Susquehanna Playtest

We were down in Lancaster Pennsylvania on the banks of the Susquehanna River, which we followed through the mountains, to get to Fall In 2015. It was great to spend time with Howard and play the game with six eager play testers. I ran two separate games and Howard ran a third. We then sat down and pounded through the rules and made notes and just got generally on the same page in our thinking.

The most important change to the play test rules so far concerns close combat. We are only fighting one round of combat now. So in the rules on page 32 where the section is titled "The Defender Replies" we are not doing this step in the combat sequence. Please make this change to your playtesting. However, this rule change has brought on another change in the rules as follows.

When a player moves a group into combat, as per "Declare Combats" on page 27 the Attacker can line up the figures in any way he chooses, moving figures into base to base contact with opponents that are within his rolled movement distance. The Defender can than push in figures that are within one inch of any of the combats that the attacker choose not to include. If this movement causes a 2 on 1 figure advantage to be broken then the figures line up one on one for purposes of combat. This is a change because in the rules figures from within two inches are allowed to be moved into combat.

A warrior posed on terrain sculpted by Glenn Kidd.

We will continue to fight some larger scale games here in Ontario to further test the rules. We are planing a game on Sunday which should show us our first taste of the flavor of the rules as written for twelve to fifteen models per side. Our next step after that will be to get into a campaign game and add skills and spirit rules to the games.

Paul's Companion directs bow fire.

As for Fall In, here are some great pictures taken by Paul O' Grady. I ran a game of six warriors on six warriors between Paul and his son Reilly. It was a quick game which allowed both players to get a taste for the rules. Paul split his warband into two and charged ahead with the Great Warrior while the Companion stayed at the rear with two War Bearers which were bow armed and laid down fire with their arrows. The Stripling was immediately struck by an arrow and forced to give up his next action. The Companion and a War Bearer continued to charge ahead only to get caught by Reilly's Great Warrior and War Bearers charging them while they were outnumbered.

The close combat a quick affair.

In the ensuing fight the outnumbered warriors took the worst of the assault and this combat pretty much determined the outcome of the game. With so few figures on the table Paul could not recover and his Stripling got stuck in the open and became a casualty as well. Not what Paul planned but then this is how the rules are designed. Your warriors do not always respond as you wish them too.