Boardgame session: July 2015

I (finally) decided to get Merchants and Marauders of the shelf and see how easy it would be to teach a new player (i.e. my wife, Elaine). This is a very attractive game visually with lots of theme, but there is a lot going on and I felt the rules would be difficult to explain. I was worried that new players would end up feeling overwhelmed before they even started. So, I set up the game board and started running through the rules; first the map itself, then the players boards, then merchant raids, and finally the key ‘Port Action’ options. I did not explain ship-to-ship combat at this stage because this is the most difficult rules area, and to be honest, it rarely comes up in the opening moves of a game. At the end of my monolog Elaine did look a bit dazed and confused, but agreed to go ahead and give it go.

Elaine drew Gaspar de Rivera (Spanish) as her character, who was clearly a merchant type and therefore sailed a flute. I drew Frederico de Silva (also Spanish), a clear marauder who sailed a sloop. I immediately set out on my life of piracy by carrying out to successful merchant raids (versus both England and France), acquiring lots of money and ‘Glory’, although picking up some damage on the way. Elaine meanwhile pottered about trading here and there, accumulating wealth but little ‘Glory’. Pretty rapidly governmental ships from all 4 naval powers appeared on the map, which limited my actions. I had acquired 2 rumours (my special ability was to hold 2 rumour cards), and I decided to go for them asap, which would take me to 5 ‘Glory’ points and give me enough money to possibly achieve victory. The first rumour was true and I had to fight 2 enemy crew (leadership 1) to get 10 gold coins, this was no trouble and I felt rather good. The next rumour was also true, but the treasure (15 gold coins) was defended by 2 enemy crew (leadership 2). I confidently attacked, lost and died! I had to start again from scratch, losing all my Glory and money (I had not stashed any away). I drew another Spaniard, Filipe de los Reyes, and sailed another sloop.

Meanwhile, Elaine had quietly gone about trading, gaining both Gold and Glory for supplying goods ‘In Demand’. She also completed a Mission, and upgraded her ship to a Galleon (for more Glory). She had no bounty on her head and all she needed to do was acquire a bit more cash for victory. My small sloop was miles away, and too weak to attack her anyway. Therefore we called the game and awarded Elaine victory.

We played the game over a number of nights during the week (1-2 hours per session). This is perfectly feasible with this game, which can go on a bit, so long as you allow 5 minutes or so for reflection before starting each session. Elaine soon picked up the rules, especially concerning trading, and felt that only by playing can you get to grips with the game mechanisms. We did not have any ship-to-ship combat, so this remains a grey area as far as Elaine is concerned.

I now feel more confident about introducing Merchants and Marauders to our larger gaming group of friends, although I think a time limit (3-4 hours max) will need to be imposed. I love the thematic feel of the game, but I am still a bit concerned that there may be to too much downtime between each player turn. The ship-to-ship combat system still worries me because it is rather convoluted and cumbersome.

After Action Report: Crusades (Sword & Spear) 12 July 2015

Both armies in this game were supplied by Ian and comprised 500 points using 15mm figures. The rules used were Sword and Spear (Mark Lewis; Polkovnik Productions, 2014). This was a new rule set for myself, so Ian explained/taught the rules as we went along. I commanded the Seljuks, whilst Ian commanded the Crusaders. The 6’x4’ table was fairly open with a river limiting one flank, and a village on the other flank.

I decided to keep my poor quality infantry away from the action areas, protecting my camp, and to focus on my cavalry forces. I hoped my bow-armed light horse would weaken Ian’s Crusaders, then I would hit him with my heavier cavalry. Ian also kept his pilgrim hordes back, and advanced with 2 blocks of spear/crossbows supported by knights and turcopoles. In the photo below the Seljuks are at the bottom, with Ian’s Crusaders at the top.

I think I quickly got the gist of the rules. I’m not going to attempt to explain or review them here, but the essence is to prioritise dice from a limited dice pool to allow units (or groups) to undertake actions. The higher you roll, the more chance you have of carrying out the desired actions, and 6’s (or multiples of high scores) yield bonuses. Combat is simple ordered dice comparison (the number of dice rolled per side varies), which results in automatic casualties or discipline dicing for casualties. Results can be modified due to armour etc. Units are destroyed if they take more casualties than their discipline rating.

I started the game according to plan and took some fairly ineffectual pot-shots at the enemy. I then threw a good set of activation dice which encouraged me to hurl my heavier cavalry at Ian, who counter-attacked with his knights. A couple of turns of combat occurred with little damage to either side, especially when generals could rally off the hits we managed to achieve. I began to realise how hard a nut fresh, heavy spearmen could be. Ian bemoaned the rigidity of his crossbow units (unable to move and fire, unable to exploit bonus dice rolls). Eventually I managed to crack a unit of spearmen and opened up a wide gap in the Crusader line through which I moved some cavalry to threaten Ian’s fortified camp and pilgrims. Things were looking good, but then next couple of turns were disastrous. Ian’s knights finally broke a couple of my units of heavy cavalry, and then they caught some horse archers who failed to evade. This badly shook up my Arab infantry. A unit of Crusader crossbows then about turned and shot my best unit of break-through cavalry in the back, causing 3 casualties with one shot, destroying the unit and killing my C-in-C. This tipped my army over the edge and victory was awarded to Ian. The photo below shows the end-game with the open area in the centre being where my army died!

This was a thoroughly enjoyable game. The rules really worked, and I ordered a set for myself as soon as I got home. Our next game will use them again, this time featuring Greek hoplite armies. I will write a more complete review once I have my own copy and have played a few more games.