Hobgoblin - Rank & Flank Fantasy game from the creator of Gaslands

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**stonehorse**

I like that characters can join units, one of the many things I dislike about KoW.

It seems (from the two videos) that the game has capped dice at 10 for melee, and 5 for ranged, and equipment is over looked in favour of unit battlefield role.

Those two things remind me of Dragon/Lion Rampant. Caped dice and not bogged down in wargear detail.

While it isn't strictly IGOUGO or Alternative Activations, it seems to be trying to take the best of both approaches.

I do like how it handles panic spreading (would be interesting to know if a unit that receives doom from a friendly unit breaking can make it break), and being flanked.

I hope the 'Gotcha cards' are played on your turn and not on your opponent’s turn, as that really kills a lot of enjoyment in a game (ASOIAF!)

Might have to invest in a copy.

**stonehorse**

AegisGrimm wrote:
It definitely sounds interesting, although the digital-only reward level seems expensive.

I have been looking for an approachable Rank n' Flank game to introduce to my son, who at 8 is just getting old enough for miniatures games. At the moment I have settled on Kings of War, but this might actually be a bit easier because in Hobgoblin there isn't the bewildering range of unit stats for me to try to get him to deal with. The set values for ranged and melee combat, with just a sort of "Universal Resolution Chart" would be much easier for him to tackle.

Interesting that there is no defense rolls, though. Just straight-up damage, automatically adding "Doom" tokens (aka wounds).

I personally love games with no model removal. Units having just a set footprint lets you go hog wild with your imagination. It also would let me and my son keep something going which has been a big hit in my house: Using Lego minifigures as wargaming miniatures. Set unit footprints like Hobgoblin and Kings of War lets me do things like this:

Check out Age of Fantasy Regiments by One Page Rules, simple, fast, and free. Perfect to get young kids into the hobby.

Also, those Lego Uruk Hai look great, didn't know Lego did LotR sets?

**stonehorse**

kenofyork wrote:
It always baffles me that "speed of play" is so important in modern games.

2-4 hours makes a good game. Same time as a LOTR movie. Tik-Tok and youtube shorts are not the limit of my attention span.

More to do with adult life cutting availability of free time. So getting to play a full game in 2 hours appeals to me greatly. Not due to lack of attention span.

**stonehorse**

lord_blackfang wrote:
insaniak wrote:

Except that removing those models should then have an impact on how the unit performs.

How much does the back rank impact a unit's performance tho?

Not so much about performance, but rather from a visual reference. A unit that has the same number of models as it had during deployment is hard to sell as a unit that has sustained so much battle damage that it is very close to being removed.

Also, it isn't just about the back rank, but rather the unit as a whole. As it takes battle damage it should both occupy and fight at a reduced capacity as it is having it's numbers reduced. Being able to take up the same space while close to being removed is also a bit hard to sell.

This all said, these points oddly don't seem to apply to smaller scale (10mm and below). For 28mm and above ir seems quite important.

Still, I backed the game as I like to add rules to my collection.

**stonehorse**

AegisGrimm wrote:
I introduced my 9 year old son to the game with the pre-release rules, which were still in development but pretty much the full game. He had a bunch of fun, even though it was hard keeping his attention for a full game.

We used my Lego armies that I have been collecting for either this or Kings of War. I don't know if I would be able to keep his attention with Kings of War having more stats. He liked the speed of combat resolution, and how units are relatively similar within their unit "type", but with the strengths and weaknesses making them unique to their army list. It made it easy for him to remember that most units threw 10 dice when fighting unless they had a hero embedded, or were a ranged unit (which use half).

Those look great! Glad to hear the game was able to keep the interest of a young lad!