From: Roberto Chiavini Subject: Two BSO reviews The Devil's Horsemen (BSO games) The second offer from BSO is a game on the battle of Liegnitz 1241 AD, the last stand of Polish and European cavalry against the Mongols. As it stands it has an interesting system, doomed by a terrible situation (but it could playable solitaire, if you handicap a little the Mongols). The system is a development of the splendid, smooth and easy system used in the previous Kingdom for an horse, but the added complexities don't make this one a better game (in my humble opinion). Graphics are similar to the previous offer, probably a little better, sufficiently pleasant to the eyes. Units are rated for a DRM melee modifier, morale and movement, while the European have also an activation differential (for the attitude used each turn they are activated - a nice rule, but necessitating too many die rolls to be totally enjoyable). Leaders are rated for activation, movement and command range (another nice addiction, more useful and probably needed also at Bosworth). The system use the same no-turns approach that KfH used so succesfully; so each formation needs an activation roll inside its leader range to be activated otherwise the hand passes to the other player, who may freely activate one of his formation and then rolling for other activations. The important note (absent misteriously in the previous game) is that you may not activate two times consecutively the same formation (so you cannot use your best formation as an almost unstoppable force - and that is terribly true for the Mongols). Fire combat is used mostly by the Mongols, that may move and have fire (and also use hit and run tactics - Richard you really have to hate those damned Polish !!), use reaction fire and the like, while the Europeans have a few archer units only with an optional rule. Melee combat sees both the attacker and the defender rolling a die adding/subtracting a lot of modifiers (Tactical superiority - another nice touch, in practice comparing the different units that are partecipating in the combat; Strenght superiority, terrain - in practice only a stream attack modifier; Euro leaders (one of the few advantage given to the Euro army) and a few others. Both kind of combat, but mostly melee, give one or more hits to the target (and eventually cause the elimination of the involved unit, when the total hits taken exceed the morale of the unit). Leaders cannot be casualties. There also the possibility to avoid combat, moving away from the attacking unit if you have the same or more movement allowance than the attacker and you succeed in a morale roll: this rule makes the Mongols almost unbeatable on the field, as they may fire with hit and run to units up to three hexes away and avoid the assault 70/80% of the time. Too bad: this time the historical reasons have prevailed over the playability and the sheer fun. Victory is based on routing the enemy army, that is 55 losses for the Mongols and 85 for the Europeans (that are doomed 8 times on 10, if the Mongols player want to win). In a solo battle it's perhaps possible to even the odds a lot and a few more times could be possible for the European Knights to have a victory. Even if the system, looking at the simulation value of it, is certainly better than the one used in KfH, the total effect is terribly less fun and fascinating and that depends probably on the choice of the battle, not very balanced at the start and almost unplayable to tell the truth. But a few of the rules for this system could be adapted to KfH without particular problems, making the latter a better simulation and perhaps even a better game (but it's already a threat as it stands). So I have to rate Devil's Horsemen 6 in a 1-10 scale, even if the system could be worth at least a 7 1/2 (I normally like very much Richard Berg's design, and this is not an exception: it's simply the situation that was better to leave unsimulated, as it stood before).