Open Combat: A Game for Any Collector

A few weeks ago I was introduced to a game called Open Combat at my local club, and it caught me by surprise. The developer of the game Carl Brown was running demos, of which I decided to take part in. Below is something of an introduction to the game incase you have not tried it yet, obviously I cannot give you a demo in the blog, but I can show you the main appeals about the game and what I love most about it.

The main appeal with Open Combat is that you can use ANY of your miniatures, as long as you keep to a certain theme so it’s not a ragtag band of Skeletons, Eldar, Vikings and Giants. You select some of your favourite miniatures, lets say between 4 and 8 that are somewhat underused or are your best painted models that you really want to show off, and then you build a profile for those models. That’s right, you get given a blank profile for each model, and every stat, special rule and piece of wargear you give a model costs 1 point (known as renown in the rulebook).

The Nervous Archers warband I choose from the sample at the demo

Below is an example for my Welsh models that I have been using for SAGA, this is a 100 point list that took a mere 5 minutes to throw together without having to consult army lists and such;

Welsh Warband	SPD	ATK	DEF	FOR		MND		WEAPONS/SKILLS/ABILITIES/INJURIES/NOTES
Warlord	4	5	4	4		2		Sword, Shield, Javelin
Hearthguard	4	4	2	4		1		Sword, Shield, Javelin
Hearthguard	4	4	2	4		1		Sword, Shield, Javelin
Levy	5	3	1	2		1		Sword, Javelin
Levy	5	3	1	2		1		Sword, Javelin
Levy	5	3	1	2		1		Sword, Javelin

The process of army building is simple, grab a handful of models and give them the stats based on whats on the model. What weapon does your model carry? Does it have a shield? How heavy do you reckon its gear is? Above my Warlord and Hearthguard carry heavy armour, so I gave them slower movement speeds (SPD) than the levies and more health (FOR) and defence (DEF). If you have someone carrying a legendary weapon, say Excalibur, you might choose to have an insane attack (ATK) such as 15, and throw some special rules in there such as double handed to give it some special effects.

Now the rules are written based on the theme of Medieval combat, so everything is based on swords, spears, bows, shields etc. However, the rules can be used for any other period using a ‘counts as’ approach. For example, I recently used these rules to play a World War 2 game, whereby close combat weapons were uncommon and the game was played using Bows, Crossbows, Slings and Javelins to provide the variety in shooting options. Literally anything can be represented, if you have cavalry you may to up your speed (SPD) to 12, for monstrous creatures you may have 15 health (FOR) and so on.

Lets say I wanted to use my Bloodthirster who largely sits on the shelf doing nothing, here’s the first idea that comes into my head;

	SPD	ATK	DEF	FOR		MND		WEAPONS/SKILLS/ABILITIES/INJURIES/NOTES
Bloodthirster	16	16	16	24		12		Double Handed Weapon, Sling, Resolute, Intimidate

See what I did there, quick moving due to the wings, a few special rules that fits the model and it totals 88 points quite appropriately. Looking back in a week or so I will probably make some changes to better field the bloodthirster, but if your opponent asked “Can I fight a Bloodthirster?”, you only have to ask yourself “Do I have one?”.

The gameplay is very simple, the rules are written from a common sense point of view with regards to mechanics like stabbing enemy models in the back or pushing them over into a thorn bush. Using up to a dozen models per side you won’t have to remember a great many things, which helps the game really fun, you spend so little time thinking about rules and much more thinking, how would this little guy fight?

Most of what you need to play the game is found on the quick reference sheet, so you won’t find yourself looking up many rules in the book. And most importantly, a 100 point game can have so much go on in it, and yet only last for between 30 and 60 minutes, excellent for an evening game when you don’t have 2+ hours to spare for larger games. Each side requires a mere 3 dice (D6), 3 tokens which can be anything, tape measure, pen & paper to write your armies stats on and record your losses. Did I mention that the table size is typically 24”x24”? So you can fit this game onto any kitchen table.

If you wish to look any further into the game, please see the links below;

Store and Forums: www.secondthunder.com/

Second Thunder Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCiYQd5PurA7IwC6Q1P6nk4Q

If there's anything more you wish to know about this game visit the forums via the second thunder website, and if you feel I missed something feel free to comment below.

Happy Wargaming,

PeakWargamer Aaron signing off