Ravenfeast

[Harry Faversham]

Many thanks, we're thinking of doing the treasure hunt scenario, included with the 'Magic Rules' over Crimbo.

[tikitang]

My good friend Gibby told me about this ruleset just yesterday; I gave it a read-through and it looks excellent!

Using the custom troop builder tool I've just put some Crusade themed warbands together and I'm going to give it a spin (most likely solo) this coming weekend.

[tikitang]

So, Ravenfeast claims it can be played "on any size table, with any scale models." I thought I'd put that to the test with my 90mm figure collection on my 3' x 3' table!

Here's a battle report which I call THE CHRISTMAS CRUSADE (played on Christmas night, once the children and wife were in bed):

The Background

Outremer, 1166 AD. Christian pilgrims are on their annual visit to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. It's Christmastide, but this year a great sign has appeared in the heavens: Jupiter and Saturn have aligned in a Great Conjunction! A miracle! But what does it mean? Is this the holy star that led the Wise Men to the infant Christ? Many pilgrims are on their way to the City of David to behold the sight. But in the surrounding hills, Saracen bandits are afoot, ready for plunder! Standing between them and the vulnerable pilgrims are the Knights of the Golden Cross, an elite military order established by the King of Jerusalem for this very purpose: to protect travellers on their way to see the site of their Saviour's birth.

The Warbands

The Knights of the Golden Cross (123 Points) [models by Schleich]



VS

Saracen Raiders (123 Points) [models by Schleich]




The Battle

Both warbands started in opposite corners of the fight zone and moved in a general direction toward the centre...



A Saracen archer shot an arrow at the Crusader leader...



A hit! The leader is wounded.



The Saracen and Crusader leaders engage to the right of the palm trees, while the Saracen javelineer and an archer move into position...



Meanwhile, another axe-wielding crusader moves to the left of the palm trees. Two Saracens, armed with polearm and bow/sword get ready to meet him...



Meanwhile, the Saracen javelineer hurls a javelin at the warhammer-wielding Crusader, which bounces off his shield...



A little further back, a Saracen archer shoots at the same Crusader, but his arrow thuds harmlessly into the same shield...



The two leaders fight toe to toe, but no wounds are sustained.



Now, the crusader with the warhammer moves over to the other side of the palms to assist his mate with the axe, who is now in engaged in hand-to-hand with the polearm-equipped Saracen...



Blows are struck but no damage is sustained...



And the same goes for the leaders on the other side of the trees...



Meanwhile, one of the Saracen archers brought a sizeable sword with him and gets stuck into the fierce melee, but nobody is yet hurt...



Not so over here. The javelineer joins the melee with the warband leaders. While this achieves nothing of itself, the Saracen leader lands a fatal blow on the Crusader leader, who falls dead, though not before delivering a wound on his opponent.



The loss of the Crusader leader is a disaster for the Knights. Both the remaining Christian warriors lose their cool and flee for their lives. Warhammer-man takes a wound from polearm man on his way...



While the knight with the axe has a total panic attack and flees the scene, wounded-warhammer-man manages to recover his composure and stand his ground, even while the Saracens descend on him...



He turns around and brains the archer with his hammer, who dies before he hits the ground...



The wounded Saracen leader rushes in from behind as wounded-warhammer-man engages with polearm-man...



Polearm man falls dead beneath the crushing hammer...



Wounded-warhammer-man turns to face the Saracen leader...



And BAM! Sword and hammer both hit their marks and both warriors fall dead in the sand.


The ravens will feast well today beneath the watching stars.

GAME OVER

The Saracens arguably won this fight, due to having two men actually alive on the table when the last Crusader fell, but I also think it's fair to say the main power of their force was almost single-handedly shattered by the heroic deeds of wounded-warhammer-man, whose valour will not be forgotten!

My thoughts? I absolutely love Ravenfeast. It is as close to perfect as I have ever seen in a ruleset and I highly recommend it. I will now be using it for every game I run, going forward.

[Harry Faversham]

Great AAR that mate! I've played a couple of solo games and each time this deceptively simple ruleset has really delivered.

[Lost Egg]

Thanks for sharing tikitang, that was a great read!

So I assume the new scale and the much smaller board worked well then Did you increase the move for the bigger scale or keep it the same?

[tikitang]

Many thanks!

I have, until the present time, played exclusively with these 90mm figures, and while in every other skirmish ruleset I have ever attempted to use for them (Mordheim, SBH, LOTR) I have doubled or even tripled the movement and range measurements (my logic being: 28mm = 4" therefore 90mm = 12"), this time I decided to go with the measurements "as is" and I found it worked perfectly well.

[Lost Egg]

Ahh cool, thanks. I was thinking of trying these rules out with a 2ft board or maybe a 2x3ft which seems more friendly to new players and was wondering if the movement distances would be ok but I guess if they work well for a 3ft board and 90mm minis they should be grand, cheers.

[Harry Faversham]

Our 'Crimbo Treasure Hunt' Saga is chronicling in the 'Other Adventures' section of the Forum.

[sundayhero]

I just bought some zvezda vikings (1/72*20mm) so I'll be able to test another scale too with the ruleset. I think I will not change anything in the rules measurements...20mm or 28mm is not that diferent.

[mweaver]

Thanks for the report, tikitang.  I hope to give them a try soon.

Michael

[tikitang]

Thanks for reading, Michael!

[SotF]

Looking through the mythology thing, the enchanted item thing lists a d6 roll to get it, but there's only 5 items listed. What's the 6th one there?

[Lost Egg]

Yeah I brought that up on the Ravenfeast FB group...no official response yet but someone suggested if you roll a 6 then you could choose an enchanted item.

[SotF]

Just thinking as a few additional things as ideas for lists...I'd love an actual reason to have a musician or banner with a force.

Standard Bearer(5 points): If this model is within morale range of your Jarl/Lord, other units may treat their morale range as from this model instead of the Jarl/Lord. You may only have 1 model with this rule in your band

Musician (5 points): Units within Morale range of this model have a +1 bonus to Morale in order to Rally. This does not stack with the same bonus from other musicians, this bonus does not apply when the Musician is one of those that need to Rally.


Enchanted Item
Hunting Horn: As Musician save with a +2 bonus to Morale in order to Rally.

[tikitang]

If you need any inspiration for magic items, here is the list from the original One Page Fantasy Skirmish rules which Ravenfeast is based on:

1.  Armband  of  Toughness: After failing an Armour save,  if  the figure  rolls 3  or lower they may still ignore  the  hit.

2. Battle  Axe  of Slaughter: On  a  successful hit the  hero  hits all enemies in base  contact.

3.  Battle Sword:  +1  to  Melee,  -1  to  Enemy  Armour.

4.  Magic Armour:  Only  one enemy  may  attack  the  hero in melee  per turn with a maximum  of  one attack.

5.  Obsidian  Amulet:  The  Hero is  immune to magic and may  have  a random  spell.

6.  Quick  Sword:  The  Hero  gets two  extra attacks.

Some of these are identical to the ones already in the Myth & Magic supplement, but there it is.