Midnight Dark #006

First up, many thanks to the Mech-level backers for their notes and feedback.

The raw rules are pretty nearly there, with two big features still needing further detailed work: solo play rules and points values.

The solo play rules are basically fine, but I need to get them onto the table more to thrash them out in a bit more detail so I can include a few decent scenarios for players to enjoy from the get-go.

Points values, though, are that much harder to work out in terms of identifying what looks like a "typical" army. To the designer (me), this is a largely meaningless question. The size of the army is the size you want it to be. Do you want a sprawling combined arms regiment that swamps the table? Well, go for it. Do you want no more than a squadron+ in a short, sharp firefight of dramatic manoeuvre? Again, the rules are cool with that.

However, the marketing manager (also me) knows that the typical customer wants to know "how much money is this thing going to make me need to spend to have a good time?" The typical customer doesn't believe me when I say you can play with just half a dozen elements and have a good time, for thirty elements and still have fun (for a much longer time, obviously). They want to know where the game is optimised and I want them to buy the game, so I want to be able to answer the question.

This, of course, means assembling "typical" armies and seeing what they look like.

Those of you who've been here for a while will know that I have a spreadsheet of a great deal of maths that links an element's points cost to its stats, based on a weighting system. And because it's a spreadsheet I can tweak every component of it and everything else will instantly update based on the tweaks. So I can decide to weight one stat a percentage point more and all the others will shuffle around at the click of a mouse.

This, it should be said, is very, very useful. But it's also leading me to a state of analysis paralysis and after the designer (me) and marketing manager (me) had a meeting to discuss it, we realized that we needed help. Which brings me to this post (I know - if you aren't in the Kickstarter you were probably wondering if I'd died).

So tell me: assuming you have played, are playing or might, one day, play a 6mm hard sci-fi battle game... when you imagine yourself setting up your army on the other side of the table against your opponent... what does your army look like?

Describe it to me.

Is it a massive and diverse force, with a full company of light infantry, supported by a few platoons of heavy infantry, with light cavalry running as outriders, while a spearhead of tanks charges forward, while a dozen mechs stride ahead, massive weapons beaming out destruction? Perhaps you might even include a few superheavies as well to really intimidate your opponent? In fact, while you're at it, throw in a squadron of close air support, too.

Is that what you imagine?

Or perhaps it's something more modest. One or two tanks, with a couple of platoons and perhaps some special forces. Just a single medium mech in support?

Maybe your prefer a real specialist army that's all heavy armour, or entirely made up of mechs because you've always liked the idea of playing Battletech but can't deal with having to learn another forty years of collected lore.

Anyway, whatever it is, let me know in the comments. I want to get a sense of what you think "normal" looks like in this context.

Oh, and Elite-level backers (Elite and Heavy Elite) as well as Mech-level backers will get to see the 0.02 version of the rules in about two weeks.