This weekend was my Local Spring Con Phantasm: Gamer's Equinox. Two 4 hour sessions were done for RRT (with a later session of Battletech as well) The first ran as a more standard game (the game with the ship cannon turrets) while the second had two games run using skirmish rules (using the grey table base and shuttle/dropship) Players had fun and at least one is seriously looking at buying into the game while another tried out the game as he already had bought the core box.
http://s18.photobucket.com/user/Demonja ... t=4&page=1Ok so a breakdown..
Session one ran by another backer was a more standard game. There were 4 players, 2 per side. I helped for rules questions and such with the players (I did not play)
UEDF - 2 VF-1 Core Squads with a VF-1S
Zentreadi - Core Recon with Recovery and Cannon Artillery support, Core Artillery with Regult Support.
Approximately 200 points per side.
Early on it looked as if the Zents would walk away with a win (artillery is evil and it does demonstrate a need to tweak the blast rule) but in the end the UEDF pulled off a VERY minor (and I'd say Pyrrhic victory) with a single VF-1A left on the board.
Session two ran by me was using Skirmish rules with single core Squads as a free for all. The other backer and another player were the participants.
Game one saw a UEDF Core Brawler squad versus a Zent Core Recon squad
The UEDF won but not without some serious beatings laid upon them. All those weapons and all that armour was certainly a godsend.
Game two saw a UEDF Core VF-1 squad versus a Zent Core Attack Squad.
Zents won by virtue of a misplay by the UEDF side underestimating the disadvantage afterburner can be when using fighter mode.
Skirmish rules also, I think, shift an edge towards the Zents depending on the size of the squad you allow players to play thanks to the Life is Cheap not being in effect. Skirmish also allows for much quicker games in my opinion and I saw no issue with allowing players to play a single core squad for a skirmish level game instead of the Support Squad as stated in the rule book.
All in all the players, aside from the other backer who is obviously a veteran by comparison to myself in games played and also had fun, had fun and liked it with one of the players (a friend of mine who I play Xwing and Battletech with) is very interested in playing further for sure so we may be playing this Friday.
i will be running it again at this September's Phantasm Con