Empire of the Dead: Worth getting into??

[muncehead]

Costings for the weapons seem fair and I think if you try and play a model with a crossbow the same as a rifle model you are asking for trouble, so the system encourages you to think differently, use available cover, lay ambushes etc.

The wolves not gaining experience does bother me a little but the lycaon faction is one that has the heavy hitters in melee. Not played a game yet but still it's a system I like having read through it - some bits I will use, others maybe not (especially the steam-tech weapons).

At least the rules make more sense than the Vampire Wars ones did

[Tenz]

EOTD, the rulebook is nice to look at and the background story is inspiring. The rules are ok but nothing impressive. The equipment is very unbalanced which is a problem for the game. For example a "Hunting Rifle" has 48" range and Strenght 6 at a cost of 10 shillings. A "Crossbow" has 24" range, Strength 4 AND is "move or shoot" at a cost of 6 shillings. In game terms a model with a crossbow is next to useless compared to a model with hunting rifle.
This goes throught the equipment lists (sword anyone?). So basically unless you're palying gamemaster driven games with ready made army lists you'd first need to rework the points system to get the game going.

I've not tried the campaign system but a couple of problems already show themselves from reading the rules.
Wolves as an example. Lyacon can buy wolves at 20 shillings a pop. A faction has 150 shillings to start with so they are quite expensive models. In the campaign rules the wolf can't gain experience because he's an animal. So it doesn't advance. But it can sustain injuries. So basically you have models in the campaign that only get worse and worse without any chance to advance. This might still work well when you play a campaign but I don't fancy the idea.

I've not yet looked into the new rules stuff from the kickstarter. The models are great and I'm looking forward to get the lot.

IHMN is very well written and obviously well thought out. Since it has a (working) character builder you can make rules for the EOTD factions. Or invent new warbands for carpathia. ;-)

Well sir you peaked my interest with these comments. I ordered myself a copy of IHMN. Its a win win situation for us. We'll give the rule-set a try and if it isn't to our liking we'll use the character builder to assist our CiC experience!

Cheers,

Tenz