Battlesworn - has anyone played this?

[Hobgoblin]

I'd had the hard copy of these Ganesha rules for a while. I'd read them and convinced a friend to buy the PDF and learn them, but had never actually played until this weekend, when I followed up a hike in the sunshine by playing a game with the kids. Both of them loved the bidding system. My daughter eventually moved to something else, leaving my son and me to complete the game. I thought it was fantastic - very different from Song of Blades and Heroes or any other wargame I'd played or read before (I gather it may have a debt to Crossfire in the measureless movement).

For those who don't know the game, it uses a bidding system of initiative. Each player chooses a number on a die, then reveals it, with the lower getting the initiative and that number of moves, and the higher getting to react with the difference (so 1 and 6 gives the first player one action and the second five reactions). Combat is resolved in a similar way: you can go first with a smaller number of dice to roll or last with more (hits are scored with rolls of 5 or 6; 1s cancel out hits). Movement is unlimited, but you stop when you enter a different terrain type, and models can be intercepted by reacting players. Wounds are marked with coloured counters: we used small bits of Lego.

There's a set of standard character types (Fighter, Shooter, Cavalry, Brute, Tank, Rabble, etc.), but most of these can be "multi-classed", allowing lots of flexibility. So, you could play a lizard rider as Cavalry or as Brute/Tank/Cavalry or whatever. The magic system looks good too, though we didn't use it in our first game.

Although the character classes seem broadly similar, we found that the apparently slight differences (Brutes do more damage, Tanks are harder to wound, etc) actually had a lot of impact: my son's lizardman heavy (a Tank) battered his way through masses of goblins (Rabble) virtually unscathed.

My overriding thought on this was that it was a "wargame for people who don't like wargames". I know quite a lot of people (and indeed am married to one!) who really like boardgames - Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Small World, etc. - but can't see the point of miniatures games. I think this is generally to do with the looser rule sets and wider possibilities, as well as the joys of simulation (I like my black uruks to run away when their leader is killed; that's what they do in Moria, after all. Not everyone does, though ...). But Battlesworn, with its tight bidding system and free movement, might prove much more accessible to those who prefer boardgames. The fact that the same bidding system covers initiative, shooting, melee and magic makes the game easy to grasp (much easier than I imagined from my first read-through, as do the unlimited movement and missile ranges.

Has anyone else played this? If so, what were your thoughts? Here's a blurry pic from our goblin/lizardman battle. The black Lego pieces are "gravestones" - not covered in the rules, but a gruesome addition that the kids made to record where their warriors met their doom!

[Evil Doctor]

I've played Battlesworn, and I thought it was a great game. The bidding mechanic means you're always having to make decisions based not only on what you want, but on what you think your opponent might do, and it gets very tense. The unit types are very different, and the bookkeeping is absolutely minimal with very few rules to remember. My one game of SoBH I didn't like - I failed to activate my Troll for the whole time I had him! - but Battlesworn feels very much more like I'm in control. A great game and I think you're right - I'm much more a boardgamer than mini gamer (though I collect and paint minis), and I found Battlesworn to really suit me.

[Hobgoblin]

I've played Battlesworn, and I thought it was a great game. The bidding mechanic means you're always having to make decisions based not only on what you want, but on what you think your opponent might do, and it gets very tense.

Yes, that's what we found. The fact that you can block the opponent by matching their bid means that there's a lot of second-guessing and even bluffing involved (going for powerful attacks several times in succession and then bidding low to get in first when it really matters, and so on).

The unit types are very different, and the bookkeeping is absolutely minimal with very few rules to remember.

That was a pleasant surprise for me. I'd assumed the game would be quite tricky to grasp at first, but it was quite the opposite.

The unlimited movement struck me as a very satisfying element too. I've often thought that skirmish movement distances seem way out, given how fast a warrior could run in real life. A lot of game movement distances seem to derive from one model representing hundreds of men and so appearing disproportionately small relative to a single figure. But in Battlesworn, because you have intercepts and opportunistic shooting, a character can dash across the tabletop very quickly, yet still be exposed to missile fire or melee engagement.

My one game of SoBH I didn't like - I failed to activate my Troll for the whole time I had him! - but Battlesworn feels very much more like I'm in control. A great game and I think you're right - I'm much more a boardgamer than mini gamer (though I collect and paint minis), and I found Battlesworn to really suit me.

Glad to have my thesis confirmed!  I really like SoBH, but Battlesworn seems every bit as good to me. And yes, it does give you a much greater degree of control. It's interesting that morale plays quite a big part in both games, but in very different ways: it can cause mayhem in SoBH, where it's very much an "on screen" effect, but it's also key in Battlesworn because of the default "dead outnumber the living" victory condition - only it takes place "off screen".

A great thing about both games is the minimal "time to table": you can assemble an SoBH warband in minutes by flicking through the profiles in the back or using the calculator, but Battlesworn trumps even that with its 12 slots.

[krieghund]

A truly great game, my mob use to play it a lot. Sadly I've not been able to play it lately, though I'm sure I've heard that Ganesha Games will be doing a supplement at some point.

[sespe]

After reading all the above I had to try the rules for myself.  We played a quick intro game without magic.  Great fun, even easier to pick up than SoBH.  The tide shifts back and forth quite well. 



My wife's archer made my healer run for cover, causing big Ed the giant to go down hard.  The two brute/tanks slugged it out together, with big Ed falling first.  Next to try it with magic!