Thanks for the comments - much appreciated
And so I have had a first play test of my
Games of The North rules. The table was too small at 3'x2' but that's as much terrain as I have finished for this project: with 20 minis a side 3'x3' would have been much better. I played the Boltons versus the Wildlings, with the Wildlings controlled by an embryonic solo system.
The rules use unit activation by card with each subject to a test for stickiness (passed easily if you have leader figures in play, much harder if not) which can limit the extent of what the unit can do in the turn. A unit is 1-6 minis, including its leader. There is a Force Captain and Banner carrier, who confer activation and morale advantages. There are three types of Soldier (sword, spear and bow, with each having its own advantages). The game is bloody, as only leaders have saving throws. Morale is tested at the end of the turn with very small leaderless units being very likely to run.
The essense of the game was the Boltons moving North up the road to occupy a derelict fort with the Wildlings, who have moved south of The Wall to kinder lands, taking umbrage at their presence and being determined to drive them off. Each of the Forces comprised 4 Units with the 1st Unit consisting of the Captain and Banner. Each of the Wildling Units comprised a mix of the three Soldier types, while the Boltons had dedicated Units of sword or bow or spear.
NB: Apologies but it's all phone images, which have been brightened due to poor light and in doing so have lost definition
The Forces started as far apart as possible, across the diagonal of the board.
The Boltons had the initiative and moved fast up the road, the spears leading the swords under cover of archers who were moving off a to mound on their right.
The Wildlings had a much slower start, being hampered by limited activiations as their Captain was late onto the table.
The end of the first turn:
The Wildings then advance to their right to close off the entrance to the fort.
Unfortunately for the Wildlings, the Boltons Unit of archers then promptly activated to move in range and unleash hell, killing 2 from one Unit and 3 from another. (The 'pools of blood' are kill markers that show the Unit as having lost a man or more in this turn, which act as a reminder that the Unit is to take a Morale Test when activated or at the turn end if already activated. They are significantly more obvious then I wanted and so will be getting some static grass.)
With the Wildlings depleted, the Boltons swords and spears surged forwards.
The end of the second turn:
Despite their reduced numbers, the two Wildling Units had passed their end-of-turn Morale Tests, no doubt due to their Captain encouraging them on.
Unfortunately, however, the third Wildling Unit was still very much to the rear, something which in his enthusiasm the Wildling Captain seemed to have overlooked (they'd had bad rolls).
Into the third turn and the Boltons once again had the initiative, being able charge their spears into the leading Wildlings.
More units from both sides piled into the fight at the entrance to the fort with the Boltons eventually getting the upper hand. The Wilding Captain was left with a solitary spearman....
..... and that spearman promptly ran away.
Despite being heavily outnumbered, a helpful order of activations and lucky saving rolls meant the Wildling Captain was able to survive the fight.
Into the fourth turn and once again activations favoured the Wildlings with their Captain, being able to run off to his somewhat reluctant unit that had been hanging at the table edge (poor activations rolls having seriously hampered their participation), who were able to then use their bows to take out three of the Bolton archers who'd caused so much damage earlier on.
The closing positions:
The Wildlings then conceded the table and the game ended.
The Forces are built using a point system, with different values for each of the Soldier types. In this game both Forces started out with 50 points worth. These points can also be used to assess the extent of victory, which in this case was a clear win for the Boltons who not only won the ground but did so by causing 33 points of casualties while only suffering 19 themselves.
The Bolton archers had played a pivotal role early on, which given how the initiative and activations subsequently played out resulted in a sensible but not predictable conclusion. I'm therefore pretty pleased with how the core rules worked, though I have to make some changes to the solo mechanism as I'd had to overrule some illogically stupid directions.
Thanks for looking. Next up, I'm back on terrain making to enlarge the board bigger for a more substantive play test.
28 July 2006, 06:14:48 PM
