Samurai Battle page 2
The figures were from the Dixon Range though there might have been a Citadel Ronin or two. Their line is extensive. The figures do not blend well with others as they are a bit on the stocky side. This tends to makes them look like a bunch of chubby babies dressed as Samurai....
Melee Combat: During combat both sides actively roll various die types against each other to determine success. The die types range from d4 through d12 to give a wide variety of effects. The Attacker rolls a Close Combat Die and a Weapons Die while the defender rolls a Close Combat Die and Armor Die. Clever in it's simplicity it insures both players are participating in combat using logical die types against each other and not just watching their forces get hacked to pieces.
Ranged Combat: Ranged Combat is resolved similarly. The die types are different however in that the defender rolls a Range Die and an Armor Die. The Range Die is determined as a multiple of the weapon's given range value. A simple and logical system.
Combat Modifiers: Of course the usual list of modifiers is provided to recognize terrain effects, wound effects as well as other attacker/defender advantages and disadvantages.
Damage: In both types of combat rolling greater than the defender insures a hit. To determine wounds the attacker's roll is compared with the defender's roll. The greater the variance the greater the number of wounds, all derived from one roll!
Magic: For those who want to incorporate magic, the facility exists to create spells from a list of basic spell effects.
Abilities: Included is a list of abilities to further flesh out and distinguish one character type from another as well as one weapon type from another. Characters may be quick, thick headed, fanatic, ferocious... etcetera. Weapons can be powerful, cumbersome, repeating... etcetera. For those wanting to build chariots or weapons of destruction, that facility exists as well.
Points System: A point system is provided to allow players to create forces from any ad hoc collection of figures they might have in their collection. All those figures gathering dust you have always wanted to use but hated the system they were designed for can now be used quite easily.
Force List: A beastiary is provided with the Compendium Edition to quickly create opposing forces from a wide variety of figures and figure types including most of those you are familiar with from the world of fantasy.
Support: The game is actively supported by a Yahoo Group by those that designed the game as well as by those who play it. Additional beastiaries, abilities and spells are currently in consideration to further expand the game's significant entertainment value.
Evalulation: A worthy alternative to those games you always wished were quicker, made more sense and had any kind of flexiblity at all. Opposing forces of about 30 figs on a side can be easily relsolved in 3-4 hours. The rules are intuative, make sense, and are easy to remember. As such this makes for an entertaining, fast flowing game with little room for arguement or debate. Ares is strictly a miniatures rules system, not full of unwanted fluff; it's up to you to create the forces and their motivation for battle and glory.
