Ever played D&D? This is where your game came from. These wargaming rules are still okay for playing, but are most useful as a study aid for anyone interested in the development of D&D's game mechanics.
Post originally by The Old Geezer at 2004-03-24 09:14:20
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You mention the 'heavy handed morale system'.
Granted. However, that is what makes CHAINMAIL useful as a historical miniatures game. I'll avoid a long dissertation on morale in historical recreation - there's a kabillion places on the Web that talk about writing historical miniatures rules (try www.theminiaturespage.com for a starting point)
I agree that it's quite a paradigm shift from RPGS, but hey, that's part of the fun.
Post originally by The Old Geezer at 2004-03-24 09:24:49
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Try using it just as a historical miniatures set and see what you think of it. (There's a reason mercenaries and levies are so cheap, you know...)
Broken morale sucks when it happens to you, and is frickin' hilarious when it happens to the other guy. (Come back and fight, you yellow bastard! I'll bite your legs off!)
Post originally by The Old Geezer at 2004-03-30 13:35:09
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I can't say why he recommended them, but I can briefly summarize them.
There is a simple graphic of a shield giving your aiming points. You select your "Aiming Point", your "Possible Defensive Position Considering Aiming Point", then you both look on a matrix to see the result - from "Miss" to "Glanced Off", "Breaks Lance", "Helm Knocked Off", "Unhorsed", with the possibilities of injury.
The result gives you a certain number of points, based off the scoring of real medieval tournaments.
Post originally by Scottenkainen at 2004-04-06 18:20:38
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Sorry for the delay in responding. I was under the false impression that I had to log in to reply to messages and I've had trouble with logging into my account.
Anyway...
I wanted to point out, and I tried to make a point of it in my review, that it was written purely from the perspective of role-players trying wargaming. I am sure that a review written by an experienced wargamer would be quite different. Indeed, I would look forward to reading such a review!
Post originally by Scottenkainen at 2004-04-06 18:27:34
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It is true, I did not go into detail about the jousting system and I thank "The Old Geezer" for having done so. I also did not comment at length about why I liked it, though I did say that I appreciated that the mechanics turned jousting into a strategy game and not just a simple roll to hit.
I do not recall the jousting rules being diceless, as Old Geezer said, but will review my copy in the next 24 hours and see if I can reason out how my memory differs from his.
Post originally by Scottenkainen at 2004-04-16 21:53:04
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Gary Gygax has his own section on Pied Piper Publishing's messageboard (http://pub175.ezboard.com/bpiedpiperpublishing). There is an interesting Chainmail-related comment he made there, saying that it was mostly written by Jeff Perrin. Gygax wrote only a few pages, including the jousting rules.
Of course, the Old Geezer would already be aware of this, being a regular over there...
Post originally by The Old Geezer at 2004-04-19 11:08:59
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Scott C. said,
"I wanted to point out, and I tried to make a point of it in my review, that it was written purely from the perspective of role-players trying wargaming. "
You were indeed clear on that. I just wanted you and other readers to know that historical minatures gamers expect morale to work that way. It's a "feature", not a bug, and I thought that folks without a historical minis background might not realize that.
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