Brethren

As mentioned previously, I picked up a copy of the historical skirmish rules Brethren about a month or so ago. I decided to give the rules a try today with a simple solo game of Vikings v Irish, with about 200pts per side. I was using my Saga miniatures for this, so the base sizes weren’t all the suggested 25mm (they ranged from 20mm to 30mm for the heroes), but since a solo game is about a friendly as it can get, I figured it wouldn’t be too much of an issue.

The main thing was that I wanted to see how the rules played out. It turned out to be quite a quick game, with me realising that I really didn’t understand the intent of the rules. But more on that later.

Building a warband is a bit fiddly, but I knew that going in. It’s a bit more like old-school Warhammer, where you pay for individual items of equipment rather than having units spoon fed to you like Saga does. It does provide more flexibility, but does mean that spreadsheets could end up becoming involved.

I should be clear that a level of complexity like this isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a different style of game to what I’ve been playing a lot of recently. Being able to have a figure with two swords, and that making a difference in the game, is a nice feature to have.

I also decided to get out my Battlesystems buildings to provide a Viking settlement. One thing I’m hoping to use Brethren for is for a more terrain-rich style of game, with figures moving into and out of buildings, and possibly fighting from different levels and up and down ladders. The rules seem to allow this, so I’m hoping it will be fun once I’ve figured out the basics.

Update: I’ve had a very quick reply from the game’s author about my questions, so I hope to do another post to go over those with a more informed game.

Turn 1

With a simple skirmish around a village, the Vikings went first. Their hero did a command action to move his ‘hearthguards’ up to the road. Though each figure moves individually, alternating between sides, when a hero gives a command, multiple figures within 6″ all act at once.

The Irish also did a command action, this time to run. A run moves 6″ plus 1D6″. All the Irish were within 6″, so the entire force moved forward. I did roll the movement for each individual figure, but checking the rules a bit later I saw that it’s a single 1D6 roll for all the figures following a command.

The rest of the Vikings then ran up. None of the Vikings had missile weapons, so there was nothing else they could do.

There was no combat in this turn, and therefore no morale phase either.

Turn 2

The Vikings won initiative again, so a Viking moved up to an Irish figure. This is where I begin to get confused. There is a ‘charge’ action, which can be given by a Hero. However, there are no charge actions which individual figures can take. However, in the combat phase, any figures in base to base contact get to fight. So I did a move action to put the Viking in base to base contact with the Irish.

It was now the Irish turn. This figure has a javelin, so is better off shooting rather than in melee. As a levee, it gets two Action Points, so it did a Move, followed by a Shoot. As far as I can see, there’s nothing in the rules saying that you can’t move out of base to base contact. This seems to be true whether you’re in base contact due to a move, or even due to a charge.

Maybe it’s assumed that you can’t move away from a potential combat like this. Or maybe you’re meant to wait for the enemy to take an action before trying to force them into combat. But the rules don’t say one way or the other. Both would seem to be a valid way for the rules to work, but both options give a very different sort of game.

Deciding to play the rules as written, the Irish moves back and does a shoot (though there’s also nothing to say you can’t shoot if in base contact that I saw). He rolls to shoot and misses.

The other Viking runs to get into combat, trying to reach the Irish figure that has just taken their action, but doesn’t move far enough.

Then another Irish throws their javelin. He rolls two dice, getting a 1 & 5, and the Viking gets a 4. So the Irish hits, and rolls a 6 for wounds, killing the Viking. I did forget shields at this point, which would give the Viking a +1 on their defence roll. But I also forgot to aim, which also gives the Irish +1 to each of their dice.

Another Irish figures does remember to aim then shoot, getting another kill.

Something I realised at this point is that there are no differences in armour. You have experienced warriors, and inexperienced levee, and the former have better armour than the latter. But though there are lots of different weapon options, there are no armour options. There’s no difference between a light experienced warrior in leathers and a heavy experienced warrior in mail.

Deciding to force some melee, the Viking hero game an order to run out into the road. The Hero was then able to prepare, spending his last action point. His companions, who only had two AP, weren’t able to do this.

Then the Irish hero charged. We were now in combat. The Irish and Viking heroes faced each other off, with an Irish axe wielder also attacking the Viking hero. The Viking hero was supported by his two axe wielders as well though.

The other four fighters faced off in individual combats.

The heroes first. The Irish had 11D6 to roll (3D6 for the Hero, +2D6 for a great axe, plus 2D6 for the other Irish who also had an axe (+2D6). Plus they both charged, so +1D6 each). The Viking had only 5D6 (3D6 for the hero, with sword and shield, plus 1D6 from each of his supporting companions). The Vikings also had +2 to their roles – +1 from being prepared for the charge, and +1 for having a sword.

The sword rules are a bit inconsistent. On p.16 it says that swords provide no modifiers. On p.22 they say that heroes and experienced infantry with swords get +1 to hit. I’m assuming that the latter is more correct since it’s a more specific rule.

The Irish rolled first, and got a pretty bad result. A single six, a couple of fives and everything else 1s and 2s. The Vikings rolled worse though, getting 1, 2, 3, 3 and 3. Even with +2, this wasn’t enough to beat the Irish. So the Irish rolled one wound (they had one dice which was higher than the Viking’s best roll), and failed to wound.

The individual figures then fought each other, and the results were similar. Some hits, but no wounds.

So the melee ended with neither side getting any wounds. After a melee, the loser needs to retreat – but in this case there was no obvious loser. No wounds had been taken. So do the two sides remain in base to base contact? Or is it like Saga where the attacker has to fall back? Or something else?

If they remain in base to base, do they still get to charge next turn (though there’s a rule of not being able to charge if within 3″, so I guess not), or can they just saunter away? If they both wanted to, I guess they could remain where they are and just fight a combat again.

At this point I realise that I really don’t know how the rules are meant to work. It may be that I’m playing it right, but there’s nothing to confirm that I am. Maybe I’m just over thinking things (or just missing bits in the rules). But to my mind, there’s a lot of rule clarifications that are missing.

Which is a shame, because the rules do seem interesting. I did just check the FAQ on their website, but nothing is mentioned there about the questions that I have. There are some videos, so maybe I need to watch those, or post some questions on their forum. It’s very possible that I’ve missed things whilst reading the rules, or as I said, maybe I’m just over thinking things.

I will give the game another try, but I do need to try and figure out how the game is meant to work first.