"Rally Round the King from Two Hour Wargames now available" Topic

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Thanks!

THE game of big fantasy battles.

'Splain it.

Playable with any already based figures.
Over 40 armies.
Point system for Tournament types.
Complete campaign system with little, if any, book keeping.
Diplomacy is taken care of by the rules so you can concentrate on fighting battles.
Playable solo or same side without player alterations.
Able to play with your friends and not against them if you choose.
Reaction system allows for all players to be actively involved during all the turns.
Historical equivalents so you can play historical as well.
Same or next day answer to questions from the THW Yahoo Group.
A complete set of rules.

Does that mean that everyone will like it? Of course not, especially those that want total control of their units.

Here's a short review/overview, based off of an hour or two's perusal of the system: (Full disclosure – I'm familiar with this game's previous version, though I've never played it. I'm also quite familiar with other THW games.)

RRtK gives a roughly DBA to Big Battle DBA sized game (in terms of figures needed) that can be used with HOTT/DBA basing (or really anything you want). For that reason, and because it seems to address a similar abstraction level, I'll be comparing RRtK with HOTT when such a comparison would be useful.

RRtK armies consist of a standard core of units (one stand is a unit) and a set of randomly generated "recruits". In campaigns you can also hire mercenaries and such. You also have special characters like your Mages and Heroes, much like in HOTT. Unlike HOTT, the game is meant to be played with a partially random army list. The rules cover general troop types (melee/missile/skirmish by foot/mounted) but also add armor class and special attributes (weapons and other abilities) and of course REP (reputation) which is the unit's overall quality.

Units are formed into bodies (like HOTT groups) that are activated together. Once activated, the units of a body will continue to move until they are halted by a reaction or other circumstances. Interestingly, there is no way for a general to force a group to halt at-will. However, given that archers will halt when they get into range and bodies will halt when they reach another halted body, you can send forward your archers/skirmishers until they are within a bow-shot of the enemy, and then use them hold the rest of your army until you are ready for the charge.

In combat, units take hits which reduce their REP. After each round of combat's hits are determined, the units take a reaction to being in melee. Hits reduce REP (the stat used to make reaction checks) but other factors can increase REP, such as neighboring units, magic or tactical terrain advantages. A well-supported unit on a hill might be able to take a serious beating and still stand and fight, whereas that same unit out on an unprotected flank would flee from the same level of punishment.

Reaction checks are still the heart of the system, but since it's possible to modify your REP up to 6 or higher, you can use tactics to bolster your units' chances of success. I'm looking forward to trying this combat system out on the table. It seems like a long solid 2-deep line will hold on very tenaciously until you manage to break a unit, then it will fall apart pretty quickly. Attacking the flanks will give you the best results, as it should be.

Magic works on a set of spell points that are spent when casting spells from the spell list. Mages can attempt to block each other's spells and such, and roll against difficulty factors to cast spells that cost spell points. It's a reasonably detailed system which I'll need to play to gauge the effect of properly.

There is also a full-blown campaign world with many factions, a map, and rules for managing both player and NPC armies. You get recruiting rolls based off of your territories, and you can spend recruiting rolls to hire mercenaries instead of relying on your army list's troop options. Heroes come and go with your victories and Mages arrive and depart as they see fit. The campaign also details various magic items and artifacts that can influence both the tide of battles and in some cases the politics of the world. This is a much more extensive campaign system than the older THW system, and is more in line with the detailed systems that THW has been gravitating towards in the last years. (Though there pointedly no rules for politics – it's a battle generator, not a game of Diplomacy.)

Anyhow, I hope this incoherent mess of jumbled thoughts is useful to someone.

I guess I should 'splain myself!

What do you mean by "big fantasy battles?"

Is it multiple large units of individually based figures a la Warhammer or Armies of Arcana? Multiple groups of stands of figures as in DBx/HOTT? Multiple groups of individually based skirmish forces as seen in Lord of the Rings, Warmachine and Chronopia?

Heroes?

Wizards?

Fantastic magical creatures?

Lugal answered while I was tapping! Thanks for the overview.

I wants it… with Historical Army Lists!

Ed, I've already sent you my money (5 minutes ago) and I can't hardly wait any longer. I need it!

You finally released it! Bought it already and am looking forward to reading it. Now once I have a new job I can start building up a couple fantasy armies to play with.

Awesome! I have been waiting for this!

Looks interesting. Will have to add this to my list of things to buy.

Jeff

Jay – Thanks for asking the question as it gave me a great chance to respond without sounding like advertising…much.

Thanks for the review Dan.

advocate – Has the historical armies that the fantasy armies are based on.

"…Has the historical armies that the fantasy armies are based on…"

Without disclosing the whole listings, can you give an example of what you mean?

Such as "1600's Samurai are the basis of Half-Orc/Half-Elf Crossbred Snow Raiders" for example?

Garcias,

Glenn

>Without disclosing the whole listings, can you give an example of what you mean?

There are 40+ nations in Talomir. Some are non-human likes Elves, Goblins, etc. Many nations are human. The human nations are based on historical nations. For example the nation Mirholme is based on the Vikings, and is identified as such. (Under the title Mirholme it shows Vikings in parenthesis) Does that help?

Glenn,
Lists are based on the following. Where there's more than one possible (Chinese) historical players will easily be able to determine the exact time period.

Chinese
German Imperialists
Persian
Feudal French
Templars
Italian Condotta
Early Indian
Saracen
HYW French
Hittite
Portuguese
Huns
Another Chinese
West African
Berbers
Mongol
A third Chinese
Sassanid Persia
Vikings
Celts
Roman Client State
Byzantine
Egyptian
Irish
Another Persian
HYW English
Later Roman
Later Roman Western
Barbarian Rome
Welsh
and a few more

Hope this helps.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Gracias,

Glenn

Good overview, Dan!

Bought it when it came out Monday night. I was not disappointed. The game is similar to the old version. It is more dressed up with some diagrams and even a little extra artwork by Andrea Sfiligoi (now where have we seen that name before!?) The explanations are more complete.

As for army lists, they will do historically in a pinch. If you wish to make your own, there is an explanation for how to go about doing that as well.

For all of you solo gamers out there, this is a fantastic addition as it does a very good job of allowing troops to "run themselves".

Well worth the $17 USD for the PDF.

Is there an 'Inspired by Samurai' force?

I would like to see some army pics (to get an idea of how any army looks) and some battle reports (it sounds very very tempting)

>I would like to see some army pics (to get an idea of how any army looks)

Armies are fairly standard. Basing is flexible but if using 10mm or 15mm figures recommended basing is 40mm width and if using 28mm recommended basing is 60mm width. All systems recommend 2-4 figures per base.

>Is there an 'Inspired by Samurai' force?

Not at present. There are three Chinese forces and a Mongol and Indian army. There are also plans for a free historical armies list later which would likely include a Samurai oriented army. Also there are directions provided for rating your own army and using it with the RRtK army generation system.

Ordered a copy as soon as I saw the 'roll-your-own' comment.

I may end up using this for my late-samurai gaming.

I got mine. Haven't played yet, but I like the rulebook and I am gald to see that the reaction system seems simpler then NUTS.

@Lion in the Stars.

I'm working on using RRtK for battles in Sengoku era Japan. PM me if you would like to to some brain storming on this.

Ok, please pardon the threadomancy, I just got a load of the Wargames Factory Samurai and Ashigaru and have been working on lists again. Question for Ed about Firearms in Talomir. what type of early firearm did you have in mind? The reason I ask is that, from what I can gather, the Arquebus used in such numbers toward the late period of the Sengoku Era had a range which seems to have surpassed that of bows. So, without breaking the game any, can I pay an extra for "terror" on the guns and give them equal range as the bows?