Play Test Mark 2, in which I take a pasting...

The Armies.

I am the Breton army, which is patterned on the medieval French and heavy on Knights, both mounted and foot.

The enemy is an Undead army. Zombies, Skeletons and Wraiths.

The Scenario.

An assault game, with the Undead on the defensive, attempting to hold onto a stronghold (represented by a graveyard!). I deploy first, across a wide front with the foot knights opposite the stronghold and cavalry units positioned for a flanking attempt.

The Undead huddle around their graveyard.

What happened?

I lost a couple of units early on, terrified by the Undead they bolt off the table. The Undead army screens it's stronghold with a bunch of Zombie units. I finally manage to punch through the Zombies, but not without the loss of another couple of units. The only one of my units to reach the enemy stronghold is a unit of foot knights led by the Breton king. They promptly get butchered by the Wraiths and Wraith Lord guarding the graveyard.

That ended the game in a heavy loss, 42 VPs to 12. I still enjoyed that battle, despite the defeat. I'm also rather pleased that this system can give me a run for my money!

Where did I go wrong? I needed to concentrate my forces more on the stronghold.

What did I like about the battle?

- Until the last 2 turns, the game was in the balance.
- The Necromancy Lore cards had an effect on the game but not in an unbalanced way.
- The rebalancing of the Command Cards after the last play test worked well.

Update

The lack of posts doesn't mean that I haven't been busy!

The following armies are now done: Dwarf, Goblin, Albion, Breton, Undead, Greek, Egyptian, Norse, Aztec, Hussite, Vampire, Orc & Roman. All organized and painted, complete with a stronghold for each army. Partially completed: Arab & Renaissance. On the way: Samurai. Still to go: Sumerian (with Demons), Cossack (with Elementals), Nubian (with Dinosaurs), Elf, Lizardman & Meerkat.

Hopefully next week I will take a break from all this painting and basing and get some more play testing in!

Designing a world

One world designed...

Printed on A4 sheets it comes out as 4 sheets by 2. To be mounted in a clip frame with magnetized backing for use with magnetized pieces so that it can be used as the campaign map and hung on the wall when not needed.

The different terrain types provide different types and amounts of resources. I've started tinkering with ideas for the campaign rules. More on those when I've finished and tested them.

Hexographer.

Hexographer is a handy tool for anyone creating a fantasy world. Random maps, lots of terrain types and handy editing tools. I love the internet.

Not much to report.

I've been rather poorly with an inner ear infection that hasn't been responding to treatment, so I haven't made much progress over the last week.

I have received a lot of boxes of 1/72 scale plastic figures - Orcs, Undead, Adventurers, Saracens, English Civil War Royalist Infantry, Aztecs, Hussites and Armed Peasants - which are slowly being painted up between dizzy spells!

I've also finalized the rules modifications after my first play test:

Seven Command Cards have been amended to allow the non-player army to deploy off-table troops in addition to the cards' normal function.

If the non-player army draws a Command Card which means that no units can be ordered this turn, the card is discarded immediately and another one is drawn. This may seem like an obvious rule, but as many of the Command Cards allow the non-player army to perform additional actions I thought it unnecessary for play balance.

First Battle - Analysis.

For my perspective, that was too easy.

I did make a plan and execute it perfectly - I had the Command Cards to do it.

The Dwarf army had a couple of turns when it couldn't move any forces. I'm not sure if that would have made any difference. The Dwarf forces probably needed a Defence posture at the beginning, dug in and waited for my attack.

There are a number of Command Cards in the deck that allow the non-player army to order units and then play another card. The Dwarf army didn't draw any of these. I think that I will have to increase the number of these cards.

The main problem for the Dwarves was that they had three units off-table - the scouts that returned late plus the two reserve units. They didn't draw a Deployment card so these forces never appeared. I need to work out if this was a fluke, or whether I need to change the card distribution.

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed that!

First Battle Report - Is that a fat lady I hear in the distance?

And the first big name goes down!


The Dwarf Runemaster - no longer with a unit since it was massacred last turn - can't survive one point of damage on his own. That's the first character to be lost.


The Dwarf Commander's unit falls around him - he surely can't hold on much longer.

He's surrounded by four of my units. The unit he's leading is destroyed, leaving him on his own.


That Commander's gone mental! He's hacking the Goblins to bits!

Finally, the Dwarf Commander has some Lore cards he can use - Bezerk and Strength, and hacks one Goblin unit plus the accompanying drummer to bits. A little pride salvaged there! It's still 37 to 9 in Victory Points though.


The weather god around here must be a Dwarf supporter, as fog settles on the land again. 3 units of Goblin cavalry hit a unit of Dwarf Spearmen from behind, shattering it completely. And with that, what little remains of the Dwarf army skulks away from the field under cover of fog. What a hammering!

Final score, a Goblin Victory 42.5 points to 9.