Traditions

Every gaming group will — and should — develop its own traditions. The Skirmisher Game Development Group is no exception, and following are some of the traditions and house rules that we have adopted for our Little Orc Wars games. Most of them have no bearing on the outcome of a game, however, and that is why they are not listed as rules elsewhere in this book.

No shoes: We encourage players in our group not to wear shoes during games played on the floor. One reason is so that the floor will be cleaner for people crawling around on it moving their armies and firing their catapults. Another is that being barefoot or in stocking feet tends to make people a bit more agile and less likely to stomp on battlefield features or deployed troops.

Hats when firing: Yeah, it might seem silly, but like any good soldiers, our gamers are encouraged to wear appropriate headgear — if not during the entire game, at least while they are firing. This tradition actually goes back to H.G. Wells himself, as indicated by photographs in the 1913 edition of his Little Wars showing he and his friends suitably covered. Our hats of choice vary by player but have included fezes, berets, and even jester hats.

Soft shot only: After numerous playtest sessions, we have determined that very hard catapult shot — such as the popular d12s — causes inordinate damage to props and have thus decided to ban it. Periodically seeing a miniature shot in half is, naturally, amusing, as is witnessing chunks being blasted off of models. Post-game repair sessions became too protracted, however, and too many troops needed to be permanently retired. Acceptable ammunition for our games includes the shot that comes with our Papo catapults, Dots brand candy, and d4s (the shape of which dramatically reduces their velocity).

Game Play Tip: Melee

If melee is inevitable for a group your soldiers—particularly one that includes special troops like spellcasters — try to be the one to initiate it. That way, you will be the one to select which combatants become casualties and can reduce the chance that your special creatures will be slain.

Rules Addition: Elementals

Elementals are powerful creatures created of the elements themselves. If possible, miniatures suggestive of the particular element that the Elemental is representative of should be used.

General rules for Elementals:
(1)Elementals are fast, their size does not determine this. An elemental moves at a rate of 24 inches per turn.
(2)Elementals greater than 1 inch tall have a number of Melee Dice equal to its height in inches greater than 1 (e.g. a 2 inch elemental is 2 melee dice, 3 inches are 3 melee dice, 4 inches 4 melee dice, etc.).
(3)If a point buy system is being used the value for a 1 inch Elemental is 2 points. For Elementals of greater size, it is 2+the number of melee dice the Elemental has.
(4)To get an Elemental representative of a particular element, the player must also have a Wizard of the corresponding element (e.g. to buy Earth Elementals the player must have an Earth Mage).
(5)If all Wizards of an Elemental's parent element are killed, the Elemental is too killed (e.g. if all a player's Earth Wizards are killed, all Earth Elementals are killed too).
Specific abilities for Elementals:
Air Elemental- Air Elementals may travel in a manner similar to the way Air Mages transport troops. When an Air Elemental is using its ability, replace it with a catapult and launch a die from it. Wherever the die lands is the Elemental's new location.
Earth Elemental- Earth Elementals may attack buildings directly. Damage dealt by Earth Elementals can be found in the following way: Roll all of the Elemental's Melee Dice, every roll of 5 or greater deals one point of damage to the building. Additionally, Earth Elementals are in no way impeded by terrain. When moving across solid land an Earth Elemental's movement is always a full 24 inches.
Fire Elementals- If a Fire Elemental is in virtual contact with a building, the building receives one point of burning for every round the Fire Elemental is in virtual contact with it.
Water Elementals- A Water Elemental that is in water has an infinite movement rate, it can be placed anywhere within a single contiguous water feature. Additionally, when engaged in combat with a Fire Elemental, double the number of Melee Dice the Water Elemental gets to roll (e.g. a 3 Melee Dice Water Elemental fighting a Fire Elemental recieves 6 dice instead of 3).

Air Mages

Air Mages are Wizards who can surround troops in a sheath of air and launch them far distances using catapults. If possible, players should use catapult shot that is white, transparent, gray, or otherwise similar in appearance to air.
(1) If within 6 inches of a catapult, an Air Mage can launch any 1 point troop that is in virtual contact said catapult. Doing so takes up one of the catapult's shots for each troop launched this way. Miniatures should be represented by a die (launching the actual miniature is not recommended, but if you want to anyway, go nuts), which is then launched as a normal catapult shot. Wherever the die lands, the miniature should be placed.
(2) Kills caused by launched troops should be ignored. The protective cushion of air that protects the launched troop from getting hurt also protects enemy soldiers from getting hurt.
(3) Air Mages may launch larger creatures (e.g. war beasts, giants, etc.) at the cost of extra shots from the catapult. For example, a two melee dice war beast that is launched in this way costs the catapult two shots. Creatures larger than four melee dice cannot be launched by an Air Mage.
(4) If the launched troop lands in a location that would be hazardous to the troop (e.g. in water if it's armored) or if it lands out of the designated play area, that troop should be considered dead.
(5) If desired, an Air Mage may launch itself from a catapult so long as there are still four units available to man the catapult after the Wizard is launched.

Request for Help with New Forum

As some of the readers of this blog may already know, Skirmisher just launched a new online Forum dedicated to discussion of all of our games and other products (at http://www.skirmisher.com/forum). While this and the other blogs are mainly intended for people interested in developing rules that we will publish, the Forum is going to be geared more toward customer-based discussions.

In any event, the Forum has only been up about two days as of this posting, and there are some things you can do to help drive people to it and encourage them to participate in it:

1) Go to the Forum, at http://www.skirmisher.com/forum), and register with it.

2) Reply to any of the existing threads or start ones of your own.

3) Post your current and near-future posts to this blog to the appropriate sections of the Forum as well.

Thanks! As always, your help is invaluable and appreciated. The Forum should take off and become self-sustaining fairly quickly but a concerted effort to "prime the pump" now can be of immeasurable benefit to us.

Rules Addition: Earth Mages

Earth Mages are Wizards (q.v.) who can make the shot fired from catapults harder and considerably more destructive to structures. If possible, players should use catapult shot that is brown, black, gray, otherwise at similar in appearance to earth or stone.
(1) If within 6 inches of one, a, Earth Mage can turn all of the shots fired from a single catapult into Earthballs.
(2) If a structure is struck by an Earthball, it suffers twice as much damage as it would from a normal piece of shot (i.e., 2 points instead of 1).
(3) Neither catapults nor troops struck by Earthballs are affected differently than they would be by normal catapult shots.
(4) If desired, an Earth Mage can turn two catapult shots — if available — into a single Mega Earthball. Such a projectile will affect troops and structures as a regular Earthball and once it stops moving will create a 3-inch diameter crater (easily represented with a cardboard disk). The attacker may place this in any way so long as the catapult shot would be entirely within it.
(5) Any troops caught completely within the area of the crater must give up 6 inches of movement to get out of it. Similarly, any movement through a crater is doubled.
(6) If within 6 inches of a damaged structure (e.g., a tower), an Earth Mage can repair up to 2 points of damage to it as his action for the turn.

Rules Addition: Wizards

Wizards are spellcasters who can use magic to influence the course of battle. Presumably, such characters have all sorts of minor and esoteric powers beyond those described, but as they play no role on the battlefield, they are not noted here. Players should employ distinctive miniatures to represent such special troops.
(1) A Wizard counts as a normal infantryman for purposes of melee or being killed by catapult fire. Because Wizards know a variety of ranged spells that they can direct at nearby enemies, however, such combatants should be treated as if they were armed with missile weapons.
(2) If a point buy system is being used to build armies, the cost for a Wizard is 6 points (i.e., he is considered to be equivalent to six normal foot soldiers).
(3) Unless noted, a Wizard may either cast a spell or perform some special function on the firing phase of its owner’s turn (i.e., when catapults are fired) or move, but not both.