More Open Combat

I have played a few more games with the innovative skirmish rules 'Open Combat', published by Second Thunder Games.

These rules work for any army in a pre-gunpowder setting, including fantasy. You can produce your own warband list using the simple point system. Each ability level; speed, attack, defence etc and special rules all cost a point each. So you can create different ability levels within the same warband. The combat mechanisms are very straightforward and a game can be done and dusted in an hour.

In my trial game I created a Roman command using the characters from Simon Scarrow's novels, fighting Gauls. This time, just to test how open the system is, I dusted down my fantasy figures. So Macro and Cato were tasked with investigating a ruined temple and came up against an Orc warband led by the two handed sword wielding Carguk.

No problem at all for our heroes. Dispatched Carguk and his not so merry men without too much trouble. So, step up a bigger challenge. Carguk returns with his pal Shuzug, a minator lookalike, can't even remember where I picked this model up from.

The plan was to pick off the orcs and isolate the monster. Sadly, not even our heroes were up for this challenge. Shuzug despatched Macro with his two-handed axe, one hand for him, and the Roman's decided he could keep the temple!

The rules stood up to the test. So much so that I have signed up for the Kickstarter hard copy of the rules. It's already subscribed, so I am obviously not alone in enjoying this system.