A Home Raiders Solo Play and Solo Learn Experience

Its a simple little game.  It flowed well and even though I was at the table for about 2 hours it felt fast.  I was probably playing for less too, once you remove photo and note taking time, and checking the rules etc.  Should be a fast game with a little practise.

I liked this.  It was simple, quaint and enjoyable.  It is a shame it didn’t live long enough for them to release more content or for the game to catch on.

The game wasn’t supported long enough for anyone to work out what a good table set up should look like, or how big each army should be.  I do think each side needs more models for a “full” game, but I don’t think it wants many more.  Perhaps somewhere around double the points size might work well?  This is not a large scale battle game, but if you wanted to try it it might work, although it wouldn’t likely be how you’d want to play it regularly.

As for terrain, I suspect my setup didn’t lend itself to the game much.  The push abilities never came in to it.  Maybe I do need to just throw some stuff on the table and play however it lands?  Or take over an already busy surface?

I think this game would be great for a parent with kids just old enough to start wargaming.  Everyone takes a different faction and you draw up a map of the house and over a school holiday you fight for control of the different rooms with the parent acting as a GM/Storyteller, as well as joining in in the games.  Could be a good way to get housework out of your kids too.  “We can’t possibly fight over your room until you put some of your toys away.  They are in the way”.  This could allow the parent to tell some stories too.  You could play it with adults as a more relaxed game as well.  I’d enjoy a few games against my friends.

In the end, the lack of support, lack of diversity in the range, and everything being out of stock is the big reason why this won’t take off, even for people who want it to.  If TTCombat announce they are going to revisit the range and add new models, and perhaps tidy up the rules a little (They are fine as is, but a little cleaning up of language or clarifying a couple of points might be nice), and release double sided stat cards then I would be very happy and tempted to develop my teams.  If they released better sculpts all the better.  They could really have fun with this licence and attract some hobby painters with interesting models.  I was always hoping for a Mice and Mystics / Burrows and Badgers style faction, for example.

Questions & Thoughts

• Does the clear Merc gem have to be used for the Merc, or can it be used for anyone from his team?
• Are there rules covering who deploys first that I missed
• I see that once in melee a model cannot move, but will take a free strike if they move away.  I see they cannot shoot out of melee, but I’m not seeing any rules saying you cannot shoot in to melee.  The only penalty I see is that engaging models might provide cover if they are between the target and the shooter.
• Having an even number of objectives and no tiebreaker seems a little unfortunate.
• The custom dice make it tricky to eyeball probabilities.  Putting some thought in to this might reveal the maths is simpler than at first glance.  Right now it is tricky to work out if I am better off shooting or punching with some models.
• I have now eaten some of the terrain.  How often can any of us say that?