Sword & Spear Second Edition Review

Sword & Spear Second Edition Review  

1000 point each side, deployed.  

 

 I used to play a lot of ancient & Medieval back in the day with WRG 6th edition rules, then fast play DBA and then DBM arrived and became the standard set of go to rules, with extensive army lists covering every conceivable army that marched to war. Then DBMM came out and no one played it at the club, although we stuck with DBM, new comers felt DBM chess like and complicated jargon within the rule book. 

A few of us attempted Tactica, which was a good stop gap, but eventually ancient & medieval became a pretty much unplayed period at the Club. Then Warhammer Historical came about and released Hail Caesar, then others followed, all trying to get the ultimate rule set. Gipping Beast introduced Saga as a Skirmish/ Small unit set, and have recently brought out Swordpoint. We found a Kings of War Historical set on the web, we tried them and thought these would work for us. 

Then, about four year ago, Mac introduced me to a set called Sword & Spear, so, I looked them up and purchased a set. And the rest as they say is history! 

Now with it’s much better written second edition, with army lists downloadable from the S&S website, a Forum and Face Book page for any questions, etc, I have enjoyed the rules immensely. These will be good for competition play, as it would enable different armies from differing epochs to fight as they class troops simply.eg Heavy Foot with Armour and Spear. 

 http://polkovnik.moonfruit.com/sword-spear/4583102656 

The rule book is forty eight pages, with twenty nine pages covering the rules, with FAQ pages and nine popular armies. With lots of explanations and diagrams of various situations. The rules are broken down to concise easy to find sections, from the set of the battlefield right through to some scenarios. It has a very good index for looking thing up, when a query arises. 

S & S can be used with any basing sizes as the combats see units fighting Offset. The rules also use DU’s which are Distance Units, and are used for shooting moving and command radius, and is 1 DU is equivalent to half the width of the frontage of a base. Although, if you use differing base frontages, as I do, then decide what your DU will be. My 28mm DU is 60mm and my 15mm is 40mm (15mm armies are based as DBM).

 Each Army requires commanders and they can have a general and captains, at differing points costs, which both do the same thing in reducing the Discipline of units, when attached, which in turn makes it easier for the unit to do things. The General has a command radius of 8 DU, and the Captains 4 DU. 

The units are very generic, with extra traits dependant on type, so Knights, Bow armed Cavalry are all classed as Cavalry, but the knights have an impact ability and the Bow armed Cavalry have a shoot ability. The army builders point up the army for you and a normal evening game would be approx. 400 – 600 points, but I would suggest smaller games of 300 – 400 points to get used to the rules. 

The Stat line is broken down thus, Type, Discipline, Strength, Protection, Missile, Other. 

Type – All mounted is Cavalry, except Light Cavalry, Heavy, Medium and Light foot, Elephants and Artillery. 

 Discipline – The units Morale status from 3 (good Quality) to 6 (levy). This can be adjusted by commanders. The better the Discipline (lower number), the easier to manoeuvre. 

 Strength – This is your fighting quality (how many dice you roll for shooting, defending from shooting, Melee and most importantly, how many kills the units takes before routing. 

Protection – This allows the player to adjust combat dice, dependant on level of protection or lack of it. 

Missile – If unit has a shooting capability, this tells you, with what, Javelins, Bow, etc. 

Other – This is normally an ability, like Impact (for knights) 

At the pre-game set up you both roll for terrain. This done with players choosing and placing terrain pieces determined by dice rolling. Then you “Scout” each others army by secretly taking dice from your army dice pool and adding it to your Light Horse. Whoever loses deploys first! 

The game is normally six turns long and each turn is broken down into phases controlled by the dice. Each player has a different colour and each unit has a dice in the bag. Each phase is played by drawing dice from a bag and for a normal game seven dice are drawn, the player that has the most dice drawn this phase, is the aggressor this phase. He then rolls his dice and assigns them to his units he wishes to activate and the number on the dice must equal or beat the unit’s discipline. The lower the discipline the better quality the unit. Once dice are allocated the other player then rolls his dice and allocates them next to his units he wants to activate. A unit cannot be activated unless a dice has been placed with the unit. 

 EG: Mac takes 7 dice from the bag, 4 red (Mac’s colour) and 3 white. The red dice is the aggressor this phase. Mac rolls his 4 dice, rolling 5,5,2,1 (I know, Mac only rolling one 1!). The 1 cannot be used and is placed in a unused dice pile and goes back into the bag when all the dice are collected at the end of turn. The 2 can be used to move his knights straight forward as the general is attached to the unit, Discipline 3 minus 1 (gen Attached). The 5 he could place with any unit of discipline 3 or above or he could put both 5s with one unit to give that unit a bonus (see below), or a natural 6 will also give a bonus. The opponent then rolls his dice 6,5,4 and places his dice next to his units he wishes to activate. Whoever gets the most dice will be the aggressor for that phase, even if they assign less dice than the opponent. Once all units have done everything and the phase completed, all dice are turned to show 1. These units cannot receive dice in further phases of the turn. 

 Bonus dice to units: 

                                    1 Distance Unit (known as DU) 

                                    1 Shooting DU extra (Distance)

                                    1 Extra dice in shooting or melee 

 These bonuses are a nice touch as you can stay out of normal charge or shooting range until the opponent puts one or more bonus dice with a unit. 

Dice assigned to units. 

Once all dice are assigned for this phase, the lowest assigned dice goes first. From the example, Mac would move his knights (2) up. If dice for both armies are the same, (5 in this example), the side who are the aggressor this phase goes first. To charge or manoeuvre (anything other than straight ahead) or move & Shoot you would need 1 more than your Discipline. All distances are measured in DU (distance units) which is half the unit’s frontage. With this type of DU, you can play the rules in any scale. Each unit does all its requirements before moving on to the next unit. ie: move, move and shoot, charge and melee. 

Shooting and melee use the same dice mechanics. Shooting is done by measuring the DU between the shooter and target and is straight ahead. Take shooters strength (normally 3 or 2), this is the amount of dice you roll against the opponent’s strength. Any adjustments are made (if the target is armoured, it can adjust one of the shooters dice by one spot). The dice are now paired off, any of the shooter’s dice which double the target’s dice cause a kill and any that are higher but not double, cause a discipline test, which needs to be equal or above targets Discipline stat. 

EG: My Archers, Strength 3, move and shoot at Mac’s heavy foot, so lose one dice for moving. I roll two dice 6,4 and Mac rolls four dice (strength of heavy foot is 4), 5,1,1,1. Paired off the 6 can be adjusted down to 5, as Mac’s Heavy Foot is armoured. Even if Mac adjusted my 4 to a 3 it would still double his 1 so Mac will take one kill. 

When a unit charges into contact with enemy, it contacts, then slides, so that the centre figure is touching a corner (this is done to stop the corner to corner contacts and only allows two units to contact a unit’s frontage), or as near as possible. 

Melee uses various dice: 

                           1 – Unit Strength in dice (strength 3 uses 3 dice)                                     

                           2 – Impetus. This means it has a dice assigned to it this phase. (most units receive an     extra dice, Fresh Cavalry, Elephants and fresh Large units of foot get 2) 

                            3 – An extra dice for each of the following, extra friends in contact with enemy, in the flank of the enemy, doubles, a D6, etc. 

 You could roll anything from two dice up to eight or nine, dependant on the above factors. Both players work out how many dice they need, both roll, and the highest four dice from each player become the combat dice. Pair these off against your opponent’s and then both adjust your opponent’s dice by 1 if you are armoured or 2 if heavy armoured (these dice can only be used to negate the opponent’s combat dice, ie: draw combat). You can though, add 1 to one of your dice if opponent is unarmoured, to win a combat.

 EG: Mac’s heavy armoured foot charge my unarmoured archers, both have dice assigned to them, Mac’s Heavy foot have a two 5s and my archers have a 6. The Heavy Foot are Strength 4 (4 dice) plus 1 dice as they have impetus (which means a dice is assigned to them) and 1 more dice as they have a double, totalling six combat dice. The archers are Strength 3 (3 dice) plus 1 dice as they have impetus (which means a dice is assigned to them) and 1 more dice as they have a six, totalling five combat dice. These dice are rolled by each player and top four are paired off. Heavy Foot highest four dice are, 6, 5, 5, 4 and the Archers highest four dice are 6, 6, 3, 3. The first two 6s are negated, the archers second 6 is reduced to a 5 by the Heavy Foot being armoured, so negates those. The archers are unarmoured (LP-Lacking Protection) so, the Heavy Foot can ADD 1 to one of his dice, so the Heavy Foot’s third dice is a 5 and by making this a 6 doubles the archers 3 and creates a kill. The Heavy Foot’s last dice is higher than the Archers last dice, so the archers must take a discipline test their discipline is 4, they roll a 3, which is a fail and they take another kill. The Archers receive two kills in this round of combat. 

  

 When units get whittled down and receive kills to the value of their Strength, they rout and are removed from play. All units within 1 DU either side and their movement DU to the rear take a discipline test, receiving kills on failure. Commanders also have a chance of dying in combat, when all the opponents dice beat all the unit’s dice that he is attached to on a roll of a 6 (5 or 6 if cavalry). If this happens, all units test within the commanders command radius (4 DU for Captains and 8 DU for a General). 

All the assigned dice are now turned to show 1. This is done to show the unit has been activated in a previous phase. Then commanders are moved if required. 

There are two ways to lose your “kills”. The first and most common way is with a commander attached to a unit and in the “clean up” end phase of the turn. Take the units strength add kills and then subtract the commanders influence (-1), take a discipline test if the dice is equal or greater than the total, remove a kill. EG: The archers have two kills and a commander is moved to that unit. Discipline of unit is 4 plus 2 kills, totals six and the commanders influence reduces total required by -1 to a 5. A roll of 5 plus is required to remove one kill. 

The other way is to assign a dice equal or greater than the unit’s strength and kills and do nothing for the whole phase and then the unit loses one kill. A 6 will always lose a kill if kills and strength are greater than 6. 

When the army reaches a demoralization point, normally a third of army points, then each unit takes a discipline test, taking a kill on failure. The army will break when it reaches half its army points. 

After a few plays I found the play sheet was not required. Most who play the rules have their reservations about them, but once played are normally hooked by them. The fantasy version is the same with magic (Shooting) and monsters added to the base set of rules.

Battle in full swing.

Kings of War - Uncharted Empires (Supplement)

The new supplement arrived today with 12 new (some old) armies, all with background
Brotherhood is split into two factions
Order of the Brothermark
Order of the Green Lady
Free Dwarves
Salamanders
Sylvan Kin
The herd
Kingdoms of men
League of Rhordia
Ratkin
Ratkin Slaves
Twilight Kin
Varangur

The book is a very well put together paperback, lots og pictures and a glossy quality.

Each faction, as in the main rule book has it's background and historical place in Pannithor, the mythical world in which KoW is set. It is set out the same as the main rule book. There seems to be throughout both publications, "keywords" that do not seem to have a reference or explanation anywhere? eg Angelic for some of the Basilean units and Expendable for Goblins. Still looking but cannot find any reference in the rules or supplement.


Also received Artefact and Spell card set
60mm x 40mm small & compact enough to place in the movement tray with the unit it effects. Feel robust, so should last before wear appears.

The Decline Warhammer Fantasy Battle and the Rise of Kings of War

A review of Kings of War 

Many, many years ago, I actually cannot remember when but approximately 1983 was the first time I played WFB 1st edition, but cannot remember to much about the rules as I purchased a box set in 1984 with the 2nd edition rules in. I got hold of a Beastary Book too. I seem to think I purchased them from Woolworths or WHS, but could be wrong. A little more complicated than the 1st Edition, but I liked what I saw. I played some great games with some old pals from school over the next few years. 

As the years past and families grew, I did not do much wargaming, especially WFB. I still had remnants of my Goblin army when My son Ian got interested in GW stuff and a I purchased another box set, which had the 3rd edition in. I painted the Minis and played with him. 

Now this set seemed to complicate things slightly and eventually we gave up on WFB. A few years back I wanted to re-instate my interest in Fantasy Battle so I purchased a set of WFB rules (7th). I realised whilst reading through the rules, you needed an Army book or codex (as they were often called), which I brought, and then realised each army had its own rules. I would have to buy all the books. Then I realised they kept changing the codex to suit sales of units. So I decided to give up after being severely hammered as I did not know the enemy, who used so much magic I was destroyed virtually by turn three. I gave up with WFB.

 Kingdoms of Men Pike block (Perrys)

 Then in 2010 the wargames press announced a new company Mantic Games, who would be publishing a set of fantasy rules. Well I watched out and found out it was a downloadable set with army lists, all downloadable. My prayers had been answered. I dusted off my gobbo’s, Dave and I had our first game round My place shortly after, using card “footprints” with single figures to donate what they were.

We had enticed a few more members to play the odd game here and there, but, when the 2013 2nd edition came out, I really started to push the rules down the Club and now we have a very strong KoW following. The books that have followed, have been new editions to the Mantic armies range and special characters are all in one book. These have become redundant with the new 3rd edition.

Heroes and Legends – Characters and Ogre Army
The Basilean Legacy- Three armies included more magical Artefacts
Hellfire and Stone – Aimed more at Dwarves, with Campaign

Then came the almost annually Clash of Kings, which seemed to be for the ex-GW competition gamers! The rules are easy to play and usually picked up by turn two of the first game.

The game seems simplistic, yet it has a lot of subtle game play. Mantic figures are really coming on with more armies being released using the kickstarter system. We had completed our forth club tournament last year, which had sixteen players in four league, playing each other once and with the top two players going through to a knockout phase.

 We had added a house rule for ranged attacks to allow firing over own troops if on a higher level, which to a certain extent may have made the artillery, especially to powerful. I think a slight tweak which was originally in the “house rule” of ranged attacks, but never used was “(HR)-Shooting over friendly troops is allowed as long as the firer is higher and the intervening friendly troops are closer to the firer than the target, unless you have Indirect Fire and then can fire until contact is made.” EG: A Goblin bolt thrower is twenty inches from its target and a friendly goblin regt has now moved to within eight inches of the same target, the bolt thrower cannot fire as the goblin regt is closer than half the distance between the bolt thrower and target.

The 3rd Edition is now published and seems to have ironed out some , if not most ambiguities.

 On first read, you can see the similarity between it, and Warhammer Fantasy Battles, but read again and you will see slight subtleties that WFB lacks or over envasises. KoW are quick to learn fun and easy to play, but just like WFB 8th you need loads of troops, but, the troops from Mantic are cheaper than GW, £30.00 for a box of forty Skeletons, as opposed to £62.00 for the same amount from GW, when you can find them.

Basilean Ur-Elohi- Coversion of a Female Fantasy Knight.

The rule book is a Hard Back 400 page tome of which seventeen pages are the actual rules with lots of images and explanations. The book includes the story of Mantica and with backgrounds of the 14 Armies and all the special rules that each army has. Eight pages of introducing the rules and explaining what the stats do, Included are the special rules, spells, game set-up and winning/ losing the game. The game is alternate moves, you do everything, move, shoot/Magic, melee, then your opponent. Pre- measuring is allowed in KoW.

The game is played with a pointed army system from a troop (10 figs), to a regiment (20 figs) to a horde (40 + figs). The difference between each unit is Attacks and Nerve, the more troops, the more dice you roll better the nerve they have (safety in numbers).Example of stat line for a regt: Sp Me Ra De At Ne Elf Bowman Regt 6 4+ 4+ 4+ 10 14/16 Sp = Speed (your movement) , Me= Melee(your melee), Ra= Range (bows,etc), De=Defence (your Defence), At=Attack Dice(used for shooting and melee), Ne=Nerve (your morale)

MOVE- These rules allow you to double move if you go straight ahead, including charging, but any turns, then normal movement only.

SHOOT/MAGIC – You can move and shoot at a penalty, but there are a few exceptions that have to remain stationary to fire. Magic (Zap) is done in this phase but the caster normally has no penalty for moving. You use your attack dice to hit (equal or higher than your Ra). All hits are then re-rolled and you require equal or higher than opponents De to cause damaged to the unit. For each unit that receives damage, the shooter rolls for damaged units nerve.

MELEE – As above but you use your Me stat. After the melee phase, you move your unit that charged back 1” and prepare to receive the opponents charge.

NERVE – After each of the Shoot phase and each melee, the units that have taken damage are tested for nerve (morale) by the player that caused the damage. As casualties accumulate, the chances of passing the nerve test fall. You opponent rolls 2 D6 add that to total casualties inflicted, plus/minus any modifiers (Banners/musicians),compare with the units Ne rating, giving a number that will show if the unit will waver (1st number( or rout (2nd number). There are inspiring characters within the army that can make you re-roll, if a unit routs. Sp Me Ra De At Ne Elf Bowman Regt 6 4+ 4+ 4+ 10 14/16 Less than 1st number– The unit remains steady Equal or more than 1st no., but less than 2nd no. - The unit is wavering (disordered) Equal to or more than2nd no. - The unit routs and is removed from the game. To set up the game you both roll a dice and whoever rolls highest can choose to place the first unit or elect that the opponent places first. Once all units are placed in the deployment zones (over 12” from centre of the table), you both roll another dice, winner chooses to go first or second. The game lasts about two hours or twelve turns (six each), and to find who won simply add the points of the opponents units that routed off, whoever scores the highest, wins. SIMPLES.

Army of the Abyss
 

This rule set is a great fun set for anyone new to fantasy wargaming or anyone who cannot be bothered (or afford)with the GW WFB army books, as you need to know all the sneaky bits of your opponents armies to play WFB.

There is an additional book titled Uncharted Empires and contains 12 new army lists. ”For the first time players have access to Army themes. These allow list variants of one of the games master lists and help add new flavour to an existing army to represent a different faction with similar roots. They are a great way to introduce the many sub-factions and players in the world of Mantica”. You will have access to twenty six armies from the two books.

Salamanders - Ready for Battle.
 

There is also a Historical version of the rules available

Bolt Action - A Review of the rules

I purchased My copy of BA at crisis, in November 2012 ( should have bought it on Amazon £16.00 ). Although I only paid £20.00 (Retails at £25.00). The Rules are, as most now days in a hard back cover, with lots of colour pictures and explanations you would expect. The basic rules are very easy to pick up and are based on a Reinforced Platoon. The rules use appoints system for competitive games, so do not be surprised to see BA competitions cropping up at shows. The game lasts for six turns (as all competitive rules seem to now, GW, KoW being the main two that I know of). Pointed games start from 500pts on a 4 x 4 table, and takes a couple of hours to get a result on this size table. The basic fighting unit is a squad of infantry from five to fifteen figures, or a support section. Each unit has its points value with add ons, and this way you build your force. Each Nation has its “National traits”, which add to the game. A nice little “gimic” are the order dice (which are not the best quality and chip in the dice bag). The dice are a six sided but have your orders on them and come in eight various colours. These are not rolled but placed by the unit you want to make an action. You get one dice for each unit in your force and both sides place them in the dice cup or a dice bag. With both sides dice in the bag, shake the dice in the bag (not to much as some chipping has occurred on some dice. The first turn begins by drawing out a dice. The order on the dice allows you to do a certain action for that unit. Your unit can Fire, Advance, Run, Ambush, Rally or Down. Find the order on the dice and place it by the unit, and then carry out the order. If your unit has taken fire previously you may have to take a morale check to carry out the order. Fire – Stay where you are and fire at an enemy unit Advance – move (normally half run speed), you can fire at the end of the move at a -1 to hit. Run – Move up to maximum movement of the unit but cannot fire at the end of move. Ambush – Place next to a unit you wish to Ambush next turn or any turn if the dice remains by the unit. If an Ambush dice was placed last turn and still next to unit, then you can interrupt any enemy movement by firing at them. You then turn dice to fire and fire!. Rally – This dice rallies a unit with lots of pin markers but requires a morale roll. If you pass remove a pin, then remove D6 worth of pins. Ie: roll a D6 and remove that amount of pin markers from that unit. If you fail, do not remove any pins and change the order to down!. Down – This allows a unit to “dive for cover” when being fired at, if not ordered yet. Simply elect the unit is going down and take an order dice from the bag and place a down order next to unit. It can still be a target but at a -1. A Down order is also given to any unit that fails a morale test (if it has pin markers), to carry out an order. The rules are set out in sections and breaks down each sequence of the turn. The rules do not come with play sheets, although they are in the book. You can download the play sheet free, from Warlord Games website http://www.warlordgames.com/ under Forums then BA general discussions, they are then found in the “command post” section. There is also a downloadable PDF of an index which is vital as the rules in the book seem to be all over the place, but do not be put off by this. We had our first trial game in January and by the second game hardly used the rule book and by the third game hardly used the play sheet as they are so easy to play. When you are fired at, and take casualties, you also receive pin markers. These are your units cohesion breaking down and will be used when taking morale tests and firing. If a unit receives more pins than your staring morale (even if you have not lost any men), the unit is removed, having lost all cohesion! When trying to carry out an order with a unit that has pin markers, you must take a morale test by rolling two D6 and add the pins to the result. If that result is equal to, or less than your morale, then you can remove one pin marker and carry out the order. There are other modifiers to morale, as in all rules. If you fail, then you receive a down order (hitting the dirt/ Finding cover,etc) Firing is simple in that all weapons roll a certain amount of D6 dependent on their effectiveness, eg each rifle rolls 1 D6, an assault rifle 2 D6, MMG 3 D6, etc. You add up your weapons values and roll the dice and add mods to dice for moving, cover. Every time you “hit” a unit, that unit receives a pin. Some Weapons cause multiple pins. The game is easy to pick up and it works best with infantry only games, as armour seems to dominate the table and the heavy MG’s are more effective than trying to fire HE. The game ends at turn six although we tend to play longer as we usually play on a larger than standard BA table. BA can be played with other scales, not just 28mm. There are Army books covering all the major powers and theatres. Warlord Games who produce the rules have really nice figures and vehicles to compliment the rules. Will be posting some pics of my troops at a later date

King of War

My Son Ian, challenged me to a game of KoW at the club. Here are a couple of pics.1500pts from new rules with use of artifacts.
I have a few armies and picked a Goblin army, to see how they fared on their own, without their big cousin Orcs to protect them. They did fine and won by 1000 points.
With the new Ogre list imminent, cannot wait to see how my Ogres fare!
On the workbench, I still have Ogres, Lizards, Orc and Goblin Hordes and more knights to finish. I tend to use one army and then I finish off the troops on the bench to complete the army.
In September, I intend to run four KoW leagues, 4 players in each,then a knock out Phase.
                                                 
                                                     Goblins vs Kingdoms of Men

The Big Clash

Kings of War Rules - A Review

Kings of War, A free, downloadable set of Fantasy rules from Mantic Games. WFB is now £45.00. www.manticgames.com/Home.html

On first read, you can see the similarity between it, and Warhammer Fantasy Battles, but read again and you will see slight subtleties that WFB lacks or over envasises. KoW are quick to learn fun and easy to play, but just like WFB  8^th you need loads of troops,  but, the troops from Mantic are cheaper than GW, £25.00 for a box of forty Skeletons, as opposed to £62.00 for the same amount  from GW .

The rules are twelve pages short, and includes all the special rules that each army has. Three pages of introducing the rules and explaining what the stats do, 7 pages of the playing rules and two pages of the special rules, game set-up and winning/ losing the game.  

The game is alternate moves, you do everything, move, shoot/Magic, melee, then your opponent. Pre- measuring is allowed in KoW.

The game is played with a pointed army system from a troop (10 figs), to a regiment (20 figs) to a horde (40 + figs). The difference between each unit is Attacks and Nerve, the more troops the more dice you roll and the more nerve they have (safety in numbers).

Example of stat line for a regt:

                                                Sp           Me         Ra           De          At           Ne

Elf Bowman Regt              6              4+           4+           4+           10           6

Sp = Speed (your movement) , Me= Melee(your melee), Ra= Range (bows,etc), De=Defence (your Defence), At=Attack Dice(used for shooting and melee), Ne=Nerve (your morale)

MOVE- These rules allow you to double move if you go straight ahead, including charging, but any turns, then normal movement only.

SHOOT/MAGIC – You can move and shoot at a penalty, but there are a few exceptions that have to remain stationary to fire. Magic (Zap) is done in this phase but the caster normally has no penalty for moving. You use your attack dice to hit (equal or higher than your Ra). All hits are then re-rolled and you require equal or higher than opponents De to cause damaged to the unit. For each unit that receives damage, the shooter rolls for damaged units nerve.

 MELEE – As above but you use your Me stat. After the melee phase, you move your unit that charged back 1” and prepare to receive the opponents charge.

NERVE – After each of the Shoot and melee phases, the units that have taken damage are tested for nerve (morale) buy the player that caused the damage. As casualties accumulate the chances of passing the nerve test fall as to test, you roll 2 D6 add that to total casualties inflicted, plus/minus any modifiers (Banners/musicians) and subtract the unit Ne rating, giving a number that will show if the unit will stand.  There are inspiring characters within the army which make you re-roll, if a unit routs.

                               

7 or less – The unit remains steady

                8 to 9 -      The unit is wavering (disordered)

                10 or more- The unit routs and is removed from the game.         

To set up the game you both roll a dice and whoever rolls highest can choose to place the first unit or  elect that the opponent places first. Once all units are placed in the deployment zones (over 12” from centre of the table), you both roll another dice, winner chooses to go first or second. The game lasts about two hours or twelve turns (six each), and to find who won simply add the points of the opponents units that routed off, whoever scores the highest, wins. SIMPLES.

ARMIES- There are about  fourteen army list on the mantic site, and I am generating an Ogre list at the moment.

This rule set is a great fun set for anyone new to fantasy wargaming or anyone who cannot be bothered (or afford)with the GW WFB army books, as you need to know all the sneaky bits of your opponents armies to play WFB.

Rules & All That

RULES AND ALL THAT
or
What rules to use for a particular game or period you are playing?.

Some clubs from around the country play one set of rules for a period and all the members of that club play that set of rules that the club has chosen to play. The advantage is that anyone can play anyone in the club with little notice and the game on the night will flow fairly easily and turns will be taken quickly and should get a result within the evening. Any “grey” areas or rule queries are kept down to a minimum due to everyone knowing the rules and “umpires” a plenty. The downside is that any potential new members get railroaded to play that set as played by the club, although he/ she may have all the rules, army lists and supplements, they basically have to start again by Buying, reading and learning a new system and probably adjusting their own army. The advantage is lots of opponents.and umpires around on a club evening.
We at the Warlords are not the above club, why is this?. Well I will start by looking at the background of our members, many who have joined many years ago, through a connection with Games Workshop or like myself and others have come from playing historical games. Some have come from playing board games, D&D, re-enactment, model making, reading (Fiction or Factual) and some none of the above.
Within these areas the strongest “bond” of one rule set to rule them all is obviously Games Workshop, who still adjust and amend rule to “tweek” certain armies to new product, which then brings with it a whole new expense of re-buying all the literature you have already bought but is now out of date. You have admire their marketing!. Then there are middle ground sets where two or more sets are used within a period like Flames of War, BlitzKrig Commander and Panzer Marsch, Rapid Fire for WWII and for Napoleonic we play Shako and General de Brigade, American Civil War rules like Johnny Reb, Brother against Brother . Then we have the rest where there are a plethora of rule sets are used. Last but not least there is the rule set graveyard, purchased, read sometimes tried out and then put at the back of the cupboard to end its life in the recycle box.
With so many rules on the market which ones are the best?. What makes a good set of rules?. Does playability take preference to historical accuracy, i.e. quick to learn, fast play but lacking in subtleties of troop type or vehicle. Fast play rules have their drawbacks but if they are quick to learn are you likely to get more opponents? They allow people to “dip” their toes into a new period, by skimming the surface of the era in question.
Before Rapid Fire came along I had never played WWII, my periods were covered up to 1900 (when Queen Victoria died, here endeth wargaming!). I had tried Command Decision, but as a freshman new nothing of the period and got no advice from the members I was playing with and got a sound thrashing, I have never played those rules or that player since.
Then Barney came down the club and suggested Rapid Fire, and we have played them (with a few house rules) for possibly ten plus years-ish. As time went on we wanted something more from the game but were not sure what it was that we wanted. So we bought various rule sets skirmish, platoon, Company, Battalion, Divisional and even Army levels. We found a comfortable medium in Panzer Marsch Playability of Rapid Fire (Panzer Marsch were written ten years prior to the release of Rapid Fire by the same wargames club) but with a great anti-tank system, which is a little more believable than Rapid Fire (Stuarts taking out Tigers!!!). Also the morale is an important element, which makes you take woods/buildings as you move across the battlefield. Would you just advance passed a wood without sending in some troops to reconnoitre it? It could be full of the enemy waiting to attack you in the rear (ooh err matron). Unfortunately others in our shallow end don’t like the rules (I can’t see why) and just refuse to play them, but that’s OK. each to their own as they say. So on a club night we play Rapid Fire and when we play against each other we play Panzer Marsch.

Other periods have the same effect as above, I think Napoleonic battles should be at least Divisional size and so do not partically enjoy General de Brigade but prefer to play Shako which covers much larger battles as well. We can play Waterloo in an evening with Shako Large Battle supplement. With American Civil War rules I prefer Johnny Reb II. Fire & Fury came out a few years ago which gained a lot of interest in the competiton circuit, so Johnny Reb II became III which all who played it after having played Johnny Reb II said they had tried to make them similar to Fire & Fury. I had never played JR III as I was happy with JRII . I have played huge games with Fire & Fury and they work quite well.

Principles of War is not only a good colonial set of rules but actually work well for other horse & musket periods like ACW, Franco- Prussian. The rules comes with army lists in the back of the book, but you can buy other army books which cover all the conflicts from Waterloo to Mons. PoW also do Napoleonic rules which I have played a couple of times and seem quite good.

Pike and Shot period rules, which GW released a few years back (although I have not played them so cannot comment on them) I use the early Wargames Foundry backed rules 1644, but have just downloaded Victory without Quarter (to see how they play)
The above ramblings are my own thoughts, many other club members have their preferred set of rules and their reasonings are their own, but it is not for me to say which rules are correct for a particular period, I like others have my preferences.