Adventure Anyone?

Since the release of War for Edath we have promised that you will be able to play the game not just as a wargame but as a game of adventure and also eventually as an RPG. The release of figatures (card miniatures) brings this reality one step closer. Figatures are used to represent your troops, champions and leaders on the battlefield. You'll also be able to get figature terrain so you can create battlefields like this -

However, these 'battlefields' also become an environment for you to adventure in.

So with the figatures and terrain maps the adventures can begin. What type of adventures?

Well, eventually any type of adventure you can think up. But to begin with, using only the cards from War for Edath (plus a few more) and with the figatures this is what you can expect.

Working Title – Edath Adventure Game

No. of players – 2 to 7

The Game -

Each player is a hero with or without a retinue of troops. Players form into 2 teams and play both for themselves (as heroes) as well as their team. If you've got troops then you'll play as a Unit.

Adventures can be played on their own or be joined together to create an ongoing story. The player's heroes are either affiliated to an Ang rebel band or to the Dzaa empire. The teams of players then play against each other for control of a region of Edath.

Initially, the adventures you can play will be along the lines of -

• The teams race to reach an objective – i.e. to rescue someone or to destroy an enemy hold
• One team is being chased by a larger force and has to make its escape
• The teams are hunting for the same thing and the first to find it gets the prize
• One team is caught behind enemy lines and has to run the gauntlet to get to safety
• The teams face different enemies in skirmishes or combat

 (an early playtest)

In each adventure the player teams may directly face each others' heroes or one team may play the part of another foe – such as a band of Nuko. Played in the wilds of Edath, the players will have to overcome tough terrain, vicious beasts, bandits, dangerous warring factions (such as the Nuko, Chune and Suqoya), traps, poisonous plants, living terrain such as animated trees, the demonic faidrytch, the fickle vaechi and more as well as their opponent team!!

All adventures use the same core rules which are actually very simple. However, each type of adventure may have its own specific rules but these are very few and so once the core rules are known you can play any type of adventure after a quick scan over the specifics for that type of adventure.

Gameplay is fast paced and action packed with a swashbuckling feel. You have plenty of choices in any adventure and, oh yes, can acquire 'treasure' and experience along the way so expect to 'level up' your heroes and their troops.

(a recent playtest)

And this is where we want to hear from you.

Edath Adventure Game will be available as a boxed game and also as an expansion to War for Edath. So if you haven't got War for Edath you can buy the Edath Adventure Game and get all the cards in the War for Edath base set as well as everything else needed to play the adventures. But if you have War for Edath you can buy the Edath Adventure Game expansion which will give you the rules and everything else needed to play the adventures.

So is this something you want?

Does the Edath Adventure Game interest you? Should we release it? Soon? Or should we shelve it?

Let us know. Either do so by leaving a comment to this post, or complete our one click poll in this thread on our forum or send us an email. You can email us using addresso.wfe@warriorelite.com

Build Your Own Terrain Map?

So this is a terrain map - aka. battlefield.

You can download these from our website and we have an expanding library of them. However, if you want to make your own then we're going to need to provide you with terrain positions and a way of putting them together. So we've been working on this and thought we should share our prototypes with you.

To begin with you have a base to put your terrain positions on -

Those red lines pointed to by the arrows are slits in the base. Every rectangle – terrain position – has these slits. Why?

Well if you take a look at the individual terrain positions that you'll use -

You'll see that they come with tabs – coloured red in the above illustration. On the left we have a regular terrain position – a woods. On the right we have a hill ready to be assembled.

You push the terrain position's tabs into the slots on the terrain map base, to get -

The terrain positions are then fixed to the base and won't move around. That hill also has 4 slots in its top so that you can put a standard terrain position onto the hill, like so -

So here we have a wooded hill.

And inserted into the slots, that hill is going nowhere!

And yes, with each hill having tabs on the bottom and slots on the top you can put a hill onto a hill to make a taller hill! That way you can create really large hills that cover the terrain map with fluctuating heights. We'll post an image of such a hill to our website soon.

So with all of this you can make your own terrain maps and play Battlefield Skirmish games on them.

But what about Battlefield Battle games?

Well, take a look at this -

Here we've sized up a terrain position so that it can easily hold a Unit made up of multiple rows of 3 figatures in each. Each figature represents a single Troop Card. So you've got your Units used in the Battlefield Battle game. If you look at the top left of this image you'll see one of the terrain positions that you can slot onto the terrain map base for the Battlefield Skirmish game. Here it has been slotted into the oversized terrain position. So you can reuse your small terrain positions in this manner. (Note - In the actual thing you'll slot this in the centre-left of the oversized terrain position, not the top left.)

The idea is that we'll provide the terrain map base and all the individual terrain positions and hills to slot into that base. We can also supply the oversized terrain positions for the Battlefield Battle game but these will be 'blank' terrain positions that you'll slot the small terrain positions onto to show the terrain type and for the stats. You'll obviously need a larger table but with enough oversized terrain positions you can play your Battlefield Battle using the same figatures, etc.

Oh yeah, we'll provide oversized hills terrain positions as well.

Then you'll get figature trees, figature marsh, figature ruins and so on to slot into your terrain maps that can be used in both the Battlefield Skirmish setup and Battlefield Battle setup. Coming soon . . .

Thoughts?

Questions?

N

p.s. these prototypes were done on 80gsm paper to prove that if it worked with such flimsy material it'll only be 100 times better with card!

p.p.s There's a bit more background in this post on our forum.

War Unleashed battle no. 2

So in this battle, I'm happy to say we could use Figatures - these are used to represent your Unit on the Terrain Map and are free to download and assemble from our website - warriorelite.com

We each had 3 Units. I, again, was the Ang and Ash played as the Dzaa.

Ang Unit Tactics

This battle I opted to have a Unit of Marsh Riders, one Unit made up of a rank of Archers and 2 ranks of ShieldMaidens and one Unit made up of two ranks of Archers and one rank of ShieldMaidens.

All my units could fire at ballistic range and charge range. Due to their rate of fire and being able to fire from rearward ranks, the infantry units also had a conflict bonus of 3 - this means that win, lose or draw the round, if my conflict bonus is higher than my opponent, I would do damage to him. I knew this would be the case against the Dzaa.

So my plan was to keep the Dzaa at range.

Dzaa Unit Tactics

Ash opted for a unit of cavalry, a unit made up of one rank of gunners and two ranks of swords and a unit made up of one rank of swords and two ranks of gunners.

The unit with two sword ranks and one gunner could form a shield cover at ballistic range which would absorb 10 damage. His other infantry unit was set up to compete with the Ang archers until they could close in when he planned to unleash the cavalry.

The total army cost of the Dzaa units was less than the Ang so Ash gained himself a higher Combat Master - champion.

The Dzaa's aim was to close and engage in hand to hand as soon as possible.

The Battlefield

The battle was to fought over terrain dominated by woods. Dotted amongst the woods were clearings. The woods closest to the centre of the battlefield were dense enough to prevent a unit creating a unit composition - i.e. this would prevent the Dzaa swords from creating their shield cover.

Mounted troops could take advantage of the clearings as their speed would carry them over these terrain positions in one go - unlike the infantry where it would take them two goes to accomplish this.

The Battle Begins

During the 'Deployment Phase' both of us got two Vanguard Units - these can make a free move before other units. I also got a Flanking Unit. A flanking unit isn't placed onto the battlefield until after the third duration but can be brought on from any edge bar your opponent.

So after initial deployment and first moves, three Dzaa units faces off against two Ang units.

The Battle Unfolds

I held my Ang units back, forcing Ash to bring his Dzaa units on. After the third Duration I brought my unit of Marsh Riders - my flanking unit - on from one edge of the battlefield which enabled me to combine two of my units - indicated in the above image. This gave me a distinct advantage.

After we had exchanged arrows and bullets for a Duration I allowed the Dzaa to close in to the charge combat level. Arrows, throwing axes and bullets flew.

The remainder of the battle was fought in this position. I kept playing the 'Retreat' and 'Hold' Stratagems to enable me to remain at the charge combat level as often as possible. Why? Because the Dzaa swords can't use their shield cover at that range so can't reduce damage they take. Plus, I had my conflict bonus which dealt 3 damage every round - whether I won, drew or lost the round. This tactic won me the battle.

To the Winner the Spoils

Revenge was mine! My tactics won through. Having a flanking unit at the beginning made Ash wary of his army movement and as a result I capitalised by combining units. Drawing the Dzaa to the charge combat level and keeping them at that range as long as possible was also key - doing little bits of damage every round soon mounted up.

The Dzaa shield infantry - such as swords or spears - are weakest at the charge. At ballistic they can reduce damage by 10 as previously noted and in melee they can form a shield wall and reduce damage taken by 5. So to defeat them, you keep them at charge . . . if you can!

Other Actions of Note

Ash did manage to avoid the woods that countered his unit formations and also brought the 'Terrain Dominance' Stratagem card into play. This prevented me from benefiting from the ability to use woods to guard - basically, this gives you the opportunity to use the woods like a shield and take no damage when you lose a round. I obviously countered this as soon as possible.

Ash kept his cavalry out of harm until we closed and exploited a clearing on the battlefield to charge in and engage my marsh riders. When these units came together at melee he gained the attack bonus for extra impetus which wiped out one of my marsh rider ranks in a single round!! Ash's cavalry fared well and were winning their unit vs. unit fight but overall it wasn't enough.

War Unleashed Battle no. 1

With War for Edadh you play over a battlefield represented by a single Terrain Card. With War Unleashed your battlefield is far larger and so deployment and strategic movement of units enters into the game. A library of these battlefields will be available free to download from warriorelite.com.

We're using dice to represent each unit but watch out for details of official unit counters later this month!

We had our armies prebuilt. I was playing the rebel Ang and built 3 units based around their long range advantage. Each unit had 3 ranks as the bows in the 2nd and 3rd ranks can fire and boost the strength of the unit.

My opponent played the Dzaa Empire and also built 3 units. Two of these consisted of 2 Troop Cards equipped with shields and 1 Gunner Toop Card. This enabled him to build shield cover formations – i.e. the Roman Tortoise – but still be able to shoot at range. His last unit was a cavalry one.

The above image shows the progress of the battle. I'm on the left, my opponent on the right. The more coloured terrain positions in the top left image show where the hills are on the battlefield. All other positions are grass.

During deployment – which you play for – my opponent managed to get 2 Vanguard Units and I only 1. You can move Vanguard Units for free before deploying the remainder of your army. After the deployment phase our armies were set up as shown in the top-centre image. I've circled my opponent's cavalry unit.

My opponent was trying to close as quickly as possible as his army is way stronger in melee. I was aiming to hit him as much as possible at range. After the first lot of movement my archers could fire at one of his units and after the next movement all my units could shoot. My opponent kept his cavalry as safe as possible. At this point 2 of my units could gang up on one of my enemy's units which gives a strong advantage – see bottom-left image.

During the next movement I retreated to keep pouring those arrows down but my opponent did manage to catch one of my units napping and engage it at short range. If my opponent had moved to the position where I have put the solid red circle – bottom-middle picture – I could've again had the advantage of 2 units against 1. Surprisingly he didn't go for this and after the next movement we ended up as show in the bottom-right image and eventually closed to melee where the remainder of the battle was slugged out.

Ang Unit Tactics

3 ranks of bows in each unit meant that win, lose or draw a round the Ang would damage the Dzaa by 4 points! If the Ang won a round they could do up to 17 damage if the unit champion also came into play. This is a lot.

If the Ang could get 2 units shooting at just 1 enemy unit then this would increase the attack and potentially move the amount of damage to 20! In a single round!

Dzaa Unit Tactics

A Dzaa shield cover will reduce any damage taken by 10. This meant that the Ang's bow units would be checked somewhat. But the cavalry can't build a shield cover and so had to be kept safe until they could engage the Ang at close range.

Key Points in the Battle

Although the Ang did get an advantage of 2 to 1, the Dzaa player managed to negate this by preventing the Ang from using its champion whilst the Dzaa could use theirs. The Dzaa had also brought the 'Terrain Advantage' stratagem into play which increased their defence. This compounded by a bad choice of which unit to attack with by the Ang resulted in the Dzaa not taking any damage even though the Dzaa player lost rounds!! Great defence played for and attained by the Dzaa.

The Ang failed to keep the Dzaa at long range for as long as they could've. This played into the hands of the Dzaa who were stronger when in hand to hand.

The Dzaa cavalry ended up charging a spear hedge of infantry – this is a unit formation where you have to have at least 2 ranks of troops all equipped with a spear of sorts. Cavalry would normally do 5 damage to infantry even if the player lost the round when attacking with them. However, a spear hedge counters this. If the Dzaa player had moved his cavalry to engage a different Ang unit it would've had a far larger impact on the game. As it was, the Ang speared the first wave of Dzaa Cavalry and negated all their momentum. Thereafter, the Ang's spear hedge had a distinct advantage over the Dzaa cavalry – a case of the Ang using the right unit formation against the opponent troop type.

The Ang player used his champions' skill cards well. In a round when the Dzaa would've dealt 6 extra damage due to the Mastery Card played, the Ang's played skill card prevented this and kept him in the battle.

The Ang player successfully used the 'Targeted Attack' stratagem to get rid of one of the Dzaa's strongest troops. This also destroyed the shield cover for the unit it was in. If the Ang had played his retreat better he could've gone on to exploit this fully. However, this was not to be.

Selection of which unit to play with when was critical. For example, a round was drawn and the Dzaa – due to having more Mastery Points remaining – could choose which units to be played that round. He could choose to either fight with a unit that was at the charge combat level or one that was at ballistic. If he chose the one at charge he wouldn't have gotten his shield cover bonus to negate damage so obviously chose the unit at ballistic. This resulted in him taking no damage that round but the Ang did.

The Terrain in the Battle

The Dzaa made better use of the terrain this battle. The hills enabled them to use the 'Terrain Advantage' stratagem whereas much of the grass prevented this. On moving in, the Dzaa exploited this fact. At the end, the Dzaa had lost this stratagem but the Ang had obtained it. However, 2 of the 3 Ang units ended up on terrain that prevented them getting the benefit of this stratagem.

Hills also afforded some cover and reduced the damage a unit took when at long range. The Dzaa used this fact as well when moving across the battlefield which contributed to them taking very little damage when being shot at.

A lot of the hills would've countered the Dzaa cavalry's advantage it has when it first moves to melee. The Ang failed to utilise this.

To the Winner go the Spoils!

So my opponent – the Dzaa – won. Poor movement in retreat and the Dzaa's strength in melee led to my downfall. I had burned more of my Mastery Points than he had by the time the units engaged in hand to hand combat and after it was over, my opponent confessed that he knew how to beat me in the 'end game'. It turns out that when I have few Mastery Points remaining I tend to play the same way – something I hadn't observed in myself but my opponent had, which contributed to his victory and my downfall.

Still, next time will be a different story!

More on Battlefields

So with War for Edath you can fight over single Terrain Cards or a single row of Terrain Cards. With War Unleashed you can now battle over large battlefields which are the equivalent of multiple rows of Terrain Cards. Each battlefield - or Terrain Map as we've called them - is made up of many Terrain Positions. Each Terrain Position is the  equivalent of a Terrain Card or a combined Terrain Card.

Take a look a the image on the left - that's a single Terrain Position. All the stats and symbols found on a Terrain Card are noted on the Terrain Position so you can immediately see how that Terrain Position will affect the game. And when you stick multiple Terrain Positions together you get a Terrain Map.

The above illustrated Terrain Map has a lot going on with woods, hills and marsh all on the same map. Some combined terrain - i.e. woody marsh - as well.

So what size is it? Three rows of Terrain Positions make up a single page of A4. So you download and print out 2 pages of A4 and you've got yourself a regular sized Terrain Map. If you want a bigger battlefield you just keep adding Terrain Maps.

How does this change the game? Movement and positioning on the battlefield becomes key. Obviously some Terrain Positions are going to increase your chances of success. Also, if you can get 2 or more of your Units attacking a single enemy Unit then you have a big advantage. Get a Unit behind the enemy and you're on the way to victory. Strategy in deployment and manoeuvering becomes key.

So you've got your Terrain Map and you've built your army with your cards. How do you represent your Units on the battlefield? Well, we're working on official Unit Counters but using dice works very well. You lay your Units out in a row in front of you and the number of pips showing on the top of each die reveals which Unit it represents.

There's going to be a library of Terrain Maps available free to download from www.warriorelite.com which we will be adding to regularly. If you've got ideas for Terrain Maps then do post them to our forum - warriorelite's forum. We're also going to be producing scenarios that will contain pre-made armies and objectives - these will also be available free to download. Again, do create your own scenarios and post them to the forum.

Oh and as we have so many ideas for Stratagem and Conflict Cards we're going to be including some of these in the downloads. Print them out, stick them in a plastic card sleeve and you've got more tactics and strategy to play with.

N

p.s. For a bit more info on Terrain Maps check the following post on our forum -

Hills on Battlefields - aka. Terrain Maps

The Art of War

So with War for Edath you can win a battle - but can you win a war?

Campaigns. Battle campaigns to be specific. The Art of War enables you to string several battles together in a series of encounters that escalates over time in a war for a region of Edath.

The mechanics to The Art of War are actually very simple. Each player picks a warring faction but doesn't have to build a campaign army before starting. All you'll need to do is build a single Unit as the first encounter starts out small - a Unit vs. Unit game. After that first skirmish, battles will get progressively larger with more troops on each side. The focus turns to the Battlefield games and the campaign culminates in a large Battlefield Battle.

You'll also be able to play specific scenarios, such as attempting to destroy enemy supplies, which if you win will increase your chances of winning the campaign. Many of these scenarios will be made available free to download from our website.

As you progress you can level up your Troop Cards, Combat Masters, Battle Masters and Units. The skills introduced in The Art of the Master can also be levelled up. But if a levelled up Troop or Master is Discarded or Instant Discarded in a game they may well be dead and will play no further part in the campaign.

The region of Edath you'll compete over is easily created using the Terrain Cards you have. The region is then split into 9 Areas that you'll compete for dominance over. Win battles and you'll get Terrain Points. Get enough Terrain Points and you'll Control an Area. Control enough Areas and you win the campaign.

Finally, you'll play a Duration of a Campaign Conflict Resolution before each battle with Campaign Mastery Points and Campaign Damage. This represents the scouting, spying and diplomacy that goes on between battles and your level of Campaign MP and Campaign Dmg will carry forward through the campaign.

Win rounds of the Campaign Conflict Resolution and you can influence the layout of the battlefield, the armies involved in the battle and the strategies that will be employed. Lose Troops and Masters in a battle and you'll acquire Campaign Damage. And true to Conflict Resolution if your Campaign Mastery Points drop below your Campaign Damage then you lose the campaign - your remaining forces will have lost all faith in your leadership and will disperse.

Hopefully you'll see that The Art of War can really enhance the War for Edath experience.

And the question at the beginning of the post stands. You may be able to win a battle, but can you win a war?

N

The Art of the Master

‘The Art of the Master’ rules included in the War Unleashed companion book expand upon the use of Combat Masters and Battle Masters as well introducing skills into games. These rules form the basis for having characters in your games, each with a number of skills.

The way this works in a battle is that you would play a round of Conflict Resolution normally up to the end of step 3 – so the Attacker and Defender have been determined and both players have reduced and absorbed Mastery Points.

At this point players can bring their Masters and Skills into play to affect the round. By doing this it is actually possible to force your opponent to replace the Mastery Card he played with one that is more favourable to you – one that you can Guard or even beat!

If you think of each round of Conflict Resolution as being longer than a split second all of this makes sense. In a battle, a round would actually represent up to a minute of real time – possibly more as the actual time is arbitrary. The Mastery Cards played for the round represent the troops fighting and reveals the outcome should nothing else intervene. But Masters can spot that their troops are about to be beaten and throw themselves into the fray to turn the tide. Or they can see that their troops are pushing the enemy back and that by diving in they could really cause some damage to the enemy. This is ‘The Art of the Warrior’ in action.

Not all Masters and Skills will directly affect the result of combat. Some can be used to alter the result of the ‘tcts’ Secondary Card. Your Battle Master is trying to bring a couple of Stratagems into play but you play the wrong Mastery Card and this isn’t going to happen. But with the use of Masters and Skills you have the opportunity to alter this result. Maybe another Battle Master in the Unit – a lieutenant – literally pushes troops in the right direction so that you do get that Terrain Advantage.

With expansions you’ll get different Masters and more Skills. Put several Master cards together with a few Skills and you’ve got yourself a multi-skilled Character. For example, a Character could be a skilled leader and a champion. So when you build him you would give him some Battle Master and Combat Master Cards. Give him a few Skills and you can then use him in your games.

(NB. For those interested, this is the basis for character ‘classes’ and The Art of the Master are the core rules for using your Character’s skills in the Edath RPG.)

Familiar cards can be reused to represent skills. A good strategist knows his enemy and how he fights. So in the game you can give Troop Cards to your Battle Master to represent him knowing his enemy and knowing how that specific troop type fights and so knowing how best to beat them. You can then spend these ‘Know Your Enemy Troop Cards’ in the game to swing things your way.

Terrain Cards can be used in a similar way and with expansions, other cards will be used to represent knowledge or skills.

Next time I’ll introduce ‘The Art of War’ – the campaign rules – within which you can level up your Masters, Characters and their skills.

N