July Scrum Rnd2 - Madrak2 Vs. Baldur1

Last night I got my round two of the July Scrum league in vs. Jordan and he was kind enough to allow me to pause the clock between rounds to take a picture to write a detailed report.  I am extremely excited to be writing this match up because it was one of the best kinds of game: it swung wildly back and forth, with the game ending on Turn 7 with me at 40 seconds and Jordan at 30 seconds.  I'm very grateful to Jordan for the match and look forward to other matches in the future.

Jordan's Lists

Baldur1 Bones of Orboros
-Megalith
-Wold Guardian
-Woldwarden
-Woldwatcher
-Woldwyrd
-Woldwyrd

Stoneshaper
Stoneshaper
Stoneshaper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Sentry Stone & Mannikin
Shifting Stones
Celestial Fulcrum

Kaya2 - No Theme
-Laris
-Feral
-Gnarlhorn
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Argus
-Druid Wilder
Feralgeist
Lord fo the Feast
Reeves of Orboros (min)
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Tharn Ravagers (min) + Chieftain

Matchup Analysis

So it's a Bones list and Kaya2 out of theme, my initial thoughts are "look at the stones on this guy!".  Trolls have always been a bit of a bad matchup for Circle in the game and it seems immediately obvious my drop is going to be Madrak2 and Jordan will be forced into Baldur1.  Simply put both of my lists can run over Kaya's list without breaking a sweat, particularly Grim2.  Conversely out of the two I'm probably better off with Madrak into Baldur.  This is exactly what happened, Jordan didn't even bring his Kaya list with him when he arrived to play our game.

For reference my Madrak2 list is:

Trollblood - Madrak2 Toughallo

Theme: Band of Heroes
3 / 3 Free Cards     74 / 75 Army

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender - WB: +28
-    Trollkin Runebearer - PC: 0
-    Dire Troll Mauler - PC: 15 (Battlegroup Points Used: 15)
-    Dire Troll Bomber - PC: 19 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)

Fell Caller Hero - PC: 0
Fell Caller Hero - PC: 0
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist - PC: 5

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
-    Stone Scribe Elder - PC: 3
Trollkin Long Riders - Leader & 4 Grunts: 20
Trollkin Long Riders - Leader & 4 Grunts: 20
Kriel Warriors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11

Our Scenario was The Pit 2.

Deployment

I wont the roll off to go first and Jordan picked his table side. Since we both had an extra 2" of deployment we were starting off really close to each other.

My Turn 1

I respected the output of the Woldwyrds to murder Longriders with Blood Fury on them, so I simply dump all my Fury onto the stone and run forward, keeping everything except one Long Rider under the aura and sing for no continuous effects.

Jordan Turn 1

Since I had zero chill, Jordan was forced to feat turn 1.  This sees him kill a Longrider from my left flank with a Woldwyrd, Fulcrum, and Woldwatcher finally finishing it off and creating a forest out of its corpse. On the right flank Jordan takes some Geomancy shots at my Longriders doing minimal damage, but he makes a mistake by running the Manikins to jam before taking his shots with the Woldwyrd.  He misses my Longrider and kills his Manikin furthest to my right.

Of note - I forgot to deploy Eilish and Jordan was kind enough to allow me to put him at the back of my lines, so I had him hide in a trench.

My Turn 2

After some careful measurements, I am able to get one Longrider over the wall and into the Woldwyrd on my right flank and one Longrider can engage it over the wall - all without entering Baldur's control area.  Madrak puts Bloodfury on the right most Longriders and then fills the stone, sitting on 1 after a Harmonious Exaltation. I was careful to stay more than 2" from the forest, respecting Baldur's assassination.

The Fellcaller gets puppet master from Eilish and then activates (after the stone!) and sprays off one of the Manikins to clear my charge lane, and then sings Pathfinder on the Longriders (they were out of Baldurs feat). Luckily I do no damage to my Longrider.

I'm able to kill the right Woldwyrd with the Long Riders and while I am able to get a single rider to the Sentry stone, it leaves it on one box.

On the left flank I call pathfinder to allow the Longriders to shift left and I'm able to just toe my Bomber into Baldur's forest to see through to the other side to kill a Shifting stone. Jordan shield guards the first shot, but the second shot is able to kill a stone and take teleportation off the table.

Jordan's Turn 2

Jordan decided that murdering Trolls was his fucking job and it was time to go to work. The left Woldwyrd shifts right and shoots two Longriders off the table thanks to them having an upkeep on them. The Blackclad gets hunters mark on the unit and then Megalith and a Woldwarden decide to kill the other riders, with more than enough fury to Earth Spikes and knock down the right Fell Caller, then kill my Runbearer, with his crit knocking down Madrak, my left Fell Caller, and a Kriel Warrior.

Jordan uses his still alive Sentry Stone to make a Manikin who then sprays down part of my Krielstone. He then runs and Jams up my stuff with shifting stones and the Woldguardian has the +2STR/ARM spell on it (which I forget about).

To top it off he's also able to kill two more Longriders from my left flank with his Fulcrum and the Watcher, scoring 1 point.

Overall, I'm astonished I'm still able to sit comfortably as I write this after the ass beating Jordan laid down here. Suffice it to say I didn't at all expect to lose nearly that much. On the plus side, Jordan was not able to kill my objective and score more than 1 VP.

My Turn 3

My initial plan was to have the Longriders and Fell Caller kill the Woldwarden, the Mauler kills Megalith, and then the Bomber kills the Woldguardian. Simple, right? Turns out this was less simple and more of a "I'll try to do too much and as a result accomplish nothing for $500, Alex."

Since my Runebearer was dead, I should have noticed my plan was utterly doomed to failure since I couldn't upkeep Blood Fury and so would need to cast it and then two Rage's to properly achieve my goals. I similarly couldn't actually charge the Woldguardian and so would need Madrak's feat to et into him, burning 1 attack off the Bomber. I also forgot the Guardian had the +2 ARM spell.

Madrak stupidly goes first, sacrificed movement to stand, feats, then throws his axe to kill the Manikin in the Longriders way.  I put Bloodfury on the riders, and then Rage on the Bomber.

My left Fell Caller sacrificed action to stand and then walks 5" and calls to stand up the other Fell Caller.  Eilish gives that Fell Caller puppet master (another mistake, it should have gone on the Mauler). The Stone activates for +1 STR, and then the right Fell Caller charges into the Warden, doing decent damage and not even needing the Puppet Master.

The Longriders charge and impact attack and I kill it between two impact attacks and one charge attack, they Reposition out of the Maulers way.

The Mauler is dice off 2 from Megalith since he didn't have Rage and I decide the extra attacks are better.  I charge in, missing my second initial and losing the chain attack. I proceed to roll a bunch of 5's for damage and leave all of Megaliths systems up.  The Bomber similarly fails to do too much to the Woldguardian, though he kills two Stones for my trouble due to Feat.

On the bright side my Kriel Warriors with near zero buffs on them decide to charge in and utterly annihilate the Woldwatcher.

If I wasn't hell bent on making mistakes I would have Jammed up the Woldguardian with 2-3 Kriel Warriors and used the Bomber to possibly kill the objective and if I had enough Kriel Warriors left maybe I score a point by killing the Woldwatcher anyway.  Rage and Puppet Master goes on the Mauler who would then murder Megalith and then I'm way ahead on the piece trade and at least tying scenario.

Jordan Turn 3

If you remember Turn 2, you'll know that Fucking Murdering Trolls is Jordan's job description.  Megalith gets +2 STR from a Stonekeeper and walks to be able to kill the Mauler and hopefully kill the Objective.  Luckily for me he has to focus everything on killing the Mauler and isn't able to kill the Objective.  I pulled the 5 Fury off the Mauler when it dies.

The Sentry Stone spawns a new Manikin who then kills my right Fell Caller. The Woldguardian gets an additional +2 STR from another Stonekeeper and trivially murders my Bomber.

The Woldwyrd starts gunning down Longriders, but isn't able to kill them all. In fact he's only able to force a Tough on one rider, who gets charged and killed by a Blackclad who then Battle Wizards to kill some more of my Kriel Stone.

The only area where Jordan didn't completely meet his Troll Murder Quota was with the Fulcrum who only killed a few Kriel Warriors.  The other bit of good news is that no one scores anything on Scenario this turn, so I'm only down 0-1.

My Turn 4

This turn I finally decided that Sticks and Stones have broken enough of my bones and the best way to make them never hurt me again is to annihilate them.

Madrak upkeeps Bloodfury on the single Longrider.  The Fell Caller activates and puts +2 MAT on the Krielstone unit.  The Stone spends a fury for +1 STR and then declares a Charge/Run to kill the goddamn Blackclad who sprayed them down.

The Longrider has similarly had enough of the shit out of the Woldwyrd and Sentry Stone. I charge the Woldwyrd and am able to get impact attacks on both the Woldwyrd and the Sentry Stone. The Sentry Stone dies and I miss the Woldwyrd with my impact.  I roll like goddamn FIRE on the charge attack and leave it on like two boxes. Madrak activates, casts Blood Fury on the Kriel Warriors.

The Kriel Warriors decide to continue to be bosses, two charge the Stonkeeper and CMA to get a hit and kill him.  The others charge into the Woldguardian, and then rip it to shreds. I'm able to redirect a charge attack into the Woldwyrd, I hit, and then take the last points off.  As such I score the center zone.  Score is now tied, 1-1.

Jordan's Turn 4

Here is where things start going bad for Jordan.  He's only able to kill a few of the Kriel Warriors, notably failing to clear the left zone and score due to dice keeping one contesting Warrior alive.

He is able to kill my objective and clear the right zone, scoring two VP's here. He also sacrifices a Stonekeeper to prevent me from scoring the center.  Score is now 3-1 for Jordan.

My Turn 5

Madrak gets his two free Fury from the dead beasts and upkeeps Blood Fury on the Kriel Warriors.  The Stone activates and sings for +1 STR and I move the one model to contest the left zone. He misses the Stone Shaper.

Eilish gives Madrak Puppet Master.  Madrak activates, aims, and boosts to hit the Shaper, killing him and clearing the center zone.  The Kriel Warriors charge into the Fulcrum and carve off damage. The Fell Caller charges in, and fails to kill. The Long Rider has to charge in and is finally able to kill the Fulcrum.  I made a mistake in forgetting to reposition the Long Rider and turn him to face Jordan's models coming into the center zone.

Clock is getting low. Score is now 3-2, sill in favor of Jordan.

Jordan Turn 5

I forgot to take a picture here, though what occurred should be apparent in the next picture.

Megalith moves up and kills the contesting Stone model in melee, then Geomancies and kills my Stone Scribe Elder and the last grunt in the Stone unit, leaving only the Bearer itself. Jordan puts a forest up to block LOS to Megalith who is now contesting the center zone.  Jordan scores my left zone and the score is now 4-2 in favor of Jordan.

My Turn 6

Madrak gets his two fury and upkeeps Blood Fury on the Kriel Warriors.  The Warriors and Fell Caller charge the objective and kill it, with the two Kriel Warriors who couldn't get in taking position to contest the center zone. Madrak and the Stone run to the right zone and I make a critical error, I leave Madrak within 2" of the forest, forgetting about Baldur's threat.

I position the Fell Caller just outside of Megalith's 9" threat.

Eilish decides to sacrifice himself for the cause and contests the left zone. 

I score two points, tying the game 4-4.

Jordan's Turn 6

Jordan decides to go for the assassination I dutifully gave him.  Megalith moves up and then misses Madrak with his Geomancy.  Baldur doesn't upkeep the forest, casts it on himself, then teleports to within 2" of Madrak.  He's got 4 Fury.

He boosts to hit Madrak (3 Fury left) and hits, but I sacrifice it to the Stone, who suffers the Weight of Stone effect, and then decides to pass his Tough check. Baldur buy's the attack on the stone and kills it (2 Fury left).  He buys on Madrak again (1 Fury left), misses, and then he decides to camp his last Fury.

I score on Jordan's turn, bringing the game 5-4 in favor of me.

My Turn 7

Given that I'm under two minutes on clock, I decided to avoid the assassination and just play it safe. Fell Caller gives +2 MAT to the Kriel Warriors who charge into Baldur, one hits doing 8 damage. More importantly they get within 3" of Madrak who runs away from Baldur, taking the free strike and then killing the Kriel Warrior because Grim Salvation lets you sacrifice even free strikes.  I run to the other corner of the zone thinking there's no way Baldur can get to me and that's game.

What I should have realized was that he could teleport to me again and that to cement the game I could just surround Madrak with Kriel Warriors to really make sure I can't die, but I just try to put them in the way.

Still, I score yet another VP for the left zone and bring the score to 6-4, thinking I've won the game. I clock back to Jordan with only 40 seconds left on my clock. I didn't even activate the Longrider.

Jordan's Turn 7

Jordan decides to pull yet another Surprise Motherfucker! He teleports Baldur to Madrak and I think I've lost the game. Baldur is down to 4 Fury for this assassination run.

He boosts to hit Madrak and hits (3 Fury left). He rolls a 5 for damage, Madrak takes 2.  Jordan proceeds to buy his next three attacks and after everything is said and done his damage rolls are so poor that Madrak is left with 10 health when Baldur is out of fury and only 30 seconds left on his clock.  Jordan does run to contest, leaving the score 6-4 and I win by scenario at the end of turn 7.

Conclusions

This game was insane! I managed to survive two assassination runs, and while that's normally not very surprising with Madrak2, in these situations it is very surprising.  Dice saved my ass when I made two mistakes that gave Jordan two assassination runs I didn't have to give him.  I also was able to recover from a critical set of mistakes on Turn 3 on my part and the late game idea of weapon master Kriel Warriors really came through.


Clock was extremely tight and was definitely forcing us to move very quickly so that's definitely a factor towards the end of the game where possibly better decisions could have been made. Still, I won this game through a series of critical dice rolls: Jordan failing to kill a contesting Kriel Warrior on Turn 4 was massive, and then my passing the tough check on my Stonebearer on  his Turn 6 assassination run ate through enough of his fury to keep me alive.

Overall it was an incredible game, the kind that really makes you appreciate Warmachine.  I look forward to playing Jordan again.

My conclusions going forward is to take notice of exactly how fucking good higher model count lists are in scenario. I remember that from the last Scrum in 2017 and it seems just as true today.  Looking forward and knowing that I want to play Convergence, primarily in Destruction Initiative, I'm going to start having the kinds of large attrition swings in my games if I can't mitigate my opponents.  The model count and unit buff on the late game Kriel Warriors really saved me here.  I'm going to need to keep that in mind as I move forward.

The Alliance Alive HD Remastered Review (Steam)

Written by Alexander O. Cuaycong and Anthony L. Cuaycong

Title: The Alliance Alive HD Remastered
Developer: FURYU Corporation
Publisher: NIS America, Inc.
Genre: RPG
Price: $39.99
Also Available On: PS4, Switch

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Japanese role playing games have come so far from their once-humble beginnings. The early releases struggled to gain a foothold in the West, but subsequent offerings from such franchises as Final Fantasy 7, Fire Emblem, and Dragon Quest managed to find homes in the hearts of gamers. Intellectual properties like these have reinvented the genre, however slowly, and their success underscores the core tenets of timeless examples: proper emphasis on deep stories, interesting gameplay mechanics, and immensely likable characters.

The Alliance Alive is one such example. First making its mark in 2017 as a Japan-only release on the Nintendo 3DS, Atlus USA saw fit to bring it to other regions the year after. Stripped to basics, it aimed to evoke feelings of nostalgia in gamers, with simple graphics paying homage to the finest RPGs of yore. Compared to the more complex battle systems of contemporary competitors, it focused less on flair and doubled down on the lure and allure of its interface, allowing everyone from veterans to newcomers of the genre alike to enjoy its open-world setting, its smooth combat sections, and its overarching narrative of wonder and fantasy, of struggle, loss, and heroism.

Considering The Alliance Alive's strengths, NIS America's decision to port over a remastered version to the Nintendo Switch, the Sony PlayStation 4, and the personal computer comes as no surprise. With an intended goal of presenting an experience that hews as closely to the original as possible, the remaster introduces the title to gamers on latest-generation platforms. They are presented with varying perspectives: from the vantage points of diverse characters, they must piece together the story of the world around them, of the daemons who rule the world, and of the humans who bear the yoke of servitude. By exploring the vast overworld and traveling from town to town, they are compelled to hone their skills in battle and prepare for the inevitable confrontation against the real enemy that hides in the shadows.

Even at a glance, The Alliance Alive HD Remastered presents itself as more than just another run-of-the-mill JRPG title. It begins with the invasion of daemons fearful of the Chaos energy in the human realm. The occupation triggers the Dark Current, which effectively separates the world's four regions. Barely surviving the cataclysm, mankind finds itself divided and subsisting under the reign of daemonic overlords. The gameplay picks up a millennium hence, focusing on nine otherwise-disparate members of the Night Crows, a rebel force out to gain freedom for the human race. And "disparate" may be too conservative a word to describe the nine given their origins and ideologies; joining Galil, Azura, Renzo, Tiggy, Gene, and Rachel in looking after their own are daemons Vivian and Ignace and beastfolk Barbarosa.

In terms of look and feel, The Alliance Alive HD Remastered is much improved over those of the 3DS version; it sports vibrant colors, richer textures, and a much higher resolution that allow the "solid" watercolor art style of old hand Masayo Asano — who boasts of efforts in SaGa and The Legend of Zelda titles — to shine through. Certainly, it casts the narrative penned by Suikoden series creator Yoshitaka Murayama in superior light, a development that, under Masataka Matsuura's steady direction, cannot be overemphasized.

That said, The Alliance Alive HD Remastered distinguishes itself in its gameplay. Unlike other contemporary offerings in the genre, it puts a greater emphasis on tactics and skills, with the biggest influences on combat being how comfortable characters are with their equipment. While a character may use any weapon of their choosing, the skills and attacks they use depend on their mastery over it. Anyone can use a spear, or a sword, or a staff, but the abilities they have, from devastating Area-of-Effect slashes to more precise stabs, are contingent on their familiarity and proficiency with their combat gear.

Parenthetically, The Alliance Alive HD Remastered brings much-needed depth to the battle system, requiring gamers to strategize properly and distribute their equipment judiciously according to the characters' distinct preferences. It's less about stat points, and more about honing skills. Alongside combat formations, this particular facet eventually shapes much of the game, with characters slowly training to become better in certain weapon types, and then unlocking more and better skills over time. It provides a unique sense of progression, and when coupled with the story's semi-brisk pace, makes it enjoyable to run through.

For the most part, The Alliance Alive HD Remastered boasts of intuitive mechanics. At the same time, it presents challenges that tend to be easy. It likewise lacks keyboard support on the PC, forcing users to play with a controller; it's not a huge issue per se, particularly since there is no delay in feedback, but it does limit options. Moreover, framerate issues seem to randomly pop up every now and then. Nothing earth-shaking, really, and nothing an update patch here and there can't fix so that it runs as well as it should.

On the whole, Alliance Alive HD Remastered is a great game to play, but the relative lack of difficulty and absence of controller support can be a huge turn-off for people looking for a challenging, if fair, JRPG. Nonetheless, it earns major props for its earnest gameplay and interesting storylines. It might not be the polished AAA JRPG offering gamers invariably look for, but it's a nice look back to the genre's golden years, and its unique take ensures some 40-odd hours worth of enjoyment.

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THE GOOD:

• Interesting story
• Unique combat mechanics
• Diverse set of characters

THE BAD

• Lack of keyboard support
• Framerate issues
• Lack of a true difficulty curve

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RATING: 8.5/10

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Uclan Games Design Students In Global Games Jam 2020!

What a truly awesome bunch of students and Alumni we have!
They've all worked really hard together in groups over the whole weekend for long hours and they've now completed the Global Game Jam 2020.

The Global Game Jam 2020 started on Fri 31st Jan in all sites around the world, and this year's theme is...

Repair
The theme reveal clip at the end of the GGJ20 keynote video showed objects in various states of repair, breaking and repairing buildings and pots, repairing relationships, and plants repairing themselves.

See the theme video.

You can see the UCLan Game Jam link here.

https://globalgamejam.org/2020/jam-sites/university-central-lancashire

Lewis Wright, who organised the event at UCLan with Simon Ashcroft said, 'Everyone smashed it out of the park, cleanest game jam I've been a part of. Every group had fun and a working game by the end of it.'

They recorded all of the games that were shown at the end, including the game dev ones as a comparison. They're gonna make a show-reel out of them for us all to see on the YouTube channel.

They even tidied the studio room before they left. Time for some well deserved sleep for them all. Wish I could have joined them this year as the comradery and sense of fun was evident as always as we watched them working away via Twitch TV. ☺️

So proud of you all!

Sekiro Only From Software Game I'm Not Pre-Ordering (Monday Musings 73)

In general, it's always best to wait until the about to be released game comes out much later with a complete bundled package, including all the DLCs, because at that time, the price comes down from $60 to the more affordable $20 or $30. Further, patches would have been out by now that will fix the glitches. 

Therefore, not only will the game be cheaper in price, but you get more content for less money, and a more polished experience! Additional benefit is, during that period of time, you can watch others play the game, to make sure you really want it.

However, there are some games that I have to pre-order and play right away, and those are the From software games. I played and fell in love with Demon's and Dark Souls years after release, Dark Souls being my favorite game. Therefore, I had to pre-order Dark Souls 2, Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3, as I played them on day of release. It was worth the full price, even as Bloodborne eventually became free for Playstation Plus (PS+) subscribers.

The only other thing I can think of in terms of pre-ordering is to get the preordered bonus content, but usually the bonus content doesn't justify buying the game now, rather than waiting for the complete and more affordable game to come out.

Sekiro just didn't appeal to me, as it won't have the RPG elements and character building that I've come to love in video games. This has gotten to the point where it was hard for me to play games other than RPGs.

I know I've been whinging about Sekiro since it was introduced back in E3 2018, but I hope that I'm 100% wrong about this game. If my friends really love the game, I'll be sure to wait until the complete bundled package arrives - usually From Software comes out with future DLCs.

What are your thoughts about pre-ordering and will you pre-order Sekiro?

The How of Happiness Review

5 GAMES FOR AUGUST

So, it's been a while since I've posted something and that's down to a particularly busy August. But that hasn't stopped me rushing to fulfil my promise of at least 5 games per month. At the tail end of this very sunny Summer hols, why not go exploring a forgotten jungle using some shiny metal balls in 3D Ultra Pinball: The Lost Continent. Perhaps the cyberpunk stylings of the sci-fi adventure B.A.T. will satiate you. If not, try protecting a city of perpetual night from some warmongering invaders in the action-filled space sim Darker. If real life's getting you down, why not try a simulated one in SimLife - there's dragons in it! Lastly, chill with some friends and play some pool, Virtual Pool that is. Enjoy!

Read more »

Download Tekken 6 Full Version For Pc

Download Tekken 6 Full Version For pc

Tekken 6 Full Review

Welcome to Tekken 6 is one of the best fighting game especially for fighting lovers that has been developed  and published by Bandai Namco Games.This game was released on 26th November 2007.

Screenshot

System Requirements of Tekken 6 For Windows PC

• Operating System: Windows XP/Vista/ Windows 7 ( 64 Bit )
• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 or later.
• Setup Size: 700 MB
• RAM: 1GB
• Hard Disk Space: 1GB

Let's Play Italian Wars - Furioso Style

Regular readers of the blog will be aware of the last large project I embarked on, 28mm Italian Wars. It went remarkably quickly and I managed to plough through a big chunk of figures during the 2018/19 Analogue Hobbies Winter Paint Challenge, producing a pretty large Papal Army in the process. The figures went on to win the Challenge Choice Award, which was nice.

Swiss Pike clash with their fellow country men.

So over the last few weeks the collection has been out on the table getting to grips with some rules and getting a new period up and running here at Yarkshire Gamer. Along with my figures, regulars Harry (with his large French contingent) and Steve with his Landsknechts added to the weight of the table.

Landsknecht Shot

There wasn't much of a plan to the game, on the usual 12 x 6 table I set up a symmetrical layout with a couple of built up areas and some trees and lined the troops up ready to go.

Our troops are based on 60 x 50 bases, 8 Figures on a Pike base, 4 on a shot base and 6 on a "other" base (Sword and Buckler, Polearm etc). Cavalry is on a 50 x 60 base with two figures per base. This isn't for any particular rule set, it looks right to us and any rule set we use will just be adapted to this basing (I don't rebase !).

Papal Pike Block

So our chosen rule set for our playtest is Furioso, they are avaliable from Alternative Armies for £10 as a Pdf. Link below.

https://www.alternative-armies.com/products/furioso-renaissance-wargame-rules

The company also do an additional supplement specifically covering the Italian Wars adding Mercenary Units etc but we didn't use that in our initial game so I won't comment further on that now.

The French

Just to give you an idea of the forces involved they were as follows,

French Right Wing 
3 x French Gendarme (3 bases each), 2 x French Archer (3 bases)
2 x French Skirmish Crossbow (3 bases each) 1 x Old Band French Pike (9 bases)
1 x Light Gun

French Centre
3 x Landsknecht Pike blocks (1 with 9 bases, 2 with 6 bases) each with skirmish screen bases.
2 x Polearm / Zwei hander units (4 bases)
1 x Landsknecht Formed Shot unit (4 bases)
1 Heavy and 1 Medium Gun

French Left Wing 
3 x French Gendarme (3 bases each), 2 x French Archer (3 bases)
1 Light Gun

Papal Centre

Papal Right Wing 
2 x Familia Ducal Cavalry, 3 x Condottiero Cavalry, 1 x Mounted Italian Crossbow, 1 x Italian Light Cavalry, 1 x Stradiots (bow) all 3 bases.
1 x Landsknecht Formed Shot unit and 1 Swiss Polearm unit (both 4 bases)

Papal Centre
1 x Landsknecht Pike block (8 bases, plus two skirmish shot bases)
1 x Swiss Pike Block (6 bases, plus two skirmish shot bases)
2 x Romandiole Pike Blocks (6 based, plus two skirmish shot bases)
1 x Swiss Guard (4 bases)
1 x Sword and Buckler unit (4 bases)
1 x Heavy and 1 Medium Gun
1 x Stradiot (with Lance) and 1 x Italian Mounted Crossbow, both 3 bases.

Papal Left Wing
1 x Familia Duca Cavalry, 4 x Condottiero Cavalry, 1 x Stradiot (Lance), 1 x Stradiot (bow), 1 x Italian Light Cavalry, all 3 bases.
2 x Landsknecht Formed Shot units (4 bases) 1 x Light Gun.

Papal Cavalry

With chucking everything on the table (and why not !) We didnt use the Army Morale System in the rules as we were about 3 times over the sizes mentioned, nothing like a "small" game to start with !

We didn't use the Generals rules (other than plus 1 in Combat Morale if in range).

So let's move onto the rules themselves. I am going to do a seperate post with some video examples of the mechanics of the rules just waiting for Speilberg to come free to finish the edit.

Landsknecht Pike

Firstly some basics, the rules are relatively straight forward and all units are in "bases" - each base having 4 hits before it is removed, units are built up of numbers of bases. Our figures are set up differently to the rules so we just played with the number of bases we had per unit and it worked fine. All die rolls are d6 and all rolls need a 5 or 6 for a success, so very easy to remember.

Run Away !

Each unit has a stat line to define it's character, they are as follows,
Type - e.g. Gendarme, Raiders etc this can give the unit a special ability for example units fighting Gendarme lose 1 d6 in combat if the Gendarme charge.
Tactic - Galloper, Skirmishers etc
Combat Factor - Base number of Dice per base when fighting (2 to 5)
Initiative Modifer - as it sounds
Weapon - defines type
Armour Class - None, Armoured, Heavy, Extra Heavy
Move - basic in inches (for 28s)
Size (suggested number of bases)
There is also a points value but as you know I hate points systems so this was immediately discarded !

Swiss Pike clash with Landsknechts

We (as usual) ignored the set up rules and just got on with it.

At the start of each turn each unit rolls 1 d 6 and adds (or subtracts) their Initiative Modifier from their stat line and that determines when they will move in the turn. We simply left the rolled dice at the rear of the unit as a marker to remind us of an initiative score.

Units such as Gendarme and Swiss gain +2 to their roll, if the net score goes over 6 the unit become Impetuous and charges of at the nearest unit, much as those units did if they thought the Commander was being a touch cautious.

Papal Pike to the rescue

Impetuous units remain so until they get into melee or fail a morale test.

Units with an Initiative of zero don't move or fire but can defend themselves in melee.

Each unit completes it's turn with the highest dice going first. So all Impetuous first, then 6s go then all 5s etc.

If a unit choses to move it's move distance is it's base move from its stat line plus it's Initiative Score, so a Gendarme moves 8 inches normally, if it had a 5 for initiative it would move 13 inches, simple really.

Papal Guard vs The World 

Each side should move one unit and then the next side and so on, I could see how over a club night table this would work fine but over a large table it became restrictive so we just broke the table down into areas of action and moved units in sequence in that area.

Each unit completes it's turn before moving onto the next unit.

It's wouldn't be long before we introduced a house rule (it never is !) We found that there was a problem when you have units in consecutive lines (Cavalry mostly) when the units in the rear end up with higher initiative than those in the rear, because of the move system the unit at the rear was effectively stuck and was therefore at a disadvantage due to it's higher initiative. We solved the problem by allowing units to exchange their Initiative dice front to rear, the payment for doing so was reducing both dice by 1.

Landsknecht pointy end

Shooting is done by base, 2d6 if short range, 1 if long or if moved. Roll the dice, 5 or 6 hits. The target has a save of 1d6 per hit with additional dice for cover and armour, saving a hit on a 5 or 6.

So a stationary unit of Landsknecht Shot with 4 bases firing at a unit of Gendarme with at short range would throw 8 dice, let's say for 3 hits. The Gendarme would throw 3 save rolls for the hits, plus 3 dice for their armour, - 1 for the fact they were fired at by a gunpowder weapon giving 5 dice to save 3 hits. Remember each base has 4 hits before it is removed.

French Pike on the move

Nice and straight forward and picked up in a couple of moves.

We added our second house rule for Mounted Crossbow and Bow, reducing their ranges. It's open to historical debate but I am in the "crossbows were used from horseback" camp, but they used a latch type loading mechanism which would give less draw weight and hence less range. So our house rule fitted that.

The other thing we weren't sure on was the basing for shot troops, skirmish units are in three bases, side by side which is fine, but formed shot is in 4 bases, 2 x 2 which to me doesn't look right, we have left it as is for now but might come back to that.

The Pope in action

Melee combat occurs when units contact each other and multiple rounds of combat can occur in one turn, for example a unit with an Initiative of six contacts and fights a unit with an Initiative of three, they fight once of the turn of the unit with 6 and again on the turn of the unit with 3.

Sword and Buckler unit 

Combat is based around the Combat Factor of each unit, each base in contact generates dice equal to the CF of that unit. So a French Gendarme unit with a C.F. of 4 will generate 12 dice (for 3 bases) as a start, there are additional modifiers (Cavalry charging get plus 1 to their dice, giving a total of 15 for our Gendarme example, these dice are rolled, with 5 or 6 being a hit.

The unit that has taken the hits gets the opportunity to save, 1 d6 for each hit plus a number of Dice to represent the Armour of the unit, with a 5 or 6 saving.

More Landsknechts

The outcome of the melee is determined by a Combat Morale Test after the casualties are calculated. This is based on the CF to start with modifiers to the number of Dice for most casualties, losing a base, size of unit etc. Both players roll their dice with a 5 or 6 (as usual) counting as a success. It is the difference between these results that determine the outcome. 1 difference pushes back the loser 1 base and causes 1 casualties, 2 difference, 2 push backs, 2 casualties. Three difference adds disorganised to the losers woe whilst 4 push backs kills the unit.

Units that have a traditional rivalry (Swiss and Landsknechts) can become "Furioso" when close to each other, this drags the units into combat and intensifies the fighting, which is done twice before any Combat Morale is taken.

We found that the system worked well but because there is no cumulative effect round to round melees went on until a unit ran out of figures. After the first day playing we decided this wasn't working for us and made the push backs add up, turn on turn, so a 1 push back this turn after a 1 push back the previous turn would count as 2.

Morale is done by a simple test when a unit loses a base in shooting or when a general is killed, the rules do have an overarching morale system which is based on the overall losses but this is designed for games a third of the size we were trying, it's something we didn't use during this play test but will be looked at again, next game.

So general impression is very good and we will definitely be using them again. We made a few minor changes but I have to be honest and say that only a couple of sets of rules survive intact after contact with the Yarkshire Gamer ! There are some nice touches in the rules, like hazards (when you throw 4 1's in any roll).

I've done a video run through of the rules which I will put up on the blog early next week.