French Houserules

[vincent]

I updated the initial topic to link WME Rules and Armies and explain the move from WMMF to WME.

[Jo]

We played a game using the french house rules last week. it was 2000pts of Vampire Counts vs Witch Hunters. We stopped well into the night although that had more to do with a slow pace of playing.

Overall I was optimistic about the rules. Quite some things are improved like support. The limit on the number of combat rounds was also interesting. It is clear that infantry becomes a lot more interesting with these rules which is a good thing - especially when playing with Witch hunters and being really poor on cavalry.

Next weekend we will give these rules a go in 3 more games - hopefully I have the time to take some pictures and write a battle report.

Jo

[mlkr]

Found this topic just now. Looks interesting and very good work on evolving Warmaster fantasy

[vincent]

Glad to see this is of some help

[Jo]

Hi all,

As promised I'm back with some feedback on the rules after a few more games.

Overall the feeling of our group was that all the proposed game rule changes make for a better, more 'realistic' game. There wasn't a single rule we found to be a step in the wrong direction. The biggest impact was caused by:
- support being counted before removing casualties.
- combat being limited to only 2 rounds.
- no charge bonus when advancing.
- enveloping charges.
- infantry being able to pursue cavalry.

But we did have the feeling that the point costs of units might have to be rebalanced. This was especially the case for a battle of cavalry-heavy high elves versus a vampire count horde. At the end of the game the elves were a bit frustrated since nothing could stop the oncoming flood of undead.

After that game we did a short simulation to see whether things were still balanced. We had a unit of silver helms (110 points) charge a brigade of undead in the flank. The brigade was one unit of skeletons and one unit of zombies - so 65 points in total. 

We concluded that the silver helms simply can't cut through the undead brigade in 2 combat rounds. It would hurt the unit severely - but not destroy it. If the unit would then remain in contact after the second round then the initiative would go to the undead player who could easily send in another brigade of undead. With the flanking charge and the additional support the high elves would not survive for long and as such would end up dead. So a unit of 110 can't destroy a 65 points brigade even in the best of circumstances.

It is clear that these rules promote the use of infantry. The infantry heavy armies (vampire counts and dwarfs) had clear victories over the cavalry heavy ones in all 4 battles. I'm not saying this is entirely due to these rule changes but they do have an impact on the game.

Did you garçons et filles think about rebalancing the point values? That seems to be an enormous task however. Do the French players field a lot of cavalry or are you also favoring the infantry heavy armies? And how do you deal with large infantry brigades - especially Vampire Counts where you can't simply shoot off supporting units?

Thanks,

Jo

[vincent]

Great feedback, thx

Neither me nor the players who provided/provide feedback found that the knights need a rebalancing.
We find that with those rules Knights no longer are no-brainers; they now need careful and proper usage but are devastating if and when properly used (flanking, combined charge, etc.).

We have a couple of players with cavalry-heavy armies (and played a couple myself) and they are still pretty dangerous. I've seen lot of games won with knights charges, but rarely with massive front-charge.

I don't know the UK meta-game and cannot assess any differences

[Lex]

I don't know the UK meta-game and cannot assess any differences

Jo is in Flanders, and we KNOW that the French (knights) always underestimate their Northern neighbours...... 

[vincent]

 

[Jo]