Tag: Games

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Battle Ravens!

I’m a sucker for “Dark Ages” history. The Roman evacuation of Britain, the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings, the Norman invasion – the people, the stories, and the myths of this period are more fascinating than anything Hollywood came dream up.

And so when Battle Ravens hit Kickstarter, it didn’t take much convincing for me to back the project. I received the game a couple of weeks ago and was able to get in a couple of games with my daughter recently. The game is advertised as ages 14+, though my daughter (Soon to be twelve.) had no issues picking up the rules and was soon developing her own strategy.

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Combat in Ages of Conflict

Ages of Conflict is a game of battle.  Opponents square off to destroy or drive their enemy from the field.  As such, combat is an essential element to the game and so it’s time to give a brief example.

We have two small battalions of Roman and Celt warriors facing off.

The Romans have a Hand value of 3d10 and Defense Target Number (TN) 6.  The Celts have a Hand value of 3d10 and Defense TN 5.  A unit’s Hand value determines how many dice it rolls when attacking; the more dice in the pool, the more effective the unit is in hand combat.  The Defense Target Number determines what each individual die must roll to be a success.

A sample stat line for a unit of human warriors with basic training is below. Elite troops, levy, and some fantasy will differ.

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Playtest Philosophy

Playtests are a crucial step in game development.  They are perhaps the most vital.  The purpose of a playtest is simple – it is to find design and play-ability flaws prior to the game being released.  Playtesting isn’t necessarily going to reveal every challenge, though with enough foresight and thoroughness, playtests will uncover most issues before the game is released.

Ages of Conflict began as a home creation to allow us to play battles the way we wanted to play them.  We didn’t have plans to release the rules and so we weren’t concerned with playtesting other than fixing problems as we encountered them.

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