Being a Magpie , I have amongst scores of others, a number of THW games that I have paid for, printed out, read through, thought about a lot and ..........never played.
Too many games and other distractions, too little time - only one gaming buddy and all that jazz means I never got round to them.
However, this weekend I sat down by myself
plonked some terrain on the table, picked out some figs from my collection and ran through a solo game or three of Chain Reaction Swordplay.
These rules are cool
Even a straight forward meeting engagement is a lot of fun. A star on each side and a handful of grunts with attributes makes for a very entertaining romp. The reaction tables make solo a breeze and the way the grunts act is quite realistic - some will be off for the hills at the slight whiff of danger while others will dig deep and slog it out like the best of 'em.
Activation has a good mechanic and changes with a dice roll off each round - it's unpredictable but kinda fair as the side who probobly has less men to use will most likely go first in that round (it's all based on the quality or "Rep" of the models.
If you're moving fast some will lag behind puffing and panting or trip over their shoe laces to land face down in the mud.
Shooty types are not overpowering (I always think it must be quite hard to hit someone running across a battlefield with a bit of bent wood and a pointy stick) but can easily slow an advance down. There's no guarantee they will reload in time for the next round either (one poor oik was quickly renamed Butterfingers - I think he must have left the cover of his quiver zipped up).
Melee is quite exciting (but with buckets 'o dice
TM).
According to the quality of the character you roll that number of dice plus an extra die here or there for weapon and situational benefits. Take out all the 4, 5 and 6's and roll again - repeat until someone has all their dice removed.
The number of dice the winner has left decides how damaging the attack was and what happens to the poor sap with the sword stuck between his ribs - ih he's wearing different types of armour he may be knocked down (stunned, off balance - whatever you like to think of it as) and open to more pain next round, unless he gets up first of course)
There are a few oooh and aaah moments here as the combat can swing between each roll - a bit like I imagine the cut and thrust of melee combat to be, but in the end the guy with the advantage has the better chance of coming out on top.
Games are quite short and bloody so you can fit a good few into a couple of hours (based on 6-10 figs a side) and you can use any sort of miniatures you have, historical or fantasy (and it would not be too hard to throw in some low level magic if that's you bag).
Overall I am well impressed, especially since they are a free set and I don't think it will be too long before I'm scrapping again.
It may even make me dip my toes deeper into the THW pool and dust off Nuts 2.0 and give that a go.
Anybody else here enjoy them?