Revenge

(Medieval Rules)

by Tom McMillen

By Todd Fisher
Published by Emperor's Press.
Available from Emperor's Headquarters, 5744 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago, IL 60634, $22.50.

Revenge is a very attractively presented, well-illustrated new set of rules for the Medieval Period. Movement is simultaneous - always something of a practical problem since there is a strong temptation to wait for your opponent to move and then react, which seems particularly likely in a rules set with no Orders required. Rather optimistically, the author states, All units shall perform facing and formation changes simultaneously without responding to the changes of hostile units.

Movement is also unusual in that all facing and formation changes must be made at the start of a turn, followed by charges and such, then 'Normal Movement' which must be in a straight line without any wheels. This could lead to odd situations for example, if you tried to send a unit through a gap between two terrain features that had a bend or two in it, and you came up an inch short of the bend in one movement segment, you could only move the inch next turn. Melee is unit by unit rather than the figure to figure 'multi-dice' approach. While suggested unit sizes are not given, the disruption rules infer that units of up to 200 figures may be used. Melee appears rather cumbersome. Using troop types you get a Melee Base Number, used on the Melee Result Table to get a % effect, multiplied by figures fighting and divided by 100 to get casualties. There is no random factor. 'Morale Tests' and 'Control Tests' are frequent -- each unit must test for control at the beginning of every turn.

Morale tests have 28 modifiers, Control tests 19, so this does not appear to lead to a fast paced game. Whether one prefers such 'arithmetically intensive' gaming is a matter of taste, of course, and one can't say whether the effort is worth it without numerous playtests (many gamers still like the Newbury system, for example, which is of similar style), however, this does seem to run counter to the current trend toward spending more time moving troops and less doing calculations.

REVENGE also includes extensive siege rules, as well as an excellent, very thorough rule set for Medieval naval warfare, abounding with unusual ship types and such fun as 'Foundering Modifiers', frogmen, soaped decks, leaking ships and dropping heavy metal bars on the enemy. The naval section is 15 pages long, and could easily make you want to run out and see who is manufacturing Carraks and Nefs these days.

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