Playtest: No Stars in Sight

The barracks are beginning to fill with trained troops so it's time to kick off the war. My first playtest used No Stars in Sight, a hard scifi platoon-based ruleset. The distinguishing feature, in my eyes, is that combat involves a lot more suppression than outright killing. Your activations are limited by your command rolls and number of leaders. I marked out a 2ft x 2ft area, dropped in some buildings and set up some lighting. 

The engagement is a staple of the setting. A hapless squad of Imperial troopers run into a trio of battle-hardened Chaos Marines in some godforsaken town.

The forces of Chaos are represented by three Void Children, all armed with their standard infantry weapons. Just out of shot, their support weapons sulk, skulk and refuse to get involved. To reflect their status as elite soldiers, I gave them a buff to their command points and allowed them to move freely while out of command.

Representing the plucky defenders of Ursis Prime, our Armeddon Steel Legion platoon. It's a eight-strong platoon consisting of five troopers with autoguns, two heavy weapons and led by a commissar. As they are not genetically modified super-soldiers, they need to stay within 8" of their leader.

My first run through had both forces deploy opposite each other. The Imperials managed to set up a wide battle line, in good cover and the Chaos Marines found themselves hemmed in the centre from the very beginning. Any attempt to move to flank the Imperials was with a hail of fire and they were soon completely contained. By the end, their additional command points merely translated into more chances to expose themselves and get shot. The Imperial heavy weapons proved utterly vital to amassing enough firepower to bring the Marines down. 

Now, a one-sided bloodbath is not ideal for the purposes of a good game but thinking on it, I felt it was a fair outcome considering the flaws in my positioning of the Void Children. Their mobility was their main advantage and without it, they were lost.

The second run through had the Imperials pre-deploy in defensive positions on their half of the board and the Chaos Marines moved on at a point of their choosing along their table edge. This was more satisfying as I felt it reflected their superior battle-sense. The poor commissar was soon bogged down monitoring the defense of the lower sector, directing fire and keeping his troopers on the line. He simply couldn't spare the command points to redeploy his troops in the upper sector. The Chaos forces managed to dislodge the defenders from their position, inflicting losses and the Imperials cut and ran. I adapted the rules on the fly to increase the lethality of the Chaos firepower as killing on 6s didn't feel right but that proved a little too powerful, a better compromise might been giving them additional kill dice. 

Now, having reflected on the game, I think a larger table is called for and certainly, a single leader per side does not let the rules show themselves to best effect. That being said, the feel of the game seemed quite good and it would not be difficult to make minor adaptions to suit my own preferences. As the old Irish saying goes: Tús maith, leath na h-oibre. It's definitely sparked a desire to push on with the project.