MilCon scenario playtest

OK, it took a whole week, but I finally got around to posting the playtest of my Galactic Knights scenario for Millennium Con.  I took my game to Dragon's Lair in San Antonio last Tuesday for the Lone Star Historical Miniatures weekly get-together.

Although the scenario is designed for eight players, I was only able to talk two gamers into taking it for a spin (my thanks to playtesters John and Mark).  I had each playtester double up on ships, so we had the equivalent of four players' worth of minis on the table (half what I had planned for) and four transports to fight over.  I also put my planet (still unpainted) out as an objective with four defense installations (I forgot the pushpins, so I used pieces of paper to mark them) strung along the equator.

 

The defenders started out orbiting the planet as the invasion force came in from one of the close edges of the map.  The attackers' main goal was to land the transports and get as much cargo (troops and armor) on the planet as possible.  The defenders' goal was to prevent this.

The defenders broke from orbit, and everybody launched fighters.  While the attackers launched their strike fighters, the defenders launched their interceptors, and took out most of the oncoming attack fighters.

The forces then closed to short range, and the particle beams flew.  The defender took out the engines on one of the transports, leaving it on a collision course with the planet.  However, the attackers' superior size and numbers started to take a toll on the defenders.

The defenders finished off the drifting transport and concentrated on the next one in line.  By this time, fire from the attackers' ships and fighters had taken out the defenders' battlecruiser.

The defenders finished off the second transport, but got eaten up by the attackers' batteries.

At the end of two turns, my playtesters had to take off.  Although the defenders had vaporized two transports, the other two were intact.  Meanwhile, the defenders had lost their capital ship and were about to lose two cruisers.  The attackers ships had taken moderate to light damage, but they still had to worry about the planetary defenses, which they could only attack from orbit.  Alas, at that point the game ended.

I probably need to give the defenders more ships and less planetary defenses, to keep things interesting up above.  I'm also thinking about reducing the size of the ships, so they go "boom" more quickly and the scenario plays faster.  The playtesters gave me some valuable suggestions.  I'm glad I playtested this before the con.