Heroic Ballads

 From the same polish author that made the Book of Nemesis I reviewed a while ago for Battlefleet Gothic, comes Heroic Ballads.

A 40 page ruleset for Heroic fantasy miniature wargaming, so right down my alley.

The idea is a narrative tabletop game set in a generic fantasy setting, focussing on scenario play with unequal forces in a true DnD style: one player leads a group of heroes, the other commands the hordes of evil creatures.  So let's have a look at this free ruleset you can download from Wargames Vault.

Firhtermore it is pretty traditional, making use of D6's and measuring in inches from base to base, so that is pretty standard for a wargame these days.  Each model has a set of statistics that look like a mixture of WFB and easier, non DnD rpg's, having things like Manual Skill (MS) for picking locks amongst their statline.

When a test is required, you roll a number of D6 equal to the value of the tested statistic, and every 4+ is a succes, while a natural 6 allows the roll of a further dice (ad infinitum in theory even).  If the number of successes is more then the required test difficulty, you pass.

Unit types come from either Heroes, Henchmen, Swarms and Monsters, and it is recommended to fill in the (also free) unit cards before each game.  

Heroes are individual models representing the main characters of your ballad, and have the most activation counters in the game, the sort depending on how they are equipped, and are the hardest to wound.  Their counters can be changed to red ones, and if all are red they are taken out (the same goes for the The Villain, aka the hero of the evil side and basically the "boss" in the ballad).

Henchmen are lesser warriors, fighting in groups of 3 to 12 models, and count as a single unit that activates together, but for every two models in a unit it's stats increase - there is strength in numbers.  Which also means this drops if they are getting killed.  

Swarms are large base with, well, a swarm of lesser creatures like spiders, snakes and the likes.  While not great statwise, they have to be killed in a single stroke or the attack has no effect as they disperse and regroup.

The final type, Monsters, are big individual models like trolls all the way up to dragons, which follow all the rules for Heroes but can't carry equipment and are wounded a bit easier.

A turn starts with the activation phase's counters being calculated, with each type and model having certain coloured tokens (blue or green, so together with the red wound ones you need three colours).  Green are used for both static and movement actions, while blue ones only allow static activations.  

The turn sequence has two parts: the beginning phase and the action phase.  In the beginning phase, the spawning points for monsters activate, at a certain cost of spawn points.

In the activation phase, models well, activate in order of initiative, with in equal initiative the heroes always starting first.  The players then alternate picking actions and counteractions until all counters have been spend and everything got to do something.

The next section covers additional rules, like terrain (and falling of from it!), traps and common manual skill tests.  Next up we get the section with the unit special rules and weapon special rules, and how they affect your selected units.

With the rules covered (all in about 12 pages), it is time to start the game, which can be done normally or with the Quick Start rules.  First you get to create your heroes (or villain) and how their classes affect their basic stat lines, and equip them with the gear they are allowed to carry.

The Bestiary comes up next, this is not a definite list as they publish more on their website as well as allow the creation of your own.  But you can safely say it covers most basic races and troops usually found in them, so everyone with some fantasy model collections can get going straight away.

And that is the core rules of the gamesystem, you can find scenarios and all on the Assault Publishing website, and start the creation of your own personal ballad for epic tales by the fireplace!