Lightning Strike weather rules.

Tom (3 Frames & 12 Systems) = (5 Points per Asset) * (3 assets) = 15 points.
Orange Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W +SSR.
Yellow Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
Blue Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.

Me (3 Frames & 12 Systems) = (5 Points per Asset) * (3 assets) = 15 points. (Scissorhands)
Orange Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W +SSR.
Yellow Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
Blue Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.

This is what the table looked like at the start of the game.

Events of Round 1 (DDC @ 7): Tom's Blue frame moves East and captures the Red Power Up station.  My Blue Frame moves North and hits Tom's Blue frame for 1.

Tom: 15 points.

Me: 15 points.

Events of Round 2 (DDC @ 5): Tom's Yellow frame Moves Southeast and captures the Yellow Power Up station.  My Blue frame continues moving North and captures the Yellow Power Up station, hits Tom's Yellow frame for 1, then hooks West and captures the Neutral station.  Tom's Blue frame hits my Blue frame for 2 then moves South in front of a small wall.  My Yellow frame hits the small wall in front of Tom's Orange frame for 1, destroying it, then moves up to the Neutral station.

Me: 20 Points.

Tom: 15 points.

Events of Round 3 (DDC @ 3): My Orange frame moves North to the wrecked wall and hits Tom's Blue frame for 2.  Tom's Blue frame shifts West and hits my Yellow frame for 1, and my Blue frame that was covering it for 2.  Tom's Yellow frame moves South to capture the Yellow Power Up station and hits my Blue frame for 2, Station Dance.

Me: 20 Points.

Tom: 15 points.

Events of Round 4 (DDC @ 1): My Blue frame sprints Southwest and captures the Blue Power Up station.  Tom's Yellow frame moves West and hits my Yellow frame for 1.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to zero.

Me: 20 Points.

Tom: 15 points.

Here are several during and aftermath pictures.

Round 1.

Damage roll, not Melee.

Round 3.

Round 4.

Round 3.

Thoughts & Observations:

• 

  Round 4.

  This was a playtest.
• Since we wanted to observe the new rules over a longer time period we started the Doomsday Clock at 7.
• The Power Up Stations work at the Demo Game level.
• Now we have to see if they work in a full scale game.
• I should have kept a record of when the Power Up tokens were cashed in.
• There is the potential for Power Ups being overpowered, depending on how they are used.
• Spacing the Stations out on the table should help with that.
• Also placing them after the Set-Up phase should help that as well.
• I don't have very many Translucent Blue 1x1 Round Bricks, which is why the Blue Power Up station is shorter than the rest.
• I took notes but not pictures for the second game.
• In the second game the Lightning Strike hit in the second Round.
• It affected half the Frames on the table.
• The only real issue was remembering to check against the Lightning Strike power when rolling dice for activation.
• Apparently there's a 1 in 50,000 chance for the Damage roll in that picture to happen.
• I added in a couple extra walls since there were extra Frames on each squad.
• They haven't seen use since 2016.
• This game actually highlighted an issue with my Scissorhands frame design.
• You can only see the color markings from one direction so I added matching color Plates to the feet after the session was over.
• Flickr page.