Game #10: Rebelstar Raiders
<bleeds quietly in the corner>
Eh, given that two of the robots are damaged and it's our move, and we're the attackers, so waiting for them to come to use probably won't work, I'd say we need to try and get the two damaged robots in this turn, and then the undamaged robot will most likely kill me, and then it's 1-on-1, which isn't the best, but still better than what we have now.
I'd do one step north, then one step east, then shoot the robot and hope it's enough. You'd probably do two steps west and shoot the other robot, and the robot in the north is then likely to go into the little corridor with me and finish me off, but c'est la vie, if you pardon my French. This might give you a chance to get to the red-and-blue room of MacGuffin to blow it up before the robot gets to you, which would be very rebellious style of victory.
Did anyone remember to load nukes to the transport ship?
I had initially discarded that option, since the probability for both of us to land a robot-destroying shot is pretty close to zero.
But why not, at least it will be over sooner. You take the robot on the right, and I move two steps to west and shoot the robot on my side. And then we see if either of us is still alive after the toasters retaliate.
For the Resistance!
XV. The end of the rebellion?
KarbonKitty and Operative Lynx jump out of cover and fire at the robots. They both hit:
The robots shoot back, and they don't miss either:
Except if another player comes forward and rushes NOW, this is the end of the Main-Comp rebellion.
Epilogue: Two years later, all humans are turned into paperclips to build a Dyson sphere or something. THE END
Thanks for participating. There will not be a battle #2 (not here anyway), but worry not, we have some more tactical games coming in a few months. All of them weird, of course, but hopefully fun.
Spoiler below, provided it proves appropriate for a forum game:
Are you ever acrobated your way through a German compound?
Midget? . . ?
Quote from The Wargaming Scribe on 10 December 2023, 16h04
Can we combine those to have an acrobat pickpocket sniper strong-man?
Actually, each character has two traits, one chosen, one random. I suspect "midget" is just a bad random trait to have, but maybe there are narrow passages or something.
But that's for in a few months!
Also, I created this:
So, that kind of an experience; limited tactical options really reduced the amount of fun you can have with this game. I started imagining that a full 24 vs. 26- match would have been quite a fire fight with heavy casualties on both sides. And considering that those sentry robots have such a big advantage in those long, narrow corridors, it seems that this map was designed with the idea that the attacker uses as much grenades as he has and thus causes as much destruction to the facility as possible. For example it was evident from quite early on, when we lost our grenade throwers, that our attack was doomed to fail.
Has anyone experience with the game, are the other maps also designed similarly?
First, thanks for jumping in! I agree it was not as fun as some earlier experience, and I apologize for that. And yes, losing the grenadiers was probably what lost you the games.
I don't necessarily agree that the game lacks tactical options (Galactic Gladiators had the same number, but worked), I just thing the game was really designed to be played with all the characters, and the end (3v3) without grenadiers just dragged forever
There are two other maps:
Starlingale, in which the Operatives must disable the Rebel starship. The starship starts with a skeleton crew, but they receive reinforcements over time:
The final assault, in which the rebels must destory the 8 computers of main-comp (4 in the center, and 4 in the aisles)
They may have been better scenarios for our purpose, but oh well!
I blame the size of the map. It felt cramped, and like we had few options available to us beyond "rush at the enemy". Of course, that's only my impression watching from the sidelines, and given a larger map and more advanced tactical options I would still elect to rush at the enemy. What was I saying? Anyway, glory to the machines. They are our natural superiors.
I fault Gollop for everything as usual.
(Sooner or later we'll discover it's a George Lucas situation and XCOM/UFO were the result of his wife redeveloping the game during the night!).
Honestly, from a a simple observer situation, the problem is that XCOM-likes methinks do not particularly lend themselves well to forum gameplay. Galactic Gladiators was smaller, more focused and I'd say a little less lethal (you could almost tell how many "squares" you wanted to move in GG) but an XCOM-like where death is incredibly cheap and expected and movement is less precise, well, it's more difficult both for players and host.
MEANWHILE IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE
GO FORTH MY UNDEAD MINIONS! THE THRONE OF PARTHIA IS ALMOST OURS! THINK OF THE GLORY AND THE WOMEN! well maybe not the last one
*undead jawless moans*
Uh, now that I think of it, I wonder what happened to the Rebels in the other world. Meh, they'll be probably be having fun without me, hope my clones are managing well. HEY THOSE SATYRS ARE TRYING TO ESCAPE GET THEM I SAID GET THEM
This sadly, was pretty much inevitable when we got split up at the end, the original plan to do a conga line might have worked. OTOH, there probably wasn't anything we could once we fell down a certain point.
I will say that a problem existed on our ends, with how rapidly our fortunes shifted a west and an east force provided incredibly unwise when, I think Porkbelly got stuck in the north, wounded against a robot. There was basically nothing I could really do except try to move towards the action.
It didn't feel bad for me, but I admit it might have been because I survived until the very end. 🙂 But yeah, grenades feel more like shaped charges kind of deal in this scenario, with the use in combat being limited, but the use for wall destruction being crucial. Well, live and learn (die and learn, in this case?).
We might have lacked coordination in the early phases as well - it's been much easier to coordinate a few player in the end, than entire group in the beginning, but there's this grim reality of easier coordination being directly related to there not being enough boots on the ground to win.
All in all, a positive experience for me, even if we lost in the end. Good game, my fellow rebels. We did the best we could.
Quote from The Wargaming Scribe on 10 December 2023, 19h32First, thanks for jumping in! I agree it was not as fun as some earlier experience, and I apologize for that. And yes, losing the grenadiers was probably what lost you the games.
I don't necessarily agree that the game lacks tactical options (Galactic Gladiators had the same number, but worked), I just thing the game was really designed to be played with all the characters, and the end (3v3) without grenadiers just dragged forever
There are two other maps:
Starlingale, in which the Operatives must disable the Rebel starship. The starship starts with a skeleton crew, but they receive reinforcements over time:
The final assault, in which the rebels must destory the 8 computers of main-comp (4 in the center, and 4 in the aisles)
They may have been better scenarios for our purpose, but oh well!
No need for an apology, it's difficult to know beforehand how well some map works as a forum game. I should have also been more precise that my reference for the lack of options was more aimed at our attempt here than the game itself.
I agree that it would have worked better with full roster of characters. Our lack of coordination at the beginning cost us too many lives and we just didn't have the manpower or the tools necessary for the final push. Conga line had a slim chance of success, if Morpheus had hit with every shot and robots had missed at least one or two shots. I think it's this need for extreme luck what actually is the fun-reducing factor for me, even though we did the best we could. Since there is a difference whether rushing at the enemy is the only option or the best option available.
What I remember reading about Galactic Gladiators, I agree with Dayyalu's assessment on the differences. Now, looking at those other maps and considering that Starlinggale is 24 vs 33, and Final Assault 29 vs 43, I think also that it's a good decision not go there right now.
Looking forward to next forum battles.