Ravenfeast: First Battle

 

I downloaded the Ravenfeast free rules and gave them a whirl with my boy. We had a good time.

Ravenfeast is based on the One Page Rules system, and are very nicely produced. Ravenfeast also has a handful of scenarios and optional expansions available on their site, as well as tutorials on how to get started with modelling, painting, terrain building, and so on. It's really well put together.

We quickly selected our forces - my boy got 400 pts and went mostly for elite types, while I got 300 and concentrated on much cheaper basic farmers with shields and spears.

We ended up splitting our forces around a farm (the freshly tilled soil counting as difficult ground).

The system was fast and intuitive and enjoyable to play. The only issue we had was with shield walls...

A group of the local leiðangr forming a shield wall.

The implementation seems pretty realistic. You can only move forward (or backward) in a straight line, and you get some bonuses to armour saves.

The separate clashes - shield wall vs shield wall - develop, tying up the majority of models on the field.

The problem we had is that the bonuses you get in a shield wall meant that there was a whole bunch of dice rolling with very little impact. Most of the models ended up with a "roll 5 or less on a d6" armour save against hits. And since most of our models were in mutual shield walls, not much seemed to happen for a while.

To be fair, both my boy and I played quite cautiously and we had pretty basic forces so we may have missed options that could've broken the stalemate earlier. And, of course, it's probably pretty historically accurate.

After a long period of pushing, one of the shield wall melees finally broke up as one side had insufficient models to maintain the formation.

Once one of the shield walls broke up and the combat devolved into 1 on 1 or 2 on 1 fights, the game got a lot more dynamic.

In spite of the shield wall quibble, we both had a great time and we'll be revisiting the game. I expect adding some Saxons, some Normans, mythological options and/ or some more complex scenarios will make the game more dynamic.

Skirmish at the Old Stable

"Did you see that sorcerous warrior taking shelter near the old stable?"

"Yes, he was covered in blood."

"And there were Elves with him. At least two of them!"

The farmers did not normally traffic with the allegedly cursed warriors of the Wizard Empire, and even less with self-evidently dangerous folks like Elves.

"They must be up to something... something not good. What should we do?"

"I say we burn the stable! Then they'll go away!"

...

This is the report of the first time I've played a minis game with my six-year-old son. He's tried his hand at painting (there's still room to grow his skills), and we've played some board games. But this is the first time playing an actual legit miniatures war game.

Before we started he exclaimed "I can't believe I get to play a grown up game!"

Battle is about to be joined.

The attackers (me) were trying to burn the barn. Every attacking figure in contact with the barn got to roll a d6. On a 6, the barn would burn down and the attackers would be victorious.

The defenders (my son) were led by an old plastic chaos warrior selected because "he has a lot of blood on him, so he must be tough". They'd win by eliminating the attackers.

The rules were basic OSR derived. Each model had the following stats (assigned by me):

• Hit points
• Movement rate in inches
• Armour class
• Attack bonus (added to d20 roll, must = AC to hit) per weapon
• Damage roll per weapon
• Range for bows

This is what the defenders' stats look like. They severely outclassed the attackers. But that's okay, since this is a narrative game.

In terms of gameplay, we used the following rules:

• Roll initiative per side each round, using a d20 (this felt tedious after a while).
• Combat is resolved simultaneously (good for less book keeping IMO).
• You cannot shoot into or out of melee.
• You cannot move away from melee once you are engaged (I think this will become a free hack thing in future iterations).

You can see how the attackers planned to - and indeed did - move as they attacked.

I don't have a lot of progress pictures as I was pretty focused on playing and explaining (and holding the "no-we-can't-arbitrarily-change-rules-or-dice-outcomes").

Our terrain rules were as follows:

• Newly ploughed field = half movement rate.
• Those big clumps of trees and = impassable.
• To cross a linear obstacle (fence, hedge) move up to it. Roll a d6. On 4+ continue movement, 3 or less you're stuck (this actually felt pretty good in gameplay).

The defenders didn't take a single point of damage. Talk about an unbalanced scenario.

I got five or six rolls to burn the barn, but it failed to ignite and the would be arsonists were mercilessly butchered one by one.

The fate of the attackers is sealed. Note how HP is correlated to shield and shirt colour for easy identification. I guess I should try to get a set of markers that match my paints.

My son was pleased with his victory, and immediately suggested "let's play again, but switch sides this time."

"Sounds good" I said, and we set about preparing for our second game of the afternoon....

The Zenobian 7th Again!

[Battle Report Directory] [Zenobian 7th Main Page]

"Alright folks, I need some volunteers," yelled SrSgt Penny. "Who's wants to get a big screw?"

"Erh, sarge, is that a trick question," asked Pte Langobard. "What kind of screw are you talking about because..."

"Because you're wondering what sort of clever joke I'm setting up, is that it? But no, Langobard, I mean that actual mission objective over there with the code name 'big screw' because that's what it looks like."

"Oh, because you see I was hoping..."

"Yes you were, but you're out of luck."

"Unidentified infantry spotted! They look like they're moving to engage!" The banter between Penny and Langobard ended abruptly as one of the spotters called out the warning.

"Looks like you luck might change Langobard, you may get screwed after all. Alright folks, pull your socks up and point your guns at the hostiles! We're not giving up our big screw without a fight."

My colleague Rodrigo and I set up on a spare table at work and over the course of several lunch breaks had the very first Kill Team game for both of us. What follows is a brief report of the action.

It's a basic 100 point get-the-opfor-objective-without-losing-control-of-your-own match. We didn't using traits, elites, or anything else fancy like that.

We went at it fairly gingerly, and to be honest we probably got a few rules wrong. In fact, I know the Zenobian 7th list wasn't 100% book legal (I think I had two of the same specialist). That's what happens when you work with Rogue Traders!

Even though I brought four plasma guns, I don't think I used them that effectively. You see the problem with shooting your fancy plasma gun at someone is that it will very likely leave you open to return fire. I didn't like that idea very much.

I put my commanding office centrally so she could affect everything, but it made her the only real target for enemy shooting. She almost got killed before she ducked back out of sight! Leading from the front is a dangerous business.

I reckon that was Pte Langobard doing the melee fighting.

The above picture perfectly illustrates the problem with shooting at people. They might shoot back! And hit! Completely unsporting, if you ask me.

Then there was the bit where I thought the central group was close enough to my home objective to claim it, but in fact they were to far away due to the height of the ruins they occupied. Oops.

I'd caused a couple of flesh wounds throughout the match, but the last round was the only time I actually downed an opponent.

In the end, I think the main difference maker was that I didn't expose all my expendable infantry to too much fire, so when it came to claim the objectives in the last turn I could just throw bodies at the problem.

Thanks for a good game Rodrigo!

Through the Woods We Go - Part II

[Daring Deeds & Dubious Decisions main page]

The battle rages on:

I missed out a few rolls (forgot about the Lass' shield at first, f. ex.) and at first I forgot that Skarloc also took damage (2 points) no less from the critical failure vs the Ogre and didn't just lose his weapon (which is bad enough). But I went back and fixed it.

I'm not sure I like Bluey and Skarloc's chances to make it all the way across the board at this point, to be honest.

Through the Woods We Go - Part I

[Daring Deeds & Dubious Decisions main page]

I got my first game of Sellswords & Spellsingers under way at lunch today...

... and that's how far I got today.

In terms of rules, here's what the action sequence looks like:

Pick a character. Choose to attempt one, two, or three actions. For each action, roll a d20. On an 8+  (there are potentially a few modifiers) that character can attempt an action (decided in the moment, not pre-declared). On 7 or less, the character does not get to take an action - instead draw a card from the "Event Deck."*

The Event Deck is what determines enemy actions (enemies activate by proximity, ambushes occur, traps are sprung, the weather changes etc). In other words, the enemies only act in response to player character failures (low rolls).

On attempting an action, another d20 is rolled modified by appropriate traits. Monsters have a target number reflecting their difficulty. When fighting you have to roll higher than that number to hit them, while if you roll too low they hit you.

So far the game is pretty smooth. It also seems to have great potential for playing socially (co-op).

I'm hoping to get another bit of time with the game tomorrow, but after that I'll be out for some days.

*In my case, I made a random table for the event deck since I couldn't be bothered to cut out actual cards.

The Zenobian 7th in Action! - Part VII

[Zenobian 7th main page] [Part VI]

The Zenobian 7th in Action! - Part VI

[Zenobian 7th main page] [Part V] [Part VII]