Play Test Day for Bear Yourselves Valiantly

The start of the War of the Roses play test
The start of the War of the Roses play test

This weekend five of the HAWKs got together for another play test of Bear Yourselves Valiantly.  In particular, we have been going back and forth about how many units can participate in a melee, when units get credit for overlapping another, when they get credit for a flank attack, etc.

In addition, we needed to test the rules for a different historical period — in this case the War of the Roses.  We assembled a small subset of the HAWKs — those who have been involved in the rules development beyond play testing — because this kind of play testing works better with a small group.

Chris hasn’t painted all his figures yet, and I haven’t begun painting my 100 Years Wars figures.  He made bases with the correct labels that we used in place of bases with figures.  While not aesthetically pleasing, it worked just fine.

War of the Roses armies lined up for the start of the game
War of the Roses armies lined up for the start of the game

We spent 45 minutes discussing outstanding rules issues, then began.  About 90 minutes into the first game, it was obvious that what we had discussed about overlapping units wasn’t working.  So we stopped and discussed it some more.  After another half hour, Duncan came up with the answer.

We used cardboard bases with the correct labels even though we didn't have the figures painted yet.
We used cardboard bases with the correct labels even though we didn't have the figures painted yet.

The challenge has been that we’ve restricted unit movement in the ancient version, so the rules for matching up units in melee from the other rules in the family didn’t work.  We need units to get credit for overlapping around the edge of enemy units when multiple units were attacking without breaking the overall systems.  In the end, we decided that only one unit may attack each face of an enemy base. If more than one unit is attacking the same face, only one attacking unit rolls, but it applies a +1 “overlap” modifier to the die roll.  While this may sound a little goofy, it works really well on the table.

The start of a Roman vs. Carthaginian game
The start of a Roman vs. Carthaginian game

After we completed the War of the Roses game we set up a Romans vs. Carthaginians game and played again.

An early view of the Roman vs. Carthaginian game
An early view of the Roman vs. Carthaginian game

Not only did we get a lot of work done on finicky aspects of the rules design, but we had a good time.

Measuring a move for a base of elephants
Measuring a move for a base of elephants
Romans circling around Celts in the woods
Romans circling around Celts in the woods