Copied from the General Playtest Results thread, stay here for armchair quarterbacking:
Davesaint and Ripple will shortly be posting their impressions, but we just ran 2 tests of Track That Target (Triple-T) and Attack Run.
The tests were 3 Warbirds, 3 Strikehawks against 6 Vorchans and against 6 Olympus.
Vs. Olympus, What Happened:
Initial finding was that the Drazi strongly underperformed. While TTT helped, it just wasn't enough. On the first turn, the Drazi were forced to choose between beam shots and no CBD vs. no shots but only eating the missiles. As it turned out, there was a third option that neither of us saw at the time, but would have been superior. One tactical mistake then snowballed and the Olympus at the Drazi for lunch.
What We Learned:
CQ 9 for TTT is just too hard for the Drazi; they need it at 8. However, I don't like EA having it at 8 (especially the Hyperion!); I'm thinking Drazi special rule.
One Attack Run succeeded, and did some decent damage. However, the requirement that hits had to be confirmed really stank. Decided then and there that failed Attack Runs should come with no firing penalty, and there should be no confirmation roll.
Turret races and ships eat Drazi for lunch.
Vs. Vorchans, What Happened:
A fortutitous dust cloud and some good initial placement allowed the Drazi and Vorchan exchange to be with the Drazi in the dust cloud and the Vorchans outside of it and outside of 8. One Drazi Strikehawks and several Particle Cannons didn't get to fire. However, two missed stealth checks and a 4-6 critical to a Vorchan meant only 3 Vorchans fired (still crippling 1 Warbird). Drazi eliminated one Vorchan in exchange. Drazi hit 1 TTT allowing for one set of potshots against a target that it normally couldn't have fired at (target ship was already dead). 3 Sky Serpents were then launched, against which the Vorchans proved to have little defense. Both fleets then overflew each other and started to come around; the Vorchans to avoid the Sky Serpents, and the Drazi to try Attack Runs. No Attack Runs succeeded (2 attempts). More of them couldnt be tried as the base size of the Warbird didn't clear the base of the target ship of the overrun. This happened repeatedly; some defenses even evolved where Attack Runs were prevented by keeping the Drazi from having a legal place to put the base of the overrunning craft after the shot, usually by having one ship directly behind the other. Turn 3, both fleets engaged; one Vorchan was killed outright by 3 Sky Serpents. The crippled Warbird, another Warbird, and a Strikehawk went down to Vorchans in exchange for 2 more Vorchans. 2 Track That Targets succeeded, but one never got to fire as a Vorchan squadron just decided to eliminate it. The other kept its original target. Down 3 ships to 2, the Centauri kept at it, got a good come about, but failed another Stealth check against the Dust Cloud. In exchange, that ship got shot, and the turn after, the Sky Serpents finished it off. At this point the game was over.
What We Learned:
Drazi got very, very lucky throughout the entire fight. Stealth saved them by the grace of dice alone, and they hit a ton of Come Abouts. TTT is the Drazi CAF roll, a SA you take on an attack run as an option of opportunity. The wording on TTT doesn't force you to take the off-bore shot, so you can keep your current target at full dice or use them off-bore for 1/2 dice; we love this option. You can positionally defend against Attack Run by playing base-denial games. We had one instance of the Drazi player wanting to move first (when have you ever heard that!?!) so his Attack Run target couldn't get away in time, very cool. Attack Run may succeed too rarely, but I'm not as certain about this one as a Drazi successfully TTTing on CQ 8 instead of 9, especially since there are tactical defenses. Supported Vorchans are much less ppwerful than supported ones. If the Centauri had Wolfpack as written, we would not have even had something you could call a game, no need for Interceptors, Stealth Targets, Sponges, nothing --- Hunting Packs are just busted.
Better tales will be told by Davesaint and Ripple.
[/u]
