BLKOUT, Wargames, and Complexity Versus Simplicity
Firefights are Fast.
In a way, that's meant to be the case. There is plenty of time for posturing and posing, gauging distance and maneuver, however once it truly begins, it often ends in short order unless one party or the other can engender stalemate.
This is exemplified in BLKOUT in a way that I am coming to enjoy. I have tried my hand at a variety of other games in the genre of what I am calling "firefight simulator", which for me began with experiences in the first-edition Warhammer 40k Killteam rules.
Killteam (2019) allowed players to engage in smaller forms of personal combat at the squad level, which not only makes the barrier to entry cheaper, it also allows for more investment in the individual. Killteam's update in the following years demonstrates that, as new edition boxes showcase varied visual personalities and unique armaments for each member of the team. It also, unfortunately, starts bogging down the system in the rules.
I'm not sure how much KT was designed for casual enjoyment as much as it was designed for thorough, matched play. It has a reasonable tournament following, of course, however this lends itself to the same competitive streak that plagues certain videogames. It starts taking the fun out. After a long and grueling match that I won, I was definitely not ready to play another round.
Cut over to One Page Rules, which takes a similar high-scifi setting, using model-agnostic troop lists so players can engage in gameplay across origin systems. It follows a similar theme to KT, however some variations and a solid army building program allows for fairly quick creation of a unit that can be brought to play. It bogs down slightly less in the rules and allows for games to start quicker, however they seem to take just as long as KT, and once again my afternoon has been scrubbed clean.
Now, looking at BLKOUT, I am finding myself slightly refreshed. I am enamored by the setting, which brings feelings of some of the near-future Call of Duty campaigns, but also Titanfall among other things, with its Dusters the very image of a Titan dropping in. On top of that, the rules themselves allow for quick gameplay and also variation, which I always enjoy exploring. Crafting a team is slightly different than in OPR or KT in the sense that you select Units, comprised of a set number of models, and deploy them together. This allows some Units that do not typically belong to join in, including mercenaries, hired mechs, and even armed civilians, if you or your lore choose it.
To top it off, the combat is quick, with activations, overwatch-style interactions, and low health pools making combat encounters quick and enjoyable, leading to replay-ability. In watching a couple "battle reports" of this game, I was surprised to see how short they were, with one match even ending on the second turn out of 5. I'll be taking a closer look at this game myself in a couple weeks, turning my camouflaged Tau into some Boone or maybe UN forces. Looking forward to it.