Yesterday, I had a bunch of HAWKs to my war room to play three games. I set up the gaming day because a West Point buddy, Ma’k Morin was coming for the weekend to visit Dave Wood. One of the games I ran was an initial test of the cyber phase of the Look, Sarge, No Charts: Science Fiction rules that we are beginning to pull together. The idea is that between turns, the two sides’ cyber forces fight for control of each others networks by allocating their cyber teams to attack or defend. Based on the outcome of the cyber phase, the sides draw cards that provide cyber effects that can be applied during the turn. Examples are the ability to “pin” an enemy unit, get an extra activation for a friendly unit, interrupt an enemy artillery mission, etc.
I have many of my science fiction figures painted and based; however, I haven’t put much thought into the unit attributes, so those forces aren’t ready to game yet. Instead, I put a bunch of France 1940 figures on the table but added the cyber phase. Again, the purpose was for this to be an initial test of the cyber phase.
So, how did it go? Actually very well for a first attempt, I think. The cyber effects were meaningful and interesting, but they did not overwhelm the game. In this first play test, Kurt’s company of panzer grenadiers got to the bridge (pictured above), which was their objective. Then Chris drew some really good and timely cyber effects that first pinned the armored battalion (to which the panzer grenadiers belonged) and then in the next turn, took an activation away from the panzer grenadier company. This delayed the German advance for two, critical turns.
The cyber fight went okay. While there is the potential for wild swings in the status of the penetration of enemy networks, in this first play test, the outcomes were very evenly matched, so there was little progress along the “cyber penetration” track. Only in the last turn did Chris get a strong result that propelled him to a portion of the track where he could get two cyber cards per turn. I am going to make one or two small adjustments, but nothing major until I get a couple more tests of the current ideas.