Warlords of Erehwon Errata and Rick's Blog!

[CommanderBaker]

I like those ideas. Also samurai list just dropped.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

From the buzz, and a couple of AARs,I am pretty convinced that the game is enjoyable, so it is only a matter of time before I get the rules.

I have laid out a series of rulesets that should allow me to start playing with a handful of minis, then gradually expand on them, until I have full sized units for playing battles (God of Battles for me):

• Thud & Blunder (handful of minis per side)
• One Page Rules Age of Fantasy Skirmish
• SAGA (Age of Magic)
• Warlords of Erehwon
• God of Battles

Are you abandoning Sellswords?

Warlords of Erehwon does sound interesting.   I would like to see some reports.

[Tim Haslam]

I’m starting to understand all the little nuances now.
I’ve played 6+ games, and enjoyed them all. But I’ve always said, that’s possibly down to your own network of players.

We’ve used,
Knights
Barbarians
Orcs
Goblins
Plus the odd monster.

Your perspective of the game depends on if you’ve played Bolt Action or not. WoE uses the same command dice and some mechanics.

Ex bolt action players will be happy to know that combat can last longer than one round and units may rout rather than just disappear.
Players new to this game and bolt action will find combat very brutal and sudden.
So two different ways to look at the game!

We play 1000pt armies, allowing up to 25% monsters,
this gives a nice size force it fits well on a 6 x 4 table and “looks” right for a large skirmish.
Also we’ve found using more points just gives players too much of the good stuff. At a 1000pts compromises have to made in army selection.

We’re holding an event in 6 weeks to see how it works in a kind of tournament setting. We’ve planned 3 games in a day, but I suspect experienced players can fit 4 games in a day.

More importantly, Rick Priestley’s presentation and writing style captures that classic fantasy feel from the 80’s
It has got me painting toy soldiers again after a fair few years off.

[CommanderBaker]

Tim, i like your thought process on the 1000 pts. that's the level my group has played at as well. We were all Bolt Action players first and really like this game so far.

[Argonor]

Are you abandoning Sellswords?

Definitely not, but it is a somewhat other genre - I probably could add it at the top of the list - I guess a party of 3-4 figs could be used as the base for a Thud & Blunder warband, etc.

Actually, come to think of it, I could also paint a historical party (Templars, Crusaders, Saracens, whatever), and take it through some of the steps (then a game like Outremer would become one of the steps). 

[Daeothar]

We have played our first 1000pt battle some weeks ago.

And I must agree that this might well be the sweet spot. We've not gone any higher, but then, we've also not used anything monstrous just yet. Our thoughts were that at 2000 pts, you'd be getting into WHFB territory, in terms of size and scope.

We used fast cav for the first time; that was pretty interesting (fielded a unit of Wolf Riders and my opponent two units of Elf Cavalry ('normal' riders and knights). We also fielded warmachines for the first time (my Goblins had a stone thrower and a bolt thrower), and those can be quite devastating (IF they hit).

I liked the added elements and change in dynamics the fast units provided, but we played this battle on a 4x4 board, which might have been a bit too cramped to really make the best use of the new units.

The warmachines would normally funtion a bit like area denial I suppose, but on this table, the ranges were so great they could reach the entire board; there was no maneuvering around their fields of fire.

Likewise, the cavalry was so fast, it smashed into the other side by turn two, with very little flanking space (I tried, and used a shielding hill to good effect, but otherwise, it was just line 'em up and let 'em fly).

So yes; a 6x4 table is definitely in order.

Also, I would have liked to put some more feet/claws on the ground, but couldn't because a roster still fills up mightily quickly.

We both used level 2 sorcerors this time, and at this point-level, they were indeed quite a bit less overpowered. Although my opponent really dislikes the displacement spell (especially after our previous 500pts game, where my Goblin Shaman kept throwing his Necromancer back to the starting line every other turn, preventing him from making any form of organized advance). It's not as annoying at 1000 points, but it can still be a real spanner in the works.

We are of different thoughts now on the game. I really like it, but then I would, after winning all three games so far, but he's not a fan, although he can see the core of the game and the promise it holds.

I think the point of one's gaming history is a very valid one. As far as fantasy battles are concerned, we never played anything other than WHFB, so coming from there, the CC is especially brutal, and could be considered gamey. But it might just need some getting used to.

We have not compared it to 9th age yet, as that's probably the biggest competition for WoE (for us anyway).

I'm really busy right now and can't spare the time, but for when we play again, I agreed to trade in my Goblins for something a bit more elite, such as Barbarians or Knights, since one of his concerns was that horde armies (not big units, but loads of smaller ones, obviously) have an advantage over smaller armies with more expensive units, because stats are not ranged very far apart. So a single Goblin Warrior versus a High elf or Skeleton is not as asymmetric as it is in WHFB, but the points level is such that one can squeeze in one or two more units in.

To illustrate, his Elves had 7 or 8 units, while my Goblins had 12 (at 1000pts), and that was really telling, as I was tactically much more flexible.

We'll see; for now, I'm still enjoying myself playing WoE...