Spinning Up New IADS: The Game Players 📝

Intro!

Madonna and I have done a few conventions now; I wanted to share the journey we've been on for the how-to-teach portion that most new players see. Here are a few methods we've run through — none of them take more than about 10 minutes to teach. At its core, there aren't too many rules in IADS: The Game, after all. Would love to hear if anyone's found effective, quicker ways to go about teaching the ROE!

Methods

Teach with a VUL: 

I first started out with the idea that it's just easiest to play a round with me explaining as I go. I still like this in some cases, and if new players voice that it's what they prefer, I'm happy to use this method. It's fast, players engage sooner, and because there's at least some stakes (even if we're playing "simulated undetected" with all the cards revealed), the new players are more engaged and pick up interactions faster. If you scan the QR code in the front of the booklet, this is the version I used for the old Quick Play tutorial.

Issues with Teach with a VUL: Players that have some familiarity with wargames or with board games often get stuck in the Draft Phase. Understandably, they want to understand what the heck they're doing and don't want to sabotage their whole game because they didn't know what the cards all did.

Teach with Scenarios:

Seth actually came up with this idea first — it reminded me of the first few missions in StarCraft and StarCraft II where you just get a handful of units and learn by moving them around and shooting them. At the end, he'd cover unique cases (Intelligence, Deception Tactics, Upgrades, IR Seeker, Airfield Logistics), Game End scenarios (Concurred Disengage, Bunker Down), and Win Conditions for the various standard versions.

If I'm remembering correctly, his progressive scenarios were something like:

• Scenario 1: Focus is basic mechanics

  • Student has a Heavy Bomber

  • Instructor has HQ

• Scenario 2: Focus is different ways to Detect

  • Student has Air Superiority Fighter, Long Range SAM, Intel, and HQ

  • Instructor has Heavy Bomber

• Scenario 3: Focus is Agility and Self-Defense Shots

  • Student has Multi-Role Fighter

  • Instructor has Air Superiority Fighter and SAM

  • Switch and play again immediately after first iteration of Scenario 3

• Scenario 4: Focus is formations

  • Student has Multi-Role Fighter, Air Superiority Fighter, and HQ

  • Teacher has Heavy Bomber and Multi-Role Fighter

Seth! Thanks for checking my IADS teaching math.

I don't have any issues with this version — I think it's a great middle ground between what I'm using as the current method and the Teach with a VUL version.

Teach by Card:

This is the current method that I use. I think it helps by categorizing cards for new players, highlighting the color-coding on the cards (red for fighters, green for bombers, yellow for SAMs, and blue for the Force Multipliers). It also gives players at least an inkling of strategy before the Draft Phase of their first VUL.

Here's the little setup and script I've put together using the Teach by Card method:

First, I place the cards on the table in two rows:

Row 1: Both types of Fighters together, both types of Bombers together, both SAMs together

Row 2: Intelligence Card and Deception Tactics together, Headquarters Card, Upgrade Card

"Alright! This is IADS: The Game; it's a table-top aerial strategy game that plays at an average of about 15 minutes for the Air Border Skirmish one round version of the game (depending on the decision speed of the slowest player). I can run through this rundown in about 10 minutes, but please interrupt along the way if you have any questions. IADS: The Game plays in three phases, the Draft Phase where you choose your cards, the Deploy Phase where you put them in the battlespace, and the Combat Phase where we shoot at each other."

"There are 10x cards in the Base Game, two Fighters, two Bombers, two SAMs, two cards that deal in the information space, a Headquarters card, and an Upgrade card."

"The Fighters shoot other Aircraft, Bombers shoot Surface units (like SAMs), and SAMs shoot up from the surface at Aircraft."

"To differentiate the two Fighters, the Multi-Role Fighter has one Air-to-Air munition and one Air-to-Surface munition. The Air Superiority Fighter has two Air-to-Air munitions. You'll also see they differ in Attrition Points, the Victory Point win condition for the single-round version of IADS: The Game (which we're about to play). You'll see at the bottom of the card on the Fighters: Shot Range, Detection Range, and Speed are measured in Card Diameters in IADS: The Game. For example, this Air Superiority Fighter could fly at a Speed of 2 (demonstrate two card diameter movement), and later, it could Detect or Shoot at a Range of 2 (demonstrate that two-card-diameter range). Measurement can be conducted using your hands (as you see me here), using navigational dividers like these, using unused cards, or using a ruler (cards are 3.5" in diameter)."

"Moving to the Bombers, the Heavy Bomber carries four Air-to-Surface munitions while the High-Speed Bomber carries only two. The Heavy Bomber can fly at a Speed of 1; the High-Speed Bomber flies at a Speed of 2 — both can Detect and Shoot at a Range of 2."

"Any two Aircraft can be put into formation with each other. That artificial limitation is to prevent players from just stacking all the unit cards into one fat stack. Each of these cards represents more than one of any given unit and each Missile Token (when we get there) represents a whole salvo of each of those munitions."

"When in Formation, Aircraft can be activated together and can take their own individual Actions 1 and 2 for that turn (detecting, shooting, and moving on their own, so long as a small part of them is overlapping at the end of turn, they can be activated in Formation in the next Issue Orders). Formations also allow Self-Defense shots against adversary units shooting at the Formation, as the Aircraft can help protect one another. It's always better to be in formation than to not be, so ensure that you're deploying your Aircraft in formations, if possible!"

"What you see here on the table are all valid targets as they're right-side up. These cards will deploy face-down which means they're undetected targets. Unit cards can detect other unit cards if they'd be capable of shooting at them. The bomber, for example, wouldn't be able to detect nor shoot at another Aircraft. Similarly, the SAMs in the Base Game won't be able to detect other Surface Units, but the Air Superiority Fighter won't be able to detect Surface Units."

"Any questions about the Aircraft, Formations, Movement, or Detection?"

"If not, moving on to the Mobile SAM — this SAM can move, but only has a Range of 1. It makes up for this short range with the Special Capability "IR Seeker"; you'll see that here in bold at the bottom of the Mobile SAM's Capability Table. IR Seeker gives the Mobile SAM the ability to shoot at undetected Targets. When shooting, the Mobile SAM flips over and places a missile token moving towards its target. Once all shots have been declared, the Mobile SAM would roll dice against the upside-down unit card it's shooting at, and if the dice roll is sufficient, it destroys that unit card. If the Mobile SAM unwittingly shot at another Surface Unit, nothing happens."

"Moving to the Long Range SAM, this one can't move. It has a Range of 3 and, like all the other weapon systems in the game, must have a right-side up detected target to shoot at it."

"Note the difference in Attrition Points, as well, as a key difference between these two cards; the Long Range SAM is worth 3 Attrition Points, but the Mobile SAM is only worth 1."

"If there are no questions on the unit cards that can move, detect, and shoot, we'll move to the Information Space cards. These two blue cards (Intelligence and Deception Tactics) deploy touching the HQ card and can affect any Friendly unit card. These are each one-off abilities with Targeting, Concealment, and Decoys activating automatically, without Issuing Orders to those cards."

"I think the Intelligence is (and should be) the strongest card in the game — it has two abilities: Order of Battle and Targeting. Order of Battle takes both Actions 1 and 2 of a single turn, but counts as one Detect against all adversary unit cards at the end of the first action. Targeting allows the user to re-roll any missed dice roll."

"Deception Tactics helps keep your units concealed — Concealment counters Intelligence's Order of Battle (flipping the Deception Tactics alone, instead). Decoy prevents a single attempt to detect from an adversary unit card, again, flipping the Deception Tactics card alone, instead."

"The Headquarters card has big defense, big Attrition Points, reloading, and Bunker Down, the game's disengage mechanic that I'll get to shortly. If you take a look at the card, it's 10 Attrition Points, 10 Defense, has Airfield Logistics (which is how Aircraft reload after "landing" by touching the base — SAMs can reload in a single action on site)."

"Last, the Upgrade card increases the Attrition Points, Defense, Range, and Dice rolled for the unit card it's attached to (touching). A few special cases to cover before we enter the Draft phase: Upgrading Intelligence allows you to use the card a second time (if you use Order of Battle twice, it occurs twice in a single Action, seeing through Deception Tactics); Upgrading Deception Tactics allows you to use the card a second time (blocking an Upgraded Intelligence Card); and Upgrading a Headquarters card increases Defense, as normal, but also allows the Headquarters to move and be put into Formation with another Surface Unit."

"Alright! I know that was a lot and was really fast, but that's almost the whole rulebook right in your face. What I'll do next is deal out the cards for the Draft Phase."

Deal out five cards to each player in a 1v1, or four cards to each player in a 2v2 and have them draft across to a single opponent on the opposing team. It takes longer, but I think it's more fun if the teammates can share information and collectively decide which two cards they'll take in each round of the draft.

Okay! Now that all the cards have been dealt out, we'll enter the Deploy Phase! Pick up your Headquarters cards, and you (and your teammate) can place your cards face down anywhere in the battlespace so long as they're closer to you than to any opponent. Don't forget you can put your Aircraft in Formations but limit those formations to 2x Aircraft.

Once all cards have been deployed

"Nice! Entering the Combat Phase — the Combat Phase is governed by the turn order card. I'll move this Turn Order Token here to the Issue Orders block and each player (all four players in a 2v2 or all six players in a 3v3) will select a unit or formation by physically putting a finger onto that unit or formation. That unit or formation will be active for Actions 1 and 2 for that Turn, after which all players will again get to select a unit or formation that will be active for the next two Actions 1 and 2. In order to prevent slow play, players can give a thumbs up when they've decided the unit or formation they'll choose, then a player will give a "3, 2, 1, Issue Orders!", after which all players will simultaneously touch their unit or formation."

"Game End occurs when all players/teams agree to disengage (which happens usually when no players can or would like to engage with their remaining weapon systems), or when all but one player/team bunkers down. The last mechanic I'll teach, "Bunker Down," is an egress/disengage order given to all remaining friendly units. It's initiated by Issuing Orders to the Headquarters and announcing that that player/team is Bunkering Down. That player/team may no longer Issue Orders to its units/formations, and begins counting their egress that turn. After the conclusion of four Actions (two total turns) of pursuit opportunity for that team's opponent, all the bunkering down team's units and formations (including their Headquarters) are removed from play and are no longer valid targets."

Conclusion

And that's the long and short of it! It's a lot of text, I'm seeing by typing it all out, but I talk pretty fast and I've done it a few times, so I get through it usually in about 8 or 9 minutes of straight talking. Which I guess compared to some other board games is still really fast.

Newcomers eventually might ask about Agility, TBM Defense on the Long Range SAM, and maybe Hardened Facility or Agile Employment on the Headquarters Card, but most games (especially newcomer games using only the Base Game and only 1x HQ per team) can be played quickly without bringing up those Special Capabilities.

Whew! It seems a lot faster when I'm talking, but maybe that's because I'm so stoked to be talking about my favorite board game. As I mentioned earlier, let us know how you teach! Or if that video I put up like a year ago with what I thought was hilarious Microsoft AI text-to-speech is valuable.

Bunkering down!

-- Ric