[Consim-l] Grav Armor initial impressions

[Markus Stumptner]

Finally, after more than 2 years, in December I managed to set up my
downloaded copy of Grav Armor.  This is one of the Dwarfstar minigames
available for download at Joe Scoleri's site, and since my experience
with those I've played since I downloaded them (Barbarian Prince and
Dragonlord) has been excellent, I have always been looking forward to
this.  I didn't have a copy but I knew the game for a long time and
there are few tactical SF boardgames that promise such a colorful
experience in so small a package. The Dwarfstar maps have always been
very appealing to me. As with other eras, most SF tactical games have
moved out into miniatures, and the resulting time and expense
requirements are just higher than what I consider necessary for game
enjoyment.

The rules to Grav Armor are 15 pages in the tiny Dwarfstar format; I
suspect that would translate to about 4 pages in an AH rulebook.  The
game is fairly straightforward, and most of the chrome lies in the
unit differentiation - units are rated for attack, defense, EW
capability, movement, movement type (hover, grav, infantry), and
weapons type (missiles, particle beams, gatling lasers, and mag
bolts). There are only a couple of special rules dealing with active
defenses (most units can add those to their attack at range 1) and the
fact that missiles attack multiple units in a hex (with each
additional unit getting a -1 modifier).  Shooting simply means adding
the attacking EW and combat values and subtracting the defender and
terrain. That gives you a column on the table and you roll 2d6 to see
if you have a hit.  It is shocking to be reminded that we had such
clean though multifaceted systems 25 years ago, when even today some
people still do awful 1970s style CRTs for tactical games.  Oh well. 
(A minor wrinkle is that the CRT has "holes"- a higher roll does not 
always guarantee a hit. That is no problem in terms of hit probability 
since there are no dieroll modifiers, all modifiers are column shifts.)

All of this this makes for a lot of tactical interaction with a rather
simple package (all weapons/defense modifiers are listed below the CRT),
and the fact that terrain may be rated differently for detection and
movement plus that detection does not have to be traced through the most
direct path makes for some quirks in picking the correct position;  
careful tactical play is rewarded. The only bits that I had to keep
reminding myself of in the first cople of turns were the effects of white
EW values (doubled on defense) and black defense values (added to attack
at range 1), and the detection bit. There is a great temptation to
consider detection as line of sight and that often does not work; tactics
have to adapt. In particular, I found that the massive support units
turned out very vulnerable since their fire range was not appreciably
greater than other units, their defense value is low, and their own EW
value often also, requiring close in work. These are not long range
artillery to be used from the rear!  The big guns are in orbit. (I haven't
yet played a scenario that uses them but hope to rectify that soon.)

The most interesting aspect of the game is probably the sequence of
play. All fire is essentially opportunity fire.  Each player gets a
movement phase and the other player can fire any of his units during
or before the start of that phase, or after its end, but only once.
As a result, play moves very quickly since there's not a lot to keep
track of except rotating units that have moved or fired. Good design.

Stacking is unlimited (hexes are assumed to be about 50km!), but since
missile armed units which make up the majority attack every unit in a
hex, albeit at an increasing modifier, people will tend to keep their
units apart. Another effect is that since fire is equally lethal at
all ranges (except range 1 when things get much more lethal since now
you can use your active defenses, e.g., anti-missile missiles or short
range lasers, for attack), once you are in range, you might as well
keep moving. There is nothing to be gained by sitting still, and
nothing lost by moving to a different hex that gives equal protection.

Overall, the playing experience was the same as with the other
Dwarfstar games I've tried: very enjoyable.  This is a lot of
sophistication in a very small package; worth every minute I spent on
the components (for obvious reasons I can't say "worth every cent"
:-). It's not a "filler" game because the scenarios are generally not
small. They include up to 50 units per side and were obviously
carefully constructed to highlight the system from all sides. But
(extrapolating from my solo experience) they should be playable in an
evening and it should be quite easy to construct some 1- or 2-hour
scenarios.

After action replay to follow.

Markus

Last 3 games played: Abensberg/Eckmuehl, Star Viking, WW I
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