Paleolithic Play Test Using Wiley Games Rules

    Jenny's tribe chases some megafauna in Keith's Paleolithic hunting game with Wiley Games rules

My friend Keith is a big fan of all things prehistoric. Over the years, he has run a number of Dinosaur Hunt games for us using a variety of rules sets. When our friend Andy bought some 28mm cavemen recently, it got us talking about a series of games set in that distant time period. Each player could control a band of hunter-gatherers vying to survive in the dangerous and wild Paleolithic era. I mentioned to Keith that I thought the Wiley Games rules, aka Fistful of Lead series, would work great. Players could receive an extra card each turn that they could use to activate any of the animals on the tabletop, whether predators or prey.

A crew of cavemen and women and Keith's tabletop filled with 54mm hunters and Stone Age creatures

As I hoped it might, that intrigued Keith. He said he would begin working on it. My interest had been piqued by the recent activity and painted miniatures folks were posting on the Prehistoric Facebook page. Also, a number of bloggers, were posting battle reports of their games. One good example is Vagabond's Wargaming Blog and the adventures of the Shell Clan. You can check these out on his Stone Age themed posts. Keith worked quickly and said he was ready to run a game this past Sunday, tossing in a twist in declaring that we'd be using 54mm miniatures.

    How hungry is my hunter? My 1st hunter advances towards the big & smaller creatures on the plain

Honestly, I have no idea where he got all of the plastic figures in this admittedly obscure scale. I'm sure they were from a toy set sold somewhere, but there they were -- painted up and based. Each of us took control of four hunters with various weapons including spears, hafted stone weapons, clubs, and even a big, honking, old rock! Keith kept the "traits" to an absolute minimum. In Wiley Games' various rules, you can personalize a figure giving it various traits that make it quicker, more accurate, able to ignore effects of wounds it has suffered, and many, many more abilities. One figure was designated a Leader, but he was pretty much equal to all of the others in fighting power. 

    Uh-oh, 3 apparently VERY angry prehistoric giant penguins waddle onto the board near my band

The tabletop was populated with various prey animals, from lumbering, elephant like Deinotherium, thick-skinned Megacerops, and several smaller animals including large, Stone Age era capybera and wombat-like mammals. My apologies to Keith if I am giving the wrong names! Anyway, there was also a chance predators might appear based on our actions. I began moving my band of hunters off the board edge and towards the megafauna that was grazing in the middle of the table. We hadn't gone far when a trio of man-sized prehistoric penguins -- apparently called "Palaeeudyptes klekowskii" -- waddled onto the board very near us. My crew wasn't sure how they'd taste, but figure it might be something like chicken...ha, ha! Before you laugh, apparently these were twice the size of a modern day Emperor Penguin. My remaining two band members who hadn't moved yet sprang into action and darted forward to the attack.

    1st hunter vs. megafauna meetup did not go well for the hunter...oh, the names? Keith being funny!

The first player vs. prey animal encounter had occurred moments earlier when one of Tom's hunters attacked one of the huge Deinotherium (I believe, it could have been one of the other species -- but it was big!).  The hunter ended up splattered and out of action when the enraged creature defeated him in Close Combat and then rolled an "Out of Action" wound result. Ouch! This prehistoric hunting thing could be dangerous! My duo of hungry hunters duly discovered that themselves. We felt perhaps the penguins should be renamed "Beaks of Fury," as both penguins wounded and knocked down the hunter who had attacked them. Yikes! Half of my force was prostrate and bleeding on turn 1!

    My own encounters did not go well, either -- two hunters Wounded & Down to one pissed off penguin

Others were having a slightly easier time of it. Allen's continued his amazing string of rolls which he started last week when his orcs stomped mine in a Dragon Rampant game. Seeing his early success, I decided to give him something tougher to chew on. One of the random predators showed up, a giant, long snouted wolf-like creature called a Andrewsarchus. To me, that sounds like somewhat you might meet at a work conference ("Hi! I'm Andrew Sarchus, but you can call me Andy...").  One of Allen's hunters was trailing behind the other three, and I used my highest card to send "Andy" off to take a bite out of him. Lo and behold, Allen continued to be an unstoppable, dice-rolling machine. He rolled a "10" on 1d10 in combat to beat it, then a "9" to knock it out of action with his big, honking rock.

    Always the clever, thinking gamer, I sent the first predator that arrived to attack one of Allen's men

In revenge, Allen's brother Joel (they were on the same side or "tribe," activated Beaks of Fury again, giving my two Down hunters another wound each. Long ago, I learned not sit between the Sams brothers in any board game featuring conquest (lest you end up in a "Sams-wich"!). Apparently, that bond extended all the way back to the savannas of the Stone Age. I sent both of my two upright hunters back to gang up on one of the frenzied penguins. The first also was knocked down and wounded, and it took my final guy to take out one of those dynamite birds. However, both of my downed guys were skewered by the long beaks when they attempted to get up off the ground. My rolls were lackluster to say the least, and pretty much anyone rolling against me -- Keith as GM, Joel, or Allen -- had nearly unbeatable high dice. Extinction loomed as a definite possibility for my small band of hunters.

    Allen was on a dice rolling tear! Here, 3 of his hunters bring down a Megacerops -- plenty of meat!

My fellow tribe-mates, Mike S and Jenny, were having poor luck, as well. Jenny was hitting the Megacerops, but kept rolling lower on the Wound table. She was unable to deal a knock-out blow, and was resolved to chasing along behind it poking it in the back side, inflicting another shock marker. It would then flee and she would have to chase it down again. Despite being ostensible allies, Mike and Jenny nearly came to blows when he "poached" one of her heavily wounded mammals, finally killing it. 

    Two megafauna with their own collection of wound & shock markers, courtesy of Jenny's band

My two surviving hunters finally got their act together and killed off the rest of the penguins. Oh, I forgot to mention: all that time they were beating me they were rolling d8's and I was rolling d10's! Our shell-shocked women and children broke from their stunned disbelief and darted forward to drag their bodies back to our camp, hoping there was some meat under all those feathers!

    For sending the Andrewsarchus ("Andy") after Allen, Joel sent the penguins on a follow up attack

For an encore, we managed to ambush and kill a giant, prehistoric capybara. At that point, my duo were willing to call it the hunting trip concluded. We were dragging four, hopefully meaty bodies back to camp. No use trying to down one of those huge elephant or rhino like creatures! And the other tribe's warriors seemed to be too scary and efficient of killing machines for us to take on. The Ancestors obviously weren't with us today. Maybe, on another day, their spirits would favor us and we would be more fortunate in our hunting.

    My entire band had to combine to kill our 1st penguin...then my 2 guys died trying to get up!

The game played well, though doubtless Keith will do some tweaking to how the animals appear and act. I liked the ability to send a predator after another player's hunters, though most players used the card to move a prey animal closer to themselves, instead. Maybe next time let prey animals be moved only one move distance to represent the herd's wanderings? Or have herds move in a random direction? Otherwise, it almost seems like we were whistling and calling them over, only to bonk them on the head and kill them. That didn't seem very natural or realistic behavior. 

    Meanwhile, other bands were taking down bigger prey -- a Deinotherium succumbs to their blows

Either way, I hope Keith continues running these hunts, but allow us to create our own hunter band and keep track of our hunts in a continuing series of games. There are campaign rules which allow characters to improve or giving them a chance of dying when they were wounded or put out of action. It could be similar my post-apocalyptic campaign that I ran for the Sunday Night gamers using Wiley Games rules. Anyway, despite my struggles, I had fun and look forward to more games telling the story of the deadly life of early hunters on the savanna! 

    Hey look! One of my hunters actually took out one of the prehistoric capybaras without dying...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 179
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 110

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 12
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 26

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 21
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59  

    I suppose we won't starve, dragging this meat back to our camp -- but we lost half our hunters!!

Bitter Defeat for the Bonefish Band

    The Yellow Watcher (my Wendigo fig) observes the advance of our foes -- Allen's army of orcs

There's a saying, "Quantity has a Quality all its own." That certainly seems to be true in Dragon Rampant, 2nd Edition, fantasy rules. This past Sunday, we had eight players gather to fight out four 1-on-1 games using the Yellow Watcher scenario from the book. The armies used included dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, humans, and fire giants. Several of the armies chose fewer higher-point value units, while others went with more troops, but lower value ones. All of the "mighty few" went down to defeat, though, to forces that had more standard, less "tricked out" units. 

    Early stages of my game as the Bonefish Band rushes towards Allen and his slower moving orcs

DR! lets you add special or fantasy abilities to your troops, and this time, a few of the players went wild doing that. I created unit reference cards for most of the armies used that night, so it gave me insight into how they were purchased. Some of the abilities I had never even seen before on the tabletop in our four previous evenings of DR! For example, the Dwarven player gave three of his units "Spell Resistant." However, he was matched up against Joel S's goblins army which did not take any magic users. Another army had a leader with something called "Divine Leadership." That let all of his units within 12" receive the ability Spell Resistant. Once again, if the opponent doesn't have Spellcasters those are wasted points. 

    On the icy board, Joel's Goblins would prove the maxim that Quantity has a Quality all of its own!

Instead, I prefer special abilities or fantastical ones that improve a unit's statistics or how they perform certain basic actions -- not ones countering specific foes. In fact, I tend to take more negative fantasy abilities that reduce the cost of the units for my Bonefish Band. For example, I use "Cowardly" for all of my orc and goblin units. That means if they are called upon to retreat, they fall back a full move instead of a half move. For my archers, that's probably a good thing -- get away from that enemy that just beat you in melee! I also use "Armored" for my orc units of Bellicose Foot. That means it takes three hits to remove a figure instead of two. I find that makes them a bit more survivable, because they are almost always in the thick of the fighting.

    Joel's opponent, Andy, went with the Quality strategy & just five high-point-value units of dwarves

I also make my Goblin Archers "Weak", in addition to Cowardly, meaning they roll one less die in shooting or melee. Another positive ability that I like for smaller, mounted units is "Large," which adds +2 Strength Points. I give it to my Wolfpack, which normally is only 6 SPs. With this, they are a more survivable (I hope) 8 SPs. All of the negative modifiers allow me to field seven units in the Bonefish Band -- one unit of trolls (Greater Warbeasts), one wolfpack (Lesser Warbeasts), two armored orcs (Bellicose Foot), two goblin archer (Light Missiles), and the leader's bodyguard of Elite Foot. The warband can pack quite a punch and has a lot of Quantity, in addition to its Quality.

    Jenny's Viking berserkers charge towards the Yellow Watcher on her table -- a manticore

In the scenario we were playing, there was a temple in the center of each board occupied by a monster called the Yellow Watcher. He was immune to ranged attacks and spells. His unblinking, malevolent gaze would force any unit that moved into contact with him to retreat after fighting its melee. Inscrutably, he would do no damage back to those that contacted the temple and attacked him, but would simply force the unsettled warriors back. Players received 1 victory point for each SP loss inflicted on the Yellow Watcher. The Watcher is Armor 3, so three hits in melee = 1 SP lost. The person who inflicts the 12th and final hit to kill the Watcher receives 2 bonus points. In addition, players received victory points equal to each enemy unit they destroyed or forced to flee off the table. 

    Mike S likes to play a new army every time -- here he faces Jenny's Vikings with 'Barbarians'

My version of Yellow Watcher scenario is slightly modified from the one in the rule book, which does NOT award points for destroying enemy units. To tell the truth, I am not that impressed with the 12 scenarios in the rule book. I love the rules themselves, but feel that too many of the scenarios give an uneven chance for victory. In the rules' version of the Yellow Watcher scenario, you are not rewarded for defeating your enemy. Allen ended up crushing me in the battle. However, I inflicted 11 of the 12 SPs the Watcher lost. I would have won handily even though Allen did not lose a unit and mine were fleeing from the battlefield. I also dislike scenarios which can be won by simply moving faster than the enemy to a certain place, or occupying a spot on the board. If the scenario rules grant your opponent victory despite the fact you destroyed nearly every unit in their enemy, and suffered few losses yourself, there's something wrong with it. The Yellow Watcher (as written in the rules) is one of those, in my opinion.  

    Another borrowed army, Mike W's High Elves -- 6 units, all of them armed with bows & 12" range

After explaining the my version of the Yellow Watcher to the other players, we deployed our troops and began our individual games. Like several other scenarios, this one rewards you for moving quickly and getting to the temple first to inflict maximum damage on the Watcher. The temple counts as rough terrain, so rewards those that have the "Ranger" special ability and fight well in it. That was three units for me -- my two units of armored orcs and my trolls. When they fought the Watcher, they'd roll 12 dice and inflict hits on 3+ on each die (averaging 3 hits per unit attacking). The scenario rules were rewarding my Bonefish Band not for me being a clever tactician, but because I just happened to have the best troop types to best kill the Watcher. Andy had given all five of his Dwarven units "Slow," so he was penalized by the scenario. Plus, it is important to note that in DR! you are supposed to create your army list before selecting a scenario. Without my modifications to the scenario, the games would have been won or lost in the first few turns. Victory would have gone to the army that just happened to show up with the best (or fastest) troops.  

    Remember that maxim about Quantity vs. Quality? Here Elves overwhelm outnumbered fire giants

Similarly, a few games back we have played a "king of the hill" style scenario (The Grand Old Duke of Orc). We used the rules "as written" for victory points . The side that moved slowest or failed a bunch of move actions early lost on every table. The one that seized the hill quickly, with faster-moving troops or used magic to teleported them onto the hill, won every game. In my opinion, another rules set that has the same problem with gimmicky scenarios is Saga Dark Age skirmish rules. You can win games even if you suffer hugely lopsided losses, or are eliminated entirely. To me, that's just wrong. In the end, we are playing battle games. Two armies meet on the tabletop, they fight, and one wins and forces the other to retreat off the table. They are the winner. Now, I don't mind clever battlefield conditions or circumstances in a scenario. Two thumbs up for presenting interesting tactical challenges. Two thumbs down to gimmicky scenarios which can be won or loss simply by moving troops around on the tabletop or exploiting a unit's special ability -- or worse -- by simply recruiting an army list composed of troops who do the special action the scenario requires. In Saga, there are some tournaments that refuse to release their scenarios ahead of time so players can't do that. There are howls from some players who clamor for the scenarios to be released ahead of time so they can tailor their armies to best fulfill the victory conditions.  

    Goblins riding giant lizards wasn't on the Dwarves' dance card -- slipping & falling on ice was!

Enough ranting already? Ha, ha -- okay, I think so too! So, the match ups for the evening were:

• Andy S's Dwarves vs. Joel S's Goblins on the icy board.
• The Bonefish Band vs. Allen S's Orcs on the grasslands board.
• Keith's Fire Giants vs. Mike W's High Elves on the arid plains board. 
• Jenny's Vikings vs. Mike S's Barbarians on the octagon-shaped board.

    Allen's core of his battle line - 4 units of orc heavy foot, seeing the tabletop for the first time in years!

In my game, I deployed my two armored orc units front and center of my battle line. They would move quickly to the temple and charge repeatedly until the Watcher was dead. Each was flanked by a unit of goblin archers, who would fire on Allen's units moving up, hopefully inflicting some losses and slowing them down. On the left, opposite a small forest, my trolls were lined up. The plan was to use the forest as cover to advance towards Allen's orcs and then come crashing out of the trees, scattering them with their overwhelming charge. On the right, the wolfpack circled wide to the edge of the battlefield, avoiding the archery range of his orcs. They would hopefully pass through a woods and fall upon the archers and eat them for lunch. The general and his bodyguard of elite infantry stayed behind the orcs in the center, trying to be within leadership range to positively affect my units' morale when they had to take Courage tests. That was the plan, and the warlord of the Bonefish Band felt it was a good one!

    Our opening gambit was simple - armored orcs would charge & charge the Watcher till he was dead!

On the opposite side of the battlefield, Allen deployed his orc archers on either flank. In the middle, was a mass of four units of heavy infantry -- two of spear counting as Pikes, and thus more deadly to my trolls and wolves. Behind that slow-moving block of infantry was his general and body guard of orcs riding on war-boars. I gave Allen the chance to move them to the front, as  they were his fastest moving unit and could get to the temple quickest. He deferred. I warned him the Watcher may be dead already by the time his heavy foot arrived. He seemed unconcerned -- perhaps he knew something about his troops that I didn't? After all, this was the first time they'd see light of battle on the tabletop in years and years. I created the list he was using, though, as Allen doesn't own the DR! rules, yet. So, secret knowledge was unlikely.

    The wolfpack opens the hostilities with the rival orc tribe with a savage charge into some archers

On my first turn, I moved up all of my units except the trolls, who are avid bird watchers. They often lose turns during games to point out pretty birds to each other (i.e., fail their role to activate to Move). Allen had a couple units not move, as well. On turn 2, I charged both of my armored orcs into the Watcher, inflicting 5 SPs damage (slightly under average, as they hit on 3+ on each d6). Allen's battle line marched closer, but still could not charge the temple. On turn 3, my armored orcs surged forward again, inflicting 6 more SPs. We left only a crumb of 1 SP for Allen's orcs (plus the bonus 2 points for killing it, admittedly). Crucially, though, at the beginning of the turn, the wolves began within movement range of the both a unit of orc archers and orc spear. We rolled and had to Wild Charge into one of them. I chose the archers, and the Wolfpack savaged them, inflicting 4 hits. Surprisingly, they caused two casualties back (an average roll would have been one). The archers passed their Courage test, though. In a sign of things to come, the Wolfpack failed their morale and became Battered. I did not realize it then, but I'm pretty sure this was my high water mark for the game!

    Allen finishes off the Watcher's 1 SP left - did the evil being spit out a curse upon my dice on dying?

After Allen's orcs finished off the Watcher, the real battle began in earnest. One of my armored orcs charged his heavy foot. At this point, I realized that in creating Allen's list with four units of heavy foot, I had given my band a very tough bone to gnaw on. Heavy foot LOVE other units charging them. They inflict hits on 4+ on 1d6 when defending, but only 5+ when attacking. And what do my orcs, wolves, and trolls love to do? Charge the enemy, of course! Still, the orcs and trolls hit one better than Allen's heavy foot. So, we should win these encounters, right? Unfortunately for me, Allen's dice were hot that night! He consistently inflicted above average casualties. What's worse, he almost always passed his resulting Courage tests after receiving losses. My troops, on the other hand, failed nearly every Courage test they rolled. In addition, my goblin archers decided that once the Watcher was dead, the battle was over. The two units proceeded to fail nearly every activation roll to shoot from turn 3 on. In case you're curious, they needed to roll a 6+ on 2d6 to shoot. That's more than an 83% chance of success! My honest estimation is that over the next five turns, I failed to shoot with both units at least four times each. Do I want to do that math? Nahhh...I won't be able to get to sleep tonight if I know how unlikely this occurrence was!!

    Bird watching completed for the moment, the trolls are in position to pounce on an orc unit

Things began to unravel quickly after that for my -- to this point -- undefeated Bonefish Band. The trolls charged into a unit that had been softened up by one of the armored orc charges. Allen rolled crazy high and killed two of the six trolls. He passed his Courage test, but my bird-watching bullies failed their test and ran back into the woods to resume their safer, bird-watching activity. The wolfpack had already routed off board in the early stages of the battle after being charged by an orc spear unit. The trolls soon followed, as did one of my armored orc units. I have never seen two dice roll so many totals of four or less! I even switched dice at one point, but that provided no reprieve. This was simply Allen and his orc's night. They could do no wrong. They hit back harder than they should when charged, passed their morale rolls like grizzled veterans, and activated time after time. Meanwhile, the Bonefish Band bumbled their way through the game, not activating, and failing Courage tests repeatedly. Their was only one possible outcome -- bitter defeat!

    High Elves garrison the burnt out forest against the advance of Keith's outnumbered fire giants

As lopsided as my game seemed to feel, some of the other games were just as bad or worse. Keith's five units of fire giants were mowed down by an Elven army of six units -- all of whom could shoot out to 12". Keith had chosen the high point value unit route when creating his army list. Plus, two of his five units were chariots, which could not enter rough terrain. Sportingly, Keith pointed this out to Mike W, who needed no further encouragement, and occupied as much terrain with his archers as he could turning them into impenetrable fire bases. In a mirror of my game, Keith had created the army list that Mike W was using to destroy him -- like Allen did to me!

    In a battle of 'cute-ness,' Andy's impossibly pink warpigs charge brightly-colored lizards

On the icy plains, Andy's Dwarves had a miserable outing. They failed to activate time and again. On one turn, none of his five units activated. I should stop to explain an important point here. Under the Dragon Rampant rules as written, if one of your units fails to activate, your turn is over. The remaining units do not get a chance to act and play flips back to your opponent. You are allowed ONE re-roll of a failure, though, if the failing unit was within 12" of your leader's model (and he's not Battered). Instead, we play a popular variant were every unit gets a chance to activate. One failure does not end your turn. This is the same as author Daniel Mersey's Rebels and Patriots rules (which he also wrote after Dragon Rampant came out). 

    Keith also enjoys fielding new armies - the fire giants being his 3rd so far in our games of DR!

As Andy and I proved that evening, you can still roll badly and have a significant number of your troops do nothing. I feel the system we use also works better for multiplayer games. Imagine one player who fails his first roll and his turn is over. He has to sit around and wait for 15-20 minutes while the rest of his side move and the opponents also take their turn. And then, it is his side's turn again. He fails his first activation roll and his turn is over, again. We feel that type of mechanic is simply too frustrating. Plus, too many scenarios in DR! hinge on you getting to an objective or occupying something first. Losing a game because you rolled one or two first-unit failures/turnovers and did nothing for those turns does not produce a satisfying contest. I stress again -- at least that's the way we feel! Many others play the DR! rules as written and also enjoy the game.

    Early stages of the Elf-Giant clash - the High Elf cavalry galloping to beat the giants to the temple

Anyway, Andy's Dwarves, who had only five units vs. Joel's seven of goblins, was crushed on the icy plains. A handful of Andy's points were tied up in special abilities that worked only against specific units that Joel did not field. He also fielded a "Greater Warbeast Slayer" unit -- guess what else Joel's army did not have? A Greater Warbeast! Meanwhile, on the octagon table, Mike S managed to lose the Barbarians vs. Vikings (is that redundant?) match up by failing his Courage tests regularly, like I did. Or at least that's what I heard. They were two tables away from me and I was too busy trying to salvage the game tactically from my treacherous dice to watch their game much. Interestingly, none of the four games were close matches. All were absolute smack downs! 

    The Watcher and his one remaining SP for Allen to snatch up (with the bonus +2 for slaying him)

I also found it fascinating that it was an evening of upsets, of sorts, if you went by previous records in games of DR! The losers (Keith, Andy, Mike S, and myself) had a combined 8-4 record going into the evening. That night's winners (Mike W, Joel, Jenny, and Allen) had a combined 4-8 record. Honestly, I am happy to see that happen. I quit playing Saga, for the most part, because it is a "grognard game," in my opinion. It has such a high learning curve that frequent players have a huge advantage over intermittent or occasional ones. I'm glad DR! is not like that. The tactics are simple enough to grasp. There is no slate of  army-unique abilities to master. Use your troops reasonably, don't roll awfully, don't make obvious mistakes, and you should do well in DR!

 

    Another look at Keith's High Elves that he kindly lent to Mike W to crush him with...!

Still, the Bonefish Band is not happy about their first defeat. There would be a lot of finger-pointing on the bitter march home from Yellow Watcher's temple. Tactically, the only thing I feel I need to take from this defeat is that I need to use my fragile, "glass hammer" Wolfpack better. I thought by spending two points and making them Large would be give them a good enough chance of survival. It was not. So far, I've been unwisely sending them unsupported on wide flank runs. Maybe they should be a second line, instead? To unleash on the enemy once they have been "Battered" by the orcs or trolls? We shall see -- hopefully soon! I'm really enjoying our games of DR! and look forward to playing again. You see, I have the taste of this defeat to wash from my mouth...! 

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 179
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 105

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 12
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 26

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 21
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59 

Troubled Council: Urban Unrest in Medieval Vespugia Play Test

    Medieval Vespugia's streets are quiet but soon blood will be shed in a clash between church & town

Town leaders nearly came to blows last night at Vespugia's council meeting. Although violence did not break out, many left muttering that "mayhap on the morn' blood would be shed" on the town's streets. By one vote, the council voted to arrest Father Leowulf, whose sermons against the rich and powerful families had angered them. The priest has been railing against the "un-Christian like" treatment of the refugees who had been arriving in town, recently. Will Father Leowulf be arrested tomorrow? Will the priest's supporters take up arms and defend him? It's medieval "gang warfere" on the streets of Vespugia!

    House Faroli's men, firm backers of the Town Council, flood through the streets towards the center

This is the event description for the my upcoming convention game at Drums at the Rapids, which is held on Armed Forces Day weekend every year at Fort Meigs, a reconstructed War of 1812 fort in Perrysburg, OH. As readers of my blog know, I have been collecting and painting 3-D printed medieval buildings for about a year, now. I wanted to do a small scale skirmish in an urban setting, but had been scratching my head about what rules to use. Eventually, I decided to use a set of my own: Mean Streets: War in Gang-infested Cities modified to be used in the Middle Ages. Since my game was set in the romanticized look at urban street gangs, portrayed in the 1979 cult movie classic The Warriors, I felt that it wouldn't take much to adapt it to this setting.

    Town Council players, on right, make their opening moves to threaten Father Leowulf in the church

I wrote up a draft of rules modifications for a medieval and fantasy "Malevolent Streets" and sent it to a few friends, who gave me great feedback. Once I was happy with how it was looking, I designed the Father Leowulf scenario -- absolutely NOT based on current events -- and play tested it on my friends in our latest Sunday Evening gaming session. I had seven players, four of which would take on the role of the Town Council trying to arrest Father Leowulf, and three defending him. I gave most of the player groups different objectives. Two noble families on opposite sides also wanted to burn down their rival's homes on the town square, while all factions wanted to take possession of the "meddlesome priest." Many wanted to be the one who had their hands on him spiriting him off their entry point on the board. All factions wanted to kill their rivals, and received points for knocking enemy figures out of action.

    Archers from the Town Council take an advantageous sniper perch on the balcony of House Catrine

The sides were roughly even, with the attackers having a slight advantage in numbers. This was offset by each of their four individual commands being slightly smaller than those of the defender's. I let each player deploy one of their figures forward on their side of the main street that ran diagonally across the board. Although it appeared the Town Council forces made the most tactically clever deployment, placing two archers on the third story balcony of House Catrine. However, appearances can be deceiving. The Dominican monks marching up the street to rescue Father Leowulf cleverly placed one of their figures inside the cathedral with the preacher. Their goal was to spirit him away to their deployment edge on the far side of the board. 

    Attackers cross the street & close in on House Duncan -- staunch defenders of the Father Leowulf

In Mean Streets rules -- sorry, "Malevolent Streets" -- you roll a die for each figure in your command. Any figures in command range of the leader roll them together and the player can choose which figure receives which die. Figures off on their own outside of command range are rolled for individually. A roll of 1-3 gives one action to the figure assigned that die, 4-5 provides two actions, and a 6 three actions. So, there is an advantage in keeping figures within command range, balanced out by trying to achieve more strategic objectives. In Malevolent Streets, the "Gang Boss" is called a Hero, a Warchief is a Companion, and Punks are Followers. The die that is rolled for combat and morale is a d8 instead of a d6, though. I wanted more swing and more granularity to accommodate larger monsters in a fantasy version of the game.

    A couple well-armed townsmen defend the gate & doors of the cathedral as attackers cross the walls

The game opened with the sniper archers in the Catrine House balcony loosing their arrows at the cathedral defenders. The rest of the Town Council forces began a fast advance, closing in on the both the cathedral and House Duncan -- one of the wealthy families that supported Father Leowulf. The defenders moved up more cautiously. Leowulf's defending forces -- a band of Franciscan monks and a few well-armed veteran citizens did not deploy anyone in the cathedral with the recalcitrant father. This proved to be a big mistake, as the Dominican Companion immediately moved Leowulf to the back of the church and towards the rear doors. Throughout the game, he would drag the sometimes reluctant priest out of the church, over the walls, and towards the Dominican corner of the board.

    Simultaneously, House Duncan comes under assault by the Town Council - blood is being shed!

 Meanwhile, the players focused on each other's forces as primary targets. After all, each enemy killed was +1 Victory Point -- why not take out the other players' troops? It took us a couple turns to begin to easily calculate the archer's range modifiers (-1 for each complete 6" away the target is), but otherwise, folks picked up the rules fairly quickly. After the game, we discussed what needed changed. To my surprise, there were fairly few tweaks needed, according to my players. I know that Mean Streets "works" as a game, so shouldn't need major retooling. However, I thought with the change in period and the move to a d8 die my players would have more concerns. As it was, the players said they were happy with how the game worked.

    While the attacking players are distracted by the fighting, Keith at left has a wily plan...!

Then I sprung my entire evil plan on them. I wanted to use Malevolent Streets for a cooperative fantasy skirmish game, with each player controlling a Hero, Companion, and Follower. I would control the foes. Thus, why it needed to be fast and simple. They sat back for a moment and said yeah, it would work. They liked it -- and said they preferred it over Four Delvers, which we had tried recently. They also gave me a few suggested tweaks for the scenario. 

    A well-armed retainer hired by the Dominican monks hustles Leowulf out the back & over the wall

So, how did the action unfold? The archer snipers in the House Catrine balcony kept the defending forces' heads down, and made them move up cautiously. In fact, they distracted Father Leowulf's Franciscan monk defenders so much, they didn't notice when their Dominican allies hustled the priest out the back doors of the cathedral and towards their own lines. House Duncan, faithful to Leowulf, was also distracted by the aggressive advance of the forces of the Town Council. Lord Duncan and his Companion waded into the less-skilled ruffians hired by the Town Council and began cutting them down. Meanwhile, some of Duncan's own retainers were being killed by House Faroli's men, who vaulted the walls of the cathedral -- further distracting Leowulf's Defenders.

    Attackers are over the cathedral walls -- unaware that Dominican monks are spiriting Leowulf away

Meanwhile, Duncan's mortal enemies on the Council, House Catrine, also launched an all-out assault on his fortified home. Two of Catrine's thugs even broke into the house and set fire to the first floor. Lord Duncan, seeing the smoke, barged in after them and cut down the two unskilled ruffians. However, Duncan's forces were slowly being whittled down, and it was all he could do to save his own house. Father Leowulf was in the hands of the Franciscans and Dominicans, as far as he was concerned. He and his men were holding off two to three of the enemy bands. 

    Leowulf's defenders rush to oppose the incursion & men begin to die upon holy ground!

On the far side of the board, House Stronghelm, declaring for the Town Council, was probably the least aggressive of the attackers. They crept up one side of the table towards the Dominicans, killing one or two, and burning a home that others had holed up inside, driving them off.  Too late, Stronghelm and his men saw Father Duncan being hustled across the board by their foes. They tried to intervene, but the wily monks had consolidated their forces and formed an armed wall between Stronghelm's men and the priest. The captain of the Town Council's ruffians sprinted the length of the table, once he saw the danger of the Dominican plan. However, he was unable to break through the men protecting Leowulf's reluctant escape from his own cathedral.

    More attackers press forward on the right, setting fire to a home that the monks had holed up inside

In the end, although it appeared the Dominicans won handily, they actually only tied House Duncan in victory points. The noble defender and his men killed enough enemies, plus received bonus points that the father was out of the Council's clutches. Mike S proved that sometimes fighting and killing your enemies effectively is enough to win a game! I look forward to getting one or two more of my newly-purchased medieval buildings painted up before the game on May 15-16. That should allow me to make the table a bit denser, and possibly also swap out a few of my more rural Acheson Creations Dark Age resin buildings on the table. It was a fun game, though, and I'm glad the players enjoyed the system.

    After his home is set afire, Duncan himself bursts in & slays two ruffians hired by House Catrine

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 176
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 91

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 7
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 25

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 17
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59 

    A Franciscan monk defending Leowulf assaults House Catrine to get at the balcony archers

 

    Attackers realize the peril too late! Leowulf has been taken off-board by the Dominican player

Five Players, 10 Delvers on Rescue Mission in Moonrest

 

    Oslac the Fighter & Leof the Brute are assaulted by orcs in our big game of Four (10?) Delvers

The goal of cooperating with Rich Brown of RRB Minis & More on revamping David Bezio's fantasy skirmish rules, Four Delvers, was to see if it would work for my Sunday evening gang. Typically, we have 6-7 players, and the original rules were written with only four adventurers in mind. So, it would need some expansion to accommodate. My plan was to have each player control two Delvers, so with six of us present this past Sunday for the playtest, I would have 10 Delvers on the table. I decided not to play myself, though it is a cooperative game and no GM is really necessary. 

    Somewhere inside Moonrest are 3 shepherd boys, kidnapped by orc raiders - can you free them?

I created a dozen characters to give the players some choice. Rich and I had greatly expanded the original Fighter, Wizard, Elf, and Dwarf characters to include a Barbarian, Cleric, Thief, Brute, and others. The core of my original adventuring gang from my two solo games was chosen, so Oslac and Company would once again be exploring the abandoned city of Moonrest. The scenario was that Orc raiders had kidnapped several shepherd boys (along with some sheep, of course), and were dragging them back to their haunt in Moonrest. The adventuring party tracked them to the city, spied out where they were encamped, and concocted a plan to free the captive boys -- if they were still alive. Except this was our Sunday Evening Gaming group, and they skipped the whole "plan" stage and just lined up on the board edge they were sitting closest to and charged in!

    My group of five players for the play test: 'Plan? We don't need no stinking plan...charge!'

That might have worked as a plan, but it had one noticeable flaw. Joel and Mike S didn't have a "fighter type" among their four Delvers. Joel controlled the "halfling" Setch and the cleric, Friar Horace. Mike had the Elf Erevan and thief Cain. Their best two in melee would be the elf and cleric, with Setch and Cain being the weakest with only 1 Hit Point each. On the other side of the table, there was a bit more beef. Jenny controlled the dwarf Baldur and the ranger Minatur, Allen the barbarian Callum and wizard Malik, while Keith had Fighter Oslac and the new Brute, Leof. Lots more fighter types on this side of the table!

    The 19 orc defenders were deployed randomly throughout the 3'x3' board, including in this square

In an attempt to streamline the game process, Rich and I had made the Wound Table more deterministic. Rather than being able to take an unlimited number of Wounds after dropping to 0 Hit Points, monsters could take a maximum three, but would likely be knocked out of action on their second wound with the modifiers were had created. However, the possibility of rolling a 8-12 on 1d12 still existed, so models taking their first Wound could still be knocked out. Rich had also wanted to limit Wandering Monsters to one on-board at a time. So, my thought was that I would need to beef up the initial monsters by about 50%, with those changes. That mean 19 orc enemies were randomly deployed on the table, 7 of which had bows.

    Setch the Sidhe 'halfling' and Erevan the Elf occupy a ruined building & begin shooting orcs

The Delver's pregame scouting of the orc location led them to believe the creatures had the shepherd boys stashed somewhere inside the 10 buildings on the 3'x3' tabletop. When a Delver searched the inside of a building, they would roll a six-sided die: 1-2 they found a treasure token; 3-4 sheep, 5-6 one of the shepherd boys. Each player also received one token for a free re-roll of a die during the game. They also randomly determined their player order, resulting in Joel and Mike's weaker force coming on first. The lack of strategizing likely handicapped the players, along with what would prove to be awful die rolling. Or, should I say, their excellent rolling for the monsters? Time and again, they would roll successful "Battle" rolls against the Orcs only to have the nasty creatures make their Save rolls. I insisted they roll for the enemy, since this was meant to be a cooperative game, and I didn't want it to have to do all the rolling for the enemies.

    Minastur the ranger & Baldur the dwarf are beset by orcs, but Callum rushes to their aide

Under the rules, the Delvers and monsters alternating activating a figure until all models on the board have activated. For the Delvers, we had each player activate one of their characters in turn going around the table, then their second figure. In between, of course, a monster would activate. Since the orcs outnumbered the players, we would resolve the remaining half dozen or so at the end of each turn. The players split up, with Mike and Joel arriving on table and occupying a ruined building in the middle of their table edge. They immediately began shooting at the orcs, who quickly closed in on them or began to shoot back. Soon, four Delvers were crowded inside their little "Alamo," doing their best to fight off the attacking orcs.

    Oslac (quartered blue shield) is the toughest fighter in the game & immediately bloodies his enemies

Keith brought his two warriors in on one street, while Allen and Jenny entered in the alleyway behind the church. All were immediately swarmed by orcs when spotted. The "A.I." for the monsters has them advance relentlessly towards the Delvers unless armed with a missile weapon. In that case, once within range, they fire away. If Delvers come within 6", they fire and back off. I think the A.I worked fine. There were only a couple times when it seemed the rules had the orcs not being clever enough. This happened on Keith's front, whose Brute and Fighter blocked off a narrow street, creating a bottleneck of orcs behind those engaged with the Delvers. I solved this by having a couple of the orcs circle the buildings to attempt to fall upon their rear.

    Wounded, Malik the Wizard is stalked by orcs, but Callum bravely rushes to his aide

Only one Delver was knocked out of action. Malik, roaming about his side of the board rather freely instead of sheltering behind the fighters, was targeted by orc archers and eventually fell to the street, riddled with arrows. Several others reached 0 Hit Points and had to make rolls on the Wound table when they were hit again. More than half of the players cashed in their re-roll tokens to save their Delvers. When the wandering monster (a troll) finally showed up, this prompted the "Alamo" to be abandoned by Erevan, Setch, Horace, and Cain. This actually allowed Cain to find one of the shepherd boys when he sought refuge inside a building. Horace made up for his excellent rolling in my last solo game and struggled to heal Erevan, who was down to 0 Hit Points for the last one-third of the game or so. Joel and Mike did a great job, though, keeping their under strength force alive, though. I don't blame them for fleeing rather than facing the troll when it finally wandered over to their makeshift stronghold.

    Joel & Allen's 'Alamo' defensive position is getting crowded when joined by friar Horace & Cain

Jenny's characters, augmented by Callum the barbarian, did a good job holding off the orcs in the alley beside the church. Keith, though ringed by orcs thirsting for his Delvers' blood, slew more enemies than any of the others. I feel the Fighter is the single strongest Delver type, so was not surprised he slowly and steadily racked up the kills. However, Keith was plagued numerous times by orcs saving against his successful blows an unlikely number of times. He fully got to experience the frustration I felt might be inherent in the system.

    It took several turns, but finally a wandering troll showed up, drawn by the sounds of fighting

How did the game go? The players said it went fine. They seemed less bothered by the frustration than I felt they might be. Keith admitted it did get to him at times, but seemed philosophical about it. Bad die rolls or lucky opponents happen in wargaming. We discussed how the rules worked out for about 20 minutes after the game. Had I overestimated how many monsters would be needed with the changes to the combat system Rich and I had made? Possibly. I used 50% more than the equivalent number would call for. I felt the limit on Wandering Monsters would really hamper the monsters. I had 3-4 show up in each of my previous games, with 2-3 on the table at the same time. The troll didn't come on until turn 3 or 4, and his "Stupid" trait meant he spent one of those turns scratching his head, wondering where all those Delvers that were holed up in the ruin had gone.

    Though orcs are bloodied all around them, the ring of foes around Oslac & Leof seems not to falter

For myself, I am still not 100% sold on the mechanics. Many, many games using a Saving roll. However, when you are in control of only two characters instead of an army or large force, enemy saves seem to have a bigger impact. Time and again, Keith would roll for Oslac, have him inflict a hit or two hits on an orc, only to have it save against all. Then, the monsters would counter-attack, inflict a hit on a Delver, only to have the Delver save, too. Four rolls, but a whole lot of "no effect" going on! Like I said, I think I was more bothered by the potential frustration of this system than my five players were. Still, we got through at least 8 turns in three hours. However, the players were not near to completing their mission. There were still a good number of orcs on the table -- enough to prevent the players from breaking off a Delver or two to begin searching rooms (only four buildings were searched, finding one shepherd boy, two treasures, and some sheep). 

    Another look at medieval Moonrest before the battle begins, with orcs patrolling the alleys

We'll see, though. I reported back to Rich Brown, so I may have him take over 100% of the rules tweaking for awhile. I'm still tempted to try a variant of my Mean Streets gang warfare rules to see how they play out for a small scale medieval or fantasy skirmish. So, that will likely be the next thing I try. I'd already crunched a bunch of numbers and written a few pages of things down for a fantasy Mean Streets variant. Maybe it is time to get that on the table and compare how the two games go? Stay tuned to see what comes up!

In the meantime, my next batch of Elves is all but done. So, I will likely be posting pictures of them soon. I'm working on another medieval building, too. So, now that I am back from vacation, I should get back to posting more regularly!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 159
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 85

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 3
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 16
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 56