Swordplay AAR - Orcs Night on the Town

The local Orcs have been terrorizing the town, extracting payment each week so as to not to bother the town folk. But word of this has reached Sir Godfrey, the local liege and he must intervene.

Sir Godfrey Rep 5 Mounted Melee lance and shield, AC 4.
2 x Rep 4 Soldiers Melee with spear and shield AC 4.
2 x Rep 4 Crossbowmen Missile with crossbow and sword, AC 4.

Troll Rep 5 Melee, AC 6, two hand weapon.
Two Greater Orcs Rep 5 AC 4,Melee, sword and shield.
Three lesser Orcs Rep 4 AC 2 Melee, sword and shield.

The Orcs ran into a bit of bad luck. They lost the In Sight, which meant they would react. The Troll getting killed on the first shot caused a Crisis Test - Man Down - before the soldiers even charge home. One set of d6 were rolled for the whole group and the lesser Orcs ran away.

One the same turn the two humans ganged up and took out the 1st Orc and the 2nd Orc lost the melee with the single soldier, being knocked to the ground.

After that it was a matter of being outnumbered and rolling badly. Sometimes the good guys win, sometimes the bad guys win.

Swordplay 3.1 - Final Version now available! Try it for free.

Swordplay

Try a free intro to THW. Lay it over your existing THW titles to update your rules at no cost! Use it with Warrior Heroes - Armies and Adventurers, use it with Warrior Heroes - Legends, just use it!

After the Horsemen AAR - Paddle Boards - Replay

Here's a replay of a previous AAR. It's a good example of how THW games never play the same. I'll explain the changes as they occur.

ATH Paddle Boards AAR

The 1st change is although two PEFs are randomly placed in the same sections as before, the PEF in section 6 is now in the woods in section 5.

The PEFs go first and the PEF in section 5 moves into sight and is resolved as Daddy and the two girls. The ambush has gone badly.

In Sight is rolled and the Wolves go first. Last game the Family went first and attempted a Challenge (the girls on the beach). This time the Wolves, being Enemies, go right to the attack.

I've decided to use the updated CR 3.1 mechanics for use with ATH for In Sight and the Recover Tests. This means passing 2d6 on the test means yo got knocked down but can still carry on... fire in this case.

 As you can see, this game was dramatically different than the first.

After the Horsemen AAR - Paddle Boards

After the Horsemen is our Post-Apocalypse game and  here's a little AAR. After the AAR I'll explain what happened in game terms.

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I had a Robbery Encounter in mind but wanted to modify it a bit so set it up as a trap. Laid out the terrain and placed PEFs. I had pre-loaded them with the Family in three groups.

Using the NPC Movement Table and counting the paddle boards as the only player group that could be seen, the Wolves moved towards the goal.

Luckily the 1st PEF was resolved as the two girls. I used a Challenge Test to get the Wolves to stop and not shoot.

The next activation the PEFs moved. The first was a sniper, on the other side of the table, who I had wait in cover (another passed Challenge Test - the failed test would have resulted in an In Sight as she had been spotted).

The next PEF to move was the rest of the Family, tucked away in the section behind the Wolves.

The trap was sprung. A Challenge Test had them surrender instead of everyone firing.
This gave them a positive modifier on the Mercy Table - This left the Wolves free to go but losing all their Items.

They also became Enemies of the Family.

The Challenge Test is easy to use and recommended, as long as you make up logical failure results. It prevents every Encounter from being a firefight and adds to the story.

I'll re-play the Encounter to see how it plays out this time!

The Family are now on a Kickstarter at a reasonable price.

Soccer Match causes Riot in Tropilium - A Swordplay AAR

I belong to a great blog called Talomir Tales and here's an AAR using Swordplay, as a result of a soccer match (here's the rules). Great fun!

All the figures are Linear -B plastics. Painted by my wife. The buildings are from RPGNow and assembled by my wife. I'm one lucky guy!

World Cup Fever! Easy play Fútbol (Soccer) Rules

John  Hovey has created a bang up set of rules and Rich Jones has provided his expertise. Here's the updated version. Give it a go , each game takes about 15 minutes.  Gooooooooooaaaaaaaaallllllllll!

QPS Soccer Rules

Exporting CR 3.1 - Bat Rep with Billy Pink.

Chain Reaction 3.1 is the updated result of publishing NUTS! Final Version. The few tweaks in NUTS FV made it worth upgrading CR 3.0 to better represent the Reaction System.  The tweaks are so minor, yet significant, they should be used in any older THW game that doesn't use them and is firearms based. 

How hard is it to do? It's  not. Follow the link to the two-page Player Aid. This is all you need use, substituting the mechanics for the same mechanics in your other book.

However, Swordplay is coming out in a week or two, the sword and shield version of CR 3.1. That one will work better for other sword and shield books like Warrior Heroes Legends and the upcoming Montjoie.

Here's a sample of how CR 3.1 works with 5150 - Urban Renewal.

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Chain Reaction 3.1 Now Released...and Free!

Download Here

Welcome to the world of THW!

What:A free introduction to the Reaction System used by Two Hour Wargames.

Scale: Man-to-man modern combat. 1 figure equals 1 man.

Your Role: You lead a small group of 1 to 5 figures in a series of man-to-man scenarios.

Playability: Designed for solo, same side and head to head play.

Chain Reaction 3.1 - The Final Version allows you to learn the Reaction System used by THW without spending a dime.

While our counterpart Swordplay is about hand-to-hand combat with sword and shield, Chain Reaction is about modern firearms.

It's an entry level, free look, into THW games, that works well for many periods, from cowboys to modern conflicts.

Chain Reaction gives you a chance to see if you like the Reaction System, before trying one of our period specific games. Think of CR as a preview. The nice thing is contains the same mechanics, but less detailed and period specific, of our other games.

Learn one set of mechanics; play many periods.

Watch for Adventures in the Lost Lands, our 1st supplement for use with Chain Reaction.

Chain Reaction is free in PDF form. If you must have the printed copy it is available for $5 plus shipping

Garhi Crashes Back to Earth - A Lost Lands AAR

Garhi and Stewie peered through the bushes across from where Garhi had buried his loot. The plan was to gather the loot and scoot. And with two spears each, one for throwing, Garhi felt they had a distinct advantage over other Cavemen.  Off they went...

Facing four to one odds Garhi did the smart thing and ran. This also meant the Encounter was an automatic failure. Garhi rolled 1d6 to see if this had any affect and it did. He scored a "1" his Rep dropped back to 4.
The good news was he had recovered two more spears and food. The disastrous thing was he had lost the last member of his group. In Lost Lands you can recruit one group at the start of your career or any time during it, but once you do, any new recruits only can happen if you meet them during an Encounter and have a successful Challenge with them.
Things had suddenly gotten tougher for Garhi.

Chased Down - The chased down rule is simple. 
If the target of a charge passes more d6 than the charger it can choose to run for it. 
Each figure rolls 1d6 per inch of normal move looking for successes. 
If the runner scores more successes he leaves the table, counting as a failure, but still alive.
If the chasers score the same or more successes they fight a round of melee with the runner counting as scoring zero successes the first round.

Garhi and the Boyz Go Hunting?! Lost Lands AAR

The Boyz?! Yep, Garhi is a Rep 5 Star so I recruited 3 Monkey Boys. Actually 2 Monkey Boys (Rep 3) and a Monkey Girl (Rep 2).  All come unarmed so I gave one of them the second spear and the other the stick. The female, as the lowest Rep, would have to improvise.

Garhi started in the bushes, as usual, and the three PEFs were rolled. They were out in the open and two were resolved as nothing, but one was two Size 4 Feeders! They were bigger than I'd like, but as Feeders they wouldn't be too tough. Garhi waited until they had moved to graze in the open and charged!

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Well that didn't go the way I expected. Jumping a dino in melee with 2 or more humanoids attacking at the same time works well. One on one not so good. And I forgot that the dino would activate and can melee one target at a time.

Garhi harvested 7 Food units and picked up two more spears. He couldn't carry it all and the OOF Monkey Boy. My next adventure will be to go back with Stewie (I gave him a name this time) and we can collect all the Food and spears.

I'll arm each Monkey Boy with two spears. One to throw and one to melee with. Guess that's how the cavemen learned back in the day!