Well, I reworked the name! I wrote out the remainder of my alpha ruleset for With Shield and Courage and actually managed to get a few games in. As a reminder, it’s a warband size (30-50 models) wargame of early to mid medieval era combat where leaders and combat stress matter. The goal of the game isn’t entirely to make a game but really for me to explore the idea of a medieval warband game and see if you can straddle the line between a recreation of the real decision making on the ground and… well, having fun. I suspect most games in this space end up stapling on additional systems because the actual tactical decisions of a “warband leader” were not that interesting. I hope to be wrong, because 30-50 dudes is the perfect size for a painting project!

Before we get into my thoughts, here’s the general flow of the game turn in phases:

1. Initiative Phase – Roll off, add how many leaders you have left in the battle. Winner is priority player.
2. Movement Phase – Both players move their entire armies, starting with the initiative player, then the second player. Groups can move or run, with running cutting off further action.
3. Leaders Phase – Leaders declare their focus by spending their leadership points. They can boost (give a bonus to dice rolls for one unit), rally, and/or have a unit run and still subsequently charge or shoot. I intend to add more actions in the future.
4. Orders Phase – Both players place orders on every Group on the field in secret with face down tokens. Units can shoot, charge, or defend.
5. Combat Phase – First, shooting occurs with simultaneous results. Then, initiative player enacts their charge tokens, followed by the second player.
6. Cleanup Phase – Really just a reminder to clean up all tokens and score objectives.

After a few games and some additional analysis with another designer, I will likely add more leader actions and orders.

So how did it play? Pretty decent, really.

I had fun though it wasn’t exactly mind blowing. The game features stress that builds on units until they break. Combat is a slow, grinding affair with often decisive results. As designed, combats must always end in both units breaking apart at the end of the round and usually go on long enough that the side that backs off runs away entirely. I’m debating if I like this. It was pointed out to me that this makes the overall maneuver of armies less realistic as you can’t properly react to an ongoing combat. That’s true but if combat doesn’t end at the end of each turn then we run the risk of being buried in one giant brawl all game.

For the sake of fun I’d likely have to leave this in. The underlying problem remains that my goal here is to explore this size of conflict and see if I can build a game that reflects reality while still being fun. Unfortunately, I’m increasingly concluding through both research and gameplay that realistically 50 dudes per side smashing together amounts to… well, 50 dudes smashing together. It’s a giant scrum and then one side runs.

At the start of this journey I was afraid of this. There simply isn’t a lot here to explore tactically like there is when you’re dealing with thousands of men or dealing with later time periods (like World War 2). I’ve quickly hit the point where to make the game more “Fun” I have to disconnect from the reality I was trying to portray. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m on record as loving SAGA (aside from its cost) and it doesn’t reflect reality—the Pagan Rus can summon a blizzard for goodness’ sake! It’s just that if I’m going to start disconnecting why should I even remain in the realm of reality? Why not add dragons and other units that would turn the game system on its head and give more tactical options?

I can still paint my Arabs—they just happen to also have war elephants and giant scorpions. I can still paint my Crusaders—they just happen to also have an angel and some men riding unicorns.

For now I’m not giving into being so silly but I admit it’s tempting. I hope to get another test game in this weekend with some updates and I intend to report back. What I can say is that what I have is enjoyable enough as a game you play 10ish times, similar to Lion Rampant with a little more heft around the edges. What I can’t say is that I’d recommend it over SAGA or Lion Rampant—their willingness to disconnect from reality makes both systems a lot more fun. The board gamey elements of SAGA give you more to think about as you plot your tactical strategy and the light and breezing gameplay makes Lion Rampant easier to play with, frankly, the same level of actual decision depth.

Either way I’m having fun using rules writing to explore an era. I’ve read a lot of articles about melee fighting, watched a few videos, and even found myself reading Portuguese language resources on the Portuguese armies in the medieval period (not directly tied to this project, but adjacent). It’s a been a great time even as my poor Arab army languishes, waiting on shield decals that never want to come.

You’ll get to ride gloriously into battle soon, boys—I promise. Just forgive me if it’s atop a giant scorpion.