Guys

I and my regular opponent played our first games last night - twice with Scenario #1 from Blue Thunder and one play through of scenario 2.

We love the models and the feel of it all. And the ability to get in three games in 3 hours was great. The two playing of scneario 1 were good with both games coming down to a final die roll. Scenario 2 was over in 3 turns of the 8 scheduled though...

But gameplay wise we struggled. There seemed to be a pretty consistent cycle of events . At some point Unit A does a move/shoot to try a shot at unit B behind a corner. If Unit A doesn't kill unit B - unit B then sustain attacks unit A, likely killing it. Repeat the with units C and D etc. etc.. Then it's a case of an initiative roll determining success thereafter.

The Luther was particularly vicious wiping out infantry squads seemingly at will. The odd vagary of fate would break the cycle of "ugo-Idie" - I famously rolled only one hit out of 27 dice rolled - and that was saved by cover!

Are we missing something play-wise? (PS This is not to say we did not have fun - it's more a case of the games re-playbility, or whether we shoud lait for the tabletop rules version)

Cheers

Andy

What you describe is something that tends to happen, but I don't see it as much of a problem. When a unit moves up to attack another, odds are one of them won't last another round. Either the moving unit will kill his target, or he'll fail and the target will kill it with sustained fire. I don't see anything wrong with that.

But that's not really all that can happen.

- You can try to out-activate your opponent and only move in to attack your target once it's already been activated, so it won't retaliate that round with sustained fire.

- The target might try to use Reactive Fire, which would deprive it of its Sustained Fire counterattack, but could kill you before you got a chance to get a shot out.

- If you have a Command Squad, you could use Get Moving You Bunch of Monkeys to reactivate your unit and get your own sustained fire attack, in case your target failed to wipe you out.

- You can move to attack a target and still deal out lots of famage by using a Skill like Berserk, All-In-One, Burst Weapon, etc...

- Even without sustained attack, you can still inflict considerable damage, and if you're attacking a squad, that can greatly diminuish their attacking power, so that even with sustained fire, they will be unlikely to wipe you out.

LM is totally correct.

Also, just start trying the next scenarios and you'll see that strategies change. The first 2 scenarios are both of the "blow away your enemy" variety, but the goals vary in the next scenarios, and you'll find different strategies will work for both sides, and it won't just come down to the cycle that you mention.

And if you expand your game and get more units with more abilities, the variety of strategy increases a lot as well. Artillery and command squads both can really break you out of the cycle you talk about.

What you say can be true if you play that way, but with the same forces and the same scenario, will result in a different game every time you play. Also the more units you get with different skills will reduce the chance of this happening. Your tactics will also improve that will reduce this from happening, such as attacking a model that hasn't already activated to prevent it from doing so. More often than not, once the game is underway, you will have choices to make on what to attack, you then have to prioritise the danger and your effect appropiately.

It it hurts, don't do it.

The last time I played I kept my squads and tanks pretty close together. If someone dared get into a firing position against my squad they would also be looking down the barrell of a tank.

Likewise, when I wanted to attack someone I would always (try to) double-team them. I wouldn't move one unit into range unless my next activation would put someone else in range as well to finish the job.