So over the weekend a fair few changes were made to the Gang War Pre-Alpha pack taking us to version number 0.0.3.
In order to give it a good test a game was staged using the following team composition:
Leader: Heavy Armour, Medium Med Kit, Digi Scope & Assault Rifle
Sniper: Medium Armour, Sniper Rifle & Light Med Kit
Grunt: Medium Armour & Assault Rifle
Both teams mirrored themselves and were split into Red vs Blue.
Shortly after the game began I realised that it was missing something, so it was restarted with the added change:
Hackers!
So added to the trio per side was now:
Hacker: Light Armour, Deck, Pistol.
Placed in the centre of the board was a hacking objective and the game began.
The mission: Steal data from the Objective and get to your deployment edge. First team to do so wins.
Both teams started play very differently, with Red being aggressive and running straight for the objective while Blue tried to flank the objective instead; trying to cut off any and all routes to the marker (represented by an unpainted Bounty Hunter)
Blue Sniper did everything he could to keep Red Sniper away from high raised locations while Red Leader decked out in slow moving but very strong armour laid down suppressive fire to protect Red Hacker who in turn hid behind a storage crate and began his Hack of the Objective, already completing 2 out of the 3 Hack Durations.
Knowing that time was limited; Blue pushed forward.
Blue Grunt moved around the back of the objective but was met by Red Leader who opened fire on Blue Grunt leaving him bloody but alive.
Blue Leader moved forward to distract both Red Sniper & Red Grunt who were offering protection for Red Hacker and attempted to lay down suppressive fire but bottled it and failed to pin a single unit down.
Meanwhile Red Sniper took aim at Blue Leader and released a high impact round to Blue Leader's chest leaving Blue Leader mobile but injured.
Taking advantage of the distraction given by Blue Leader; Blue Hacker moved forward trying to Engage Red Hacker to interrupt the Hack but instead was gunned down by Red Grunt in the back leaving him incapacitated on the floor.
With no way of assisting from his current vantage point, Blue Sniper jumped to the ground and sprinted with all his worth to the nearest point of cover. He knew he couldn't do much but he was setting himself up for when he would be needed most.
By this point the carnage was beginning to run rampant. Red Hacker, in desperate need to complete his Hack did so and made a run for their exit but was slowed down by the open waterworks leaving him exposed in the open.
With only a drop of life left Blue Grunt returned fire on Red Leader, unloading everything he had into the Heavily Armoured Unit at close range. It seemed like maybe things were turning for the better for Blue Team as Red Leader's armour faltered and Red Leader fell to the ground incapacitated.
Red Sniper turned his attention to Blue Leader but failed to get a bead on his target; meanwhile Blue Leader, shrugging off the damage from Red Sniper waded through open water to reach the downed Blue Hacker and revive him with a Medium Medi-Kit before being downed himself by Red Grunt.
Red Hacker; continuing his run for the drop location could see the target in sight; just one more sprint and he would be home free.
At the same time on the other side of the board, from behind cover confidently strode the Blue Sniper who; raising his rifle to his eyes drew a long ranged shot against Red Hacker. Pausing just long enough to verify the target, looking over the incapacitated form of Blue Leader, and past the injured but alive Blue Hacker, his target was in his sights.
BOOM! Headshot! Red Hacker down in one shot.
This was met by Red Grunt who opened up on Blue Hacker once again Incapacitating him while Blue Grunt moved forward straight into the sights of Red Sniper who finally put him out of his prolonged misery.
All alone with no cover between himself, his fallen team members and the now infamous Red Sniper; Blue Sniper weighed up the odds and fled allowing Red team to recover their Incapacitate Hacker complete with Hacked Data and access the dropsite.
Red Team Wins!
**********
Thoughts and findings:
This was a great experience for me. I found the exchange of gunfire both cinematic and tense. Despite what I expected, Sniper Rifles were valuable but not the game winners I expected, with more than one occasions only doing a single wound per turn.
I also learned that a few changes were needed, like Hacker Decks being toned down - which was done mid game and instantly made Hacking a more tense (and rewarding when it succeeded) experience.
The latest rules pack can be found here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9w1nuhm4rfl6usr/Gang%20War%20Pre%20Alpha%20v0.0.3.pdf?dl=0
And I am currently deciding on Deployment.
I see two, maybe three options - board edge deployment, 6" deployment and anywhere in between.
Last night I found that anything under 6" deployment was a moot issue. During turn 1 all that happened was Units moved to the cover they would have started in at 6" deployment, resulting in an additional (boring and wasted) turn, but I need further testing to establish if this is the trend or the exception.
Next up: HACKERS!!
- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley
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