Chain Reaction Swordplay

[pauld]

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?

[capthugeca]

I haven't enjoyed them yet but, like you, I have bought a number of THW rule sets (amongst others) and downloaded all the freebie ones and not got round to trying them (or reading them in some cases).
You have certainly enouraged me to dip my toe in them.
So thanks.

[DFlynSqrl]

Yeah, I play quite a bit of the THW stuff.  Been thinking about giving the Swordplay a run.  Definately dust-off Nuts 2.0 if you're thinking about it.  A friend and I have been playing them here lately and really like the changes made for 2.0.

[Plynkes]

Thanks for pointing these rules out.  I've played 5150 with my mate who is into Sci-Fi and really enjoyed it. I gather it uses a similar system to this. I wasn't aware of this particular variation, so I've downloaded it to have a bit of a gander at it. I'm looking for some small scale skirmish rules for my Burton and Speke vs. the Somalis (revolvers and sabres vs. spears and clubs) game. I was thinking of using Song of Drums and Shakos, but I shall consider this as a possible alternative now.