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Author Topic: The Men Who Would Be Kings Rules - Advice Sought  (Read 3726 times)

Offline fred

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4360
    • Miniature Gaming
Re: The Men Who Would Be Kings Rules - Advice Sought
« Reply #15 on: September 09, 2019, 08:33:07 PM »
This is how we play it. Sorry if my previous post wasn’t clear.  We’ve had situations in which players repeatedly fail to activate their units to perform actions that aren’t free and after a few games of this they’re ready to go back to playing rules in which they have a little more control over what their units do.  It comes down to how much control a player likes to have.  Some folks in our group really enjoy not knowing from turn to turn what they can cajole their troops to do.  It drives others batty.  :)

This can be a problem (at least for some players) with lots of games with activation rolls (Warmaster, Black Powder, etc, etc). With most of these games its important that a player has enough commands / activations that if 1 or 2 fail on a turn they still have units to activate. Most activations in TMWWBKs are fairly likely, and along with the Free actions, you do get most stuff to do something most turns. But the dice can be against you! But if you only have a couple of units to command you can easily find them doing nothing much a turn.

At least in TMWWBK an order failure doesn't end the turn, like in some of the Rampant series rules - this really annoyed me, and felt too random.

We also found that the officer traits and the scenarios generally made a big difference to the fun of the game.

Offline Cubs

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4914
  • "I simply cannot survive without beauty ..."
Re: The Men Who Would Be Kings Rules - Advice Sought
« Reply #16 on: September 09, 2019, 08:43:41 PM »
In smaller games I would expect my guys to do what I want them to do - the ease of personal command and all that. In bigger games I would accept more uncertainty and the annoyance of the odd unit going off script, but games where an excess of randomised orders means you can literally spend the afternoon sitting back and watching someone else play the game against your numb-nut dummies because of poor luck on the dice … that would put me off that game I a big way. If it's not fun, it's not fun.
'Sir John ejaculated explosively, sitting up in his chair.' ... 'The Black Gang'.

Paul Cubbin Miniature Painter

Online Gibby

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2352
Re: The Men Who Would Be Kings Rules - Advice Sought
« Reply #17 on: September 10, 2019, 06:23:20 PM »
I've no qualms particularly with a lack of control of units, but the way it's done is important I suppose and really down to preference. I'm a huge fan of the Too Fat Lardies rules, in which friction is a very vital component. I think based on the replies in this thread we can consign TMWWBK into the "not really for us" folder and move on to something different. Thanks for the replies, all!

Offline Aerendar Valandil

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 119
    • Amsterdam6Shooters Wargames Club
Re: The Men Who Would Be Kings Rules - Advice Sought
« Reply #18 on: September 10, 2019, 08:26:51 PM »
Quote
It comes down to how much control a player likes to have.  Some folks in our group really enjoy not knowing from turn to turn what they can cajole their troops to do.  It drives others batty.  :)

This.

Yes, it is a matter of preference, but it also demands something else form the player: reacting and making the best of a bad situation. And you still have the option to use the 'free' action.