I didn't get to play-test the tripod rules before the release of the Kickstarter, so I had no idea how it might play out. This past Thursday, I made use of my gaming day with Mike to try out the rules.
This was the only time I really read through the rules, and it was a bit of a surprise. Because tripods attack with pretty much only Heat-rays when combating other tripods, Black Smoke was not considered. Initially. Also, the X and Y decks are not used. X Heat-rays use the A deck for damaging tripods, and Y Heat-rays use the B deck. I assume this is done because there is no Martian damage on the X and Y decks.
Without much preparation, I dug out the City map, and threw four objectives down about mid-way across the map, to provide recharge opportunities. The objective of the game was to kill the other tripods. I didn't take many pictures, as this was a hard-fought battle (read: slug-fest), with not many memorable moments.
One shot of the close-in fighting:
We used Martian vs Martian, so the iniatives were matched. I played the Red Martians, Mike played the Green. Fucia circles were two of the four objectives.
Energy management was tough, with Heat-ray shield hits stripping away up to 5 energy cubes at a time! I hit Mike several times with nearly no effect, due to zeros on the shields, but Mike did nearly wipe out my Locust energy reserves with a few high point hits. Unshielded shots were not hard to get, but even with double damage, the high resistance gave the tripods a lot of staying power. It was the special damage that hurt. Pilot wounds were particularly crippling. Not being able to shoot on the move seriously impacted maneuver choices, and I opted to stand and fight, rather than move and dodge. We had to call the game, as we ran out of time (almost three hours). All the tripods were still on the table, although my Scarab was mauled, as was Mike's. His Locust was not too badly hit, due to lucky damage draws, but my Locust was down to 6 Energy. None of our tripods had more than a cube or two energy left, and hits were going to start crippling our machines, had we continued.
A fun, but tough, game. More pictures, next time.
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