From: Chuck Messenger Subject: Re: Advanced Lionheart wlh wrote: > > How long are the published rules ? > As suggested in an earlier post, is it feasible to provide a summary > description of the game (incl rules) to open up the discussion on variants, > etc to a wider audience ? Well, I'll tell you what: I'll give you our modified rules -- that way maybe I'm not infringing on anybody's copyrights (not that I think I would be if I told you their rules, probably, but who knows? I'm no lawyer...). In suggesting changes to these modified rules -- maybe you'll end up with the original rules! The game is very simple. It is played on a board with a grid about 11 by 11 (don't have the game handy). (I'd like it to be played on a hex map with terrain, but I don't have that, yet). The units moved around the board are platforms, each holding up to 4 pieces. The unit types are: king (1 per platform, 1 unit), knights (2 per platform, 2 units), archers (4 per platform, 2 units), infantry (4 per platform, maybe 5 units), heavy infantry (2 per platform, 1 unit), peasants (4 per platform, 1 or 2 units), and mercenaries (2 per platform, 1 unit). Infantry is the basic unit -- each piece on the platform gets to roll 1 die when the unit attacks. Specially-labelled 6-sided dice are used, with 3 axes, 2 arrows and 1 Panic. The infantry hits on axes -- so, a 4-piece infantry unit gets 4 attack dice, and hits with 50% of them on average. Each hit takes out one opposing piece. If you roll one or more Panic's, then there's a possibility your unit will panic -- think of each Panic roll as being one of the pieces on the platform panicking. Roll again with a number of dice equal to the number of panicked pieces in the unit. If you get any more panics, add to the total panic level and roll again with that many dice. Keep doing this until either you roll no more panics, or you have accumulated as many panics as there are pieces in the unit. If the latter happens, the unit "routs" -- it turns around 180 degrees and moves 1 forward. If in so doing it runs into another friendly unit, that unit automatically panics too, in the same way. If a routed unit runs off the edge of the board, or into the King, or into an enemy piece, it is eliminated. The King never panics. On your turn, you get three moves, to be applied to 3 different units. A move consists of turning a unit any amount, moving a unit forward 1 square, or attacking with the unit. OK, now for special abilities: Archers can fire on any square in the 9 square box of squares centered immediately in front of the archer unit. If firing at the furthest 3 squares (3 squares distance), the archer hits with the Panic result, and no panic is possible (the enemy's far away, after all). Otherwise (at a distance of 1 or 2 squares), the archer hits with the arrow (1/3 chance per dieroll). Knights can move 1, 2 or 3 squares per move. They are "armored" (as are Kings and Heavy Infantry) -- it takes 2 hits to kill an armored piece (odd hits being lost). Knights, Kings, Heavy Infantry and Mercenaries also do double damage -- they get 2 dice per piece. Peasants hit on either axes or arrows -- whichever is higher. However, they panic freely -- once for each panic result (so, a peasant can panic more than once per attack -- just move him that many squares after turning him around). It takes 2 "movement points" to move heavy infantry, or to turn their facing. However, they can attack any adjacent square (including diagonally adjacent). If you attack a piece into it's rear, you get double attack dice (but not for archers). Well, that's about all I can think of off-hand. Oh, you can't move into/through another piece (duh). Oh, and the most important part: you win by killing the other side's King (what else?). The modified rules make for a more even-tempered, strategic game. The original rules resulted in short contests, generally decided by a herd of roving horsemen, or a rampaging band of archers. By limiting each unit to one move (oops -- gave away one of the original rules!), it makes such individual bursts of activity much less possible, encouraging multi-unit maneuvers. By giving a bonus for attacking into the back (oops, gave away another rule!), again, superior maneuver is rewarded. Horses have been tamed alot (boy, better call Parker Brothers lawyers!) -- originally, they moved like Chess rooks, which was just too silly. Originally, panics were virtually non- existant for units with more than 1 piece, making Panics a pretty rare event. So, we boosted panics for multi-piece units, while still leaving them much less prone to panic than units with fewer pieces. Oh, also, we added cannons -- these fire in a straight or diagonal line, and they must be facing in that direction (they can face diagonally). You roll a d10 (labelled 0 to 9) to see how many squares forward the shell lands -- it blows up anything in that square. Only takes one hit to kill it. Makes for some nice fireworks early in the game, and gives you some incentive to get moving quickly! Someone pointed out to me that there is a game called Battle Masters, which is very much like Lionheart, only it uses hexes, and has a fantasy theme. I read the review at www.gamecabinet.com -- sounds pretty neat! However, those rules have some problems (as I see it) -- for example, there is no unit facing, so maneuver wouldn't matter much. I think it's designed to be a full-out slugfest dice-a-rama (which would be kinda boring, I'd think, after a few games). So, please, post some suggestions for improvements. I think the game could make a really good introduction to wargaming -- it could even rival something like Ancients in terms of "seriousness", perhaps with a CRT. You could start someone on the simplest game, then layer on the rules until, suddenly, as if by magic, you've got them playing an honest-to-goodness consim (or is that "wargame" -- let's not start _that_ one up again...) - Chuck Messenger