What the last rules set you played in 2021

Started by Steve J, 06 January 2021, 02:15:30 PM

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steve_holmes_11

Quote from: Raider4 on 05 August 2021, 09:13:18 AM
Mordheim was fun back in the day. The problem we always found was having enough scenery.

That sounds a lot like the problem with Frostgrave.
Frostgrave's  well thought out game, but unless you can fill three square feet with streets and buildings, victory will go to the Elementalist (A walking artillery wizard).

I was also reminded of Frostgrave when writing up the Pikeman's lament game.
The intention is to have a multi-way wizard battle close to the centre of the table.
Smart players usually grab the closest 2 or three loot tokens and laager up on their own edge - while casting as many "easy" spells as possible to accumulate experience.

The reason for this cowardly behaviour is that casualties are rather expensive (and an XP bonus to the Elementalist until amended in 2nd Edition).

It's interesting that once the terrain density improves, other wizards form some of their henchmen into hunting parties to eliminate the Elementalist wizards.


Apologies for thread hijack.

Steve J

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.

DecemDave

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Command and Colours Napoleonics.  Boardgame
2) What armies were confronted? - Wellington British/Portugese vs Marmont French. (Salamanca flank action)
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes but still finding things I dont get quite right.
4) Was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No but its been a while.
5) How many players were in the game? - Two.
6) What went well?
Its a relatively simple Napoleonic wargame but there are some subtle rules in there.
The card play did its usual job of frustrating cunning plans, keeping both sides active and altering the pace up and down.
the number of scenarios and replay ability in this series is awesome.
7) What could have been improved?
a. I (french) lost.  But only just. rematch next week with swopped sides.
b. Well that's why I have posted it.  I am staring to plan daydream about "doing" this with the Peninsular non kickstarter figures.  Most units have 3-4 blocks/bases and it wont care if they are on 20/25 /30/40 mm widths as they all fit the big cloth version I bought so the armies will remain playable in other rulesets.
Having shared this noble and inspiring vision of course, my opponent said she preferred the blocks anyway.  But that's just her mind games to keep me a loser. 

Steve J

) 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? - Not bad for my second game game.
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? - This game flowed nicely and I remembered most of the rules without needing to use the rulebook, only the QRS. It certainly felt more Napoleonic than the first game.
7) What could have been improved? - A couple of queries during the game that I couldn't find the answer to straightaway, but nothing major.

steve_holmes_11

Quote from: Steve J on 05 August 2021, 09:58:49 PM
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
T13A Out!

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.

Quote from: Norm on 09 August 2021, 07:20:45 AM
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.
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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.
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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 
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