{"id":8761,"date":"2019-06-09T14:48:37","date_gmt":"2019-06-09T14:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=8761"},"modified":"2019-06-09T14:48:37","modified_gmt":"2019-06-09T14:48:37","slug":"play-test-of-the-battle-of-hoth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=8761","title":{"rendered":"Play Test of the Battle of Hoth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday many of the HAWKs came to my basement to play test our Hoth game for Historicon. \u00a0This game will handle twelve players. \u00a0We will make a few tweaks, but though the Imperials decided they couldn’t win on turn one but the won on points at the end, I think the game went well.<\/p>\n

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Initial setup of the Imperial forces for the battle of Hoth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Looking down the table from the Imperial viewpoint. You can see the hangar \/ cave entrance in the distance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A view of some of the rebel trenches before the game began.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Greg and my wife having a discussing before the game began.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Imperial players deciding on their strategy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Looking down the table from the Rebel point of view.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Looking out the hangar \/ cave entrance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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AT-AT’s trying to knock out an anti-vehicular weapon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Tank” Nickle kept pushing the Imperial forces to bypass the first lines of trenches and drive for the hangar, which was their objective. \u00a0There were some slower moving Imperial forces that could have been used to assault the closest trench lines while the faster-moving forces bypassed, but they didn’t really mount a concerted effort to defeat the first line of trenches until late in the game.<\/p>\n

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An Imperial probe droid is knocked out by infantry blaster fire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Imperials begin their advance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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I really like the look of the table.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A slightly different view of the start of the game.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The fighting between an Imperial speeder bike scout unit and some Rebels. The speeder bikes provided a fun distraction for the Rebels, but they didn’t contributed a lot to the outcome of the game.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Rebels in the trenches. Counterintuitively, the towers were anti-personnel weapons, but the radar dish blaster thingies were anti-vehicular weapons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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a wider shot of the Rebel defenses.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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AT-ATs crossing the first line of Rebel trenches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Hand to hand fighting as the Imperial snow troopers assault the Rebel defensive line.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Rebels got two victory points per turn that the four main heroes (Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewbacca) were in the hangar. \u00a0 The Imperials received one victory point for each Rebel they killed. \u00a0We will also give the Rebels points for killing the AT-ATs. \u00a0It behooves the Rebels to slow down the Imperial forces so that they get the maximum number of points for heroes in the hangar before the overwhelming Imperial forces start amassing points for killing them. \u00a0The game is designed to end and points will be totaled when the AT-ATs get close enough to the power generator to knock it out. \u00a0At that time, they can assault the hangar, and the heroes will have to get on the Millennium Falcon and fly away.<\/p>\n

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The Rebels knocked out the ray shielding on the AT-AT. The Imperials then disgorged the platoon of snow troopers that had been riding inside.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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More chaos as snow troopers take casualties from Rebel defenders.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The second and third lines of defense away the Imperial assault.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Steady, boys. Wait until you see the whites of their eyes. Or maybe not.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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AT-ATs cross over the first line of Rebel defenses while follow-on infantry assaults the trenches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Two AT-STs were destroyed by “anti-tank” fire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Tench fighting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Imperials dismount from transport speeders to assault the second line of Rebel trenches. These speeders bypassed the first line of trenches and headed directly for lines two and three.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The table is starting to look suitably chaotic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Another view of the fierce trench fighting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Imperials knock out a gun turret.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Rebels knocked out at least two of the transport speeders.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At this point, we called the game. \u00a0The Rebels were only up by 5 points, but the Imperials were gaining 10 or 15 points a turn, so I assessed the game as an Imperial victory.<\/p>\n

I think we are ready for this game at Historicon in July and Barrage in September.<\/p>\n