I scream, you scream, We fight for Ice Cream!

This Is Not A Test Battle Report

I was lucky enough to be recruited to run some demos of This Is Not A Test at NOVA Open this year. In order to learn the game, I spent a Saturday at Games and Stuff with the creator of the game, Joe McGuire. Read my This Is Not A Test, Repeat This Is Not A Test for my thoughts on the game rules and feel of the game. Here is how my introduction to the post-nuclear wastes went...

Table layout

Table Set-up. Thankfully, Joe has all of the materials at the ready for our demo/tutorial. The table set-up had a couple of roads running through, plenty of abandoned/wrecked vehicles, signs. There are also some centrally placed buildings. Each of these buildings are completely playable inside and out. There are areas of rough terrain (craters, toxic spills) and some wilderness terrain. All together, we put together a table with plenty of potential for good game play.

Joe made all of the terrain and teaches courses on many of the items through the Historic Miniatures Gaming Society (HGMS) if you get the chance to attend. The buildings are purchased (Plasticville) then customized specifically for the game. 

My faction (all upstanding citizens)

Selecting Factions. Joe for the demo has a set of prepared factions which he has spent time to balance out. This made selection pretty easy and for me, I just selected based on a few items; no robots, no mutants, and something interesting. Now that was a pretty limiting selection, but I wanted to really get a feel for the basic mechanics with the hope of playing additional games to get deeper into some of the other mechanics. In the end that brought me to the a police-like faction, though with a prisoner in tow, which was composed of five characters and included a range of close combat and ranged actions. We will get to the really interesting components as we go through the battle. 

Joe's faction (bad guys one and all)

Joe selected an alternate faction from those remaining to also stay pretty basic. He also ended up with five characters with a range of available weapons. He had one character with specific long-range availability for lack of a better phrase a sniper.  

 Deployment. We didn't follow a specific side versus side deployment. We both used a 6" deployment standard and deployed our characters onto the board. I selected to deploy my characters around some terrain and in a line to give potential for direction change after the first couple of turns. With This Is Not A Test, this is possible because the depth of the table is greater than the range of the weapons. No bombardment to worry over.

deployed

deployed

Joe deployed in more of a cluster around his leader. The leader provides a boost to activation when characters are within 6" of the leader, which he knew and I didn't. Joe also took advantage of the billboard at the edge of his side and was able to deploy his sniper to the top of the billboard to give height and increase line of sight.

Start the march. The aim here was purely to get closer to each other. There was sufficient distance that I couldn't hit him at all and coverage to ensure I wasn't able to get hit. Joe took advantage of starting his group around his leader to successfully activate most of his figures. He used the transit bus to protect his route.

My aim from the beginning was to use the diner and ice cream parlor as a funnel to where I could set up some crossfire. As such my first attempt was to take my leader and longest range shooter to attempt to take the top of the diner. The rest of the group was moved up with the goal to take control of the ice cream parlor to prevent any side attacks.


Control moves. I continued to make attempts at controlling the diner, but it turns out that failing an activation can really disrupt your plans. When the leader failed and wasn't able to climb to the top of the trailer, I had to come up with some alternate plans.

Joe was continuing to come up around the bus toward the back of the parlor and between the two shops. Joe had a clear path to the back of the parlor though and sufficient coverage to potentially overwhelm my guys all at once. The shops provided some solid cover to work and still maintain the plan of a cross-fire scenario between the buildings.

Change of plans. With Joe now pushing out to the open, I had a chance to start the melee. I moved into position and started the fire. I also noticed the rear door of the parlor and how that would provide some disruption to Joe's forces and started working my close combat hot head through since he was steadily working up toward the back of the parlor. I attacked through the back door to where Joe was, but was ultimately knocked back off of his character.

Joe (clearly a natural model) still had his sniper sitting pretty on the top of the billboard and waiting for someone to shoot. Thankfully, the cover was proving sufficient to prevent her from picking off any of my men while I advanced. This limited her capabilities and kept her out of action for a while. Joe took advantage of the covered offered to him and brought his leader up to the side window of the parlor where he was able to start attacking my hot headed prisoner. With a failed save, I hit the deck and went prone.

First blood. With the potential savage damage from his leader, I was forced to reconsider my plan. I pulled my prisoner back with the intent of running him through to the leader to occupy him. The rest of the plan was still holding and Joe was moving into the cross-fire.

Joe got some good shots off and was able to decimate the hot head, but now before suffering a loss himself. With the back door of the parlor no longer a problem, I was able to take out one of his guys. We were down a man each and his sniper was still stuck up on her billboard. Joe's leader threw a jam, which made his relic plasma weapon rendered useless unless he spent some time to resolve.

Turn 4. With the cross-fire in full effect and the madness of the back and forth, the bodies started to take shots. Now we were both getting plenty of hits, but also making plenty of defense rolls. I got numerous shots off on his leader, but he was able to evade all of them. We both lost another guy and we steadily moving toward the final showdown.

Joe managed to clear his plasma gun, which can be a devastating weapon. He proceeded up the side of the building where he had the strength of one weapon alone to make me reconsider my deployment. Joe took his sniper down from the billboard to bring her into action. He started moving her up into a support position and that necessitated drawing his people closer.

The trap is sprung! BOOM!

The trap is sprung. With Joe's move, I was able to spring a trap that I had hoped would work and win the day for me. Joe's leader moved up around the edge of the building near to where my prisoner had fallen. That was when I detonated his explosive collar. It is how he would have wanted to go I am sure. What should have been a great day for victory, turned out to be just a puff of smoke as once again Joe was saved with crucial rolls. Joe took the blast and then walked himself back.

I thought I had him on the ropes and pursued thinking could take some quick shots to put him down, that may have been a mistake. As soon as I rounded the corner, he had me and took out another of my men. Sure I got some shots off, but between his rolls and the number of wounds he could withstand the poor bloke didn't stand a chance. Now I was down to my last man, but I had an assault rifle and eventually Joe was going to fail a roll.

End Game. With Joe's leader damaged and looking to regroup with his sniper, I had only one choice. Take some drastic action. So I starting firing through the ice cream parlor making another round of multiple successes. I was finally able to find success and take down his leader, but that wasn't the end of it. He still had his sniper who decided it was best to make use of her position and live to fight another day than be another bullet-ridden body in the waste.

The end scene...a win for the good guys.

This Is Not A Test...I repeat, This Is Not A Test

This Is Not a Test

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure to spend some time with Joe McGuire, the developer and producer of This Is Not a Test (World's End Publishing). We met up at Games and Stuff (a FLGS) so he could teach me a thing or two about his game to prepare for the NOVA Open where I will be running demos myself. I may even play a longer game or two if we can work it out. When you get the chance, check out the This Is Not A Test facebook page or the This Is Not A Test Official page to see more and hear about the game.

Background

This Is Not A Test Rule Book

Let's talk a little bit about the game itself....imagine Washington, DC...it is full of waste, tribes of man compete for precious resources and the common folk struggle to survive. Well, you know enough about current DC, well the future isn't looking much better. Joe and I live a little bit outside of the beltway and our wives work down in the heart of the district. This Is Not a Test is a post-apocalyptic setting based in the mid-Atlantic region, centered primarily within the Washington, DC-Baltimore metropolitan area.

Following the nuclear holocaust, a lot has changed about this area I have known for the last 20 plus years. Washington, DC is a hot zone and not safe to be inhabited. The nuclear fallout is too severe to host human life. That doesn't mean nothing has survived there, but nothing that could be considered human. Rumors abound of the mutants who survive and hunt the Capital Deadzone. Combine these unintelligent, blood thirsty, scavengers (the mutants, not Congress) with the autonomous cybernetic units that patrol the streets and you get a inhospitable waste that tempts many for the countless artifacts and relics necessary to survive and thrive.

There is a better and more complete background available on the This Is Not a Test site, including descriptions of the known/explored areas including the Burning Lands, The Eastern Pale, Penns, Wild Highlands, and the Tri-State Wasteland.

Game Play

Let's talk about some of the game play features and the feel of the game. I'll have a follow-on post/battle report of the actual game I played against Joe, but will provide some review of the mechanics and the feel of the game. We played a standard skirmish version of the game, but the mechanics in the rule book also allow for longer term campaigns. Hopefully we will work on that and a longer running set in the blog.

Characters

Each figure has a set of seven stats. Move (MOV) determines how far you can move (inches per AP). Melees (MEL) is used to determine success in hand-to-hand combat. Ranged (RNG) is used for any distance-based attack. Strength (STR) is used to determine the amount of damage from a melee attach or to determine success for stat challenge. Defense (DEF) is the base for how tough the figure is and any defensive ability checks. Wounds (WDS) is a measure of how much damage a figure can take before being removed from action. Typical figures will have one wound. Mettle (MET) is the final stat and one that is used for a number of items, including reliability, intelligence, courage and nimbleness.

Each character can also get a number of additional skills. These skills create modifiers to actions which become very helpful. One of specific interest for the leaders of the factions is that any model within 6" of the leader get a +1 to activation. There are also a set of Mutations, which come into play from the nuclear fall-out, but we didn't play with any of these for our game.

Set-up

The game is designed to really be played with quick set-up and to be completed in about 1 hour. Each side selects a faction and a set of players based on the faction selected to agreed upon amounts. We used rather well balanced sets of characters (5 each) from two of the factions. We played on a 3'x3' surface.

As with everything you deploy your models, we went with a standard within 6" of the edge since that was the average movement distance. The board as you can see was rather well covered with various terrain. This replicated pretty well a small town/highway area where some shops (a diner, ice cream parlor, and another shop) are around and playable along with plenty of wrecked cars and signs. Options for cover and flow aplenty.

Turns

Activation. As with all games, this is a turn-based skirmish game. Activation is decided by an initiative roll, d10/higher wins. Once initiative is decided, the winner selects which model will activate and must make an activation challenge roll (d10). Success means the figure has 2 AP; essentially can do 2 activities or one complex action. Failure on the roll means the figure can perform any 1 AP action. As you can see on the attached, that is still plenty. Succeeding the activation challenge also means that you continue to activate figures. You continue to activate figures until you are unsuccessful on a challenge or until you run our of figures. When activation switches to the other player, the same rules apply until all figures are activated.

Attack. If during your turn, you decide to make firing one of your actions you make an attack roll (d10). This is like many other skirmish games with modifiers for buildings, coverage, distance, etc. Once you hit, you mark the character but the hits are not settled until the end of the current activation phase. "Why?", you may ask...well this is to simulate that the actions are happening at or very near to the same time and as such the figures would not understand that until that period of time has ended. Very much, you could have multiple people fire on a single model, which makes the actions/game play a bit more realistic. 

So at the end of the activation phase, any models which were hit (grazed) must have the wounds resolved. The shooter will roll a damage roll (d10) and the target will roll a defense roll (d10). This is a challenge and has modifiers on both sides and whoever has the higher roll wins. If the target loses, they suffer damage which for low-level models will usually kill them, but for higher level characters they may take two or three before taking a dirt nap. If the target wins, they then face a Will challenge. The Will challenge occurs after the wound is resolved and applies to any figure that is alive after the wounds are resolved and were a hit was successful, regardless of damage. If the figure fails the Will check, the figure must them take an involuntary move to cover (up to 6"). If no cover is available, the character must "hit the deck" and go prone in place. A grazed character that successfully makes the Will check may make a voluntary move (up to 6") if grazed. This is again to simulate the reality of if you are shot, you take cover then figure out what to do next.

Movement. With movement, the mechanics are pretty easy. You get a set movement rate and each move at up to that distance is 1 AP. You can make a single move and then another action, but that will negatively affect firing or you can make a double move. Moving over or up objects reduces movement rate as does movement through difficult terrain. To climb to the top of a one-story building is 2 AP provided you are base-to-base with it. You can start a climb, but then will be faced with a climb check at the beginning of the next activation to see if you fall. This makes almost everything is accessible for movement in/over/around/through including buildings, which was rather nice. We spent most of our battle in/through/around the ice cream parlor. 

Once all of the figures are activated and have acted and the hits have been resolved you move onto the next turn. Our 5 on 5 game, was about 10 turns and lasted about 1.5 hours, which included time to teach me the game and for me to take a bunch of pictures. 

My take

This is a fun game for sure and one that is quick to set-up, quick to play, and provides potential for additional development and growth with a longer campaign. I have some ideas for creatures and other things that may through some wild cards into the game play, which I'd also like to explore and propose to Joe as I learn more. There are lots of game play areas I'd still like to explore, including mutants, robots, and creatures in a game; so keep your dial tuned...more emergency alerts to come. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Kickstarter stuff update

Kickstarter ...or that's where my money goes (continued)

Mantic Games - Dungeon Saga Dwarf King's Quest

So this Kickstarter is going gang busters and looks like it will top out as the best of the Mantic Games campaigns to date. The Dungeon Master pledge level, really the only pledge level, now contains the basic game and a load of bonus materials. There is enough now to play the game with friends or to play alone. There are bonus advanced rules plus rules for undead, orcs, and goblins. There are also a bunch of Kickstarter exlcusives. 

So let's take a look at the future for this one... bonus materials for the Warlord of Galihir add-on. The Warlord of Galihir is a $25 add-on level for an expansion pack. This includes goblin warriors, archers, orclings, and maw beasts. This includes the dungeon tiles, scenario rulebook, cards, and counters.

Some of the parts included with the Warlord of Galihir will also be added to Dungeon Master level pledge, which really makes that an even more fantastic level. 

There are still a whopping 17 days left in the campaign, which means we could have a rather heft set of materials coming when everything closes. Looks like potentially a fun way to play with the kids or with your fellow gamers. 

Hyground Games - 3D Terrain Tiles

The folks over at Yeti Militia have just started a new Kickstarter campaign and one that could be of potential use to lots of people. These look like some high quality gaming tiles that are comprised of a hex base system with interchangeable covers. This allows you to create custom configurations for any #tabletop system and for any gaming environment. One significant feature in the design of these is the ability to keep a 28mm figure on the hex even with there is a tree or other object present. There is some great video examples on the Kickstarter page which shows you how to build different layers and interchange the tops. 

Here are some examples of the terrain pieces. You can see that some are designed to occupy the entire space and some are designed to have a figure in addition to the design feature. In the picture above you can see how figures can do battle in a wooded/forest plot. These really changes the look/feel of any campaign and would allow you to make changes quickly for a #RPG setting. 

Since this is the beginning of what potentially could be a long series of custom tiles, there are plenty of areas for expansion. They have already designed and have ready for production nearly anything you might need for exterior play, there is nothing yet posted for underground or interior play. There are also limited to know creations for buildings or objects that would occupy multiple hexes. No doubt there could be plans for these in the future, currently noting exists. 

I don't know how this would translate for all games, such as Dungeons and Dragons which uses a 9-block design for battle or for Warhammer which is a straight distance skirmish game, but both could easily be adapted. All in all this looks like a solid project and the materials look fantastic with great adaptability to whatever gaming system you play. I'll be watching this closely to see how it goes and encourage you to check it out as well.

Next blog post will be about a freebie I got from Mantic Games, friends who are off to GenCon and eventually I'll post updates to the half-a-million projects I've already started.

Cheers,

Chris