Flint and Feather Campaign Playtest Update

[Mitchelxen]

Oshweken is a village on the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation Indian reserve near Brantford, Ontario, Canada.We were in Brantford for a local show at the Legion Hall and ran a day long campaign game of Flint and Feather. My goal was to work through a couple or few games using the campaign rules in between tabletop games to see how they ran and tweak any issues. We were successful in that we did get a chance to get a good assessment of the campaign rules.


Tom's Archers huddle behind the rock for cover.

We had two players lined up, Tom and Wayne, who sat down to bash on each other. Neither had played the game before so it would be a good test of the rules. This was also the first convention playtest that we used Shaman rules and Orenda. We also used the Warband Record Sheets for each player. Four Sheets of six man Warbands had been prepared the night before. Each Warband was created equally using a Great Warrior, Companion, Veteran Warrior, Warbearer, Stripling and Shaman. Therefore all Warbands were valued at 135 Furs each, as per the chart on page 2 of the Basic Rulebook. All abilities and skills were used from the Basic Rulebook except for two instances. First, we have made up about ten Shaman skills which were rolled randomly for the Shamans (what the heck we have to playtest them all anyway). Second, I made up a new skill called Arm of Oak which allows a Key Character to use a Huge Club, and the Huge Club gives a character an extra +1d6 for Counterblow when using the Huge Club. I have found this ability a little redundant (similar to Fox' Guile) so we may have to change the benefit slightly, like make it for Parry instead of Counterblow, and allow you to do an attack die out of Parry.


Wayne's Warband approaches after splitting to retrieve furs.

So the first game we played we used a basic set up and a grab the Furs Markers goal. The game progressed well with Wayne attempting to gobble up as many furs markers as he could, he got four by the game end. Meanwhile Tom played a more conservative game and based his defense around a rock outcropping which allowed him to hide and shoot arrows and then attack with some melee armed warriors from behind the rock. His tactic was successful as he was able to shoot down a stripling before the close combat was joined. In the ensuing close combat Wayne's Companion was injured and knocked down while both Great Warriors were injured. A Warbearer was also beat up. Wayne's group failed their Nerve Test and ran away leaving their Companion to be captured and tortured by the victorious Warband. With the death of the Stripling and the capture of a Companion as well as three Furs Markers captured the game was given as a victory to Tom who collected 100 Points and totaled out at 180 as per the Victory Table on Page 30 of the basic rules. Wayne meanwhile did not go home empty handed, gaining four Furs Markers, he achieved 50 points for being partially successful in the game, and he topped out at 69 Furs after considering all his loses and damage he created.


The Shaman (in wolf form) leads the charge.

In the between games section the Companion was rolled for and not accepted into the tribe but rather tortured to death. Wayne rolled for his Great Warrior with no effect on the brave. The warbearer also recovered from his wounds. Tom on the other hand lost the use of an arm on his Great Warrior and promptly retired the figure. He then promoted his Companion to Great Warrior and bought two new abilities for the new leader. He also purchased three Warbearers and a Stripling to further outfit his Warband.
We found the chart for the injuries to Warriors to be rather one sided. In terms of injuries sustained your figure either died, he retired, due to a severe wound, or there was no effect on him. Secondly, the points seem to come fast and furious and allowed a victor to really stock up on new recruits, abilities and equipment. Possibly 100 points is far too many for a winning side as this would allow you to buy up to three or four new models quite easily. Also, this could be the intent as warriors tend not to get old and skilled rather they are just replaced with fresh blood after a tabletop battle. More testing will have to go into the campaign rules to find the right balance.
In the second tabletop game we rolled up a scenario from our scenario pack and got the mission of "Trip to Kebec" right off the bat. This scenario is important because if you are the player traveling to Kebec you can buy the Shining Wood, a great boon to any warband. We will continue part two of this blog with a discussion about the Trip to Kebec Scenario next week. 

[HothJim]

This looks great.
Will there by a UK distributor of the rules and minis?

[Mitchelxen]

Pulp Figures & Crucible Crush are in the final scramble to get product shipped for Historicon next weekend in Fredericksburg.

We have begun production of the Flint & Feather miniatures that were part of our rule book Kickstarter and we are beginning the fulfillment phase for the miniatures. Any backers who would like to pick up their Kickstarter minis at the show please contact us asap.

The following Flint & Feather will be available at the show:

Iroquois/Haudenosaunee Warriors -box set #1
Huron/Wendat Warriors -box set #2
Iroquoian Canoes -box set #3 (3 canoes and 6 paddlers per box)
Iroquoian Spirit Creatures -box set #4 (Flying Head, Naked Bear, Great Horned serpent & Stone Coat Giant)

Open Handed Warriors- 5 figure pack
Iroquois with Muskets- 5 figure pack
Iroquoian Accessories #1, pack
Iroquoian Accessories #2 pack

We will be treating all Flint & Feather sales as part of the Kickstarter total with the intent to reach the pledge level that will unlock the Medicine Cards for the game.

Howard Whitehouse will be running demo games in the dealer area during the day and you can join us on Saturday evening in the gaming hall for a full demo game of the rules. Mention this post on Lead Adventure forum and you can get a free figure with any purchase at the booth.

[WallShadow]

Pulp Figures & Crucible Crush are in the final scramble to get product shipped for Historicon next weekend in Fredericksburg.

We have begun production of the Flint & Feather miniatures that were part of our rule book Kickstarter and we are beginning the fulfillment phase for the miniatures. Any backers who would like to pick up their Kickstarter minis at the show please contact us asap.

The following Flint & Feather will be available at the show:

Iroquois/Haudenosaunee Warriors -box set #1
Huron/Wendat Warriors -box set #2
Iroquoian Canoes -box set #3 (3 canoes and 6 paddlers per box)
Iroquoian Spirit Creatures -box set #4 (Flying Head, Naked Bear, Great Horned serpent & Stone Coat Giant)

Open Handed Warriors- 5 figure pack
Iroquois with Muskets- 5 figure pack
Iroquoian Accessories #1, pack
Iroquoian Accessories #2 pack

We will be treating all Flint & Feather sales as part of the Kickstarter total with the intent to reach the pledge level that will unlock the Medicine Cards for the game.

Howard Whitehouse will be running demo games in the dealer area during the day and you can join us on Saturday evening in the gaming hall for a full demo game of the rules. Mention this post on Lead Adventure forum and you can get a free figure with any purchase at the booth.

Yes, indeed,  Howard Whitehouse, the man who brought you "Mad Dogs With Guns", "Eat Hitler", and "Chainmail Bikini", plus numerous other games that are actually _fun_ to play (gasp!  the thought!), admitted to me under duress that he will be bringing his Flint and Feather set-up to Historicon for the world to see and play.
Anyway, it seems the rules are being finetuned and tweaked even at this very moment.  Well, knowing Howard, perhaps after tea. The beta version is available online at Crucible Crush's website:

http://www.cruciblecrush.com/flint-feather/

WallShadow says, "Check it out."

and you can glom onto some other bits and snippets on their Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=flint%20and%20feather%2028mm

The rules cover pre- and trans-Contact Native American warbands and conflicts between that era's nations--The Iroquois Confederation, the Huron, Abenaki, Algonkian, Delaware, Shawanee, and many others.  This really lit a fire under me to research this topic to be able to really appreciate a lightly-attended subject.  This is a great way of getting folks involved in history, gaming, and cultural studies.  Luckily, I have the State Museum directly across the street from my workplace; I plan on crossing that street to look again at the Pennsylvania archeological Native American units that cover the local nation--the Susquahannocks.  Gotta root for the home team, I guess. 

[Bob Murch]

Here is the finished Stone coat Giant model:

[fitterpete]

I picked up my figures at Historicon this weekend and can't say enough good things about them.
The sculpting is incredible and the casting is awesome.
Thanks guys!
Pete

[WallShadow]

I picked up my figures at Historicon this weekend and can't say enough good things about them.
The sculpting is incredible and the casting is awesome.
Thanks guys!
Pete

So, which figures did you get? The Huron, or the Haudenosaunee?   

[fitterpete]

Are you kidding?
Both of course!

[El Frantico]

I picked up the minis for this at Gencon and got to meet Bob himself! Great guy, and sculpts are fantastic, I'm excited to ruin them with my painting and try the game out 

[mikedemana]

I got mine over Winter as a Christmas present -- 3 packs. I have two of the three done and they are superb. Work great for my Beaver Wars period, too, for my Song of Drums and Tomahawks games! I used two of the guys with the armor on Saturday as my warband's "point men," so to speak.

It was funny at Historicon. I sent my friend over to their booth, because he'd seen my painted versions of them and liked them. He came back having spent half of what he would for the whole show at their table... He looked at me like it was my fault he spent so much money! 

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Marine0846]

Hey Mike,
I purchased three packs about the same time as you did.
Any word from Bob if we would be able to purchase the rest
of the figures to fill out the two tribes?

[mikedemana]

Any word from Bob if we would be able to purchase the rest
of the figures to fill out the two tribes?

Don't know, Randy. He had quite a few available at Historicon for purchase. I think he monitors these threads, too. So, hopefully he can respond in a more informative way than me...

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Mitchelxen]

It has been a long time since I have posted here in LAF. We have been very busy working on the Campaign Rules for our Flint and Feather game. I have posted below one of our recent Flint and Feather Playtest Blog entries. For more entries and to catch up please visit our blog site flintandfeatherplaytest.blogspot.ca/. Our most recent entry has a painting guide. Please enjoy and let us know your thoughts on our new rules.



On Thursday we sat down to another playtest session using the new Campaign Rules we had brewed up. We had just finished our tabletop battles from Turn #1 and we had gone thru most of the Aftermath phase. We were ready to begin our second turn. It was interesting that the players all wanted to take a Rest Order in the second turn. So learning the rules, and creating some new ones as we went, it was determined that you could only carry over half your War! Dice from the previous turn. This makes it important to spend your War! Dice especially if you have any extra because you do not round up, rather you round down any dice you carry over. War! Dice are what you earn for winning tabletop games and they are what you spend during your Campaign Turn.



For instance if you take five dice into the next turn you would get two War! Dice to add to your total for the next turn. So why not spend the one and only carry four over, if you were going to hold any dice over the next turn at all.

We felt this was an important consideration because it stops players from creating or whole large bag of War! Dice that they can then use to attack one player on a subsequent turn. We also felt this more accurately reflected the period when breaks in warfare to clear the fields and hunt were a natural requirement due to the need for survival among the tribes.

The fact that the players all took Rest Orders allowed us to work through how this order would work in the game. You can either take a Training session or a Build Session for your Rest Order. If you choose a Training session then you can take a free Campaign Card. Campaign Cards have many different effects on the game but the basic purpose of them is to allow your Special or Key Characters to get better. The cards also have some random events that can effect the Campaign Game or even the tabletop game.



All in all I think the game is developing well. The players are having fun and the game is playing with relative ease so far. We play again this week with all four players lined up for a tabletop battles. Please stay tuned for the results. 

[Frontiersman]

I'll have to try these rules with my Warlord Games/Lucid Eye Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons since the Savage Core rule set appears to be MIA.

[Mitchelxen]

The basic rules are available online here https://www.cruciblecrush.com/files/Flint%20and%20Feather%20Basic%20Rules(1).pdf
Although there has been some rewriting since this was made available they will certainly work. One thing to note is that the shooting rules are missing the -1 modifier for target in concealment, -2 for target in cover.