After sorting my thoughts on Dr. Jones' presentation of creating an "authentic" Medieval wargame and the prodigious and helpful reader commentary from the previous post (thank you, all!), I am ready to bring armies to the table. Well, at least I think I am ready to bring my WotR collection to the table!
Interweaving all of the helpful suggestions and interesting points brought up in the last post's discussion, other Medieval rulesets, writings on wargaming the period, and my own goals for fighting Medieval battles, a version 1.0 of a working ruleset is in place for the first trial by fire. That trial is set for Monday in a two-player gaming session as we put the rules through its paces. No historical battle will be considered this time. Monday's contest will see two armies of three Battles each face down across an open plain. Each army will field three Battles of three units each. Each Battle will field one unit bow, bill, and Men-at-Arms. Leadership and unit effectiveness will be set in a pregame phase as we roll for attributes. Adding variation to Battle composition will provide some data in unequal contests as each pair of enemy combatants fight it out one-on-one. As in most of my designs, emphasis is on leadership, combat effectiveness, and formation cohesion. We find out Monday if these working rules survive first contact with the enemy. With luck, the game will not go down hearing me mumbling the immortal words of Pogo,
The figures look great Jon..... hopefully your rules work reasonably well the first time....I am sure some tweaking is inevitable!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Keith! We will see if rules survive first contact. Since the core game engine remains similar to other efforts, the basics "should" hold up under stress testing.
DeleteGood luck with your first test game. The pre-game activities sound like they could offer some surprises in the game.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Peter. You may be next up!
DeleteExcellent. I read the Blood and Dropping rules out of interest.
DeleteThis will be an interesting exercise. I'll look forward to the forthcoming account and how the rules fare.
ReplyDeleteI hope for an interesting exercise too!
DeleteOne will read the account with interest.
ReplyDeleteGood!
DeleteGreat looking WotR figures, Jonathan. In the past (distant past at that), I found Lion Rampant worked pretty well for smaller engagements like First St Albans.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dean! I may give LR a spin too.
DeleteI will follow your progress with interest, I do hope you arrive at your station none the worse for wear. Quoting Pogo has raised you another notch.
ReplyDeleteGetting raised another notch is always welcome! Thank you!
DeleteNice to see the armies on show and lovely looking they are too! Will be following with interest to see how the rules develop over the playtests.
ReplyDelete