‘Chariot Lords’ by Charles Vasey
Dicken and Kendall commiserate with each other over the struggle they have had to put up to overcome their recent colds. No mention is made of Bird Flu. Moments later two youthful gamers are at the door. Alex is here for his fourth games night accompanied by Ross who is a debutante. He is a fairly experienced gamer though, having recently taken part in a beer swilling variant of ‘History of the World’ – a good swig each time an army is killed (well, it’s nice to hear that lads are doing this at their eighteenth birthday parties).
Tonight’s game is already set out, Kendall having taken time to bag up the various nations in Charles Vasey’s game ‘Chariot Lords’. Both Kendall and Dicken appear in the game-test listings, having met up with Charles some years ago when he was developing the game. That said, it hasn’t been played too many times since (in fact it hasn’t been played two times since) owing to the salient fact that it is a long game by comparison with the Ragnar’s usual fare.
‘Chariot Lords’ covers the history of those civilisations that surrounded the Fertile Crescent from the Sumerians through to the Medes (just before the Persians muscle in). The game is loosely modelled on a previous game called ‘Ancient Conquest’. Charles expanded the number of nations and elaborated the combat system. Both games require players to chase historical targets (e.g. smite two Assyrians, become beloved of Marduk and conquer Babylon) to score points, as well as occupying land.
The game begins. Ross draws the ‘Hatti’ (mutterings about Eric Sykes) chit. He makes his initial deployment of the Hatti armies (foot and chariots). His other nation at the start of the game is Elam and this gets drawn a little later. Each player starts with one or two nations and acquires several more during the course of the game. Nations can also wink out of history all together. Dicken deploys his Sumerians (in their swamp) and the Mitanni. Kendall has the Canaanites and Kassites. Alex has the mighty Egyptians.
All the chits then go back in the pot and start to be drawn one at a time as the first turn progresses. As each chit is drawn, so that nation has its turn. This involves deploying on new units (including those returning from the dead), moving, combating, redeploying and finally scoring.
‘Chariot Lords’ is ten turns long. To play the whole game takes around six hours – which is at least twice as much time available on a games night. Consequently, when he was off work with the cold, Kendall did some preparatory work enabling a shortened game to be played tonight and also at the forthcoming Ragnar bash. The first three turns are to be played out as normal and then a points calculation applied to determine the winner. Kendall has gone so far as to write this up:
Chariot Lords Reduced game (turns 1 –3, approx. 2 hours)
Final Scores made up from:
Score track points +
3 points for each remaining chariot +
2 points for each remaining infantry +
Half value for any scores from player’s Victory Point List, provided some start has been made to achieving the target. This does include ‘preventions’.
Points Regulator (scores from trial):
Yellow 120
Blue 135
Red 200
White 230
Winner is player with highest total above the respective given score
Dicken’s Sumerians have crept out of the swamp and butchered Kendall’s Kassites, capturing Babylon. ‘Ching! Ching! That’s ten points!’ Meanwhile the Canaanites are getting their customary hammering from the Egyptians. ‘Ching! Ching!’ As you can see from the above scores, to play yellow is to draw the short straw.
Kendall is stoical. And…. not only is he providing crisps and salsa, but also the teenagers are working their way through the home supplies of John Smith’s and Fosters. Still, they appear to be enjoying themselves.
Ross has a Hatti leader with some unpronounceable name. Leaders are good. They add +1 to dice rolls in two attacks. However, the Canaanite leader (as ever) failed to perform and Alex hadn’t got the hang of his leader on the first turn. Ross demonstrates better understanding. The Egyptians are ‘put to the sword’ in Philistia; the Gaza strip runs red with blood.
Charles has been playing and reviewing games for a long time. When we first visited
his place, he was dipping into the German strategy game market. While the Ragnars drifted in that direction (away from ‘Angola’ and towards ‘Canal Mania’), Charles didn’t and he continued to focus on his core interests of military simulations. The combat system in ‘Chariot Lords’ demonstrates this. A CRT is used in which account is taken of terrain and unit types. Armies are laid out and lined up before combat and then decisions are made on retreating or continuing combat - far more detail than a German style game would want.
Dicken gets out some more Assyrians. They keep appearing, bringing ‘terror’ (a marker provided) and an abundant supply of leaders. The Kassites are again humbled – if only they could get their hands on the Canaanites!
Turn three ends. Time for the accountancy to begin. Ross does his own and runs out an easy winner. However, a recount shows that he has added in all the later nations as well as those that he has just played. He shouldn’t have! Final scores on the doors are:
Yellow 137 +17
Blue 193 +58
Red 257 +57
White 259 +29
Alex looks suitably surprised. His Egyptians have managed a few forays up the coast, whilst his Achaens attempted (but failed) to kick a lonely foot unit out of Hattusas. Not a terribly dramatic way to win, but blame can be attached to Kendall’s system.
More of an experience than a competitive game on this occasion, and unlikely that the Ragnars will play the whole thing through in the foreseeable future. But Ross and Alex have enjoyed themselves – which is a good thing. ( They are the future you know – ed).
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