Post by bubbacleese on Aug 15, 2011 14:04:17 GMT -5
Well much to my surprise the 10 player game expanded as I drove to the game store to 14 players. Good thing we have enough ships and a 8' x 6' 2" hex mat. As this was a mass teaching game I kept things as simple as possible. No carriers and only minimal missiles and Grape Shot.
All players on each side had the same three ships which helped a lot as neighboring players could answer most questions.
Side A: Vanguard BBB, Furious CAB, Furious CAB
Side B: Arrogant BBF, Thunderbolt CAD, Thunderbolt CAD
With 14 players there were some who dragged in late but we got started playing turns about 1pm after about 1 hour of setup and rules explanation. One of the first problems you would think of trying to run a 14 player game is keeping the player initiative both quick and in good order. Being the quick thinking fellow that I am...this is where I hurt myself patting myself on the back...I manufactured that morning a imitative tree using an old shoe box, and yard stick, Velcro, and paint stir sticks. Duck tape the yard stick to the bottom of the shoe box, fill the inside with ballast, cut an accurate yard stick hole in the top of the shoe box and slide it down over the Yard stick. Apply the Velcro to the yard stick and stir sticks, write players names on the stir sticks and there you go.
The game had us sitting elbow to elbow around the 8' x 6' table and when the game started there was shooting at close range on the one end as those players had started too close to one another. <It is a teaching game, it is a teaching game... So one end of the table was was in combat fast and furious.
As many of the players were not used to the firing range and how damage was applied it was a real mess for a while. Then a few turns later things smoothed out enough that without my prompting the players started jumping ahead of their initiative based upon those who were still trying to move / shoot before them were too far away to have any impact on their decisions.
Lot's of good loud voices, finger pointing, and plenty of smack talk. In other words everyone had a very good time. Well, except for my good friend Jeff Key. He was the end of our line and I was next to him, and on turn 2 or 3 and turned away and left him to face three or four players by himself. I'm a bad friend
Around 5 or 6 o'clock as several people needed to go and we could tell that my ship selection was not great we decided to call the game. After looking at the ships again today I realized as I entered the data into the ship tool I gave the Vanguard BBB hard point 4 and 6 Hvy Laser arcs of fire F/S and F/P instead of just S and P. This did come up in the game as our side did not have as good a forward firing set of weapons. Oh well, I'll try to do better next time.
Several players were taking pictures during the game and I've put out the word for them to send me the pictures so I can post here in the AAR. Check back later for some good looking mass combat.
Bubba Cleese
All players on each side had the same three ships which helped a lot as neighboring players could answer most questions.
Side A: Vanguard BBB, Furious CAB, Furious CAB
Side B: Arrogant BBF, Thunderbolt CAD, Thunderbolt CAD
With 14 players there were some who dragged in late but we got started playing turns about 1pm after about 1 hour of setup and rules explanation. One of the first problems you would think of trying to run a 14 player game is keeping the player initiative both quick and in good order. Being the quick thinking fellow that I am...this is where I hurt myself patting myself on the back...I manufactured that morning a imitative tree using an old shoe box, and yard stick, Velcro, and paint stir sticks. Duck tape the yard stick to the bottom of the shoe box, fill the inside with ballast, cut an accurate yard stick hole in the top of the shoe box and slide it down over the Yard stick. Apply the Velcro to the yard stick and stir sticks, write players names on the stir sticks and there you go.
The game had us sitting elbow to elbow around the 8' x 6' table and when the game started there was shooting at close range on the one end as those players had started too close to one another. <It is a teaching game, it is a teaching game... So one end of the table was was in combat fast and furious.
As many of the players were not used to the firing range and how damage was applied it was a real mess for a while. Then a few turns later things smoothed out enough that without my prompting the players started jumping ahead of their initiative based upon those who were still trying to move / shoot before them were too far away to have any impact on their decisions.
Lot's of good loud voices, finger pointing, and plenty of smack talk. In other words everyone had a very good time. Well, except for my good friend Jeff Key. He was the end of our line and I was next to him, and on turn 2 or 3 and turned away and left him to face three or four players by himself. I'm a bad friend
Around 5 or 6 o'clock as several people needed to go and we could tell that my ship selection was not great we decided to call the game. After looking at the ships again today I realized as I entered the data into the ship tool I gave the Vanguard BBB hard point 4 and 6 Hvy Laser arcs of fire F/S and F/P instead of just S and P. This did come up in the game as our side did not have as good a forward firing set of weapons. Oh well, I'll try to do better next time.
Several players were taking pictures during the game and I've put out the word for them to send me the pictures so I can post here in the AAR. Check back later for some good looking mass combat.
Bubba Cleese