How best to describe it and whats it like? I often get asked this as the skirmish market is quite full, so games need to have a hook to get your cash these days... Conan meets warmachine, thats how i sum it up! The setting is a high fantasy age filled with Greeks, Romans, Celts... Trolls, Beastmen and Dwarves! All the races have interesting twists that make them stand out from the norm, and the background is massive, a whole separate book. You can tell this game was a while in the making given the rich and expansive history portrayed not just in there but in the fluff sections of the unit entries.
Anyone who has played warmachine or hordes will be familiar with the basic mechanics of the game, 2D6+sat vs stat to cause an effect. This is partially why it has found a place in my collection because it was instantly playable, this system works as you dont need to be looking up endless charts to see what you have done or what you need to hit etc. This is used to compare MEL vs DEF (A Gorelord has a MEL 8 so to hit a DEF14 model he'll need 6+ on 2d6) to hit and the POW of weapons vs ARM (A Gorelords axes have a POW5 so vs ARM 9 they would need 5+ to do damage). The models themselves have no strength stat, its all based on their weapon loadout, which is usually between 2 and 7, daggers to huge axes!
Most models have 6-12 wounds so a good hit is needed to kill in one hit, and the mighty Balescorch Cyclops has 33 wounds... he aint dying quick hehe. The cards have damage tracks where you can mark off who has taken hits etc. Heroes and some monsters have 2 colours of tracks, the second one is seriously wounded and they suffer stat or action point reductions.
Action points are what models use to do things, most have 5 which can be can be used for moving, tactics and fighting. Movement is based of the MOV stat, which is usually 3 or 4, then they can spend a number of action points on movement depending on if they are light, normal or heavy infantry (5/4/3AP max). My maldire mongrels are light infantry so can spend all 5AP on moving upto 15inches.
Charging is free and you move 2xMOV + 2 inches, this must be the first movement you do in an activation. Light infanry can charge 3xMOV + 2, and other bonuses can be applied... Mongrels get an additional +2 as its a faction ability. Charging adds +1 Mel and +1 pow, and in additional turns you chose to add one of either when you attack.
Most weapons cost 2AP to swing, if you have 2 hand weapons like the mongrels do then you can use 3 AP to generate 2 attacks.
This concludes part 1 of the review, more to follow shortly!