Sharphammer – Breaking two Perfectly Good Rules Sets…

A bit of an experiment combining the excellent Sharp Practice https://www.beastsofwar.com/game/sharp-practice/ rules set by Too Fat Lardies with Warhammer Fantasy (I was using 9^th ed http://warhammerarmiesproject.blogspot.com/ but 6^th ed or anything later should work appropriately with some adjusting to the magic phase…). Idea was to test small scale and solo applicability of such rules modifications/combinations.

Here is what I came up with:

Magic: At the start of each turn (i.e. before any cards are drawn for the current round) roll 2d6 for the Winds of Magic. The resulting two dice become the base power and dispel dice for each army for that turn. That is, each force has access to the same base casting and dispel dice. Wizards or casters may make their channelling attempts once for casting and dispel pools once their cards are drawn. When a wizard activates they may use any or all of the available casting pool to cast spells available to them. However, note that any additional wizards who activate later will be running from the same spell pool. Any wizard who is deployed may attempt to dispel a spell that has been cast, adding their caster level to the dispel attempt, provided they themselves have not miscast earlier. A wizard who miscasts rolls on the miscast table as normal, and may not cast or dispel for the remainder of that turn. Dispel attempts may be made using unmodified base dispel dice if no friendly wizards have been deployed, or if all available friendly wizards have miscast, provided sufficient dispel dice are available.

Unit leaders: When a force is selected (using WHFB points and rules), all units must take a unit champion where possible. Unit champions effectively act as level 1 leaders. Hero level characters are effectively Level 2 leaders and Lord level character are level 3. For simplicity level 2 and 3 leaders have a 12” command range. Accepting challenges with unit champions may therefore have unintended consequences.

Deployment: Troops may deploy when the command card associated with their unit appears, in line with the standard rules for Sharp Practice. Any unit with a Scout, Vanguard or Ambushers special rule will entitle the force to one (and one only) moveable deployment point as per the SP rules set.

Shooting: As per the WHFB rules set. Units that are move or fire/slow to fire (artillery, crossbows, handguns etc) must spend an action reloading as per the SP rules set. Quicker fire weapons (slings, blowpipes, bows etc) are assumed to reload immediately.

Flags: Uses of command flags have been modified slightly as per the below, with other uses (activating units after the Tiffin card is revealed etc) being as per the SP ruleset where applicable:

Any number of flags – Add +1 to hit die to an attack (non-war machine shooting or close combat) with the unit’s base trooper stat; add +1 to the leadership of a unit before they take a leadership or break check.

2 flags – Activate an unactivated unit on the table within command range.

3 flags – Immediately attempt to reroll a failed leadership/psychology/rally check; reroll a single die (including on the miscast table)

4 flags – Bonus activation.

Shock/Morale: Given the absence of shock/morale mechanics in WHFB a unit takes a leadership test each time they suffer one or more wounds from shooting/magic, as though they had taken more than 25% casualties in a single phase. Casualties in close combat are handled by the standard combat resolution process as normal.

Close Combat and Combat Resolution: As per WHFB rules set, with each force involved in the combat fighting a round of combat each time a command card (or activation) for one of the participating units is triggered.

Drawing 3 Flags in a Row: I didn’t attempt to rework the random event tables opting to just leave it out – I wouldn’t imagine it would be too difficult to modify them to suit the flavour of the game.

Force Morale: Disregarded – in small scale non-competitive games with high casualty rates as per WHFB you can pretty much eyeball when one force is beaten… Could easily reword the SP charts though if one were so inclined…

Keen to try out a couple of alternate army lists I had assembled two small (approximately 500 point) forces from the Norse (primed WW2 camo green – Red Team) and Albion (primed Skeleton Bone, Blue Team) lists. Apologies for the unpainted state of the minis…

Albion force composition was as follows:

1. Chieftain
2. 10 Tribal Warriors, Command, Woad Paint
3. 10 Tribal Warriors, command, Woad Paint
4. 10 Woad Raiders, Command, Additional Hand Weapon
5. Stone Thrower

Norse was as per the below:

1. Jarl
2. 10 Reavers, Command, Light Armour
3. 10 Reavers, Command, Light Armour
4. 10 Shield Maidens, Command
5. 10 Norse Hunters

To keep things simple (I was unfamiliar with both armies special rules and the combination of rules systems) I ignored the moveable deployment point and any special equipment upgrades.

Deployment points were determined randomly and turned out to be directly opposite on either side of the village.

Fist turn was a short one, with the Albion Chieftain deploying and bringing on one unit to Tribal Warriors  with her.

Turn 2 was comparatively a long affair. The Albion forces utilised early command cards to deploy their warmachine to try and establish some early firing, and moved to create a bottleneck in the village. This then gave their forces to the left side of the village an overlap on the Norse. The Norse also managed to fully deploy this turn, using their archers/hunters as a screen for their infantry.

Mid-game the stone thrower inflicted casualties on the Norse Hunters, who in turn inflicted casualties on the Albion Warriors on the Albion left flank. The Hunters also moved aside to give the Nose Reavers a line of charge.

Had this been a normal game then the Albion forces would have only needed to hold their ground in the village to grind out a win, but as a stalemate didn’t seem like an entirely appropriate test of the combination of rules systems I decided that the unit in the village would charge the Shieldmaidens opposing. I wanted to test the interaction of the Albion ‘War Fury’ and Norse ‘Counter Charge’ and ‘Beserkergang’ special rules.  As expected, the Albion unit broke the shieldmaidens but was then flank charged by the unit of Reavers and scattered, with the Shieldmaidens subsequently rallying.

On the Albion left flank the remaining unit of warriors moved on the Huntsmen, bringing them just within striking distance of the second set of Norse Reavers.

The Nores Reavers attempted to charge the remaining unit of Albion Warriors, and were successful. After a stoic resistance for a couple of rounds they broke and were pursued and scattered by the Reavers, who overran into the Stone Thrower and then also scattered their crew. With her forces in disarray the Albion Chieftain gathered her remaining Woad Raiders and went to raise the alarm over the presence of the Norse raiders.

Thoughts on Gameplay.

Everything seemed fairly intuitive, although the forces were small and straightforward. Unsure how the introduction of magic or some of the more ‘random’ fantasy elements would have complicated proceedings. Everything felt a lot more granular than a regular game of WHFB, which is odd because the combat mechanics were no different. The command cards worked well, although given the small scale of the game really just ensured most units could act each turn. In a larger scale game choice of command card usage might become more critical.

I’m yet to try Warlords of Erehwon (yep, still having to type it backwards to get the spelling right…) but I imagine the game would have a similar feel. I’d personally be keen to give this particular rules mash-up a go again 🙂