Example of Play?

[capheind]

I've never played chainmail, or a game of D&D using the chainmail rules for combat, but I'm very interested in trying to "get it". After skimming some explanations of the rules I still don't "get it". Anybody know of a good example of play featuring chainmail as the combat system for D&D?

[Deleted]

Well, what don't you get? It's a fairly easy rule set. Move troops, missile fire, melee.

[Mushgnome]

If it's your first time with Chainmail, I recommend you give it a try as a stand-alone game, not as a mashup with D&D.

[scottenkainen]

I can speak from experience with this that the best way to learn Chainmail would be at a convention, playing it with wargamers. Do not drag your regular D&D players into a game of Chainmail if they're not fully onboard and haven't read the rules. The moment they realize, too late, that even the soldiers they control are subject to morale rules, it's going to blow their minds and make them hate the game.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[Deleted]

Yeah, when you approach CHAINMAIL you should probably start with the base of "This is a set of rules for medieval miniatures wargames, to simulate armies in battle. Troops dying to the last man is extremely rare, and the rules simulate this."

Try a couple small battles with four or five units of 15 to 20 figures each side.

Then add fantasy stuff after you've tried a battle or two.

[DungeonDevil]

I don't think that a single exemplary combat session will cover all the bases necessary to grasp CM. However a series of short vids on youtube would be a very beneficial project for someone with time and a camera. The videos can be broken down in the very least into three sections for the three games in the book: 1:20/1:10 mass combat, 1:1 man-to-man combat, and lastly the fantasy combat. However a key element which befuddles me is the issue of morale -- easily the most complicated aspect of the rules, IMHO. A series of video tutorials would help out a lot and perhaps may introduce more people to this nifty little wargame booklet.

[Deleted]

You're making it more complicated than it needs to be. You move your figures, you take missile fire, you melee. The only difference is whether you look it up on the 1:20 chart, the 1:1 chart, or the fantasy chart.

Really, I read CHAINMAIL for the first time when I was 16 and it made perfect sense.

It just is NOT that complex.

[DungeonDevil]

Jun 4, 2013 10:02:51 GMT -6 @gronanofsimmerya said:

You're making it more complicated than it needs to be. You move your figures, you take missile fire, you melee. The only difference is whether you look it up on the 1:20 chart, the 1:1 chart, or the fantasy chart.

Really, I read CHAINMAIL for the first time when I was 16 and it made perfect sense.

It just is NOT that complex.

I regret that my cerebral capabilities at 16 were barely over the level of a drooling Cro Magnon, and it got worse when around the fairer sex. Things have improved only slightly since then!

[rsdean]

I'm presuming you saw this thread:

odd74.proboards.com/thread/7306/greyhawk-scenario-report

And that it didn't cover what you wanted?

If I had to use Chainmail as a combat system with 3LBB D&D, I'd go straight for the 1:1 charts. You'd get a number of rolls based on the "counts as" with a plus on one of them for the extra bonus; each hit would do a d6 in damage. Note that this would speed the combat up, since the troll and the hero, for example, would have the opportunity to do multiple damageto each other each round, and that I've never tried it. I'd skip the main section post-combat morale results chart at that point...

[capheind]

Actually I sat down last weekend and read the rules rather than skimmed them. Made much better sense this time around.

[jacar]

Jun 18, 2013 19:23:58 GMT -6 capheind said:

Actually I sat down last weekend and read the rules rather than skimmed them. Made much better sense this time around.

It takes a few reads through to figure it out pretty well. There are a few subtle ins and outs that need to be understood. Mostly a simple game.