Switch Theme:

KOG light - 1/144 mini-mech skirmish game design blog - 1/10 "final" Beta 7  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
»
Author Message
Advert


Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
  • No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
  • Times and dates in your local timezone.
  • Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
  • Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
  • Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.




Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






SoCal, USA!

Beta 6 is in progress, and things are moving along:

Coherency - requires by LOS to another squaddie; isolated models can not shoot.

Speed Move - revised to a shoot-equivalent action; Movement choices are to Hold Position or Combat Move. .

Overwatch / En Passant - Designer's Notes updated to explain that I'm not doing this.

Fire Support - removed, replaced by giving Commander Recon.

Sensor Lock - removed to further emphasize that KL is a TLOS game.

Forces of Battle - moved 25 pt games under unit battles, requiring Platoons for Unit battles; only Duels are unstructured & unitless..

Attack / Defense ratings - German & Russian Infantry were re-revised against HGB rules, where I was indeed overly generous to the German Infantry.

Movement Rates - reduced by -1" to most units, -2" for some of the really fast Frames.


No Change

Hold Objective - no changes so far.


TBD:

Counterattack - Needs example vs Defense: A, then C // A v D.

Linebreaker - this scenario needs to be revisited. Probably with a defined exit zone; possibly as an all new scenario.

Examples - Rocket Pods need to be called out? 2d + 2d vs 1d + 1d.

Infantry - futher review and playtesting is still required. Germans are probably still undercosted.

Russian Frames - still need to resolve these, freeze the baseline stats.

Visuals - In addition to the above areas, the entire thing is crying out for diagrams and examples, along with a print-and-play sheet.

Designer's Notes - needs to cover the option to simply walk out of CC and shoot... Also needs to address Indirect Fire and Counterattack.

   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






SoCal, USA!

In January, I "finalized" the KOG light Betas with Beta 7:

https://www.dakkadakka.com/s/i/at/2017/2/KOG_light_rules_B7-20170110-26020402.pdf

This is me declaring victory in terms of getting the game together. It basically does everything that I want it to do from a design and mechanics standpoint, whereby further perfective effort would see very diminishing returns. And really, I need to catch up on building stuff to play with!

Changes?

There was a lot of minor wordsmithing and reshuffling for clarity, but there were a few changes that affect gameplay. Fundamentally, KOG light became a LOS-based game, which helped clean up gameplay and reduce the number of mechanics in the game.

p.1 - I recommended more terrain, at least 1 piece per square foot, as terrain drives gameplay. The game plays poorly on an open plain, and LOS is really important.

p.2 - Unit coherency became LOS-driven, rather than arbitrary distance between models. Models that see each other are in coherency. Models on their own are Isolated and become restricted in their actions.

Unit actions moved to a soft 2AP, first move-ish actions, then fight-ish actions. This makes the time-motion simulation a little bit clearer.

p.4 - I removed the asymmetrical, unbalanced Linebreaker mission in favor of a random Search and Recover, which was easier to explain and fairer to play; the concept of asymmetrical force scenarios was introduced in its place.

p.8 - I illustrated a sample battlefield, and updated the Designer's Notes to address the deliberate lack of Overwatch, and clarify standard base sizes.


TBD?

At some point, I'll revisit Russian Frames, but not until I clear a few other things off my plate.

Thanks for reading!

   
Made in ca
Posts with Authority




I'm from the future. The future of space

Anyone with a heavy gear collection that has been disappointed with DP9's rules should check this out. While it's a light game and doesn't yet have the breadth of a published offering, it seems to actually have a functional vision and a implementation consistent with the vision.

Normally I don't like games where the turns are too contained and the opponent waits, but given the model count and the speed of procedures I think it was the right call here. If at a full sized battle, the opponent is simply not going to be waiting that long and they do still have the option of counter attacking, giving them a decision to make during the opponent's turn.

The counterattack rule also makes for an interesting decision for the acting player. If you shoot at something and it counterattacks, if you don't take it out you will be attacked by an attack against which you get no defense dice. So any time you attack you will be taking a risk of being destroyed by return fire.

KOG_light_rules wrote: I may separate Gunnery Skill from Weapon Accuracy & Weapon Strength, all of which are currently folded together; however, this would result in some fairly major rework of all Units stats.


It would also probably slow things down in play. Though I can see for some people that they may get a "that doesn't make sense" jarring moment from the way armour is folded into defense dice. If you shoot a tank and it ignores you, the shot might bounce off the armour. If the turret turns towards you and shoots back, then suddenly it can never bounce the shot as no defense dice are rolled and that's where the armour comes into play.

Also a question

KOG_light_rules wrote:
[3] Assess Damage
Each non-cancelled hit results in damage to the target.

Crippled – If an undamaged model takes any damage, then the model is Crippled, may not Speed Move, and must re-roll any successful attacks or defense. Visibly mark the model as crippled with white cotton smoke.

Destroyed – If a Crippled model is damaged, or an undamaged model takes 2 (or more) damage, then the model is Destroyed,


Would 2 non-cancelled hits from the same attack do 2 damage?

Balance in pick up games? Two people, each with their own goals for the game, design half a board game on their own without knowing the layout of the board and hope it all works out. Good luck with that. The faster you can find like minded individuals who want the same things from the game as you, the better. 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






SoCal, USA!

@frozenwastes - thanks for the readthrough, much appreciated! I think you get the gist of what I'm doing with the rules. Obviously, they could be made prettier, and expanded to have more items.

2 non-cancelled hits would result in 2 damage, which Destroys any model, whether Crippled or undamaged.


   
Made in ca
Posts with Authority




I'm from the future. The future of space

I have a friend who has been into Heavy Gear since 1st edition. Every now and again he talks about playing it again. While I sort of like 2nd edition tactical, I honestly don't like any of the rules enough to play them. So I will send him a link to your rules as I would play them in a heartbeat.

Balance in pick up games? Two people, each with their own goals for the game, design half a board game on their own without knowing the layout of the board and hope it all works out. Good luck with that. The faster you can find like minded individuals who want the same things from the game as you, the better. 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






SoCal, USA!

Cool. If you give them a go, please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






SoCal, USA!

FYI, I'm working on enhancing the Terrain Pack to include more buildings based on playing PUBG, which has several buildings of appropriate size and style. I've got a couple of the warehouse buildings and the big apartment roughed out.

I'll want to tackle a couple houses and admin buildings before releasing the new Terrain Pack
____

Terrain completed, but I can't upload to share. :(

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/07/06 02:25:08


   
 
Forum Index » Game Design
Go to: