"Warrior Heroes Armies & Arcana - First impressions" Topic

Well, I have bought the game, and played a couple of battles with them, so I wanted to share my thoughts on the game.

First, the book: I have to say that this set of rules were not easy to read and understand. Things were pretty spread out throughout the book, and some rules could not be understood without also looking at the charts. I would have liked to see the rules separate from the campaign rules, but they were all kind of rolled together, which made it somewhat hard to get through.

Now, the Rules themselves: I played through a few combats (still haven't used the large battle rules), and was pretty satisfied with the results. I liked the overall mechanics. Each figure has a Reputation(REP) stat which represents their quality. Most of the time you roll a number of dice equal to the REP, and determine the number of successes. You then compare your successes against your opponents to get the result of the combat. This allows for figures with low REPs to have a chance of eliminating a figure with a higher REP.

One of the combats that I did was using 2 knights, 3 men at arms, and 2 archers against 2 orc leaders and 10 regular orcs. The knights and the men-at-arms were fairly high REP (7,6,5,5&5), and the two orc leaders were 6&5, and the orcs were 3. The fight went pretty well with the humans wading through the orcs, but suffering an occasional casualty. Finally, it was down to 4 orcs and the main knight. A bad roll by the knight(all failures) coupled with 4 successes ended the fight.

The second fight was with 2 identical sides. A leader REP 6, 2 good warriors REP 5, and 8 soldiers REP 4. The fight came down to the last turn when one side had a leader and 2 warriors against a leader, 1 good warrior, and 1 warrior. In that last turn the smaller side was knocked out.

The games were fun and satisfying with a lot of back and forth.

The one thing that I wasn't too fond of, was the armor rules. I was using early medieval figs with no more than chain mail. According to the rules, all of the hand weapons penetrate that armor, so armor is of little value. Shields help a little more. I might not have understood the Hardiness rules, but normal people don't have a score. The description of Hardiness says that it can be used in place of armor, but not the other way around, so I did not use any Hardiness REP tests. If I interpreted that right, then I might consider altering the armor values, or use the armor value for the Hardiness REP test.

To continue, my next fight will include magic, and then I will do a larger fight using the Mass Battle Rules. So far I am liking the rules despite their shortfalls.

Oh, one other thought…

Activation: Each turn, you roll a D6 for each side, and the highest side activates first. In addition, you can only activate figures that have a REP higher than the number, or are with a leader with a higher REP.

Well, since the rules allow for high REPs, you can easily end up with a force that always activates against a force that may not activate. Some people may not like that rule, but I still haven't made up my mind on it yet.

I thought you were comparing Warrior Heores Armies & Adventurers with Armies of Arcana :)
The book may be a bit confusing but it worths reading it IMO.
You could fix the armour issue by rising one point all the types of armour.
Hardiness factor (not the test) can be used instead of armour only in the case of heroes (your Star) if that Hardiness is higher than armour.
Let's suppose one side is all Rep 6 or higher and the other one is all Rep 3 or lower. Rep 3 side can activate first if higher Rep side rolls 1 or 2 in the activation and the other side rolls a 3. Of course higher side will activate more times than the lower rep side but as a ninja would activate first and more times than a peasant.
As examples you can see AARs of big skirmishes here: link
And small skirmishes from a WHAA campaign here: link

I'm quite a fan of THW but i still think the rules are better suited to firearm based games than melee heavy pursuits. I've got a copy of WH:A&A that I intended to use for Mordheim type games but soon switched to Ganesha Games SOBH.

That said, I've heard good things about THW Legends of Araby ( a RPG lite ) and the new FREE set Swordplay.

Krieghund,

Why do you think the rules are better suited to firearm based games than melee heavy pursuits?

Not sure really, just the feel of the game I guess. While I can see Sinister & Dexter firing off a volley, diving behind the bins and then popping up to fire again I can't see Arthur and his knights doing the same.

In whaa they don't. Did you read your copy?

Bob

I did indeed read it which is how I came to the conclusion I prefer SBH for a quick Skirmish. It's only an opinion Bob, I never said it was logical.

As an aside, would you be the author perchance?.

Opinions are fine and no one game is for everyone.

Yes I am the author. We are always looking for ways to improve so I sought your opinion on why the system doesn't work well for mainly melee periods.

Figures do not duck back and pop up in whaa as they do in the modern games.

So to recap, preferring another game is fine, but your characterization of how the game works was flawed.

Thanks for your opinion.

Bob