Sword and Spear Fantasy Test 1

Here's an account of a run-through of Sword and Spear Fantasy, Brets against Goblins. S&SF is very similar to the historical S&S game, with a few added troop types and abilities, special rules for Monsters and Heroes, and magic. This is a 900 pointer. I could make a slightly bigger battle than this, but this feels about right for my 6x4 table.

Note: I have made a few adjustments to the activation dice numbers from the rules as written. Usually you draw 7 dice per phase but I draw 9. Also, I add a few more dice to the totals. I add one for each captain and two for each general. This means there is more dice in the game, and more chance of getting activation bonuses. I just like this better, because I think more bonuses is more fun, but the game should still play similarly to the real game.

Having a look through this write up, I've made a bunch of minor errors, which I won't even mention. But, that's wargaming. Istm, I probably make a bunch of minor (and major) errors throughout all my games. Hopefully they just end up cancelling each other out.

Here're the Brets. The 38 army value is your basic morale score. When you lose a third of this, you need to make morale tests throughout your force. When you lose half, you lose the game. It has a second level wizard, which essentially means every phase, she gets to add up to two dice to any pool, or she can force a unit to make up to two morale checks.

38 Brets: 13,19 (604) (+Gen 90, Cap 60, Cap 60, Wiz2 80 = 290) = 894

Name	Type	Discipline	Strength	Protection	Missile	Melee	Other	Points	Army Value
Hero	Hero(M)	2	2	Armoured	-	Impact	Flying	96	2
Quest	Cavalry	3	3	Armoured	-	Impact	Undrilled	80	4
Knights	Cavalry	3	3	Armoured	-	Impact	Undrilled	80	4
Knights	Cavalry	3	3	Armoured	-	Impact	Undrilled	80	4
Squires	LtHorse	4	2		Bow			36	3
MenArms	HvyFoot	4	4	Armoured	-	Spears		48	4
MenArms	HvyFoot	4	4	Armoured	-	Spears		48	4
Archers	MedFoot	4	3	-	L-Bow	-	-	42	3
Archers	MedFoot	4	3	-	L-Bow	-	-	42	3
Skirm	LtFoot	4	2	-	L-Bow	-	-	30	2
Skirm	LtFoot	4	2	-	L-Bow	-	-	30	2
Camp	Camp	4	3	-	-	-	-	0	3
12								604	38

Here're the  Goblins. I'm not sure what's going on with the design of this army. I thought it would be interesting to have every goblin Discipline 4. This makes it kinda cheap, but it means that a lot of activation rolls will be wasted. Basically, you need to roll Discipline or higher to get the unit to do something (you get a +1 if there is a leader with that unit).

This wizard is only level one, and so can only boost pools by one dice.

44 Goblins: 15,22 (624) (+Gen 90, Cap 60, Cap 60, Wiz1 60 = 270) = 894

Name	Type	Discipline	Strength	Protection	Missile	Melee	Other	Points	Army Value
Giant	Monster	4	2	Armoured	-	Impact	Fear	72	2
Riders	Cavalry	4	3	-	-	Savage	-	48	4
Riders	Cavalry	4	3	-	-	Savage	-	48	4
WolfArch	LtHorse	4	2	-	Bow	Savage	-	42	3
WolfArch	LtHorse	4	2	-	Bow	Savage	-	42	3
WolfArch	LtHorse	4	2	-	Bow	Savage	-	42	3
Chariot	Chariot	4	3	Armoured	Bow(R)	Savage	Und/Imp	66	4
Trolls	HvyFoot	4	4	Armoured	-	Pow	Und/Reg	69	4
Trolls	HvyFoot	4	4	Armoured	-	Pow	Und/Reg	69	4
Spearers	MedFoot	4	3	-	-	Spears	-	36	3
Archers	MedFoot	4	3	-	Bow	Melee	-	42	3
Skirm	LtFoot	4	2	-	Bow	-	-	24	2
Skirm	LtFoot	4	2	-	Bow	-	-	24	2
Camp	Camp	4	3	-	-	-	-	0	3
14								624	44

At the start of each turn, roll a d6 for each wizard to see how many Magic Points they will have available for the coming turn. It costs a magic point for each dice the wizard adds to a pool, but influencing events further away will cost extra points.

A second level wizard gets to add one to her magic point total, but she still ended up with only two MPs for the first turn.

As a Goblin, I decided the first thing I needed to do was get my trolls into melee. As Heavy Foot, these guys are hard, anyway, but they also have Regeneration and Armoured, which makes them almost immovable. As the last time I used them, they spent a bit too long arsing about, I decided to give both units a leader. I also moved them in the first turn with a magic boost - the nearby wizard just used a magic point to give them a move bonus, similar to as if they had rolled one with their activation dice.

The light foot on the flank got into action, early. The Bret squires took a few shots at the wolf archers. Their range is four (for bows) and the measuring stick shows they're three and a bit DUs away. Normally they'd attack with two dice, but they activated with a double five. You get something for a pair in this game, so they get an extra dice to shoot with.

Comparing the scores, in descending order, the Brets do not beat any of the Goblin scores, and so they get no hits.

On the other flank, the Bret peasants move across the farm land, boosted by some orange magic.

So that's the end of the first turn. The trolls and the wolf archers moved up quite a way, but everyone else is playing it a bit cagey. The Bret and Goblin cavalry are more than 4 DUs apart (a standard cavalry move) which means they will need a bonus activation to charge in (but the wizards nearby should be able to supply the boost, if they don't roll it).

It's really important to the Goblins that they don't get charged by the Brets, coz the knights have the Impact special ability which means all hits are kills. They need to damage the knights to take this ability away, or just get the charge in first.

The Goblins won initiative for the first phase, and I decided the trolls were the priority so I dumped a pair of threes on one unit (the pair give one bonus) and a pair of sixes on the other (a bonus for the pair, and another bonus for sixes). The Brets could have ignored this, and looked to the knights, but sensibly decided to defend against the trolls.

Activation goes in ascending order, so the trolls with the threes get to pile in first. They end up rolling six dice, against the Bret's six. Normally it would be six against five, but the Bret wizard boosted the Bret melee pool.

Comparing the scores (only the highest four dice count), the Brets get three hits against the trolls. It would normally be one kill and two hits, coz the four against the two is double, and so a kill, but the troll Armour can nudge the four down to a three. So the trolls need to make three Discipline tests. As it happened they succeeded every one. So no damage.

The second unit of trolls pile in. It looks like I made an error here, coz istm there should be seven dice in the troll pool. Anyway, one hit for the Brets, and one hit for the trolls. The trolls can armour their hit away. Normally the Bret Men-at-Arms would be able to do the same, but the troll attack is Powerful, and thus ignores armour. So the Brets make (and succeed) a Discipline test.

I added the Giant and the Pegasus riding hero to this game to try out some of the fantasy special rules.  Heroes and Monsters never take damage from hits (only kills) so I kinda had the notion that the Giant should be able to walk past the Bret skirmishers without much of a problem.

Unfortunately he only has a strength of two (so rolls two dice) and is therefore more vulnerable than I thought he might be. The Brets roll three dice (a bonus one coz a six was used to activate them) and the four against the one is enough to do one damage on the giant.

The knights on the other side of the table get the great idea to use three threes to boost their charge distance to the wolf archers. 

Unfortunately for them, the wolf archers manage to evade and the knights end up just short of the goblin chariot, which is a really bad place to end up.

The second unit of Bret skirmishers also have a go at the Giant. The Giant rolls poorly again, and his armour nudge is not enough to stop him from losing his final wound, and becoming the game's first casualty.

In the final phase, the knights finally charge. They wanted to have a go at the wolfrider cavalry, but are forced to charge the goblin archers, as they were slightly closer. This was a bit of a sacrifice, and the archers are massacred, but it means the knights follow through onto the wolfriders without any bonus dice.

The ploy pays off and the goblins do a couple of damage on the knights. The wolves' Savage ability means that any kills caused by doubling, require an extra Discipline test, but the Brets manage to save this extra test, or they would have been wolf-food.

And the chariot charges their knights with a bonus (and a magic bonus) and manages to destroy the unit. Chariots have impact and so all hits are kills. There's a chance the knight captain will die now, because his unit has routed, but he survives and flees back across the table.

So at the end of the second turn, it's looking like this, with the Goblins having lost 5 points (two for the giant and three for the archers) and the Brets having lost 4 for the knights.