"Throw Me a 6 now online." Topic

I've posted my first draft. You can find them here.

link

Cool – thanks! I'm printing it now and will read through it this evening.

Doug

Remarkably concise at the first overview, and I only have one initial question:

In 2) can units which shot shoot again at the end of the phase?

In 2) can units which shot shoot again at the end of the phase?

No. The end phase is for units that are eligible to shoot. So if they shot already then they are not eligible. I'll put the one shot thingy in the next draft.

One suggestion, just for style and my personal preference. Players always want to roll a high number (I like this) except when rolling for losing a melee. Then they want a low roll. A simple fix: have the winning player roll the die to see how far the losers run. Then players always want a high score when they roll the dice.

Also, ditch the reference to skirmishers and just say light troops (both horse and foot). Using two terms may confuse beginners and be fertile soil for rules lawyers.

I do like this. Maybe I can con my mates into trying it next week.

Starting tomorrow afternoon

This may be my wargaming salvation

Thanks
Austin

Consider it done in the next draft Vincent. I really like the idea of calling them "light troops" since that is how the primary sources refer to them.

Austin, Let me know how you get on with the rules.

One more thing, It's been pointed out to me that the game does not have to have multiple bases. You could have a single chunky base like in Impetus that can take 3 hits. I'll work that into the design notes some how.

John

I'm going to scale down the table
Doing math to scale everything down to 6mm
so far so good

I like the simplicity
I'm not sure how I feel about the abstract "morale" rules
But we shall see! They may just work
I will GLADLY share any feedback with you

Thanks
Austin

Cool John, good luck with them. I will give them a go.

You could have a single chunky base like in Impetus that can take 3 hits.

You could also use a single DBX base that takes 3 hits and halve all distances, in case you can't field 32 stands in your chosen army.

You could also use a single DBX base that takes 3 hits and halve all distances, in case you can't field 32 stands in your chosen army.

Or those that base for WAB/Hail Caesar could use 1-4 bases in various formations to do the same….changing the scale as needed.

I have feedback!

I have played 9 games of this with my room mate so far. We have done Gaugamela (3 times),Cannae(3 times), And 3 nondescript battles between Hannibal and Alexander the great.

What I noticed off the bat: Warbands are useless. Hannibals African infantry were too evenly matched with romans, and alexanders companions were too evenly matched with the Persians, and hannibals cavalry.
What we did to fix this was grade units as superior, average, or inferior. We upped the charge bonus for warbands and cav to +2, and cataphracts to +4
and gave everyone a +1 to charge
troops get +1 for each grade above the opposing. This made companions, African infantry, and other historically badass units act like they did historically.

We played each battle 2 times, RAW and they took between 30 minutes and an hour. After modifications, each game finished in about 25 minutes.

we were also very confused as to how the elephants moved randomly… so we used a warhammer artillery die to solve that.

I managed to do a side battle with another guy on my floor with Parthians and Romans.
We did it RAW, then with the modifications. The modifications really helped.

RAW we really enjoyed them , But the battles took longer than we had thought, because most of the time units were only rolling 2 dice, and a 6 was very hard to get.

we used baseline DBA lists for our nondescript battles, and we used modified lists for the battles based off Wikipedia estimates, figuring about a whole legion (or legion equivalent) per base.

We haven't used artillery yet, no comments there.

My houserules were just something that my roommate and I thought felt right, I would love to hear what you have to say about them John. Thank you for writing a simple set of rules, and letting us play them.

By the way, I got to play them on a full sized table, we have quite a few in the basement of my dorm, so I was able to make lots of cardboard cutout armies!

Thanks
Austin

Side note really quick: Small units like peltasts and velites EASILY held off heavy cavalry, so holding off what I would classify as superior troops with throw away troops was way too easy.

I unwittingly charged my companions into a unit of slingers, and they were held for the entire game

Thanks
Austin

I state again and again that hitting on sixes is too rare (witness the snoozefest of Shieldwall vs Shieldwall in Dux Bellorum). You have too many chances for turns and turns to go by with nothing happening.

I strongly recommend hitting on 5-6 for melee, and hitting on 6's for missiles, and light troops. This is similar to Commands and Colours, and means that infantry fights can be quick and bloody once the heavies clash, but running missile skirmishes can endure.

Side note really quick: Small units like peltasts and velites EASILY held off heavy cavalry, so holding off what I would classify as superior troops with throw away troops was way too easy.

This is not necessarily a-historic. There is at least one account of a unit of peltasts driving off a unit of Thracian(?) cavalry. However, there have been changes to make some units, especially charging units stronger.