How to begin a new year of gaming?

By spilling some blood on the sand, of course! I wanted both to revisit Mordheim: Pit Fighter and to try something new - free gladiator rules Familia Gladiatoria, that may use cards for pre-plotted actions. I did not bother to take pictures this time, because the lighting was poor (and moreover, they would look exactly the same as any prevoius pictures of my Chaos-Marauders-made-into-Pit-Figthers standing in the hexes of the arena). Edit: But I did bother to use our camera at home, so this blog gets its first decent pictures. 

Pit Fighter

I like Pit Fighter. Maybe because of the variety in figting styles and armour outfits, maybe because of the bluffing and guessing game, and maybe because you actually have to make some decisions in the game, and they matter. 

How-ever... They are almost everything that matters - Weapon Skill (WS) opposed rolls are made with d20, so without a significant bonus to it (e.g. 10 pts) the contest is a matter of luck. Therefore, the most reasonable way to spend the 10 bonus points in character creation is to Initiative, because you want to hit first, Strength (moar damage!) or Wounds, to last a little longer. But even then its one wrong guess of yours, and your fighter is quite likely either crippled or dead. Or not, because of rolling a single die for damage (d6, d10, d12 or d20), plus sometimes another die (d10 or d20) for a mighty blow, may result in anything between a scratch and evisceration with the same probability. I decided to alter that a little: 

• By rolling 3d6 in Strength and WS contests instead of d20 to make the difference between stats more significant (also redefining criticals as rolls of 3,4,17,18).
• By replacing the damage dice for d6, 2d6-2, 2d6 and 3d6 resp. and bonus dice for d6 and 2d6 to make the damage a little more consistent.

I also had to alter the modifiers to the stats, of course. And I made and printed the hit location and adrenaline rush cards, which were supposed made the game even more smooth. Did that work?

The first match was my Chaos vs Empire. I had spread the points across all the stats: (WS 33 S 31 T 32 I 32 W 12) and it appeared that Chaos had better Initiative than Empire. Which was good, because the fighters advanced (with the usual unsuccessfull attempts to outmaneuvre each other), the flail rang at Empire's helmet, stunning him a little. Empire decided for an unorthodox tactics and tried to bull-rush Chaos, but got bumped away and then lost the match (and a leg too).

In the second bout, another Empire-styled gladiator (WS 32 S 33 T 30 I 33 W 12) faced an Orc (WS 32 S 32 T 30 I 34 W 12). This time both gladiators ran at each other, but in the last moment, the Orc sidestepped and drew first blood by a good blow to Empire's head. Empire was a little disoriented (and scarred), but managed to jump back and avoid a terrible hack that would have split him in two. Then he sneaked past the Orc and quickly turned, his blow landing even before his opponent could strike - but it was too gentle. In exchange, Orc's axe severed Empire's finger and bit deeply into his arm....

Summary: So, did the house rules work? Yes. And no. Both bouts were brief and bloody, and in general the fighters managed to survive incredible two hits instead of one, but outguessing your opponent is still the best way to go. I'm leaving the house rules as they are and play some more (for more data and for the fun of it), which I look forward to.

Familia Gladiatoria

FG is a free set of rules, and as such it comes with its drawbacks. Like, no support and rules with important things missing or unclear. Even then, there is a shortage of good man-to-man rules in the world, so why not try these? The main points of attraction were simultaneous action selection and possibility to create your own gladiator, along with a simple campaign rules. I read the rules, printed the cards, statted up my four trusted pit fighters and decided what cards each style got (as you can hardly thrust or parry with a flail and so on). There was time enough for one match only, so we each picked one gladiator (Chaos vs Orc), threw them into the pit and let the games begin.

In FG, each gladiator has three stats: Strength, Agility and Status. The former two serve as life points and the basis for action evaluation: Each action card played requires you to add higher of 2 d6 rolls to the stat used and to the bonus (or malus) for an action our opponent selected.

For example, if I choose "Feint" action and my opponent "Defend", I roll 2d6, add higher roll to my Agility and add 2 as a bonus for the opponent choosing defence. My opponent does similar math, and if I get higher sum than him, my feint worked and I may turn his gladiator one hexside.

The rules were less than clear on the point whether you choose 3 action cards and then select one of them in each phase or use them in a fixed, pre-planned sequence. Most of the match we played the first way, but it didn't feel very rewarding so we switched to sequence planning - and there was much joy and laughter, at least till the point when Orc collapsed, failed his mercy roll and Chaos had to slit his throat.

Summary: Interesting little game, although you have to fill in the gaps in rules. I plan to play it again, but in a smaller arena (to make pushing actually usefull) and with one more action: Side-step that allows to move sideways and adds a little more to the tactics. 

Skulldred!

Recently, I have been tempted by a generic skirmish set of rules called Open Combat. It enables you to stat up any of your fantasy/up-to-medieval miniature with a bit more granularity than SoBH. In an attempt to save me some money before christmas I read some reports and summaries I consider unbiased (i.e. they are not mentioned on designer's blog) and I was able to come up with these:

 - it still features "turnover" mechanic

 - no campaign rules included

 - looks a wee bit incomplete
 - more bookkeeping

None of that would stop me by itself, however, here comes uncle Scrooge with a coup de grace:

 - 10 pounds for a set of rules that I haven't seen in action nor tried?

Skulldred, on the other hand, is for free (though also rather incomplete). I admit, there are no campaign rules and only a handful of special rules, and the current version available is (hopefully) very close to being obsolette, but still, with a bit of house ruling it is worth a shot.

Skulls, Skulls Everywhere!

This Thursday I decided to shock my friend with a completely unknown set of rules - your guess is right, Skulldred it was. After weathering the traditional whining about a "new ruleset - again?" I was able to cheer him up by highlighting the advantages of the system. I opted for a rather short game: Empty dungeon treasure hunt, 5 minis and 5 dreadskulls each. Dreadskulls (glass beads in my case) are a vital resource, as they represent a favour of the gods, individual's determination or anything such.

In one of Lundor's many taverns, everything was pointing to a nice evening. Lothar the Black was drinking another beer, quite content with himself. A job had been done, money had been made, and only less fortunate Wilhelm was lying in the room upstairs with light wounds (well attended to, anyway). But just as others' black clouds had a silver lining, Lothar's sunshine had dark clouds just beyond the horizon. When a guy sat to their table, Lothar was still feeling a sort of happiness, so he let him talk. A grave mistake. 

-"I heard you are great mercenaries - but aren't you also great sinners then?"

A strange (and annoying) way to introduce oneself, considering that the guy didn't look like the ordinary zealous type. "Our sins are ours only." replied the leader of Bad Company, his mood heading down. 

-"But I may rightly assume that you fear Orladim and revere him and the order he represents?"

The question and a slight menace combined in one sentence gave it away. This was far worse than any preaching idiot...

...in the end, it were only half that bad. Their sins were absolved and a nice sum promised for retrieving a "thing of great importance" with "utmost haste". From an abandoned dungeon. In the Northern Mountains.

When they finally reached the (gods)forsaken dungeon, his company counted mere five men, including himself. The inquisitor that recruited them was among the dead of the clash he initiated - they met a dwarven warband apparently hired to get the same thing, and cooperation or sharing the profit was not considered an option...

Bad Company

• Lothar the Black: Leader, Level 4, Cbt 4, To Kill 3; 39pts
• 2 Halberdiers: Hold, Level 3, Cbt 3+1, Longstrike 2, To Kill 3; 23 pts each
• Skirmisher: Steadfast, Level 3, Cbt 3, To Kill 3; 19 pts
• Bowman: Panic, Level 3, Cbt 2, Ranged 4, To Kill 3; 17 pts

Dwarves

• Gorm: Leader, Level 4, Cbt 4, To Kill 4, Slow; 39 pts
• Shieldbreaker: Steadfast Level 4, Cbt 3+1, To Kill 4, Slow; 25 pts
• Warrior: Hold, Level 3, Cbt 4, To Kill 4, Slow; 20 pts
• 2 Crossbowmen: Hold, Level 3, Cbt 2, Ranged 4+1, To Kill 4, Slow, Reload; 20 pts each

The dungeon was illuminated in an eery shade of purple and all quiet (until the dwarves broke in) - but that was hardly enough to discourage what was left of Bad Company.

Both bands reached an entrance in the same time.

The archer was sent to harass the dwarves, and at first, he was wildly successfull, knocking down one of the dwarvish crossbowmen. The rest of the band - except the otherwise nimble skirmisher - hurried into the depths (and out of LoS).

First blood dreadskull - with a lucky shot the bowman downed his counterpart.

The archer went to meet Orladim a bit sooner that he hoped for - first bolt missed him, but to his horror the wounded crossbowman just snapped off the arrow, took aim and hit home with deadly precision.

First bolt missed, but another hit so well that no dreadskull was needed.

With the skirmisher still lagging behind, the rest of the band secured a conspiciuos heap of rubble. Too bad that they were outnumbered and outmaneuvred; the dwarves were nearing a summoning circle and blocked their way to the library.

The race to treasure locations.

Apparently, the treasure was not in the circle...

The skirmisher finally arrived, just in time to help his outnumbered comrades. In a lucky break, one of the crossbowmen was vanquished and a halberdier found the relic they were looking for.

...and an upstart crossbowman was taken care of.

Things went south from then on for the Bad Company. In the end, Lothar fought off the angry dwarves while the halberdier hurried away with the treasure. (Keeping Lothar alive has cost me all five dreadskulls, but even then it was just by the skin of the teeth.)

Lothar's selfless rearguard action.

The halberdier ran for his life, and as the daylight grew he may even have seen himself safe and rich... "Duck! Duck, you fool!" Thwack! Halberdier fell to the ground, his last thoughts evenly divided between all his life, the unknown and aquatic birds.

So close...

Lothar wasted no time grieving, snatched the relic and threw himself over the rubble, dodging another bolt. And then he was off for a long and perilous journey back to civilisation.

Summary: Skulldred has a tagline "Fast. Furious. Fun." and it really delivered. We were able to play it in 90 minutes, including a brief explanation of the rules. In contrary to SoBH, I was able to do at least something with all of my figures on my turn - the element of risk/reward in activating ("I may try to do more, but I may also fail horribly.") was replaced by resource management in the beginning of combat (Is this character important enough to sacrifice a dreadskull and add one die to my roll?). The stats are more granular, however, one of the most important, Level, has a similar problem as Quality in SoBH - one level for troops, one for the heroes, and the rest that still may be used is either for wimps or demigods. In the 2.05 version the rulebook itself is quite complete (and includes magic), but you have to add (and appraise) your own special abilities and make your own campaign rules. I don't hold my breath for promised public beta 3.3 or a commercial version (because I was never much into asphyxia) - I'm quite sure we'll have some fun even with this one.