Armoured Digital Players International

I'm glad you're liking everything so far! I'm a father with two young kids (4 and 6 years old), so I know all too well how limited time can be. Feel free to point people towards the youtube explainer videos (although there have been a couple of small tweaks to the rules so if the rulebook differs, go with the rulebook), the Facebook group, here, etc. Most people who have played wargames pick up 90% of how to play within the first couple of turns. And this is a game that usually hooks people through gameplay (in my experience), so simply running demonstration games for new players is one of the best ways to get them into the game.

Yes, that Polecat was an error on the list that the publisher had. I think it's turning into an in-joke now!

For buildings, there's a limited set of buildings planned. At this stage the list is quite minimal: a command bunker, a production unit and a set of pod bunkers that use the Aggregate (3) trait from the main rulebook. These bunkers come with basic protection, comms and sensors, but then you can choose to put any of the hardpoints available into the bunkers. So you could use them as turrets, or as a comms repeater, or as a sensor post.

However, there's also what are called Support Structures being playtested for inclusion in the missions expansion. These are small structures that don't take up any slots, but can provide limited support. There's a sensor post, a repair drone post, a comms repeater (with sensor interference for defence), minefields and fire traps. In various missions players can build, place or activate these structures during the game to aid their chances of victory.

I've been working on this game for about four and a half years now, I think. 80% of the rules were developed in the first six months, but the playtesting wasn't very intensive at that point in time as my kids took up a lot of it. Over the following 12 months, the remainder of the rules were hammered out, and now only minor refinements are being made. These days if I need to adjust the game, I just come up with new orders cards to allow players to do different things with their units. An example of that is a card I'm working on called Deploy Stabilisers. This allows a unit to suddenly count as having not moved this turn, so it allows you to do things like move an Elephant forward, use Deploy Stabilisers and then use Indirect Fire. Once I'm happy with how it's working, I have to figure out how best to release it, and then we're good to go.

Energy/Plasma is indeed intended as a high-intensity flamethrower. Hydrogen pellets are energised to a fusion state by lasers in the reaction chamber, then contained in a magnetic bottle until ready to be fired at the enemy. Then they're ejected in thin streams, hit the open air and burn the living daylights out of what they land on. The effect on target it mostly thermal, hence they have a similar effect to that of a laser.

Stealth Mode should come with two copies with each Viper. If you didn't get them, please get in touch with Word Forge Games for replacements (wordforgegames@gmail.com). It can be useful in certain circumstances, but by far Stealth is best used as a stacking ability: move fast into cover and with Stealth you're -3 to be hit. If they don't have a lock on you or you haven't fired, that means they can't hit you at all (barring some cards like Precision Fire).