"Battlesuit" by Steve Jackson: Another play...

AArrrgh!  Bad day to be in a battlesuit...

^{© Steve Jackson Games}

Another playtest of the Training scenario... with some lessons learned applied. Red - do not be too aggressive with Jump at start; take a methodical approach. No major rules changed, but I'm thinking along those lines, trying to give the RAW [Rules As Written] the maximum benefit of the doubt...after all, Steve Jackson is a famous game designer and publisher, while I'm a not famous game designer and publisher - so let's show some humility!

This time, Red entered keeping low and out of sight. If Black entered the board in Line of Sight with a Jump High, then Red would get Reaction Fire first, as the 'suit entered. As it stands, I didn't want to risk it with Black, so I entered in three teams of two, all of which utilized hill or woods to avoid Line of Sight. This made most Fire and Reaction Fire ineffective.

Red's plan is to use the woods on the North side of the hill to give him Soft Cover against Black across the valley. Support from the Heavy Weapon will be from off to the side where hopefully it will be safer as Black will be engaged to front. This left team has two Standard, one Assault and one Ranger suit, a strong team.

Black and Red continue their advances into Soft Cover, from which the fight will be fought. Red's team of four is entering the wood, like Black's team of two to right - an Assault and a Ranger suit. Black's left team - two Standard 'suits - is already in the larger northwest corner wood.

Black's teams are separated but this does give them better Line of Sight angles. To right is the Heavy WEapons team - two Standard 'suits.

Above, Red Heavy Weapons team - two Standard 'suits - can hide behind the 3-level hill, but are not in Soft Cover, which ultimately was a bad choice - they should have been in the Woods to the left. Below, Black Reaction Fire damages a 'suit.

By Black Player Turn 3, the Team has achieved Fire superiority, largely due to the damage inflicted on the Red Heavy Weapons team. Leaving them out of Soft Cover [if out of LoS behind the hill] gave Black just enough edge to damage both suits, rendering the Heavy Weapon useless.  Red attempts to shift Standard 'suits over to that team or move the Heavy Weapon to them result in more damaged and Shocked men, and any chance of a Red win.

Above, the yellow-ish circles mark Targeting Units, the smaller orange circles the Targeted enemy Units. Targeting gives a significant bonus to shooting, effectively negating the Soft Cover bonus.  And if you have no Soft Cover, you are looking at even IF having a good chance to Shock or Damage 'suits.

By Red Player Turn 4, three Red 'suits are destroyed and the last three are damaged. Black just has one suit damaged.

Obviously, I - again - didn't play Red well. I should have kept the entire force closer and used the two woods on the north and south ends of the 4-level hill to provide Soft Cover. The Heavy Weapons team sustained some damage by moving closer and using open ground out of Line of Sight as a position is not a good idea - you need the additional bonus for Soft or Hard Cover.

The rule that only allows undamaged 'suits to use the Heavy Weapon is pretty tough. I'm tempted to change it to 0-1 level of Damage. OTOH, it does put a limit on them dominating the battlefield, and who is to say that such a technical limit won't be part of a future weapon system?  Still, my take is that the military likes common support weapons to be very tough and durable, easy to deploy and use.

The game scenario basically plays like this:

- approaching force enters the battlespace under fairly effective Reaction Fire from the Defender, even fighting down the long end and staying out of LoS.

- the entire board becomes a shooting gallery with no safe place, and little need to maneuver except to get into Soft Cover.  Once there, it is a dice-rolling event until one side gets some advantage.

- it is still pretty reasonable to not maneuver even then, and just continue dropping dice and shooting, hoping to turn the Fire superiority into a decisive advantage.

In short, unless it is required by the scenario, there is nearly no reason to maneuver.

This reminds me a bit of a naval game on the open ocean.  

So I will shorten the Range penalty from 10 hexes to 5 hexes, adjust the CRT and put some more terrain out, including Hard Cover.  Aside from that, the rules play fine with plenty of man-to-man firefight tension. The Ranger 'suit provides a Unit with additional defense capability for maneuver, and the Assault 'suit provides that little bit of extra firepower that makes a difference at long range.  The Standard 'suit is a bit weak, but makes for a good body to man the Heavy Weapon, with a backup buddy.

The game is flavorful, with Jump and Drones adding the futuristic elements, while everything else is pretty much a variation on what we have now [Heavy Weapon is a grenade launcher]. Play is a bit like a bunch of attack helicopters using Nape of the Earth tactics to snipe at each other, except that all forces can use Indirect Fire, and actually be IN cover, which of course reminds you that they are men not 'copters.

All this to say that with some flavorful scenarios, the game can easily refight famous skirmishes from any war you like from 1916 to 2016 [say, from an Afghanistan memoir you really enjoyed] to more futuristic conflicts in the Arctic or even the moon.

As the game comes with plentiful bunker and hard cover [buildings] counters, you can model any scenario against a fortified line or village, using any scenario system you like.