Gloire review in which language?

[Operator5]

An online review of Gloire is up at the link below. I wish I could say with absolute certainty which language the review is in, but the reviewer didn't tell me in the e-mail that was sent and the American education system is sorely lacking in foreign language proficiency, hell, we can barely get them to graduate speaking proper American English.  

Anyway, the review gave Gloire 3.5 stars, so I guess that's pretty good.

http://www.crooze.fm/php/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1114&mode=thread&order=0&thold=1

[Plynkes]

Dutch, or possibly Flemish as it is a Belgian website. I'm led to believe that the two are practically the same language, anyway.

Edit: If you look over on the sidebar at the left there is a language option with Dutch/English as the choices. Couldn't find the Gloire review in the English section, though. They do say it is not as extensive as the Dutch bit.

[Jase]

Yo!

That's definitely Dutch. Do you want me to translate it for you?

Cheers
Jase

[Operator5]

That's definitely Dutch. Do you want me to translate it for you?

Just the parts where they say it's an awesome game.  ::

[Poliorketes]

Let me give it a try...
Dull gameplay, uninspired background, and the space marines are cheap copies of imperial stormtroopers. Upps, wrong review  ::

[PeteMurray]

Let me give it a try...
Dull gameplay, uninspired background, and the space marines are cheap copies of imperial stormtroopers.

Oh no! Sweet oblivion, I embrace thee! :cry:

Upps, wrong review  ::

Oh. Never mind then.

[Jase]

Yo!

Just translated it for you. Bear in mind that I have never played Gloire, so I may have made some mistakes with the translation. Also, the review itself wasn't very good either; a bit unstructured, and the author connected things in a rather weird fashion.

Anyhow, without further ado:

Gloire is a thin booklet with rules for a miniature wargame. Wargame actually isn't the correct word, because it is more of a skirmish game.

Each player takes control of a hero or villain, possibly aided by their henchmen.

Every game is based on a scenario. There are several different scenarios in the rulebook, but additional scenarios can be downloaded from the publisher's website.

The rules are rather obvious: the game uses d10 dices  with which you have to either roll under your score or compare the results with your opponent, depending on what you want to do.

Every model has a series of statistics, just like an RPG:

Brains
Brawn
Guts
Blade
Musket
Dodge
Speed
Defensive Rating
Weapon Strength

A statistics test is successful when the dice score plus the statistic's value plus any bonuses is equal or higher than 10.

When every player has rolled for Initiative, he can move his figures and make them fight. Every model can perform an action. These actions range from moving to climbing, jumping, shooting, etc. Furthermore, every player has Hero Points that he can use to reroll dice, move or shoot further, do more damage or aim at a specific location.

Combats evolve either at a distance, or close by. Every weapon in the game has different scores for range, accuracy and the strength of the weapon. Special rules are also mentioned here. Every time a ranged weapon is used, the player compares his score to hit with his opponent's Dodge score. The highest roll succeeds in his action (shooting or dodging). Of course, there are all sorts of rules for cover, visibility and range. Besides these obvious actions, you can also let a model perform suppressive fire: if you hit, then a moving opponent will automatically dive for the nearest cover.
Hand-to-hand combat is worked out in a similar fashion as ranged attacks, but use different weapons and options. Also, the difference between the winner and the loser is important for any other events that may follow. For example, the loser can be pushed back, or even swap places with the winner. This makes for a very flexible and interesting combat system.

If a character is hit, damage will be substracted from a random location. Damaging locations has a direct effect on your characteristics, so that your hero will gradually decline in performance, depending on how heavily wounded he is. A legwound will, for instance, impair his movement and lower his Dodge score. Besides this kind of damage, a character can also panic. Every time he gets hurt, he’ll have to take a Brawn test. If this roll is failed, he runs off. Every round, the character must make a new Brawn test until he runs off the board or manages to conquer his fear.

There are also rules for vehicles (carts) and horses, but the most interesting part of this game is that your character has several special abilities, just like a role-playing game. These are comparable to Skills or Feats. In a way, these Special Abilities make every character unique and that he or she has followed fencing classes, expert at pistols or can mislead or even poison other characters, etc.

Characters have a certain value, which defines the number of special abilities they can have and also with whom they can duel. Any character can challenge another character with the same value. A duel can be refused if the opponent can spend a Hero Point. If this is not the case, then the combat will be put on halt until the two characters have finished their duel.

Besides special abilities important heroes and villains sometimes also have Virtues and Flaws: good and bad characteristics. These range from refusing to fight with “lesser” opponents to being susceptible to compliments and not pursuing fleeing enemies.

These Special Abilities are without a doubt the added value of this game, which is fast, simple (but not too simple) and very entertaining. Playing Gloire also involves quite some paperwork, especially when you play it with several players and characters. Unfortunately, there are no rules for character development, such as an experience system in this rulebook, but in the expansion Under the Black Flag this is remedied. It also gives you rules for pirates.

Gloire is a robust gamesystem that will please both the wargamer as the role-player, there are however a few flaws.

First and foremost is the price. $17 is quite steep for a softcoverbook of only 100 pages, of which the largest part are characters. You don’t even have models or maps yet. A map with gametokens would add a lot to this game. A bunch of miniatures easily costs €40 (without P&P). These miniatures all come from other companies than Rattrap Productions (just to be clear).
This rulebook has very few illustrations and most of them are just pictures from miniatures. De drawings are a bit shabby and there is very little background information on the time of the musketeers. For a game where the stress isn’t on combat, but on interaction and story, a bit more historical and background information wouldn’t have hurt.

***1/2

"Original Title: Gloire: Swashbuckling Adventures in the Age of Kings - Pete Murray
" Company: Rattrap Productions
" Softcover/100 Blz./2007
" ISBN: 978-0-9789241-2-6

More info: www.rattrap-productions.com

Joeri Winkeler

Cheers
Jase

PS This is only a translation and does not reflect my own opinion (which I don't have anyway   )

[Gluteus Maximus]

It looks like it was written by a RPGer rather than a wargamer.

I personally don't agree with the criticisms. The price is good for a game of this type, the pics are fine - no better or worse than other rules. Background "fluff" is great, but it adds pages & pushes up the price. Read Dumas etc. or watch the movies if you want "history". If only I could limit myself to 40 Euros worth of figures for each game system I play. Lets hope the reviewer never sees any of the WAB supplements - he'd have a heart attack ::

Not a bad review, though, considering the criticisms were not aimed at anything important. He seems to feel the rules themselves, the period flavour & "fun-factor" are all there.

Good work on the translation, Jase!

Chers,
Ian

[SgtPerry]

(...)A map with gametokens would add a lot to this game(...)

Oh my god!


 

[Plynkes]

Ha! ha! Pete's rules are "rather obvious".

Obvious
 adj

2. Easily seen through because of a lack of subtlety.


ˇé!

[Jase]

Hehehehe, I meant 'obvious' as in logical...

[W.B.Kurgan]

So it was a compliment!    I wonder if I could start using it that way?..... ::

I agree with Gluteus though - if you ignore the Roleplayer-bias it's a glowing review!  :mrgreen: Great work on the translation Jase.

[Plynkes]

Hehehehe, I meant 'obvious' as in logical...

I know, but Pete and I are at war, and I need to make use of any propaganda opportunities that arise.

 

[Jase]

Ah, so actually I gave you a piece of espionage to be used against the enemy!

Well, so much for neutrality

[PeteMurray]

Jase, thank you very much for that translation! It's always interesting to see what people don't like about the game. The criticisms are important from an RPGer perspective, so I don't fault him those. Some wargamers have told me the game isn't bloody enough, doesn't use enough figures, and takes place on too-tiny boards.

Gott mit Caslon