Review: "Five Kilometers from Leipzig"

REVIEW: Pay what you want rules from Nordic Weasel

From Mr. Weasel himself:

Five Kilometers From Leipzig is a set of solo miniatures rules for black powder skirmish actions.

Take a band of 6 trusted companions and slug it out with enemy military forces, guerrillas or native warbands. Suitable for the era from roughly 1700 to 1870, the rules allow you to play a campaign easily and quickly.

Your characters will learn new skills, provided they survive the battle. 

The rules use a simple and straight forward combat system, combined with the solo oriented turn sequence you know from Five Parsecs From Home and Five Leagues From the Borderlands.

Each turn, all of your characters get to act but the initiative roll determines who goes before or after the enemy moves, with the player assigning initiative dice as the situation demands.

Solo rules are built into the game engine. 

The game is played with 6 figures in your "squad" initially, meaning you can get started on skirmish gaming without having to paint a mountain of figures. 

This is a beta test version to gauge interest as well as offer an insight into what a full version might look like. It is written to be fully playable, but it lacks many of the more extensive explanations you might expect from a fully featured title.

It is also intended as a small stand-alone title for people to have some fun with, while we're all sitting tight and distancing ourselves socially.

The game is put up as a Pay What You Want title. If you can, please consider throwing in a couple of dollars. I understand of course that many of you are facing a hard time with lack of work currently. If so, consider this one on the house.

For a quick little review in the correct periods, check this out, also [CLICK].

I've been after the right set of modern skirmish rules for a while. "Modern" versus "Ancient" boils down to one simple issue: are the weapons used primarily about firepower and tech-powered, or about melee and man-powered? Once technology makes guns the first consideration of every military leader, warfare has profoundly changed. 

Ancient warfare means "we are going to walk up that hill and punch someone in the nose, after loosing a few missiles at 'em."  Modern warfare means "we are going to maneuver into position, lay suppressing Fires upon the objective, than seize the objective and prepare a hasty defense". I feel a game should lean into either period both with "feel" and with game mechanics.

Most recent modern skirmish choice has been the outstanding "Terminator Genisys: the Miniatures Game" by the brilliant Alessio Cavatore. A very happy purchase on my part in 2018. there's no problems with the game at all, and most desired mechanics are present in the basic, advanced or special rules. In fact, one could play pretty much any period from black powder to Star Wars just using them. Like his "Kings of War" fantasy game, Mr. Cavatore created a tight game with tons of potential. In fact, I'd say that if I had to start new gamers into the table top hobby, my choices for a game club would be these two games.

The only thing that wasn't optimal for me In "TGtMG" was the need for seven different types of dice. Nearly none of the game's mechanics require that, and a d12 with modifiers [perhaps a d10 even] would have satisfied almost everything - at the worst, the occasional use of a d20 may be handy. 

Most popular gaming periods are set in the past or near past, with a few in the near future and a very very few set in a "slightly farther future that doesn't usually game much different from the present or the near future", e.g. Star Wars.  Sure, it may be "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" but their ground combat is not even as advanced as WWII, aside from the 'pew-pew' weapons which apparently don't need to be reloaded. Which is fine, of course.

So for me, the right set of modern skirmish rules has to hit the technology and use of firepower weapons, from the Brown Bess to the M4 Assault Rifle we use today. It needs to present the affect of time and distance on tactics and decisions for the squad or platoon commander.

Therefore, it was with some excitement that I stumbled into Nordic Weasel's "Five Kilometers from Leipzig Draft Rules 0.03" on Wargame Vault. As a "pay what you want" option, I couldn't complain about the price!  And he can't complain about what I paid as I've now bought the "Five Parsecs Bug Hunt" which I'm eager to try next.

The game is a skirmish black powder game based upon NW's "Five Parsecs" game design [presently being published by Modiphius [CLICK]]. It is designed with full solo or co-op capabilities built into it, altho the opposing side could be played by a game who would also have fun. Ideally, i see it as a couple of players running their own squads against the same opposing force, taking turns with the same missions and such to see how they fare. Would make for a lot of fun.  

5KfL is a 1:1 skirmish designed for a 3x3-ish table that represents about 100-150m.  Small enough that fighting can start immediately, but large enough that one will want to maneuver for more effective shooting is how Nordic Weasel [NW? Mr. Weasel?  I dunno??] describes it.  

SCALE: 1" = 3-4M, 1 Fig= 1 Man

Weapons are fit into the table space abstractedly, shooting 4-30" just as you'd expect. Firing is handled with a few very simple modifiers based upon the reality that past about 50-75m the chance of hitting an active opponent who is fighting back, taking cover, moving in short bursts into and out of sight, etc, is not that great.

SHOOTING: typically 2/3 of the way across the table, and effective shooting is more at 1/3 of the way across the table - assuming one has Line of Sight.

A player starts with a squad of 6 figs and then goes through a Mission design sequence that handles the mission opposition, objectives - Patrol, Hold the Line, etc - deployment etc. After the battle there's a post-battle phase where wounds are handled, surviving figures advance, special events occur, and replacements may be drafted into the squad.

NEEDED GEAR: about 15 figures, tape measure, 3x3' [1m x 1m] table, markers in 3 colors, e.g. small poker chips.

Game play revolves around a few key mechanics.

Turn Sequence has three phases - a first player phase, the enemy phase, a second player phase. The player rolls dice equal to figs fighting and assigns one to each fig. If the figs Reaction ability meets or beats the die value, it can go in the first phase. If not, it goes in the second phase. This usually means that on average 1/3 of the player's force can go first, followed by the enemy, followed by the rest of his force. This breaks up the IGO-IGO a bit, and allows a lot of player decisions but not without risk. It's brilliant!

Actions. Each fig has two actions, one Movement and one Combat, which creates a series of distinctions as to which actions fall into which category [for example, Reload can count as either].  Personally, I dislike this artificial splicing of the mechanic.  Either give them one Action or two, but let the player do whatever, ie move-shoot, shoot-move, shoot-shoot, move-move, etc. Still, not saying it is BAD, just that don't like it and can't see a need for it aside from simplicity. As there is no penalty to moving if you shoot and vice-versa, you basically get itchy feet for nothing.

Enemy Actions. The Enemy have their own guidelines as to what the figs do. Generally, if they have line of sight at a target they will fire at it and reload. If not, they will move to get line of sight and get cover from which to fire, usually. Ultimately, you have to try and play the opposition as faithfully as possible, even if they are about to whack your favorite fig!

Morale is interesting if not novel. Generally, figs will check morale if a friendly fig is whacked nearby, with a 50-50 chance to pass. However, Mr. Weasel rates each force as one of four types: Military, Guerilla, Native or Outlaw, and what the figs in the force DO if they fail is different. Again, it's characterful and can easily be tweaked to any historical situation in the black powder period based upon historical research.

Stuns, Wounds and Bandages. Nicely done is the system for handling the effects of shooting on figs. Usually you will miss, but when you "hit" the enemy you will get a stun, a wound or knock out the fig. If it is KO, it's done for now. If it is Stunned or Wounded, there are some simple and nicely done rules for recovering. Your squad can also do first aid for their pals. It is realistic and with very little tweaking, you can get some very important player decisions being made to drag off one's own wounded and save them from the savage enemy, etc.  Perfect for the skirmish level of combat.

Terrain and Line of Sight rules are incomplete, but easily put in. I used "real" LoS with a laser pointer and common terrain rules.  Still, with just a bit more effort all this could be in there, I didn't add much.

Final Verdict

At the price he's offering, I can't see how any gamer can resist. If you are experienced, you will find lots of ideas for BP skirmishing and plenty of opportunities to tweak things a bit. You can easily play against an opponent or against the game, or cooperatively against the game, with each player working to fight the opposition here and there.

The campaign system is quick and easy, and again it is easily tweaked.

The combat mechanics are nicely done, revolving around the Reaction and 3-phase game turn, and can easily be pushed back into the ancient period and forward into the modern period, since the game is driven more by figure abilities than weapon abilities.

The game is driven by player decisions and the campaign by a strong narrative sequence that is backed up by the figure mechanics which provide clear opportunities for an average force to "lose" about half the time, but progress steadily until it is a squad of veterans [and replacements] fighting along the frontier.

Sure, it is a Beta and a bit rough on the edges. But as always Nordic Weasel has plenty of great and good ideas and a nice direction for the design. Can't go wrong.

I say it is a "must purchase"  for the ideas alone, if not the entire game.  "Five Kilometers from Leipzig Beta" can be purchased [here] at Wargame Vault for the suggested price of $2 measly bucks U.S. - so BUY IT ALREADY!!

:)

The Five Parsecs engine also drives the "Five Leagues from the Borderlands" fantasy version, which has a lot of products, the "Five Kilcks from the Zone" post-apocolyptic survival game. The Five Parsecs game is in full-blown book production [I've ordered it from Game Nerdz] and the Five Parsecs Bug Hunt [which I've bought - a great deal at $9 IMHO].