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New beta testers feedback from first reading of 5.01

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 1:41 pm
by andy816
Well firstly i must admit to being to being a p*ss taking sceptic about these rules referring to them as both DBMcN and Reigate 6th edition on various occasions. I've just read the rules for the first time and must now accept it is neither. Infact i must accept they are an innovative and interesting set of rules.

Not quite sure what is required in this feedback so i will mention my thoughts on how the rules read and how i suspect the game will play.

First impression was what have i got myself into; three pages of contents, these are going to be complicated......... personally if i picked up a rule book no matter how glossy it looked three pages of contents would still put me off. It might be worth considering limiting the main contents to just one page and then having a contents page in each section. ie Movement page 17, and when i turn to page 17 i will see a list of movement sub-contents.

My second difficulty of the reading was that the tables showing scores required or how to calculate adjustments came at the end of a section after all the explanation, so i didn't fully understand what the rules and explanations were relating to until i had reached the end of a section.Sometimes i had to re-read bits with an "oh i get it know" exclamation. For me the relevant tables at the start of the section would have been better.

These are only two minor points and in general i found the language easy to understand and digest and that the style of the rules guided me through the game mechanisms and turn sequences in an interseting and coherent manner. So a big well done from me to the literary boys.

Reading the rules and actually playing a game is a different matter but I think the key issues for me are that there is finer grading of troop types, and that troops need to be used in a manner that reflects their strengths. It will be difficult if not impossible to avoid combat with your combat troops and therefore troop selections from an army list will have to be made with a definite generalised winning plan of action in mind. Players I think will have to be more positive in their approach to a game than perhaps other rules sets make them.

Definatley looking forward to my first game especially to try out the cohesion tests and understand better the effects it has on different troops battlefield prowess.

Well i hope this is what you were after, but if i have missed anything please ask.

Cheers

Andy Robinson

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 8:51 pm
by jdm
Very helpful firsty impression Andy

Regards
JDM

Re: New beta testers feedback from first reading of 5.01

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:46 pm
by neilhammond
andy816 wrote:First impression was what have i got myself into; three pages of contents, these are going to be complicated......... personally if i picked up a rule book no matter how glossy it looked three pages of contents would still put me off. It might be worth considering limiting the main contents to just one page and then having a contents page in each section. ie Movement page 17, and when i turn to page 17 i will see a list of movement sub-contents.
Andy Robinson
I agree with Andy's initial observation about the long table of contents, but....

I've actually found the structure and level of detail is pretty good and I now find (after 4 games) I use the contents as an index into the rules. If it was broken out into subsections it would be harder. I guess in the long run there will be a proper index, but the long contents list does actually work for me.

Neil

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 9:43 am
by shall
Great help chaps. We were imagining a thinner index for the final versio but have left it long for now as we can find pages on the PC with a single click. We have some ideas that might be better still in terms of finding pages in the eventual book. IF you hold Ctrl and click onthe page number ot takes you there. If only a book would do the same eh?

Comments on table location very helpful as we are moving into final packaging mode rather than rule development mode at this very moment. We'll see about putting them place where the relevant words can easily relate to them.

Keep it coming and hope you enjoy your first game Andy.

Si

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:45 pm
by jdm
Unfortunately none of these work on the fingerprinted rules Simon, its an byproduct of the protection

Regards
JDM

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 3:44 pm
by shall
Ok JD. Didn't realise.

I am sure we can do a nicer start for the final product chaps.

Si