Game: Lionheart

Thread: Re: A game for the Lionhearted

Steampunk — 2008-11-17T04:09:20+00:00

I was lucky enough to pick this up at my FLGS a couple of years ago. A really cool game that sometimes gets neglected due to the Big Boys. Really a fun game that deserves more credit!

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wolper — 2008-10-13T00:42:24+00:00

unpunched pieces; lots of work ahead

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arnaudel — 2008-10-06T13:53:54+00:00

French edition

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Cornbread46 — 2008-06-25T22:44:38+00:00

After finding this in a box in the garage, my wife takes a stab at setting up this game. She did not question why I have ahd it in the garage for 6+ years...

Thread: Re: A game for the Lionhearted

Mandrake — 2008-03-30T03:56:34+00:00

I agree. Lionheart may be light and luck-dependent, but in a good and enjoyable way.

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Andre_g54 — 2007-10-29T04:00:31+00:00

1997 LIONHEART Game (Board & Pieces)

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fractaloon — 2007-06-16T03:36:47+00:00

The cover of the rulebook.

Thread: Simple variants...

Petru5 — 2007-04-19T15:47:20+00:00

Two rules variants that could possibly make the game better. Keep in mind that these variants are limited to the four dice included in the game, so I had to get a little tricky...

1. When attacking a unit's rear or flank, you get a bonus reroll.
Note - You cannot reroll Panics, only misses. Panic occurs as normal.
A. Flank attacks get one reroll of a "miss" die.
B. Rear attacks get two rerolls of "miss" dice.

Example: A stand of gold Knights (two knights) charges into the rear of a silver Infantry unit. The usual four dice are rolled, and the results are two Battle-Axes and two Arrows. The attacker gets to reroll the two Arrows (misses) and gets another Battle-Ax and a Panic. The defender removes three Infantrymen from his stand.

This simulates the overwhelming menace and potential demoralization caused by someone attacking (i.e., "rolling") a flank or smashing into the unprotected rear of a unit. As you can see, a tightly packed army may be routed easily if one unit is Panicked and "chains" the units around it.

2. When more than one army's unit is adjacent to and facing an enemy unit, a bonus die roll is given to the attacking unit. This bonus "stacks" (i.e., for every additional adjacent unit, another die is rolled).

Example: The stand of gold Knights mentioned earlier has exposed itself by making that glorious but foolhardy charge. It is now surrounded by three stands of silver Infantry. These Infantry stands are all adjacent to the Knights and after the just-attacked Infantry turns around (using the player's first action), are all facing the Knights. A full stand of four Infantry attacks (using the player's second action). They roll their usual four dice and then reroll an extra die for each friendly unit adjacent to the Knights. There are two friendly Infantry units, so two extra dice are rolled. The first four dice rolled are Two Battle-Axes, a Panic, and an Arrow. The player rolls two more dice for two more Battle-Axes. The Knights are destroyed and removed from the board!

This variant simulates how overwhelming numbers can crush a unit.

Combining these two variants can drastically change the complexity of the game. Even adding just one variant increases the game's difficulty.

Final Note - Heroscape and Heroquest dice work for this game.
Skulls = Battle-Axes
Shields = Arrows
Blank = Panic

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jdb001 — 2007-03-02T04:50:37+00:00

Box Front

Thread: A game for the Lionhearted

swandive78 — 2007-01-14T04:43:01+00:00

I'll start this review off by telling you that I played Risk a lot when younger, and loved it. I may have discovered a lot of better games since then, but the name of Risk still holds some weight.

That said, Lionheart really has nothing to do with Risk. However, the first contact I had with this game was an ad in Games Magazine that told of the coming of Lionheart, "From the Makers of Risk." That would be Parker Brothers, the publisher, not the creators of Risk.

When I saw the ad, I knew I had to get this game. There was a chessboard and a bunch of little figures. At this point, just about the only miniatures I had come across were from Dungeons and Dragons, Battletech and Axis and Allies. It just looked cool.

It was a while before I was able to get my hands on a copy of Lionheart, and when I did, I popped the shrink wrap, cut all the pieces off the sprues and assembled them without snapping off any weapons, and managed to get the stickers stuck where they were supposed to go.

I put the figures on the bases, put the bases on the board, and sat back and just looked at it. You know what? It looked every bit as cool as I had expected it to be.

The problem with great-looking games sometimes is that they just aren't great to play. Fortunately, that wasn't the case with Lionheart.
I found it to be simple to learn, teach, and play.

Aside from the fact that it looked cool, exactly what was it I liked so well?

It's familar, but unfamiliar.
Lionheart is essentially like Chess crossed with a miniatures skirmish game. Each turn, a player may move one stand of figures (a unit) or attack another player's unit. As a stand takes damage from attacks, figures are removed until the unit is removed completely. It has the feel of both Chess and mini table games, but lighter. It's fun, but does not demand a heavy committment.

The variety of unit types.
In the Basic Game, each player has a King and Knights (both on horseback), Archers and Infantry. In the Advanced Game, each player may also have Heavy Infantry, Mercenaries and Peasants. Each unit type has varying numbers of figures per base, which visually shows the "hit points" of the unit. Between the differences in their ability to deal and take damage, the various units are actually distinct in game character.

Ranged and close combat.
Characters on horseback can move as far as they want across the board until they encounter another figure or the edge of the board. Characters on foot move one square at a time. Most units must be next to the unit they are attacking, but Archers can also attack from long range. All characters have a forward-looking field of fire, and rather than move, units may turn in place, allowing them to move their field of fire as well. It makes attacks quite a bit different from Chess attacks.

Just enough of a taste of randomness to add spice.
At the time, this game was one of the few with specialized dice.
The faces of the dice have icons that correspond to close combat, ranged combat, and Panic. Attacks are not automatically successful; the type of icon rolled indicates whether a particular type of target is reduced (and possibly eliminated) or not. Occasionally, the target unit panics and must retreat. The dice were a nice touch. Every one of the Commands and Colors games owes a debt to the success of the dice in this game. It adds flavor to what would otherwise be a fairly routine randomizing process.

Basic and Advanced play.
Most gamers like to proceed from a basic game to a more challenging game. The basic game starts with a smaller collection of unit types and a preset starting location for the units. The advanced game adds three unit types a player may substitute for some of the basic units, and allows each player to customize the starting location of his units. A variant suggestion allows the players to throw all of the available units onto the board for a massive game.

Two paths to victory.
Like some Chess variants, you can win by either killing (not checkmating) the King, or by killing all of his subjects, thus isolating him. They aren't quite the same; it does give you two strategic paths to follow.

The rulebook is laid out well, illustrated sufficiently (including instructions on assembling the units), and has a GAmeplay Reference Table that would have been a nice table to have had printed separately on two cards, so each player could have an easy reference to unit movement, strengths and defenses.

Lionheart plays relatively fast, rewards good play, but has enough randomness to keep it exciting, even for the better player. Like most Chess variants, it also has some depths that do not become immediately obvious in the first game or two.

Lionheart is a nice surprise: an unusual, worthwhile game of war with great bits from a large mass-market game company. Unfortunately, it is now out of print, but quite obtainable on eBay at a reasonable price, and worth it. If you like games in the style of Battle Cry or Memoir '44, and wouldn't mind something a bit lighter, grab one and give it a try. I think you'll enjoy it, over and over.

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fractaloon — 2006-08-02T02:53:35+00:00

Thread: Re: Lost Piece

kduke — 2006-08-01T16:24:23+00:00

If nothing else is available, try a block of balsa, cut to the same size. You can put slots in it and paint it green (and if the slots are cut a tad large and then painted heavily, they will firm up.

Good luck. (too bad on the basement)

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notlobot — 2006-07-15T16:49:34+00:00

knights

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notlobot — 2006-07-15T16:48:33+00:00

infantry

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notlobot — 2006-07-15T16:47:58+00:00

peasants

Thread: Lost Piece

DarthWoda — 2006-07-05T05:31:09+00:00

I recently found my copy of this game after my basement flooded, this was the only game that was spared, i took it out and i have all the pieces, but i am missing one of the green bases, does anyone know of a good replacement for these or how i could get another?

Thread: Re: User Review

mmchugh — 2006-05-25T20:05:04+00:00

I'd say you are both right. I LOVE this game. And the luck of the dice CAN (sometimes)crack reasonable play. But it doesn't always, or even most of the time. It just might and sometimes does. But you know the probabilities going into an attack, or when you decide to move a knight offensively rather than your king defensively. And you know the power and potential of archers when you begin. This classicalstruggle between fortune and strategy is part of everything in life that I want my kids to learn how to deal with. It's very OK with me in a game. This game works for Dad and kids at 5, 7, and 9. I usually win if I really try - but not always even then. It really adds to the excitement and occassionally bangs up the predictability. It makes it something that keeps things exciting for people from 5 to 45+. I realize some folks crave less luck and more calculation. Their games are out there.

Thread: Lionheart Review

KrackerJack — 2006-05-10T20:48:30+00:00

Intro:

I got this game as a gift several years ago during my “limited gaming” period. We played a few times that weekend, and it lived in a closet for about 6 years. My son discovered this game when we PCS’d to Virginia and insisted we play it. It’s seen a fair amount of table time since, and he requests it on occasion.

Production:
Units: The units are all oversized molded plastic, approx 2 inches in height. One side is silver and the other gold. The mercenaries and horses are all black and the unit bases are green. The foot units and horses fit into the slots on the bases (they will not stand up on there own) and the knights and kings sit on the horses. The units are pretty good, but they break fairly easy and the plastic reminds me of a cheap toy.

Dice: The dice are blank and black and come with stickers for the faces. Each die has two arrows, three axes, and one panic.

Board: The board is well produced. It is a single fold, mounted board with nice artwork. The playing field is a grid of green squares, so the playing surface is nothing fancy, but the artwork around the outside is nice.

Overall: Average to above average production. The units look great, but they just have that cheap toy feel to them that always bothered me. The rest of the components are good quality but unremarkable.

Rules Presentation:
The rules are simple, straightforward, and clearly laid out. To make things even easier, they include basic and advanced rules that allow some flexibility in the setup of the game.

Overall: Excellent.

Rules of Play:
This game has a “Battle Chess” feel to it. You get two moves per turn and can choose to move, turn, attack, or bribe a mercenary. Each unit has some unique abilities, but none of the special powers are too unique.

The basic mechanic is to move your unit adjacent to any enemy unit and attack. You must be facing the opponent to attack them. Whenever you roll all “panics” your unit does an about face and retreats one square. The basic unit is the Infantry, which moves 1 and scores a hit whenever an axe is rolled. You get one dice per Infantry up to a max of four dice. Other units are as follows:
Knights: move unlimited, get 2 dice per, hit on axes, need two hits to kill
King: same as knights, can ignore panic rolls
Archers: move one, can attack the nine spaces in front of them (3x3 grid), hit on arrows
Heavy infantry: move ½ (takes your whole turn to move them), get two dice per, hit on axes, take two hits to kill
Mercenaries: Move 1, get 2 dice per, hit on axes, cause attacked units to panic, can be bribed by the opposing king to switch sides
Peasants: same as infantry except: panic for each panic rolled, hit on whichever they roll the most of.

This game is very simple and fast paced. You have some opportunity for some “chess-style” analysis as you try to look a few moves ahead. The game is a nice lightweight game, and served as a gateway game for my son. Occasionally it comes out as a filler game for my gaming group and everyone enjoys it.

Overall: This is an average game. It is light, fast, and fun with a little analysis thrown in. There are much better 2-player light wargames out their (C&C:A) but this is a nice change of pace. There isn’t too much opportunity for strategic thought and much of the tactics involve reacting to the other player’s moves rather than trying to follow any type of plan. If you can find this one fairly cheap, it is worth picking up for some semi-mindless fun.

Thread: Lord of the Rings Variant for Lionheart

Fenway5 — 2005-10-20T18:01:15+00:00

Lord of the Rings
A variant for
Parker Brothers Lionheart game
By Christopher Brandon

*You will need to purchase Lord of the Rings Miniatures from Games Workshop to fully transform your game. The infantry soldiers have slot bases that fit perfectly into the Lionheart bases. Cavalry will not fit, they have pegs for some reason-so you will need to simply mount the cavalry soldier onto the horses from Lionheart.

The basic game play for Lionheart is very easy to play and explain. I recently picked up 2 copies on Ebay for about $30 which included shipping. After playing a number of games my nerdy game heart realized something that the brain trust at Hasbro missed…a LOTR Lionheart conversion would make this an OUTSTANDING game! Try it and see!

In all games the forces of good will be outnumbered by the forces of evil. To counter that the forces of good have special characters (Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Boromir, Eowynn, Gandalf) which are useable in the game. The good player needs to balance out the fact that each special character is ALONE (the only figure) on his base so while powerful, the loss of the character can be devastating.

The forces of evil have a lot of grunt (goblin/ orc) troops and a few powerful units (nazghul, sauron, witchking, or Sauruman.) but these powerful units are only rarely on the board for evil and they must rely on sheers numbers to grind down the forces of good.

FORCES OF GOOD
The forces of Good have only 8 bases to use during any game. There may be no more than 3 hero units used by the forces of good in any game.

FORCES OF GOOD ARMY

The Heroes
*The following apply to ALL HEROES for the forces of good*
-Heroes are the ONLY figure on their base. (Exception the fellowship hobbits are based all 4 on 1 base)
-Each move or attack counts as 1 action
-it DOES NOT cost 1 action to turn a character figure-but the turn must be performed PRIOR to moving the character
- Characters may move up to a certain number of squares (depending upon the hero) they are stopped in movement if blocked by friendly or enemy units
-At least one of the following heroes MUST be present in the forces of Good: Aragorn, the Fellowship or Gandalf. If the fellowship is present they are ALWAYS considered the king for the game. If no fellowship is in play then ARAGORN is considered the king unit for the game. If only Gandalf is present-then he is considered the king for the game.

ARAGORN-
Moves up to 4 squares
Aragorn uses 4 dice when attacking and hits with axes
Requires 3 hits to be killed
Disregards all panic rolls-cannot be panicked by Sauron

LEGOLAS-
Moves up to 5 squares
Uses 3 dice when attacking
Scores a hit with arrows or axes
Disregards panic rolls-can be panicked by Sauron
Requires 3 hits to be killed

GIMLI-
Moves up to 3 squares
Rolls 4 dice when attacking goblins
Rolls 2 dice for all other attacks
Scores a hit with axes
Disregards panic rolls-can be panicked by Sauron
Requires 3 hits to be killed

GANDALF
Moves up to 3 squares
Rolls 3 dice when attacking
Scores a Hit with axes
If Gandalf Rolls any panic symbol it causes the attacked opponent to panic-play out panic rules as normal for the unit panicking. Note forces of Evil Anti-Heroes are immune form panic.
Gandalf never panics, not even Sauron
Requires 3 hits to be killed

BOROMIR
Moves up to 4 squares
Rolls 2 dice when attacking
Scores a hit with axes
Requires 2 arrow hits to be killed
Disregards panic rolls –can be panicked by Sauron
*HORN OF GONDOR-once a game Boromir may use the horn of Gondor, this takes up BOTH actions for the forces of Good. You may then move ANY 1 Forces of Good army or Hero base into any empty square next to Boromir.

EOWYNN
Moves up to 4 squares
Rolls 4 dice when attacking Nazghul or the Witchking
Rolls 2 dice when attacking all others
Scores a hit with axes
Requires 3 hits to be killed
Disregards panic rolls-can be panicked by Sauron

THE FELLOWSHIP (represented by all 4 hobbits on 1 base)
Moves up to 3 squares
The Fellowship base rolls 2 dice when attacking regardless of number of hobbits on the base.
Scores Hits on arrows or axes
Requires 2 hits to kill one hobbit
Disregards panic rolls-can be panicked by Sauron

ARMY UNITS OF THE FORCES OF GOOD

Elven archers-
0 or 1 base in a game
3 on a base
Moves 1 square in the direction it is facing
Attacks in range and distance per archer rules of Lionheart
Elven archers may re-roll 1 axe icon per each attack made

Elven Infantry
0 or 1 base in a game
3 on a base
Moves 1 square in direction it is facing
Attack as infantry in Lionheart rules
Elven infantry May re-roll 1 arrow icon per each attack made

Gondor/ Rohan Archers
Follow all original rules per Lionheart

Gondor/ Rohan Infantry
Follows all original rules per Lionheart

Gondor/ Rohan cavalry
Follow all rules per Knights in Lionheart

FORCES OF EVIL

The Villains
-Villains are the ONLY figure on their base.
-Each move or attack counts as 1 action
-it DOES NOT cost 1 action to turn a Villain figure-but the turn must be performed PRIOR to moving the character
- Characters may move up to a certain number of squares (depending upon the hero) they are stopped in movement if blocked by friendly or enemy units
-There can be only ONE of the following Villains present for the forces of Evil: Saruman, the Witch King, or Sauron.

SAURON-
Sauron moves up to 2 squares
Rolls 4 dice in an attack
Hits with arrows or Axes
A roll of Panic forces any attacked hero or regular army unit to panic per panic rules in Lionheart
Requires 4 hits to kill
Immune from panic

The Witch King of Angmar
Witch King moves like a knight
Rolls 3 dice to attack
Hits on axes or arrows
Requires 3 hits to kill
Immune from panic

SARUMAN
Moves 2 squares
Rolls 1 die to attack
Hits on axes or arrows
Create orcs-2 times in a game Saruman may create1 additional unit of URUK HAI. This takes both actions for the forces of evil. The uruk hai are placed adjacent to Saruman when created.
Immune from Panic

FORCES OF EVIL

GOBLINS
4-6 bases per game
4 figures on a base
Moves up to 2 squares
Follows all other rules of peasants per original Lionheart rules

URUK-HAI
2-4 bases per game
3 figures on a base
May move up to 1 square/ turn
Rolls 2 dice for each Uruk-Hai on a base
Requires 2 hits to kill one Uruk-Hai

WARG RIDERS
0-2 bases per game
2 figures on a base
Moves and attacks as a knight per Lionheart rules

NAZGHUL
0-2 bases per game
2 figures on a base
Each Nazghul on a base rolls 3 dice/ attack
Moves as a knight per Lionheart rules
Immune from panic-except can be panicked by Gandalf
Requires 3 hits to kill 1

CAVE TROLL
Each move or turn counts as 2 actions, each attack counts as one
0-1 base per game
1 figure on a base
Rolls 4 dice in an attack
Hits on a roll of axes only
A Roll of Panic affects the attacked enemy unit per panic rules in Lionheart
Requires 4 hits to kill

Thread: Re: Impressions and Images envoked for me

She-Wolf — 2005-09-15T04:19:26+00:00

I enjoyed reading your impressions, Jason. They're quite poetic.

Thread: Session Report

RentACop — 2005-08-03T07:12:38+00:00

This is basically detailing two embarassing defeats by my 10 year old cousin.

The first game we played by the advanced rules, (though obviously advanced is too strong a word) I replaced a footman unit with mercs and placed both knights on the far sides of the board. I'd always had good results by immediatly hitting the flanks. My cousin had a fairly standard formation with no special units and his knights flanking his king and archers in the row closest to me. So, game start, I send my left knight straight at a footman, intent on gutting it. I roll: 1 axe. Eek. He counterattacks and rolls 2 axes, enough to kill a knight. Next turn, I strike with my right knight......0 axes. Counterattack - 2 axes with the wounded unit, 4 AXES with the other, now unbearably smug foot unit. My two best units in exchange for a one of his units being barely wounded.

Things were bad, but still salvegeable I thought. He had used up most of his luck and so blew a few rolls and I was was hammering the units he sent up, my mercs managed to panic a pair of units, totally blowing his cohesion. Until I accidentally let my mercs get within range of his archers (mercs can only take 1 hit, and there's only two on a stand). He of course blew them to hell, and 2 turns later sent up his knights. Right through a hole in my battered lines. Right up to the king. And rolled 4 axes. I had to pretend to spill water on my face so they wouldn't see me cry.

Next game at a later date. Neither of us took any special units. I left both my knights on the same side, with archers in the middle. He did the same with archers though flanked them with knights.

At first, things went fantastic, we exhanged archer fire and mine really tore his up. He advanced his knights to take the exposed archers, but I quickly shot and axed them to pieces. My knights pulped his flank and started left, taking guys from the side which forced him to waste moves turning them. So, things were great, except somehow in killing his knights I had left a clear passage from my king to his king. Do I really have to tell you whether or not he attacked with his king? Do you want to guess how many axes he rolled?

Thread: User Review

thoia — 2005-03-24T13:53:44+00:00

A prime example of a good game gone commerical. In the attempt to reach out to as many potential purchasers as possible this game was either scaled down, or just simply not developed up enough to make it a game that will stand up to many other games. It would not have taken very much effort to flesh out some of the soft spots either.

On the plus side for the game is the quality. Very nicely decorated and the little plastic pieces are very detailed. I also greatly enjoy the different characters which helped a lot with theme building but ultimately it didn't add enough to the game to continue playing it repeatedly.

Still for a young player who is getting bored of RISK as their only war game this would be a good transition game to get them thinking about more in depth strategy games. As a strictly adult game you'll play it a couple times. I will add that my gaming group has created a few house rules that really rock as well as we use 2 game sets on 1 board for a massive army attack in close quarters. Made the game better but still not great.

Thread: Re:User Review

Drewcooter — 2005-03-08T03:47:35+00:00

Reedo (#68492),

I am over 10 by 27 years and I enjoy this game. Is it great ? No,but it does have something to offer.

I see no similarities to Stratego. IMHO it is more a combination of Chess and Battle Cry.

It is also a good gateway game to other richer fare.

If you can find it for a good deal, on ebay or at a garage sale pick it up.

Thread: Impressions and Images envoked for me

jhenke — 2005-02-21T02:22:41+00:00

The glint of spear tips twinkling betwixt green leaves, horse hoofs soft in dark soil, banners bright-as-the-sun flaring across the horizon line as they slip between black oak trunks, arrows 'nocked before the archers, 3 shafts in the ground at their feet, the stand off across the vale, the trumpet call, the war drums, the banners flaring taught as the charge poors down the hill, the smashing and cries of horses and men, the hectic slashing, the screaming commands, the importance of footwork and not going down, the sweat, the gods, the fates, the victory.

The theme is caught well in this game; it's a melee, the crashing of forces, the side steps, the fients, the direct--no where to run--toe to toe slashing. Volleys of black comets arching off the bow--hanging high in the sky in an abated breath--then streaking down into armor, tree, earth, horse and man...it's fast, it's direct. It works.

Thread: User Review

Reedo — 2004-12-01T18:09:14+00:00

Lionheart is a simple game of fantasy combat mixed with elements found in chess, stratego, and many other classic games. While it is a game that will entertain on a rainy day, especially if young children are involved, it is a game that leaves most wanting more. Many better choices exist.

THE BITS: The game has pretty nice little bits. Detailed minis on elevated green stands represent soldiers, archers, and cavalry. The board, although simple and chess-like, is quite nice, also. This game, as will be discussed later. uses dice to determine the outcome of combat. However, the dice are not your normal dice with scattered pips; they have axes on three sides, arrows on two, and PANIC! on one. These symbols streamlime the game, making it children-friendly.

THE GAMEPLAY: This is where the game falls short. While some interesting tactics can be played out, and maybe even a strategy or two, the outcome of this game is largely decided by who rolls better. My other substantial complaint comes in the form of a huge 1st player adavntage. Because of their ability to kill units from across the board, the archers are much too powerful when utilized by the first player. No variant has been able to solve this issue. One interesting mechanic is the PANIC roll. This unlucky and unlikely roll represents the (bad) morale of your troops and forces them to retreat. There is just nothing new going on here. Even when first published in the late 90's, it didn't break any ground, and sat on the shelves as an uninteresting, boring dice-fest for children.

This game, by the makers of RISK, fails to entertain an audience that is older than 10 and fails significantly for anyone who has played almost any other fantasy combat game.

Thread: Session Report

Godeke — 2004-08-23T19:22:37+00:00

With a bored child in the house after the first week of school I decided a light game might be of some amusement. Lionheart is a very light wargame that crosses chess with a bunch of dice and removable figures on bases that allow damage to be incremental.

We played two rounds: the first with the "beginner" setup and the second with the "advanced" hidden selection of units and setup. In both I won fairly easily: despite the dice involved, failure to apply decent tactics will cause a loss. During our second game it became clear to my son (too late) that cavalry and archers are the key to the game.

During the first game I was able to win because my son exposed his King to combat too early in the game. In the second game it was more interesting because of the use of an ax-wielding unit that could attack any adjacent space: this character became the centerpiece for conflicts on both sides of the board. Being armored (each figure takes two hits to eliminate) they last a bit longer than expected. Cavalry conflicted in the left flank of the battle field, with my son having a unit that refused to go down after it lost its first figure. Eventually I was able to bring my archers up in a pair and focus arrow fire on his units to soften them up for my second cavalry.

This game is probably going to hinge on the dice with two players with strategic thinking capabilities, but there is enough skill here that I can see a progression in my son's game play. Highly recommended if you have children outgrowing the very luck driven games but not yet ready for analysis paralysis.

Thread: Session Report

Ryhesling — 2004-05-15T13:50:53+00:00

It was a beer & pretzels night, laid back... So laid back in fact that there were no pretzels and Spite and I were too lazy to go get pretzels or any of the other Doom Crows to game, instead we opted to break out a couple of my favorite two players, like Lionheart.

The game play is very simple, players get two actions a turn to move units (either in the direction the unit is facing or to turn the unit to face a new direction) or attack an apposing unit. Spite had never played the game before and was at a slight disadvantage because he was experimenting with different tactics. The game allows for a fair amount of diversity in the tactics department, more than I remembered, despite the simplicity of the game.

Spite suffered 4:1 loses as he kept trying to use his archers (33.3% chance of killing enemies) as I advanced with my infantry (50% chance of killing an enemy) and began killing his troops in melee combat. He managed to sneak an infantry unit around my flank, though and almost won the game as they charged my king. After getting my king out of danger I was able to pin and kill Spite's king...
]]>Round 1 goes to Steve

After that game Spite felt pretty comfortable with the game so we added in the advanced rules. With these optional rules in place you can organize your troops in secret -see picture below- any way you like in the two ranks closest to you (exception: each player's king must start on his corresponding crest). You also get to customize your army by removing regular troops from their bases and replacing them with peasants, mercenaries, and heavy infantry.
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When the box top/set up screen was removed Spite and I quickly analyzed each other's armies. He had chosen to leave his second rank unchanged and in his first rank he employed a company of cowardly peasants on the right and a troop of heavy infantry on the left. He smiled happily to see that his heavy infantry would be bearing down on my mercenaries and that his peasant company would clash with my own; however, I feel he over looked the reorganization of my second rank. I had moved my cavalry out to my flanks so they could charge early.

Spite brought his peasants forward, eager to see how they'd fair. Fine by me, I followed suit, charging peasants with peasants. My peasants ran forward, slaughtered three of his four, and then turned tail and bolted back a space. During their unscheduled retreat two of them caught arrows in the back from Spite's archers. The peasants served they're purpose so I left them there to die, turning my attention to my promising mercenaries. The mercs advanced with the intent of driving Spites heavy & regular infantry from the board with fear. This did not end up being the case. One of them died from the fire of Spite's archers and Spite’s heavy infantry slaughtered the other before they could incite any panic. "What am I paying you for," I demanded as Spite's now confident forces advanced. My own infantry met his on my left flank, while avoiding his slow but devastating heavy infantry on the right. Spite felt it wouldn't be long before he'd be surrounding my king with soldiers, but in his confidence he'd over looked my cavalry again, it had circled the out skirts of the melee and was now charging his king.

My mounted soldiers eventually ran down his king bring me to a second victory and Spite asking for a rematch and pondering purchasing a copy of Lionheart for himself.

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

I picked this curious looking strategy title up when Toys R Us decided to put it on clearance for $9. For a board game with 92 minatures and decent presentation, I thought it was a steal, even if the game wasn't too good. Lionheart has long had a negative reaction from most gamers for basically 2 reasons: It's mainstream (Parker Bros.) and some people think the name was ripped from the more acclaimed, European strategy game. In the case of Lionheart, the phrase "Don't Judge a book by it's cover" should really be the mantra all gamers use. Lionheart won't win any awards for brilliance, but it's certainly a much better game than it may seem.
Lionheart is a Chess-like game played on a 10X10 grid. You can play the basic game, in which each player has a balanced army of 8 units, each of which (except the King) has more than one element to it, so each unit basically can take "hits" in battle before being removed from play. The "Advanced" game is customizable and each player can create their armies from the basic pieces as well as 3 "advanced" pieces (Peasants, Mercenaries, and Heavy Infantry).
The bad side to Lionheart is that it takes a very long time to setup. The box doesn't really clue you in to the 45-min/1 hour time it will take to get all of the figures off their plastic tree, and add stickers to the appropriate characters and dice. This heavy assembly left a bad taste in my mouth, but luckily the game makes it worth it.
I played the game a number of times with my girlfriend, who usually dislikes heavy strategy titles, so she was not looking forward to this game, which advertised itself as a strategy/combat game. In reality, the game moves VERY fast, and there's enough luck involved that the strategy in making your moves will not be deep and involving (like Chess). Each Unit of your army has specfic rules on how they move and attack, but the basic gist is that when you're next to an enemy piece, you can attack it by rolling dice equal to the figures present on the unit which them result in hits or misses. Archer characters can attack in a 3X3 grid in front of them. The objective is to kill the opponents King or kill every other unit of his army and leave him standing alone.
Each player gets 2 actions per turn, ana ction can be spent moving a piece, attacking, or turning a piece in another direction. At first this SEEMS annoying, but it actually balances out everything quite well.
TO make a long story short, Lionheart has lots of great strategy involved, but it's not very complex and plays extremely fast, so people who cringe at the word "strategy game" might actually like this one. It is a lot like Chess (so the comparisons are valid), but since you have to kill other pieces, not capture, the logic becomes a bit more looser and you realize you must take legitimate risks and put characters in danger far more often than you'd think of doing in something like CHess. We played 3 games initially, and the whole affair took less than an hour (not counting assembly time), which, to me, was a great thing. We didn't feel cheated, we didn't rush, and we didn't try to lose on purpose just to end a boring game. We used real strategies, though about things, and the game STILL only lasted about 20-mins. I like detailed games on occasion, but Lionheart is fun because of this great pace. I suppose you COULD agonize over moves and really get into it, but I'm not sure how far that would take you.
The game basically comes packaged with its own expansion, in the form of 3 additional types of characters that can be used with "Advanced rules". One of the characters is Mercenaries, who can change sides if a King bribes them. I personaly thinkt he Advanced version is a brilliant and cunning way to add some more life to the game, but it does take longer to play this version. However, if you like the idea of making up your own army, it'll certainly fill that gap.
While the game itself is a nice, fast but thoughtful play, the presentation does have a few sticky points. The instructions are rather poorly written. Although the rules are easy to grasp in retrospect, the writing is just awful, and not up to the simple, clean, concise standards I'm used to in independent/European translation games. Also, the rules claim that you can use 10 Infantry pieces per base if you really want to (giving you 2 units of 10 Infantrymen), but they fail to explain how you'd roll dice for something like that (there are only 4 dice), soa few house rules will be needed in order to keep things going smoothly. Overall, this game hit the spot on my regular gaming night with my girlfriend, and considering her tastes are not much for wargame themed stuff, that's a good thing. Parker marketed this game horribly and to the wrong people (The case says "From the Makers of RISK", but Risk lovers won't really find much to compare with here). My only complaint is that Archers seems to draw too much focus in the game. For a real interesting game, you may want to try playing without them.