By This Axe AAR

So after my review of the written rules, I thought it necessary to play a game. I put two army lists together and my son and I played a game Wednesday evening.

Our initial setups

Our army lists are below:

	#	FC	Equipment	Cost Each	Unit Cost
Good Guy Spearmen	16	3	L Armor, Shield, Spear	10	160
Human Archers	6	3	Compound Bow, Shortsword	11	66
Good Guy Swordsmen	10	4	M Armor, Shield, Sword	16	160
Hero	1	4	M Armor, Sword, Shield	36	36
					422
	#	FC	Equipment	Cost Each	Unit Cost
Skeleton Swords/Axes	10	3	M Armor, Shield, Sword	12	120
Skeleton Archers	6	3	Shortbow, Shortsword	9	54
Dark Elves	8	4	M Armor, Javelin, 2 H Sword	14	112
Giant Lizard Troll	4	3	Thick Hide, Shield, 2 H Sword	17	68
Giant Rats	12	2	Shortsword	3	36
Hero	1	4	M Armor, Spear	34	34
					424

Junior has one more maneuver unit than me, but I've got years of experience and low cunning in my favor. He put the troll thing with the Dark Elves.

Right off the bat we had a bit of an issue determining exactly how many "command cards" we should draw, and we decided on 2 per turn as long as our leader was still kickin' and that you could keep one unused card between turns.

My melee units move forward posthaste with the help of a "diamonds" card which gives two units extra movement for the turn.

Junior's rats on a flanking maneuver (idea by me). His archers  bottlenecked  his melee skeletons who spent a great deal of time trying to maneuver around the archers.

Action shot of the good guys advancing.

When our main forces (and leaders) were close, Junior thought it a good idea for his leader to challenge mine to a duel. I accepted. 

Have at thee, foul sorcerer!

Drat!

The battle was met and our troops in the center collided.

I hit the elves in the flank with my spearmen but their morale held.

The rats continue their scurry.

Time jump forward a little bit. His leader failed a save in the melee and croaked but again the elf morale held. My swordsmen could NOT fail a saving throw. His elves failed lots of saves, as did my spearmen. I suggested to Junior that his archers, which weren't doing anything, charge my spearmen in the flank and forcing a morale test.

Flank charges. They hurt.

What didn't take any encouragement was a second flank charge by the archers into my swordsmen which were still kicking ass in the center.

Run away! Run away!

My archers did finish off the rats, with only one loss. Small victories.

So, my impression? It is a good game, just rough around the edges. The number of cards to be drawn is debatable. The fact that units cannot rally without leaders or cards is brutal. One "score" for troops is a somewhat questionable mechanic - the rats for instance should be poor fighters but should also have a high morale since they won't take notice of dead comrades. Other troops, say orcs, may be good at close combat but weak at shooting. Song of Blades and Heroes manages this well with loads of special rules but there is currently no analogue in BTA. The one other thing that jumped out was "save modifiers" for close combat weapons. The giant troll should have been able to put a -1 or -2 on his enemies' saving throws, but this wasn't part of the RAW.

With a bit of polish, BTA will be a very good game and I can easily make most of these adjustments myself. Good gaming, y'all!

Game Review: By This Axe

So I picked up the self-published fantasy / historical rules By This Axe the other day and have read it through a few times. I hope to give it a try tomorrow. I've been looking for a fantasy mass-combat game that didn't cost an arm and a leg and wasn't HOTT. Nothing against HOTT, but I just wasn't taken with it. When I stumbled upon BTA, it fit the bill nicely. I'm going to take off the gloves and say what needs to be said in hopes that it gets back to the author so BTA can be improved and grow.

The most glaring question is "what is a charge?" I've played a lot of WHFB and "charging" is the most important concept in that game. The BTA rules mention charging frequently but do not define it anywhere. I'm left wondering what happened during the proof-read - was the "charge" mechanic dropped during a re-write or has the author simply gone on the assumption that the reader knows what he's talking about. Particularly confusing is the phrasing on page 6, under the effect of the "Diamonds" cards - "All units under charge order must..." I didn't notice any other references to orders, so I'm left wondering if this too was just missed in a proof-read.

The next biggest thing that jumped out was the point value system. There are quite a few Special Abilities listed on page 8, but no points values associated with them. On the next page there is a system for assigning points values to troops, so the ground-work is there - it is just half-finished. I did come up with points values myself, although some may be a bit off.

The magic system is anemic, to say the least. I'll home-brew some better rules for that. As written, there is an offensive "blast" and a defensive "shield" and that's that.

Morale / rallying bothers me as written. More on that after I play-test though. I am curious about what happens to a routing unit that is contacted by enemy troops.

As I said at the beginning, I like the basic structure, the details need to be picked over with a fine-toothed comb. I suspect that the playtesters all know the author and didn't have simply the written rules to go by.

My quickly compiled list of Special Abilities Points Values

Tough                              2

Regeneration                    4

Thick Hide                       8

Breath/Gaze                     20

Fanatic                             4

Darkvision                        1

Flying                               4

Camouflage                      3

Multiple Attacks               2 X FC

Marksman                        3

Undead                            4

Slow                               -3

Quick                               3

Resistance                        20

My 2 Cents...