Notes From a First Game of 3rd ed DZC
Finally got the game to the table this afternoon. My opponent and I are both pretty experienced with the system so were playing fairly slow and checking the rules to make sure we weren't just playing from memory but actually playing the new edition as designed. We didn't play with commanders because we don't have cards yet.
Overall impression is better than 2nd edition, but not as good as 1st or the Hawk Beta, with some really confusingly written sections. We had fun, but were confused by many of the new design choices. We spent almost as long as we played going back over it all, rereading sections, comparing it with the original books afterwards debriefing.
It probably didn't help impressions that we played Scourge vs Resistance and immediately found a slew of problems with the Res faction. So in the older editions, the Kraken and Leviathan transports had a rule that let them move their full distance before disembarking units. That rule didn't make it through to 3rd ed, so they could only move 5" and disembark which absolutely screwed them on getting to scoring zones. I sincerely hope this is just a boneheaded mistake and not deliberate design because it fuckin sucked. The bomb bus is also a weird mess.
Infantry sited on walls are committing suicide. Literally every infantry unit that looked out a window was murdered in one attack, including a squad of Demolishers. The other squad of Demolishers took two attacks to get wiped out. Infantry in the open died spectaculary. Freeriders, Razorworms, Occupation Vets, just obliterated if they couldn't get to some kind of cover. Small Arms weapon stats and the new auto-penetration mechanic feels miscalculated.
Fast Movers getting hit on a mere 4+ in reaction fire sucks. Driving a Zhukov closer to shoot them in non-reaction fire sucks even more.
A lot of the special rules feel overloaded, like they tried to "simplify" the game by combining multiple abilities into one key word which just makes them feel convoluted. Self Destruct references Field which behaves differently depending on range, which is different than Blast - seriously what the fuck is going on with the Bomb Bus? It also doesn't explode anymore if it dies inside a transport. How is this unit so hard for TTC to get right?
This all sounds very negative, but this game will always have to compare itself to its older selves and the things that were the same were the same, no notes, the things that were better were mostly in comparison to 2e and just not that major, while the things that weren't working were like sand in your icecream - impossible to ignore.
I want to play some more games of it. I want to figure out I misread something in the rules. I want to see what it looks like in a year of updates.