Sword & Spear Fantasy

[greatescapegames]

Out this month and up for pre-order! http://www.greatescapegames.co.uk/books-1/sword-spear/sword-spear-fantasy.html

[Hobgoblin]

Looks very interesting. A quick question, for which I couldn't find an answer easily in the link: what basing does the game use?

Thanks!

[midismirnoff]

Big bases ŕ la Hail Caesar / Impetus.

[Polkovnik]

what basing does the game use?

The game is unit based. All units must be the same frontage (or nearly the same). Typical unit frontages are 80mm for 15mm figures and 120mm for 28mm figures, but you can use any unit size you like. All distances are given in Distance Units (DU), where 1 DU is half the unit frontage.

Here's a 15mm orc army with 80mm frontage units :




15mm Dwarf army:


And some 28mm figures with 120mm frontage units:

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks - so it could be played either with individual 60mm-froned HOTT elements or two (or four?) 60mm elements together?

I'm intrigued by the multiplayer aspect mentioned in the links. Does the game work well with multiple independent players? Obviously there are few historical examples of such battles, but I'm keen to find a ruleset that would allow a number of unaligned armies to take the field at the same time.

[greatescapegames]

Ooo!
Now that's interesting.
Will it be available at Salute?

Yes!

[greatescapegames]

Thanks - so it could be played either with individual 60mm-froned HOTT elements or two (or four?) 60mm elements together?

I'm intrigued by the multiplayer aspect mentioned in the links. Does the game work well with multiple independent players? Obviously there are few historical examples of such battles, but I'm keen to find a ruleset that would allow a number of unaligned armies to take the field at the same time.

We often play with 2-3 players per side.

[Polkovnik]

Thanks - so it could be played either with individual 60mm-froned HOTT elements or two (or four?) 60mm elements together?

Yes. Although if you're talking about 28mm, then with the smaller (60mm frontage) unit size, movement rates and shooting ranges might seem small compared to figure size.

I'm intrigued by the multiplayer aspect mentioned in the links. Does the game work well with multiple independent players? Obviously there are few historical examples of such battles, but I'm keen to find a ruleset that would allow a number of unaligned armies to take the field at the same time.

I don't think this would work with any set of big battle rules. It can work in skirmish games, where there might be an objective to accomplish such as grabbing treasure. But in a big battle game, even if the mechanics of the game allowed it, I can't see it working. In a 3 way battle the best tactic would be to sit back and wait for the other two armies to battle each other and wear each other down, so you would tend to get a stand off.
Sword & Spear does work for multiplayer games, but there does need to be two sides. It would need quite a lot of tweaking to have more than two sides.

[monkeylite]

Brilliant. Been looking forward to this. My son, who despite my best efforts, drifted away from wargaming to computer gaming, has suddenly gone nuts for S&S. And just last night he told me there really should be a fantasy version of the game.

[Hobgoblin]

Yes. Although if you're talking about 28mm, then with the smaller (60mm frontage) unit size, movement rates and shooting ranges might seem small compared to figure size.

Great - thanks! I'll definitely be ordering these rules.

Might be a dinner-table option, to avoid a three-foot width being too much of a problem. We're well used to the HOTT abstractions where those three hobgoblins are actually a thousand - and missiles have a range of just 8cm. With a frontage of 6cm, what would bow range be in S&S?

That said, I have lots of HOTT elements kicking around, and they're generally in groups of at least four (because most of them are warbands, where you want the double rank and flank support), so 120mm won't be a problem, except for dragons and the like. I presume they take the same frontages? In any case, those can always be plopped on a temporary base or doubled up.

I don't think this would work with any set of big battle rules. It can work in skirmish games, where there might be an objective to accomplish such as grabbing treasure. But in a big battle game, even if the mechanics of the game allowed it, I can't see it working. In a 3 way battle the best tactic would be to sit back and wait for the other two armies to battle each other and wear each other down, so you would tend to get a stand off.
Sword & Spear does work for multiplayer games, but there does need to be two sides. It would need quite a lot of tweaking to have more than two sides.

Yes, that's probably true for massed-battle games. Multi-sided Dragon Rampant works fine, but it's at the larger end of skirmish and usually isn't a straight fight. One reason it works in DR, though, is because each unit completes its action all at once - which sounds a little similar to the S&S mechanics, from the reviews I've read.

[Nord]

How does the game handle racial differences, for example the brutality of orcs, the stubborness of dwarfs, the horror of the undead? Is there much "crunch" in this regard?

[Polkovnik]

We're well used to the HOTT abstractions where those three hobgoblins are actually a thousand - and missiles have a range of just 8cm. With a frontage of 6cm, what would bow range be in S&S?

With 6cm frontage, 1 DU would be 3cm and bow range is 4 DU so that would be 12cm.

120mm won't be a problem, except for dragons and the like. I presume they take the same frontages? In any case, those can always be plopped on a temporary base or doubled up.

Monsters (where one base represents a single huge creature, rather than a unit of combatants) are on smaller bases, half the frontage of a unit, so your HOTT basing would work just fine.

[Polkovnik]

Multi-sided Dragon Rampant works fine, but it's at the larger end of skirmish and usually isn't a straight fight. One reason it works in DR, though, is because each unit completes its action all at once - which sounds a little similar to the S&S mechanics, from the reviews I've read.

Yes each unit does complete all of its actions when activated. However, unlike in DR, combats do carry on from turn to turn which might cause issues in a three way battle. Also the initiative process in each phase is designed for two sides (whoever has the most of the 7 dice drawn each phase has the initiative), and would need tweaking with three sides, as there would be a lot of draws. 

[Schrumpfkopf]

Can I just pick it up at Salute or should I pay now or? :--)

[Polkovnik]

How does the game handle racial differences, for example the brutality of orcs, the stubborness of dwarfs, the horror of the undead? Is there much "crunch" in this regard?

The system is fairly generic, allowing players to build their armies as they choose. There are no set racial traits. Troops are defined by type (for example heavy foot, cavalry, beasts), discipline (quality), armour, weapons and can be given other characteristics (such as steadfast, savage, heroic). So you can choose how the fantasy races in your world are reflected in the game, rather than having this set out for you.
There are specific rules for Undead - they work differently to other troops in terms of how they are activated and how combat results affect them.