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Alternate Play System - TACOS mk.II

Discussion in 'News' started by taylor, Dec 2, 2017.

  1. Robock

    Robock Well-Known Member

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    played last Friday.
    - i like how the focus change from one flank to the other as cards are flipped. it is much more dynamic than ITS where once you secure the crucial zone you are winning (well, it ITS 9 there are no more mission rooms, so that effect is not as present in ITS).
    - compared to previous version, it is nice to score cards in ARO instead of waiting your reactive turn doing nothing.
    - in our game, we had almost no casualties, i'm neutral on that as it was only 1 game.
    - i feel like the mission favors going second.
    - I still have trouble understanding where the placement goes in the start of game sequence from reading the rules.

    Usually :
    - Lt roll off.
    - The one who wins decide either initiative or deployment and immediately makes his decision related to that. (if if he pick turn order he says who goes first; if he picks deployment he says who deploy first.)
    - The one who didn't win, gets the other and immediately makes his decision. (if if he have turn order he says who goes first; if he have deployment choice he says who deploy first.)
    - Whoever must deploy first deploy his models.
    - The other player deploys.
    - reserves...
    - Whoever must play first starts his turn.

    How we played, was that immediately after winning the Lt roll off and choosing who gets what, the one who controls initiative deploy the first objective, and once they are all placed the Lt winner decide the deployment order if he control deployment or turn order if he control initiative.

    But I also was thinking it should go after decisions are made and prior to deploying your models.

    Objective placement refer to "controlling initiative" it could refer to making the placement as soon as you know who controls initiative (and before he decides the specifics of the initiative order). This is also based on the first edition text which was : Roll for Dep/Init as Normal. Then the player who controls initiative place the first marker.

    Which is how we played it : Make the Lt Roll off then whoever gets initiative choices starts placing objectives immediately; and then we resume start of game sequence (Lt winner makes his choice, other player makes his choice, start deploying).
     
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  2. UNDRHiver

    UNDRHiver 2154-HWLL-SFPM-3677

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    Hi, I had a quick look to the system; it is nice.
    Please note that Disabled is not label as Null state.
     
  3. taylor

    taylor Well-Known Member
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    Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you got a chance to play. That's not a bad idea. I'll have to take a look at It, but it is definitely an idea.

    There is a glossary of terms in the cards. In the glossary, it points out that disabled in the cards means reduced to a null state. I believe it is on page 4 or 8.
     
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  4. taylor

    taylor Well-Known Member
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    coleslaw and Section9 like this.
  5. UNDRHiver

    UNDRHiver 2154-HWLL-SFPM-3677

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    I see, it is not the status "Disabled" but it is the "summary term" for grouping the Null states; isn't it?
    thank you
     
  6. taylor

    taylor Well-Known Member
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    Yep. Exactly.

    When we were developing it, the more exact we got in our wording we ran into more questions or arguments, and since we kept on using the word disabled, we decided that it would be our wording and it would continue to be our word using TACOS in N3 (As we have been using this system since N2).

    Essentially, if its not contributing to the order pool by the end of the turn in any capacity, it is considered "disabled".
     
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  7. Pierzasty

    Pierzasty Null-Space Entity

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    Are the cards in any sleevable standard? Looks like "standard american" size, but I'm not sure.

    (BTW, it's much more convenient to do it in CCG size. It's cheaper and less hassle to print them one-sided on thicker cardstock, and finding non-clear sleeves in different sizes is a bitch.)
     
  8. taylor

    taylor Well-Known Member
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    The cards are - they're standard bridge size (5.7 cm x 8.9 cm). I think that's the size of most clear sleeves. If you need a specific size, just pm me and I'll resize them for you. It takes 10 minutes on my end. :grimacing: (<-- that's my holiday spirit face)
     
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  9. Alkasyn

    Alkasyn Well-Known Member

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    I plan to do a tournament running these cards, will let you know how it goes. Only one issue I had when testing, was how often can you score each mission?

    I had a good combo (Kill Models, Kill Models with Camo) and it made scoring points very easy, leading to a snowball situation. Wep layed so that you could score more than once. Was that correct?
     
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  10. taylor

    taylor Well-Known Member
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    Right on. Yes - a strategy a lot of my local players have is to make sure cards are out that they can combo. I got my ass tooled a couple months ago by a guy who was running a Seraph, and he had the "You're It!" Card up (kill enemy TAG), "Show Stopper" (kill a lieutenant), "Catch 'em and Kill 'em" (kill a model in CC), and "Cherry Picker" (destroy a model with a weapon that does 14 or more damage). Well, I was running my shiny new Avatar list, and he had whittled it down to 1 wound... and he charged his Seraph in and smoked my avatar (Well, not in one the roll, but it's more dramatic this way). That turned yielded him an epic 6 objective points!

    Now, that's not a normal situation. I've been playing TACOS for a few years now, and I've only seen a full four card spread wiped less than I have fingers on both hands. Doesn't mean crazy shit can't happen (like a fusilier scoring 3 crits on an enemy TAG), but it's not really the norm. We have found the game play with TACOS to be as balanced as really any other system out there that involves an element of random chance. :grin:
     
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  11. Disko King

    Disko King Well-Known Member

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    It's pretty straight forward. You deploy as normal, and you have four objective markers - Crate, Console, HVT and Intelligence Operative. Whoever wins initiative places the first marker, which can't be on a building, in a deployment zone and has a ZOC of 8" - which includes other objective markers. You take turns placing the rest of the objectives.

    Okay, so just to get it straight, since I wanna try it. Who wins initiative pick which ,marker to deploy first, if he deploys it right at the edge of enemy deployment zone, you give him a bit of edge since objective is closer, but you can also create big radius in his DZ where nothing can be deployed(16'' long and 8'' deep from centre of objective), I mean, this does seem like a big piece of DZ negated from enemy. Place 2 and he will be herded really tight with a lot of models...bring in BSG/templates and clear half of his army with few orders?

    Have you not run into issues like this when playing?
     
  12. Alkasyn

    Alkasyn Well-Known Member

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    Right, I guess we will play it your way a couple more times and see if what happened was a fluke or a regular kind of occurrence. I mean I scored like 6 or so points in just one turn, only for killing dudes. Seemed like easy points :)
     
  13. taylor

    taylor Well-Known Member
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    It's a tactic - though one I've seen backfire more than once. I also can't account for the terrain on your board, but this is what our boards look like.

    [​IMG]

    One thing to keep in mind that ALL objective markers must be placed in the open, on the ground floor. It is a good tactic to help keep AROs under control in the first turn, but the nature of a shuffled card deck means that you might have to get the objectives you put right in front of your enemy. More So, you're handing them free points next turn, or worse if you get something out like "The Collector", "Social Butterfly", or King of the Castle.

    SIX?!! That is a good run, man. In my years, I've only seen that once. There aren't many cards worth more than 1 objective points, so getting two of them, and two 1 point cards is pretty much luck out of a deck of 34 cards. You did only have 4 cards out at a time, right?
     
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  14. Alkasyn

    Alkasyn Well-Known Member

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    Yes but I scored a combo of two cards three times. Can you only score each card once a turn?
     
  15. taylor

    taylor Well-Known Member
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    Nope, but two separate models have to do it. So, say you have two "Brief Consolation" cards up - you need to have two specialists hack the console. Does that answer the question?
     
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  16. Alkasyn

    Alkasyn Well-Known Member

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    What if it's "Disable an enemy model" and "Disable an enemy model in camo"? Would they have to be done by two separate models (each one of mine kills a Chasseur for example, for two dead Chasseurs in total), to get 4 points in a given turn?
     
  17. taylor

    taylor Well-Known Member
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    Oh! No - once you kill the camo model, you claim that card. You can't score it twice. Once you get the point, you pick up the card and put it into your points pile.

    Ie. You can ONLY score a single card once.
     
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  18. Alkasyn

    Alkasyn Well-Known Member

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    Thanks, that clarifies things :)
     
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  19. taylor

    taylor Well-Known Member
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    Sorry, please keep these questions coming. I need to do up a FAQ. :grin:

    It's very much appreciated.
     
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  20. Alkasyn

    Alkasyn Well-Known Member

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    No problems, I'll let you know how my people liked the tournament :)

    Maybe also come with some questions.

    All in all, thanks for the work put into this, much appreciated.
     
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