Thursday, September 17, 2015

L'Art De La Guerre played

Played a game of new (to English speaking world at least as this is version 3) French Ancients rules L'Art De La Guerre (LADG) at Stephens.
I had dabbled briefly with rules months ago but this was first proper outing with them.

We decided to go with 300pt armies (200pts is the normal/standard) to see how rules compared to Dbmm.
I used Punic Romans and Stephen his Carthaginians with Hannibal at the helm (a Brilliant Strategist).

We had usual new rules queries and look-ups for first few turns but then game began to flow really well.
Terrain set-up is akin to the Field Of Glory system being based on geographical regions and list of available types with rolls to adjust or remove items placed.
The rules overall are certainly a good deal less complex than Dbmm and with much better explanations and diagrams to help things along.
Unit functions and match-ups all fairly intuitive.
All units suitably armed can shoot in LADG which is nice change from the Dbmm system.
Melee combat is pretty easy to pick up with none of the 'your bound, my bound' complications of Dbmm.
However there is still a good range of units type match-ups and factor interactions.
As per Field Of Glory melee is a more attrition based affair with no recoils and units able to sustain Cohesion hits ranging from 2 (Light types) to 4 (Heavy Inf) prior to destruction with a rally ability by Generals which and/or proximity to enemy.
When a unit Routs (ie destroyed) it stays in place until the Rout/Pursuit phase at turn end.
Uses Pips but a good deal less than Dbmm as each Commander rolls a D6 adds any Command bonus but then divides by 2 to generate Command Pips.
As per Dbmm model units move as individuals or as Groups with additional costs for Unmaneuverable types to do anything fancy.
There are Impact, Impetuous type troops, Armoured and Heavily Armoured types, Protection factors versus Shooting and Spontaneous and Uncontrolled Charges.
Again these are all well explained and illustrated in the rule book.

We certainly enjoyed our first try and are already planning more armies to try (another bonus is that the rules include and extensive list of armies, indeed half the book is the lists).
I can see why these are being touted in UK as a competition set.
Personally I prefer them to Dbmm due to lesser Pips and overall complexity and as a nice alternative to FOG (which we still like).
Will do a more in depth look after playing a few more times.

Poor phone pics again !
















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