Playtest 2: a contact, a casualty, a power cut and rounds landing on the base, on the latest grey-box build. What worked, what broke, and what we changed the same afternoon.
PLAYBACK / PLAYTEST 2 / 11 OCTOBER 2026
Things go wrong in the room too.
The latest build, played and narrated by Tom. The room now has the sand table, the board, the drone and helmet camera feeds, OPSCHAT and the higher net, and things go wrong inside the wire as well as outside it: the generator dies in the middle of the contact and rounds land on the base. Still a grey box, still placeholder captions, and the faults are left in. Where nobody speaks, the video fast-forwards.
19 min 25 s. Captions on.
Get the next one by email
A short email when there is a new playtest, post or episode.
We store your address to send you news about this game. Nothing else, never passed on, and you can remove yourself at any time. Privacy notice.
The build
Built one gate at a time.
Every stage of the build ends in a gate: a test that has to pass, then a playtest Tom has to sign off. Nothing moves on until both are met.
Pick a phase, then open a stage to see the steps in it.
The vertical slice: one platoon, one patrol base, a short tour. Everything after it is built on it.
Done: The simulation core, written to run with or without the game engine
Done: A fixed clock and seeds, so any mission can be replayed exactly
Done: The place names of an invented district, with a block list that keeps real names out
Done: Tests that run on every change
Done: Ground built from tiles, laid differently every time
Done: A section that walks its route
Done: Reports over one radio net, late and sometimes lost
Done: Grid references and village names in the reports
Done: The game engine running the simulation
Done: A grey-box ops room you can walk around
Done: One radio set on a bench, with its lamp and its squelch
Done: One section, one contact, orders by button
Done: The first playtest
Done: The sand table, plotted by hand from what was reported
Done: NATO map symbols, generated, never drawn by hand
Done: The board on the wall, repeating the table, with tracked aircraft shown late
Done: Two feed monitors, more sources than monitors, and the router between them
Done: The drone on its orbit and a helmet camera with every section
Done: The chat log, with a watchkeeper typing up the net
Done: The casualty chain: first aid, the stretcher party, the quick reaction force, the landing site and the helicopter
Done: The second playtest, and the fixes it asked for
Done: The playtest sign-off
Done: The patrol base outside the ops room, inside the wire
Done: Indirect fire, with real risk to you
Done: Power cuts and the generator
Done: Comms failures
Done: A casualty in the base
Done: The second radio set and its signaller
Done: Water, ammunition and fatigue for every soldier, never shown as a number
Done: The platoon sergeant's reports and his judgement
Done: Two clocks on the set, local on everything the room writes
Done: The playtest sign-off
Done: The documents rolled for the slice
Not yet: A short tour with a named platoon, and losses that stay on the roster
Not yet: The men on the ground as individuals who take cover, bound and carry
Not yet: Figures on the drone and helmet camera feeds
Not yet: An enemy network that notices your habits
Not yet: The after action review: what happened, what you believed, and what was lost on the way to you
Not yet: Five mission types: framework patrol, deliberate clearance, react to contact, IED find and clearance, casualty evacuation
Not yet: Voice on the nets, optional, with a button for everything
Not yet: Played by people who are not us
Every system the first release needs, working end to end and rough at the edges.
Not yet: A six-month tour with a light authored spine and everything inside it emergent
Not yet: Experience and replacements: a rebuilt section sounds different on the net
Not yet: Standing with higher headquarters, and a company commander whose manner you learn
Not yet: A review of the whole tour, scoring your assumptions against the truth
Not yet: A full enemy network that adapts and escalates across the tour
Not yet: Civilians whose attitude changes with how they are treated, and what that does to the intelligence
Not yet: An interpreter listening to the enemy's radios, and reports of unknown reliability
Not yet: Partnered forces with their own commander and their own agenda
Not yet: Staff you can task: signaller, watchkeeper, fires specialist, medic
Not yet: Staff who can be wrong, and who can become casualties
Not yet: The whole patrol base, built and walkable inside the wire
Not yet: The base itself attacked while the patrol is out
Content complete. Then testing, tuning and polish with players outside the team.
Not yet: Cordon and search, escort and resupply, overwatch, route clearance and key leader engagement
Not yet: Night, weather and season
Not yet: The aviation net, and attack aviation on request
Not yet: Visitors at the door who want your time
Not yet: Food, radio batteries and sleep across the tour
Not yet: Base stocks that run down, and the convoy that has to bring more
Not yet: Pre-deployment training, so a new player learns by doing
Not yet: Final art for the room and the base
Not yet: Every word on the net checked by someone who did the job
Not yet: Wider testing with players outside the team, then tuning
Version 1.0 on PC. What comes after it depends on the people who play it.
Not yet: Release on PC
Not yet: Fixes and updates from what players find
Ambitions, not promises. The seat stays the same; the room gets bigger and further from the fight.
F1Co-opWe hope to let you share the ops room with friends, each in a different seat: ops officer, watchkeeper, signaller, fires. Talk across the room; the net still needs the handset.AMBITION
F2The battle groupA tented headquarters in the desert, commanding companies rather than sections, with armour, engineers and aviation.AMBITION
F3Special operationsThe ops room for a strike: a small team, a time-critical target and too much information, all of it precise.AMBITION
No dates. The further out, the less certain: the steps will change as we build, and this board changes with them.
