Dragon Hordes
By Bryan Winter
Published By Corsair Publishing
$29.95Huge Dragons. Mammoth Dhurgoth War Machines. Powerful Alef Mages wielding Amazing Spells. And lots of Chaos. A sound recipe for a fantasy war, and a great premise for this fantasy miniatures system.
Dragon Hordes is the latest offering by Corsair Publishing (best known for saving "Pulp Dungeons" from the dust heap of history). Designed by TSR alumni Bryan Winter, it is a game of "Fantasy Warfare on a Massive Scale." Rather than your standard offering of skirmish and mass combat rules, this game skips straight to huge games on a scale that is roughly 1/285 (the same as micro-armor).
Dragon Hordes uses a simple 2d6 mechanic for resolution of combat. You simply roll against a base number (with a small list of modifiers). If you are successful, the target rolls against their Armor to see if they are damaged.
One of the most interesting and exciting things about this game is the initiative system. Rather than a typical "roll dice for initiative" method, they've opted for something a little more random. Chits representing each unit in play are pulled from a cup, and they move in fight in the order pulled -- regardless of which side of the battle they are on. This causes the game to have a freeform feel, and adds a level of realism to combat resolution.
Units are described with a basic index that explains their abilities. This index is located on a Unit card that is included with the counter . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: May 15, 1998
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