thread: 2006-11-30 : Mechaton FAQ
On 2006-12-01, Vincent wrote:
Rich: Because everyone had such a mech in play, and nobody had time for any real attempts to steal stations, any time anyone left a mech with poor defence all the other players wailed on it with these artillery pieces.
Makes sense! All I'd say is that in the full game, those artillery mechs are an important strategic consideration. Not every strategy calls for them, but the ones that do, sure do.
90 minutes for the first 3 turns is about right, for first-time play. Our last game was 17 mechs on the table and it took about that long for the first 3 turns too.
Things to look for that speed up the game, starting right around turn 3:
1. Everybody learns what dice to roll for which mech, without counting up fresh every time.
2. Everybody learns the turn sequence and rhythm, learns to read the dice on the table, and learns to predict when they're going to be called upon to do what.
3. Everybody has committed to what their mechs are doing. Now you're making very local, very tactical decisions, instead of "which station should I go after, or should I hang back, or what?"
4. Everybody's rolling fewer dice overall - and then, everybody's rolling dice for fewer mechs too. Sad though that is.
5. The decisions about how to assign the dice you roll are getting simpler, per #3. "Of COURSE I assign this high die to spotting, that's what this mech is DOING."
6. Everybody learns how to read the evolving situation for opportunities, instead of having to review all available options all the time.
These were probably already obvious! They were fun to write out anyway.
