What the last rules set you played in 2021

[steve_holmes_11]

To me Frostgrave is Mordheim, but with magic as the main focus, plus you do need a lot of terrain to really make it work.

I think you've nailed my several paragraphs in a coupe of sentences.
I tip my hat to you sir.

[T13A]

 Hi

What ruleset did you use in your last game? - 'O' Group
2) What armies were confronted? - Soviets v Germans
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Only second game but a lot of things are sticking.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No.
5) How many players were in the game? - Solo
6) What went well? - Soviet mortar fire was excellent pinning down most of a company of German infantry and a platoon of StuG's. Rule wise. most queries can be quickly answered via the Too Fat Lardies website/forum and if not the rules author, David Brown is very helpful. 
7) What could have been improved? - Slight niggle is that the rules encourage the 3 bases that make up an infantry platoon to be close together when under artillery or mortar fire (you only need part of the platoon to be in the 'beaten zone' to become a target so it doesn't pay to space them out).  :-

Cheers Paul

[steve_holmes_11]

What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition
2) What armies were confronted? - Good guys Vs Unpleasant kidnapping human sacrificers.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, have been playing for a while, but mainly online, this was the first time we gathered around a table, and tings are different.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No.
5) How many players were in the game? - Three
6) What went well? - Good KFC meal before we started. Unpleasant kidnapping human sacrificers. got precisely what they deserved.
7) What could have been improved? - Printounts form the "Digital" system don't include magic spell details - Pal with phone fished these out as we went.

[Norm]

) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Two Flags - One Nation (my own ACW rules currently being converted from hex to open table)
2) What armies were confronted? - Union / Confederate
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes but still tweaking.
4) Was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No, but it is a living document as things evolve.
5) How many players were in the game? - Solo.
6) What went well? The new skirmish rules did a better job for Bufords dismounted cavalry at McPherson's Ridge,
allowing them to survive longer than in the original set and to be a nuisance by being able to fall back more intuitively.
7) What could have been improved - the new rule allows multiple Disorders to accumulate on a unit, but they can only be rallied off at best
one Disorder per Rally Phase. Because both terrain and combat result can inflict disorder, units were tending to stay disordered for too long
and that status became too predictable. Post game the rules have changed that allow a unit to 'attempt' to remove all Disorders in the Rally Phase.

The main question for me is whether the rules are particularly necessary. In their hex version they do a good job against a background of here not really
being many sets for gamers that want to figure game on a hex table. In the open version, they sit amongst a throng of established commercial rules
that probably do a better job.

[fred.]

The main question for me is whether the rules are particularly necessary. In their hex version they do a good job against a background of here not really
being many sets for gamers that want to figure game on a hex table. In the open version, they sit amongst a throng of established commercial rules
that probably do a better job.

An interesting and pertinent question to ask yourself.

I'd suggest thinking about what made the hex set different (and I suspect it is more than just being played on hexes)?

We converted our home brew Sci-Fi rules to a grid, but found it didn't really work for us - but when we converted back from a grid, we kept some of the concepts - the main one being that a unit had a centre point, and that was what was measured from at all times. Helped keep things fairly simple rather than having to worry about the precise positioning of a number of models within a unit. We also kept moves and ranges at multiples of the grid distance (15cm IIRC) rather than reintroducing partial distances. So it might be worth thinking if some of these things that made the hex version good would work in a non-hex version.

[steve_holmes_11]

Always interesting to hear form a developer who has a work in progress.

I suspect many of us have been there, and fizzled out before completion.

[Norm]

Thanks.

Fred, interestingly, I did bring the 'centre' of the unit concept to the open table and you are right, it does help. Yesterday I came across a charging situation / question that was simply decided upon by that principle (the charge didn't happen!).  One of the good things about this kind of process is that you get very familiar will all of the rules which helps play, but that familiarity can of itself lead to sloppy rule writing. It just all needs a lot of hours thrown at it.

Steve, A friend of mine who does quite a bit with rules wisely observed that the first 90% of putting a rule set together is fairly straight forward, the final 10% is the part that will likely see a fail.

[FierceKitty]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - HEP! DEVS VVLT!
2) What armies were confronted? - Franks and Ayyubids
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, though it went down the slipway a bit earlier than other systems in my rules fleet, and creaks a bit in stormy weather.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Nah.
5) How many players were in the game? - Two.
6) What went well? - I took the Franks this time; did a masterly job coordinating them and avoiding the usual curse of being surrounded and chewed up.
7) What could have been improved? - It didn't work. The knights rolled more ones than an egotist's self-confidence workshop.

[Steve J]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Shadow of the Eagles
2) What armies were confronted? - French vs Austrians 1809
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Pretty much even though I've only played three games so far.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No.
5) How many players were in the game? - Solo
6) What went well? - The Austrian artillery performed well early on, which gave them a good start. The Austrian heavy cavalry's death charge at the end was a spectacular success. Again the game flowed nicely and felt Napoleonic having played so much linear warfare before.
7) What could have been improved? - The French tactics could have been better, ditto the early shooting by the French artillery. The Inept Austrian Brigadier only got off one successful coomand roll in 6 Turns, thus hampering the infantry's ability to take the fight to the French.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? -Ian's WW2 rules
2) What armies were confronted? - British vs Germans
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes, after initial games I think I got the hang of a lot of it.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Yes
5) How many players were in the game? - Sunjester as Germans, I was British, Ian was umpiring.
6) What went well? - British ground the Germams out of two woods in two games.
7) What could have been improved? - Someone stealing Sunjester's morale dice!

Two great games, platoon level action, really well thought out rules, will defo try again 

[Last Hussar]

Thanks. Its always worrying introducing someone to new rules, especially if you wrote them yourself!  Hidden defenders definitely slows the attackers down as the look at every patch of cover, and wonder if it is occupied

[kustenjaeger]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Star Wars X-Wing 2e
2) What armies were confronted? - Rebels vs Empire
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - More or less
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Yes - I used to play 1e (and still have it all ...)
5) How many players were in the game? - solo to test differences in 2e from 1e
6) What went well? - my T-65 finally managed to kill both TIEs
7) What could have been improved? - my ability to avoid obstacles and to remember that the first ship to move may be obstructed by another ship.

Edward

[sunjester]

7) What could have been improved? - Someone stealing Sunjester's morale dice!

Two great games, platoon level action, really well thought out rules, will defo try again 

Oi!!! Keep your sticky fingers off my morale dice!

[Orcs]

Oi!!! Keep your sticky fingers off my morale dice!

It not just his flippin morale dice we need to lose.

[paulr]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - BBDA
2) What armies were confronted? - II/33 Polybian Roman, II/11 Gallic, II/39a Iberian v II/32a Later Carthaginian, II/5h Siciliot, II/39b Celtiberian
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - very
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Not by a long way
5) How many players were in the game? - 4
6) What went well? - I let the players pick the two armies to support the Polybian Romans and Later Carthaginians, each taking it in turn to pick an army as most fought for either side. This created some interesting confusion and choices for the players before generating the terrain.
7) What could have been improved? - The Roman's PIP dice

A couple of my newly flocked hills featured as rocky difficult hills in the game 



On the Carthaginian left the Siciliot cavalry and General block the Iberian attempt to move between the hill and the marsh as the Siciliot psiloi engage their Iberian counterparts.
In the center the Siciliot spear face off the Iberian auxilia and the Romans. While on the right Celtiberian psiloi and blades surge over the hill to combine with the Carthaginian's Spanish scutati to overwhelm the Gallic warband.

[Techno II]

 

Cheers - Phil.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

 


Since Phil keeps quoting me

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

 

[pierre the shy]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - BBDA
2) What armies were confronted? - II/33 Polybian Roman, II/11 Gallic, II/39a Iberian v II/32a Later Carthaginian, II/5h Siciliot, II/39b Celtiberian
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - very
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Not by a long way
5) How many players were in the game? - 4
6) What went well? - I let the players pick the two armies to support the Polybian Romans and Later Carthaginians, each taking it in turn to pick an army as most fought for either side. This created some interesting confusion and choices for the players before generating the terrain.
7) What could have been improved? - The Roman's PIP dice

Hmmm, yes the Roman allies had a particularly bad day in this game, the only highlight for the Romans was that they did manage to dispatch the two stands of Punic elephants in the centre while their allies were being put to the sword on each wing. We conceded after all three generals had been incapacitated.

Not sure what's happening next Saturday as a snap 3 day Level 4 lockdown has been called from midnight after a community Covid case, suspected to be the Delta varient, was found in Auckland  Its the first such case in over 6 months here in NZ.

[steve_holmes_11]

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Cricket.
2) What armies were confronted? - Batter Vs the rest.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes.
5) How many players were in the game? - Five
6) What went well? - Everybody's heads and hands still intact, no windows broken.
7) What could have been improved? - The spare ground between the houses and the motorway, is not as smooth as Trent Bridge.