Quote from IoM-Christian on 2025-05-22, 16:22

First off, let me say the armies were quite large—actually, what we consider a "battle" size for long. Then, as we knew pizza would come along, we went for 'not so much table size'. Thus, it seemed overly crowded at first, but to be honest, it went quite smoothly, and the game turned out to give a lively, dynamic, chaotic feel of a true battle. In that, the rules system for sure is working.

 

----- SETTING UP GAME AND ARMIES -----

• Players set up the terrain (140 cm wide and 120 cm deep)

Peter did set up the terrain.

• Roll for game length: 3 + amount of an average die (D6A) roll (2-5) Rounds.

Peter rolled 4 on the D6A (averaged d6)

• Players determine Showup initiative (SI); winner picks table side.

I rolled highest and decided on side.

• Starting with (SI) looser, Players place (D6A) of their Unit Cards face down, according to Unit rules (Deployment Zone is from their edge 30 cm (22 on this table)  into the field). Continue rolling and placing till all units are fielded.

Quite a lot of Unit cards cramped in...

• SI looser rolls (D6A) to see how many units they each reveal & toggle (R&T) at a time, until all placed are R&T'ed.

We rolled the D6A a few times (3, 4, 3), revealed cards, and both didn't toggle any of the units as the lots were revealed.

• Unit Cards are then swapped for Models, facing and centred as the card.

Lineup of the 'almost base painted armies...

• If using Magic, Player(s) roll for Shards.

As it's been almost 3 years since we played more regularly, I hadn't included any of these. And we actually ended up discussing if these should be reserved for 'battles' only. So that smaller skirmishes had none...

 

----- PLAYING THE GAME -----

• Unit Type Chits (UTC) for a player’s existing Units are prepared for random picking (placed in a cup/bag).

All UTC was placed in our cups.

• Order Activation Tokens (OAT) are distributed.

I had bought champions with command level 3 to all my core units as can be seen by the die numbers, and I decided to give most of my generals to my Snout and his Ooarlonts, and the Jester. Peter rolled d3 for all his Core units with champions having Inspirator trait, and he distrubuted the generals to his missile units.

 

ROUND 1, PHASE 1

I won Initiative, rolled 4 for UTC, and picked 4 Core. So, 4 core Pigryn units; Greatspears on the flank into a forest and going on HOLD (beats me why I did that), and Halberdiers also stormed across the battlefield into a forest, spending all ACTONS. And my two Sword & Shield units advanced in hope their armour would save them long enough for a possible charge next turn.

Then the Mermerants moved a unit of sword and shielders and a unit of slingers slightly forward – the slingers are on HOLD as well. And then the archers rained death on my army.

The missile range, as well as the repeating shoot penalties to hit and the wound distribution, was interesting to test, and during the game it became obvious we have hit a good and balanced system.

 

ROUND 1, PHASE 2

I won the Initiative again. Rolled 2 for UTC and picked a Core and a Auxiliary.

Moved my big hammers up and tried to cover behind a cliff. And moved my snout and his oar-longs ahead – almost fell for the urge to move far too long. But I managed to restrain myself – which later proved wise.

-

The Mermerants moved a sword and shield unit sideways to get out and support their light left flank and another sword and shield unit up to back the centre field.

 

ROUND 1, PHASE 3

Mermerants won initiative, rolled 4 for UTC, and his Knights Errants determined it was time for Pigryns on poles... while the rest merely advanced.

Pigryn time... I thought...

The left flank unit with Greatspears moved uphill and then charged down the hill into the fully armoured and barded knights but didn't finish the knights off...

We actually discussed some rules regarding charge and melee here – the piggyback had 1 ACTION left after the melee. So we decided that melee would be similar to missile. If one has more ACTIONS, one can do more attacks with a -1 reduction to AIM per ACTION spent. But without CHARGE + DOWNHILL and -1 to AIM. It's not easy damaging models with 6 in armour and barding 2. Regardless, only the champion was left.

Then more halberds up on the hill to take what I figured would come soon.

 

ROUND 2, PHASE 1

Mermerants won the initiative, rolled 4 UTC and charged with his extremely heavy cavalry – boom, my spears were gone. The Mermerant lone champion attacked the sword and shielders – and died.

But it was a daring, bold move that did not break Pigryns....

Who attacked back, and the sword and shielders killed the surviving champion of the Mermerant knights. Then the uphill halberdiers charged down into the Mermerants' finest and killed most – although at great cost.

Trying to back them up, I was foolish enough to charge with my general – but as I had distributed most of his OATs, he had but the charge attack – and my general died. Bummer! Then my Snout and his Ooarlonts charged them as well, to no avail. Not until the larger of the sword and shielders joined in did the Mermerant noble knights fall from their warhorses.

What a mess...

 

ROUND 2, PHASE 2

I won initiative, rolled 5 for UTCs and charged the nearby sword and shielders – who were on HOLD – and countercharged.

Ouch, that was not good, but on the right flank it looked better. Swift advance by the others and a charge by my big bashers. Who received a lethal rain of pebbles as they closed up, but their great mallets finished the skirmish slingers totally.

Of course, this was, as with the Mermerant knights, a suicide charge.

 

----- AFTERMATCH -----

After that rain of pebbles, the Mermerant retreated... as it was getting quite late.

Pigryn victory, or was it... looking at the remaining units and their states? I'm not certain, because Mermerant still has missiles and some well-armoured melee.

All in all a very interesting game; a lot of mechanics were used, and some new ones came into existence. But nothing as such seemed broken; despite the knights might seem too tough; it's all about attacking them with strong enough aim and clever use of terrain. But one thing that really stood out was the feeling of action all the time – even during the opponents' phase part due to the activation fragmentation. And writing this battle report also spawned some thoughts about the game, such as deployment zone width and depth, token colours, etc.