Battlesworn Musings

One of the side effects of helping to test 'Challengers of the Great Beyond' has been that it's given me the inspiration to go back and look at the game it's derived from, 'BattleSworn'. CotGB does tidy up some of the grey-areas in BattleSworn's mechanisms, which has been helpful. But it's also inspired me to think about actual changes to the game, mostly where the new set offers a neater mechanism for certain class abilities than the original set does.

I have a working document of changes on the go. However I'm not sharing it just yet, as it's mostly a mess of random thoughts. But there are a few class changes and/or clarifications that I thought would be worth sharing for anyone who plays the game to try out.

Here they are. They cover classes both in the original game, and in the 'Knights and Knaves' expansion.

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Bard

Taunt: (Clarification) A Bard may also spend one Action to taunt the closest opponent in his line of sight. The taunted figure must immediately move directly towards the Bard using a Reaction if one is available, ending in melee if this is possible, even if the Bard is not the closest enemy. On subsequent turns the taunted figure must spend one of their side’s Actions or Reactions to move directly towards the Bard, and again this may become a charge and end in melee.The taunted figure may not move further away from, or move out of LOS of the Bard. The effects of Taunt end once the taunted figure is in base-to-base contact with any enemy, or if the Bard is no longer in LOS of the taunted figure. A Bard cannot Taunt again until any previous Taunt of his is ended.

Cavalry

Mobility - When making a move that does not end in combat, Cavalry may either break off from melee, or make a single pivot at any point during the move, continuing the move in the new direction.

Slot Limitation - A warband may include up to four Cavalry at the cost of one slot each.

(This is a complete rewrite of the class. Cavalry in the original game is pretty useless; it costs two slots,  and they are worse than the Flyer. In addition their ability makes them better in rough terrain, which doesn't seem intuitive. This change makes cavalry worth having, whilst giving them an edge of sorts in the open.)

Chaos Warrior

(Clarification) If two Chaos Warriors fight each other then they must both roll a D6 for their bid.

Giant

(Clarification) The melee knockback move is always straight back from the giant - measure from the centre of the giant through the knocked-back figure. The figure stops when it meets new terrain; it does not enter it.

Ranger

Change ‘Like The Back Of My Hand’. After setup a Ranger selects one area of terrain on the table. They can ignore this piece of terrain for movement purposes. As a miscellaneous action the Ranger can change their piece of terrain,

Sniper

Does not have to shoot at the nearest target. Gets +1 dice when shooting if its side has the initiative, Cannot bid 1 when shooting. Cannot bid 6 in melee.

(The basic Sniper isn't that exciting. And generally there's no reason not to have one if you have one or more Shooters, since you rarely bid 1 anyway. This change makes them a little bit different from the basic Shooter.)

Sorcerer

Ignore the rule that has a Sorcerer taking an extra hit from any damage. Instead a figure targetting a Sorcerer ignores rolls of ‘1’ when rolling damage. Rolls of ‘2’ from cover or the Rogue ability (if the Sorcerer is multi-classed) still count.

(This change still makes Sorcerers easier to damage. But the original rule felt clumsy, and wasn't clear either - does a Sorcerer take the extra hit if no hits were scored, for example. This is a simple change which has the same effect.)

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Finally, here's a possible new class, based on a mechanism we were looking at putting into CotGB, but didn't, but which seemed too good to waste.

Swashbuckler

Thrust And Parry - If you are the low bidder in a melee, your opponent reduces the number of dice they roll for their attack by the number of hits you scored in yours. Hits absorbed by a Tank still count for this purpose.

eg You bid 3 and your opponent bids 4. You roll three dice for the attack and score two hits. When your opponent rolls their attack they only roll two dice.

Quick - A Swashbuckler may not multi-class with anything that is not normally allowed to bid a '1' in melee.

Slot Limitation - A warband may include up to six Swashbucklers at the cost of one slot each.

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