Sergio's blog: hints, ideas, pictures and news about SDS (and more) from the author

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Some pics from last sunday playtest

As announced, we had another playtest session of "100 dice" last sunday. Unfortunately, Massimo could not come, so I played against Diego a full battle. I had some Armies ready, and Diego wanted to try the Russians: I took the Prussians and we secretly deployed.

The battlefield from behind the Russian baseline. Bottom left are Diego's reserves. My plan - after seeing the enemy deployment - was to maneuver round his left flank, trying to envelop his entire army. It was a simple plan (the kind of plans that generally work) but it was quite expensive in term of dice, and it heavily relied upon the early entry of my reserves.  Anyway, I decided to try.


My right wing: the burden of the attack was on these soldiers. Behind them my reserves, that I needed from the second or third turn to reach the desired effect on the Russian left wing. The initial phase of the plan was OK: I successfully added 2 clear hexes on Diego's left and my light cavalry was ready to exploit them, but the test for the reserves arrival was a failure both on turn 2 and 3.


 Several turns later: my offensive was a disaster, reinforcement did not arrive on time, and my right wing was cut to pieces. I had to use the Reserves not for the final push on a wavering enemy, but to avoid complete disaster. Add a couple of unlucky die rolls and - voilĂ  - you have a smashing defeat just behind he corner...


Sixth turn: my dice are over and night falls. I barely keep my baseline with a couple of Grenadier units, Diego's losses are minimal, and we proceed to count Victory points. With a stunning +36, the Russians got a smashing Victory.
The game seems to flow smoothly, it is quick and furious and players have to take a lot of decisions. I noted just a few details to be modified.




Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Another playtest day for "100 dice"

Next sunday, my friends Massimo and Diego will come to Terni for another playtest session of 100 Dice.
In the meantime I'm writing......
The structure of the game is finished, now the details.....

Who knows? I could release it next summer.