KoW Armada: Regelimpressionen

Mantic Games zeigen neue Einblicke in die Regeln von Armada.

How to play Armada: Building your Fleet

Today we’re kicking off a brand-new series on the blog that’s going to give you an in-depth guide on how to play our upcoming naval wargame, Armada! We’ll be explaining everything from how to move, how to shoot, to boarding actions and anything else we can possibly cram in. We’ll also be breaking this down into a video too, so stay tuned for that.

Of course, if you simply can’t wait for all that and want to see the game being played RIGHT NOW, then check out the gameplay video by Blackjack Legacy. This is a small taster game, featuring the Basileans and Dwarfs.

If you’re still reading, then let’s get cracking by talking about how to build your fleet – after all, choosing, then painting your ships is one of the most exciting elements of the whole process. When it comes to starting your fleet, we recommend players begin with the basics and only have around three ships per side. However, once you’re comfortable with the rules, we expect you’ll probably be using around 6-9 ships.

Options are split into different size categories:

• Tiny – Orc Rabble
• Small – Orc Bombboat
• Medium – Orc Hammerfist
• Large – Orc Smasher
• Extra Large – Orc Ripper Hulk

Of course, the bigger the boat, the more expensive it will be… but the more powerful it will be! Ships are also split into two categories: Main Battle Ships and Support Ships. For each Main Battleship you can add up to two Support Ships into your fleet. There are also Named Vessels – these are ships of legend that have stalked the seas and claimed numerous victories. You can only have one of each Named Vessel in your fleet.

UPGRADES!

Once you’ve got your fleet selected, it’s time to start having fun with some upgrades! Just like Kings of War or Vanguard, you can add standard or magical upgrades to your ships. The standard upgrades are things like boarding nets to try and stop grapple attempts by the enemy or a Master Carpenter, which will help with repairs.

Meanwhile, the magical upgrades feature names that regular Kings of War players will be familiar with. There’s the Brew of Strength, which makes boarding actions more likely to cause Crushing Blows, or the Sails of Honeymaze, which enables a boat to make an extra move step once per game. Although standard upgrades can be given to any ship, the potentially more powerful magical upgrades may only be given to Main Battle Ships and (just like Kings of War) you can only select one of each magical upgrade per fleet.

However, they’re not the only options you’ve got when it comes to customising your fleet because each faction has their own unique standard and magical upgrades, plus special captains! For example, the orcs can take the War Drum of Spite, which helps the orcs cause extra damage during Boarding Actions.

The Captain Upgrades are also unique to each faction and you may only take one captain per fleet – so choose wisely! You can add a Captain to a Main Battleship and they give that ship a powerful special ability. For example, Katrina von Specctra for the Basileans, can give her ship a free Move Step after being deployed… potentially giving her the edge when it comes to claiming an all-important objective.

So, as you can see, there are plenty of exciting options when it comes to building your fleet. In our next blog we’ll start diving into the rules!

Und weiter geht es:

How to play Armada: The Scenarios!

Ahoy there! Good to see you back for another of our Armada rules previews. After yesterday’s blog, which explained how you build your fleets, today we’re talking about the different sorts of scenarios you’ll be playing.

There are 10 different missions in the rulebook, each with their own unique rules and conditions for winning. With the scenarios we wanted to have a mix of more typical naval objectives and slightly more fantastical missions that represent the magic and monsters of Pannithor – something we’ll be expanding on in the future too.

Games of Armada are usually played on a space at least 48” x 36” for small games featuring 2-4 ships per side. The scenarios assume this minimum size of playing area when describing their set-up but work best with a 48” x 48” area. Larger games can, of course, be played on even bigger areas and can have many more boats!

The 10 missions included in the book are:

• Maritime Patrol
• Capture the Kraken
• The Vortex
• X Marks the Spot
• Hunt the Flagship
• A Storm is Brewing
• Attack Waves
• Flotsam and Jetsam
• Treaty and Treachery
• Plant the Flag

The standard mission to learn the ropes is Maritime Patrol, which is a challenge to see how many of the opponent’s ships you can destroy. It’s designed for only three to four boats, with a total points of about 100. It’s also recommended to play your first games without any terrain – just so you can get used to moving around, without smashing into stuff!

Of course, once you’re comfortable with Maritime Patrol, then it’s time to start getting onto the more complex (and fun) missions! Capture the Kraken is one mission that will be familiar to those of you that have played the Capture the Giant scenario in Vanguard. Here a rampaging Kraken is raging across the sea and players score points for wounding the beast. However, you’ve also got to watch out for your enemy because you can score points for taking out Medium, Large and Extra Large ships.

Meanwhile, X Marks the Spot is a typical tale of treasure on the high seas. Two small islands are placed on the playing area. Each is packed with the elusive treasure of Don Silva! At the end of each Turn ships within 3” of the islands will score VPs. Smaller ships will find it much easier to get closer to the islands but can only carry so much. As a result, they’ll need to offload their treasure to the larger ships. However, if a ship is a ship is destroyed or surrenders as part of a boarding action, then the enemy will snag all the VPs! You’ve got to balance gathering up treasure and then protecting your precious bounty.

Each of the 10 missions offers a totally different experience and we can’t wait to see your battle reports!

How to play Armada: Movement

Ahoy there, land lubbers! We’re sailing back into view with another of our Armada rules blogs. So far we’ve covered how to build your fleet and the types of scenarios you can expect to play in the game. Today, we’re introducing movement!

Just like Kings of War, tactical movement of your units is absolutely key in Armada. In some ways, you can think of your boats as heroes, regiments and hordes in Kings of War. While Kings of War is all about careful placement to get into the flanks, Armada is focused on broadsides and ‘crossing the line’ – which we’ll come to when we talk about shooting.

Anyway, back to today’s topic of movement! There are some important things to consider when it comes to movement, first of which is how fast your ship can go. To help, let’s have a look at the Hammerfist ship card.

On the right, next to the ship’s wheel, you’ll see a 5. That means that during one of its Move Steps, a Hammerfist must move five inches. But what is a move step, cries our imaginary blog reader! Well, when a ship is activated, you can set it at one of four speeds:

• Anchored: The ship will make no Move Steps
• Steady Speed: The ship will make one Move Step
• Battle Speed: The ship will make two separate Move Steps
• Full Speed: This ship will make three separate Move Steps

To set a speed, you can either continue at the speed you’re currently travelling or move up/down one step. For example, you can go from Steady Speed to Battle Speed, but you can’t go from Steady Speed to Full Speed.

The important thing to remember is that when setting your speed, you MUST travel your full movement stat. Going back to the Hammerfist – if you’re at Battle Speed, you have to travel 10-inches. No more, no less.

Thankfully though, you can turn at the end of each Move Step to avoid collisions with other boats or pesky islands that might get in your way. So, at Battle Speed the Hammerfist could move five inches, turn, move another fives inches and then turn again.

To perform a turn, you must use the Ship Turning Template. There are two angles on the template – red and yellow. Red allows your ship to turn up to 45 degrees, while yellow allows a turn of up to 30 degrees – you don’t have to turn the full amount. The amount your ship can turn is indicated on the Ship Card by a red or yellow angle. For example, the Hammerfist has a red angle, so can turn up to 45 degrees at the end of each Move Step.

To turn, you line the back of your ship base up with the template and then tilt it up to the maximum angle.

Through a careful combination of the correct speed and delicate turning you can navigate round obstacles – like other ships and terrain. In a future blog, we’ll look at what happens if you do collide with things that get in your way.

GOT WIND?

You may notice, while talking about movement, we haven’t mentioned wind. If you’ve played Black Seas, you’ll know that wind plays a key part in moving your ships and massively affects how they can sail.

For Armada, in the standard rules the wind is only used to determine which ships will activate first, rather than how they move. However, if you want to add a level of realism to your games, there are additional rules for adding wind to Armada and the changes it makes to movement.

How to play Armada: Shooting!

Welcome to the latest in our series of rules blogs for Armada – the game of epic naval warfare. We’re just over a month away from release and we can’t wait to hit the high seas. In today’s blog, we’re explaining how shooting works.

Ships in the world of Pannithor can carry a bewildering array of cunning, brutal and magical weaponry. For simplicity, Armada uses four categories of weapons: Heavy Weapons (H), Light Weapons (L), Close Quarter Weapons (C) and Indirect Weapons (IDW). The game comes with different coloured D10 so you can roll for each weapon at the same time, without getting confused.

Each of the different types of weapons has a maximum range, which you’ll need to watch out for when moving. Indirect Weapons can be fired up to 22”, Heavy Weapons have a distance of 20”, Light Weapons are capable firing up to 14” and Close Quarter Weapons only fire 8”. Potentially this means you can weaken an enemy with a Heavy Weapon before moving in for the kill with your Close Quarter Weapons.

You have the opportunity to shoot your various weapons at the end of each Move Step – take a look at the movement blog for a reminder on Move Steps. This means that if you’re travelling at Battle Speed, for example, you could move, shoot, move and then shoot again.

You can shoot from up to four different Weapon Positions: left and right broadsides directly to each side, and directly in front or to the rear. Typically, you choose what weapon position you’re shooting from and each weapon position can only fire once per turn. The most devastating attacks tend to be from the left or right broadsides, so skilful movement of your ship is key to make sure you’re in the correct position.

CHOICES, CHOICES!

When you’re in position, your ship card will tell you how many of each type of gun you’ve got in a particular position. For example, if you want to fire from the broadside of a Basilean Elohi, you’ve got two Heavy Weapons, one Light Weapon and one Close Quarter Weapon. First, you’ll need to measure the distance to see what guns are in range.

An Orc Hammerfist is nine inches away, which means you can fire with the Heavy Weapons and the Light Weapon, but the Close Quarter Weapon is out of range. Now you pick up two blue D10s for the Heavy Weapon and one red D10 and roll to hit.

Each die that scores a 6 or more counts as a hit, while a natural 10 counts as a Critical Hit. Of course, just like any wargame there are a number of modifiers that can affect the roll. For example, if you’re within three inches of the target, you’ll get a +2 modifier for close range, whereas firing from further than 10 inches (unless it’s an Indirect Weapon) will suffer a -1 modifier.

DAMAGE AND CRITICAL HITS

Once you’ve rolled to hit, it’s time to see what damage has been caused. Each type of weapon causes the following damage:

• Heavy Weapons: 2 damage
• Light Weapons: 1 damage
• Close Quarter Weapons: 3 damage
• Indirect Weapons: D6 damage

For each natural 10 rolled, you then get to roll on the Critical Hit Table, instead of just causing normal damage. The Critical Hit Table has the capability of setting a ship on fire or even reducing the enemy’s speed. As a result, rolling a 10 can be devastating for your opponent.

FIRE AS SHE BEARS

If you realise your ship’s movement will take it out of range of the target, you also have the option to ‘Fire as She Bears’. This represents the ship’s crew taking opportunistic pot shots as they sail past the enemy. At any point during your Move Step, you can elect to Fire as She Bears and roll to hit and damage, as normal. Shooting and moving at the same time isn’t easy though, so the attack suffers a -2 modifier.

However, it’s not just the active player that can elect to Fire as She Bears. Your opponent can choose to have a shot as you gleefully sail past. If your ship ends a Move Step within range of an unactivated enemy ship’s broadside, they can Fire as She Bears – once you’ve finished any of your shooting. This suffers the same modifiers and means the opponent can’t fire from that position later in the turn. So, it’s a potentially risky move!

Of course, shooting is only one of the ways to cripple your enemy and in our next blog, we’ll be talking about potentially lethal Boarding Actions.

Mantic Games ist unter anderem bei unserem Partner Fantasywelt erhältlich.

Quelle: Mantic Games