The Week From Hell

Pestilence, DH666

Yikes, what a week from hell. The only member of the family who's not sick as a dog with the flu is... the dog.

Rules: Models, Units, & Strike Forces (Ver. 0.55)

Did some updates to these rules, and described what we have planned for the Strike Force Organization Charts (SFOCs).

Rules: Rolling Dice (Ver. 0.55)

Soldiers Playing Dice, Michelangelo Cerquozzi

Here's an update to the Dice Rolling rules. The pass-all tests will be going away, so they've been removed. I've also defined some things that needed defining. Like Re-Rolls and Salvos.

Rules: What You Need To Play (Ver. 0.55)

Here's the 'What You Need To Play' section of the rules. I'm going to try something different this time, as I'm tired of copy-pasting from the rulebook and then reformatting everything for the web. Instead, I'm going to offer a link where you can download just this section of the rules as a PDF. Which should be easier to read anyhow. We'll see how that goes.

Testing The New Visibility System

CaulynDarr and I tested out the new visibility system with a straightforward battle today (Meeting Engagement). How did it do?

Vehicle Movement Outline

I've been working on the formal writeup of the new Visibility/Shooting rules. Which will get tested today with CaulynDarr. But while I work on that, here's a rough outline of my thoughts for how vehicles should move. I've tried to add just enough method variation between the types to make it interesting, with meaningful tactical differences. But not so much detail that it becomes a naval sim. :)

A Very Interesting Email: Part 2

Here's the second half of that email that Ryjak sent me, and my responses. This one's going to be quite interesting, as I compare the result ranges of D6 and D10 dice rolled in series, and why D10 isn't as much of a better choice for a wargame as people tend to think it is.

Visibility: Re-Vamp II

My last re-vamp of the visibility/to-hit system was interesting, but it didn't work out in testing. I'm taking another go at it though. Keeping in mind Ryjak & Eriochrome's suggestions, I've eliminated 2 levels of visibility, axed all range bands beyond the first, and instead instituted standardized Evasion modifiers at long range, based on terrain. With straight modifiers for shooting & GtG, but not running.

Testing Results From Saturday

At the Indy Open a few weeks back, I was invited to come down and demo the game to a club of 20+ guys that meets on the south side of Indy at a private home. I didn't take any pictures (because it was a private home), but I did get in two good test games with some players at the lower end of the competitiveness scale. They enjoyed themselves, and it was interesting to see what they appreciated the most about the game compared to the more hard core competitive types.

A Very Interesting Email: Part 1

Ryjak sent me a long email with a lot of heartfelt suggestions/criticisms about the game. The discussion of which I thought would be of interest to most of our readers. So here it is...

Another Visibility Option

Here's another refinement that might strike the right balance for our visibility system. This time, each range band is a multiple of the short range.

Krox's Visibility Suggestion

Krox had a suggestion in the comments to my last post that we vary the short range based on visibility, but that we simply make each range band after that 12" further. Well, I've lined up some models and taken pictures. Let's see how the two methods compare.

Roll Low Instead Of High?

As we continue to work on streamlining the current rules, Eriochrome and I have started discussing how to make our dice rolling more consistent. Right now we roll low for Ld and Toughness tests. But we roll high for to-hit tests and armor saves. Rolling low to kill a model with a toughness test has confused all the testers to one extent or another. So I was considering making it a roll-high test instead. But Eriochrome had another idea. Which is interesting enough that we should consider it.

Some Flyer Thoughts

A-10 Warthog, Lou Drendel

While I've been working on the visibility stuff, I've had some thoughts about how we might handle Flyers in the game. Particularly after dusting off my old Apoc book and noting some general things that I like about that system. Not that we won't massively improve on those rules, of course. :)

Visualizing The New Visibility System

Red Glasses, Mohamed Kahouadji

Today I decided to pull out some models and demonstrate what the visibility bands would look like on-table, and compare it our old system. Let's walk though it.

Reworking Visibility/Concealment

I've spent the last couple of days trying to figure out how to make visibility/cover more straightforward in the game than it is right now. Finally, I think I have an answer that works.

Indy Open Notes: Reserves

The Visibility rules were the biggest issue to come up in testing. But reserves were a close second. This came to a head when testing the Bridgehead mission multiple times. But we also encountered problems with Exfiltration yesterday. Which had been working fine until we upped the number of units per side to 9. One of those new units was a dedicated close-combat specialist (the Paladin Captain). While we also had a tank on the table to worry about.

Indy Open Notes: Visibility & Smoke

The wife still isn't tip-top, and won't be for another week, but I've got time to work on some stuff again. So let's dive into some of the notes I took during the Indy Open test/demo games, and a game I had yesterday at the FLGS.

Updated Unit Stat Cards (Updated Again)

Here's a PDF of the unit cards that we used for testing at the Indy Open. Download it here.

Indy Open Notes: Dust Warfare

Ok, I've caught a breather. :)

I got a lot of good feedback on the game at the Indy Open. My wife's first trip to the hospital kept me away from the tourney Saturday night. Which, unfortunately, would have been the best time to run demos. Since everyone was too exhausted on Sunday to do more than ask a couple of questions before they took off. Not many stayed for the awards.

There was some real interest in WarStrike though, and I got invited to demo the game at a couple of stores and a club in the near future. The club, in particular, might end up being a valuable testing resource.

Chaos Reigns This Week

2000 Yard Stare, Tom Lea

Until at least the end of the week, expect the posting to be sporadic at best. My wife had sinus surgery last Wednesday (her second in a month), and has had complications. She went to the hospital twice over the weekend because of extreme pain. It's only because of the kind efforts of family and friends that I was still able (with her blessing) to attend the Indy Open, and show off the game at all.

Quick Reference Guide (V2)

The Quick Reference Guide has now been updated. Get the PDF by clicking here.

It's nice to see the guide simplify over time. It means we're doing something right. :)