Do Games Workshop Ever Play Test their Scenarios?

 I Have Been Busy Honest!

Ruffians ready for battle.

To be clear I have been fan of Citadel miniatures and Games Workshop for over thirty years, but I do seem have a problem with some of their scenarios. In particular with what seems an obvious lack of playtesting. The latest debate (J & I had) was over the Skirmish at Bree scenario. This is the first scenario in the new edition of Scouring of the Shire sourcebook. Now J and I played this scenario twice with each taking a turn as Bill and his band of ruffians. With the same outcome each time which was the villagers getting wiped out with little or no losses on the ruffian side. 

Deployment

The game revolves around a group of Bree villagers fighting Bill Ferny and a band of ruffians.  With both sides trying to reduce the other to less than 25%. Now I get this can be played as part of a campaign, but it should be able to be played as a stand-alone game.  And there doesn't seem to be any other real tactical options except charge at one another. As both sides start about 12 inches part and the Bree villagers don't have any missile weapons (unlike some of Bill ruffians). So, the only real the option is to get the villagers into melee. Now this might not be much of a problem if they weren't set up to be so bloody useless in close combat. So even with their twelve to ten advantage in numbers isn't even close to enough to balance the game. 

At the start of combat. 

After the first turn of combat.

Now the first game was a technical draw because the villagers were reduced to 25% before Bill could get involved in enough combats (He has to kill at least two villagers to prevent a draw). Because the villagers all just died in first turn of close combat 

The main reason for the villagers' complete lack of ability in close combat, was because of the -1 from using knives (I don’t have a copy of the latest rulebook, but I assume it’s still -1 for using a knife?)  followed by lower fight value. And it wasn't’t just bad dice rolls in our games. 

Now here I am going to go nerd because I worked out the odds of the villagers winning a close combat. 

Therefore, the villagers will win 28% of any single combats and wound on average 14% of the time! Compared to the ruffians killing a villager 36% of the time. And for whip armed ruffians this is even better. So, it’s not surprising to me that the villagers just get wiped out in a couple of turns. And of course, Bill is the only hero on the table. 

What I find even more annoying is that I think the scenario only needs a small tweak to balance it up. Such as giving the villagers hand weapons (giving them a 42% chance of winning a combat), adding a Ranger of the North to the villager’s side, giving a few of the villagers bows or splitting up the deployment of Bill ruffians. 

Now I know I could do this and will probably give it a try myself but surely Games Workshop can find this out for themselves, and I did have to pay for the book in the first place. 

OK, rant over (for now). 

Scouring of the Shire Campaign

With three games played all things are square with a win a piece for both Sharkey and the hobbits. I took the technical draw (see above) as the campaign result for Skirmish at Bree. As it was the first game we played. 

Golden Gobbo

I have mostly been focussing on completing my Golden Gobbo entry for the Oldhammer forum. Now, let's be clear there are many better painters than me, but I see these competitions as an opportunity to try and stretch my skills a little bit further. And hopefully may encourage a few others to take part. 

Teaser shot

Rob