Okay, I'll be honest: this week, I was taking pictures for a battle report mainly because I got my beautiful Catalan Company cards all printed, cut out, and sleeved. And after playing with white proxies for a year and a half, having these beautiful cards was just too much to resist. I could say it was to show off the playtesting results of my skirmisher house rule (found
here), and I did take a lot of skirmishers specifically for that reason, but that be a lie...
Anyway, my friend wanted last week to try out the Rudihnya fan faction I made, because he really likes it. So lots of printing, cutting, and sleeving later, and he had a faction.
You can find the two factions here:
Catalan Company and
Rudihnya.
We got Total Warfare on Map 6D, with the Oppressive Heat subplot. He used red dice to mark how many Heat markers his units got, wherease I just used hatchmarks on the unit. There aren't going to be as many pictures this match as I was having so much fun I forgot to take them.
Deployment:
Rudihnya units left to right: Halberdiers (facing sideways), [gap], Voynich Spearmen, Voynich Spearmen, Voynich Spearmen, Voynich Spearmen, Halberdiers (facing sideways). The two units behind the spearmen in the middle were the Warriors in the Mist.
Quick rundown on his units: Voynich are the Core troops and they're normal except their hitboxes are 3/5/2, making them fragile early on but if they make that Cge 12 check, they hang for a good long time. The Curenti Halberdiers are basically Orc Axemen with Spears, but a Courage 11. The Warriors in the Mist: Def 4/0, never rout, and 12 boxes.
Catalan Units left to right: Catalan Crossbowmen with Cavalls Alforrat behind them, Skirmishers, Almughavars, Vesper Almughavars, Skirmishers. Second row is Almughavars (behind the skirmishers & other 'muggers), Greek Archers (behind the Vesper 'Muggers), and Cavalls Alforrat (behind the skirmishers). Third row is Alan Cavalry (behind the Greek Archers).
Quick rundown on my units: Almughavars are HE Rangers with Pila. Vesper Almughavars are even more elite. Skirmishers are Roman Velites with Cge 12. Cavalls Alforrat are Hawkshold Light cavalry with Off skill 6 and Impulsive. Alan Cavalry are Hawkshold Scouts with lower Courage but a better charge. Greek Archers are regular archers but only 10.5" range. And the Catalan Crossbowmen are Moorish archers with a Pow 6 and 17.5" ranged attack, and a toughness 1.
My whole plan in this game was to take the medium hill, put it right outside my deployment zone and run up the top and get the high ground bonus. the skirmishers on either side of the big block at the base of the hill were there to suck guys in on the flank but also delay as needed. One part of my plan early on was to put both Cavalls Alforrat on the left flank and contest (or possibly win) the relatively open part. The Alan Cavalry were there to deny that right flank to anyone. When I realize he had lots and lots of pokey sticks, I realized that plan was toast. So the left flank became all about delay and the right flank was getting both Alan Cavalry and Cavalls Alforrat. My reasoning being that I'd probably lose the Cavalls Alforrat, but hopefully between it and the Alan Cavalry I could at least explode anything he sent over there.
His plan was clear: grind me down. He knew the Almughavars would win somewhere: one of the two units on the hill or the units on the ground. The Warriors in the Mist were there to grind down any of my breakthrough guys so that he could then turn the flank and roll me up.
Here's where we both had facepalm moments. I was all gleeful about moving at 3.5" to his 2.5" and nabbing that high ground. Except...some jerk wrote a rule that the Rudihnya basically are slowed down 1 less MC for terrain. What @$$#*!@ came up with that rule!?
Meanwhile, he'd forgotten just how fast the Catalans can move. This would come back to haunt him pretty severely. He beat himself up for not appreciating that by my guys running so far forward (even up the hill) would pin his Warriors in the Mist against the impassible ground to the right of them. I didn't think this was that big a deal because my Vespers blew through his Voynich so quickly that he needed the Warriors in the Mist right where they were. But it did set up future pinches.
Oh yeah, and see my Greek Archers? All safe and sound behind that second level of the hill? I mean, the enemy couldn't even
see them they found such a good hiding spot. I'm tellin' ya, there were some mensa folks playing that day...
Engagement on the hill. Also, see the bottom of the hill my Almughavar Skirmishers got pinched by two Voynich units. He put them into the Yellow, yeah they blew a Cge 12 check.
Right before his turn, I fired with 6 skirmisher javelin dice (3s and 2s), 3 crossbow dice (3s and 4s), 6 Pila dice (4s and 4s), and 4 archer dice (3s and 3s). Two points...
One clever little thing I did was DC the Almughavars on the hill and move them slightly back. So now he wouldn't be able to back up both units with the Warriors in the Mist. Also it protected their flank by putting a little more distance between them and the spearmen at the bottom of the hill. Hey, sometimes we actually stumble onto a good idea.
But here's where I showed the strength of the Catalan Company. Notice those Almughavars in the center of the table? They move 5". See that unit engaged with the Vesper Almughavars at the top of the hill on the right? Notice there's an opening almost exactly card wide?
Bang. Flanked in the center and pinched on the right. Now the one on the hill there wasn't much he could do. The one in the center of the table he just didn't appreciate the world of difference between a hard hitting unit that can move 5".
Also, I began moving my Cavalls Alforrat on the left inward, to threaten him if his Voynich went uphill to flank my Almughavars.
Okay this is where we've had a big gap in time and events. I'll summarize left to right:
Far Left: his Curteni Halberdiers had changed course and started moving towards the center, since there was no longer a flank threat. I moved up my Crossbowmen to eat a charge to protect the flank of my Almughavars. He used Punish their Mistake to give him +1 MC making him faster than my Crossbow skirmishers (they're only 3.5") so that when they fled he got 4 dice for free swings. I played a Mettle on them, and managed to only take one point.
Left: My Almughavars had flanked his Voynich Spearmen and pretty well dispatched them. Then the Warriors in the Mist moved in, and there was much grinding. We both needed 2s to hit; he needed 7s to wound and I needed 5s to wound, so basically anything that hit wounded. (Literally in his case!)
Left of Center: His Voynich spearmen had pinched my Almughavars. The Almughavars blew the Pinch check and so were wiped out without getting to finish off the spearmen to their front. My Cavalls Alforrat followed up and pinched the spearmen that had flanked my Almughavars and wiped them out. Unfortunately this left the damage spearmen that had been engaged on the front free to flank my Vesper Almughavars.
Right of Center: and that's exactly what they did. My Vesper Almughavars (along with pinching-flanking Alan cavalry) finished off the Voynich spearmen. The Vespers then got pinched by the Warriors in the Mist and some more Voynich Spear. But being uphill and having Parry against 1) an enemy in the red and 2) an enemy who can't play CCs meant they lived. The Alan cavalry then pinched the Warriors in the Mist. These guys are probably the heroes because whereas everyone else was failing 12s and 13s, these Cge 11 guys made a Yellow and a Red check.
Far Right: The Curteni Halberdiers had charged the Almughavar skirmishers, who bounced through the Cavalls Alforrat. I DC'd the impulsive suckers to not charge, so here he is charging them. They both failed their Yellow check (
sigh) and ran.
Here you see the Catalan left flank is. . . well it's really more accurate to say that it's the Rudihnya right flank at this point, since he's the one with units there. My skirmisher crossbowmen passed their Yellow check but failed their Red and were destroyed. The Almughavars fighting the Warriors in the Mist routed and were destroyed as well. So yeah, Cge 10? Yeah they can make a check. Cge 12? 13? Nope.
On the hill, my Cavalls Alforrat had rear charged the Voynich and crushed them, then flank charged the Warriors in the Mist. When he can't play cards and you're hitting on 4s and wounding on 7s... Dead unit. (Okay, dead
er unit)
On the right, the Cavalls Alforrat and Halberdiers rallied and had another go at it. The Halberdiers won (no surprise), and followed up to charge my skirmishers. Yellow check, Cge 12. Do I even have to say it at this point?
What would happen from here is that my Vespers would turn to face his Halberdiers, while the Cavalls Alforrat turned around and flanked the other Warriors in the Mist. Again, I need 3s to hit before cards and he can't play cards...
Unfortunately, this left my flank exposed to another Punish their Mistake, and that 3.5" unit Final Rushed 5" to wipe out my Cavalls Alforrat.
And here's the endgame:
My Greek Archers were flanked and crushed by his Curteni Halberdiers whereas the Vesper Almughavars and other Curteni Halberdiers annihilated each other. He claims the table with 195 pts of units. A draw.
Obviously we both made some silly "hey these aren't the factions we're used to playing" mistakes, but over time we hunkered down and it was a realy good match. In retrospect, I think his mistake of having the Warriors in the Mist pinned there helped him grind down those Vesper Almughavars, who had managed to claim the high ground and be Def Skill 4 for almost the entire game.
Afterwards I expressed concern about the ability to place terrain to be too strong, and that it wasn't as a big a deal because he ignored it. But he said he didn't feel it was broken or frustrating to play, because had he been slowed to 2.5" for 1 turn, it would have just pushed the engagement back 1" which wouldn't have helped. His units would have still be on the hill and so only the Vespers would be able to claim the +1 Def. We priced out what the +1 Def works out to, and let's just say that on the Vesper Almughavars going from 3 to 4 is close to what I paid. But my bigger concern is taking 2 small hills and getting +1 Def for 2 units. His opinion is that if its a problem, then introducing a die roll where the opponent can shift the terrain say d6" would balance it because if you pin yourself to terrain for that +1 Def, you do give up the tactical initiative.
As for the skirmishers house rule, I think we have a winner. With skirmishers not granting the pinch bonus, there's less incentive to put them out on a flank to get that pinch bonus. Instead, they're used to essentially tank and protect a flank for a little while. Perhaps tank is the wrong word, more stymie the advance (which is roughly the same effect as tanking with a speedbump unit to protect the flank).
Using the 2/3/4 dice with a flat statline of (X)5/5 works well in my opinion because it does a couple of things. First off, it gives the fast skirmishers just the right amount of durability against a slower unit. Without cards it'll take that enemy unit about 3 turns to force that check, which is pretty comparable to how other 70-80 pt twerps hold up. At the same time it makes them still vulnerable to fast units. A 5" mover facing a 5" skirmisher will force that check on two charges, and a 7" unit will probably force that check on the first turn (especially if its cavalry). That feels about right. But what is better I think is that you can play command cards to quicken that by at a turn or so. Even the slower units can run them down in 1-2 turns.
Second, the ability for skirmishers to get back in their enemy's faces feels right. It comes at the cost of a CA (2 if the enemy is within final rush range), so it certainly doesn't come cheap. And to be honest, in games where I've had 2 skirmishers bouncing back and forth, I have felt that loss of 2-4 command cards later in the game. So it isn't like there's no price to doing this.
Third, I like the fact that the way the dice work out makes it so that skirmishers that have 2-3 boxes and move 3.5" (i.e. slow skirmishers) don't just die. Obviously, they'll die a turn sooner than if they're faster, but they're not "3 ranged shots and put them away." I took the Crossbowmen skirmishers specifically to see how they held up and I really wasn't disappointed.
Fourth, what I think works is that since this is a die roll instead of instant points, cards and army/unit abilities matter. For example, Wolf kin, Wolves, and Goblin Wolf Riders all get a bonus to running them down. As it should be. Army abilities like Blood Frenzy and Rune of Uruz matter on those die rolls, which I think is never a bad thing.
And Fifth, the die roll makes the skirmisher's defensive stats matter more. When Alexander & Persia comes out, there's going to be a Def 2/0 skirmisher. That def 2 will really show how they're more elite at skirmishing away but maintaining cohesion. It might make a player drop a Parry card on the unit to keep it alive a turn longer. When I designed the Crossbowmen, I gave them Def 1/1 really just to represent they wear kind of heavier armor, but now that 1/1 matters a lot. It separates them as being slower (3.5" MC) but only taking a little over 1 pt when charged instead of 1.5 pts of damage. That little tweak might mean the difference between being picked up or holding off the enemy for another turn.
I think that opening up the stats on skirmishers adds another level of variety to them, so that future factions could differentiate them if they wanted. Its feasible to have this "heavy skirmisher" unit that has a Def 2/1 and MC 3.5", which would represent a unit
juuust a little bit lighter than Umenzi, right across that line of a skirmisher vs a brick unit.
Anyway, if folks want to give those rules a try, let me know what you think of them. I have to say I think they really work. They make skirmishers act like skirmishers without making the other guy feel frustrated that he can't do anything to plow through them.
