Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Age of the Big Battalions => Topic started by: Shahbahraz on February 22, 2020, 11:04:16 AM
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Have been looking at the Muskets & Tomahawks II release publicity, but I'm finding some difficulty in figuring out how it plays.
I currently play AWI using Sharp Practice 2.
Without getting into a 'my ruleset is better than yours' contest, could someone tell me why I might consider getting Muskets and Tomahawks as well as SP2? Just some idea of what mechanics you think work better or additional period flavour?
I have seen previous posts about M&T that suggested there was essentially no reload phase, that it uses cards etc, but I don't know much more.
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There's certainly a reload action requirement in M&T "I", and it doubled for reloading rifles.
M&T uses fighting-class based cards, which divides up potential activation opportunities over the number of these cards distributed in each game's prepared deck. The "liveliness" of units is imbedded in the number of cards each class of troops is allowed in the deck, and how many actions occur on each of these cards.
M&T "I" can be played by drawing randomly off a common deck, and then activating all the units in-game of that particular troop class, or, player(s) can work out of a multiple-card hand, allowing some limited selection capability (replenishing from a common card pile), and or, as how we've played as late, playing cards out of a hand, but drawing those only from a side's own cards (therefore having two separate draw decks).
The elegant sequencing mechanics of M&T's card-based troop classification system is what our group have enjoyed (and tinkered with) for many years now. Everything else with the rules folds in tightly with the activation rules, and each scenario just flows as the activations occur - this eliminates hard-wired "phasing" steps, and the games generate reaction, and ebb and flow based on how the troops are coming into action.
M&T's card-based activation allows for multiplayer games without a problem, so it can be played 1 on 1 "tourney style", or by player teams "scenario style".
Here's a link to Wargames Illustrated "flip through" of the upcoming M&T II rules, and this might give you an better sense of the new system than my impressions based on playing the original rule set -
https://youtu.be/zozREjBRvKk
I've told gamers in our area that I think M&T was one of the best rulesets released in the past 20 years - it's not because it has lots of unique features, but elegant, imbedded elements that just operate "under the hood" w/o requiring phases or mechanism for these to occur (and almost automatically - again, derived from the troop-classifications defined from the get-go).
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I like both sets. My advice is if you already have one of them, & you are happy with them
don't bother getting the other. They both scratch the same itch.
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I play and enjoy both sets. Last year, we played the same scenario using M&T and SP2. Both good games, but the M&T one lasted about 2 hours while SP2 was closer to 3; there's more detail (and more decision making) in SP. On the other hand, the hidden movement, and hidden objective system in M&T is very good, and I really like the activation system. For French & Indian war my preference is M&T since I prefer the speed and decisiveness. SP can sometimes bog down a bit.
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Thanks for the responses folks. Much appreciated.
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Yes, I've appreciated this thread as well.
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I love Sharp Practice - it's my favorite ruleset by far - but I always enjoy having more stuff to pull from in terms of scenario ideas, game mechanics, etc.
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Yeah, I got M&T soley because of the sub-plots things. Haven't played it once.:D
I'd just wait for reviews of M&T2 to be honest. I'M sure it will be good, but let's wait and see what it does.