Brink of Battle - Official Thread - New TRAIT pg 7!

[Faust23]

The other thing you could do is give your model the Burly Trait for 15 sp's that gives him a +1 Damage increase when using close combat weapons.  That goes for any weapon he's using...

[seldon]

Faust,
looking at your blog I saw the news about your upcoming demos, so this opens up some questions.
1) do you have an estimate of when the fantasy module would be out ?
2) What about that "heroes" thing ? It seems a fun idea, do you have a beta, is a formal module coming out ?

Eager to know about this as I keep expanding my use of BoB for my Aegyptus minis and these two questions are very relevant towards that...

thanks
Francisco

[seldon]

Also, by any chance, do you have any idea/recommendation of how to include maybe two players per side on a regular BoB game, beyond just each of them pushing half the minis and agreeing on how to assign action tokens.

Francisco

[Faust23]

Faust,
looking at your blog I saw the news about your upcoming demos, so this opens up some questions.
1) do you have an estimate of when the fantasy module would be out ?
2) What about that "heroes" thing ? It seems a fun idea, do you have a beta, is a formal module coming out ?

Epic Heroes is slated for June release.  Band of Heroes is a BoB variant that will be included in the Epic Heroes book.

I have chicken scratched notes in my notebook and we'll be demoing The Great Brain Robbery which will be a Fantasy overlay onto the Old West for a Weird West adventure.  I'll keep you posted as things develop.

[Faust23]

Also, by any chance, do you have any idea/recommendation of how to include maybe two players per side on a regular BoB game, beyond just each of them pushing half the minis and agreeing on how to assign action tokens.

We have discussed several methods. However, by virtue of limited play test time, we've been unable to pull one off. 

Here's what I recommend.  Each side has built its force to the agree upon points.  Break the players into Team A and Team B.  For this example we'll call them 2 player teams.

Each Team compares the Command Rating of their individual Commanders.  The one with the highest CMD Rating is the Supreme Commander.  If it is a draw, either dice for it until someone wins, or decide who will be the SC.

The Supreme Commander uses his CMD Rating for all Strategy Checks.  He also gets to determine who has the bonus Action Tokens from winning The Edge, as well as the order of token placement and action execution.  He also determines which model/player gets to use The Break for his Team. 

Players will make their own Rout Checks, etc.  The Supreme Commander can use his Command Radius on any friendly models from his Team. 

Priority passes back and forth between Teams, but the players get to determine which of their models goes next as appropriate.  If there is a dispute on the Team, the SC wins the argument.

Forces on each Team get a number of Action Tokens equal to their Commander's CMD Rating as usual.  They cannot use excess tokens on a Team mate's models.

[seldon]

Excellent... thanks for the recommendation...

Waiting till June will be very tough !!!  I'm up for a pre-order whenever it becomes available...

cheers
Francisco

[Pvt week le]

I'm a dedicated skirmish gamer since 1976......own them all, have played them all. Just received B of B today and have been reading, thinking,contemplating for three hours. I cannot remember being so enthralled with a set of rules, well maybe IBSM and saga....but they are different animals and not able to scratch my long suffering SMALL action skirmish itch. Looking forward to getting B of B on the table period 2 Ottawa warriors vs all comers. I do have one question, when you want to take aim and fire does it take one turn to take aim and another turn to fire? Like I said I have been heavily engaged for almost four hours now with a whole lot of new, way cool ideas and thoughts running through my 60 yr old brain and can't figure out the difference between the two types of fire. Aiming actually looks worse than not aiming?!? Confused but soooooooo excited about these rules. by the way got them from LuLu and they look GREAT. Yers in iron and curr fayced dogges, pvt week le

[Faust23]

Welcome aboard and thanks for your business!

I'm glad you have caught the 'vision' of these rules.

Let me clarify your aiming question.  Take Aim is a separate Action that reduces your Ranged weapon's Rate of Fire (How many dice you throw) to 1. For that 1 Attack roll, you get to add +3 to your Combat Rating to determine your Total Attack Score.  It is resolved in the Turn you declared the Action.

For example, I have a Cherokee (I'm 1/16th  ) who wants to make a Ranged combat Attack with his Bow which has a Rate of Fire of 2.  He can take the Standing Fire Action and roll both dice, taking the highest result and adding his Combat Rating, which for our example is 4.  He rolls a 3 and a 7.  He adds the 7 to his CBT 4 for a Total Attack Result of 11.

He could also decide to Take Aim as his Action instead of Standing Fire or Mobile Fire.  If he does a Take Aim, his Bow is now Rate of Fire 1, and when he rolls that single Attack die he adds +3 to his CBT for the total result.
 So, with our example above, he would have a starting CBT 4 and then adds +3 to it for the Take Aim Action, which is 7. He rolls a 9 on his single Attack die and adding that, his Total Attack Score is 16.

So, Take Aim happens right now. No waiting. In fact, I have intentionally kept effects that carry over to the next Turn to an absolute minimum. 

Does that example help? 

[Pvt week le]

Aanii,
Megwich, (thank you) for clarifying fire/aim totally get it. Have not played a game yet, still putting my Odawas (ottawas) war band together and then need to figure out who they will mess with first. Most my gaming is solo. My pards live several hours away. Theme will be early 18th c. Fur trade power struggles Great Lakes area. Lastly, am I correct in noting there is no load action for black powder weapons sooooooo, a bow, musket, and a rifle all reload at the same rate? not being critical or concerned just want to make sure. Learned long time ago the guy that wrote the rules spent a hell of a lot more time on the game than my few hours of query.
Ps grand mother was a Red Stick Creek.....she always said," I am proof that old man Jackson didn't get us all."

[Faust23]

Lastly, am I correct in noting there is no load action for black powder weapons sooooooo, a bow, musket, and a rifle all reload at the same rate? not being critical or concerned just want to make sure. Learned long time ago the guy that wrote the rules spent a hell of a lot more time on the game than my few hours of query.

The game Turn represents a period of time that dialates or expands as the game proceeds, much like the adrenaline fueled perceptions of the combatants do.  I wanted to represent slower reload times with the Slow Gear Trait.  This means that a Heavy Crossbow, Black Powder weapon, and similar weapons systems will spend most of their 'Turn time' prepping their weapon to fire, and because of that they can't execute Take Aim or Mobile Fire Actions.  So while they can do Standing Fire every Turn, they aren't as flexible on the field as a Bow would be, which has a RoF of 2, and can roll 2 dice for a Standing Fire Action, a RoF of 1 for Mobile Fire, and a RoF of 1 for Take Aim. 

So, while the Heavy Crossbowman and the Musketeer are reloading, the Archer can shoot a few more arrows.  Since Rate of Fire represents a 'volley or volume' of fire, it gives us the mechanical flexibility we need for an intuitive game system, without compromising on the 'story' element.  If a model takes the Rapid Reload Trait, then he can execute a Mobile Fire or Standing Fire Action with his Slow Weapon.

A KAR98 Rifle has a RoF of 2.  An M-1 Garand has a RoF of 2.  Because the Garand is a semi-automatic weapon it has the Rapid Fire Trait.  Rapid Fire represents the ability to throw a lot of lead down range while moving.  So, when a Rifleman does Mobile Fire, his RoF gets cut in half and rounded down to a 1.  When a Garand wielding soldier does a Mobile Fire Action, his weapon's RoF is cut in half to 1, but then the Rapid Fire Trait adds +1 to his RoF, bringing it back up to 2 dice.  Fire and Maneuver will work better with a Garand than a bolt action rifle. A Submachinegun has a RoF 3 and Rapid Fire, so when its used for Moblie Fire its 3 is halved and rounded down to 1, then +1 is added on top, so he has a 2 instead.  If he stands still and lays down the hurt, he would roll 3 dice for his Standing Fire RoF of 3.

Hopefully that makes sense.  My goal was to keep the 'feel' right for all weapons and tactics.  When you play it out, Period 1 games are different from Period 2 games which are also different from Period 3 games. 

One rule I'm most proud of is Smoke for Black Powder Weapons.  These are for Period 2 Firearms.  It actually causes you to place a Smoke Token in front of your shooter to represent the ridiculous amounts of greasy white smoke those types of weapons produce.  This grants Concealment to your model when being targeted through the Smoke, and if you stick around to shoot through it next Turn and its still there, then your target might get Concealment as well!

Sorry for the excessive prose, but you are right with your assessment that I spent a whole lot of time thinking about this stuff!    Took me 6 years to get it to print.

[Pvt week le]

Perfect! Your reply makes perfect sense to me and why I am so excited to get on and play this system. I'm just missing little,things as I read through the rules in preparation for my first go round with them. Totally did not see the slow trait for BP weapons. I do appreciate your patience and answers. Your turn description hits the nail on the head as what you describe is EXACTLY what I'm looking for in a small skirmish action. ACTION. EBB. FLOW....yeah! My scalp pole will soon be full again.......

[Faust23]

As I like to say, BoB is crunchy enough to chew, but easy enough to swallow. 

[Faust23]

Well, after six weeks of intense scenery building with Drew, we have finished our new demo boards.  We will be at ConQuest SAC 2013 in Sacramento California April 5th-7th.

We will have our Historical board for Ancients & WW2 demo games as usual.  And we will be unveiling our Secret Fantasy board to promote the Epic Heroes fantasy supplement due out in June.

Come by and have a game, or just ogle the scenery. 

You can get all the details here http://conquestsac.com/

[GWRoberts]

Well, Bob, thank Alan for me.

I now have to rethink my after work schedule for the near future, after the fun time I had actually playing BoB today.

I really have to get at least one of my sets painted and start playing, just so I can get more familiar with the game - playing today *did* clear up some things I had been wodnering about.

It was also nice making Alan's American force rout off the board. Ask him about the long range flamethrower shot that took out his sergeant.

[Faust23]

Well, Bob, thank Alan for me.

I now have to rethink my after work schedule for the near future, after the fun time I had actually playing BoB today.

I really have to get at least one of my sets painted and start playing, just so I can get more familiar with the game - playing today *did* clear up some things I had been wodnering about.

It was also nice making Alan's American force rout off the board. Ask him about the long range flamethrower shot that took out his sergeant.

And I quote from Alan "He arced that shit from Downtown!" 

Few things in Brink of Battle are as satisfying as blasting a dude with a flamethrower! 

It was great hanging out with you and I will definitely tap you for the Sci-Fi playtest group when we get there.  I need another Traveller veteran waving the Duke of Regina's banner right along with me!