The Big Battle

So I finally managed to get my new armies to the table and let them have a go at each other!

The ‘Good Guys’ were as follows:

That’s 5 Templars, 5 Handgunners, 5 Grenadiers, 5 Shining Templars, 2 Nephilim and a Warpriest.

The ‘Bad Guys’:

5 Devildogs, 10 Wraiths, 5 Hellknights, 5 Sauracens, a Golem, a Dragon and a kit Necromancer.

Here’s all my hastily scribbled stats:

I wanted to adjust Featherstone’s combat system into something even speedier (because I’m lazy and don’t want to have to think about modifiers) so I opted for Polygonal dice. Units that used to get bonuses in combat now just roll better dice. So a Hellknight rolls a D10 when attacking in melee and a Templar will roll a D8 in defence. The lower roller loses a number of ‘Lives’ equal to the difference.

My plan is to have a different stat for ranged attacks and melee attacks, I just didn’t bother on this occasion, so my Grenadiers (that’s literally guys armed with grenades, which I believe is where the term comes from?) were somewhat overpowered in melee, but it was still bags of fun.

It shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out points with a basic system like that, but it’s not as straightforward as I had initially imagined (D4 = 4 points, D6 = 6 and so on) because in practical terms 3 guys attacking and defending with D4s will get obliterated by 1 guy with D12s. Also the maximum amount of damage that can be done with a D4 is 3, whereas the D12 can get up to 11. So assuming the D4 guys and the D12 guy have 3 lives each, even if the D4s win a round of combat they’re very unlikely to kill Mr D12 in one hit, whereas he’s likely to kill a single D4 guy with each hit.

So here are the rules:

Stats

Speed (SP) – The number of inches a unit moves.

Range (RN) – The range in inches that a unit can shoot.

Ranged Attack (RA) – The die rolled for a figure when they are making a ranged attack.

Melee Attack (MA) – The die rolled for a figure when they are making a melee attack.

Defence (DF) – The die rolled for a figure when they are defending against an attack.

Lives (LV) – The amount of lives a figure can lose before being killed.

Taking Turns

Roll off at the start of each game turn to determine which side is A and which is B.

a) Side A moves.

b) Side A makes melee attacks.

c) Side B shoots and does magic.

d) Side A shoots and does magic.

e) Side B moves.

f) Side B makes melee attacks.

Movement

A unit can move up to its SP value in inches. Modify moves in a way that makes sense (a cop out, but we all know what those modifiers are).

Shooting

Select a target figure within range of the shooting figure. Roll the attacking figure’s RA die, and your opponent rolls the target figure’s DF die. If the RA die is higher, then the target figure loses a number of lives equal to the difference. If the DF die is equal or higher then the shot has no effect.

If a figure loses all of their lives they are killed and removed from play.

If the target figure is not entirely visible to the attacker, and the attacker rolls an odd number then the shot also fails.

Spells

A magic user can do 1 spell per turn from the following list:

Move a figure within 12” D12”.

Heal a figure within 12” D6 Lives.

Hurt a figure within 12” D6 Lives.

Melee

Select a target figure in base contact with the attacking figure. Roll the attacking figure’s MA die, and your opponent rolls the target figure’s DF die. If the MA die is higher, then the target figure loses a number of lives equal to the difference. If the DF die is higher, then the attacking figure loses a number of lives equal to the difference.

If multiple enemies are in contact with the attacking figure add 1 to the defenders die for each additional figure.

Likewise if multiple enemies are in contact with the defending figure add 1 to the attackers die for each additional figure.

Re-roll ties.

If the loser is not killed they back away from the winner by 1”. If the loser cannot back away by 1” because there are allies in the way, they back away to the other side of those allies. If the loser cannot back away by 1” because there are enemies in the way they are killed.