My first thought is that the games is nice and compact and great for two / three battles in an afternoon (inc tea, biscuits and a sandwich or two) so fits perfectly in my life but my second thought (after getting well and truly thrashed) is that very minor changes can swing the game drastically. In this photo
you can see the remains of my first attack - after the dwarves came over the river and hit me hard I was left with three out of 10 figures (inc 1 swarm base) and they ran away!
Same fight from another side showing that some dwarf units never even made it into battle!
Changing tactics from a sneak to a flat out "swamp the stunties" led to a fast attack across the river (despite an error in 'leadership' understanding) and a mad combat in the middle
Looking at the two games and asking why the problems, the crucial factors are the difference in:
Quality - vital for moves and actions. I could not react or hit as often / as hard
Combat - vital to get a kill. I lost more due to this than you would believe
The worry I do have is that the figures are only one point apart in quality and combat but both Derek and I where shocked at the difference this 'minor' change made (and both of us rolled good and bad dice during the games).
Over the years I have lost many a game but was stunned by this result (not sure I killed a single dwarf during the two games) and wonder if I have got something really wrong? Do not take this as a criticism of the rules - I do like the feel of them and the simplicity is great BUT something in them is either odd or I am getting the rules totally wrong.
I'll have to set a little time aside to surf and read again - try a few more games myself and see what is wrong with my playing of a very well loved set of rules.
2 comments:
Although I have yet to play SBH, I have a similar feeling about the combat resolution. Maybe a switch to a D8 (instead of D6) might help?
I've find two things are crucial for low Quality and Combat figures (although I'm by no means an expert/veteran!)
For Low quality having a Leader within Long is vital as it gives a +1 to the quality roles (and also lets those groups of low quality troops group move together).
The poor stats should mean you can field more figures so attack in at least pairs. This lowers the opponents combat roll by 1 which might get you a win, and if you win with a knockdown, the second attacker will get a +2 to hit and autokill. Oh and don't forget about those power attacks if you handly roll an extra quality die.
Of course I typing what you already know...
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