SFAR -first playtest

Well, we playtested SFAR last night at the Baron's Chateau. As a play test it went fine. Found out lots of stuff as soon as we got started. I like playtesting if everyone is in the mood to test. And I enjoy trying to come to grips with why you did what you did. Somethings click, somethings don't. I took many notes and will incorporate them into the next version. Some things to work on.

There was some struggles with group activation and units. Nomeclature I think as I am approaching it a bit different than a normal set up. Must ponder this.

Artillery - I did the artillery rules litterally in 1 minute before I printed last night before the game. they need much work to be able to be feroucious, and still maintain balance. They were killers and too powerful for sure.

ECM. Not sure if this is mdeled the way I want it. But it did force some maneuver, hunti9ng of reece units, etc. so I'm 50/50 on it.

Fire and hits definition.  Again I think nomeclature held a few people up. I need to rename some things to make it more clear as to what the intent is to make it simpler for the players.

Number of pieces on the board. I had forgotten how small 6mm is and the effort it takes to maneuver them.  we had about 12 units a side and it was an effort to move them all.

Length of time for a turn. I would like to have a much quicker game. turns took a long time. Part of it is a new set of rules, part is the sequence. I may look at going to alternating unit moves, or doing unit to unit firing, and just having a fire factor for a unit. i.e. Add up all the gun factors(say 1 per tank). so a uit of 5 tanks would have a fire of 5. roll that against the armor of the opposing unit. distribute hits against the unit(attacker chooses). It would quicken things up(instead of model to model firing) but takes the level of the engagement(looking down on the battle, think of a satellite or camera lens, I guess resolution is a good work too) up from 100' to 1000'.

Anyway. It was a good test. It was a little soon for a 6 person test, but I learned a lot. Some folks didn't enjoy them, but that's ok too. I will keep working on them until they are what I want. Thanks to the Generals for their input.

SFAR Follow Up 4-26-12

I've mentioned befor ethat I was a military modeler in my youth. I switched to RPG's and Miniatures in my teens. Man did they get good later. These UC HArdgraph models are a real inspiration for me for SFAR. I don't know how much stompy robots I will do, but its the military vehicles that get me. Well, that and the classic -SCOPEDOG. enjoy.

Most are out of print, or only available through resale or through Hobby Link Japan. But man are they beautiful. I find it hard, not to be interested in the giant robot model thing sometimes, cause sometimes they are just too cool. Thanks for that Robotech.

Quick Update 4-26-12

I didn't get a chance to post after lunch yesterday, but I made some good progress on the British Guards units at lunch. So  little bit of the old WIPaL(What I Painted At Lunch) still lives. I got the tufts and swallows nests painted on the shoulders, the lacing on the jackets, the ever so small turnback of the coat at the waist(thin white line), and backpack straps.I also got the belts and the backpack shoulder and T straps on the first unit complete.

I was going to finish the belts and do the shakos at lunch today, but I got a request to participate in take your child to work day, so that usually means lunch out with dad. So no painting at lunch. But I like that painting at lunch will allow me some guilt-free painting time and it can actually be productive on assembly line painting.

Playing a play test of SFAR with the Basement Generals tonite, so we will see how that goes.

SFAR - First post

A bunch of small posts today. I wanted to let everyone know I am working on what is hopefully a fun and fast set of Sci Fi Micro Armor rules(SFAR for development, the working title is Hollow Shell). Its got some feel from some of my favorite micro scale games, and some other stuff. Its only 5 pages right now and has only been playtested by myself solo a couple of times. I sent it out to  a couple of the Basement Generals who I like getting feedback from. So its a work in progress. But it was nice to get it out of my head and on paper. Also on the rules front, the Baron is working ard on his Horse and Musket variant for Fistful of Lead. He shuld be publishing in time for the 20th anniversary recruits this fall. also slated for completion (I hope) is our post apocalypse variant, Fistful of Lead:Warriors of the Wasteland.