{"id":2084,"date":"2013-08-18T19:27:01","date_gmt":"2013-08-18T19:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=2084"},"modified":"2013-08-18T19:27:01","modified_gmt":"2013-08-18T19:27:01","slug":"play-test-day-for-bear-yourselves-valiantly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=2084","title":{"rendered":"Play Test Day for Bear Yourselves Valiantly"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The start of the War of the Roses play test<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This weekend five of the HAWKs got together for another play test of Bear Yourselves Valiantly<\/em>. \u00a0In 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition, we needed to test the rules for a different historical period — in this case the War of the Roses. \u00a0We 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.<\/p>\n

Chris hasn’t painted all his figures yet, and I haven’t begun painting my 100 Years Wars figures. \u00a0He made bases with the correct labels that we used in place of bases with figures. \u00a0While not aesthetically pleasing, it worked just fine.<\/p>\n

\"War<\/a>
War of the Roses armies lined up for the start of the game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We spent 45 minutes discussing outstanding rules issues, then began. \u00a0About 90 minutes into the first game, it was obvious that what we had discussed about overlapping units wasn’t working. \u00a0So we stopped and discussed it some more. \u00a0After another half hour, Duncan came up with the answer.<\/p>\n

\"We<\/a>
We used cardboard bases with the correct labels even though we didn't have the figures painted yet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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. \u00a0We need units to get credit for overlapping around the edge of enemy units when multiple units were attacking without breaking the overall systems. \u00a0In 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. \u00a0While this may sound a little goofy, it works really well on the table.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The start of a Roman vs. Carthaginian game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After we completed the War of the Roses game we set up a Romans vs. Carthaginians game and played again.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An early view of the Roman vs. Carthaginian game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not only did we get a lot of work done on finicky aspects of the rules design, but we had a good time.<\/p>\n

\"Measuring<\/a>
Measuring a move for a base of elephants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Romans<\/a>
Romans circling around Celts in the woods<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n