What with all the Deadzone around here, it would be easy to forget that I’ve worked on a few other games recently. One of those is a fantasy game called God of Battles, and this saturday is the latest in our series of meetings at Foundry HQ in Nottingham to run some demos and play some games. These are a regular first-saturday-of-the-month event if you fancy adding future meetings to your diaries.
Like last time Will Hannah will be at Foundry at the same time to answer any painting questions and show off his latest paint jobs. Last month he was in the middle of a set of very nice looking gladiators. They’re probably all finished by now and he’ll be onto something new.
Last, but not least, we’ve joined by a another gaming club who’ve just moved venue to the Foundry site. This means that we should be rather busier than usual, which should all add to the fun. I don’t know what they’re playing, though I’m sure they’d be happy to see more gamers too.
If you are in the area and fancy popping along for a chat a demo or a game with your own army then please do. It’s free and there’s always tea and biccies on hand 😉
And let’s not forget Deadzone either. That Kickstarter ends at midnight on sunday (UK time) and it’s bound to get pretty frantic before that happens. What will get unlocked? How many more scenarios will I get to write in the campaign? We’ll just have to wait and see 😉
It’s going to be an exciting weekend!
Quirkworthy 
That all sounds very fun and exciting. I’m hoping the Deadzone kick starter brings in a bit more than a million dollars. That’s my hope. It’s possible. The Reaper Bones Kickstater had numbers like that. Hopefully I will find some time soon to devote to God of Battles. For now I am totally spellbound by Deadzone. I made my own board and played with the alpha rules. I reading and rereading the beta rules. The beta rules are a great improvement in my opinion. I am excited about the future of Deadzone.
A million would be a nice round number, but to be honest I’ve given up trying to guess what might happen. I’m happy to be designing the game regardless 🙂
Great action shot of me poking myself in the ear….
I thought you were just checking comms…
About God of battle, how easy would it be to use my existing armies from other manufacturers with this ruleset ?
Are there rules for warmachines ? Big monsters ? Spellcasters (or something like that) ?
Or is the game mainly about the usual infantry/cavalry/bowmen with a slight fantasy touch ?
Also, the fact that the book is presented as complete as it is, with no planned extention/update, as its merits, but I also wonder if it is not too restrictive in the context of miniatures games.
To be more precise, while the base ruleset might be good by itself, I wonder about the armies composition : what if you make an amazing new model and want to use it in the game ? Is there place to add new units entries without breaking the armies balance ?
I’ve got two GoB armies, one using Foundry figures and one using Mantic. I’ve a friend who also has two armies, one using Foundry figures and one using GW.
There are monsters and warmachines and nine of the ten army lists have access to spellcasters (strictly speaking they’re priests though they serve the same function).
Thank you Ben, so you’re saying that I should be able to use most of my existing models then (mainly GW) ?
Of course I don’t expect to be able to use very specfic models like a Skaven Screaming bell, but having options to use the more common units looks great, especially if I want to have friends to play with, as I will then have to convert them to a new system, and it will be made easier if they can use (most of) their existing armies to start, even it it means using “count as” rules, like wizards using priests rules or the like.
Obviously it varies depending on the list but you should be able to use GW Beastmen, Undead, OnG, and Dwarf armies very easily. For High Elves you might need to add some human units. Empire, Orcs, Dwarves, and even LotR minis can be used in the Mercenaries list.
Thank you, I’m not expecting a perfect match of course. What you describe seems already very interesting.
However reading a review that I just found (they are harder to find that I expected, “god of battle” being such a generic name), the words “The combat system is based on the declare and then measure” from the review worry me.
One of the thing that made me and my group go back to Warhammer with 8th edition was the fact that we could at last premesure anything at anytime, and that judging distance by the eyeball was no longer a needed “skill”.
If GoB system force you (the player) to evaluate distances, then I fear that it will be a big “no” from my group.
Can you confirm how it works exactly ? Maybe my fears are unfounded ?
Thanks in advance.
GoB is not a pre-measure system so in that respect it’s like the first 7 editions of WFB. Like yourself, pre-measuring is something our group liked about 8th ed WFB but from a games designer point-of-view it holds a lot of potential for abuse so when it comes to wargames it isn’t something Jake likes to use. I wouldn’t let it worry you too much though. Firstly, you can just house rule pre-measuring into the game if your group prefers it. Secondly, and more importantly, it doesn’t cause as many issues as it did in WFB, at least for us. It’s difficult to explain exactly why but it mainly has to do with the unit activation sequence, the spells (miracles) are all infinite range, and missile weapons have a limited set of ranges that are easy to get to grips with. If you try it on the table you’ll see what I mean and if you don’t like it then just house rule it. We didn’t like the loss of half-VP’s for reducing a unit to half-strength in 8th ed so we just house ruled it back in.
Thanks you for your answer. If as you say it is easy to houserule without impacting the global balance, then maybe it will still be useable for us, especially if the “no premesuring” ruling is only there as an arbitrary rule and is not really used to balance the system.
Whilst I wouldn’t say it’s arbitrary, Jake has sound reasons for excluding it from his system, your group should have no issues by house ruling it in if you’re not experiencing any issues with WFB 8th ed.
None of my rules are arbitrary. Not allowing pre measuring was a conscious decision to build what I believe is a better game. The whole pre measuring or not debate has been gone over many times before, here and elsewhere, but nobody has yet refuted my arguments for pre measuring being the poorer of the two choices AFAIK (in terms of making games less fun and less “realistic”).
That said, if you like pre measuring then it is a discrete element which is easily house ruled in. Your choice.
God of Battles includes 10 full army lists and on the whole a GW army can be used as one or other of those. At least, many of the models can be. It wasn’t designed to use them, but a bit of “counts as” will go a long way. Two armies which may be of particular interest are the Mercenaries and the Thousand Tribes, both of which have a large selection of unit types to choose from and who are the basis for many of the proxy forces that I’ve seen. Wood Elves, for example, are not among the 10 Armies but could be fielded as Thousand Tribes.
Thank you Ben and Jake for your input about GoB, I will think about it once we’re done with the Deadzone KS.
Been loving the ride on the DeadZone KS! Also, while it they didn’t quite make it into the DreadBall KS, the Sphyr have been revealed! The Sharkmen I have been begging for! Totally going to convert up a DB team of them and do a “counts as” team. I will be sure to pester you later for more info about them!
We might even see a plaguified version too if the KS goes far enough 😉
Ooooooooooooooooooo!