Publisher: FANPRO 1998

Armailion actually belongs to the booming kind of fantasy tabletop wargames. In these kind of games players donīt have a specific gameboard on which they move their playing pieces around. Instead, they create a 3-dimensional landscape from model-trees, houses, hills etc. This landscape is called a battlefield, and on this field the players deploy troops in order to battle each other. These troops normally consist of a lot of painted lead or pewter miniatures, and this certainly makes this kind of games looking quite spectacular for spectators. In the game the players make use of rules for movement, fighting, Magic etc. to battle the troops of the other player(s) and itīs the aim of the game to score a decisive victory.

Armaion actually is set up in the world of Aventuria, which originally is the setting for Germanyīs most popular Role Play Game "Das Schwarze Auge" (=The Black Eye) Aventuria is a typical fantasy world, with many different races of humans and also monster-tribes like Orcs or Lizards. In addition, a whole lot of independent monsters exists in Aventuria, so there are Dragons and many others.

The basic game of Armalion is actually concerned with an historical conflict of the world of Aventuria. The game is set in the Orc-Wars, a time in which major tribes of Orcs were threatening on of the biggest human Kingdoms in Aventuria. For this reason the game supplies the basic rules needed to play in this setting.

Since the game of Armalion is derived from the RPG "Black Eye", the game makes use of the miniatures which were originally designed for the RPG. The producer of the game, FANPRO, carries a wide selection of figures for the RPG (Warriors, Monsters, Wizards etc.), and the players are invited to use the miniatures they have also in the new wargame of Armalion. Additionally, four sets with army formations designed directly for Armalion have been release together with the game - two boxes with Orcs and two boxes with human troops, each box containing 10 figures. The miniatures are of good quality, and the range of miniatures directly for Armalion will be expanded the further the game grows.

The number of troops available for each player is normally determined by the value of the troops a player choses. Each model in an army has a points-value depending on itīs battle strength, and when chosing their armies the players simply agree on a specific total of points which they may spend freely for their army.

The game itself is divided into turns, and these turns again are divided into single phases: Initiative, Movement, Fighting and Endphase. Before any movement takes place, the players first have to roll a dice in order to find out who has to begin the movement. After the first player has moved an unit (in movement a single special character is considered similar to a whole unit of troops), the other player moves an unit as well. The players continue with alternate movement until all units on the battlefield have been moved.

The most important fact to consider is the so-called "command-range". Each unit of troops always has a leader, a figther which is considered to be the unitīs commander. A player must take care that all models of the unit donīt leave an area of 7.5 cm around the leader. Otherwise the model will be considered to have left command-range, which means that the figure has to take several penalties on movement and fighting values. In order to keep a clear view which figures have left command-range, the game includes a circular-shaped measure-item which allows a clear view on the command-range of a leader.

The fighting phase of a turn is relatively long if you compare Armalion with other Tabletop Wargames. This is due to the authorsī decision to solve fighting between single miniatures and not between whole units. In battle, each miniature has the chance to strike an opponent, provided the miniatures is in base-contact with the opponent. Futhermore, the positioning of the attacker in relation to the defender is decisive. So a figure attacking from behind has a better chance to hit and wound the opponent. The fighting istelf is solved relatively easy. The attacker makes an roll on his attack rating to see whether he scores a hit. If successful, the defender gets a chance to roll againds his defense rating to see whether he was able to deflect the blow. If the defender isnīt sucessful, the attacker will score a hit. A wound to the miniature now only depends on an armour roll by the defender. If he isnīt sucessful in this roll, too, the attacker will cause wounds depending on the type of weapons he uses. If the defender receives more wounds than he hit Life-points, then the miniature will be removed.

In addition to hand-to-hand combat, players may opt to arm their units with missile weapons like bows. The game offers a full set of rules for shoting-combat, and also rules for cavalary are included.

Since the game is dervived from a Role Play Game, special care in the rules has been given to the sections about single characters (heroes). A big plus of the game is the fact that itīs relatively easy to customize heroes to give them values and attributes as desired by the player. So a hero may have special attributes which will help him in battle (like the ability to sneak or to fight with both hands), and he may also receive special values in his attributes, differing from the normal characteristics of the race he belongs to. A player may simply change the characteristics as far as he desires, and then he must look up the changes he made in a sheet showing him the new points-value of the character he created.

Another quite positive aspect of the game is the fact that the basic games come with a full set of Magic rules and spells. So each side may include wizards in their army. Before the battle takes place, these wizards secretly memorize some spells of their choice, and these may be released in battle to wreak havoc on the opposing troops.

The basic game is equipped with everything needed for a first game of Armalion. Besides of the rules, the game comes with a set of dice , 18 spells, templates and markers for spell-effects, 8 pre-defined unit-sheets, a ruler, paper landscape-elements (a map and some obstacles liek trees and barricades) and 10 lead-miniatures (5 human Knights and 5 Orcs). Apart from the miniatures and the dice, all components of the game are made from hard paper and need to be cut before playing may start.

"Armalion" actually is only the basic game and the rules say more than once that multiple expansion-sets for the game are scheduled for later release. The rules will get more complex, and boxes containing detailed Magic-rules and new races seem to be in planning. Surprisingly though, even the basic game comes with a lot of rules which already offer quite a detailed gaming. So, apart from the basic rules required for fighting and moving, optional rules for weather, standart-bearers, obstacles etc. are included.

Quite a positive aspect for a novice to the game is the fact that the rules are divided and teached in three parts, which means that a novice may play with easy Beginners-rules, and then move on and expand the rules stepwise as he gets used to the game. Ther rules themselves are easy to understand and not too many to slow down gameplay, and to my mind they convey a realistic "battle-feeling" to the author. Many questions are ruled out, and for this reason a smooth gameplay is guaranteed.

Especially players of the original "Black Eye" Role Play Game will like Armalion, since the rules for characters also include a secition about transferring characters from the Role Play Game. So a player may use his favourite characters in Armalion, or a clever Dungeon-master may even include an Armalion-Battle into a game of "Black Eye". Furthermore, itīs definately easy to create units of troops, since all human and orcish troops are based on a special set of race-characteristics, and these may be changed as the player desires, since the costs of the unit will changed accordingly.

Since the world of Aventuria is at a technical standart of about the Middle Ages, there are little or no advanced War-Machines available. The basic game doesnīt include any rules for War-Machines, and itīs doubtful whether a later expansion set will provied any rules.

To sum it up, I think that Armalion offers everything needed for a good Tabletop-Wargame. A nice component are the maps included in the game, since these may be sued to introduce a little landscape even in the first games without having to create a whole battlefield. Whether the game will become a hit may not be predicted, since the game is relatively young and no expansions have been released so far. A big plus in comparison with other tabletop wargames certainly is the price for the miniatures, but I hope that this advantage will not be canceled out by releasing a whole series of supplements.