Post by TheDreadnought on Aug 10, 2010 20:39:50 GMT -5
So I wound up running 14 (!!) events at GenCon this year. All of them were Naval Thunder or Colonial Battlefleet events. Here are just a few thoughts on how some of the events went.
CB - Klingon Border
People had a great time at these events. Afterwards we discussed how to tweak the rules to make them better for this style of combat. Looks like boarding actions needed some work, but we came up with some ideas we'll have to address. Shields were generally on the right track, but had a few minor tweaks that needed to be made. Overall, things are looking pretty good.
CB - Battlestar Agamemnon
This event was a straight up BSG vs. Cylon battle, and I consider it the most successful event of the con. The players absolutely loved it, and i have to say I had a great time running it as well. One player only made 2 comments on the rules the entire game. . . around turn 2 he said "Don't know how the rest of the game will go, but so far this game does an amazing job of capturing the flavor of the setting." His second comment at the end of the game was, "Wow. . . what an amazing game!" Not sure if he was referring to the ruleset or the game that was played. . . but hey. . . I'll take it!
CB: Battlestar vs. Star Destroyer.
Worked out ok. Required excellent tactics on the part of the Colonials to defeat the shields on the Empire ships. In one game they had them, in the other, not so much. Still, everyone had fun and I got some tasty new rules ideas out of it as a result.
NT - Mega Scale
Tried out a Pacific cruiser action to see how running a mega scale game (1/700) at GenCon would work out. I had thrown in two U.S. Fletcher DD's at the last moment because it looked like the U.S. was overmatched by the Japanese heavies.
Those Fletchers were deliberately chosen in favor of cruisers by a couple ex-navy guys. Turns out my last-minute addition were the decisive element of the game. Through excellent use of smoke screens and radar directed fire control, the U.S. was able to devastate the Japanese task force.
With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight 65 years later, the two navy guys used highly effective tactics that were never used by the actual U.S. forces during the war. The result left the Japanese players somewhat frustrated. Future mega-scale games will call for a slight tweak to the smoke rules to reflect their historical usage. . . but I look forward to taking the capital ships to Indy next time.
CB - Klingon Border
People had a great time at these events. Afterwards we discussed how to tweak the rules to make them better for this style of combat. Looks like boarding actions needed some work, but we came up with some ideas we'll have to address. Shields were generally on the right track, but had a few minor tweaks that needed to be made. Overall, things are looking pretty good.
CB - Battlestar Agamemnon
This event was a straight up BSG vs. Cylon battle, and I consider it the most successful event of the con. The players absolutely loved it, and i have to say I had a great time running it as well. One player only made 2 comments on the rules the entire game. . . around turn 2 he said "Don't know how the rest of the game will go, but so far this game does an amazing job of capturing the flavor of the setting." His second comment at the end of the game was, "Wow. . . what an amazing game!" Not sure if he was referring to the ruleset or the game that was played. . . but hey. . . I'll take it!
CB: Battlestar vs. Star Destroyer.
Worked out ok. Required excellent tactics on the part of the Colonials to defeat the shields on the Empire ships. In one game they had them, in the other, not so much. Still, everyone had fun and I got some tasty new rules ideas out of it as a result.
NT - Mega Scale
Tried out a Pacific cruiser action to see how running a mega scale game (1/700) at GenCon would work out. I had thrown in two U.S. Fletcher DD's at the last moment because it looked like the U.S. was overmatched by the Japanese heavies.
Those Fletchers were deliberately chosen in favor of cruisers by a couple ex-navy guys. Turns out my last-minute addition were the decisive element of the game. Through excellent use of smoke screens and radar directed fire control, the U.S. was able to devastate the Japanese task force.
With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight 65 years later, the two navy guys used highly effective tactics that were never used by the actual U.S. forces during the war. The result left the Japanese players somewhat frustrated. Future mega-scale games will call for a slight tweak to the smoke rules to reflect their historical usage. . . but I look forward to taking the capital ships to Indy next time.
