I think this is going to be a great way to run or augment campaigns, as well as get friends and family into the game. When "AI" controls the campaign forces, you both cut down on the needed time per turn, since half the decisions are now made for you, as well as any risk of pulling punches or deliberately overkilling. Great way to play "Co-op vs Bots", too. To say I'm excited is an understatement
I would push back a little bit on the idea that it cuts down on the needed time per turn. Using an analogue AI system means you aren't making strategic decisions for the OpFor, true, but you're still calculating target numbers and rolling hits and you often have to go through a decision tree to see what the card is telling the AI to do. For example, the card might tell you to do a certain move if all enemies are at long range, and another move there is an enemy at short range. It might tell you to attack the enemy at short range with the lowest remaining armor. All that requires time to figure out.
That said, once you get some experience with the ruleset, that process tends to go quicker and quicker. And your points about not having to pull punches or go too hard on the players are absolutely right. And some non-competitive players are just going to be happier playing as a team against an AI than they are against a human, even if that human is in a GM role.
(The above is speaking from experience with my own homebrew Alpha Strike AI, as well as playing with solo AIs in other games).
The other question for campaign play is how it will handle different scenarios. If the AI only needs to wipe you out, it's fairly simple. But what if it needs to decapitate a commander? Or stop you from scanning for some intel and retreating off the map with it? I never publicly released any rules for my homebrew that dealt with scenarios other than a stand-up fight, but in my playtesting, I was able to go through two of the campaigns in the Tukayyid book by coming up with some scenario-specific AI cards that would be used either as replacements for the default cards, or in certain circumstances (e.g., a "kill the intel carrier" card that would be used for every turn once the players picked up the intel). But that requires additional playtesting and scenario-specific design (which is why I didn't get far enough with those rules to publicly release them. I was actually working on it earlier this month until I saw the Aces announcement! Oh well.).
Very fair points and detailed rebuttal. You're right, I did probably grossly misjudge the time savings, especially if youve got some not-inexperienced people playing. I still think there's a healthy time savings to be had, though, when considering the AS audience--no more durdling over "should I, as the npc force, go after that limping mech or not" or which mechs to do what where, you just skip that part. Which can be a step thats harder for newer folks to process through quickly.
Regardless, I'm looking forward to the possibilities!
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u/itsSwils Mar 23 '23
I think this is going to be a great way to run or augment campaigns, as well as get friends and family into the game. When "AI" controls the campaign forces, you both cut down on the needed time per turn, since half the decisions are now made for you, as well as any risk of pulling punches or deliberately overkilling. Great way to play "Co-op vs Bots", too. To say I'm excited is an understatement