Hurontario Playtests

I have finished off my other Crucible Crush projects, well just the Star Crush Rulebook, so I have time to focus on the Flint and Feather rules. So we got together to set up our demo games for upcoming conventions which we will be attending which include KegsCon, Council Fires and with the goal of ending at Fall In in November. Then we played through a quick game to gloss up on the rules. It was also Dave's first full game and our objective is to learn the system thoroughly in the next month so we can decide how we want the rules to fall together.

So here are some pictures and a synopsis from our demo game.

An overhead view of the table showing the setup.

The Huron player (Dave) set up three warriors with bows in the woods protecting one of the patrol markers. We were playing a random scenario from the early version of the campaign rules and set up our board according to that system. These three warriors held down the flank and used bows to cause damage to my Iroquois. It was an effective strategy.

This is the second group of warriors setup by the Hurons. They are protecting one of the patrol markers in the scenarios. The patrol scenario calls for three markers. The attacker must capture two of the three markers to get a minor victory and all three to get a major victory. A miniature must spend a turn beside the marker in order for it to be considered "patrolled" and removed from the board to fulfill the victory conditions.


 My Iroquois band moved onto the board in Turn One and captured the patrol marker in the old ruins. Both sides fired bow shots back and forth but the range was long so no damage occurred on either side. Bow fire in Flint and Feather requires warriors to roll under their Combat Value which of course is modified on a chart by the terrain or movement that will affect their fire. Warriors cannot fire bows while running and warriors armed with spears cannot have bows, but others can be armed with them if the players have room in their inventory.
In the Huron turn the player shot his bows again not causing any damage while moving his warriors on the right toward the Iroquois band. Now that the Iroquois were committed the Huron player did not want to leave his band broken into two parts.

On the third turn the Iroquois sent four warriors out in front of the hill to try and charge the three warriors approaching from the right flank. However, the roll for the run move was short only coming up with 7" of movement. At this point in the playtesting of the game a player declares his movement speed and then rolls dice to determine how far they can move. For instance for a run move you roll 3d6 and take the two highest dice as your movement. The Huron player replied in their reaction phase with bow fire from the edge of the woods. The bow fire killed the Stripling outright and caused a wound to the War Bearer which fell to the ground.
As his second reaction the Huron warriors charge the now hurting Iroquois melee band and close to hand to hand combat. The fight is even with the warriors matching up but the one Iroquois war bearer which is lying down and will have to fight from the ground, which is a -1 die modifier during combat.

 Combat in Flint and Feather works on an individual figure to figure basis. Great Warriors and Companions can choose their attacks and defense while all other types of warriors have to choose cards at random. Figures are matched up in combat and then a card is chosen for each warrior one at time as you move through the fights. Attackers can choose Bash, Swing, Cut, Lunge, Taunt or Huh?, while defenders can choose Leap Aside, Parry, Jump Back, Counter Blow, Duck or Huh?. Obviously you do not want to choose Huh? but some of the random troops may pick it when they have to do their random choice. One round of combat occurs and then players switch sides, with the attackers becoming the defenders and the vice versa. The combat ends with the War Bearer killed on the ground and the Veteran Warrior and Companion with a light wound. The Iroquois warriors lose the melee and must retreat from the combat.

The game ends when the Huron warriors move forward and slay the final two Iroquois melee warriors and win the day. The Iroquois Great Warrior and final War Bearer are not interested in charging into that Huron buzz saw and decide the better part of valor is to leave the table. This gives the Huron a Minor victory with two of the three patrol markers still on the board. It was a good learning experience.
Both players had to get their head around the idea that this game is designed for the individual warriors to be of value rather than quick casualties there to back up the heroes. Also, the heroes are fragile as well, being stronger and tougher than the regular warriors but only marginally. The game is designed based on melee being an important part of the system. There are no metal swords or guns in this game so combat is more like a brawl, with clubs and flint being the prime weapons of the period. The combat system does a great job of representing these confused, muddled, brawls.