Thread: Beta testing an RTS-style minis game

Anyone interested in beta-testing an RTS-style sci-fi minis game? Build your troop list during the game, using credits generated by your base and captured objectives. Idea is that you never have to worry about looking across the table at the list your opponent brought and realizing you lost before the game starts. Use minis from any manufacturer, basic unit types are infantry, ground vehicles, mecha, tanks, flyers. There aren't predefined factions, your units are specialized by tech trees that you choose (so basic grunts are the same, but you could turn yours into jump troops or power armor or ...).

Game's called OP4S ("op force", opposing force). The designer's previous game, Havoc, was an origins award finalist and had a ton of interesting new ideas as well. Good interview with him on pg 34 of this magazine: http://www.gauntletmedia.com/BattlespaceOctNov2011.pdf

If anyone's interested in trying it out @ DLair, let me know. I've got the beta rules, and obviously any minis you want to use can be proxied appropriately.

Move units with a tape measure, just like most minis games., so a tank would move like 6" in a single action. You can do multiple actions of a unit in a single turn, at increasing cost - movement costs 1 point for the first move, 2 for the second, 3 for third, etc, so you can do a lot with one unit at the expense of not activating much else on your turn. You get 6 action points per turn, can be increased with particular tech trees or by capturing objectives.

Combat resolution is via players rolling opposing piles of d6, count up the successes and compare the difference. 1-3s are failures, 4-6s are successes. If I rolled 3 successes and you only rolled 1, I did 2 points of damage to you. A mech shooting an infantry squad might roll 6 dice against the squad's 4. You can get additional dice for terrain modifiers or by specializing in anti-infantry, anti-vehicle etc. Dunno that I'm all that sold on piles of dice as a resolution system, but it shouldn't bother 40k players At the very least, it gives a different probability curve than single-die systems, with a little different granularity than 2d6 systems.

As for gi joes, isn't that what all minis games are? An agreed-upon set of rules to play with your cool army mens? Main difference with generic rules systems is being able to play with the minis that look cool, as opposed to the minis with the cool rules of the month.

That doesn't sound too bad actually.

I'll be up there wednesday evenings as usual, if anyone wants to check it out at a different time let me know.

Yeah, sorry if the RTS analogy made that confusing - it's RTS-like in the sense of needing to capture resources and build up your forces, not in the sense of clicks-per-minute.

It's turn based but it's not strict I-go-You-go for a couple reasons:
1. Action points are limited, so you might not activate all of your stuff every turn
2. Overwatch and return fire are available as options, so your opponent may get to do stuff during your turn depending on which techs he chose.