Fantasy Warriors - The Post Lockdown Version

 I Played a Game!

I finally managed to get a game in and it was a game of Fantasy Warriors. It was really an opportunity to get all of my lockdown painting a table, have a catch up with some friends  and roll some dice. 

We didn't worry too much about working out a balanced games as I wanted to get all of my lockdown painted figures on a table at once. So we had Fae and Halflings  (Derek & I) vs. Undead and Chaos (Steve & Jason). I had to write up some army lists for the Fae and the Chaos armies as they are not featured in Fantasy Warriors. 

When we used to regularly play Fantasy Warriors we had started writing updates and potential rules changes for a v2.0 (As were all part of the Grenadier display team back in he 90s).  The main change on the day was using 2D6 instead of 1D6 for the amended  reaction tables. Using a single D6 means that any score is equally likely (1-6!) but using the total of 2D6 means that numbers around the middle (6-8) are much more likely than a 2 or 12. Meaning an extreme roll is possible on 2D6, however, most of the time a result inline with expectation occurs. So if you are doing well it is unlikely your guys are going to do something stupid. Also by keeping the modifiers from the rule book remain the same, they have a smaller influence on the overall outcome.

Whilst I remembered all of the figures , I did forget the counters (Fantasy Warrior's uses counters to indicate orders, reactions and ammo etc.) so we had to use our limited drawing skills.

Fantasy Warriors has a number of fun features which affect the course of the entire game. One of those is the time dial. The Fantasy Warriors uses of time of day in the game. The day is divided into 12 periods, six day and six night periods. The time of the battle can affect your force's morale and and shooting. It will probably be no surprise to find that armies like goblins and undead favour night whereas my halflings favour day.  So as a sign of things to come we managed to roll the first turn of night for the start of the battle. 

Whilst looking for a picture of a time dial, I did come across a website where someone had made on Katie the Wargamer: September 2015

One Up & One Down

The spectral wolves of the Wilde Hunt crashed into Grateful Dead skeletons on the far flank. This turned out to  be the most balanced fight of the game. The first units to engage and still battling it out  at the end. Blue Maeve the Fae hero did help out in the first couple of turns but she was called by her queen to help defeat the Nurgle Battleleader Fester in the centre of the battlefield.

They Got Crushed

At the other end of the scale was the halfling rangers against the troll chieftain and his two heavies. Not surprisingly it didn't end well for the halflings.  The halflings were suffering from bloodlust (the Fantasy Warriors version of frenzy). But it didn't help them.

The Battle

The Chaos right flank

Facing the Chaos were the Halflings including Clive the Wyvern

The Fae right flank ready to advance

Both sides advance

The Forest Spirits face off against the troll warband

Unlike other wargames, large creatures/heroes do not have multiple wounds. Instead they have a saving throw and once you fail the saving throw the creature or hero is removed. This means there is always jeopardy putting these large creatures into battle as they can die on the first turn. Unfortunately for me I couldn't make a saving throw for the entire game and so my large creatures and heroes died! I don't think I have ever managed to roll so many double ones in an entire game. 

We decided that we would randomise some of the units for this game and the chaos cultists at the front turned out to be elite. I think this example and the one above give you a good idea of the luck I had on this game. 

In the end the halflings were crushed and the Fae couldn't get their best units into combat quickly enough. So the day belonged the Chaos and Undead horde. However, we all managed a good fun game and a return to rolling some dice.

Rob