Valor & Steel & Flesh questions.

[dusser]

I played my first game of Valor & Steel & Flesh and had a few rules questions I thought I would pose here.  The game pitted British Colonial Dwarves vs City Dweller Martians.  Pictures from the game can be seen here:  http://hodgepodgelodger.blogspot.com/

1.  We wondered what benefit troops get for being in Formation.  The only thing we could find is a +2 melee for the first round of hand to hand combat.

2.  The rules mention chain of command quite a bit, but it did not seem like Commanders do much.  They act as individual characters, can order a charge and can replace a unit leader.  Are we missing something about the role of Commanders and Chain of Command?

3.  The activation sequence calls for flipping 2 cards from the deck then activing units in the order they are flipped.  Is there any reason why 2 cards are flipped rather than just one at a time?

I appreciate any answers and insights into the rules.
Thanks,
David

[Sterling Moose]

Hi David,

We've toyed with these rules too but never had enough continuous sessions to iron out the wrinkles, as we only get to game maybe 4 or 5 times a year.  Anyway on to your questions:

1.  Volley Fire p90, on units in formation can do it (optional rule).  Other than that we couldn't find any other benefits.

2.  I think that Commanders can directly order a unit to do something out of it's normal sequence and only if the unit hasn't been activated that turn.  Each Commander gets a card as well as every unit so on the flip of the Commanders card he can give the order.

3.  I don't know the answer to this one.  I don't think there's a specific reason as it says on p16, " Sometimes both colours will come up. Normally this is not a problem, but should you think it necessary, activate in the order in which the cards were drawn."

Nice rules but we need to play them more to fully understand them

Sterling

[Alfrik]

On your number 3, its the order value of the cards flipped, not flipping the cards. You could, for instance, get a 2 and 9. The 9 activates before you would get down to the 2. The strategy of it is using the higher cards to activate units that need to fire before getting shot, lower cards to hold actions or just have nothing to do, so burn the 2 on a reserve unit.

[Sterling Moose]

I must be thick, I don't get it.

The rules say that it's the colour that matters not the value of the card, though you can assign face cards to characters and number cards to units if you want to.  It doesn't say you have to assign a card to a specific unit.  So if you were playing martians (usually red cards) and drew two red cards you could activate two martian units of your choice.

[Count Winsky]

It looked like a very fun game from your link.  Nice figures!!!

[dusser]

I must be thick, I don't get it.

The rules say that it's the colour that matters not the value of the card, though you can assign face cards to characters and number cards to units if you want to.

I read it that way too, that the color not number of the card maters.  Plus if cards are not assigned to specific units you will in effect be doing the same thing as Alfrick suggests and activating priority units as needed.  We just could not find a reason for flipping 2 cards as opposed to 1 at a time.  The only thing we could think of was it gave a bit of clairvoyance to the players.

It looked like a very fun game from your link.  Nice figures!!!

Thanks!  The Dwarves and terrain are my friend Bill's.  His stuff is always top notch.  I can't recall the manufacturer, but I love the Ostrich Cav.  The Martians are mine and are all from RAFM's Space 1889 line.  It was a fun game, but we had to stop a lot and paw through the rule books, which surprised us both as we thought on first read that they were straight forward.  The Martians held their own until the Dwarves got into effective range with their rifles, then the shorter range and reloading of the Martians put them at huge disadvantage.  The Martian Fanatics did get in one glorious charge, which was fun, but they had already been withered by fire so were less effective.

[Nazrat]

The flipping of two cards simply speeds up play.  Generally in a big-ish game the two units can activate at the same time since they probably won't affect each other at all.  In cases where they WILL directly affect each other you can use the value of the card to decide who goes first.  We tend to make it a roll off to decide priority because we just like rolling dice.

Jerry