Sword & Spear at EWG, as well as a couple more Descent figures

Tuesday night was spent playing a game of Sword & Spear at the club. It was hosted by Dave who wanted to give these rules a try.

We had a simple open field which pitted a Roman force played by Jonathan & Dennis against a mixed force of Goths, Dacian's & Sarmatian's.

The lines move towards one another. So as I have not read the rules, here is the general thoughts of mine.

 

Each unit has a die placed in a bag. Seven dice were drawn & these are then used by each side to roll for orders. The odd dice will give one side a higher number which also determines general order of actions. Each unit type has a discipline value which ranged from 3 to 4. This meant that only dice equal to or higher when rolled for orders would actually be useful. The lower dice were discarded, which also meant units  would get no action this turn. The player did however get to decide which units would be able to activate.

As expected, the crunch came in the centre. I rolled abysmally on my first roll & lost a Dacian unit.

Units which received a 6 were given extra options & thus were highly sought. Now of course comes the interesting mechanic. The lowest order dice perform first, the player who had more order dice going first on ties. Thus a player could potentially null out an opponent sitting on a 6, though that unit would still benefit. After performing the order, the die is turned to show a 1. If a unit is engaged who did not receive a die, one is withdrawn from the bag & placed behind it after combat.

Thus this is another strategy to try to lock down units of the enemy you don't want to have receive actions.

On the far left flank I had 2 Cavalry units engage the Roman Cav & an Archer unit.

Part of the strategy is to gain overlaps to get extra dice in combat. As well charging with a 6 die order ramps up your combat dice even further. When the dice are rolled, the defender rolls as well & the rolls are compared. Equal values cancel one another out. A lower value will require a discipline test (failure causes a hit), a roll that is doubled causes an immediate hit. Units could generally take 3 hits before removal.

The grind in the centre continued with both sides losing units.

Certain unit types gain certain abilities which allow dice mods. For example armoured units can modify one die by 1. Dacian Falc's nullify the armoured effect.

Below is the shot of where the game ended. Both sides were bloodied, however the Roman flanks were now about to feel the weight of the Barbarian Cavalry. I believe however that when tallied it would show both sides as having reached their break points, thus it could likely be considered a draw or minor Barbarian win.

 

It was an fun first try with the rules, the dice mechanics made for interesting options & this aspect will require more study. Thus I think we shall be seeing more of this rule set. We discovered of course a couple errors with regards to overlapping units, but as both were handled the same it wasn't a bonus to just one side. Thanks Dave for hosting this.

As well I finished a couple more of the Descent commission. Below we have Trenloe the Strong & Laurel of Bloodwood.

Again both are excellent sculpts, true there are some flash seams, but that is a curse of all the soft plastic figures these days. I would have liked to see Laurel on a bit larger base as she easily topples.

Up next are more Descent figures. As well I've received a few parcels in the mail - the second batch of Deadzone figures from the Kickstarter, some resin concrete barricades (which I am now getting some graffiti decals for), & a 6 point Jomsviking Saga force.

Until next time.