I have updated Twilight of the Britons – Fast play rules for the English Invasion of Britain to version 1.1. As a reminder this is Vincent Tsao and my version of Twilight of the Sun King for the dark ages in Britain. I have a hankering to play another Arthurian game so thought I’d get the rules into shape for that. Some of the changes are to make it easier for Vincent to use the rules for the Fall of Rome but this is still not my focus.
Changes
When we published the rules I got quite a lot of questions and feedback. Some of the feedback suggested changes to the rule. This is a minor version update (from 1.0 to 1.1) as there is nothing major in here.
Shooting range
I recently read that, despite wargamer bias, slingers had a similar range to foot bowmen (3 BW).
I have added a separate horse bow range for Vincent. Horse bows had a shorter range (2 BW) than foot bows (3 BW).
Who rolls for morale?
In previous versions of the rules the defender rolled the morale test. The logic was that the active player does everything for their turn.
But this contravenes a wargaming fundamental that “hits” are inflicted by the attacking player. So I have changed who rolls the morale test to the attacker. This is still a morale test with high score being a passed morale test, which might seem backwards to some aggressive attackers. I did it this way for two reasons. Firstly, it was the minimum change necessary to shift who makes the roll. Secondly it keeps the morale test consistent with the action test with a pass on 8+.
I hope this will make Adam happy.
Doubles
I want to speed up combat so two hits are now scored on any double, not just a natural score of 2. Specially I have changed the rule from:
“an unmodified score of 2 means the unit takes two hits not one”
to
“an unmodified failed roll of a double (1+1, 2+2, 3+3, etc) means the unit takes two hits not one”
I have also moved the hero killed on a double 1 rule to be next to the bit on doubles. Watch out for natural 2s.
Recoil
I tried to make the recoil rule more obvious by changing from:
“A unit must recoil once if it fails any morale tests in the player turn, regardless of hits taken”
To:
“A unit that fails any morale tests in the player turn must recoil (recoil once regardless of hits taken)”
“Min” in army lists
All army lists now have the same minimum number of units. I opted for six (6) units plus the Warlord. This aligns with the minimum number of units in a small army.
Now the general pattern for the minimal armies is:
1 x Warlord
3 x Good quality heavy infantry
2 x Poor quality heavy infantry
1 x Light infantry
The definition of “good” and “poor” quality depends on the army.
Romano-British, Briton, and Northern Briton get a minimum cavalry unit instead of one of the poor quality heavy infantry. So their minimal army is tougher than the other nationalities. I’m okay with that as my Arthurian bias comes to the fore.
Thank you very much. It may be a while before I get this on the table, since a bit of travel is coming up. But I do hope to test drive this with Huns, Goths and Romans.
I have just played a solo game with these rules and they work very well!
Simon
had a game tonight. Perfect dark age feel. Super resilient English shield wall crumbled when Briton heavy cavalry got in behind it.
Had some questions about the rules further to a solo game:
– Do cavalry have to have the target in front of them in order to threaten it?
– If a unit has an enemy contacting its flank or rear and has to recoil, which direction does it recoil in?
-How does a unit turn to face an enemy in melee with its rear or flank – using the pivot action?
– If a unit that has charged an enemy in its flank or rear and is then attacked back in return by the flanked enemy, does it have any positive modifiers in its morale test because the flanked enemy is attacking to its rear or flank?
Many thanks – and great set of rules!
> Do cavalry have to have the target in front of them in order to threaten it?
No. Infantry will be nervous regardless.
> If a unit has an enemy contacting its flank or rear and has to recoil, which direction does it recoil in?
Directly to rear. They the take an addition hit for failing to recoil full distance. Lethal.
> How does a unit turn to face an enemy in melee with its rear or flank – using the pivot action?
Correct. Spin action.
> If a unit that has charged an enemy in its flank or rear and is then attacked back in return by the flanked enemy,
> does it have any positive modifiers in its morale test because the flanked enemy is attacking to its rear or flank?
No. The benefit was in the first enemy morale test. Then all bets are off.