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War of the Ring
I've always loved the LOTR line of minis that GW makes, but I found that the rules set didn't really grab me the way it should have (it's a good rules set for skirmish, but I don't think that I wanted to do skirmish gaming with LOTR).
Anyway, now GW is releasing War of the Ring this month which essentially makes it possible for you to play Warhammer-like games with your Lord of the Rings figures. So now I'm interested again...
The quick-start rules for the game are available here - http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=cat1491...
By looking it over I note that it looks much simpler than a game of Warhammer. Which might make it a better introductory wargame. For example, combat isn't a series of opposed rolls. You make one roll to attack (comparing strength vs defense), determine the number of hits. Units have a "resilience" stat that you have to exceed in order to cause a single casualty. For example, if a unit has a resilience of 2 you would need to score 2 hits to inflict one casualty.
From reading the quick-start the only major differences I see from Warhammer (basic rules notwithstanding) is that missile fire will tend to drive opposing forces back, but not necessarily break them. Losing in combat is worked out as if everybody is an Undead forces in Warhammer. That is, losing combat means taking more wounds and if you are under 50% of your starting strength at this point then you are destroyed.
I'll probably pick up the book...
I never did play Warmaster but I am now in possession of War of the Ring. So... I'll be reading it and doing a review.
I will say one thing quickly, though...
Beautiful!
So I made it through most of the core rules last night and I'm going to revise my opinion that this is a simpler game than Warhammer. While some things have been streamlined (like a single roll for combat resolution) it hasn't really seemed to lack any tactical depth. In fact I feel like, in some ways, this is a more tactically robust game.
One of the first things that jumps out at you is the turn sequence. It's not IGOUGO. That is, rather than have one player do all actions for his army before the other side gets to do anything except for rolling defensively to attacks, each player takes turns doing each of the steps. So the player with initiative (priority) gets to move first, then the other player moves immediately afterward - and so on. This should keep the game exciting for both players at all times. Aside from that the turn sequence is pretty similar: Move (plus Magic), Shoot, Charge, Fight.
Movement is simpler. There's no turning or formations (at least not in the same sense as in Warhammer). When you move your formation so that no part of each companies bases go further than its move rate. The formation can essentially end in any facing as long as it obeys this rule. This means that small formations become very flexible - able to turn on a dime - while larger formations will have more difficulty moving around. It's really an elegant design solution that provides simplicity to moving without sacrificing much in the way of realism. Magic comes during the movement phase, but I haven't really gotten that far into the rules yet.
Shooting is pretty straight forward. Companies that can see and are in range of their targets can shoot with a number of dice equivalent to the company's Attack (generally 1 die per model in the company). Remember, a Company in War of the ring is essentially two ranks of four troops (in the case of infantry). So this is a bit of a departure in that even the guys in the second rank provide dice when shooting. In this way the Company in War of the Ring is treated more like a single model. If there is a second line of companies behind the front rank those troops won't be able to see the target. They still get to perform "supporting fire' and will provide one die for each company as long as the target is still in their arc of fire.
The charging rules are interesting. You start by picking a "spearhead," that is, a single company in the formation that will begin the charge. Then you pick a target company for the spearhead. Rather than having a fixed charge range, players roll dice to determine how far they can charge. Different unit types start with different minimum charge ranges and then you add an additional d6" to the move. You can pre-measure the distance so that you can be sure that there's a chance of your charge being successful. A roll of 1 is an automatic failure, a roll of 6 provides bonuses to your attack when you get to that point. If your charge was successful and the company moved far enough to reach the enemy company then the spearhead is moved into base contact with its target and the reast of the formation is moved into contact as well - movement rates permitting. The rest of the formation actually gets 2x their base move in order to form up in this combat.
Fighting works a lot like shooting with companies that are in base contact getting all of their dice and those that are not providing an additional die. The various bonuses and penalties for things like flanking and charging add and subtract dice. Being charged in the flank by cavalry seems like it would be particularly devastating.
I'm still working my way through the rules so I'll be adding more information as I go. I just got past "defensible terrain" (essentially, terrain pieces that units can occupy to gain defensive bonuses while sacrificing mobility) and am just about to get to magic. More on that later.
After snagging the book and perusing it a bit, the game looks quite nice. Is there anyone else aside from Jay and myself who'd be interested in trying this over the summer?
Heh. I meant to add a few more things.
Stuff I liked about the new Rules
Elves cause Terror! Not just the high elves, or characters; but every unit in the elf army causes Terror. I'm wondering how this will work out in an elves vrs orcs game. Orcs already are at a disatevatage with their courage of two. Elves look real nasty actually. They are move 8 compared to most at move 6. They also tend to excel at hth combat and ranged combat.
Magic is awesome again! I felt the magic was a bit too watered down in the original game. This one seems to fix that. No longer will you have to be blowing points of will to make your spell casting role. Wizards can now play more of a role in battles. More powerful or skilled casters can do several spells within a battle sequence. They list an example of shattering shields followed by a fire ball.
Simplified Rules! The one thing I hated about Fantasy and 40K was the sheer amount of rolls one had to do. Rolling to hit, wound; and then waiting for your opponents armor save. The original LotR solved this issue, War of the Ring seems like a hybrid of the original; with the formations from Fantasy added in. Speaking of formations, you do not purchase individual soldiers in WotR. You buy footmen by the squad (eight), and Calvary as well (two). It makes putting together an army a whole lot easier. The micromanaging of equipment in fantasy / 40k annoyed me.
Stuff I'm not a Fan of
Dwarves are Movement 5?! Yup dwarves, who in the LotR rules shared the same move of six with men, elves and orcs. Now that the elves are almost as fast as horses (move 12), the dwarves get bumped down to move five. Despite my intial makings of a Dwarf army, I doubt I'll be building a large force of them. I always found their movement in Fantasy and espcially Mordheim, incredibly annoying.
Sounds a little like Warmaster actually, at least the part about shooting pushing people back.
"This is where apple pie goes when it dies."