More shooting people in space!

One more playtest with a new scenario. Salvage. 6 loot crates, grab what you can. Hold on to what you can. Game length: 5 turns. You still need to roll a d6. On a “1”, it’s just junk.

Back to my trusty humans vs skulkers factions. This time I gave them armour so they were tougher. The scenario has them scavenging loot from a crashed shuttle.

This time, with more familiarity with the rules, and some more forgiving dice rolls, units weren’t just wiped off the table. Smart use of cover helped to mitigate getting shot off the table. Cover is important!

In the end, skulkers managed to grab 3 treasures and humans only 2 due to rolling a “1” when they searched the loot crates.

However, you do need to hold on to what you have till turn 5, and this time round the skulkers weren’t able to do that. Poor dice rolls on the Threat able (a 20% chance when getting shot at) saw 2 units run OFF the table. Even with the new “last ditch morale test” rule when you reach the table’s edge… they still ran off. A double move is a no-no. Hopefully the feed back will change that to a single move so there’s another chance to rally the unit before the next turn.

In the end, the humans won, holding 3 loot to the skulker’s 1, mainly because the humans had 4 units left compared to the skulkers 2.

AAR: the game has a nice feel to it, due to the added Firefight phase that most other games don’t so you really need to be careful about positioning. 

Some questions re: scenario rules also came up that will be addressed. If you’re forced to run off the table, do you drop the loot or carry it with you? Does it count at the end of the game, or only loot ON the table?

As mentioned before, failing your nerve when shot at and making a double move towards the table edge is especially punitive given the 3x3 table since you can be shot at at any time, and if you’re less than 10” away from the table edge… you only have a 33% chance to rally your unit before it runs off. If it’s only 1 move, then you get 2 chances: one at the end of the turn and another when it reaches the table edge.

Oh, and pursuant to my previous post about what I'm looking for in a skirmish game, the side with the least units chooses who goes first. Else it's a dice off, then alternating activations.

Next: explosive weapons, heavy weapons and melee combat weapons stats are out, so those will be fun to play with.