Feedback from Andreas & our Swedish Friends!

Feedback and questions from the magnificent 7 Play test groups in Edinburgh, Dumfries, Sweden, Cheltenham, Arizona, Georgia and Florida.
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barr7430
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Feedback from Andreas & our Swedish Friends!

Post by barr7430 » Thu Dec 24, 2009 12:43 am

Hi Barry!
We had our first playtest earlier today, it went very well! Two persons were playing in a fairly small battle, they had played before but not too much, me and Magnus were gamemasters and tried to interpret rules the best we could. General opinions were:

- The new close combat system works really well! Once you get stuck in you'll get a result from it very quickly and it is very bloody and decisive! We had some thoughts about some things though, more about that later.

- There is ALOT of different tables and modifiers! These might be hard to keep track of because we don't play too often and this time we just had the printed papers which were really hard to look through (that'll get sorted with the book and QRS I guess). It is quite easy to forget modifiers because they are not always so obvious. Perhaps some of these could be removed to get a better flow in the game?

I may remove some more modifiers... some are already going!

- Perhaps we've missed something in the rules but we would really like to see some sort of "brigade morale" or "army morale". As we played now in the end we just had a lot of really small units running around (one cavalry miniature there and 6 or 7 infantry miniatures there). Especially the cavalry were really annoying as they could cause quite alot of casualties even though they were so few. With brigade morale we mean something like when half (or more) of the units in a brigade are wiped out, have depleted command or are below half strength you start rolling morale checks. These would be the same as for units (but with other modifiers...perhaps?), a 4+ and you are good, worse and the units start retreating/routing?

Several rule sets use such an 'army' test . FoW would call it a company check. Interested in others views on this as to me it moves a little down the 'competition gaming track'


BLB is a really good game, we had alot of fun with them today and people are getting more and more interested! One problem for us is that we have alot of "power gamers", I suppose you know the type, they just can't see the fun in a game were you actually play for the sake of playing and not winning! Do you have any tips for dealing with that? It would be a great chapter in the book!

So, down to some pure rule questions:
- Do you round up or down when calculating how many units you can give orders to?
UP

- The players liked to extend the Defend order to include more options. One of the players got caught in the open with his infantry and knew he was going to get charged by the opposing cavalry. He'd like to be able to give them a defend order and get some plus in "defensive fire" or perhaps when forming square?

I bet he would! :wink: I would say he made a tactical error in this case. Going into 'Defence angainst horse' will give the best chance of survival I would think unless the unit was of good quality and got an excellent stand and fire result


- We thought the penalty for moving in a dense wood was a bit harsh. Perhaps a D3 for infantry and a D6 for cavalry instead of a quarter of the distance.

Yes interesting point. I will tie this in with any modifications on movement allowance.


Most questions had to do with the close combat;
- Flanked and supporting units: I guess you will include some sort of illustrations about this in the final product, because this was really unclear on some points.
YES

- Does a SUPPORTING unit have to be in physical contact with the enemy or is it enough that it is within X inches?
NOT IN CONTACT WITH THE ENEMY NECESSARILY(COULD BE) OR ALTERNATIVELY IN CONTACT WITH FRIENDS WHO ARE FIGHTING THE ENEMY AND THAT THE REINFORCING UNIT WAS WITHIN CHARGE REACH OF THE CENTRE OF THE MELEE BEFORE IT CHARGED.

- Horse gets more dices "on contact", does this mean the first round (wouldn't they keep their swords and guns even in the second and third round?) or in every close combat (then why "on contact"?)

This bonus is about movement, impact and impetus on contact - the shock effect of hitting the enemy


- Does supporting units follow along in push backs?

YES but I may now remove the pushbacks totally as per points form Joe and the boys in Florida

- Why can't infantry support in a friendly infantry vs. enemy horse close combat? (I suppose there is a good answear to this but during the game I had to explain it like this: - My infantry will charge the horse attacking my infantry there. - Infantry can't charge horse. - Why? - They are so fast they would avoid you and run away. - But that's exactly what I want them to do? - Well...ehhhm...)

This is really now down to discussions about reality versus a game. Infantry did not charge cavalry in general terms in any period (of course the few recorded exceptions actually prove the rule rather than disprove it. The answer to you gaming friend is that it is not credible in real life


- Several units charging a single enemy: Why do they have to come from different directions? Is it to limit it to a maximum of 4 units supporting? Because you'll onlt get the + modifier for > 1 unit any way? In the end I allowed units to charge from the same direction as long as the could find room along the enemy unit.

It is really about coordination and whether friendly units would actually get in each other's way if coming from the same direction.


- "Principal units": There might be a need for some restrictions to which units can be this. I the end we had a full strength swedish squadron charging some danish infantry. At the same time a swedish squadron with only 2 figures left charged them at the same time. The smaller unit was assigned as the principal unit and got shot to pieces. At the same time the full strength squadron contacted the infatry without a scratch. I guess the commander of the smaller squadron would feel a bit abused?

Yes this may need a little clarification by me

Well, hope I didn't bore you too much with all this!

On the contrary, that is what play test and feedback is all about!!

Thank you Sweden!!!!

/Andreas Heneborn
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Re: Feedback from Andreas & our Swedish Friends!

Post by Heneborn » Fri Dec 25, 2009 12:57 pm

barr7430 wrote:
Several rule sets use such an 'army' test . FoW would call it a company check. Interested in others views on this as to me it moves a little down the 'competition gaming track'
How about making it an optional rule for pickup games?
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