Along with Bob Hurst and Brian Dewitt, I was a Lord of Chaos. On the other side of the table were the good guys. Exuding vast quantities of goodness, sweetness and light were Fred Haub, Fred Hubig and Tony Figlia (not necessarily in that order). And in the middle, on the table, were our plastic BATTLE MASTER figures from GAMES WORKSHOP. Several issues ago, I spoke of the BATTLE MASTERS game, giving it around 4 stars for the plastic figures (over 100) , the map (a large 5' x 5' vinyl layout of 6-inch hexes) and the quick-playing simple rules. Three of us had purchased the game (Brian Dewitt, Bob Hurst and I) at around $50 a copy, and we set up our maps on the Hurst wargaming table, giving us a 5-feet-wide by 14-feet-long playing area of hexes. Each game furnishes 14 stands of bad guys: orcs and beast-masters and goblins and wolf-riders, etc., and 11 stands of go od guys: knights and men-at-arms and archers, etc. With the contents of three full games on the table, therefore, we had a fairly good size engagement going. As for rules, the original rules were, for the most part, tossed out. The game comes with a deck of movement cards which, when drawn, designate which type of unit moves. Our thought was that this type of card movement system would create too slow a sequence; if your card is drawn, all's well and good, you have something to do, but if it's not drawn, then you stand by, twiddling your thumbs, watching the active player having a good time. The sequence we used was: a. Active side fires b. Active side moves c. Non-phasing side fires d. Resolve melee The only throwback to the original card movement system concerned the huge, the deadly, the dreaded ogre... in fact, three Ogres, since we had three games laid out on the table. In the original game, when an Ogre card was drawn, this activated a special 8-card Ogre deck. Four of the 8 cards were freebee "strike" cards, the other four were movement. And so, as the Ogre's own cards were drawn, he'd lurch forward, striking, moving, striking, moving, etc. Using optimal Ogre tactics as set forth in the manual Das Ogre Und Sein Grosse Kreigsbange by the late Professor Heinrich Schmekke (Centre For Provocative Wargaming Analysis, 1978), the trick with the Ogre was to get him to strike a few times, and then withdraw him safely so that the opposing side couldn't whack at him. What with the random draw of the Ogre's cards, this wasn't possible all the time, and many times the Ogre would find himself all alone in the middle of the enemy force, and be chopped down. In our game, I still used the Ogre's 8-card deck, but it was only activated when the Ogre tossed 2 out of 3 "skulls" on his Move Dice. BATTLE MASTERS comes with six 6-sided dice. They're normally used for combat, but I integrated them into the movement system. Three faces of each of these 6-sided dice portray skulls, and I gave each type of troop a number of these dice for movement. Each skull that was tossed permitted a unit to move 1 hex. Wolf-Riders got 6 dice, archers got 4 dice, and so on. The Ogre got 3 such dice, and as I noted, if he tossed 2 skulls, not only did he get normal movement, but we started drawing his cards, giving him a chance to go on a rampage. After a couple of such berserk charges by our Ogres, I noted that the good guys on the other side of the table lost some of their goodness, sweetness and light, and began moaning and groaning that the Ogre was too powerful, that he should be toned down a wee bit, that he moved too frequently, etc., etc. We Lords of Chaos ignored the whiners, the complainers, the whimperers... an Ogre was an Ogre, and by the Burning Sword of Klukkus, the Hidden Scroll of Klakkas, and the Invisible Shield of Klikkus, we would change nothing! Case closed! Combat The skull dice were also used in the combat procedure. Each type of unit was given its own Ferocity Factor, the dreaded FF, which determined how many dice it would toss, with each skull that showed up indicating a hit on the opposition. The Knights of Chaos were the highest, with an FF of 90 percent, and the FF's ranged all the way down to the 50 percent FF of the crewmen manning the artillery piece. Percentage dice were tossed, and the following chart used: -------------------------­ 1 Die FF----------------------- 3 Dice 1/2 FF------------------------ 5 Dice -------------------------- As an example, Wolf-Riders had an FF of 70 percent, hence a toss of 35 or below gave them 5 dice, 36 to 70 gave them 3 dice, and anything over 70 yielded only 1 die. Note that a unit was always guaranteed at least one combat die. In the original game, the active side, after it moved, was allowed to strike at adjacent enemy units. The non-active side stood there, taking it on the chin. We changed this to permit both sides to strike simultaneously. And then, of course, the topic of flanks was discussed. The original gaming procedures did not use the concept of flanks. Units had a full 360 degree coverage. But by a narrow vote, with the Vice President casting the deciding ballot, we elected to institute flanks. The reasoning was that (a) we had huge 6-inch hexes, (b) we could easily determine the facings of our units, i.e., with which hex face a unit was aligned, and (c) if we had facings, then we had to have flanks. And now that we had flanks, we had to have Zones of Control (ZOC). And now that we had ZOC's, we had to have special movement provisions. For example, a Wolf-Rider unit could move 6 hexes, which meant that it could move from the front of an enemy unit around to its rear, and get a free hack. Sort of silly. Not at all historical. And so the rule was instituted that if a unit withdrew from the ZOC of an enemy unit, it couldn't enter any of its ZOC's again on the same turn. Nor could a unit slide from one ZOC of an enemy unit into another ZOC of the same unit. What was going on, of course, was that we were re-inventing the hex boardgame!! I think we all had a feeling of deja vu. Encounters We Lords of Chaos lost the first encounter, mainly due to the horrendous firing effect of the artillery units of the good guys. In the original game, the guns fire quite infrequently... I think they have 3 cards out of the 28 or so action cards for their side. In our first game, the good guys' artillery took on the aspects of a massed battery of Gatlings... they fired way too often and they alone accounted for about a third of our casualties. But did we Lords of Chaos whine? Did we moan? Did we whimper? Certainly not! Lords of Chaos never display weakness in the face of the enemy. Instead, we all went out on the patio and had a good cry. And then we came back in and changed the rules... Back to PW Review June 1993 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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