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| Tully Cavalry waiting for the battle to begin. |
The figures are rather nice sculpts, somewhere around 32-35 mm by eye and the all the components seem well done. The rules are simple enough but like many a modern game, the complexity comes in the capabilities of the various units and characters and figuring out how to make best use of them. The basic principles of war still apply (maintain the aim, economy of force, etc) but like many contemporary games that I've sampled it seems to be more about making the best use of your units' special abilities and avoiding those of the enemy than basic tactics.
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| Many of the figures are new, some straight from previously unopened boxes that had just arrived. I suspect it might take a while to get them all painted but they fought well either was and there was a bit of that nostalgia for games with unpainted Airfix in the 60's. |
They've gone to great effort to up the feel of the various factions and the main characters of the series but like many contemporary games, it seems to be designed so that the common, ordinary, soldier is a rare thing. Everybody is special in their own way. Its a bit like a WWII game with a German force with nothing but Tigers, 88's, 155mm artillery, Pzr Grenadiers and Falschirmjaegers.
Overall, it was a day well spent with friends, learning something new and playing a tight, and at times exciting, game. Am I going to rush out and start buying? Nope, but I'd play again if that's what was on for the day.
Meanwhile, its back to the French Revolution!
I feel a song coming on ...... Life Is A Minestrone (10CC :-) )
ReplyDeleteHi Ross,
ReplyDeleteThe odd thing is that when you look at what passed for battles in the series, the fighting was done - at least among the humans - by people you could identify. There were archers, heavy spearmen, light cavalry, pike men, heavy cavalry, and militia types. of course, there were dragons but if you overlook the fact that these were fantastical then the game should play like an ancients or medieval game. Did your cavalry attack your heavy spear men? Did you pepper the enemy with clouds of arrows? This would have reflected what we often do in most other games - we play on the types of troops to enhance our tactical advantages. Now - all of that said - I'm glad you had a good time and thanks for sharing the pictures.
Jerry
Jerry, if I were designing a battle game in this setting I would probably take a similar approach but this feels more like a small, localized skirmish but one which is influenced by the effects of politics and schemes back in King's landing. It also reminds me of the early season battle scenes where all you see is a series of cameos around major characters and only a general impression that there is more going on, off camera. A bit like Shakespeare's Agincourt was how they struck me at the time.
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