Witchfinder General -Rules

[charla51]

"This exciting new wargame rule book contains 108 A4 sized pages of furious wargaming fun. The game is inspired by folklore, myth and the propaganda pamphlets produced by all sides involved in the English Civil Wars. Witchfinder General: Days of Revelation provides background and rules for using: Witchfinders; angry villagers; clubmen; pikemen; musketeers; dragoons; cavalry; vampires; werewolves; witches; noctelinger and barguests.

Designed for use with 28mm scale figures."

The above is from www.dashingdicegames.com website. It's been mentioned in the "Witchunter" thread, but I thought I'd give it more promanence here. Does anyone know anything about the rules or the Dashing Dice Games outfit? Apparently they are based in Scarborough.

[richarDISNEY]

Humm...   
I'm interested...

[joroas]

Their site says that tehy are not avilable until 31-10-11....... 

[anevilgiraffe]

probably did deserve it's own thread 

bit of an unknown quantity... not heard of anything on any forums beyond reference to that page...

[fastolfrus]

Don't know it specifically, but was talking to a playtester just last Saturday.
He enjoyed the rules but didn't give many clues.
They are supposed to be demoing the thing at Smoggycon.

Personally I might have preferred a Thirty Years War setting.
If anyone hasn't read it I would recommend Simplicious Simplicissimus:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplicius_Simplicissimus

[Sheerluck Holmes]

About the only thing I can add is that you can pre-order the rules on the Book Depository for a bit cheaper and with free postage.

[anevilgiraffe]

About the only thing I can add is that you can pre-order the rules on the Book Depository for a bit cheaper and with free postage.

ah but can you...  no idea how Book Depository works, but if this has an ISBN number, they could have just listed it that way... I know Crooked Dice have a nightmare with Amazon advertising 7TV for sale, but have no stock... all based on it having an ISBN

http://www.amazon.co.uk/7TV-Wargaming-World-Cult-TV/dp/0956839002/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1317161276&sr=8-3

when you're a small publisher, you can pretty much guarantee you know who has your stock or not...

[Sheerluck Holmes]

Well, I have pre-ordered from them in the past and it has come through, and they had better cough up on this one too 

http://www.bookdepository.com/Witchfinder-General-Days-Revelation-Eric-Barnes/9780957002609

[Lowtardog]

It sounds interesting, I have a hankering for an 18th century setting and was looking at using Fear and Faith, I wonder how it stacks up against that

[anevilgiraffe]

yep, Fear and Faith was going to be my choice... will have to wait and see...

[Lowtardog]

yep, Fear and Faith was going to be my choice... will have to wait and see...

I think it is best way

[anevilgiraffe]

http://www.dashingdicegames.co.uk/index.html

more up on the site and it looks like it's orderable...

intrigued that foraging and food appear to be part of the game...

[Galland]

http://www.dashingdicegames.co.uk/index.html

more up on the site and it looks like it's orderable...

intrigued that foraging and food appear to be part of the game...

It might make for good campaign gaming? I am getting a bit interested as well in this, maybe due to the fact that we have simular lore, give or take a few creatures, wich I am sure would be easy enough to add.
There is a large discussion among the swedish members at the moment about creating just such a thing, a swedish lore driven game. I am surprised that none of them have participated in this thread yet.

[joroas]

warlord now carry these:

http://www.warlordgames.com/13926/new-witchfinder-general-days-of-revelation-rulebook/

[anevilgiraffe]

well, I've had a read through... bearing in mind I'm not a super games guru with knowledge of every ruleset out there, but to be honest, it's not winning me over...

the layout is a bit lose and mentions stuff out of the blue that won't get explained til later - there are a couple of pages on issuing commands, then there is a passing reference to failing a reload command when nothing has been said to indicate that commands can be failed which threw me.

there are some interesting touches, but I'm not sure if they really work... combat isn't base to base, but 1 inch from the base for fisticuffs (which includes swords) and 2 inches for pikes... I get pikes, but that any hand weapon has a 1 inch reach seems odd...

there are 6 different movement stats - three types of terrain within a normal move or move with an enemy in proximity.  don't think I've ever played a ruleset with that kind of detail like that... a single stat does the job and then have modifiers - 6 movement stats make the summary for each troop type a bit daunting.

I like the term Gumption for skills - great word… specific skills are listed in the army list bit for each type which I could live with (a skills section would be a handy reference point) – except for ‘fingers and thumbs’ and ‘hunter’ which are mentioned in different sections of the book... I assume they thought ‘fingers and thumbs’ would be self explanatory, except (for me) someone who is ‘fingers and thumbs’ drops stuff all the time… turns out it means you can carry stuff I think as it’s mentioned briefly under Ladders. I can’t see it under foraging so I guess anyone can tie a cow up and lead it away… ‘hunter’ is mentioned 13 pages later in the terrain section

the layout of the stats could have been a bit more quick reference friendly and snappy – I am wondering now if the authors come from a more historical ruleset background

the breakdown of the forces seems to be split into two factions: Witchfinders and Vampires… this doesn't seem very in keeping with the era as I know it (beg to stand corrected if necessary) and the vampire seems thrown in to tie all of the other mythology into a single force... werewolves, barguests, noctelinger (ghouls), evil pikemen, and witches feel like Vampire troop types rather than things in their own right… the witch divebombers just seem like a strange comical addition to a dark theme... obviously I know the broom is part of the mythology, but as a troop type, witches on brooms with grenades just seems odd…

some more rules savvy types may see more in it and I'll try a game if I get chance, to see how it plays, but I'm afraid to say there are more fluid and adaptable skirmish games out there... and I didn’t know about Flashing Steel until today which is something I’ll need to look at seeing as it should merge with beasties from Fear and Faith reasonably well…