How Warmaster compares to Hail Caesar - for 10mm

I love rulesets, like most gamers. I love rulesets more than most, I suspect, because I love to read and edit - it's just what I do. But mostly, I love to see how different people introduce similar concepts (really, how many ways are there to describe how to measure range, for example?).

I also like shiny things, and next-gen rulesets are often that. Unless your company has the initials "GW" in it, it is usually assumed that the latest edition of a set of rules improves upon its predecessors - not always, but usually.  I believe this is the case with Warmaster, Warmaster Ancients, and now Hail Caesar.

There are quite a few reviews out there for Hail Caesar. Among them, I found:

https://meeples.wordpress.com/reviews/rules-reviews/ancients/hail-caesar-review/
http://toomuchlead.blogspot.com/2011/09/hail-caesar-full-review.html
http://campcromwell.blogspot.com/2011/05/hail-caesar-review.html

The thread I started on the Specialist Arms forum is a good one, too, I think:
http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=7300.0

First, let me link this here - the whole reason I bought Hail Caesar was because I caught wind of Ady's Fantasy mod for HC. I have since joined the Hail Caesar Fantasy Yahoo group, but Ady's work will be my foundation, I believe.

I want to make some of my own detailed notes about the differences and similarities between Warmaster and Hail Caesar, mostly because I am really interested in playing HC (up til now, I've only been reading and digesting the book over and over).

Hail Caesar has been called "Warmaster with less dice". Other differences as noted on https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/659828/difference-between-hail-caesar-and-warmaster-ancie:
Each unit is given one order, how well you succeed determines how many moves the unit can make.
A unit doesn't loose stands, only reduces in effectiveness.
You roll far less dice in a HC combat.

 1. In WMA, most units consist of three stands. Units in HC come in varying sizes: standard, large, small, and tiny. Unit frontage is a key factor, and most units are at least two ranks deep. While there are different unit sizes - only small and regular make much sense in game. Tiny are really only for scenario specific stuff, and large seem to get very little benefit for their increase in footprint. Frontage is what matters, depth is not really very important.

2. There is a wider range of troop types available in HC. There is also a much greater variety of possible unit formations. Not sure there are really that much difference in number of troop types. Also while HC has several prescribed formations - in WM you can arrange your formation as you wish.

3. In WMA, each unit may be given up to three commands per turn, with each command and die roll being made in succession. In HC, the unit's orders must be stated out loud, then a die roll determines whether the unit can make zero, one, two, or three moves to complete its orders. Move distances are also a bit smaller in HC. Move distances are smaller in HC? Light Cavalry can move huge distances in HC

4. In WMA, each unit has a single Attack value. In HC, each unit has two separate values for ranged combat (Short and Long), and two separate values for hand-to-hand combat (initial Clash and Sustained fighting). Clash / Sustained is only different for Cavalry - and this is good - it makes cavalry good on the charge, less good after round 1.

5. There is no Armour Save in HC, although the Morale Save serves a similar function. In HC, each unit also has a Stamina value - if a unit takes more hits than this value, it becomes Shaken and suffers various penalties. Under certain circumstances, units being attacked in ranged or hand-to-hand combat also must take a Break test to see if they hold, give ground, or break and run away. Armour Save / Morale save - same thing, different name. The Break test in HC is key - this is a 2d6 result that determines the result of a combat. This can make or break the game for you. Its possible for a very good unit to rout off the table after getting 1 wound from missile fire. We house ruled that you rolled 3d6 for break tests, and kept the best 2 dice. This helped stop some of the crazy fluctuations in results.

6. HC also includes a number of useful optional rules to add historical characteristics and flavor to various units. Yes HC lists all the optional rules together - but WM just lists them with each army list - no real difference here.

7. In WMA, armies tend to be built to standard point values. HC is much more oriented toward scenario play, with little emphasis on points-based armies. The HC rulebook includes seven complete sample scenarios. Points - while the core HC book had very little in the way of points, there have been several army books since that are much more points focused. 

Things that seemed a bigger difference to me would include:
More streamlined combat - no more endless rounds of WM combat.
Simpler combat - no fiddling around with single stand removal, fall backs and follow-ups.
HC has longer combats between heavy infantry - these turn into long slugging matches not a knock out punch
HC Knights are much less strong than in WM (which is good)
Skirmishers work well in HC
HC proximity rule works fairly well to limit movement when close to enemy, but can be a bit fiddly, and can be exploited.

Movement in HC is still pretty free an easy (like WM)
Light Infantry is very good 

The above was cut-and-paste from the thread I started, and it was what I focused on the most during my explorations. I have to say, however, that there are a few other things that seem to really make a difference to me as I read the HC rules.

Divisions (formerly called brigades) - these are assigned before the game. A commander must be included in a division, and can only give orders to that division. The neat thing is, units must be within 6" of each other to receive a Division order - so they dont need to be touching.

Basing - I plan on using my Warmaster armies for HC, and I plan on using them as-is - so my infantry will be 3 bases of 40m x 20mm, cavalry will be 3 stands based to the short edge, etc. If this proves unwieldy or unfair, I'll revisit it, but that is my plan for now. Note also that I plan on using measurements as-is, instead of converting to centimeters or halving ranges, as some have mentioned elsewhere.

Orders - in Warmaster, you could easily have a situation like this: Your Ld 9 hero orders a unit forward. After his first move, now the unit is within 20cm of an enemy (-1), has a unit to its flank (-1), and is more than 20cm from the issuing hero (-1). Its second order (-1) will be at a 5-...ouch.

HC seems to only have distance mods, but they're stretched out to 12" range bands instead of the 8"/20cm bands of WM. This means that orders will go off much more reliably than in WM, especially since only one roll is made to determine how many orders a unit may make (and many unit or formation types ignore this distance penalty!). In the above example, if, one the first Command roll, the roll was 8+, the unit would get one order. On a 6+, the unit would get 2 Orders, and on a 5+. the unit would get 3 Orders.This seems like such a better version!

*NOTE* This seems confirmed in the "Author's Notes" of Hail Caesar, even though this opinion is not shared by some on the Warlord Games forums (seen in THIS thread) -

Hail Caesar, p172, 2nd paragraph in right column:
"Modifiers to the command rolls have also been reduced to that for distance only."

It is in the discussion of how HC differs from Black Powder, and includes discourse on the shortened movement rates, extended melee, and desire to keep HC as a less maneuverable, more "reliable" game of "slog forward and brawl". So this makes me feel confident that this is the right model for me...

Free Moves - many units, including those in columns or with special traits, can make a free move after a failed order attempt. This can really prevent stagnation, I believe, and looks really good in theory. I havent analyzed the extent to which units have been given this Drilled special rule in Ady's conversions, but I approve.

Proximity Rule - this looks to be the most fiddly rule that I can see. It will take some getting used to.

Disorder - basically "Confused" from WM, seems to happen on a 4+ instead of a 6 in many cases.

Combat Modifiers - HC seems to hand out dice modifiers instead of extra or less dice. Like the Elves with their +1 to hit in ranged, or a Defended unit being hit on 5+, these can really adjust the odds instead of the dice thrown. I am in the "More dice is better" camp, but that's because I love dice. I do NOT think the d6 is the ultimate randomizer, but it is what it is. The other day, I threw 17 dice on a charge and only got 4 hits - so more dice isnt always better! :)

This isn't always the case, it seems. Ranged attacks do get Dice Mods.

Combat Results - after combat is determined by the usual manner, the loser rolls Break tests - that is, they test on a chart (which has been mentioned above as being "bursty"). Giving Ground is automatically 6" back, and yes, victorious units can pursue.

Commanders - Commanders can take wounds, I believe, and when "Wounded" they can no longer fight but still may issue orders. If for some reason a Commander is killed, the player gets a free replacement, at 1 less Leadership value than the dead commander. I think this is a good rule.

Summary - there is a super 9-page cheat sheet at the end of the book that really encapsulates the rules into a nice chart. The more I read the rules, and refer back to the Summary, the more I am convinced that this will be a fantastic play.

I may have some of these summaries wrong, but I've read and reread the rules and am really looking forward to getting this on the table. Hopefully I'll report once that actually happens!

*NOTE*

This thread has a really great idea, posted by one of the Warlord Games moderators:

Q: My initial plan was to do 40x20 for all units and maybe 20x20 for comand and such.
If I go this route would say 3 40x20's for large unit 2 40x20's for standard and a single 40x20 for small work out? You think formations would be an issue using the 40x20 bases or should I get some 20x20's also for certain formations?

 A: That would be the way I would do it. [For formations,] I would use a marker of some sort. For a column, I,would line all the bases up short edge to short edge, just as you would a battle line, but have a marker, like a coloured ring, to mark the head of the column. Otherwise, use a series of folded card markers that state the formation. Honestly, it won't really matter because most of your units will be in line of battle for most of the time. Light units in open order will be depicted by separating the bases slightly. Skirmishers might benefit from being on smaller 20x20 bases to represent the "cloud" effect. Easy to spot, they can't form into close order and as I said earlier, the commanders on pennies stand out from them.

So...This looks like an even better solution to my above-mentioned 3 bases...I'm really happy I found this!

6mm Wheat Fields

I've been on a kick lately to make my battlefields look, well, REAL, I guess. I'm quite obviously a train modeller in disguise, except I don't really give a damn about trains going round in circles :)

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=380837 is a thread I started on TMP asking for some advice. I wanted to replicate things like this into my landscape:

Busch makes something like this, but I havent found it in the US yet. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0002OHBB0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00
This was recommended in the above thread, and really kicked off my hunt.

I did eventually find this Faller product, and purchased two. I originally found it here:
http://www.rocousa.com/faller_180465_premium_landscape_segment_wild_grass_meadow.asp
They were $14 USD each, and I added tracking since I wasn't sure about the reseller, but everything arrived and they look amazing (albeit small, 6"x8"). Expensive but nice...I'll likely base one as is, and cut the other one up for small yards, etc in 6mm.

I finally got most of the product in and took some side-by-side shots of what I had found. The group shot (I sprinkled some US quarters about for size comparisons):

The fields on the right are from Scenic Express: http://www.sceneryexpress.com/SMALL-FURROW-PLOWED-FIELD/productinfo/BH7183/

The cornfield in the middle front is http://www.sceneryexpress.com/NATURE-PLUS-WHEAT-FIELD/productinfo/NH07421/

The big box in the top left is http://www.sceneryexpress.com/SILFLOR-4MM-MEDIUM-AUTUMN-LAWN/productinfo/SF71124/

Silflor 4mm grass mat:

Below, you can see the Ziterdes mat. It was wrapped in on itself, so I am STILL trying to get the bends out.

 

 The Silflor mat is on the left, below, with the Ziterdes product on the right. You can see how almost identical they are.

The Silflor sheet cut so easily with scissors. Here it is resting on some 1mm polystyrene sheeting - and you can see how much it sheds!

Of course, I didnt realize at the time, but Ziterdes is made in conjunction with Noch - and I wager I paid a bit more for the gaming application. Still, the Silflor product is as good as I could have hoped for. My only real complaint about the Silflor is the color - I would have liked it a bit more golden wheat colored, like the Ziterdes one, but alas, it'll do.

I am waiting on some 6mm stone walls to arrive from Leven Miniatures, after which I'll get some of these based up, but I am happy with what I see so far. The only California Gold fields I see like that Silflor one are in 6mm height...thats a bit tall, I think.

Super Leaf - or how to make Spring trees

I made some fun purchases at Scenic Express last week. One of them (some of them?) were Super Leaf packs in many Spring colors - pinks, purples, etc, so I can continue in my quest to add color to my boards. I already have Fall colors for my trees, but I decided that Spring has great color and I wanted to experiment.

A Japanese Flowing Cherry tree:

 

 

 Flowing Dogwoods:

Purple Leaf Plum Trees

One problem I found with my desire to add Spring trees to my table was the apparent lack of ways to do so. I usually either buy trees off Ebay, or use various methods combined with Clump Foliage to make them - but this didnt seem like an option for Cherry, Dogwood, or Plum trees.

I found this product: http://www.sceneryexpress.com/JAPANESE-CHERRY-LEAF-PETALS-16OZ-SHAKER/productinfo/653-6542/ and shortly after found this review by TerranScapes...but as you can see, it still doesnt really give a good example of how to make these trees (yet?). Skip to 2:16 for the review...or follow the link he adds in the upper right hand corner as the video starts.

I'm still at a bit of a loss on how to do this, even though I have this neat product - because it doesnt seem thick enough to make trees with in my usual way.

More research is needed. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this product?

NOTE: I found a new item in Catalogue #17, called "Pull Apart Plant Cluster" (an example is here):

It looks to be an undercoating, if you will, in the vein of the Polyfiber product. I may look into this.

D&D Attack Wing

I decided, on a whim, to pick up the new D&D Attack Wing (http://wizkidsgames.com/dnd/) when it came out last month.

I just discovered a fan site for this game: http://dndaw.com/ which is good because there isn't a lot out there for it as of now.


I wrote this initially on TMP, but this is an attempt to expand on my initial thoughts:
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=364403

"I've collected and played the X-Wing game for almost a year now, and I think it's a fun, light game that offers a great evening of entertainment with my friends.

All things considered, however, I am a Fantasy guy at heart, and so buying the D&D Attack Wing was SUCH an impulse buy when I saw it at the FLGS yesterday. I have heard a lot of people knock the Star Trek Attack Wing, commenting on model quality and game balance – but…DRAGONS. I bought the starter set.

The model quality is ace. I like that the cards are all "normal" sized except the damage cards, which are half-sized like XWing. The spells and upgrades look fun, the addition of additional flight levels (flying, grounded, and the in-between "swooping") is neat. There are many different Area of Affect types (cones, lines, bursts), as well as Melee and Ranged attacks.

Another neat thing is the concept of Duration Tokens, which allow you to use a special ability, and then have a mechanism to track when it is available for use again. Armor is like Shields in X-Wing, but better (they stick around unless "broken" somehow); the Range Ruler has 4 range bands instead of 3, and there are movement sticks out to 6 Straight. Yes, Barrel Rolls are included :)"

My birthday has come and gone (I am now the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything"...) and I managed to get the entire Wave 1 for this game. The model quality is decent - the larger models are impressive, while the Troops are on the slightly underwhelming end of the scale - but they're good enough to use out of the box.

My initial attempts to get this game on the table were foiled, as my friends wanted to still play X-Wing. I acquiesced, BUT the red dragon still managed to make a cameo appearance!

Finally, however, good things come to those who wait. We randomly picked a scenario and got the Hobgoblins escorting an armored wagon through brigand country. It played very well, with my only complaint being that flying units and ground units can pass through each other easily, but still the game will not allow bases to overlap. The red dragon at the end positioned himself quite cleverly behind my wagon, preventing my own troops from getting close enough to push it (and thus win the game) - my opponent was very savvy in his move, but I should have been able to still get close enough. Maybe they were cowed by his close proximity overhead?

Regardless, ground units were fun and a neat addition to an already good game system.

Armor is neat. It makes scary units (like red dragons) continue to be scary units...though, in this picture, my green dragon took a fistful of fire from the ballista and got wiped out in one hit...

After the first game, we chose another random scenario, this time pulling the invasion of the master wraith's lair. The clutter you see at the center of the board is "terrain", obstacles that were dropped from 2 feet above the playing surface, per the scenario rules, to give some rubble to the battlefield. More on this later...but wraiths ignoring terrain was very cool (for me, the wraiths!).

Initially I discovered that ground units can be at such a disadvantage versus fliers...as the red dragon raced past my wraith and I couldn't swing...until I realized that my wraiths COULD fly (gee, maybe the flight stand they come with could have been a clue) because it is listed on their turn dials. After that, the game went differently. In this case, I got his wizard down to 1 hit point, and he got my master wraith also down to 1 hp...and we ended the game because it was getting late. We both enjoyed the game, and we're planning on not using the campaign artifacts until they are "unlocked" via the campaign system. I look forward to more games.

So...ground units do appear, at first use, to be underwhelming.  http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1265560/troops-seem-weak has a good thread on this, the key takeaways I got being:
* The Elves have the Reassemble upgrade, which would allow them to reform out of the area of effect after the dragon moved into firing range, and the Hobgoblins have Scatter, which is also very effective against these types of attacks too.
*Mage Armor on the Harper Elves

Being stuck without a way to engage a flying unit is a scary prospect, but anything with Ranged can be on the defensive, while ground units can help accomplish scenario objectives or deal with other ground units. It's a real concern, but this merely mimics real life - this is why we invented flying things, after all!

One quote from Andrew Parks, apparently one of the WizKids employees who frequents BBG: "One advantage of the Fly Spell is that it makes it harder for a dragon to blow past you and then slap you with its tail. When you're on the ground, a dragon who lands on top of you can just keep going, but not so when you're in the air. This becomes especially important when the higher level dragons are released, especially those who charge."

The REAL issue, however, seems to be terrain. As any miniature gamer knows, terrain can make or break a game, but D&DAW seems to have really glossed over it.

 http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1264137/terrain is a fan's attempt at correcting this, and I'm going to copy it here for completion's sake, with my own unique modifications [in short, this is the rules I plan on trying]. I don't really like removing terrain from play, so I've cleaned some of this up:

Woods:
+1 Def Die if using Ranged Attacks in or through it (if attacking out, defenders get one, and if receiving a ranged attack, can benefit from cover)
If a Unit has more than 1 Range band of woods between it and another they can not see each other.

Area Effect Attacks against Units in the Wood will grant the +1 Def dice.

Small Based Ground Units can enter woods with no Issue.
Anything larger must take an Exhaustion Token if it enters via ground movement. [something about this doesn't sit well with me...]
If the Unit already has an Exhaustion Token it Stops at the edge of the Woods and can not enter.

Flyers may not Swoop in Woods.
Flyers may not Land in Woods unless their base is Small. 
*(something about rolling damage dice, and getting an exhaustion token or damage on a hit, or maybe crit only, seems more appropriate for harsh terrain like this..and big units? I'd think a giant would be much less hindered than a human. Maybe light woods vs heavy woods?)
 
Hills
Defender on a Hill gets +1 Def Die from Swoops.
+1 Def die if the ranged attack goes through a hill to get to Defender on other side.
+1 Def die if Defender is on the hill and Attacker did not start on it [higher ground].
+1 Attack die if Defender began and ended its turn below the attacking unit.
Ground only.

Walls, Trenches, and other Fortified Defenses
With Dragons and other Flyers I can see a lip for troops to duck into when the flyer came by being common in both.

+1 Def Die plus one Auto Dodge.
Only the +1 Def Die against Area attacks

Walls have 0 Agility, 2-4 Armor based on type, 4-6 Health based on type.
When destroyed 2 inches to either side will become Rubble, Ground units moving through take a Exhaustion Token.

Earth: 1 Armor 6 Health
Wooden: 2 Armor 4 Health
Stone: 3 Armor 5 Health
Magically Re-Enforced Stone Wall with Wards: 4 Armor 6 Health

Units on that Section of Wall when it falls, lose all Action Tokens, take 3 Attack Dice Damage.

If a model's base overlaps a solid structure (one that there would be no way he could go through, like a wall or building), back the unit up until it is no longer overlapping, then roll 1 attack die and suffer damage as normal.

Rough Ground (Rubble, destroyed buildings, broken rocks, other hard to move through stuff.)
If you have an Exhaustion Token when entering an area that gives one, or if the maneuver you are performing would give you one, you must stop at the edge of the area.

When a Ground Unit enters this type of Terrain it gets an Exhaustion Token.

Swamp:
Ground unit stops when it touches it and gets exhaustion token. Get exhaustion token if moving through it

Pond/Lake:Ground units can't move through

Mountains
Like Rubble they should be hard to Enter. Receive Exhaustion Token when entering.
Like Hills, Swooping and Ground attacks should be effected.
Defender on a Hill gets +1 Def Die from Swoops.
+1 Def die if Defender is on the hill and Attacker did not start on it.
(Ground only).
Mountains stop LOS, so if the Mountain is between you and your target you can not target it.
An angle may exist for you to place a Burst marker and then the Attack hit.

I may come up with more...but this is good for now.

Again, let me pitch Heroic Maps at http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse.php?manufacturers_id=5371
I also found these neat terrain items: http://cigarboxbattlestore.bigcartel.com/product/supplemental-terrain-3x3-130

 Storage
 Anyone who has read any of my blog at all knows that storage is always a key concern for me. After doing some browsing, I came up with this Dewalt storage box:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-12-Compartment-Deep-Pro-Organizer-DWST14825/203367153?keyword=DWST14825

This is primarily because they stack:

I have filled about half of the capacity of one tray with Wave 1. I'll get more as needed.

So this is it for now. I enjoyed this game, and am looking forward to playing much more, and yes, I plan on buying the future waves. Thanks for now!

Gruntz v1.1 Book Review

I recently got my hands on the printed version of the Gruntz v1.1 rulebook, and would like to put down my thoughts on the product itself. I have reviewed the rules elsewhere - and I have had a dearth of gaming lately, so I haven't been able to even play the game a second time. So for what it's worth, this is my impressions of the physical product.

I already owned the latest version of Gruntz in PDF form, and have it printed out and scribbled all over in red pen like I do to all my self-printed rulesets (I can't help it - I edit things in my sleep, apparently). Still, having an actual bound book is nice because I'm old school, and I find that having something I can flip through is just handy. Besides, even though I am more apt to use PDFs during gaming sessions these days, we had a small hiccup on Saturday night with a PDF not loading correctly during play...and short of a malicious dog or REALLY invasive spill of Mountain Dew, a book doesn't tend to let you down when you need it most.

I also pretended that I hadn't played the rules while flipping through it, to see if that affected my view of it's presentation.

In case you've lived under a rock for the past few years, Gruntz is a 15mm Sci-Fi wargame written by Robin Fitton of the UK. It is described as "Fast play combined arms". Just wanted to make sure you were in the right place...

Their website is http://www.gruntz.biz/.

Initial verdict upon examining the book: The book is nice. It has a good sturdy, glossy cover. The paper inside looks like it came off my printer at work - it is in color but is regular weight. The black spine is uninspiring, and the name on the spine is in tiny print on the bottom of the spine, and is upside down [from my American point of view, I'd expect to walk up to a shelf and put my right ear onto my right shoulder to read spines of books on a shelf]. Not such a big deal, but I do collect rulebooks, and this one will clearly get lost amongst some of the others but for one fact - it is printed in the oversized British standard of A4. I'll nestle it alongside my Firestorm Armada and Dropship Commander rulebooks and it will feel at home.

The Contents looks quite thorough, but one thing stood out to me: it's lack of organization. It is just a three-column exercise in words and page numbers. This is a real shame, because clearly the book is broken into sections: Introduction, Rules, Unit Construction, Scenarios, and Fluff. There is nothing to draw your eye to any one of these categories in the Table of Contents, but this is a minor quibble.

The book immediately tells you what it is for (which, believe it or not, if often skipped in rulebook introductions) and gives you some basics of what you can expect from the game. It then leads you into how a game is played, starting right away with Game Setup, Initiative, and Deployment. I love when a book doesn't waste time and starts you off in the nitty gritty. After all, if you're learning a game and use the book as a reference, like I often do, being able to open to the first few pages and have pertinent info right there is a nice touch.

Robin uses a really nice mix of flow charts, diagrams, and pictures to bright up the book. A friend, who had never seen the book, remarked about the nice layout design as he flipped through it. I agree. There was clearly some time and effort put into the book, and the grammatical and spelling errors I found are to be expected (God knows, I've written enough and proofread my own writing enough that after a very short while, a grammatical error could be brazenly flipping you off from the middle of the page and I could gloss over it).

Despite my initial comment about the Table of Contents, it is actually quite easy to find stuff in book. Massive headers line each page, clearly labeled with what is on the page, and they follow a logical order. I think I would have liked a color change for each major section, maybe, but this is again a minor thing.

One thing that I constantly have to get past when reading the book is the language. I don't mean that silly British habit of putting u's where they don't belong (colour, anyone?), but the very cheeky nature of the terms used in the game. Let me preface: the ruleset is clearly based on a similar game, Warmachine by Privateer Press. This is fine, as the formula clearly works, but it appears that in order to put some separation between other rulesets and Gruntz, the author came up with alternate names for stats.

The Gunnery or Ranged Attack stat is called Shoot. Melee is Assault. The Avoidance stat is "Guard" while the Armor stat is called "Soak". Leadership or Morale is "Mental", and everything else is just called "Skill". A unit that whose morale is broken is under "Condition Brown". Being killed is called "Waxed", or "Smoked" if the unit is a vehicle. Special abilities are called "Perkz", and add-on equipment for vehicles are "Modz". I actually like adding Z's at the end, because it reminds me very much of the Games Workshop Orks-style of language, but the rest of it kind of makes me feel like I should be giggling in the boys bathroom with other 12 year olds over some Mad Magazine comic strip. I can get past it. Others of my friends have clearly stated that they won't. I don't think it should be a deal breaker, as it is just the flavor the ruleset is written in - I applaud the author for being bold and writing how he likes. If I had my own ruleset, I'd likely do the same.

Background: There is a trend (again) recently to bring rulesets back to the generic, so that they work with anything and anyone. I completely applaud this direction because I stopped buying game-specific rules and models years ago. Now I buy what catches my eye, and I'd love to put them all on the table at once...and these types of rulesets allow that. With that in mind, Fluff (e.g. background story, the setting's history, etc) is a controversial item. Some, like myself, could care less about the fluff because we're going to making our own as we go, or even just ignore it in our rush to get models killed on the battlefield. Others feel that without fluff, there is no immersion, and without immersion, one might as well be throwing dice on an empty tabletop. Gruntz acknowledged both of these schools of thought and did something brilliant - he put it in the back. The last 32 pages of the book are Background, so they're out of the way if you don't need or care about it, but, well, if you do, it's there. Kudos. No, I haven't read the fluff, and no, I don't intend to.

However, I feel that in this case, the fluff gets in the way of what could be a truly excellent product, but for 3 things missing: a QRS (Quick Reference Sheet), an Index, and 2 or 3 premade factions with example units.

The love of a Build-your-Own system is that you can buy, model, and convert to your heart's content, and you can likely find rules for putting it on the tabletop. The downside to said system is that often, you have to do the Gruntzwork yourself (I'm feeling quite clever there - leave me alone in my smugness!). In order to get about to throwing dice in anger, you need units, and this book has none. Well, ok, there are a few tiny examples in the Unit Buider section, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'd like two faction's worth of infantry, a few support units, a few vehicles, and let me try it out.

I own the unit builder for Gruntz, but I've never used it because I don't have a printer at home. I know there are plenty of examples on the really cool website http://www.gruntz.biz/, but is immaterial to me. Sometimes I like unplugging, sitting down with an army book, and doodling over a paper with a calculator. I like sitting with friends pre-game, especially if I am introducing a game to them, and picking out forces together. Am I alone in this? 4 pages of pre-mades to get me started, to whet my appetite to build my own, is all I'd want. I think this is one large error from a rulebook point of view.

[The opposite of this is PMC2640, which doesn't allow you to custom design anything, but has so many prebuilt options that you'd have to be incredibly anal or nitpicky to not be able to field the force you want].

Personal Issues: I have a few other minor points to point out. Doing so might be slightly unfair, because I said I wasn't going to go into the rules. I cannot help myself, however, as I have played it once, and these things are niggling at the back of my head, and might be semi-influential in why the game hasnt hit the table a second time for me.

The first is the method of combat resolution. Roll some dice, add a stat, compare to a target stat = nothing new here, especially considering it is WarmaHordes rewrtten. My issue is that you roll 2d6 per model firing. If you have a standard infantry unit of 8 men (2 with Squad Weapons), you're rolling 16d6. Each pair of dice is unique, however, so you're rolling 8 pairs of different colored dice. Oh GOD yes, I can do this (my dice collection is stupid-huge), but this is a bit of an inconvenience when it comes to speed of play. This is shared by the friends I have shown...and it shouldn't be, but its the biggest roadblock to me wanting to play Gruntz again.

By the way, I completely agree with and understand the allure of the 2d6 bell curve. I grew up playing Battletech (Phantom Blue Assault Company, FASA fan chapter #2 for any really old timers out there), and my favorite roleplaying game is HERO, which uses 3d6...so this leads me to my second quibble.

In v1.0, the price to buy more Shoot mechanic was 1 point per stat, so a Shoot of 4 costs 4, and a Shoot of 6 costs 6. The problem here is that a +1 or a -1 to the 2d6 bell curve is HUGE. I'm not a mathematician here (1 plus 1 IS 2, right? Just making sure...), but give me a -2 to a 7-or-better roll and I'll love you, but give me a +2 and make it a 9+? Ugh...so why make this all-important stat so damn cheap?

Remember Tomorrow's War? I tried my ASS off to make a spreadsheet that assigned points to units, because I'm just not cool like other people who can balance lists off the top of their head. As I consulted the forums, one thing came up constantly: Troop Quality (the stat used in ranged combat) IS ALL. It is the most important thing. It might even be the only thing. Same as with Gruntz (as an aside - I was so desperate to like Tomorrow's War, but I think I need someone who knows, really knows, the rules to walk me through it. Are you near San Jose, CA? Holler at me!).

I helped do rules testing and editing for Unbridled Fury, which was a really promising product, and his combat stat was almost exponential in cost. I urged Robin to the do the same...So Gruntz v1.1 came out, and I was relieved to find that he had at least increased the cost per stat, but only by 1 point each...I think it is too cheap to get a high skill, but it is better than it was.

Summary:
So let me sum all of this up. The rules are what they are, so no rulings here.

Book Presentation: A-
The book is well done. It organizes itself fairly well, although I have not had to delve for info i the middle of a game for ages, so I cannot comment to that. An Index would have been HUGE, as would have a more organized Table of Content.

I liked the layout and how things were presented. I liked the order that everything was presented in. I missed the prebuilt unit lists that are on the website, and a QRS would have been jolly good (jolly goodz?). I will buy other Gruntz products if they are produced, and most likely in book form if they come out in this medium again. I am even aiming at playing this again, but my gaming group suffers from the same affliction that I do - gamebookcollectingitis. Yea - we all collect rulesets, and we all want to play said rulesets at least once, which means on any given game day, we're likely trying out a new set of rules. The upside? Lots of cool rulesets come across our desks. The downside? It's like that hot brunette that catches your eye as she passes in a crowded mall - by the time you realize she really was as hot as you initially thought, and turn to get a second look, she is gone, swallowed up by the crowd, and getting back to her is harder than it should be (poor choice of words? "More difficult", maybe?)...PMC2640 is my number one right now, but Victory Decision looms on the horizon, as does the WW2 ruleset Chain of Command by Two Fat Lardies (which I have already played once but not reviewed).

Thanks for reading.

PMC 2640 gets played against a real human opponent!

I was pretty excited about PMC when I finally got my hands on it a few months back. I wrote my introductory battle report on it after doing a solo run simply because I had to...but I finally got my first "real" game in last night.

I decided to forgo my usual note taking and just enjoy the flow of the game for once. What Im going to present here is a series of pics with ultra-quick commentary, and then give a few more thoughts on the game itself.

Here is our battlefield as it shapes up and forces are chosen.

I had to introduce the mechanics of the game in and amongst the descriptions of the unit stats and what they meant - fortunately my opponent was a veteran and picked it up quicker than I would have liked him to!

We played an easy Tier 3, Priority 1 battle. Left to right:
4-man Tier 3 Rocket team
3-man Tier 2 LMG section
6-man Tier 3 LMG team (one member is being interrogated by the enemy, but managed to escape in time for the battle)
4-man Tier 4 sniper team
Tier 3 Light combat vehicle
8-man Tier 3 Rifle team

Honestly, as I was deploying, I thought the red thing in front of me was a hill...heh oops! :)

We played a Capture scenario, where we had 20 turns to contest 3 objectives: the 2 watch towers and the low, flat grey block in the center (it was VITAL, I swear it!).

Deployment as it is shaping up:

My opponent was fielding a version of the Slammers, with 3x Tier III Grav Combat cars, some mortars, scouts on grav sleds, and quite a few Tier I rifle teams.

His models were pretty cool. Here are his Combat Cars and Scouts.

The game starts, and he starts flanking to my left with his vehicles. I snake my way towards the center with my Light Combat Vehicle. His grav sleds rush up and pull their first Markerlight designation, which immediately brought mortar fire down from the other side of the map. Fortunately it missed.

The rules for buildings were really easy, but we had packed them in so densely that the only things really maneuvering where the vehicles (his to hunt, mine to evade).

You can see his tanks sneaking around to my left. I felt I was secure in the buildings - my snipers had Gauss weapons which gain a +1 vs vehicles, and I had a lot of faith in my bazooka team, but the snipers never got to cover before they were pounced on...and this was their quick and inevitable end:

(Hint: 1 guy, with a modified Morale of 1, with 12 Suppression markers....he wasn't long for the battlefield! [He fled the next turn])


My bazooka team didn't fare much better, either, taking lead from fire hoses at near-point blank range, which ended up being too close for them to arm their own rockets. To make matters worse, you can see the smoke billowing from the center - my light tank took its final demise from small arms! That's right - at point blank range from an angry mob, even assault rifles can finish off light armor, which was scary to contemplate!

On my right, the LMG team wasnt doing much better. They slogged through cover for two turns, and when they popped out, took some crazy-accurate fire from some rookie gunners across the way, and spent a few more turns cowering under cover.

They finally had had enough of being pinned down on the right flank, and decided to make a mad dash in a vain effort to redeploy and aid their ailing left flank.

It was a futile gesture. The Combat Cars kept coming, while mortar fire continued to rain into the Bazooka team. The tank at the bottom of the pic here wiped out a few more of the redeploying LMG team and sent them right back into the woods.

It was getting late, and with the all-but-complete destruction of my bazooka team and my LMG team pinned again, I called it. We made it 5 turns, and it was a complete route. I killed a few scrubs with my central Rifle team, but really didn't return effective fire on any front. Here is the outcome:

Finally, satellite imagery confirmed the conflict's result:

So, I had a blast even though the game was over almost before it began. I knew Aron would be bringing vehicles, but I put my points into small, more veteran units. I think he did it right, as the firepower from his tanks was almost always a 9, and only rarely a 7 - brutal in such short environs. He proved that Tier I troops might not be glamorous, but their effectiveness was plain to see. The few I hit did break nicely, but he rallied against long odds and kept them on the table.

Actually, come to think about it, his dice were hot when they usually aren't, so it was good to see luck back on his side. There was nothing atypical in this game - it had its ups and downs, but no single roll or action seemed out of place.

The game is, indeed, a fast-play ruleset. I'll borrow some of my opponent's words as he described it our local group, since he was seeing it with fresh eyes:

"It plays well, quick play set a bit like slammers but not as crunchy. Simple force building, with this "tiered" structure you may have read about. So no custom options but with a bit of imagination I was able to do slammers combat car platoon supporting some local irregulars.

I'd rate this 8/10
Slammers & StarGrunt 9/10
Tomorrow's War 7.5/10 for the complexity.

There is a Mordheim-like campaign system. So that could be fun. I'm going to get the printed rule book.

I like this better than Gruntz."

Of course, YMMV but this came together nicely. There are a few things that could be a splash more crunchy, but then it would lose a bit of its ease of play. Indirect fire, for example, had no scatter, but we realized that this would require a template, which the author stayed away from. The combat is pretty streamlined.

Next time we play, we hope to do two things to make referencing easier in-game. First, combat cards for each unit, instead of a roster. Similar to Malifaux or other similar games, we'll need to design these, but that shouldn't be hard.

Second, we think a chit or token with the unit's Morale stat on it would be a huge help, especially if it could be written on with a wet erase or grease pen. The chit would follow the unit around the board, in a similar vein to Dirtside tokens. For the purist, it might clutter up the board, but we were already using blast markers. That, combined with a small card, would make pulling up numbers in-game that much more quick.

Again, "factor factor factor" comes up a lot in the game, but the modifiers are so straight forward as to be quite simple.

This game is a winner. There are so many unit types premade that exploring them all will be part of the fun. Not being greedy and sinking all my points into smaller, elite units will be hard to resist, but this game values concentrated fire, and all units seem to have a purpose.

PMC 2640 review for 15mm

It's Labor Day weekend and many of my friends are off at one of the two local cons running...Celesticon or Pacificon. That's ok. I'm here listening to Depeche Mode and writing about my first impressions of Assault Publishing's PMC 2640!

I ordered the game last week from Pico Armor for $32 USD. I was pleasantly surprised that this price included shipping; it shipped last Saturday and arrived yesterday, Friday.

The book itself appears well done. The cover is nice and shiney, and the pages are high quality. That's not what I'm here to write about. What I was really gambling on by ordering this sight unseen was:

Is the game play going to be engaging?
Will I be able to use the models I have?
Will I want more, or will this sit on my shelf like so many other rulesets I took a risk on?

Let's delve into it.

Game Mechanics
The game mechanics have been mentioned elsewhere (open the links in Google Chrome and it will translate the pages automatically), but I'll touch on them again here.

The game uses d6 and d10s. Combat is done with a single d10: add your unit's Firepower stat, add a few easy modifiers, and compare the result to the target's Defense. For every Margin of Success you achieve over the Defense, you get a hit. Rolling on a chart with 1d6 per hit gives you the results, most of which are Suppression Points. If a unit suffers enough Suppression, they can be taken out of the fight (eventually, when they reach enough, they will simply disband). It had the flavor of Epic Armageddon's blast points to me - I immediately identified with it.

My gut reaction was that this was too simple, but then I studied the Firepower modifiers, and the more soldiers you have in the firing squad, the more bonus you get. I think it is an elegant solution to the "fistful of dice" syndrome, and I'm looking forward to putting it to play.

Actions:
Activation alternates between players, with each squad getting one action they can perform.
Move lets you move your Move stat (which seems to average around 4 or 5") plus 2", but you cannot fire.
Fire lets you perform a Firing action, and gives a bonus to combat
Advance is a typical "Move and Fire" with no bonuses to either step
Assault is a close combat charge, but before you do so, the target unit AND all supporting enemy units within 6" of the target get to fire at you. Given the ease of which Suppression Points are given, this will likely end poorly for the attackers in all but the most carefully planned assault. No objections to it yet...

Army Building
That's the quick gist of the game. I needed to know, however, how many models this game wanted me to put onto the table (in fact, the FIRST thing I opened the book to find was the unit sizes!). About a year ago I purchased some of Khurasan's Federal models, and have been contemplating an OpFor for a few months - what would I need to get? The answer seems to be that each Squad has between 2 and 8 models in it. Most "standard" units are 8 men strong, with some specialized units (like snipers or LMG crews) are much smaller.

The game I had bought my models for was Gruntz, but I just didnt like the dicing mechanic - 2d6 per model got cumbersome, and while I can appreciate the Battletech-esque bell curve, it just didn't flow for me. I did, however, like how Squads were usually around 6 strong, and you could add 2 Specialists to beef up each unit. PMC does it differently. Here, if you want a group of soldiers to have Rifle Grenades, you would buy a squad of Grenadiers out of the Engineers list, taking a Tier II or Tier III slot; the same group of soldiers without Rifle Grenades would likely be a Tier III Regular Rifle Team out of the "Rifle Infantry" list. The difference? The Engineers are 6 strong, while the Riflemen are 8 strong.

Remember that you are only throwing 1d10 per unit as they fire, but 4 men in a group get a much smaller Firepower bonus than 8 men do. You also get to choose which models to remove as casualties, and a unit never really loses its abilities as it gets reduced in size (Morale, Firepower bonus, and Suppression are all a different story, however!).

The one knock I had heard of PMC ("Private Mercenary Company", btw) was that it really was a Human-only game, in a similar vein to Tomorrow's War. This game doesn't have a "Build Your Own" mechanic, which concerned me a bit, but what it DOES have is a reasonably large selection of unit entries for you to pick and choose from. It is a bit simplified, and needs some expanding in a serious way, but for now I think it will suffice.

(The one advantage that this has over "build your owns (BYO)" is that in a given force, you know what the base standard is. Anyone who has ever played Warhammer Fantasy or 40K knows what a human stat line looks like: all 3's, with Ld 7 and 1 wound. In a BYO, you can min-max to your heart's content, making Human-stat troops even cheaper by removing redundant stats, or jacking up one all-important stat at the expense of the others, creating a strangely asymmetric "elite" unit that has no real resemblance to what a "real" elite soldier would look like. This system bypasses that problem at the expense of flexibility).

The Army Building mechanic doesn't use points, per se, but rather Tiers, and I think the way it is implemented is actually pretty clever. You decide what Battle Tier you are going to play; this is a number between 1 and 5, and a chart tells you what you can and/or must take from each Tier of unit (as an aside, he uses "Tier" a lot, and it took me a few reads to fully get what he meant in each case, but I believe I have it now).

Units come in Tiers from 1 to 5 (same as above), with a Tier I unit being the lowest of the low (ie Penal or Irregular troops), Tier III being an "average" unit like Regular Rifle Team or a 6-man Light MG team, and Tier V troops are the best (2-man Sniper team, Commandos/Rangers, or even Advanced Combat Vehicle).

Speaking of vehicles, the designer made a comment in the rules that he wants his vehicles to play like PMC plays, and not be a "game within a game", and for the most part, he appears to have succeeded. You can take APCs and Main Battle Tanks, but in really reduced numbers, and doing so will eat away at the points you have available for other troops.

Each Battle Tier gives you a certain amount of Composition Points (in this example I'll use 18). The Tier then lists what units you may take, for example maybe you can take 0-4 of Tier I units, 0-3 of Tier II units, 3+ of Tier III units (being mandatory), etc. The Tier of the unit you take is subtracted from the Composition Points, so in the above example, you are spending a minimum of 9 points on 3 Tier III units, leaving 9 points for other Tiers. You could get a Tier V, and 2 Tier IIs, or maybe go with 2 more Tier III and 3 Tier I units...

I believe that two players who come to the game, each with a human-style merc force, will likely end up having similar armies if they just play a pick-up game. However, if you did this, you would lose the real flavor of the game: the Campaign. The author makes no bones about his campaign - this isnt a Flow Chart or set of Linked Scenarios. This is a straight up Mordheim-style campaign, where your units get Experience Points that they can use to develop Battle Honors (making each unit individual and lethal in the ways you want them to be). You can also add doctrines to your own Force, however, which allow you to bend some of the army construction rules (one gives you 2 extra Tier I units for free, while one reduces the number of required units, freeing up your points to spend on more exotic units).

As I said, the author needs to come up with more troop entries soon, but within this limitation of the game, the Battle Honors system lets you really individualize your force in an acceptable and satisfying way. There is no way to model:

Grav bikes or tanks*
Teleporting / Tunneling
Spells/Magic/Special technology
Aliens-style melee-only units

(*note, this is not entirely true, as different forms of propulsion are mentioned in the Optional rules, but this works for vehicles and not grav bikes, etc...)

This last bit concerns me a teeny bit, because I'm about to buy some of Khurasan's Space Demons, and also really wanted some of the Felid jetbikes...but Im pretty sure I can tweak the existing Alien entries to make faster, less shooty melee brutes and have it come out ok. Still, more is needed if this game wants to compete in the marketplace.

Common Sense
A few last things to mention. The writing is actually decent - I had no problem understanding the gist of things, and even though it was written by a non-native English speaker, it wasnt really that hard to comprehend. Reading outloud in a mock-Soviet Bad Guy accent actually got me to chuckle a few times (under "Alternate Activation" on p.22, one paragraph starts, "For remembrance, it is good idea..." - how can you NOT read that in a Soviet accent and keep a straight face?).

*Fire combat is measured closest model to closest model.
*If one of your models can reach base-to-base with the enemy in an assault, all of them can.
*When crossing a linear terrain piece, either all of your models must be able to cross it, or no one can.
*When your models are half in one terrain piece and half in another, they get the least beneficial result depending on the circumstance (so a half-open, half-wooded unit would get no cover versus incoming fire, but would suffer a movement penalty when moving out).

I'm really looking forward to putting this on the table. Like you, I have read enough rulebooks to find the niggling points pretty quickly as I go through them, and this one doesn't have many for me. I appreciated the streamlining I saw, and think it will work out, and with the campaign system, I can even imagine that I will get quite some play out of this one. I recommend you check it out. For those of us in the US, $32 isnt a massive amount of money for something to be shipped to you.

Lastly, I am going to walk myself (and you, if you're still here) through a quick firefight and see how it goes. Oh, and I don't tend to spend time creating Cheat Sheets for a game unless I think I'm going to play it, and last night I sunk about 2 hours into making mine. I am still seeking permission to post it up to Board Game Geek however, since they seem to have changed their posting requirements...

Fire Combat
You just moved a unit of 8 riflemen into some woods that are 20" across an open field from my LMG team that is in a courtyard. It is now my activation and I choose the Fire action with my machine guns.

I measure the range from closest to closest, and it is indeed 20". My team has a range of 24" so I am in LOS and range. I roll my d10, adding 5 for my Firepower Stat, +2 for 6 soldiers firing, +1 for the Fire action, for a total of 1d10+8.

The Regular Rifle Team has a Defense of 10. Being in Woods gives them a +2 Defense bonus, so my roll needs to exceed 12 to be effective.

I roll a 5, getting a total of 13. I exceed the Defense by 1, so roll 1d6 on the chart. I get a 3, resulting in the target unit receiving one Suppression Point (SP). Their Morale stat of 5 allows them to act with no penalties until their Suppression Points exceed their Morale - so they can take 4 more with no problems. At the beginning of the next turn, they will have an opportunity to clear those SP automatically. I will need to pour more firepower into that same unit this turn if I want to cause any lasting harm.

Note that had my 1d6 for the hit resulted in a 6, I would have killed a man, and the target unit would have received 2 SP's. Their Morale would be reduced by the 1 casualty, meaning that only 3 more SP would be needed to Suppress the unit.

Unit Building
I will also build a quick Priority level 1, Battle Tier III force:

Tier I
none

Tier II
Field Command 3rd Grade - 2 man Commander unit
6-man Grenadiers team with rifle grenades

Tier III
8-man Regular Rifle Team
8-man Regular Rifle Team
3-man HMG section
Light Support Vehicle (like a SPG on light tank chassis)

Tier IV
4-man Sharpshooter team

Tier V
 none

I have NO IDEA if this is an effective force or not. I do know that a Priority 1, Battle Tier III battle is what the author recommends newcomers start with. If I increased this to a Priority 2 game, I could double the entries in my army and keep the game on a 4'x4' table. My collection could easily accommodate this, but that would start to be its limit. The force above has 7 activations, which I think isnt too bad, and has Command, decent anti-infantry and anti-vehicle stopping power.

Epilogue
My wife just walked by and asked what I was typing so furiously about.
"My new game", I told her. "I'm putting a review of it up on my blog."
"Did you like it?" she asked.
"Sure did. I'm pretty happy with what I've read."
"Wait," she asked. "You read the whole thing already? Didn't you just get it yesterday?"
"Yup," I assured her. "I skipped the fluff and went straight to the rules section, but yea, I've read it all already."

She just looked at me. "I do that too", she said after a moment. "Skip the fluff, go straight to the rules..." She gave me a cute smile and moved on.

It's true. The sexes will never really understand each other...which is perhaps why we love them so much!

Mayhem 10mm Fantasy Battle Report

For anyone who knows me or has read my Blog, they know I love two things:
1. Build-Your-Own units and army lists, and
2. Fantasy

...errr..."But this is a Sci-Fi Blog!", you say, and yes, you'd be correct. However, my first foray into the world of miniature wargaming was Warhammer Fantasy Battles, 6th Ed, back in 2002-2003, and I had some epic, memorable battles. I was enthralled...but as WFB has gotten stranger and stranger and more, well, GW-ized, I left it for other games and other scales (I'm selling my Orcs and Goblins, if you're interested!).

6mm Sci-Fi has captured my heart of late, mostly because I wasn't a huge fan of the Warmaster Fantasy ruleset and the Sci-Fi versions of it (Future War Commander). Lately I've been willing to give FWC a shot, but for this report, let's say that I got sidetracked by Brent Spivey's fantastic new offering called Mayhem.

If you haven't read the Harrison's Ford AAR yet, I recommend you doing so. It is well told, explains the ideas and mechanics behind Mayhem, and has some better pictures than I am about to show you. I managed to borrow some Warmaster units from my friend Thomas Foss (please visit his blog at http://skullandcrown.blogspot.com/ for amazing pictures of the models I used today, as well as a LOT of Warmaster pics!), put together some armies for the Humans and Orcs, and had a go of it. Sadly, my Opponent-to-Be bailed on me, but as this has happened in the past, I was ready for the solo effort.

To do some explaining of my own, the Movement and Combat Quality stats are done by dice types. The mechanic knows as the Versus mechanic allows you to always choose whether to take the Default value (which is one-half the dice size, so a 3 on a d6) OR take a Danger roll, rolling the dice and taking the results. I love it.  As for CQ, the smaller the die type, the better, because in combat, you want to roll lower than your opponent in an opposed check, with a Natural 1 being an auto-kill most of the time.

At first I feared that, even with this neat Versus mechanic, it was going to be little more than a gimmick for what could turn out to be yet another overly-simplistic game engine. I've seen 2-stat units before, and they don't tend to impress me. Well, Mayhem gets it right. Most Troop Types get traits unique to themselves, and Weapons which can be added to these units act as Counters versus different types (called Designations). A Soft Counter improves your Die Type by one (so a unit with CQ d12 would be a d10 in that particular combat), and a Hard Counter improves the Die by two. You also get extra dice to roll in the combat based on different circumstances, which I will point out during the Battle Report. In short, this leads to an awful lot of variety in combat, and I feel it works really, really well.

The other cool mechanic is the Overdrive, which allows a unit to keep going and going as needed, but each time you activate the same unit in a turn, the cost in Command Points to do so increases. This allows you to spread your points around to the whole army, or really zoom in and focus on one or two units as needed. You can even bounce around between units, ie move one unit back to open LOS for some archers, shoot with those archers, then move the original unit back in place...

Mayhem uses Crowns as the currency for Points, and 150 Crowns is a good starting value to learn with.

*Really quick, let me apologize for the pictures. I even went as far as getting the tripod out to get ready for this report, but using the Macro setting and being back a few feet didn't work as magically as I had hoped :(

Humans: 150 crowns

Profiles:
Spearmen: Mov d6, CQ d10, Infantry, Spear, Ranked Fighting [8 crowns]
Heavy Foot: Mov d6, CQ d10, Infantry, Heavy Armor, Swords, Shields [9c]
Crossbows: Mov d6, CQ d12, Infantry, Crossbows [11c]
Heavy Cavalry: Mov d10, CQ d10, Cavalry, Heavy Armor, Lance, Steadfast [16c]
Griffon Rider: Mov d10, CQ d8, Cavalry, Flyer, Blunt weapon, Shield, Heavy Armor, Terror [25c]* (originally I had built the Griffon with Beat Back, but learned later that this wasn't legal...)
Fanatics: Mov d6, CQ d10, Infantry, Great Weapons, Berserker, Fearless, Heavy Armor

I figured the Humans were orderly, and reasonably well trained, but had their CQ lower than the Orcs because I like to envision that Orcs are just nastier and stronger...

List:
4) Army Leadership: d10 [Leadership Rolls: 4d10]
24) 3x Spearmen
32) 3x Heavy Foot, 1 Standard, 2x Musician, 1 Elite unit (upgraded to CQ d8 for free)
11) 1x Crossbows
20) 1x Heavy Cavalry, 1 Standard, 1 Musician
16) General, using Heavy Cavalry profile
27) 1x Griffon Rider (with its illegal 2-point Push Back ability factored in)
16) 1x Fanatic

Orcs: 150 crowns

Profiles:
Orc General: Mov d10, CQ d8, Cavalry, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor [16c]
Orc Swords: Mov d6, CQ d10, Infantry, Sword, Shield [6c]
Orc Spears: Mov d6, CQ d8, Infantry, Spear, Shield [8c]
Wolf Skirmisher: Mov d10, CQ d12, Cavalry, Short Bow (downgraded to d10/d20 because of their Cavalry designation) [16c]
Wolf-Riding Hero: Mov d10, CQ d10, Cavalry, Sword, Shield, Hero [18c]
Giant: stats in book [35c]

List:
4) Army Leadership: d10 [Leadership Rolls: 5d10]
16) 1x Orc General
31) 4x Orc Swords, 1 Elite, 1 Banner, 4 Musicians
11) 1x Orc Spears, 1 Standard
35) 2x Wolf Skirmishers, 1 Standard (who originally had a musician.../sigh....if only...)
18) 1x Wolf Hero
35) 1x Giant

I went for more mobile ranged attack, hoping to get some good flank harassment from the bows on the Wolf Riders. Cheap troops seem to do just fine in this game. We'll see.

The battle would take place on a 3'x3' Swamp board. I set up a church that the Humans were to defend, but really, it was just to be a slugfest. Had I a human opponent, it would have been a slaughter to the man, but with just myself to blame, I used the Default game-ending scenario of the first General to die loses (Duh...that makes sense, right?).

Deployment Zones: 9" (the game calls for 1/4 of the board's width to be Deployments on either side). The Orcs deployed first:

 The left has a unit of 2 Swords next to the Spears (the unit that has the General behind them). The other 2 units of Swords are to their right [quickly: each turn you roll for Command Points to order your troops with. The game has a formation called the Advance that allows 1CP to move up to 3 "squared-up" units at once, but with no maneuvering or turning allowed...thus these formations]

The Giant towers by his lonesome in the center, with the two units of Skirmishers and the Wolf Hero on the far right. Units must be in "range" of a Hero when receiving orders, or their actions cost more. This command range is dependent on the Designation of the closest Hero (orders do not come from any specific hero like they do in Warmaster, but rather, you just have to be "in range" of a Hero). I knew those Wolfies would be out and about, spreading their mischief far and wide, which is why I paid extra for the Hero to accompany them.

Next, the Humans:

The Human Left Flank has the Crossbows on a small rise (hoping to gain the extra die for their to-hit rolls). The 3 Spears are ready for an Advance, and the Fanatics are causing ferocious noises just behind them. The Heavy Horse with the General occupy the center, with the 3 Heavy Foot clustered to the Right Flank. Just off behind the massive tree is the Griffon Rider, being as sneaky as he could be.

Turn 1: Orcs
The Orcs roll 5d10 for Command Points and get 10 (roll +1 die per Elite unit, Standard, and extra Hero after the General, taking the highest value).

The Block of Spears and Swords advanced their Default twice [3CP for 2 Actions].
The 2 units of Wolf Skirmishers Advance twice also, moving 10" [3CP]
The Giant in the center decides to Move twice, rolling his Danger rolls each time, and nets 13" of movement for his 3CP. He rushes the church and hollers threats and insults at the units he knows to be lurking behind the woods.
The Block of 2 Swords Advance once, and the General and Wolf Hero each get their free Move because neither had Activated during the turn.

Turn 1: Humans
The Humans get 8 CP from their 4d10.

The Spears Advance twice for 6" [3CP], and the Heavy Foot Advance once for 3" [1CP].
The Knights, General in tow (he has actually "joined" the unit here), sense action as the Wolf Skirmishers move down the Human's left flank. A burst of speed (7") leaves the Knights clammoring for more...

...but the next Danger roll failed to deliver, and the Knights skitter forward a mere 2". The Wolves are safe, for now.

The Fanatics also roll poorly, moving just 2" in support of their General.

Turn 2: Orcs [9CP]
The Wolf Skirmishers race to gain the flank of the Heavy Horse, but only get a 5" on their Danger roll. They decide to push on [3CP], this time rolling 8", which allows them to hit the Crossbow unit.

Since this was the angle of impact:

...I decided to let them wrap to the flank. Impact hits allow units that have them (notably Cavalry and Chariots) to Initiate combat without spending the CP required by all other units. Initiating the Melee (which Impacts count as) also give 1 extra die in the attack, and Impacts are Soft Counters vs Infantry, Cavalry and Beasts, so the normal CQd12 is improved to d10's. 2d10 vs 1d12 saw the Crossbowmen steel themselves and fend off the Wolf attacks. The Skirmishers suffer a Disordered token, and if they get beat once more with that token on, will be eliminated.

The other unit of Skirmishers roll an 8" for their move, running past the Heavy Cavalry and turning to their left (effectively cutting off the cavalry from the Crossbows). They then loose with Short Bows at the Cavalry, using the Volley ability of their bows to send the Knights packing. However, 3d20 vs 1d10 resulted in a tie (remember, lower is better), and the Horse stayed put and the Wolves looked worried.

The last 3CP allow each of the 3 foot units near the center to reposition themselves, with the General close behind.

Turn 2: Humans [7CP]
2 of the 3 clustered Heavy Foot advance on the Human Right for 1CP, leaving the third behind as reinforcements and counter-charges (in this game, any of your units that are forced to flee will be destroyed if they touch another unit or terrain, so keeping space seems to be vital).

3CP allow the 3 central Spears units to reposition (1 balked a bit, rolling 1" on his Danger roll).

Needing 4.25" to reach the Wolf Skirmishers who were harrasing the Knights with Volley Fire, the Fanatics gamble and take their Danger Roll. They get a 6" on their d6, and hit the Wolves in the flank. Using Overdrive to engage, they didnt have the last CP needed to make use of their Great Weapons, but rolling 3d10 (+1 for Initiating, +1 for Flank) vs 1d12, the Fanatics got a Natural 1, slaughtering the Orcs to a man!

This is the End of Turn 2:

INTERMISSION!

My wife caught me in the act of, errr, playing with myself?!

Turn 3: Orcs [10CP]
The Wolf Skirmishers still engaged with the Crossbows are surprised to be still alive, especially given their vantage point and the carnage their brothers nearby just suffered. Instead of Rallying, they decide to Fight On (costing them extra CP to Initiate the battle, and risking losing and death). 3d12 vs 1d12 gives a victory to the Orcs, and now both units have a Disordered token. Being isolated and so deep behind the lines, they prepare to say their last.

The central Orc Spears tries charging a Human Spear unit, but a 2" leaves it a bit short. The Elite Swords next to them show them how it is done, however, and hit the front of the other Spear:

Rolling 2d8 vs 1d10/1d12 (the Ranked Fighting ability of the Human Spears let them roll an extra die in the combat, albeit at one step worse than normal) and the Orcs scored a Natural 1, wiping the Human Spears unit out.

Giants have a Ranged attack to represent their massive reach with their club. It is a d8 for range (meaning up to 8" reach, which is WAY to long in my opinion) and d6 for damage, which is pretty beefy. The Giant had a Heavy Foot within Default range (4") so no roll to hit was needed, and the damage roll netted a Disordered token for the Humans.

An Orc Sword moved up alongside the Giant, and another advances from the back line. The Wolf Hero flees for free, moving 4" (and was really hoping for more; he is just outside the frame to the right in this following Turn End pic).

Turn 3: Humans [4CP on 4d10!]
The Griffon Rider decides that now would be a good time to launch an attack. With his Blunt weapon, which negates Heavy Armor, he was hoping to hit an already-Disordered unit in the flank and kill it, but a) no Orcs had Heavy Armor, and b) no Orcs were getting beaten in the center! He Overdrives to hit the left flank of the previously-victorious Elite Orc Sword unit. With a CQd8, initiating melee and hitting the flank, plus Soft Counter from the Impact, the Griffon rolls 3d6 vs 1d8 and wins by 3. With the Drive Back ability from his Cavalry designator, this means the beaten Orc unit must move backwards 3"...but because this made them touch their Orc Spears unit nearby, they were eliminated instead.

The last CP is spent on the Heavy Cavalry, as they gallop after the fleeing Wolf-Rider Hero. They move 9". [note: We've all heard the derogatory term "HeroHammer", which refers to Warhammer and its ilk, where a Hero can rule the battlefield with his martial prowess. Mayhem gets around this a bit by only letting Heroes be attacked by other Heroes, unless they have joined a unit, in which case the attacker can choose which profile (the unit or the hero) fights back. This is why my Cavalry is chasing the Orc Hero, because with the General attached, they want to catch and kill the Orc]

Run, Orc Hero, Run!

Turn 4: Orcs [rolling 4d10, having lost the Elite unit, manage 10CP]
The Orc Swords unit next to the Giant, who was merrily swinging his club at puny humans, make an unmodified Danger roll in their attempt to close with the Terror-inspiring Griffon (they needed a Danger roll regardless, as the Griffon was more than 3" away...so it was a win/win). Getting 5", they closed with the right flank of the beast and held their shields up for protection....

The Orc Spears to the front of the Griffon are only 2" away from it. They had a choice: spend 2 extra CP to move their default movement of 3", or gamble with the Danger roll...and since they needed a 2+, why not? They rolled a 1. Of course they did. Using Overdrive, they reach the Griffon, and then spend 5 more (for a total of 8) to initiate melee (3 for third action, +2 because of Terror). With a CQd8, Spears being a Hard Counter vs Cavalry, and 1 additional unit in the flank of the Griffon, the Orcs roll 3d4 vs 1d8. All 4 dice come up 2's...which gets the Griffon excited for a moment. This tie is called a Deadlock, and some Traits only trigger on Deadlocks...and Push Back is one of those...until I read it in the book and saw that it was an Infantry- and Behemoth-only trait. Drats!

The last CP is spent on the Giant, who swings at the Heavy Foot again. The damage dice yields a 1, auto-killing the Humans (which is a bummer: Heavy Armor allows units to suffer 2 Disordered tokens before being killed, instead of just 1...but a crit is a crit is a dead Heavy Foot unit!).

The Wolf Hero flees his free 6". Those Humans just won't give up! Here are two angles of the end of Turn 4: Orcs:

Turn 4: Humans:
The Skirmishers realize that the Orcs still have a blasted Skirmisher unit tied up with the Crossbows (note: "Stuck in", a term from WFB, doesn't apply to Mayhem; you can actively remove a unit from melee. It costs a pretty Command Point, but it can be done!). 1 CP to turn and move into them, 2 to initiate combat, +1 to use the Great Weapons has the Fanatics rolling 4d6 vs 1d12 (flank, 2nd unit, initiating melee, plus Great Weapon's Heavy Counter when Initiating). The Humans win by 7 (irrelevant, but a fun stat nonetheless) and because of the existing Disordered token on the Orcs (and no Heavy Armor), this finishes them off.

"Look, ma, no Wolves!"

The General and his Heavy Horse use two Default moves to catch up to the fleeing Orc Hero. The 10" is plenty of distance to engage, and the General rides to the front of his unit, using their free Impact hits to avoid having to pay more to begin the melee. The Hero has no facing, so the General don't gain an extra die or more for hitting in the flank/rear, and roll 2d6 vs 1d10 (the Lance is a Heavy Counter on Impacts vs everyone!). Despite the good odds, the Orc puts on a brave show and wins the battle by 1! The General and his unit would then liked to have Rallied, removing the marker, but alas, they were 1CP short of being able to do so...which was actually a frequent occurrence during the game ("...if only I had just one more CP!).

The last two CP were spent over by the embattled Griffon. The nearest Human Spears unit moves up in support, pinning the Orc Spears in the right flank. This will lend an extra die to the Griffon in the upcoming grand melee.

The Griffon uses the last CP to melee the Orc Spears. As I started counting up dice, I gave both units +1 die for having a supporting unit beside them. The Griffon's 3d8 vs 2d4 (Spears HURT!) looked daunting, but throwing common sense and good tactics out the window, the Griffon swung anyway. The Orcs rolled 2 1's on their d4's, and the Griffon and his noble rider were deader than dead. Very dead. I think this poof was a Griffon feather:

Turn 5: Orcs [rolling 3d10, losing the banner from the Skirmishers = 2CP!]
With all tactical options limited, and the Wolf-riding Orc Hero all but trapped, he calls out the General and leaped to the attack. 3d10 (initiating, enemy is Disordered) vs 1d10, the mighty Orc Hero dodges a thrust from the ironclad General and sinks his blade deep into the chest of the Human warrior! A Natural 1 killed the General...I fully expected a 2nd Disordered token on the Heavy Armor-wearing unit, but the gamble paid off.

With that, the game was over, and the Orcs kept the field. The fallen General is a bit blurry...

Thoughts and Wrap-up:
So, what did I think? I really, really enjoyed this game. I felt satisfaction as I was counting and changing the different die types, and maneuvering wasn't too bad.

I had a few minor gripes:

Maneuvering multiple units isnt smooth. I suppose this is natural, but both the Orcs and Humans tried bringing their blocks of 3 troops to bear and things broke apart.

I really, REALLY wish there was a way to add dice to a Danger roll, whether it be a CP cost, a Trait, or something...gambling on just 1 die, when the game rewards multiple dice in so many other situations, just felt a little off. In fact, in Difficult Terrain, the game already has the "Roll a bunch of dice and keep the lowest", so it shouldn't be a stretch to make the opposite true as well.

As mentioned, the Giant's d8 "Ranged attack" is just too long. I can see a d6, but d4 might even be better. A minor thing, though.

The Command Points system worked pretty well. It isn't my favorite concept because, like Warmaster or FWC, it left certain parts of my battlefield untouched while other parts raged out of control (those Wolf Skirmishers lasted forever, untouched, while that one epic brawl with the Griffon took 8 CP!). Still, I like it better than Warmaster because you KNOW what you're going to get at the beginning of the turn, as opposed to just suddenly having your turn be done or whatever, and this way is is partially Resource Management. All in all, it is something I can live with.

My biggest issue, however, is similar to what I have with other points-build systems, and that is this: in a game where Die Type is so important, making a 1-point difference between Combat Quality dice is just too little. Consider this:

Unit #1: Mov d8, CQd12 unit is 5 points
Unit #2: Mov d6, CQd10 is also 5 points.

Add a Spear to Unit #1 and he costs 6 points. Now he has a Hard Counter vs Cavalry...rolling d8's.
Increase Unit #2's CQ down to d8, also for 1 point, and now he is also 6 points and effectively has a Hard Counter vs EVERYTHING, all the time.

I think CQ dice should increase cost at LEAST by 2 per die type...making the more combat effective units cost that much more. Anyway, I really wrestled with this while I was building the two lists (I built twice as many units as I used, just to be complete, and it was fun too!), but it could be just me.

Everything else felt really fun, though!


I really liked the way Elite units are assigned (each army gets 1 for free), because it requires taking 3 of one unit type in order to upgrade one, and since it only increases the CQ by 1 step, its not a huge deal (well, and it adds 1 die to the CP pool).

I will play this. I will play this with as many people as I can grab to play it with, and for as long as I refuse to give Thomas his models back! I am now hunting for money that will allow me to buy my own Orcs/Goblin army, as well as a Wood Elf army (which I figure will give me a massive range of "good monsters" I can build and use)...and I am really happy about it. I recommend this game highly. I have found the author to be responsive on both Tactical Command and The Miniatures Page. And keep in mind, Brent Spivey kept a lot of things out of this inexpensive ruleset for a reason - he wants players to build upon the basics. I, for one, cannot wait to see what else he is coming out with!

Wanna buy a 28mm WFB Orc Army? :)