Yesterday we had a first playtest of our, yet unnamed, fantasy skirmish rules. The idea is that we will start some sort of warband-like campaign set in our fantasy world of Dor (dating back over 25 years), developing our own rules as we progress through various games. Such a scheme has worked well for our scifi Antares campaign. Instead of trying to foresee every possible feature needed in the rules, we just adapt the rules as we progress from game to game. Less stress, more fun!
Why not use commercially published rules? The only answer I can give is that developing rules is something I enjoy. But there's also a philosophical argument. I have always seen the wargaming hobby as building and designing your own game, and that includes writing your own rules. The commercial side of the wargaming hobby, in which you buy into a set of rules with associated army lists and figures is something I consider as a less fullfilling experience.
Anyway, here are some pictures of our game from last night. The pictures are not of terribily good quality, for which I apologize. I really need to learn how to make better pictures ...
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| Some scribbled notes for the first playtest. |
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| Lay-out of the table, based on the tabletop teaser published in Battlegames #13. |
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| The table from the other corner of the room. |
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| Stronghold of the Barbarians. Old GW Townscape cardboard buildings. |
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| More Barbarians. |
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| Even more Barbarians. |
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| Facing the Orcs, commanded by a giant. |
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| Now as seen from the giant's side. |
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| Bart is contemplating his next move. |
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| Still contemplating ... |
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| State of the table when we quit the game. |
I don't know if it played well, but it looks cool!
ReplyDeleteDo you use the hexes for measering distances?
Hi Wim,
DeleteYes, we use the hexes for counting out movement and for ranged fire. Speeds up play tremendously. Moreover, it makes it easier to implement some cool gaming mechanics. E.g. in our Antares scifi skirmish games, you hit the target if a D8 >= distance in hexes. Thus, the closer you are, the more chance you hot the target. That would be diffocult to do with measured distances.