I hope you don't mind if I send you my FoG feedback, I can't get
on the Slitherine site from work.
HENCE POSTED BY ME ON RICAHRD BEHALF....THOUGHTS AFTER A READ AND A FIRST TEST GAME
These are our first thoughts, and I know you and the team want me to be honest.
I think we need to play more to get the familiarity needed to try and break the
rules
Overview from first read through.
The rules are a weighty tome. However they are written in a readable
style and the sections do follow logically. A positive is they are not
written in "Barkerese", a negative is that the rules are more complex
and longer than what we are used to with DBM. As I read I had to cross
reference a lot with stuff I had read earlier. I have a copy of Trevor Halsall's
Warlord, which as rules are a bit pants, but their cross indexing system is
excellent. I believe FoG would benefit hugely from this, or a really, really,
detailed index.
Comments from First Game - Early German vs Prinicpate Roman - 600 pointd
1) I did find the troop definition terms cumbersome. Expecially when
it came to writing up an army list. A lot of Warhammer esque terms to
get your head round. Familiarity should ease this. With what is involved it
is difficult to get army's to work out at exactly agreed points totals. My Germans
ended up on 601 points for example.
2) Liked very much the terrain system. Thought it was clean and simple yet
elegant in what this produced.
3) Movement was simple. However we were into the third turn before we
remembered second moves for troops. It then took some time to find the
section that proved we could do this. Complex moves and the test were
also good.
4) Combat and shooting - fine.
5) General's give a good advantage in combat but there really seems to
be no risk in doing so. The 11/12 throw if losing and 12 if drawing or winning
is no risk at all for the obvious benefits.
6) Wasn't instantly clear as to when troops in combat took cohesion tests.
ie. the reasons for testing. Took a while for us to cop on to only the losers
taking the test.
7) The quick ref sheet could be clearer. I think too much may have been
squeezed onto one sheet. It may be better to have two sheets with more
info on them.
We ended up playing about 7 or 8 bounds. It was slow going, and at the end we were both 5 away from a result. Obviously this was more due to
unfamilarity than the rules. However it took my wife coming into the games
room at 12.50 a.m. for us to realise how much time had gone by. Shows we
were well into playing the game !!
Anyway quick thoughts only. We are going to try them again, and as we
haven't bothered to try DBMM yet I think you can take this as a positive.
Cheers
Richard Aynsley
Hewitt Associates Limited
Hibernian House,
Building 5200,
Cork Airport Business Park,
Co. Cork.