Saturday, November 21, 2015

"Aurelian" is done!


Hey all!

I know things have been SUPER quiet here on the blog... two kids, a big family Disney trip, and a huge month of work have just clobbered me... but that doesn't mean I am not around! 


I DID get an email today with some interesting new though... Sam Mustafa's Ancients game, "Aurelian," is all finished up!



I did have the chance to play the game a bit during development (as well as take some photos) and while I am primarily a gunpowder fellow, I thoroughly enjoyed the game.  The big masses of infantry, unwieldy but tough... the light skirmishers, who you need to manage so carefully and who can be either so fragile or so useful... the large numbers of cavalry, flowing across the fields... it was GREAT fun!  I think the most memorable moment was when we were playing a 2 v 1 game (the poor one, DJ, was a good sport!) and our Roman line was entrenched on a hill... on the rest of the field, things were going poorly, and then just as it seemed we were about to lose we charged the entire line down the hill, CRUSHING the barbarians in front of us!  It was great fun:)

Okay, a few notes about the game itself.


First, and this might sound SHOCKING... but the game will be offered ONLY as a PDF!  Now, it is a nice color PDF, but still, nice and affordable, especially for those of us who aren't primarily Ancients gamers and want to try something new.  It is a card based game, as the last few Honour games have been... while I was originally a skeptic, I have to admit I am a total convert now, as you can inject SO much flavor and so much management into a card system that would require endless charts and special rules to work into a purely-dice system.  Like "Longstreet" and "Blucher" there will be a whole campaign system... Roman players can be crowned Emperor, barbarian players can expand out of their dark forests and rampage through civilizations... I've really come to love the campaigns:)


Anyway... for more info, go ahead over to www.sammustafa.com and check the forums and front page for more info... it seems the game will be out before the new year, so within a month or so!  And if you want a REAL treat, check out the free podcast from Sam, outlining the different features of the game and the thoughts beyond the game design... if you haven't yet downloaded one of his podcasts to listen to in the car, you are missing a treat; it is really really rare to get a game designer who is so thoughtful AND who is a natural teacher of information doing this sort of thing.  Here is the link for it:

http://www.sammustafa.com/honour/2015/11/honour-podcast-number-7/

Good times!

1 comment:

Jason Meyers said...

Interesting, thanks for sharing.