After many many playtests of the Mecha Battles rules, the rules play very well and very fast. We played a number of games: one-vs-one, one-vs-many, many-vs-many, few-vs-many. The game runs pretty much the way I intended it to. It is fast and rather furious. And worked decently for up to 5 mechas a side, beyond that, it slows down.
We played a three mecha vs one with Kitty and the game took less than a half-hour, a good quick-game point. I was able to destroy her three mechas due to a good series of initiative cards.
The initiative system with the limited number of activations really ups the pace of the game. When playing, I find that this works very well for small-scale actions: up to 3-5 mecha per sides, more than a full-on large-scale battle. This is fine for most of the games we play at home. However, I wonder how I could use it for a larger-scale event.
So I have about two months to figure out how I can deal with this difficulty. How can I keep producing a game that mimics the dynamism of the battles found in anime shows without bogging down the game?
I have a few ideas that could accomplish this without changing the feel of the game too much. The skirmish-scale really does what I wanted to accomplish.
Could a large-scale game represent major engagements between two or more forces?
I will have to try those ideas out.
I have been toying with the idea of publishing a series of "pilot" cards that would add flavor to the game and allow a given mecha to be made better by the addition of a unique pilot. For example one could give a +1 bonus to ranged attack while another give a +1 damage, etc.
I am also toying with the idea of putting the mecha sheet on cards too, but I have to investigate how to make those and now is not the time for me to do so (cons, writing, painting) but it will happen.
This game keeps getting better and better.
JP
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