Grim Fantasy

I had a chance to play Grim Fantasy last night. Grim Fantasy is a skirmish game with a kind or European fairy-tale/horror setting. So Brave woodsmen, townsfolk or even mysterious warriors in red hoods battle creatures of the night like werewolves and animated scarecrows. It's produced by Slave2Gaming and, whilst technically miniatures agnostic, does have an associated range of 15mm figures.

Drew, the designer, set up a terrain consisting of a traditional olde worlde village, with a well at the centre. He took a group of villager types, led by a witch-hunter. I had a mob of wolves and werewolves, supported by a bear. The aim was to control the well at the centre of the village for two turns.

My beasties made a run for the village. The wolves went for the well, whilst the werewolves moved around the side to intercept the decent figures in Drew's band.

Drew's hunters face off my lead werewolf.

My wolves controlled the well, but were approached by a villager with a spear, plus a priest and the town drunk. 

Now one would assume that would ensure the well was mine, but in fact the priest cast a spell which turned one wolf into a pillar of salt, then the spearman and drunk closed in and took out the other two wolves.

On the whole my combat rolls in this game were truly awful.

The werewolves, led by a alpha wolf, attacked Drew's witch-hunter.

Combat in this game is opposed D10 rolls, with a combat factor added and other modifiers for various special abilities. The highest roll wins, and the damage is the difference between the scores. The damage can be adjusted for weapon strength and the target's armour or other protection. Figures take between three and six hits. Close combat is simply opposed rolls using the combat factors of both figures. A ranged attack uses the attacker's combat factor and the defender's movement rate as modifiers.

The bear was all I had left near the well, so I moved to maul the preacher. And did so.

A shot of the whole game. I hadn't lost the wolves at this point. On the left there was a fierce fight developing between the witch-hunter and the alpha wolf. I'd got a good hit on the hunter, but he'd returned the favour, killing one of my werewolves.

A Red Hood joined the fight, and took down the alpha wolf. She then finished off the last werewolf.

Did I say my combat rolls were terrible? They were terrible even with the Grim reroll mechanism. This allows you do do all kinds of sneaky things - reroll dice, block an opponent's move and so forth - but at a cost. Each time you do something you get a point. And when you use it you roll a dice and add your current points. If that exceeds 10 then you forfeit the game. So the more you use it the more you risk losing.

So, anyway, I was basically left with my bear, who finished off not only the preacher, but the spearmen and the drunk as well. Then I tried using a reroll to stave off an attack by an archer, and the Grim failed me. I lost the game.

But, to be fair, with just one figure left I was on to a loser anyway.

Despite my terrible rolls I enjoyed the game. Drew did all the number-crunching for me (mostly because he didn't have a QRS for me to use), but I followed what was happening OK. I did like the critical hit mechanism, where you score a critical if your D10 roll is twice that of the opponent's causing the damage - the difference between the rolls - to be doubled. I lost a few figures to that mechanism.

 52 Games - Game 40