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Archive for Jeff Horger
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Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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Toren, or the Kingdom of Toren is my take on an "average" fantasy land. The people are mostly humans but dwarves, elves and gnomes work side-by-side with the Human rulers. The Kingdom and the army are both small but well-trained for the most part. The units of Toren are wildly varied in race, function and ability. Yet no unit has any real odd or off-putting characteristics.
This nation comes 98% from my own personal Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The groups and names of the units and the commanders all are pulled directly from my NPC's and the player characters of my friends. Each person pulled from sources personal to them for role-playing and then I chose the ones that made the most sense to put into important roles in Fury. I will speak to these points and provide credit below.
In the descriptions below, at the end of each unit is a value listed as X-X/X-X. This represents the Combat-Move/Reduced Combat-Move of that unit on the counter.
TOREN UNITS
1st & 2nd Foot: Two units of standard men-at-arms. The backbone of the army. The 2nd has to be just a bit weaker than the 1st right?
1st Foot 6-1/4-1
2nd Foot 6-1/3-1
Border Militia: This is a group of light infantry. The idea of militia is a fairly common one and it seemed to me that a nice place like Toren would have many untrained men willing to join the militia.
5-1/3-1 (Mountain Movement)
Zrellen's Gnome Engineers: Gnomes! They had to go somewhere but I suppose they could have gone to the unaligned pool. Our D&D group had a famous Gnome named Zrellen that was run by Chuck Maher. I used the D&D stereotype of gnomes as gadgeteers and allowed them some extra types of movement. Aquatic (Red November comes to mind here), Aerial (Gnome Dirigibles) and Teleportation (Gnome portals). The gnomes move through mountains and of course can launch engineer attacks against opposing strong points.
5-1/3-1 (Mountain Movement)
Harrows Light Horse: When it comes to Toren, you should probably get used to the term standard and average. Of all the sides in Fury, Toren is the closest to a historical side... other than the gnomes and dwarves and uh the elves. The light horse are exactly as advertised. they are fast but still hit with the power of a standard cavalry unit. Their pursuit is very good. The Harrows is an overseas colony where many of our adventures as a group centered. I have fond memories of the town named after a dartboard manufacturer.
7-3/3-3 (Desert Movement)
Opurt's Skirmishers: This is the Toren unit that doesn't have its own cards. So action from the skirmishers requires the use of nation cards. Opurt was one of my favorite PC's that never got to complete a long campaign. So he gets put in charge of the skirmishers.
5-1/3-1 (unfettered movement, ie. no terrain stops them)
Torsten's Guard: Named after one of my player's (Joe Roush) Warlord from 4th Edition. Torsten's Guard is the elite unit of the Toren army. They have Disciplined attack so they don't have to advance after combat if they don't want to. They have defensive valor which allows them to ignore a retreat result they receive. They hit hard and defend hard. I had the knights of the round table in mind when I created this unit, until I went to give it a name of course.
8-1/5-1
Lord Winston's Horse: Named after a loved NPC that the group encountered many times, Lord Winston. His cavalry unit is almost the caliber of the Guard but not quite. Unlike the Light Horse these mounted knights pursue poorly and are slower.
8-2/5-2
Elandra's Elf Allies: A unit of elf allies led by one of my PC's, a high elf bard. They have great marksmanship as well as an ability to fight up close. I was inspired to to do this unit in honor of the arrival of Haldir and his elf contingent in The Two Towers.
7-2/4-2
TOREN HQ CARDS
Nation Cards: The Toren cards all have average 1d10 Attack Values. Five of the cards allow for a small defensive boost of +3 while others allow for a Skirmish (forcing the opponent to not roll a die). Half of the cards allow for a ranged attack.
Toren also has Supply cards and Feint cards among their HQ cards.
TOREN MAGIC
The Kingdom of Toren utilizes Magic in a fashion tied mostly to movement. There are a couple of non-movement spells tossed in there but those Toren casters love to move things around a battlefield.
Deny: Counter a spell as it is cast. Straight out of old school Magic: The Gathering.
Drain Energy: Inflicts a hit on any unit on the board. No fuss, no muss.
Gate: This spell allows you to move any one of your units on the board to any other vacant space on the board. The original inspiration was the D&D spell, but MMORPG games have made portals and gates quite common among gamers.
Mass Charm: Move any unit on the board one space. "Hey you, yes you, move over there! Thank You"
Stasis: Freeze a unit in place. Again this had the hybrid origin of M:TG and D&D.
Rain of Fire: Call a devastating rain of fire down from the heavens at any unit on the board. The original idea for this came from the creation of the Sea of Dust in the history of Greyhawk.
Toren is a balanced army with some unique flavor but not too many strange abilities. I think this may be the best side to give to a player not too steeped in fantasy. It feels the most like an historical army.
Fury is available through pre-order currently at GMT Games. At a very reduced pre-order price of $45.
http://www.gmtgames.com/p-370-fury.aspx
I currently have a Facebook page for Fury where I will show some preview items as the publication date draws nearer.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fury/293816027308512
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Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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I am going to take a short break in my review of the different armies to give a big thank you to Giles Pritchard for his preview of Fury on episode 75 of On Board Games. Thank you Giles, I know that podcasting is a challenge and the time involved is more than people probably think. It was very kind of you to take the time and do that preview of the game.
If anyone would like to listen it is in the last 5-10 minutes of episode 75 from On Board Games. http://onboardgames.net/.
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Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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Medis, or The Medis as it is often referred to is a land of wizards and sorcerers where magical power equals political power. All leadership roles are filled by wizards and when war comes to The Medis, it is the Battlemagi that lead the charge. To fill the ranks of the military during war, the military leaders of Medis call upon their feudal vassals to provide house armies to be the bulk of the military might. These feudal levies are neither very skilled or very courageous but they serve the purposes of the wizards to occupy the opponents while the real fight is waged through magic and deceit. While the army of Medis fills a somewhat bland and indistinct role it is the magic of the nation that will make the difference between victory and defeat. The spells are powerful and varied and must be utilized to their fullest capacity to achieve victory.
My main influence when I thought up this nation was the Valley of the Mage from the Gazeteer of Greyhawk in Dungeons & Dragons. I envisioned the place as a next step from one powerful wizard ruling the land or even a small council of wizards. The Medis is a society of magicians where the use and display of magic is both accepted and expected.
In an attempt to put some cultural ties into the units I decided to provide this army with a eastern flair and take some symbols and names from the era of the Japanese Shoguns. It seemed to me to be a very nice fit with feudal armies levied by lords and brought to battle as a number of small cohesive units.
In the descriptions below, at the end of each unit is a value listed as X-X/X-X. This represents the Combat-Move/Reduced Combat-Move of that unit on the counter.
MEDIS UNITS
Jade Ronin: This unit is based, as you might expect, on the ronin of the Japanese Shogunate. This unit represents some of the best individual and independent fighters of the land combined into one powerful fighting force. The Jade Ronin are good fighters but if they suffer losses they degrade quickly.
7-1/3-1
Sedrick’s Battlemages: This is the shock unit of young Battlemages currently conscripted into service of The Medis. All young mages must serve the national good before being permitted to lay claim to the Medis society. This unit is fairly strong due to the enchantments that they use to protect themselves in battle and they possess unparalleled ranged attacks. If pressed by the battle they are quite capable of simply disappearing from the battlefield via teleportation.
8-1/5-1
House Knights: There are three houses (Tentai, Seido, and Mokkou) of feudal knights and each fights well-enough if pressed. All of these units are of average capabilities and match up equally with most other nation’s man-at-arms style of units. I envisioned this unit as many conscripted soldiers led by a small but elite officer corps made up of the feudal lords and their followers.
6-1/3-1
Teppo-tai: The Teppo-tai are the vanguard of a new type of unit in the West. They are the first military unit armed exclusively with gunpowder weapons. This unit is well-trained in stopping incoming attacks and firing at both close range and long range. The weakness is that the men of the Teppo-tai tend to be weaker or older than the average soldier, thus making them very susceptible to loses when they are engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Thus the men of the Teppo have learned to fire fast and often.
The Teppo-tai possess a skill in defense unknown to any other unit in the West, the Picket Defense. If they are engaged in an attack, the Teppo may make a pre-emptive attack on the attacker and possibly weaken them before the first sword is crossed.
5-1/3-1
Chaos Wizards: Normally looked-down upon by the more disciplined wizards of Medis, when war is called for there is always a contingent of these masters of the dark in the ranks. Chaos Wizards are unpredictable and unreliable. They only continue to fight to keep their strange practices from becoming outlawed. Many of their abilities require random dice checks to determine the outcome of their attacks or defense. I was inspired to add this unit by a t-shirt that I own with the Chaos symbol. I thought they would be entertaining and I believe that their application in play is both fun and unpredictable.
5-1/3-1
Cavalry of the Five Kings: This unit is the one and only fast-moving cavalry unit of The Medis. The unit is average in all respects and is simply a bit stronger and faster than the other standard Knight units in the army.
7-2/4-2
Nightstalkers: The Nightstaklers are the basic garrison force of Medis with no combat cards of their own. They are most effectively used as garrisons or screening troops.
MEDIS HQ CARDS
Nation Cards: The Medis cards have small 1d6 or 1d10 Attack Values. Five of the cards allow for a small defensive boost of +4 while others allow for a Withdraw. Half of the cards allow the building of a strongpoint.
The Medis also have Supply cards among their HQ cards but no others.
MEDIS MAGIC
In The Medis magic is king and the spells employed by the leaders of the army are very potent indeed. Very few units in the game can weather a concentrated Medis magical assault.
Phantoms: This spell is essentially an Ambush attack done through a spell. I had an image of the ghostly king in The Lord of the Rings in mind when I named the spell but in the end it simply turned into a ghostly Ambush.
Banish: Instantly teleport an enemy unit back to its home fortress. If a unit is pressing too close or capable of causing too much damage the entire unit can be teleported across the battlefield back to its base of operations.
Dispel: This spell allows you to move four of your opponent’s cards directly from their draw pile to their discard pile. This represents behind the lines magic neutralizing reinforcements, leaders and opposing magic.
Fortify: A defensive shield is cast over a friendly unit to protect it from attack. The idea for this came from Dune where they use the shields as combat protection as well as very common role-playing spells.
Destroy: This spell allows you to launch a very powerful ranged attack against any unit on the board.
Imbue: This spell allows you in add power to any declared attack. This can represent anything from becoming giants to unbridled fury to magical weaponry.
Command: This spell acts exactly as if it was a leader card and allows multiple units to attack together.
Foresight: This is similar to the Dispel except that you get to look at some of the cards and discard them and replace the others back on the deck. I compare this to a fortune-teller or mystic seer.
Ward: This is more powerful than fortify in that after all hits have been determined, the Ward card can negate all of that damage. This is a very powerful capability and cannot be underestimated.
Transport: Allows the Medis to move one unit, friendly of enemy to anywhere on the board.
Summon: This spell allows you to bring a unit back into play from the eliminated pile. I assume that it “summons” the fleeing members of the broken unit back to the fight, not that it summons them from the dead.
Fury is available through pre-order currently at GMT Games. At a very reduced pre-order price of $45.
http://www.gmtgames.com/p-370-fury.aspx
I currently have a Facebook page for Fury where I will show some preview items as the publication date draws nearer.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fury/293816027308512
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Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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Tayanna, the land of Crusaders and the Inquisition
The Theocracy of Tayanna is my personal take on a religious theocracy or religious state. The leaders of the church are also the leaders of the government and the state is run under religious laws. The Catholic Church, Orders of Knighthood, the Inquisition, the Crusades, Paladins from Dungeons & Dragons, King Arthur, modern Islamic states and ancient Jewish ones all jumbled together to create the state of Tayanna. Originally I had a working name for the nation of Deseret, but that was swiped directly from Mormon history and, not wanting to offend potential customers I searched for a more suitable name. While doing a mall walk I walked by...wait for it... Teavanna and the idea of relaxation and harmony hit me. I quickly revised the name to roll off the lips a bit better since I didn't have to sell tea in the game and a national identity was born.
In the descriptions below, at the end of each unit is a value listed as X-X/X-X. This represents the Combat-Move/Reduced Combat-Move of that unit on the counter.
TAYANNA UNITS
1st & 2nd Heavy Foot: Nothing fancy or too inspired here. these units represent trained and well-armed units of heavy foot from antiquity to the advent of gunpowder. I did this on purpose to show the common man in the game. These units form the backbone of the army but are not the units that will get the glory. In their cards the foot have good attack and very good defensive values for their heavy armor. They may also build strong points (redoubts in Manoeuvre).
1st Foot: 7-1/4-1
2nd Foot: 6-1/3-1
Nivernois Crusaders: The crusaders were based on, well crusaders. They are as strong as the foot but are able to attack with either standard force or by charging into a battle with a committed attack. Crusaders also may use their cards to aid in defense or to regroup. The crusaders have enough shock value that they can take an objective and hold it for a prolonged period.
6-1/4-1
Akivan Martyrs: The Martyrs simply refuse to give up and when they attack, they do so with fury and a disregard for their own safety. They are not the best armed or armored units but their ferocity makes up for it. They are multipurpose attackers and defenders and players use them both ways. They can build strongholds and have high defense values but they also attack using committed attacks. I based the Martyrs a bit on the Islamic extremists and a bit on the defenders of Masada & Jerusalem.
5-1/5-1. That's right, they lose no effectiveness until they are eliminated.
Sicarian Zealots: This unit represents those troops that are called to fight out of religious fervor. They are under-armored, under-armed and lack training. What they do have is a zeal to close with and attack the enemy. They have an ability to make a Charge Attack (move 1 space and then attack during combat). They can also create strong points and Force March. However they are brittle and once hit are easy to remove on a follow-up attack. They were given Mountain movement because for balance-sake someone in the army needed it and this unit seemed like it would be the least deterred by climbing a mountain to attack the enemy.
5-1/2-1 (Mountain)
Knights of the Old Regime and the Knights of Calatrava: The two cavalry units are based on the mounted Knights of antiquity and legend. Splendidly armed and armored these knights ride to battle and dismount to fight. They have good speed and can make haste if necessary. They attack well but pursue poorly. In defense they can hold their ground using Defensive Valor to ignore "Retreat" results when they occur. These units represent the fist of the army.
KotOR: 8-2/5-2
KoC: 7-2/4-2
The Thirteen Peers: This is an elite unit of mounted Paladins. the concept for this unit comes directly from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. They have the best attack in the game; 2d10 and Disciplined so they do not have to advance if victorious. Of course they also have Defensive Valor so they can hold their ground as well. If the knights are the fist, the Thirteen Peers are the hammer.
8-2/4-2
Salii Guards: The Guards are the basic garrison force of Tayanna with no combat cards of their own. They are most effectively used as garrisons or screening troops.
TAYANNA HQ CARDS
Nation Cards: Tayanna's cards have small 1d8 or 1d10 Attack Values. Five of the cards allow for a small defensive boost of +3 while others allow for a Withdraw of Skirmishing.The most interesting thing about the Tayanna cards is their unique ability to fortify cities. They may use some of their Nation Cards to create very powerful +5 strong points inside cities.
TAYANNA MAGIC
The magic of Tayanna is holy in nature and focuses on healing and restoration for the most part.
Transference: This spell allows the priests of Tayanna to weaken one unit and imbue a different unit with that strength. This type of spell hearkens back the Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series where healers had to take on the injuries of those they sought to heal.
Gate: This is so common a spell from so many sources that it seems pointless to identify its origins. In the game it allows one unit to pop from one space on the board to any other unoccupied space.
Resurrection: I guess this bit or "magic" has its roots right in the Bible and before. In game terms, a unit that was already eliminated is returned to play at a reduced capacity.
Pain: This spell is a holy protection placed on one of your units that reduces the effectiveness of a unit making an attack on that unit. Pain makes an appearance in Dungeons & Dragons as well as Magic: The Gathering.
Flame Strike: Some Old Testament Wrath of God. I'm sure any old school D&D player knows this from AD&D. Best offensive cleric spell ever. The army needed some offensive spell powers and this is the clearest example I could find.
Hopelessness: This spell causes despair and simply makes the aggressor take his ball and go home. After an attack is resolved this card nullifies all the combat and both sides sit in place. I'm not sure where I got the inspiration for this but probably a Magic card or D&D spell.
Find Path: This spell represents Divine guidance. The Bible again offers many examples of God helping those true believers to find the correct path among the various obstacles laid out in front of them. Finding the path allows a unit to cross any terrain, even a terrain prohibited to them.
Wind Walk: This spell allows a unit to fly a short distance over the battlefield. The idea for this came from the ICE role-playing system's Channeling book.
Heal: Again, this is a typical religious concept and clerical concept in almost any standard fantasy RPG or MMO where the holy characters have the ability to heal allies. This spell allows you to flip a damaged unit back to full strength.
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Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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The Badari
In Fury, the Badari represents an army raised from the sands of a vast desert. The vision I had of this army was culled mostly from the Al-Qadim sourcebooks from 2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons. This base was augmented with the “flashback” scenes in The Mummy movies, the campaigns of Lawrence of Arabia during WWI, a series of 1st Edition D&D adventures known collectively as the “N” series (Against the Desert nomads), The Tales of the Arabian Nights, and historic accounts of Persian, Carthaginian and Egyptian military actions. The base combat types and units came mostly from the historical narrative and the magic and leadership was derived primarily from the fictional sources. In the end, the army turned out to be a fast, light and hard hitting group that has a bit of trouble holding a defensive line.
In the descriptions below, at the end of each unit is a value listed as X-X/X-X. This represents the Combat-Move/Reduced Combat-Move of that unit on the counter.
BADARI UNITS
Karaca’s Light Cavalry: This unit was designed with the light Numidian horse in mind. Fast, aggressive and nimble. The unit has a decent attack values with pursuit. It is among the fastest units in the game with a “3” speed that is not reduced as it passes through the desert. However, it possesses no defense factor on its cards of its own. The defensive capability of the unit is to Withdraw from an oncoming battle. I didn’t want the Light Cavalry to be able to make a stand-up defense so I chose that in lieu of a defensive strength they would be able to withdraw instead. 7-3/3-3
Mutaharrik’s Guard: As I thought about them, the Guard became a mounted version of Alexander’s Silver Shields. While they are fast from point to point, the lack of heavy armor makes them less able to stand up to combat than other nation’s heavy soldiers. Again, by being anchored to their horses, the Guard’s defensive ability is to Withdraw from combat. 6-3/3-3
Scarab Legion & Dakarr Light Foot: These units are light foot modeled on the infantry of the Persians under Darius. They are light but resilient having low attack and defense abilities but with an ability to force march on all of their cards as well as the ability regroup if they suffer a defeat. 5-1/3-1
Badari War Elephants: Most obviously these were modeled after the elephants of Carthage. But they also had some foundation in the Oliphants from The Lord of the Rings. These elephants are very strong on the attack, much stronger than on defense. They also suffer enormously when they take a loss in combat. The primary attack of the Elephants is to Rampage. A Rampage is three attacks in succession against adjacent units, possibly even friendly ones if the first enemy target is eliminated on the first or second attack. I invented the rampage just for the elephants but once the rule was in effect, there were other units from other nations where it fit just as well. Elephants cannot regroup on their own but require a leader or HQ card to do so. I concluded that this represented the difficulty in reforming elephants once they had been scattered and the pure reduction that would come from losing too many of them to casualties. I have also granted elephants a secondary ranged attack mostly stemming from the vision of Oliphants from the Lord of the Rings. 8-2/3-2
Majin of the Oasis: Clearly this unit has its basis completely in fiction. It represents a small number of Genies or Djinn called to the service of the Badari. The Majin are very strong in both offense and defense possessing the ability to damage any unit in the game and with the defensive capability to withstand attacks by the strongest of opposition. While they do not fly all of the time, their cards allow the Majin to fly over terrain or enemy units as the need arises. To further enhance these creatures of the air, they were given a Whirlwind attack allows the unit to target all four adjacent spaces with a fairly powerful ranged attack at the same time. The Majin are also unable to regroup on their own since losses to Genies are not easily recovered. 8-1/4-1
Swirling Sands Squadron: The need for a unit that had a primary ranged attack was obvious early on in the design process. The response in the Badari turned out to be this squadron of horse archers. This unit has a very light (pathetic) attack but devastating ranged capability. In addition they also have the speed benefits of the light cavalry. As the other Badari cavalry they have no defense value on their cards but may withdraw from battle. 5-3/3-3
Immortal Infantry: I have been fascinated with this unit name since I came across the Persian unit of the same name in a book of ancient warfare many years ago. This was rekindled by The Great Battles of Alexander from GMT where they made an appearance. I took the concept of a unit that was always kept at full strength (or as close as it could be) and created a unit with a strong counter value with a reduced strength just below that of its full strength side. Its cards allow it to regroup as well. In combat the unit has a choice of two different types of attacks to make on a turn due to the training and fervor inherent in the ranks. It may make a disciplined attack that allows it to hold its ground after a victory (Not required to Advance after combat) due to the rigid training. However, if necessary it may unleash its fury and make a Committed Attack at the expense of losing some men to disorganization and combat. 7-1/6-1
BADARI HQ CARDS
Nation Cards: Every nation in the game has 10 “nation” cards that are available to use for every unit, including non-aligned units. These cards can be used to allow some basic use by all units. Every Badari card has a 1d10 attack value which is pretty standard for these cards. Half of the cards allow you to Force March a unit to represent the extra speed of the army and provide some minimal Defensive bonus keeping with the lightly armored nature of the army. The other 5 cards provide units with the capacity to regroup along with a special defensive power known as Skirmish. A skirmish forces the attacker to lose one dice in the attack of his choice but makes that attacker immune from any losses inflicted by failing to match the defender’s combat strength. I assumed that many of the lightly armed desert troops would be proficient at harassing and delaying an attacker before they came to blows.
Supply: A staple card of the game and there was no reason to believe that supply would be withheld from the Badari.
BADARI MAGIC
Much of the Badari magic is tied to the desert and the oasis.
Water of Life: This magic requires a Lake space on the board and allows the Badari player to return one unit to play once eliminated. This ability comes directly from Al-Qadim as well as The Mummy Returns. This makes it imperative that a Badari player takes some water in the terrain set up as well as it is a reason to avoid water for their opponent.
River of Sand: This spell is again a direct descendent from some of the magic of Dungeons & Dragons. It allows a unit, friendly or unfriendly to be moved any number of spaces in a straight line as long as it starts its move on a desert space. Again, this makes it imperative for the Badari player to have at least some desert in their opening terrain.
Desert Wrath: This attack spell probably has roots in a number of books and movies, most notably and visually stunning to me was the airplane scene in The Mummy. I see it as the Badari people using the desert windstorms and sand pits to cause waylay and cause damage to enemy units. This is another case to be made for having desert that can be used to initiate attacks.
Windtomb: A Windtomb is used to lock one opposing unit into place and force it suffer a loss to exit the vortex of swirling winds. I believe that the idea was taken from a combination of Al-Qadim, the Wall of Wind in D&D and a Wall of Air in Magic.
Shape: The shape spell allows the Badari player to create either a desert or oasis anywhere on the board. See above for the value of this spell to the Badari. Shaping or altering a location is a staple of many different fantasy novels and spells from role-playing and Magic. I think I got the idea for the base of this spell from Dungeons & Dragons, but again The Mummy Returns must be credited for how I view the spell.
Maelstrom: This is another location based spell for the Badari focusing on the destructive nature of water. I am sure that there is a comparable spell in D&D somewhere that caught my eye and gave me the inspiration but again I have to turn to The Mummy Returns for my vision of this spell when the water was brought to life by the Imhotep. The concept of pulling water out to do your bidding though can be traced back to Moses in the Old Testament.
Summon Elements: So many resources conjure up this vision of earth, air water and fire being controlled to disrupt and damage the enemy. How about a new reference for this spell, the Last Airbender and the ability to conjure and control the various elements.
Conflagration: Very similar to Summon Elements but with a specific nod towards fire as the destructive force. I believe that the concept for this spell had its roots in both Dungeons & Dragons as well as Magic, The Gathering.
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Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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The most daunting task when creating a new game in the fantasy genre from scratch is the background and flavor. Fury was no different in this regard. I have been a huge fan of Fantasy books and movies for as long as I can remember. Dungeons & dragons has played a role in my life for 34 years and I generally have a life steeped in warriors, wizards, dragons and castles. I knew exactly what I wanted to get across in this game but how should I approach the history and details of yet another fantasy world? Everywhere you turn in the analog hobby you encounter new takes on old ideas and everyone's cookie cutter fantasy wonderland is simply the newest version of last year's fantasy wonderland. It is so prevalent now that I simply don't read the flavor text of fantasy board games anymore. I play them, but I just have so many filters from so many years of experience that any little twists that might be thrown in by the designer are simply lost on me. I know, its so cool that the orcs in this world do_____, but I don't care anymore. I know what an orc does so if you have an orc in your game, have it do orc stuff (I know that is what they are doing in my head anyway). And don't even get me started on creators that come up with a wholly different race, unique to their game that acts like an orc, sounds like an orc, talks like an orc, but is called a shankapotomus or something. If you want to convey to me that a creature behaves like an orc, call it an orc.
That said, now I have to sell you on the idea that I have come up with another world for you to play in and I hope to convince you that my world is something special, unique and wondrous. I need to convince you that I have crafted the most detailed and exquisite fantasy world of all time. Hogwash! You have the greatest fantasy world possible floating in your own head. Each of us can imagine ferocious dragons, stout dwarves, masses of undead in more detail and glory than I could get across in a trilogy of books about my world. The game is about conflict between eight different armies of varying ability to implement magic, melee and leadership. I never even contemplated making up details for the world of Fury, yet every time I played and the warg riders chased down the rangers I had very striking mental images of the event. I believe that anyone that buys Fury will already have the wealth of details in their mind to imagine everything that is set out before them. My pathetic attempt to tell you what the context should be would really be more of a hindrance that a benefit.
Over the next 8 posts I will touch on the armies involved in the game. I will not be giving you historical events of that nation or even a map of the nations. I will be explaining how I came to select those units for the game and how I incorporated the conceptions that our culture already holds of these races and creatures into Fury. I will not be explaining the long and arduous conflict that created two different races of goblins. I will be explaining how I distilled everything I know about goblins down into a counter and three cards for the game.
The greatest story is already in your head. Fury is nothing more than a catalyst for you to draw it out. Enjoy the game for what it is.
Next Up: The Badari (I swear)
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Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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Leaders, in Manoeuvre they are the lynch pin to victory. They mass units and restore them. Leaders can tip the combat values for or against you. But to me, most importantly, leaders in the game feel like the leaders they are modeled after. Some of the commanders don't aid in the big picture but instead serve only to rally the troops or lead a charge or even a glorious last stand. Other leaders have little influence on the field of battle but their strategic mind allows you to direct multiple units as one fighting force. Napoleon and Wellington, well they dominate the field of battle. In Fury, there are no historical leaders to base the leaders in the game on. I knew leaders would still be a big part of the game but the individuality and historical veracity of the leaders was able to take a back seat to some innovations in game play. Hopefully, when I am done, you will see the benefits of the revised system.
Movement: In Manoeuvre, leaders had no effect on movement. Perhaps an oversight on my part as looking back I can see how it could have been a useful tool in the design arsenal. In Fury leaders are rated for how many additional units they may command by playing the card. They can have Unit Command and move one additional unit. They can have Line Command and move two. A Wing Commander can move three units and an Army Commander can move four additional units. This movement is full movement by that unit and is in addition to the one (or more) base movements available to a player each turn. In Fury the tide can turn very quickly as a player who you thought could only move one unit plays a leader for the Wing Command ability and four units are advancing on your exposed flank.
Command: The leaders in Manoeuvre were rated individually for how many units they could combine into an attack. I still feel this distinction is important to differentiate between the various leaders in that game. In Fury this granularity is not as important. None of these leaders have historical backgrounds to emulate. So in Fury, any leader can combine up to four units into a single attack.
Combat: This ability stayed the same as in Manoeuvre with the exception that all leaders are rated for Attack and Defense. Some of the leaders are better on the offense and some are better on the defensive.
Rallying: This has generally remained the same for Fury as it did for Manoeuvre with the exception that some leaders, such as the Necromancer only rally undead units. But the concept is still the same even if the details are slightly different.
As I begin to write up the detailed histories of each army right here in the blog, I will attempt to figure out in my mind how best to differentiate these leaders and inject some life into their ratings.
Next Time: The history of the Badari, Desert Kings.
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Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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When I set out to create Fury I intentionally changed many of the rules and mechanics that were laid out in Manoeuvre. I simply had no desire to slap orcs over the Austrians and call it a new game. That would have been lazy for me and an exploitation of the purchaser. I decided from the outset that Fury would be a step up in complexity, though not so much that it wouldn't be recognizable. Fury has many of the bells and whistles that Manoeuvre might have had if we had not purposefully kept it clean and tight. New rules were added for objectives, magic and new terrain. Units were given a multitude of new capabilities. Generic unit cards were given to each nation. And leaders got a face-lift. Scoring is now a running tally and the first player to a set number of points wins the game. The name of the game, Fury, actually came to me as we play tested the new game. Fury is Manoeuvre set to a frenzied pace.
Today I will address the first basic changes to the game and the one that is seen even before the first units are placed, the terrain. The board for Fury is 9 x 9 instead of the 8 x 8 of Manoeuvre. This makes the game feel much bigger. Fury also adds two new types of terrain to the mix, the mountain and the desert. Mountains are now impassable to all units except those that have a special movement ability that allows that unit to access the mountain space. The desert will slow all units with a 2 or greater movement allowance to 1 unless that unit has special movement that allows it to move at full speed through the desert. Both of these new types of land have nations that are fitted exceptionally well to the new terrain. The Desert nomads of the Badari are excellent desert fighters and move nimbly around in the sand. The mountains are home to two nations with many mountain-capable units, the Nik'tmarg and the Dwarves of Zikkim.
Above and beyond the addition of new terrain the game uses the board in a new way. Objective markers are placed on the board (2 per player and one in the dead center of the board). These markers are worth 1 Victory point each to the last person that occupied them. They also allow all units to enter and occupy their spaces once placed. So if a VP marker is placed on a mountain, any unit may now enter that space. Another new marker/terrain in the game is the Fortress. Each nation possesses one fortress marker that provides them a +4 defensive benefit but if it is captured provides 2 VP's to the opponent. The old Redoubts are still in the game and renamed Strong Points. they serve the exact same function as they did in Manoeuvre. Finally some nations have the ability, through magic, to shape the land in the game. They can alter the terrain, making it more favorable to them and their allies.
The terrain will be familiar to Manoeuvre players and the modifiers are no more difficult to understand or apply. But the variations of the terrain combined with the ability of different nations to act upon the battlefield as well as the ability of those who can re-shape the battlefield do provide new and surprising challenges to the game.
Next Up: Leaders
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Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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I am posting this short message to inform everyone that Fury is now available through pre-order on the GMT P500 list. The price is deeply reduced for those that get in on the pre-order. Now that it is live I will begin posting some detailed information on the eight different sides included in the game. I will also discuss all of the unaligned units with their history. Then I will focus on the new rules changes that were made for Fury from the Manoeuvre system. Finally as publication draws closer I will try to let you in on the details of the publishing and design process.
So order now and keep your eyes here for all the background and rules changes.
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Jeff Horger
United States
Columbus
Ohio
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Army of the day, I need some good names for this nation. I have some good names already so I only need ones for the units listed below.
Name= Badari, desert race.
Units=
1st Light Foot
2nd Light Foot
Djinns
Horse Archers
War Elephants
Three Generals
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