Battle Report: Roadway Rumble 4

This is our second game of Rapid Attack this year.  As we had a limited amount of players, I proposed we play-test my "Doomsday Hazard" idea from four years ago.  The storyline I had in mind behind the Hazardous Terrain was that a truck has crashed releasing a "Nano Fog" which has resulted in a Grey Goo Incident.

Me (4 Frames & 15 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 42 points.  (Dread Squad) 

   Yellow Watchtower -- 2B/2Y/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

   Orange Watchtower -- 2B/2Y/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

   Red Watchtower -- 2B/2Y/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

   Blue Light Instigator -- 2Ra/1G/1Y/2W.

Tom (4 Frames & 16 Systems) = (6 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 36 points.

   Pink Recon by Fire -- 2B/1Gd8/2Y/2W + SSR.

   White Recon by Fire -- 2B/1Gd8/2Y/2W.

   Green White Recon by Fire -- 2B/1Gd8/2Y/2W + SSR.

   Brown Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B1Gd8/2W + SSR.

Phungkyjams (6 Frames & 24 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (8 assets) = 24 points.  (Gundam Converge)
   White -- 2Ra/1B/2G/2W + SSR.

   Dark Blue Armored Fast Scout -- 1B/1G+d8/2Y/2W + SSR(x2).

   Grey Mobile Cannon-- 2Ra+d8/1B/1G/2W.

   Light Blue Delegator -- 2Ra/1B/2Y/2W.
   Red Binary -- 2Ra/1B/1G/1Y/2W.

   Dark Red Binary -- 2Ra/1B/1G/1Y/2W.

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

Events of Round 1 (DDC @ 11): My Yellow frame retreats South, angling off to capture Phungkyjams' Data Horse station along the way.  Tom's Green frame hits Phungkyjams' Red frame for 2, Station Dance.  Phungkyjams' Light Blue frame hits Tom's Brown frame for 3, Station Dance, then moves South.  Tom's Brown frame hits Phungkyjams' White frame for 1 with a SSR, then moves Southeast towards my squad.  My Blue frame hits Phungkyjams' Dark Red frame for 1.  Tom's Pink frame hits my Yellow frame for 3.  Tom's White frame hits Phungkyjams' White frame for 2, then moves West.  Phungkyjams' Dark Blue frame hits Tom's White frame for 2 with a SSR, then moves West.

Phungkyjams' Grey frame hits my Yellow frame for 2, then moves South.

Me: 49 points.

Tom: 36 points.

Phungkyjams: 21 points.

Events of Round 2 (DDC @ 9): My Yellow frame hits Tom's Brown frame for 2, and the tree in front of it for 1 destroying the tree.  Tom's Brown frame moves South and captures Phungkyjams' Data Horse station that was under my control.  Phungkyjams' Grey frame hits Tom's Green frame for 5, Station Dance, then moves south to capture my Brown station.  Phungkyjams' Light Blue frame hits Tom's Pink frame for 2, Station Dance, then moves south.  Phungkyjams' White frame -- which had moved into position earlier -- captures one of Tom's stations.  Tom's Pink frame hits Phungkyjams' Dark Red frame for 2.  Phungkyjams' Red frame hits my Yellow frame for 5, destroying it, then moves Southwest.  My Blue frame hits Phungkyjams' Dark Red frame for 2.  Tom's White frame hits a tree for 1, destroying it, and Phungkyjams' Grey frame for 1 -- then moves East behind Phungkyjams' Light Blue frame.

Tom: 36 points.

Me: 28 points.

Phungkyjams: 27 points.

Events of Round 3 (DDC @ 7): Phungkyjams' Light Blue frame hits Tom's Green frame for 3, destroying it, then moves West.  Phungkyjams' Grey frame -- trying to target Tom's Pink frame -- hits his White frame for 4, destroying it.  My Blue frame hits Phungkyjams'  Dark Red frame for 1, destroying it, then moves West.

Tom: 36 points.

Me: 28 points.

Phungkyjams: 18 points.

Events of Round 4 (DDC @ 3): With a SSR my Red frame hits Tom's Brown frame for 5, and the tree it was hiding behind for 1, destroying both.  My Red frame then moves North to recapture Phungkyjams' Data Horse station that was under Tom's control.  My Blue frame hits Tom's Pink frame for 1, Station Dance.  Phungkyjams' Light Blue frame hits my Blue frame for 1, Station Dance.  Phungkyjams' Red frame hits my Blue frame for 3, then moves West towards the Data Horse station.

Me: 35 points.

Tom: 24 points.

Phungkyjams: 18 points.

Events of Round 5 (DDC @ 1): Tom's Pink frame hits my Blue frame for 1.  Phungkyjams' Light Blue frame hits my Red frame for 4. My Red frame Station Dances then sprints Northwest to take cover behind Tom's Pink frame.  Phungkyjams' Dark Blue frame recaptures his Data Horse station.  Tom's White frame hits my Red frame for 1.  Phungkyjams' Red frame hits Toms' Pink frame for 1 then shifts to the other side of the Data Horse station.  Phungkyjams' Grey frame hits Tom's Pink frame for 3, Station Dance.  My Red frame captures one of Tom's stations.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to zero.

Me: 35 points.

Phungkyjams: 21 points.

Tom: 18 points.

Here's several during and aftermath pictures.

Round 3.

Round 3.

Round 3.

Round 4.

Round 5.

Round 5.

Round 5.

Round 5.

Round 5.

Thoughts & Observations:

• This was a Skirmish.
• We forgot to use the Neutral Station rule.
• We used the "New 1.3" player count formula from my "Player Count 6" blog post.
• This was a full scale playtest of my Doomsday Hazard idea.  I'll post a write-up of the guidelines a little later.
• This was the 100th game since I started keeping records.
• There were no Direct Fire systems in any squad.
• There was only one Melee-based frame.
• Every other Weapon System was Artillery.
• I believe this is the first recorded instance of someone destroying their own Frame while trying to damage an opponent's.
• This was the first five round game since 2023.
• I forgot to build a Compass Rose for this game.
• I wanted to make a wrecked vehicle to be the epicenter of the Nano Fog but I couldn't find the pieces I wanted and I ran out of time.
• To represent the "Nano Fog" Hazardous Terrain I used cotton balls.
• I didn't take any extra pictures during Round 1 and 2 because we were deciding which Baseplates the Hazardous Terrain expanded into and mucking around with cotton balls.
• I used the Sniping Turtle Formation again.
• I was hanging on for dear life in that final round.
• Flickr page.

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.

Anatomy of a Playtest 4: Weather Report

Remember Wednesday when I told you the weather rules hadn't been playtested?  I lied.  Tom and I did four fast, demo-style games last Sunday to quickly test the rules and see if there was anything majorly wrong with the concepts I had outlined.

Things were so awesome,
Merlin had to get involved.

Game 1: Dust Storm.  There were no obvious issues with this

idea.  It does need testing in a full scale game though.  The

biggest problem was remembering to roll down the Spotting die.

Game 2: Torrential Rain.  There were no obvious issues with this

idea.  It does need testing in a full scale game though.  The

biggest problem was remembering to roll down the Movement die.

Game 3: Hurricane Winds.  One, you need some sort of marker

showing which way the wind is blowing.  Two, if you do use this rule

modification it needs to be decided before the Set-Up phase so people

can decide where to place their units in relation to the wind direction.

Game 4: Hail Storm.  This one required some think on how to implement

it properly.  It has to occur at the end of the Round so that all Frames

have Defenses in place and you don't wreck Initiative Order.  Two, I

changed it to a d8 roll to decide when it happens so that you don't need

something other than the d6/d8/d12 that we already use.  Third, Tom and

I figured a 2d6 Use-The-Highest roll for an Attack number is closer to

how the game usually works and is more likely to generate an effect.

Final thoughts.  Honestly, all of these rule mods should be decided on before the game starts so people can plan around them.  A Dust Storm will require extra Spotting, Torrential Rain will require extra Movement, etc.  That's just in line with the data forward, What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get nature of Mobile Frame Zero anyways.  In terms of "interestingness" Dust Storm and Torrential Rain are fairly straightforward but will probably be brutal when it gets to late game, limited number of dice, make the best of bad rolls situations.  Hail Storm has the possibility of dealing a lot of damage, especially late in the game, but also has the chance of doing squat -- which is what happened in Game 4.  Hurricane Winds is probably the most interesting.  Speeding up -- or slowing down -- Frames always has big repercussions, even if they can't be seen until the game is over.

Here are the updated versions of the rule modifications.

Dust Storm -- This weather condition applies a -1 to all Spotting rolls.

Torrential Rain -- This weather condition applies a -1 to all Movement rolls.

Hurricane Winds -- Roll a d8.  A 1 or 2 = North, 3 or 4 = East, 5 or 6 = South, 7 or 8 = West.  This weather condition applies a -1 to all Movement rolls in that direction and +1 to all Movement rolls in the opposite direction.

Hail Storm -- Roll a d8.  A 1 or 2 = Round One, 3 or 4 = Round Two, 5 or 6 = Round Three, 7 or 8 = Round Four.  At the end of that Round all Frames will suffer a 2d6 (Choose the highest) Melee attack.  Compare the roll to all Defenses on the battlefield and roll the appropriate amount of Damage dice for each Frame that is effected.

Roll 2d6 (Add):

2 = Hurricane Winds.

3 = Clear Skies.

4 = Dust Storm.

5 = Clear Skies.

6 = Clear Skies.

7 = Clear Skies.

8 = Clear Skies.

9 = Clear Skies.

10 = Torrential Rain.

11 = Clear Skies.

12 = Hail Storm.

One of the good things about this expanded chart is that you can replace some of the "Clear Skies" results with the other weather conditions to increase the frequency if you want to have them happen more often.  You could also just choose one of the weather options if that's the story the players want to tell about that game

As I've mentioned before, I hope this is a fun option for people.  Flickr page.

Battle Report: Dinosaur Planet 1 (Anatomy of a Playtest 3)

A year and a three quarters has passed since the last time I tried to playtest my "Dinosaur Planet" ruleset.  I've actually sold this ruleset as an ashcan in the intervening time at PAX Unplugged.  We had three players this time and this was also the first time it's been used in a full sized game.

Tom (4 Frames & 16 Systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (6 assets) = 42 points.
   Blue Hammer -- 2Rd/2B/1Y/2W + SSR.
   White Anvil -- 2Rh+d8/1B/1Y/2W.
   Yellow Anvil -- 2Rh+d8/1B/1Y/2W + SSR.
   Orange Anvil -- 2Rh+d8/1B/1Y/2W + SSR.

Phungkyjams (5 Frames & 19 Systems) = (4 Points per Asset) * (7 assets) = 28 points.  (Farmhands)
   Red Anvil -- 2Rh+d8/1B/1Y/2W.
   Blue Hammer -- 2Rd/2B/1Y/2W + SSR.
   Lime Closer -- 2Rh+d8/2Rd/1B/2W + SSR (x2).
   Yellow Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.
   Orange Static Warrior -- 2Rh/1B/1Gd8/1Y/2W.

Me (5 Frames & 20 Systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (7 assets) = 21 points.  (Quattros)
   Purple Brawler -- 2Rh+d8/2B/1Gd8/2W + SSR.

   Green Recon by Fire -- 2Ra+d8/2Y/2W.

   Red Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.
   Orange Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W + SSR.

   White Walking Target -- 2Rd+d8/2Ra+d8/2W.

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

Events of Round 1 (DDC@11): Tom captures Phungkyjams' Dog station before the game starts. My Green frame hits the tree in front of Tom's Yellow frame for 1 then moves along the edge of the battlefield towards a Small Triple Tree.  Phungkyjams' Red frame hits Tom's Yellow frame for 1, Station Dance. Phungkyjams' Yellow frame hits Tom's Orange frame for 1, Station Dance. Tom's Orange frame hits Phungkyjams' Blue frame for 2. My White frame takes a couple steps to its left and hits Tom's White frame for 1 and his Orange frame for 1, Station Dance.

Tom: 49 points.
Phungkyjams: 24 points

Me: 21 points.

Events of Round 2 (DDC@9): The Triceratops gores the Tyrannosaurus Rex for 1. Phungkyjams' Red frame hits Tom's Orange frame for 1. Tom's Yellow frame hits the tree in front of my Orange frame for 1. My Orange frame hits Tom's Blue frame for 2 in response. My Orange frame then runs forward and captures Phungkyjams' Dog Station that was under Tom's control. My Green frame tucks in closer to the Small Triple Tree then hits Tom's White frame for 2, Station Dance. Phungkyjams' Yellow frame moves closer to his Carrot Station and hits Tom's Blue frame for 3, Station Dance.  Phungkyjams' Lime frame hits Tom's Blue frame for 2, destroying it.  Phungkyjams' Lime frame then moves to the center of the battlefield and captures Tom's Station.  My Red frame hits Phungkyjams' Yellow frame for 1 with a SSR then moves closer to the center of the battlefield.

Tom: 28 points.

Phungkyjams: 28 points.

Me: 24 points.

Events of Round 3 (DDC@6): One of the Dilophosauruses spits at the Triceratops for 1 then runs off the battlefield.  Tom's Yellow frame hits the tree in front of Phungkyjams' Blue frame for 1.  My Purple frame slashes Phungkyjams' Lime frame for 2.  Phungkyjams' Lime frame hits my Purple frame for 2 in response.  Phungkyjams' Orange frame hits my White frame for 3.  Tom's Orange frame hits my Orange frame for 2, Station Dance.  Tom's Orange frame then trundles backwards and captures my Red Station.

Tom: 35 points.

Phungkyjams: 28 points.

Me: 21 points.

Events of Round 4 (DDC@3): Tom's White frame hits my Orange frame for 3.  Tom's Yellow frame hits Phungkyjams' Red frame for 1.  Phungkyjams' Red frame hits Tom's White frame for 2.  The Velociraptor bites my Purple frame for 2.  My Purple frame then jumps to the other side of Tom's Station and punches Phungkyjams' Lime frame for 4, Station Dance.  My Purple frame captures Tom's Station that was under Phungkyjams' control.  My Green frame comes out from the cover of the Small Triple Tree and hits Tom's Yellow frame for 1.  Phungkyjams' Blue frame finally makes it to the corner of the battlefield and captures my Purple Station.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to zero.

Tom: 35 points.

Phungkyjams: 28 points.

Me: 21 points.

Here are more pictures from during the game and the aftermath.

Round 2

Round 1

Round 1

Round 2

Round 2

Round 3

Round 2

Round 3

Round 3

Round 3

Round 4

Round 4

Round 4

Round 4

Round 4

Round 4

Round 4

Round 4

Thoughts & Observations:

• 

  Round 4

  This was a Skirmish.
• We all showed up with the same Frame/System ratio so there was a roll off to determine Defender.
• Then we had another roll off after I opted to add a Frame to my squad.
• Phungkyjams also opted to add a Frame but with less Systems so we finally had our starting Initiative Stack.
• Remember, always have current versions of your playtest documents on hand when executing a playtest.
• Came up with some ideas on Movement and dice decisions for the dinosaurs.
• Still working on where they should activate in the Initiative Stack.
• There wasn't a lot of destruction for this game.
• I dug the Quattros out of storage for this game because I didn't have a new squad ready to go.
• Of course now I want to tinker with them.
• Which I should do because I need more variation in the Systems available for this squad.
• The Damage dice went cold for me in Round 3.
• This game had the least amount of Frames destroyed of any game we've played.
• We had a pretty crazy Attack chain to open the last round.
• Flickr page.