OOTS the Tabletop Wargame (#2)

[Lord Zentei]

About the time the Battle for Azure City was starting up, I posted some army lists in the following thread: linksky.

Now that the battle is confirmed to be over with the recent shift to a wedding on the Material Plane, it would seem that the time has come to review it and add anything that may be missing.

However: there are a few remaining questions.

Firstly: is this a worthwhile project? As in, does anyone think that they might have the inclination to play something along these lines?

Second: in creating the lists, I used the rules for the Lord of the Rings wargame by Games Workshop. The reason being it is fairly good at switching between large(ish) scale and skirmish, though it is better at the latter, and because its rules for powerful heroes are pretty nice. But would another system be better (such as Warhammer Fantasy Battles, as one poster in the last thread suggested)? Or should the rules be entirely customized since LotR and WHFB are not open source? Some of GW's systems are in fact freely available on their website and might pose a lesser problem.

Third, and related to the second: is a miniatures game really the best option for this or should something else be used, such as a hex-and-chit type game?


Comments?

[Korias]

Personally, it looks fine. I'd be up to play it, but I dont really "own" Lord of the Rings models. I borrow from friends. On the other hand, you dont really need them. System wise, its solid. However, there are a bunch of rules that arent up for grabs: You need a rulebook to play, which costs 50 USD. Not fun.

Making a few changes, such as elimination of priority and getting rid of a few unneeded obstacles (Such as the fact that theres a greater number of evil force variety than Good) will make it effective homebrew, which means it could be played on the boards (As long as you have a good mapper). I'd be up for a game, either way.


Edit: Hexes are a great way to go, but only if your comfortable using them. Not many gamers are: I am, but not so much as to guide an entire army using them. Being able to group "Squads" into a single power hex, ala Erfworld, might be an interesting idea.

[DracoDei]

For the shear massive scale of the conflict individual minis for each troop CAN NOT be the way to simulate the actual conflict shown in the comics... now for just smaller scale conflicts in this area that would work.

Since this IS D&D what about the system MADE for small scale unit encounters related to the d20 system: Chainmail .... haven't studied it in detail, so for all I know it reeks and is an abomination that that should never have been published...

For larger scale stuff, I say chits of some sort (and probably hexes) are the way to go. Not that anything with a CR above... oh... say 15 probably is perfectly justified in having its own chit... you might even individually track spells above 7th level... because Storm of Vengeance really IS a spell made for hitting THAT wide of an area.

Just off the top of my head...

[Lord Zentei]

Keep in mind that the LotR system was made with such battles as Pelennor Fields and Cormallen in mind -- but also for encounters such as Weathertop.

My thought was, if it is good enough for LotR, it surely is good enough for OOTS. And this way, other scenes can also be played, such as the Bandit encounter, various points in Dorukan's Dungeon and so on.

Of course, the homebrew was intended for the Battle of Azure City more than any other specific episode, so perhaps something along the lines of Warmaster or Epic would be better... and those rules are on the net. Yet, even here it's not possible to include all thirty thousand hobbos on the board at the same time, hence the hex and chit system idea which would be a lot more abstract (there will probably be more than one homebrew for this before its done, for differing scales).




For what it's worth, I'm going to fix up the current system a bit, at least to include the sundry units that are missing. I'm afraid it's not going to be possible to change the fact that the Evil side has a larger number of unit types, given the comic, though at least the Good side have more characters.


Missing units include:

• Hobgoblin General. (Did we ever get his name?)
• Huecuva.
• Death Knight.
• Eye of Fear and Flame.
• Titanium Elementals.
• Nightmare (undead steed).

• Ghost-martyrs of the Sapphire Guard.
• Lord Soon.
• Saangwaan.
• Lien (and Razor).
• General Chang.
• High Priest of the Twelve Gods.
• Argent (Lord Hinjo's Celestial Waround).

Also, to change the name of "Hobgoblin Shaman" to "Hobgoblin War Priest".


Missing spells include:

• Greater Invisibility (X).
• Overland Flight (X).
• Symbol of Insanity (X).
• Monster Summoning (R).

• Dismissal (V).
• Expedious Retreat (V).
• Various Buff Spells (V).

Did I miss any?



EDIT: these units and spells have now mostly been added.