Legends of the High Seas
Adapted by Tim Kulinski
Produced by Warhammer Historical Wargames
Published by BL Publishing, 2008
Product Code 60049986012
ISBN 978-1-84416-497-4
(all images are taken from the rule book and are copyright Games Workshop LTD)
Please note that I erroneously reported that only two crew lists were provided. Indeed, as pointed out by Chris Walkley and Tim Kulinski, there are three. The appropriate paragraphs have been corrected.
A while back a friend reawakened a dormant interest in The Three Musketeers. A rare deal with a retailer cutting back on inventory netted most of the Redoubt range at a price I couldn’t refuse. Of course, now that I own a ton of lead, the search was on for a suitable set of rules. Did I mention that very same friend got me interested in pirates last year? He’s a member of the Old Glory club and has no interest in pirates so he gave me all the monthly releases. Naturally, I needed to buy a ton of Old Glory pirates to go along with the captains. My plan was to have Legends of the High Seas do double duty. If the rules were suitable then there should be little need of alteration to play a musketeers game. There is no difference between swinging on a line from ship to ship and swinging from a chandelier. The only thing to be done is to define the characters or simply adopt them from Un Pour Tous, nice fan produced adaptation of Legends of the Old West to The Three Musketeers which can be found at: http://perrysheroes.free.fr/spip.php?article118 As soon as I was able to find a copy of Legends of the High Seas I snapped it up. What follows is my opinion of what I found between the covers.
The overall quality of the book is typical of the high standards of Warhammer Historical. Pages are formatted with a full-bleed background image that doesn’t impair the readability of the text at all. The font weight and size are easily read. Many photographs appear to illustrate points in the printed text; they appear close to the rules they are illustrating. Post processing of the photographs to add arrows, highlights, etc., are appropriate and not over-done. These photographs are not only instructional, they are inspirational as well. I looked for a citation of the photographer but didn’t find one. That’s a shame, there really should be one.
(Excellent illustrative photographs)
That being said, there is a major flaw in the book’s quality and that is the “artwork” representing pirates throughout. These pictures appear to be computer rendered (badly, I might add) game characters. I really can’t say enough about how bad this poor excuse for art is. Not only is the art bad, but the obvious lack of basic Photoshop skills are there for all to see. Even the cover art violates just about everything one learns as a high school freshman art student. The lighting direction is inconsistent, the blending is nonexistent, and there is not thought given to perspective. The artwork in this book is so poor that it is distracting and makes it hard for the reader to ignore the eyesores to read the text. I know these are not high profit books so I can only wonder why the publisher didn’t ditch the failed artwork and buy a $20 Dover royalty free nautically themed clipart CD. It would have been cheaper and would have improved the appearance of the book immeasurably.
(An example of substandard artwork)However, while the photographs are instructional and art is supposed to provide visual appeal, they are garnish for the main course. It is the rules which are the meat and potatoes. It is no secret that I like The Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game designed by Rick Priestly. His heroic skirmish game is a solid performer. Thus Legends of the High Seas, being based on those rules, inherits a well tested system. Shortly after these rules were announced, the Forward was released as a preview. I was somewhat taken aback by the acknowledgement of Mark Latham’s adaptation of the The Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game rules, Legends of the Old West, without even a head nod to the originator, Rick Priestly. While the Forward has remained unchanged, the page of acknowledgements clearly gives credit to Rick Priestly as the designer of the fundamental game.
But enough of that, I’m sure that you, gentle reader, are anxious to find out something about the game rules themselves, especially if you are unfamiliar with The Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game or Legends of the Old West. Hold on tight, this is going to be a whirlwind tour. Oh, one more thing, I’ve not tried to address every rule in detail, this is a survey in broad strokes.
Ok, now we can start…
The rules are simple and straightforward. Since they are skirmish rules, games are intended to use few figures per player. Too many figures would become too much for an average player to control and still maintain the quick pace intended and, therefore, the level of enjoyment. Each figure is classified as a ‘henchman’ or a ‘hero’; all have a set of characteristics comprised of: Shooting (S), Fighting (F), Strength (St), Defense (D), Attacks (A), Wounds (W), and Courage (C). Heroes have two additional characteristics: Fame (FA) and Fortune (FT); these will see more of later in detail as they are a fundamental part of the game. For now let’s concern ourselves with the common set of characteristics.
These characteristics perform as one might intuitively expect in a game of this nature. They either determine a target number for a die roll, provide a value for a look-up table, or specify how many attacks can be made or wounds absorbed. For instance the Shooting value is the target number to make or beat on a single die roll to determine a ‘hit’. The weapon’s strength and the target’s Defense are then used to reference a table to find the target number for another die roll to actually cause a wound. The number of wounds is subtracted from the figures Wound number; when it reaches zero, the figure is removed. The Courage value is used as a target number to see if the figure sticks around in various circumstances. This brings me to a short a description of the combat process. For those who are unfamiliar with The Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game or Legends of the Old West close combat it works like this: Two or more opposing figures in base to base contact are in close combat. Players roll one die for each point of Attack value for the figures in contact. Note that this has the potential to get messy as many figures can be in contact at the same time in a big scrum such as a boarding action. The way to approach these situations, by rule, is to divide up the combats so that they are as evenly distributed as possible (there is a good photograph of this in the book that players would do well to study). All dice are rolled and compared (not totaled!). The side with the highest single die wins the combat. If it’s a tie, then the figure with the highest Fight value wins. If the two sides are still even, then the two sides simply dice off to determine the winner. The loser backs way from the winner and the winner gets to dice for damage. Damage is assessed similar to shooting except that the winner’s Strength is compared to the loser’s Defense on a table to determine the target number to cause a wound. Melee weapons are modifiers to the ‘to hit’ roll (weapon encumbrance) and to the damage roll. At first blush it would seem that this combat system would never work because it seems too random and thus evenly matched. In fact, though, it works amazingly well in practice because this is a game of heroes and as we are about to see, heroes have what it takes to tip the scales and win battles. What it takes is heroes’ Fame and Fortune.
Fame is a characteristic which only a hero can have. Fame points are spent to adjust a die roll up or down as appropriate. For instance, a hero dices against an opponent to resolve a close combat situation and he loses. The hero may expend Fame points, to a limit, to raise his die score to equal the opponent if his Fight characteristic is better than this opponent or exceed it if not and win the fight. The opponent, however, if he is also a hero, may do the same. These decisions are made after the dice rolled so a hero on hero fight could end up in a bidding contest leaving both heroes’ Fame expended with resolution decided by a dice off. However, Fame is precious; it does not get replenished during the game and it serves, as we shall see, to fuel another critical game mechanic. A hero could very well choose to lose a combat and take the risk of having to absorb a wound in order to save his Fame for a critical juncture later on in the game.
Similarly, Fortune is also expended during the game. However, Fortune is expended by a player for the chance to dice to recover wounds. Spending a Fortune point entitles the player to roll on a Wound recovery table. Note that Fame points can be used to modify the die roll (this is one of the reasons that a player might not want to use up all the Fame in winning melees). A figure, though, whose wounds have been reduced to zero and his Fortune is expended, has met his demise and is consigned to Davy Jones Locker. While Fame and Fortune work closely together to keep a hero in the fracas, Fame is also important in another way.
Fame points can also be expended to override the normal turn sequence. There are “Heroic Actions” which may be performed such as getting a volley off before the opponent, rallying a group to charge, and gaining the initiative for a melee round.
As you can see, with their Fame and Fortune along with a tendency to have more Wounds, Defense and higher Fight values than henchmen, heroes rule the game. Legends of the High Seas, like its parent game, The Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game and its sister adaptation Legends of the Old West is all about the heroes. Other figures are important (enough henchmen can bring a hero down or, at least, weaken him significantly) and heroes aren’t so powerful as to be able to win without their henchmen.
So far, to this point, everything has been pretty much the same as The Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game and Legends of the Old West. You might be asking yourself, “So what about the ‘pirate-ity’ stuff?” Added to the basic game mechanics, already containing mechanisms for leaping over things and climbing (with its obvious opposite, falling!), is swinging from ropes and swimming. Again, for those familiar with the parent rules, suffice it to say that they work the same and skip the next paragraph. For those less familiar, read on.
The success of these attempted actions, i.e. jumping, climbing, swinging and swimming, is determined by a die roll against a table. The score on the die is referenced on a table to determine the level of success or failure. The tables are all constructed similarly so they are easily recalled after one or two uses. Low is bad and high is good. Readers should note that this roll is yet another instance where the ability of a hero to modify a die roll might be put to good use. Creative players should be able to classify just about any action into one of the four categories given. Pulling off the Errol Flynn (or The Goonies, if you’re of a later generation) feat of stabbing a sail with a cutlass and riding the rending sail to the deck could easily be classified by cooperative players as a “climb” and be resolved as such. A hero attempting such a feat could use his Fame to modify the die roll if need be and deftly accomplish it with appropriate panache while yelling, “Hey, you guys!” and munching a Baby Ruth.
(An inspiring photo)
Weapons are used to shoot, affect the probability of winning a fight and to wound. As one would expect, weapons are pretty simple in a pirate game. Firearms are primitive and generically treated as is appropriate for this level of game. For shooting there are pistols, muskets, blunderbusses (shotguns) and grenades. For melee there are improvised weapons, clubs, swords, and pole arms. I won’t go on about weapons beyond saying that the level of definition of weapons is appropriate for this game. Any more detail, and the game would be an unplayable mess, any less and they would have no meaning. The exception is, of course, the most significant weapon of all in a pirate game—their ships!
Of course what would a pirate game be without ships? This game has ships. Ships are more than terrain in this game, they actually move and fight. Ships can damage and be damaged as well as acting as floating gun platforms and transports. As ships close and maneuver for a boarding action, their cannon can fire at the opposing vessel’s hull, sails and rigging. Furthermore ships can grapple and use swivel guns to sweep the decks with deadly grapeshot. Ships move according to their size and relation to the wind. While there is some uncertainty to the ship movement and speeding up and slowing down take some forethought, one needn’t worry. The intent is not to create an Age of Sail game, but rather to put just enough sailing into a skirmish, man-to-man game to provide the necessary piratical flavor.
Of course that brings up the obvious question of game scale and size of ships in relation to the game area. This is deftly accommodated by allowing the ship to sail off the edge of the table. The ship is allowed to return after a specified number of turns, depending on its size to approximate the difficulty in turning it around, close to the point where it left. This makes a lot of sense to me. My game table is only four foot by six. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of room to maneuver a ship. Sometimes one is bound to run out of room and inadvertently wander off the edge. The delay for returning seems like a reasonable way to penalize carelessness without ending the game with an “edge of the Earth” draconian rule. Shipsand shore parties alike need crews so let’s talk about what constitutes a player’s crew and how they are recruited next.
A player’s crew is a collection of characters comprised of ‘heroes’ and ‘henchmen’. Each character is defined, as previously noted, by their set of characteristics. The rule book provides lists for three types of crews: Royal Navy, Pirates and Privateers. I can only assume that there will be subsequent books containing lists for the various nationalities, merchantmen, etc. Each character is assigned point value (in doubloons) and the number allowed per crew along with any special traits and equipment. The starting value for crews is also given in this section. Crews can advance and increase their characteristics (up to a defined maximum). The process for advancing is defined in a significant section on campaigning. To help the campaigning and to demonstrate various types of games many scenarios are included.
Scenarios are presented as a set of circumstances and a game board. Unlike many other games, this one illustrates the game board with a photograph of some extremely well executed game boards rather than maps. Nothing is more inspiring than seeing well done figures and terrain. Although they are very nice, they are well within the capability of an average modeler with some experience. Game Workshop’s book on building terrain might come in handy, as would the modeling section of The Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game rule book (ref. pg. 220-233).
(A typical scenario "map")
Wrapping this up, I have to say that this is, with the notable exception of the amateurish artwork, a well done product. It is a pricey book, but then it is an esoteric subject and I don’t think many will be printed. Low volume always means high prices. Do I think it’s worth the price? I definitely do! I think these rules will result in many games full of derring-do and swashbuckling action. The choice to adapt The Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game is right on target for a cinematic adventure game and the fit is perfect. To the newcomer the combat system may seem a little odd at first. Rest assured, it won’t take but one or two games to learn that how well the system works in practice. The ship-to-ship combat and boarding actions are what really set this game apart from The Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game and Legends of the Old West. I am concerned that the publication date has missed the tide of interest generated by last The Pirates of the Caribbean movie. After all is said and done, though, I highly recommend these rules to anyone looking for swashbuckling adventure!
