"My first game of Chainmail: Battle of Emridy Meadows" Topic

In my imagination, "Chainmail" has always been that shadowy precursor to Dungeons & Dragons that I was both intrigued by yet leery of. I loved the idea of a game involving mass battles in a fantasy setting akin to those depicted in the "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings," but I also had a sense that "Chainmail," released in 1971 a mere year after I was born, was likely a clunky wargame that would be too frustrating to bother mastering. It also didn't help that my first inkling of its existence was around 1980 or so when I could never dream of amassing the miniature armies needed to play out these massive conflicts. No, back then I was pretty sure "Chainmail" was the province of grizzled old grognards who had started wargaming before I was even born.

Lucky for me, I finally got the chance to try the game out, thanks to my pal Keith Sloan, who plans to run it at Gary Con this March. He needed some playtesters, and I leapt at the chance to see what I've been missing all of these years.

And to make it all the cooler, he's recreating a battle only alluded to by Gary Gygax in the "World of Greyhawk" supplement, The Battle of Emridy Meadows, in which the forces of good have it out with the cultists and their evil allies from the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Lots of photos and my experiences with the game at my blog, Scrum in Miniature: link

Many more photos and my experiences with the game at my blog, Scrum in Miniature: link

Fantastic figures, terrain, etc! Love the vintage figures, from the 70's-80's! First time I've seen them painted, on a table, in a game! Saw them, for years, in the Dragon Magazine's ad's, back in the early 80's.

Are the white-haired stumpies, Dwarves, or Gnomes? I am particularly partial to Gnomes… Found a vendor, in England, who still sells fantastic, 25mm Gnomes -- shorter than most Dwarf figures, around 20mm tall. Built an army out of them, for my BattleSystem games, and my RPG sessions. They typically do much better than my Goblin armies ever do! Hmmm…

I own PDF copies of Chainmail, Swords & Spells, as well as a physical copy of 1e BattleSystem (red boxed set), and multiple physical copies of 2e BattleSystem, and 2e's BattleSystem Skirmish games. There is a progression, from the earliest, to the latest (1971 to 1992), which demonstrates a streamlining process, cutting away tedious stuff, like exhaustion rules, which really do not add much to the enjoyment of the game, IMO.

2e's BattleSystem is mass battles, with 15mm-28mm figures. It covers just about everything you can imagine possible, in such a fantasy game. It is a bucket-O-dice game, rolling one Attack Die for each figure attacking, employing d4 through d12, with an occasional need for a d20 (Saving Throw rolls, never an Attack Die, for any creature…). I highly recommend either a hard copy, from e-Bay or Amazon; they also offer it in PDF format. Great game! Always a blast! It has rules for creating your own troop types, your own battle platforms, skirmish units, monsters, and spell casters. The book also features a how-to guide on painting mini's (dated, but still useful), and how to make terrain.

The BattleSystem Skirmish game is in the same, softcover format, as the mass battles version; it is OOP, and not currently offered as a PDF (was, in the past), so used copies are your only option. It is, however, a skirmish miniatures game, with a veneer of RPG over the top. It is a top-notch game for what it is. Combat is very quick: characters and monsters have one Hit per Hit Die, while non-Fighter types have less. A 15th Level Fighter, for example, will have around 15 Hits. Each successful attack, inflicts a single Hit. Battles tend to be relatively quick. Magic is converted, and it works similarly, leading to quick deaths for the recipients.

I recommend both versions of 2e's BattleSystem games to you. They are different, but they are very fun! Cheers!

Does anyone know who made that Treeman?

Impressive looking game!
I've been cleaning house, and came across my Ral Partha armies--this looks like something fun to do with them.

Grelber

Brave face: The treeman is produced by Otherworld Miniatures.

brave face, no, I don't know who made that Treant figure. However, I just picked up one of these, last week. Maybe this will suit your needs?

It comes pre-primed, ready to paint, other than some mold lines you may wish to clean up, first. I plan on gluing on tufts of foliage to mine, to dress it up, after I finish painting it. Cheers!

What a smashing looking game, I thoroughly enjoyed your blog post.

I spotted "Fantasy Warriors" rules on your blog too, I have been having some very good games with them having only recently discovered them. Talk about being late to the party!.

Some of these old games have a lot going for them.

Oh my gosh, I am instantly in LOVE with those Human figures.

Looks like it was a great game with amazing miniatures!

Thanks for the kind words. I've also pointed the game's GM to this post, too.

Chainmail was the first mini game I ever played. Being a kid, back then, I didn't own any figures. I cut bases from cardboard and drew a circle for each figure on the base, and crossed them out when they were hit. My living room carpet was the field for the Battle of Five Armies. Great memories, thanks for posting.

Thanks for the answers Bibliophile and Sgt. Slag – appreciate it.

Paul liddle – I enjoy Fantasy Warriors (by NIck Lund) as well.

Ive been quite interested in trying these rules (Chainmail) since I started playing D&D back in 1978? Im Really surprised that more people don't play this game and post about it, given how important it is in the history and development of wargaming and RPGing in general. Real Glad to see a post about it, but wish you would expound more about how the game went as a review of the ruleset. Having read a pdf copy I have , the game seems like it is basicly a quite decent rule set, especially for a more historical fantasy type situation.

Any one ever use the Sword and Spell ruleset? the "child" of the Chainmail ruleset? Kind of halfway between Chainmail and 1st Ed. AD&D for wargaming, but with Static damage based on average damage calculations?

I've read PDF copies of Chainmail, and Swords & Spells. I find them cumbersome with record-keeping. I have multiple print copies of 2e's BattleSystem (mass battles) and BattleSystem Skirmish (miniatures game with a thin veneer of RPG over the top of it), and I love playing both of these games.

There is some bookkeeping, but it is not too much. There is no such thing as tracking 'exhaustion'. However, if troops charge an enemy unit, and they fail to meet them, they run out of energy, and are 'blown', which reduces their morale, making them weaker [Regular formation troops (shoulder-to-shoulder marching/fighting) become Irregular (must separate figures up to 1-inch apart, as they can no longer fight shoulder-to-shoulder], and unable to attack their enemies frontally, unless, and until, they rally, and restore their order. Each figure able to fight, rolls an Attack Die. After rallying, Regular Formation troops can once again, march/fight, shoulder-to-shoulder, which means figures are base-to-base, and present a stronger front, with more figures able to attack the enemy, as they are closer knit in formation! Attacking figures must be in base-to-base contact to attack enemy figures, in melee -- up to one-half of their base must contact an enemy figure, so Regular Formation allows more Attack Dice to be rolled, bringing more of your troops into contact with the enemy troops.

There is a progression in the rules from Chainmail, through Swords & Spells, continuing through 1e's BattleSystem, and ending with 2e's BattleSystem rules. They get more streamlined, IMO, and better, as well.

Each figure in 2e's BS rules, represents 10 creatures, unless they are heroes (one person per figure), or Giants, Dragons, etc., who are individuals, as well.

2e's BattleSystem is a bucket-O-dice game, but it is a lot of fun. It is capable of handling whatever creatures, and war machines, you can come up with, allowing you to create stat's for them within the game. Heroes are good, but they are not over-powered; magic is the same: good, but not crushingly powerful. The rules cover nearly all aspects of fantasy medieval battles: siege warfare (sped up to be resolvable within several Turns), war machines, customizable monsters and races, mining rules, aerial units and combat, Dragons, etc. It is a fun game, according to the majority who have played it.

2e's BattleSystem Skirmish rules is a miniatures, and terrain based game. Figures represent one individual creature. Combat is fast: a 4th Level Fighter, has only 4 Hits, an 8th Level Fighter has 8 Hits, and a 15th Level Fighter has 15 Hits, typically. Each attack inflicts a single Hit upon an opponent. THAC0 is used, but combat is incredibly fast, compared to AD&D RPG combat rules. High level Fighters, and monsters, may get multiple attacks per Round, ending the combat even sooner. Magic is similar to the RPG rules, only Damage inflicted is in Hits, leading to lethal results very quickly: a Fireball spell will inflict 1 Hit/2 levels of the caster (a 10th level Mage's spell will inflict 5 Hits, if the enemy fails their Saving Throw).

Level advancement is possible, with 2e's BS Skirmish characters, as per the RPG rules which it is based off of. You could, in fact, use these rules to play a simplified version of the RPG, wherein combat is fast, and deadly, for everyone.

BattleSystem Skirmish is OOP. WotC/Hasbro offered it for PDF download, around 15 years ago, but it is not currently available. Print copies are available, sporadically, on e-Bay, and Amazon. It is a lot of fun, if you really want to get into a D&D-styled mini's game, without using the RPG combat rules, which take hours to resolve a large battle. The combat is deadly, though, so players are unlikely to want to risk their PC's in such a brutal, and fast, combat system.

I use it for one-off games, to play with monsters we normally don't face, with disposable heroes, who are made up for the game. As a miniatures game, it is a blast. The RPG veneer makes it familiar, and easy to pick up, for my AD&D RPG players. With fast-paced combat, the game moves quickly, from one battle, to the next. It plays very fast, and with great satisfaction for all. Cheers!