What In-House Playtest Nights Looks and Feels like.......

Playtest night for The Genesys Project is always a ton of fun and I thought it would be interesting to see exactly what was going on for Last Nights Playtesting. Here is an inside Look!

Last night was game testing, which often means 1-3 tables set up for the in-house crew, and we were running light on the standard crew which can run up to 6 people on a given night. These playtest sessions generally happen every two weeks late Saturday with players fluctuating in and out depending upon life.

As it happens the night was scheduled for a single game that would involve Level 4 Classes (Uniques, Ancients, Paragons etc). So 2,000pts was on the agenda between set between two forces I am familiar with, one from the Reptilia and the other from the Insekts.

More specifically what was being tested further was ease of the new combat situation with one of the playtesters that had been out of action for last two months. Plus like always some editing by both players and converting the Reptilia and Insekts traits and abilities to the Combat Situation.

The armies being fielded from the Insekt were a swarm army that can field a lot of models while the Reptilia faction was quite the opposite and very much an elite force. Of course we don't do a ton of large games 2,000+ points and the beta testers are always excited to see their big guys go head to head.

So the set was staged earlier in the week in preparation, when I got the message that the Insekt player had been involved in a car accident that totaled his car. So with him out to rest after the crash, I stepped in and fielded my NorKragg Dwarves for the game. (just a heads up he is OK, but very sore and tired, it was a bad crash where he was stationary in traffic and the car coming behind him did not slow down. He got lucky.)

So while this not meant to be a full battle report, I we will talk about it briefly.... we jumped right into the game. Note that these are playtesting games and often models are proxied (although there was not a ton of it this time around but there was a lot of unpainted miniatures).

The game was a 2,000pt game allowing a single Level 4 model in the game. This would be an epic clash and the Reptilia fielded a proxied Dai Kaiju (he has a model ordered for unit) against a Huge Giant for the Dwarves. My opponent took a Survival Battleplan before the game... meaning that he was short a couple hundred points in the game for a bonus of progression points for mission rewards.

Quick run-down.......... the Dwarves started right away jumping on top of the game shooting down the Raptors moving quickly through the forest, and seeing a large squad of 10 I sent the Kragg Berserkers to deal with them. Since we were playing objectives (both of us rolled the same Primary Mission) we both sent our big boys to the center of the board. (where later I would make a huge mistake).

The tactical mistake? I sent my Giant into the battle to clear out the two large squads of in melee combat. The problem being that once I did that I had to turn my back on the approaching Dai-Kaiju, who literally jumped on top of my giant and ripped his head off. It was horrible. My giant as exhausted from the melee combat he was in (so was focused on the melee when he was jumped from behind). The game is extremely tactical right now as your actions on the battlefield make all the difference between failure or success.



That Dai-Kajiu had piercing Talons that dripped corrosive acid..... my Giant was not happy. (this is the model he has on order for him.... 100mm base for this guy.)

During games like this, we often stop to talk about rules that we are engaged with as they come up. This really slows down our games, but also gives us the opportunities to get into the details of how the particular rule is working to make certain the rule is clear, and take notes from what we discover. The combat situation for Channeling Powers was discussed, rules were clarified (a couple wordings on how the rule or ability were worded), and a look at the Reptilia in general was discussed during and after the game. Sitting down and looking at point costs and ability of Level 4 classes was interesting as it had been awhile since we delved into them.


Always progress and movement forward.

For those that are concerned about my loss........ (yea I know not many of ya). My opponent got his primary and prevented me from getting mine. We took a draw on the secondary mission. My Dwarven Commander died bravely charging on his Monstrous Bear into the Dai Kaiju after it ripped apart my giant. He did however score 4 wounds against it, and survived into the second round before being torn apart.