GUWS! IADS! Let's Roll Dice! A Bunch of Times!
Big shoutout to Sam for putting together a tremendously successful Game Day on 12 Sep 26. With half a dozen tables all excitedly pushing pieces around, I think this was the biggest showing Madonna and I have ever seen at a GUWS event. Stoked that we were able to set up a table and get some games in.
We showed up a little late, but luckily there were still some takers! In fact, shoutout to Chief Ben, the winner of the first-ever GUWS IADS: The Game Tournament earlier this year, who was there waiting for us. He was gracious enough to coin us with his Chief’s coin before getting a few VULs in! (Thanks for giving us your two cents, Ben!)
Inspired by the JHU SAIS presentation we did the day before, I brought out the Strait of Hormuz map! The players had come ready to play, and we introduced the Maximum Elevation Figure rules for a sweet 2v2v2 match. Kevin and I thoughtfully placed our 2x Mobile SAMs at the top of the two highest peaks in the northern part of the map, with our HQ nestled securely in the valley between them.
The opposing teams proceeded to completely ignore our defenses and only chose to engage with our forward units -- far outside the Range of our humble team, lol. Well... it seemed like a good idea at the time, okay??
We were able to knock out game after game with generally the same crew of players. I love events that allow for multiple iterations with the same players. A metagame and personal styles/preferences quickly develop as play/counterplay considerations become central. Joseph (new to wargames and military-themed board games) volunteered that anticipation and planning made him nervous! Madonna and I took it as a compliment -- Joseph's nerves became excitement once dice started flying.
Another thing multiple games REALLY unlocks is... the Advanced Capabilities Expansion! I had the teams carefully pick out six cards from the Advanced Capabilities deck to amplify the four cards from the Base Game that they'd drafted. After thoughtful deliberation, both teams of three chose cards they thought would help their side. Then I explained what each of the Advanced unit cards did. At the start of the snake draft, each team proceeded to hate-draft, taking the cards the other team planned to use and abandoning their original strategies, lol.
The game played out fine, with one notable distinction -- it was the longest game of IADS: The Game we’ve ever played. I think it lasted somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 minutes.
The team on the eastern side of the map, coming from Okinawa and the rest of the Ryukyus, chose Special Operations, Advanced Multi-Role Fighter, and Advanced Air Superiority Fighter. The western side of the map, taking mainland China (West Taiwan) and Taiwan proper, chose the Distributed SAM RADAR, the Aircraft Carrier, and the Destroyer.
It was a weird match -- the first Issue Orders phase had everyone choose an asset and then... nothing. There were like four turns where the Turn Order card just did laps as each team tried to figure out what they should do. The Taiwan team launched its Carrier's Aviation Wing, consisting of a Multi-Role Fighter and an EW Fighter, but immediately recognized that emitting RADAR to Detect could expose it to several 4d6 Advanced Air-to-Air rolls to the face. Reflecting now, what looked like indecision was really an emergent deterrence problem: both teams understood that committing first could expose their most valuable capabilities to a punishing counterattack.
The Ryukyus team used Special Operations to Detect the Destroyer, only for the Destroyer to Detect and destroy the Special Operations card in return. As combat unfolded, the Ryukyus team darted around with real maneuverability, picking apart the limited Taiwanese aerial defenses before realizing that the Advanced Multi-Role Fighter's single 2d6 Air-to-Surface attack probably wasn't going to succeed against the Destroyer and Aircraft Carrier's monstrous Defense values of 11 and 15. In the meantime, the Taiwan team boated their way straight up to an exposed Long Range SAM, knocking it out before Zoidberging northward off the map.
It didn't... feeeeel like 70 minutes, but it did feel like a long game. I think it would have been even longer if I hadn't been Turn Ordering them around. If we'd been playing the three-round Air War version, I wonder if both teams would have agreed to draft another seven cards to break the stalemate?
Despite the long-haul match and the Taiwan team being slowly nudged away from victory, there was a lot of energy around the table and players were excited about their experiences and to have played! Really excited for the next GUWS event; hoping to see some more familiar faces and crack back into the FUN cards!
Action 1! You can do anything next to the #1 on your card!
- Ric
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