How to Play Chainmail Video

[harlandski]

Shameless self promotion. I've made a brief introductory video for Chainmail. I want to make other videos e.g. about using Chainmail in OD&D.

youtu.be/WADb7Vc0wAw

[captainjapan]

Great intro. Looking forward to the next one

[dicebro]

I am interested in these videos! Thank you!

[harlandski]

I've uploaded the promised Example of Play video. It's deliberately simplified, but hopefully adequately illustrates the main rules and how they fit together.

youtu.be/tD9RBg9hjfw

[Punkrabbitt]

Let me start by saying I don't watch tutorial videos. Ever. But I made an exception today for these. My wife thought something had gone wrong with my computer lol!

These videos are both very helpful in visualizing how Chainmail should be run. As I have a OD&D campaign coming up next month, that might be important.

I also applaud your use of cardboard standees. An excellent resource for printing and using your own is at cardboard-warriors.proboards.com/

[harlandski]

Dec 8, 2019 17:51:43 GMT -6 Punkrabbitt said:

Let me start by saying I don't watch tutorial videos. Ever. But I made an exception today for these. My wife thought something had gone wrong with my computer lol!

These videos are both very helpful in visualizing how Chainmail should be run. As I have a OD&D campaign coming up next month, that might be important.

I also applaud your use of cardboard standees. An excellent resource for printing and using your own is at cardboard-warriors.proboards.com/

That's a great compliment that you made an exception for these videos. I also plan to make some videos about how to play OD&D, and specifically how to use Chainmail to resolve combats in OD&D.

Thanks for the link to the cardboard warriors forum - I've joined it.

[rsdean]

I enjoyed the video, but I did wonder about your choice to use such tiny units...

Unit size is never directly addressed in the rules, although the Landsknecht/Swiss pike rule only applies if you have at least 10 figures in a unit, and the mass firing table has rules for what to do if more than 10 figures are shooting. The battle photos on p4 show units of ~8 horse or ~20 foot.

[harlandski]

Dec 9, 2019 4:25:29 GMT -6 rsdean said:

I enjoyed the video, but I did wonder about your choice to use such tiny units...

Unit size is never directly addressed in the rules, although the Landsknecht/Swiss pike rule only applies if you have at least 10 figures in a unit, and the mass firing table has rules for what to do if more than 10 figures are shooting. The battle photos on p4 show units of ~8 horse or ~20 foot.

The tiny units were mostly for expediency - to quickly demonstrate each rule, and to fit everything on the camera. When we played last weekend the goblin units were 10 strong, and I remember the benefits of larger units from when I played without the fantasy rules.

[clownboss]

Ah, I've seen both of those now, those were lovely. Brought my nostalgia back for when I was making my Chainmail matches with my own cardboard chits I designed, although I never played a fantasy battle and only settled on historical ones. That's wonderful Harland, I know these must have been years in the making.

How far do you intend to make these? Do you intend to cover all the rules on the pathway to OD&D? Would you like any help from me in adding video or graphical work on any future videos?

[harlandski]

Dec 9, 2019 16:07:22 GMT -6 clownboss said:

Ah, I've seen both of those now, those were lovely. Brought my nostalgia back for when I was making my Chainmail matches with my own cardboard chits I designed, although I never played a fantasy battle and only settled on historical ones. That's wonderful Harland, I know these must have been years in the making.

How far do you intend to make these? Do you intend to cover all the rules on the pathway to OD&D? Would you like any help from me in adding video or graphical work on any future videos?

First of all, thank you for your comments, both here and on the video.

Yeah the whole project has been a long time in the making.

But you're right, I don't have the patience/time/skills to edit my videos, so to answer your question - yes, please! Any help with making the videos look more professional would be greatly appreciated! Let me know how we might do this.

You also guessed correctly that my plan is to go through to OD&D, and look at the different ways Chainmail can be used, as well as the Alternative Combat System.

I'd like also to make videos on other old games I've tried to play, including other versions of D&D (Holmes and Black Box Basic), and other old games (Tunnels and Trolls, which I have played, and Empire of the Petal Throne which is next on my list.)

Btw my real name is James. Harland is my surname, and harlandski my not-so-cryptic alias :-)

[countingwizard]

I've been studying chainmail for awhile and ran a few games with large groups. I'm currently looking over the rules again to help myself run an OD&D by the book game using the d20 charts. The alternate combat system still seems to heavily rely on movement and combat sequence written out in Chainmail. I really do agree with your view that spells belong in the artillery phase since so many of their effects are similar to artillery.

One thing I noticed in your video, is that you skipped pass-through fire (also didn't use split-move and fire for the elves), and put the normal missile fire phase before the artillery fire phase. Another thing is that your morale failures removed figures from the board instead of having them move towards the board edge (when this movement happens I am uncertain).

From what I can understand of the rules and the context clues given here and there, this is how I view the Chainmail Combat Sequence for use in D&D (it doesn't cover the complex post-melee morale rules):

1. DECLARE SPELLS
2. ROLL TEAM INITIATIVE
3. MOVE SEQUENTIALLY

1. Move or Charge.
2. Split-move and Fire.
3. Pass-through Fire Sustained.

4. REFUSE MELEE COMBAT
5. SIMULTANEOUS ARTILLERY FIRE & SPELLS

1. Magic-Users are interrupted if they took damage during the move phase.
2. Magic-Users are interrupted and Artillery are disallowed from firing if engaged in melee from a charge unless they have initiative.
3. Magic-Users & Artillery are disallowed from casting spells or firing if still engaged in a melee from prior round.
4. Roll enemy attacks and damage.
5. Resolve enemy spells.
6. Roll player attacks and damage.
7. Resolve player spells.

6. SIMULTANEOUS MISSILE FIRE

1. Missile-Users disallowed from firing if engaged in melee from a charge unless they have initiative.
2. Missile-Users disallowed from firing if still engaged in a melee from prior round or if charging.
3. Roll enemy attacks and damage.
4. Roll player attacks and damage.

7. SIMULTANEOUS MELEE

1. Roll enemy attacks and damage.
2. Roll player attacks and damage.
3. Return to Step 1: Declare Spells

A couple of things about the combat sequence:

• Morale is checked any time the casualty threshold is surpassed due to kills.
• It doesn't say anywhere that Artillery or Missile-Users are disrupted by melee, but it makes sense considering interruption rules and the "no firing into melee" rule.
• There is no mention of whether movement locks down an opposing unit in melee range. If melee lock doesn't occur this means that one player may move into melee distance, followed by their opponent moving out of melee distance, and melees are only conducted where there is still 3" of contact.
• Uncertainty about when casualties from missile fire and artillery fire occur. The book both lists out the missile fire and artillery fire phases as separate sequences but also says something which can be interpreted in two ways with: "[something about fire during movement phase]...All other fire, both artillery and missile, is considered to simultaneously take effect just prior to melee resolution." This can either mean that artillery and missile damage occurs simultaneously with each other, or that each sides' artillery fire occurs simultaneously and so does the missile fire but in sequence.
• Uncertainty about when a unit is considered to be in melee, and when the Refuse Melee Combat option can be used. It doesn't seem to make sense that a unit can fire at a charging group during the normal missile phase, and then withdraw behind their front ranks before the charge hits when that is what pass-through fire is for. The flow of battle only seems to look right if a charge takes pass-through fire and the archers refuse melee, or if the archers get a last volley off in the last second before the enemy reaches them in melee and then they must fight.
• Speaking to the point above, the biggest context clue is that certain types of archers can fire twice per round if they don't move. I assume this rule also means that these missile-users can only fire once during each of the opportunity phases; i.e. once to inflict pass-through fire, and once during the normal simultaneous fire phase.
• Some of the things that make sense at mass-combat scale make less sense to do at man-to-man D&D scale. One of these things is how movement is handled. The rules for simultaneous and sequential movement both take into effect the delay in giving orders to a group, by having them run into each other in unexpected ways. For sequential, it means that the first player can't move through where the 2nd player is standing, and the 2nd player can't move through where the 1st player has moved to. For simultaneous it means that orders are issued blindly, without knowing what the opponent will do. For man-to-man scale it makes more sense to use simultaneous sequential movement, where one player moves and the other player reacts with both moves occurring simultaneously. This seems to make the most sense for withdrawing and running away from combat, especially with evasion rules and "catching" the evader from turn to turn.

Also, in mass combat, it's uncertain which figures of a unit can attack. Only the ones within 30' of an enemy figure? Or is it the entire unit that can attack? It looks like there is a move up phase just after the first round of combat for nearby units and those engaged in the melee can move up to half their normal movement to flank and get into more contact with the enemy.

And does man-to-man use fatigue rules? What is the effect of fatigue using the alternative d20 chart? -3 penalty to attacks, saves, and AC?

[harlandski]

I've made another video, about the man-to-man rules. I realise I didn't explain weapon speeds very well - these things are easier to see in hindsight.

[harlandski]

Jan 9, 2020 10:56:16 GMT -6 countingwizard said:

I've been studying chainmail for awhile and ran a few games with large groups. I'm currently looking over the rules again to help myself run an OD&D by the book game using the d20 charts. The alternate combat system still seems to heavily rely on movement and combat sequence written out in Chainmail. I really do agree with your view that spells belong in the artillery phase since so many of their effects are similar to artillery.

One thing I noticed in your video, is that you skipped pass-through fire (also didn't use split-move and fire for the elves), and put the normal missile fire phase before the artillery fire phase. Another thing is that your morale failures removed figures from the board instead of having them move towards the board edge (when this movement happens I am uncertain).

Also, in mass combat, it's uncertain which figures of a unit can attack. Only the ones within 30' of an enemy figure? Or is it the entire unit that can attack? It looks like there is a move up phase just after the first round of combat for nearby units and those engaged in the melee can move up to half their normal movement to flank and get into more contact with the enemy.

And does man-to-man use fatigue rules? What is the effect of fatigue using the alternative d20 chart? -3 penalty to attacks, saves, and AC?

Thanks for pointing out things I might have missed - you're certainly right about figures just retreating rather than being removed from play, and for not using split move and fire for elves. I'll have to watch the video again to see about pass-through fire. We do normally use that in our games.

I haven't played with larger units, but if I'm not mistaken only the first ranks can attack, and the second rank only if they have pikes or spears.

Fatigue is a tricky one. It's up to you I think if you want to use it with the alternative combat system, and you're on your own then about how to interpret it. -3 sound reasonable, though you could make an argument for -1 I think.

[countingwizard]

I have had soooooo much discussion about the Chainmail rules since my post, and ran OD&D using as much of the the combat framework as I could. I think what I need to do next is methodically play with each system found within the Chainmail rules.