Middleheim - Simple Playtest

I'm wanting to get out the "kinks" of the token pool/reaction activation system, so this game was kept very simple; only 8 per side (2 x men at arms, 3 billmen, 3 missile troops)

*For this test, we have no heroes (no wounds, fatigue, magic) keeps the focus on the basics.

*Both sides shared similar stat lines. There were no special rules/traits (except for "Leader.")

*There are no special attacks (power attacks, quick attacks, block/parry).

So a lot of chrome is missing, while I look at the basics.  Here's the troops I'm using:

Troop Types	Spd	Agil	Power	Def	Shoot	Melee	Will	Mana	Extra
Men at Arms	4"	3	5	6	-	5	5	-	Leader
Infantry	5"	4	4	5	-	4	4	-
Archers	6"	5	4	4	4	3	4	-

Weapons

Type	WS bonus	Damage Bonus to STR	Extra
Sword	+1	+1	Parry
Polearm	+1	+2	Reach
Bow	12(+1)-24-36" (-2)	(+1 close, -2 far)

A quick blow by blow of key actions:

A blue archer shoots at a red archer, who successfully reacts by ducking back into cover.

Drawing an activation token, the red player elects to step out of cover and shoot back - he hits and rolls a '9' for damage, shooting the hapless blue archer through the eye socket

On the top side of the map, the blue forces ready themselves to attack the outnumbered reds. You can see the red side have white "readiness" tokens (which act like a flexible overwatch, allowing shooting, movement or counter-charges)

Both archers hit the lead men at arms with overwatch shots, but his plate deflects both arrows.

The blue archer dodges a red archer shot as the melee becomes general - since he dodged behind an ally; maybe the ally should have tested to be hit too? Maybe a rule for this?

At the top of the board, the red men at arms has just killed a billmen but got forced back by his opposite number.  At the bottom, red forces prepare to storm across the bridge to attack the outnumbered blue men at arms and his sidekick billman.

A red archer is "knocked down". Both this and "push back" add a few damage/effect variations without record keeping.   On the far side of the bridge, the red men at arms kills the other blue men at arms, leaving his billmen sidekick outnumbered 3:1....

However the lone blue billmen kills the men at arms; shocked at the messy decapitation of their leader, the red billmen flee back across the bridge; while on the right, the red men at arms is killed by his opposite number, and the lone red archer retreats away towards his fellows...

Blue wins the scenario, having collected 3 loot counters to 1 when I ended the game....

Observations:

Complex Problems:
*More troops = more tokens in pool = greater initiative (i.e. horde armies get bonus)  Not good
*When you activate a group, you might remove 4-5 tokens from the pool; this effectively hands initiative to your opponent for the rest of the turn...  Need to look into this more

Simple Fixes:
*I needed a "overwatch/readiness" token to show stored activation - ugh more tokens
*Need to nerf leaders a bit (pass a "leadership" test to give a group command)
*A lot of arrows were "dodged" by the dodge reaction; make it a bit harder to do?
* Need to decide what stat is used for reactions (i.e attempting to charge home on archers before they shoot - do you use "Speed" or "Melee")
*I omitted to mention in my rules what to do in certain situations (i.e. you are pushed back but have nowhere to retreat; how do you roll for damage vs a "knocked down" figure - answer for both: double damage dice rolled)

Worked Well:
*Archery was quite balanced (men at arms' plate deflected 4 point blank shots; lighter armoured billmen and archers were the two kills)... within the close confines of my typically crowded map; how would archery fare on an open "40K"esque board?
*Having a maximum of 1 shot per turn (whether in reaction or when active) is a sound idea


*General combat worked OK again; my guesstimates for stats etc were reasonably balanced
 *There was lots of activity in the ~5 turns played; lots of engagement for both sides

Annoyances:
*Remembering to remove tokens from the token cup is  annoying/a bit fiddly
*At one stage I forgot who had already activated (out of 8 men - how will I track my intended ~25 a side?); placing activation tokens next to each mini would mess up the board big time

Critical thought:
Was all the complication by dice tokens/reactions worthwhile? Was there enough improvement over LOTR:SBG (my "benchmark")?

Can my rules handle the intended number of minis? Possibly reduce maximum forces to a single 12-man lance?

Conclusion:
The basics are sound enough. Perhaps I should do a similar simple "playtest" version to share with the google group with all the unnecessary stuff stripped out like what I used.  

I can probably label Middleheim as a playable beta, albeit a bit rough and buggy.