It's firmly in the "warband of a dozen or so individual figures" definition of skirmish, rather than the "very small battle with a hundred or so" school that games like GASLIGHT belong to.
Mechanically it's fairly straightforward - roll D10, add modifiers, beat target number. Figures are statted for Pluck (i.e. morale), Shooting Value, Fighting Value and Speed (which is a rare bonus value, most figures are at Speed 0)
Remember my complaint about Empire Of The Dead, how it restricted you to a narrow set of army lists limited by the boxed sets that Westwind wanted to sell you? Not only does IHMN give you a broader selection of army lists with pre-generated characters, but you get the points values and formulae to assemble a completely original force from scratch.
The campaign missions in the game are split up into two aspects - Scenarios, which give objectives and deployment instructions, and Landscapes, which are basically suggested terrain types. Pairing different Scenarios with different Landscapes gives a wide variety of possible games, such as King Of The Hill in the Dockyard, or Catch The Pigeon across the rooftops. If nothing else the Landscapes descriptions provides some good ideas for terrain-building projects.
I was a little disappointed to see no activation mechanic - players alternate moving figures one at a time until all figures are moved, then repeat the process for firing and melee.
One thing that did irritate me a little - the target number to cause a hit by ranged and melee combat is based on the figure's armour, with most figures in the army lists being equipped with various breastplates and brigandines. Sorry chaps, but that really doesn't sit too well with the psuedo-19th century thing for me. Although steampunk armour isn't unknown, it's far from the norm in the way that it would be in a dark ages or medieval setting. Basing the core combat resolution around such an exception - not a great move.
All in all though not a bad set of rules, very reasonably priced and fairly open ended. I hope we get to give them a try soonish.
Thanks for the review. I have been waiting for these to come out.
ReplyDeleteBought them on Saturday,still to fully read but have dug out some suitable lead from the shed Lead Mountain!
ReplyDeleteI discussed this with Chris earlier, my idea would be to rename the armour to defence, i.e. you are just buying the target number to needed to hit the character, thus more "important" characters are harder to be hit, but cost more. At the end of the day it is just a hand wave but I think it could work. You could also buy separate shooting and melee values, just take half the total cost.
ReplyDeleteAs a cosmetic hand-wave it works for me. You already buy the Pluck, Shooting Value, Fighting Value and Speed attributes with points, it's no giant leap to say you buy a Defence attribute directly instead of visualising it as armour.
DeleteMust admit, I saw this come out, but had already decided to go with EotD, as I like the Gothic horror tie in...
ReplyDeleteI don't see the lists being so restrictive as i have seen lots of folks just use the lists as a framework for how they imagine their faction being composed, Eg Lizardman faction using the Lycaon faction stats, or a Lady Hussars using the Gentlemans club ... it just depends how you interpret it.
I do like some of the IHMN figures though and they may see their way into my games eventually...
I do agree it sounds odd to have the difficulty of the shot, based on the armour of the target, as I didn't really see this period being one of copious armour use...
I look forward to seeing what you do with it anyway.
Yup that's true, you can always get more mileage by re-skinning the existing factions. But at the end of the day, a unit of Militant Suffragettes based off the Gentleman's Club army list, is just going to play like the Gentleman's Club in skirts.
ReplyDeleteYou can get around the limitations by house-ruling and re-interpreting... but all things being equal why not go for a ruleset that doesn't have those limitations in the first place?
BTW although the main focus of IHMN seems to be Steampunk/VSF rather than Gothic Horror. It does include Mystical Powers and enough weird Talents to support traditional Horror beasties such as zombies and mummies (included in the listed Companies) and it ought to be simple enough to do decent Vampires & Werewolves (or Headless Horsemen, or whatever) within that framework without house-ruling.
Good morning Dr Vesuvius,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind review and if I may I would like to address some of your concerns.
When writing the rules we posited that as technology had advanced far quicker than in the real history of the period, then the materials used in creating armour had advanced likewise.
The use of somewhat archaic terms is in step with what gentlemen of the time, with their classical education, would have named such armour.
For example 'Brigandine' is a leather or canvas tunic into which have been sewn a variety of high quality steel or ceramic plates. It gives reasonable mobility yet provides some protection.
You will find that in playing the game that the astute use of cover is just as important as armour. Also moving and shooting, or shooting at a moving target are strongly penalised. This is based on both Charles and my military/shooting experience.
The lack of an activation mechanic is quite deliberate. In my other popular rule-set, FUBAR, activation has proven problematical with some players being beaten simply because they made poor activation dice rolls. In a fast a furious game like IHMN we wanted to remove that random mechanic and put the tactical use of your troops firmly in your hands.
Cheers,
Craig.
Good day Mr Cartmell
DeleteThank you for your response. I do hope you'll stick around as I suspect you and Mr Murton's ruleset will be the subject of quite a few posts here in the upcoming future.
I think with such a broad church as Steampunk/VSF there are so many different & equally valid interpretations of the genre. I see a lot of IRL steampunks packing flintlock era weapons while for me personally it's .454 Webley all the way, while others prefer Tesla pistols. The question of armour is just another point of taste - my VSF vision is generally "real world" with a snifter of fantastic, so I don't see everyone wearing steam-tech armour (except of course for the occasional steampunk Tony Stark). I do appreciate your point regarding the archaic terms though and agree wholeheartedly.
If our proposed work-around doth offend, may I refer the honourable gentleman to the passage quoted previously "Rules are for the obedience of fools..."
I did notice the movement modifiers and approve.
I take your point about the lack of an activation mechanic, they do seem to be a "love them or hate them" thing. It was precisely because of FUBAR's activation mechanic that I was surprised to not see one in IHMN. Not to worry, though I generally approve of the uncertainty activation rules bring, their absence isn't a dealbreaker by any stretch.
Again thank-you for your comments, and do please feel free to unleash the hounds on us when we get your rules wrong in upcoming battle reports.
Regards
Dr V
Good day Mr Cartmell
DeleteI agree with Dr V, the mechanism of how you have armour work is fine, it is the aesthetic of Victorian adventurers wearing armour that is a problem for me, so I will hand wave and rename armour to defence but have it function exactly the same.
Having read through the rules a couple of times now I am really impressed and looking forward to a game as soon as possible.
Regards
Mark
Interesting exchange of views going on here.I hope to comment more when I actually get a chance to play the game...
ReplyDeleteDr V. et al.,
ReplyDeleteI shall indeed drop by from time to time :)
I hope that you did not misunderstand my missive. Both Charles and I thoroughly approve of, and indeed encourage, people to adapt the rules any way they see fit. We are not in the least bit precious about them.
We shall look forwards to seeing where you take this and hope that you shall share your triumphs and errors along the way, for how else shall we learn? ;)
Cheers,
Craig.
we've just announced the contents of the first supplement - Heroes, Villains and Fiends.
ReplyDeleteWe hope that there will be many things there you will like also.
Cheers,
Craig.