I ditched the standard activation phases for the solo game. I used a hybrid of my HoN activation and that from mobile frame zero. In short, each unit rolled 1d12 and that number was their order. Then each warband rolled a die and the winner would act first if unit dice were tied.
To give the Wizard and Apprentice more prestige they rolled 1d6 for activation order to increase the chances they would move early in the round. I also allowed them to activate soldiers within 3", as per default, and discarded the soldier's original initiative die.
I also used and odd number of treasure sites to force a final conflict. Each side moved to pick up the treasures nearest their deployment zones, then converged on the final central market.
Their were a few surprises. This was only my second play of the system, I had not realized how useful the Leap spell was for warband mobility. I'll definitely make that a mainstay of future wizards.
The other surprise was how much of the game revolves around positioning. There is lots of terrain to break up LOS, but getting caught out in the open could be disastrous. In fact the Necromancer warband lost half of it's units on account of my poor movement tactics and some exceptionally good rolls from the Witch Doctor band.
If anyone is interested, the minaitures are from the game Krosmaster Arena. I've never played it, but the pre-painted minis are a godsend. The terrain tiles are from Heroes of Normandie (Core Box as well ad Battleground and River expansions).
ReplyDeleteThe treasure markers are grave stones from Michael's Halloween town kits. And the captured treasure markers are caskets from the same.