Here's that play test I threatened you with in my last post. I’ll avoid a die roll by die roll account of things but focus on how some of the mechanics worked in practise. Shouldn’t think it’d run to more than 200 pages, Lol.
Like any testing it’s a good idea to keep things small and the situation itself fairly “vanilla”. For the purposes of this post I’ve chosen to use only one ward per faction and I’ve kept the board size small enough to fit on our dining room table.
The minis are Peter Pig 15mm and the terrain is hexon.
Scenario: Two small groups of fighting men are converging on each other at the only crossing of a small but fast flowing stream.
Objective: Kill the opposition nobles or drive their force from the field of battle:
Pre game setup: The pre game set up determines the composition and number of the units in each opposing force, the amount of terrain and its distribution and a bit of strategic card play to add flavour to the encounter.
The rules call for a minimum of four companies per ward and each ward must contain a men at arms company who will host the wards leader (denoted by a flag). In addition to the men at arms every force must contain at least one archer company.
Both factions were given their two “must have” at start units and were only dealt four other unit cards from the army builder deck in an effort to keep things manageable. I decided to be in command of the Yorkists and the cards I was dealt gave me an additional crossbow company, two sets of billmen and one extra group of men at arms. With six companies overall I only have enough units for one ward. Since no blank cards were placed in the army deck both factions will end up with an equal number of companies.
My absent opponent, hereinafter referred to as the A.O. was dealt his four cards and received two companies of archers and two companies of men at arms. On paper at least he could outshoot me and bring greater melee combat strength to bare on my poor lads.
The terrain set up section was omitted on this occasion both for brevity and a desire to ensure a level playing field - though I chucked some trees and a broken ground hex in to break the view up a bit. As things stood there would be little in the way of cover for my Yorkists to duck behind when all those arrows started to whistle past!
The next requirement was to work out the number of companies in each force that would equate to 40% and 60% - which I concluded was near enough 2 and 4 given a bit of rounding up and down.
In this play test, when a faction loses two of its companies, for whatever reason, they will have reached the 40% breakpoint (the point at which those still living begin to notice how many of their mates are piled up around their feet). In the admin phase at the end of every turn, if a faction has reached 40%, each remaining company in it will have to test against its bravery level and those companies that fail will do a runner. (Represented by stand removal). If a faction reaches the 60% level by losing 4 units then no testing is required - the whole force is “offski” enmasse, and are judged to have lost the game.
The only other major part of the pre game set up is the issue of happenstance cards which will influence strategy or the environment; which I’ll cover next.
The A.O is dealt three happenstance cards whose content is kept hidden. Two cards are randomly taken from the pack to add a degree of uncertainty and I am allowed to choose one, before being dealt two from the top of the pile (to bring me up to three as well).
Given the A.O’s preponderance of archers I decided to pick the “too much pottage” happenstance card which I knew would gift me a strong wind at my back, (there’s a joke in there somewhere) increasing my archers six hex range by one and reducing his chances to hit with indirect / plunging fire. Flicking through the deck to find the card I realised the treachery card that could alter my army’s allegiance was no longer in there...did the A.O have it or was it one of the two arbitrarily removed from the pack? Should I just get my pottage card or should I take the “hostage to fortune” card that could counter the treachery one. Decisions, decisions! Being a cautious cat I chose to have a counter to the treachery card just in case.
By a bit of luck the pottage card was one of the two I was dealt, the other being related to a flanking move which in our test game I could not use.
The human player (me) must deploy his forces before the A.O and I chose to set mine out like this:
The archery lads were on my left wing and the crossbow boys on my right. Because I envisaged a head to head at the bridge I joined my two billmen companies together into what I’ve termed a band (not happy with the nomenclature) in order to increase their melee power in the narrow bottle neck of the bridge. I did the same with my men at arms. There are limitations on which types of companies may be combined in this fashion, but it’s a level of detail I think we should ignore at this point. Next I chose the order to apply to my ward. In a bigger game, as the force commander I would issue an order (of my choosing) to my subordinate ward commanders, and they would be expected to see it carried out. In this play test there’s just me and my fancy flag on the board in an effort to keep things simple.
The orders I can choose from include attack, which is a measured advance towards any enemy, supported where possible by missile fire, charge, a none missile supported rush at the nearest enemy, hold, where units are only really able to change their facing and defend themselves, or retire and reform which allows a limited cohesion point recovery with the risk that the boys will just keep on retiring... till they’re no longer there.
I went for “attack” after a bit of pondering because I wanted to use my pottage card and out range him with my arrow twangers.
After committing myself to deployment and orders the A.O has a randomly generated deployment and order choice of his own. He went with attack as well. His lads were laid out like this:
Gearing up for the start I got ready to slap down my pottage card and establish the weather for the entire game. Having selected vanguard as the title of both our wards I turned the first ward activation card over to find a vanguard card, which would have been great if it hadn’t been the Lancastrian vanguard, not mine. The A.O. got to go first.
On the first turn a player with a GS (game start) happenstance card must play it or lose it. The happenstance cards have GS or DG (during game) on the back like this:
The A.O. had one so I turned it over to reveal it was... “pea souper”. Because this was a weather card and the first one played it would determine the weather for the duration of the entire battle, my windy pottage card was now useless.
The card described how the whole area was smothered in a dense fog that had reduced visibility to no more than 2 hexes. While this meant that he had handicapped his own archers the other part of the narrative was that three of my units had become disorientated in the murk and must have their hex spine facing changed by 1 in any direction. Companies intent on moving always set off through either of their front two hexes and since some of mine were now facing slightly the wrong way the time spent reorientating them meant it’d take me longer to reach the bridge and the bottleneck that I hoped to use to restrict the frontage of his better melee units. The fogs presence would need to be diced for each turn but at best visibility would only improve by one hex at a time.
Missile fire was the first phase of his turn but none of his guys could see anything so that was not an option. Under the attack order if his missile troops cannot fire they have the option to be placed on overwatch (really not happy with this modern term) or to move. It should be noted that missile troops cannot fire and move in the same turn. In order to get them into action his only real choice was to move them towards me along with his other units who are compelled to do so by the attack order they must abide by. Movement towards me requires each unit to pass a bravery test. 2d6 are rolled for every moving company or band and the resultant score must be equal to or less than their bravery level. Since lesser status / equipped units have a lower bravery level than their betters they are generally slightly harder to push forward. The units that pass may move, those that fail do nothing. If 2 or more of his units fail, the A.O’s attack order becomes void and the entire ward can do nothing but defend itself until a new order is chosen by die roll in the admin phase at the end of the turn. As it turned out only the one archer unit on his left flank failed and refused to budge, all his other chaps moved up.
Apart from mounted units and pikes all units have 2 movement points to spend per turn. Clear terrain cost 1 mp per hex traversed. Single company’s can change their facing by up to 2 hex spines for 1 mp but a band can only change their facing by 1 hex spine for the same cost.
Those with good eyes might just make out the three arrow bunches at the back. This is the ammo supply for his three archers. If more than one archer company fires at the same target, one of these arrow markers is removed. If archers fire at separate targets no deductions are made. If the three arrow markers are used up during a game archers may still fire, but can not combine their attacks. Note, every other type of missile weapon has unlimited ammo.
My ward only contained one company of archers so they were never going to lay down an arrow storm. No ammo markers were needed for the Yorkies.
During the following turns the fog began to lift albeit by one extra hex of visibility each time. Units from both sides pushed forward towards the bridge, (well all apart from the Lancastrian archers on his left who refused to leave the start line).
Already delayed by having to reorientate some of my boys I was further hampered in my advance when three of them failed their bravery tests, the attack order became void, and in the subsequent turn it was re rolled for and became “hold”. I was going nowhere fast!
Though voided orders are replaced by ones chosen through random die roll during the admin phase, the army leader (me) has the opportunity during his turn to change one wards order to something of his own choosing. The down side is that this can only be done if his unit is not adjacent to the enemy and he gives up his units activation for the turn.exploiting this option allowed me to change my own wards order back to attack.
While this had been going on the fog continued to lift one hex at a time. My left flank archers moved forward, avoiding the broken ground hex which would not only have cost more to move into and out of but would have knocked one off their cohesion as well. Moving them forward brought them into the now increased visibility range of the Lancastrian archers who had been placed on overwatch on his turn. Though he would get a free out of phase shot at my chaps I wasn’t that worried. I mean what was the worst that could happen?
His archers fired using their three missile dice. They needed 5’s or 6’s to hit. They rolled three 6’s. Doh! Now my archers have a cohesion level of 4 (as do all archers) and three hits immediately whittled them down to one cohesion point. If reduced to zero they rout.
Honour was saved a little when my crossbow guys (with the increased visibility) were able to see the enemy commander and his men scrambling down the banks of the stream in front of them. The bridge would only have cost 1 mp to get over but the stream was going to cost them 1 cohesion point as well. Moving under an attack order they have to advance towards me and since the bridge approach was blocked by one of their own they had no choice other than to approach me this way.
My crossbow guys had two missile dice and also needed 5’s and 6’s. They got a 5 which meant the posh lads on the riverbank were reduced from cohesion level 6 down to 5. Spookily one of the front rank miniatures of this unit has an arrow shaft sticking out of his neck - 2nd guy up from the bottom if you look closely.
The Lancastrians had three archer units at the start of the game. One still shrouded in fog had refused to budge from the start line, the second had whittled down my archers and the third which had been combined with some men at arms to form a band now attempted to fire for the first time.
As the rearmost company in their band they could only use indirect fire to lob their arrows over the top of the men at arms in front of them. I was about to roll the dice when I realised that their target was three hexes away which put my lads just within the 3 hex dead zone that can’t be fired at by indirect fire. Yay!
The two companies within a band can change places during movement which once in the front would allow them to fire directly, however when in the front the archers would have taken the brunt of any melee which didn’t seem like a risk worth taking. Because the archers had attempted to fire, the entire band including the men at arms was unable to move. Though that was a blow to him his left flank archers finished off my archers who’d only got 1 cohesion point left.
They never really knew what hit them!
Then it all went wrong for him. Having finished his missile fire he went on to movement which as you recall requires a bravery test for each moving unit. Two of his lot failed which meant that his attack order was now void.
During the admin phase a new order was rolled for and came up as retire and reform. Retire and reform is a two edged sword (if you’ll pardon the pun). Each company moves back one hex and takes a bravery test. If they pass they get to add back up to 2 points of cohesion (never back to game start levels) but if they fail they immediately rout off the table. (I’m told that once soldiers start moving backwards it’s very difficult to stop them). To make matters worse the retire order stays in play until either all remaining units pass their bravery test or the whole ward runs away bit by bit and there’s no ones left.
Only one of his companies did a runner and I derived no satisfaction from the fact that it was the archery boys who’d killed my men. Well okay a little satisfaction. In the next turn with the order still in play his men moved another hex backwards and the archer unit that’d never left the start line also made their excuses.
With two units gone the Lancastrians had just reached the 40% loss level.
To top it off the game allowed the A.O. to play one of his in game happenstance cards - which turned out to be the treachery one I’d been worrying about. Fortunately I had the counter to it in my happenstance hand, so no harm done.
During the admin phase at the end of their retiring turn all the Lancastrian units had to test for bravery again because they had reached the 40% loss threshold. The men at arms band who had taken the crossbow hit failed this test and because it was composed of two companies they found themselves with 4 gone in total and therefore at the 60% automatic loss level.
The Lancastrians had only taken one hit from my crossbow guys but had broken and run through confusion and a loss of morale.
Now, given the length of this post it’s probably a good job we never got to explore melee, zones of control, mounted units, charge orders, artillery, etc but they are all in the rules if I can work out how to put up a pdf on the blog or make it available for download.
Conclusions
To be honest I was pretty chuffed with it overall. The rules could be used for two player if desired but it gave me a good game with a story to hang on it in solo mode. More importantly it turned out differently to how it would have done if I’d attempted to play both sides directly. The whole shebang lasted only 6 turns and if you stripped out the head scratching, photographing, recording of minutiae and the consumption of one jolly nice ham and pickle sandwich, probably took about 40 minutes to play. I’m happy it’d scale up to the 3 wards per side without it taking all day.
On the minus side I did discover that there was no mechanism for the A.O general to override his sides order like I could and I’m not happy with the term “band” for effectively a double sized company, nor “overwatch” which just seems too modern.
