Broken Legions question

[Saucy Jack]

I was one of the play testers and here are some comments to what has been written in the past few posts.

Please bear in mind that I have not seen the finished product, so this is based on the play test document.

Regarding the number of special rules - they are not overwhelming at all. Once you choose which warband you want to play you will only have a few special rules and perhaps a few weapon rules that you need to remember. This is not special rules intensive at all. If you play the "Soldiers of the Eagle" warband you have no access to magic and all of your men are issued with gladius. So there is not much in terms of special rules that you need to remember.

Games take a long time. We played with the standard 200 points and while we were of course playtesting we never managed to finish a game in under two hours. Two things make the game slow:
- There are a lot of dice rolling, and when you have 10-15 individuals that is a lot of activations.
- The Fate points that the better minis are issued with. They make them very difficult to take down.

I asked the author about this and he replied that I was not the only one who had commented on it. His immediate solution at the time was to set the starting points at 150 instead. Whether this is the starting points in the book I don't know.

The fluff is limited but I think that is because of the set page limit that Osprey has. It would mean that some of the game mechanics would need to be cut.

I feel that in order for the game to succeed players need to play the campaign mode. At the time of play testing this was not developed a lot and neither was the scenarios. These two aspects of the game will either make or break it. In Frostgrave both the campaign system and the scenarios is the game's strong point and why it is so successful. It will be the same for Broken Legions.

I look forward to seeing the final product when it arrives at my doorstep. After a read through I will try it out again.

[FionaWhite]

Can anyone tell if or how you can field Egyptians?
From what I can see, the only thing hinting at them is the Cult of Seth and I gotta say that I'm not all that hot about Set.

[Ddogwood]

Can anyone tell if or how you can field Egyptians?
From what I can see, the only thing hinting at them is the Cult of Seth and I gotta say that I'm not all that hot about Set.

Cult of Set is currently the only way to field Egyptians.  Of course, the rules are generic enough that it would be very easy to replace Set with pretty much any Egyptian god.

[Jeff965]

Here's a genuine question.
It's kind of about Broken Legions, but wider than that as well.
I have seen, several time, Broken Legions being described as a 'granular system'.
I just don't get what that means. I've heard it used about other games as well.
Exactly what is meant by 'granular system'? I've tried to work it out and think about it in relation to Broken Legions but my simple brain just can't get at what it is meant to mean.
Like I say that's a genuine question - what is meant by 'granular system'?

The cynic in me thinks it may just be a bit of meaningless marketing/buzz speak. That you're not meant to think about it but accept it and nod sagely. In the same way the word 'meme' gets bandied about (mostly incorrectly), or 'solutions' or 'multi-media' or 'interactive'. You're not supposed to stop and question the use, just inanely accept it as an implied positive that really means something. Please tell me I'm wrong about that, and could someone please tell me what a 'granular system' is, what is meant to be so good about it (assuming it's a positive), and how that applies to Broken Legions?

Yes I'm one of those people who smile and nod politely when such words are used .
I've just looked online and Granular can mean a number of things and one of them is "highly detailed, having many small and distinct parts".
Now I received my copy of BL yesterday and I can say that I wouldn't say that phrase describes these rules. In fact the rules are very "playable" and are not what I would term highly detailed, which for someone like me is a big plus 

[Smith]

Cult of Set is currently the only way to field Egyptians.  Of course, the rules are generic enough that it would be very easy to replace Set with pretty much any Egyptian god.

Yep - replace "Set" with "God of Choice" and you're away. Some of the abilities and options available to the Egyptians are keyed towards Set, but can easily be renamed/re-themed, or taken with a dose of Handwavemol (two tablets, with water).

I asked the author about this and he replied that I was not the only one who had commented on it. His immediate solution at the time was to set the starting points at 150 instead. Whether this is the starting points in the book I don't know.

150 is the recommendation in the book. Thanks for playtesting!

The fluff is limited but I think that is because of the set page limit that Osprey has. It would mean that some of the game mechanics would need to be cut.

The fluff is limited, due to the space constraints you mention - any fluff we included would be limited at best, and come at the expense of game options - we erred in favour of more options! I personally hope that the core theme (Legionaries vs. Monsters!) is strong enough to inspire players to develop their own stories without getting bogged down in whether 'The Emperor' is Augustus, Nero, Trajan or Maximinus (beloved of rules lawyers everywhere) and so on.

For people wanting more inspiration on the background front, the author has also written a standalone title bringing Cthulhu to Rome (Link), due out in November, and I heartily recommend both the Cthulhu Invictus supplement for the Call of Cthulhu RPG (Link), and the Weird Wars Rome supplement (Link) for Savage Worlds.

[seldon]

I actually like the core plus special rules. What I do want is the special rules to be original and provide flavor.

My favorite skrimish rules are Brink of Battle which follow a similar approach.

I bought Broken Legions, read them and hope to play them soon. They look great, the page count seems to have been used effectively. Yes I would love a major thick book for a setting like this but it is not possible in the small osprey books and I think the author has done a great job at providing good flavor on the offered factions.

I also like the alternative scenarios offered.

I don't know what granular might mean to different people. I agree that these rules are not cumbersome nor hard to learn while they appear to provide enough tactical options for a game to be fun at this level with 10-15 guys.. which is not always the case..

As you can see, I'm happy to have broken legions it is a good addition.. I wish Northstar had come up with some minis for them, I can shop around but I like the standard warbands that  NS has produced for games like IHMN

... I know, I know.. "hey man, this is just your opinion" ...

Francisco

[Pijlie]

First off, the game is fundamentally the same system as the Legends of the Old West/High Seas (and LotR SBG), except modified to use a d10 instead of a d6. Personally, I think that the additional granularity is probably a great thing for these rules, because one of my main complaints about that system was that sometimes, victory came down to whoever could roll the most 6s.

I think (but the OP may correct me if I am wrong of course) that granularity here is used in the sense that using D10s give a wider spread of statistical possiblities than using D6s and through this yields more possible outcomes/events during the game. Because of this skills may be more varied, more circumstances can be taken into account when using skills and all this gives a "finer" grain to  the game than D6s would.

It's like a picture done in a finer grain: it looks like the same picture as one done in a cruder grain when looked at casually, but when you enhance it, you can see more detail.

[Ddogwood]

I think (but the OP may correct me if I am wrong of course) that granularity here is used in the sense that using D10s give a wider spread of statistical possiblities than using D6s and through this yields more possible outcomes/events during the game. Because of this skills may be more varied, more circumstances can be taken into account when using skills and all this gives a "finer" grain to  the game than D6s would.

It's like a picture done in a finer grain: it looks like the same picture as one done in a cruder grain when looked at casually, but when you enhance it, you can see more detail.

This is exactly what I meant. Thanks!

[FionaWhite]

Cult of Set is currently the only way to field Egyptians.  Of course, the rules are generic enough that it would be very easy to replace Set with pretty much any Egyptian god.

Yep - replace "Set" with "God of Choice" and you're away. Some of the abilities and options available to the Egyptians are keyed towards Set, but can easily be renamed/re-themed, or taken with a dose of Handwavemol (two tablets, with water).

Thanks for the replies - practically all my games are vs my brother so bending the names shan't be an issue.

Ddogwood, when you say "currently" do you mean there are going to be supplements or such?

[Kommando_J]

Have gotten my hands on a copy of the rules, while I find the lack of fluff annoying it also does let me brew u my own stuff more, one could justify setting the game in Caesarian Rome or later or given the secret conflict nature perhaps earlier?

Looking at the lists I had an odd idea...a band of warriors backed by descendants of the Etruscans planning to strike back at Rome for past wrongs, waering theor old ancestral armur (the newer patterns are emblematic of Rome).

I'd choose either barbarians or possibly Greeks as Etruscans did have priests and also worshiped versions of Greek Gods.

[luidinuovo]

Hi i need some help since my english is either too bad or I can not find the explanation.
The defensive weapon rule for the buckler how exactly does it work?
Thanks

[Froggy the Great]

I have ordered the book, and I'm wondering - which period in Roman history is this aimed at?  This will guide my search for appropriate models to modify.  It'd be nice to know specifically which historical blasphemies I'll be inflicting upon their uniforms and gear.

[Saucy Jack]

I have ordered the book, and I'm wondering - which period in Roman history is this aimed at?  This will guide my search for appropriate models to modify.  It'd be nice to know specifically which historical blasphemies I'll be inflicting upon their uniforms and gear.

no specific period - but it is probably 1st-2nd century AD

[Pijlie]

The illustrations as well as the fluff would suggest the late first century BC and onwards.

A few facts point at this. One is the fact that "The Emperor" orders a great deal of things and the first real Emperor was Augustus around 15BC.

Furthermore, sects like the Sons of Spartacus would also suggest that sect was founded after 71BC (the year Spartacus' rebellion ended and he died).

Of course a secret Roman movement could have existed as a forerunner of the Soldiers of the Eagle. And the cults of Mitras and Set were certainly much older than 1BC.

So there does not seem to be any reason that Broken Legions could not be set long before the Christian Era.

Ancient Egypt would of course be a great background, that with all those temples, tombs and necromantic undertones in the Egyptian religion. The controversy between Greece and Persia could prove to have surprising backgrounds. Who knows what the Spartans REALLY fought at Thermopylae??

[Richard in Sachsen]

I have ordered the book, and I'm wondering - which period in Roman history is this aimed at?  This will guide my search for appropriate models to modify.  It'd be nice to know specifically which historical blasphemies I'll be inflicting upon their uniforms and gear.

I've collected, but not yet painted, some Successor Greeks for my Argonauts. I had a Warlord gift certificate that I used for a unit of Thorakitai for Argonauts. I'll probably use imitation legionaries as the hoplite mercenaries and I only need 4, IIRC. That was my solution for keeping it all in relatively the same time period.

Just to distinguish Order of Mithras from Order of the Eagle, I intend to use Late Republican Romans for Mithras (seeing how they're so nostalgic, they'll keep the old amor, too ) and just picked up a few EIR Romans from Black Tree Design on their 50% off sale for the Eagle guys.

Early Imperial Rome is really not my time period in 28mm as everything is invested in Late Romans. But I had those two free figures from Warlord that came with the books and never knew what to do with them. Now I have a use for them, the EIR centurion will be the leader of the Eagle faction and the the really cool Late Republican centurion (came with the Caesar supplement) will head up Mithras.

I love it when I find a use for loose minis!