May 30th Special 5th Saturday Playtest Day at Gameology: AAR

We had a solid 8 members plus a cameo from Matt Cicero for our Special 5th Saturday Playtest Day at Gameology:

Since all of the games played were playtests, I’m not going to report the final game results. Instead, I’m going to give a summary of each of the scenarios playtested, along with the players who played them and the side they had.

We had two playing of “Lynchpin”; designed by yours truly and developed by Dave Kocot. This scenario is set in Red Barricades in January, 1943. It uses the center-east section of the board, with the Commissar’s house roughly in the center. It depicts a company strength Russian assault engineer attack on Haus 79 (the closest multi-hex stone building near the river.) The Russians have a strong attack force, with solid flank support, and must either control Haus 79 or have six unbroken squads in multi-hex stone building at game end. It’s a classic Red Barricades kind of fight; all infantry, SW and fortifications. Basic, short (4.5 turns) and violent. Blair Bellamy took the Germans against Jim Svette’s Russians. Dave Nicholas and Eric Visnowski also paired off in this scenario, with Dave taking the Russians against EV’s Germans.

We had two playing of a yet-to-be-named scenario designed by Eric Visnowski and being developed by Rob Stai. It’s Marine Raiders against some surprised Japanese defenders in a small village, played on the new LFT Deluxe boards. The Marines have to cross a small stream and attack a village. Points are scored based on CVP and hut control. This one plays very quickly; in about 2 to 2.5 hours. Its another small, simple and all infantry and SW’s scenario. Dave Kocot and Dan Plachta got in two games, one as each side.

And Kyle Li and I got in one playing of “Cold Cauldron”; an ASLSK scenario that recreates extreme winter on the eastern front in 1943. I took the Russians, who start with roughly a company of 4-5-8 paratroops. Kyle had the Germans, who start out very weak, but slowly build in strength and surround the Russian paras, who end up holding on for dear life. Our game was a blast with a spectacular down to the last CC finish. We came up with a possible tweak for this one relating to the woods/road on board Y. Casta designed this scenario quite a while ago, and ASLSK guru Blair Bellamy has volunteered to take on development duties.

All in all it was and extremely productive day. We enjoyed our usual lunch at The Hat, and wrapped up around 10:00 PM.