I promise that’s not the name of this mission.

The kiddo and I sat down to play another game of DPS. We played the “Classic” version without the updates I had previously proposed. I went through the process of updating the game and realized that if I was going to change the pacing and the feel, I should really update the dice system to be a touch faster. And if I were to update the dice system, I should really refactor all of the profiles. And really, if I’m refactoring all of the game to be simpler, I should remove the unit customization and just provide prefab base units. And really…

You get the idea. I was designing a whole new game–one that totally deserves to live. I’ve shelved it for now and refocused my efforts on DPS as it is: a tight, tactical game that rewards planning and creative use of all your tools. This match showed me just that.

The goal of the match was to capture boxes around the map. First to three boxes wins. It was a touch back and forth. Early game, my son managed a few quick kills that placed one of my vectors on the backfoot. I basically gave up models to capture boxes.

This led to my decision to rush the last boxes I needed with my full shotgun/assault vector. I surged forward and took down two of his men easily, grabbing the first box I needed and positioning to rush the final one. I handed control over to my son and he… promptly decided to vacate that box and go attack a leader on the other side of the map.

We, uh… we rewound. I walked him through the idea of a center of gravity/mass and asked him where he thought my center of mass was. He then correctly identified it was the four shotguns and murderous axe lady standing on his doorstep. Rather than running, he layered defenses:

1. He threw out two fireflies to wait to blow up in my face
2. He took a few potshots and then placed the two defenders on overwatch
3. He moved a sniper into position to also cover with overwatch

This turned out to be a much better idea. The fireflies took out two models, with overwatch taking out a third. The final model was suppressed by his LMG drone choosing to fire suppressive fire, which stopped the poor noble SPA soldier in his tracks.

I followed up with my axe wielding leader, slaying his leader handily but using too many actions to tap the box right away. She promptly died on his next turn, even after clearing the objective. My shotgun vector was out of the game. It took a bum rush with my other vector to snag the last box I needed to win.

I loved this.

It took some coaching, but once he realized what he needed to do, we solved how he could layer the various tools at his disposal to flip the match. This was awesome. Between the drones, shooting, overwatch, and suppressive fire he was able to take a lesser force and successfully neutralize a heavy attack. I call it a win for the rules. This is the kind of problem solving I want to see.

Now, should I have rushed into that? Er… no. Against an adult or someone I didn’t just walk through a solution with, I would have probably held that vector back and acted with my other one. I could have shot at the drones or planted smoke to avoid the incoming fire. He would have succeeded in blunting my assault and forcing me to find a new route to victory, but my deaths were entirely my own doing by charging right into the drone and bullet heavy cloud of enemy.

Again, a win for the rules. I was far from stuck. I had options. It was exactly what I needed to reaffirm for myself that this game deserves to exist. My son and I agreed we would continue to iterate and start working on better missions. Our goal is to get six missions hammered down and start testing those over the next month or so.

I’ve also finished printing off our next set of models, so we’ll be tackling those soon and expanding the base of available unit traits. I continue to be pleased with this ruleset and I’m hoping to find the time and energy to rewrite the notation format rulebook into something usable by other people. I know the market doesn’t need yet-another-wargame at this point, but when has that stopped anyone? Besides, my kid will be the coolest kid in school with a wargame writing credit to his name.

That’s… that’s how that works, right? Right?