Initial Thoughts on Mayhem

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed the game, even though it was a bit disjointed when the demands of life interrupted the flow. Even though the loss of the angels so early did rather make the result seem inevitable there were certainly several points in the battle where it appeared the tide could have turned.

The rules worked well for solo wargaming. Being used to the mechanisms of Two Hour Wargames, which are very much designed with the solo gamer in mind, I had wondered whether Mayhem would cope as well. I would say that they work better, albeit that I used 2HW's ideas for the layout of terrain and choice and deployment of troops. There is just the right balance of uncertainty and the greater number of options for troop design give much more variety so that I create the troops I wanted and make sure that there was sufficient differentiation between them.

I'm not usually a lover of lots of different dice but it does work here. And I particularly liked the concept of having to choose between "default" and "danger". Just to explain more fully, when it come to rolling dice, you can either not roll and simply accept the default score - half the potential score (2 for d4, 3 for d6, 4 for d8, etc) and you can go for danger and roll the dice so that you can achieve the maximum score but also the minimum. This is such a simple concept but, as some of my "wrong" decisions demonstrated, they can have catastrophic results.

And while on the subject of the dice, I couldn't believe the number of natural 1s that I rolled and again they tended to be at quite decisive moments.

As I say, the loss of the angels so quickly was decisive - the loss of nearly 25% of the army's points value. I had been looking forward to watching the carnage that they wrought amongst the orc riders but, thanks to a natural 1, it was all over for them. I do wonder about the quality of Terror that I had given them. The rules say that if a unit wishes to initiate combat with a unit that causes terror, it requires more command points to be used but if the terror-causing unit initiates the combat there is no effect as such. I would imagine that if you are attacked by a unit of terrifying creatures, there would be a tendency for some of your own ranks to turn and run.

The pilgrims did far better than I had anticipated, especially as I had given them very poor statistics - a combat quality of d20 I thought would be a death sentence for them. I can see hordes being a real problem as they take so much to wipe them out.

I do like the way that the way units are destroyed differs depending on the type of troops they are - disorder, damage and attrition - though I found myself having to reread that section several times to make sure that I got it right.

I am not sure that I used the generals and heroes correctly. On a small board with 40mm bases there was never a problem of a unit going beyond the control of a leader so the orcs did not seem to be at a disadvantage by only having the one compared to the crusaders' three.

Of the rules themselves I would say that they could be better organised. There were times when I knew that a specific rule was in there somewhere but needed to trawl through them to find the clarification I needed. I have created my own quick reference sheet which helped. However, I recognise that part of my problem has been that I have got far too comfortable with the  mechanisms of Hordes of the Things and 2HW and this problem will no doubt dissipate as I get more used to them.
In the meantime I hope that Brent Spivey, the author, will correct me if I misinterpreted the rules anywhere.

Sometimes I felt the results were perhaps unrealistic (a fantasy game - realistic? Yeah, right!) particularly the way that the crusaders battled on even though they were reduced to just two units of  crossbowmen. Using the command point dice to decide whether they will break may not work as the higher value of the dice the less likely the army is to break and surely one sign of a good commander is knowing when the battle is lost and when to make a tactical withdrawal. Hence I felt that one of the Brothers had to make a move and risk demotion in his holy order.

And the way that you can carry out some actions with one unit, then move to another and then return to the first does feel strange. I like it as a game mechanism. It's fun and I can see how making the right moves at the right time can make a real difference in a battle but it didn't feel realistic. I couldn't see some of the moves I carried out happening on a battlefield while the enemy just watches on.

So in conclusion, I will certainly be using these rules again. They have been promoted to being my favourites for solo mass fantasy battles and I look forward to having a game with one of my sons to see what he thinks of them (he is used to beating me at HotT games).

Mayhem are not complete yet. Brent says that there is a third section coming soon-ish, covering strongholds, sieges, mini-campaigns, terrain and more and I am certainly looking forward to that coming out (especially as once you have bought the rules you can download the updated rules for free!)

And finally,what of the armies? The peace-loving orcs returned to the steppes, the chieftain's leadership still intact. Abbot Crispin went back to his chapel to reflect and question his god about what had gone wrong; Brother Germaline returned a hero and spent the rest of the year travelling the villages relating how god had blessed others through him, and Brother Equile, following his desertion from the cause, was guided to a new ministry in the pig sty.
Meanwhile, on another plane, the gods of chaos have been observing the foolish clerics' failures. Now is the time to move into the world of men. I just need to paint up my chaos general and heroes.