Battlefield Evolution - a Quick Playtest Report

[MaxSteiner]

I suppose they could always list a table or something on the back of the units rareity, and there's always the points cost too.
This is quite an interesting new area though, (I've always enjoy writing up army lists, in some games more than the battle that follows...) and the possibility of being able to do so entirly without ever flipping from one end of a book to another is potentially ground breaking.
Or it could just be done on cards I suppose giving you the upgrade costs and things like that which would be good to.

 

[Hiromoon]

Well, the piece of paper out of the box is really ment for the smaller games. Anthing larger and you're going to need the rule book.

 

[emperorpenguin]

why is January so far away......

 

[MaxSteiner]

Thats all good really, without the book seems like it could be good for last minuite battles, and if he book can handle large modern day battles as quickly as SST and has all the factions units listed,I'd imagine mongoose could sell a lot of them to people who'd never even consider touching the models.

 

[Hiromoon]

Exactly. If anything, I'm looking forward to the USMC so I can decorate my desk with them at work.

 

[Benjamen the Wolf]

I love it, and the more I read about this, the more inclined I am to go ahead and pick it up when it gets released.

I'll Probably start out getting a small force of US Marines, EFTF, or the Chinese PLA. But those will be small armies only, until they release an army for the US Army.

 

[emperorpenguin]

Exactly. If anything, I'm looking forward to the USMC so I can decorate my desk with them at work.

By sea and by land, to the shores of Tripoli or to Hiro's desk!

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it! :lol:


I'll get the British army and French Foreign Legion.

 

[crucible_orc]

please tell me the ranges aren't as goofy a SST.

That was probably my only really big issue with SST, the ranges were just too short for my liking. you can get away with that in Sci-fi(and you did, with me at least), but in a games as close to modern(and reality) as BFE, you risk losing potential players because 20" is just too abstract and short.

Steve

 

[Hiromoon]

Ok......They're not as goofy...and actually, 20" is prefectly reasonable. You'll have to run a scale comparison though...

 

[emperorpenguin]

Ok......They're not as goofy...and actually, 20" is prefectly reasonable. You'll have to run a scale comparison though...

well myself and KeithMc were talking about this last week.

a 20" range assault rifle (say 300 metres) is goofy if a tank model is say 6 inches long, no tank is about 90 metres in length......

 

[Hiromoon]

Think of it in terms of effective range, EP. The weapon is only accurate up to a certain point. Beyond that you barely have any hope of engaging the target.

 

[emperorpenguin]

Think of it in terms of effective range, EP. The weapon is only accurate up to a certain point. Beyond that you barely have any hope of engaging the target.

yes and effective range is 300 metres generally, say that equates to 20" then how come your Challenger II model is suddenly 80 metres long?

Do you understand what we mean?

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

"Objects on the gaming table may appear larger than they actually are"

 

[Hiromoon]

Exactly...plus most engagements happen well within the 300 meter range.

 

[janoll]

yes and effective range is 300 metres generally, say that equates to 20" then how come your Challenger II model is suddenly 80 metres long?

Do you understand what we mean?

Emperorpenguin,

The is an issue that has been around since H.G. Wells started playing with tin soldiers. There is no way you are going to accuratly show ranges as compared to the figure scale when playing with the larger scales. Even if this game were in 6mm the ranges would be off. This is one of the reasons modern gamers like the smaller scales. If mongoose were to try and accuratly represent the range of a tanks main armament, at the 28mm scale, there would be one range....whole board. That is not really a bad idea come to think of it.

I'm very apprehensive about having too much armor on the BF:Evo table. It doesn't seem right for a skirmish game with such a short groundscale. Is mongoose using the GW compressed ground scale argument (cop-out)?

 

[Hiromoon]

Actually...look to the Skinnies...how some of the armies require x number of squads to y number of vehicles.

 

[xeoran]

Hmm, sounds pretty good.

 

[KeithMc]

I'm very apprehensive about having too much armor on the BF:Evo table. It doesn't seem right for a skirmish game with such a short groundscale.

I don't care as long as the game is balanced.

It could be fun to play out a 'Saving Private Ryan' scenario where a few squads of Infantry have to try and stop a force of tanks. It all depends on whether the Infantry stand a chance or not.

From the looks of the battle report Tanks aren't the be-all and end-all of the battlefield. Infantry squads loaded to the knockers with anti-tank missiles may be an effective counter.

If it's balanced it doesn't matter what forces are chosen. If its not, well then the standard problem of people choosing a cheesy ubber force for no other reason than to win at all costs pops up. I'm hopeful that the 'air war' part of the game will prove a good counter to people going over the top with armour.

Keith Mc

 

[emperorpenguin]

yes and effective range is 300 metres generally, say that equates to 20" then how come your Challenger II model is suddenly 80 metres long?

Do you understand what we mean?

Emperorpenguin,

The is an issue that has been around since H.G. Wells started playing with tin soldiers. There is no way you are going to accuratly show ranges as compared to the figure scale when playing with the larger scales. Even if this game were in 6mm the ranges would be off. This is one of the reasons modern gamers like the smaller scales. If mongoose were to try and accuratly represent the range of a tanks main armament, at the 28mm scale, there would be one range....whole board. That is not really a bad idea come to think of it.

I'm very apprehensive about having too much armor on the BF:Evo table. It doesn't seem right for a skirmish game with such a short groundscale. Is mongoose using the GW compressed ground scale argument (cop-out)?

yup but it'll look odd and plenty of people will point it out.

I remarked on it because it was one of the very first things myself and KeithMc concluded would cause problems/arguments in transition from sci-fi

 

[KeithMc]

yup but it'll look odd and plenty of people will point it out.

I remarked on it because it was one of the very first things myself and KeithMc concluded would cause problems/arguments in transition from sci-fi

I'm just going to put my hands over my ears, close my eyes and yell 'Don't care! Don't care! Don't care!' as loud as I can over and over again until anyone with a real problem with it goes away!

Unfortuantely its in the nature of 28mm/30mm gaming that unless your willing to play the game on a football pitch instead of a table you are not going to be able to use realistic ranges on the weapons. I do think its funny that a tank commander with a pistol sitting in the turret of his tank probably would not be able to shoot someone standing on the front of his own tank but at this point I just admit to myself that I'm playing 'toy soldiers' and shouldn't take it (or myself!) too seriously.

Keith Mc