In a previous post (http://bucksurdu.com/blog/?p=3749), I described a game that Duncan ran at a club night using G.A.M.E.R. to represent the skirmish fight between two formed units. That play test was so successful that Duncan sign dup to run it at HISTORICON. He has been working on how to represent the formed troops are are important to the game but are not controlled by the players. These pictures of paper mock-ups of what he is building. I think they look pretty darned good.
After working on the Armies for Kids project (see related post on Chris’ blog), we pulled out Imperial Assault to give it a test run. We played the tutorial scenario twice. I as the Empire player won both tutorials, but the second iteration was very close. My probe droid turned out to be the most valuable player in both games.
In general I like the game. I like the way that range and accuracy are taken care of with all the special dice. Simple and elegant. I can live with the fact that figures have no facing and can fire 360 degrees — it’s after all Hollywood. I don’t like the fact that cover either blocks line of sight or has not effect. This worked better in the old Star Wars Miniatures game.
Then we set up the “skirmish game.” I like the random missions, and the balance seemed about right. This time, the rebels spanked me 50 points to 15. Ouch!
We had a good time, and I think a couple of the folks were up for playing out the various episodes of the campaign.