| +---- +---- +---+ | / |\ | | +---- | | --+-- +---- | +--- | | | |+ | \ | | | +---+ | +---+ | | | | | | | \ | \| | | | | | | | +---- +---- +---+ +---+ | \ | | | +---+ | | | ----+ INTRODUCTION ------------ I found a set of wargame rules called Legowars on Stainless Steel Rat's WWW page and immediately downloaded the whole thing. When I started reading it, I found it was for the space sets, of which I've got a lot, gathering dust in my attic. But I've also got a collection of the medieval sets, also getting dusty and generally being unused. Until now! This set attempts to be a very simple set of wargame rules, completely adaptable (sort of...) to whatever you want to build from those LEGO blocks I know you've got hidden under your bed. Anyways, this whole thing was written in a few hours on the 14th of January 1995, when I had nothing better to do. The rules haven't been playtested, so if anything doesn't work out let me know. I'm thinking of adapting these rules for other LEGO "periods" to use the space, pirates, and miniland sets as well. If I get round to it, the whole thing should be fully interchangable, so you can use your spacemen to kill off large numbers of medieval knights... --Gurth (gurth@dds.nl or gurth@xs4all.nl), 14-01-1995 DISCLAIMER ---------- LEGO and LEGOLAND are registered trademarks of the LEGO corporation or whatever it's exactly called -- you know which one I mean. This set of rules was designed to fight miniature battles using LEGO toys, and may not be distributed by anyone who wants to make a profit from it. I didn't make any profits, so neither should anyone else. Similarly, this entire file is copyright (c) 1995 by Gurth, and it is not sponsored or sanctioned in any way by the LEGO corporation. You have permission to spread this file around as much as you like, also to modify it, but you may not distribute files that have in any way been modified. GENERAL HISTORY YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ------------------------------------- It used to be quite peaceful in the little country of Legoland around the last turn of the millenium. Everyone lived in peace and quiet, always avoiding arguments and never ever getting into fights with anyone. This all changed overnight when agents of Evil(tm) assassinated good king Olaf in his sleep. His son reacted strongly and formed a great army of Good(r) to battle the vile forces of Evil lurking in a nearby castle... It did not all go as planned: the Evil leaders somehow knew of the arrival of--- Oh hell, why bother anyway? All you need to know is that two or more groups of LEGO knights are battling it out with each other for no obvious reason at all, and that _you_ can be in charge of one of those groups! If you get a friend round, you have all the ingredients you need to have a good bit of old- fashioned fun on your kitchen table. And when you're done you can even ask her to join in and fight a battle between the Good, the Bad, and the Errol Flynn Poser Gang! CHAPTER 1: Knights, Fighters, and Other Little Men -------------------------------------------------- Each little LEGO man on the battlefield has a few simple statistics: ARMOR, COST, DAMAGE, MOVEMENT, and TO-HIT. All four of these stats can be either quickly remembered or can be readily found by examining the figure in question. ARMOR is a measure of how well the figure is protected from attacks. It depends on the clothing he wears. A LEGO man without any worn armor (helmet, shield, etc.) has an ARMOR rating of 5. All is fully explained in the EQUIPMENT chapter. COST indicates how many "points" the little man costs. This is used to balance games, by giving each side a certain number of points to spend for which to buy men, equipment, buildings, etc. An unequipped man costs 10 points. DAMAGE is how much damage he does on a successful hit. This depends on the weapon the little man is wielding, and is fully covered in the EQUIPMENT chapter. Anyway, a LEGO man without a weapon does -2 points of damage. MOVEMENT expresses how far the LEGO-man may move in one turn. This is expressed in centimeters. A normal LEGO man may move up to 15 centimeters per turn. To find how far a man may move in dots, divide by .75 (20 dots, for those who are bad at maths). See the MOVING AROUND chapter. TO-HIT tells you how easily the figure can score a hit. Like DAMAGE, this depends on the weapon type he is carrying, but also on some other factors. See the EQUIPMENT chapter (again), and the COMBAT AND GENERAL MAYHEM chapter as well. A normal LEGO man has a TO-HIT rating of 7. Each little man can carry two things: one in each hand. He can wear armor like helmets and such things, but for stuff he must carry in his hands, he can only carry two things. To sum up, each LEGO man's stats are: ARMOR COST DAMAGE MOVEMENT TO-HIT 5 10 0 10 7 CHAPTER 2: Required Tools & Turn Sequence ----------------------------------------- To use this set of rules you'll need a few little things: -some LEGO medieval toys for both players -a ruler marked in centimeters -a ten-sided die (henceforth referred to as "1D10") -a large playing area like a tabletop or a floor -at least two players, including yourself Step 1: All sides roll 1D10. The side with the highest roll is side 1, the next-highest is side 2, and so on. Step 2a: Side 1 moves any or all of his figures. Step 2b: Side 2 moves any or all of his figures. Step 3a: Side 1 makes any attacks he wants to. Each little man may only make one attack per turn. Instead of attacking, a figure may pick something up or drop something. Step 3b: as step 3a, but for side 2. Repeat step 3b for any remaining sides. Step 4: go back to step 1 and repeat the whole turn, until only one side is left. CHAPTER 3: Moving Around ------------------------ Fairly straightforward, a figure may move a number of centimeters up to his MOVEMENT rating in one turn, though dead figures may not move (they may not attack either, BTW). Figures can move across obstacles, but this will slow them down. A figure can move over any obstacle which is less than three full blocks high. Three blocks or more means the figure must move around it, or find a way to climb over it by using some sort of ladder. Climbing over an obstacle of 1 or 2 blocks high means the figure loses 5 centimeters off his MOVEMENT. If he doesn't have 5cm left, he can't climb over the obstacle. Try again next turn. Using a ladder to climb up or down requires a full turn to climb the entire ladder (regardless of its length). The figure may not attack anyone while on the ladder, but if a successful attack is made against the figure (this attack does not have to kill him), he falls down. A falling figure can get killed. Roll 1D10, and if you roll higher than, or equal to, the figure's ARMOR rating, he's dead. Plain and simple. If he's not killed by the fall, he can move again next turn. CHAPTER 4: Combat and General Mayhem ------------------------------------ Combat is pretty simple, but it's been divided into melee combat and ranged combat to make it a bit more complex. MELEE COMBAT Any LEGO man can make a melee attack. To do this there must not be more than 5 centimeters (or 6 dots) between the attacker and the target. To make the attack, the attacking figure calculates his TO-HIT number, which is normally 7, but can be modified for the circumstances outlined below: TO-HIT MODIFIERS TABLE CIRCUMSTANCE TO-HIT MODIFIER Attacker's weapon given on appropriate WEAPONS TABLE Target has cover* +3 Target is a building -5 Target is already dead -5 Target is a vehicle -2 * = look from the attacker to the target. If something is partly blocking the view from attacker to target (not including the attacker or the target), the target has cover. The attacker then rolls 1D10, and if he rolls higher than, or equal to, his modified TO-HIT number, he hits. If he rolls 1, he automatically misses, and if he rolls 10 he automatically hits. The attacker cannot attack using a weapon that can only be used as a ranged weapon, such as a bow. If a hit occurs, another 1D10 roll is made. Find the attacker's weapon on the MELEE WEAPONS TABLE in the EQUIPMENT chapter and read off its DAMAGE rating. Then add that DAMAGE rating to the 1D10 roll. For an unarmed melee attack, DAMAGE is 0. If the modified roll is higher than, or equal to, the target's ARMOR rating, the target is dead. If it is less, the target, well, isn't dead and can move and fight on as it could before. If you roll a natural (unmodified) 10 on the DAMAGE roll, the target is dead as well. And, if you roll a natural 1, the target not only isn't dead, but you also break your weapon and make it useless! Ain't that sweet? RANGED COMBAT This is almost as simple as melee combat, but for a few exceptions: The TO-HIT number depends on the range to the target, so get out your ruler and measure the distance between the attacker and his intended target. Weapon ranges are divided into Short and Long. The base TO-HIT number at Short range is 5, at Long range it is 8. The RANGED WEAPONS TABLE indicates how far each range group goes (in centimeters). Targets further away than Long range cannot be hit, wise guy. From here on, everything else is the same as melee combat. Use the same modifiers and those kinds of things. Wait, there's one more thing: the number of shots. With thrown weapons (spears, etc.), each little man has only as many as he can carry in his hands (most of the time, this is 2). So, a man with one spear can throw only once before he must pick up a new spear. Bows are special: if a man is equipped with only a bow, he can fire once, and must pick up a new bow to shoot again. If he has a quiver with arrows, he has unlimited shots. Of course he needs a bow to shoot those arrows with. If a figure picks something up, it may not make an attack in that turn. Also, if a figure drops something it may not attack either. CHAPTER 5: Equipment -------------------- For sake of easiness (?) there are three kinds of equipment: Armor, Weapons, and Other. ARMOR This helps your LEGO knights survive a successful attack. An unarmored figure has an Armor rating of 5, but wearing armor increases this. The table below lists all types of armor currently available: ARMOR TABLE ARMOR BONUS POINTS COST BODY ARMOR* +2 10 HELMET +1 5 LEATHER ARMOR** +1 5 NO ARMOR +0 0 PLATE ARMOR*** +4 20 SHIELD +1 5 * = any man with a shield printed on his chest is assumed to wear body armor ** = any man wearing a cape on his chest (apron-like) has leather armor *** = any man with a metalic armor printed on his chest is assumed to wear plate armor WEAPONS Two types of weapons: melee and ranged. MELEE WEAPONS TABLE WEAPON DAMAGE TO-HIT POINTS Club* 1 -0 5 Halberd 4 -2 30 Hammer 2 -0 10 Lance** 2 +1 25 Lance*** 4 -1 25 Pitchfork 1 -1 10 Spear 2 -1 15 Sword 3 -1 20 * = anything the players agree on can be used as a club ** = if used by a foot soldier *** = if used from horseback or anything else that counts as mounted RANGED WEAPONS TABLE WEAPON DAMAGE TO-HIT SHORT LONG POINTS Bow 1 -1 0-20cm 21-60cm 60 Spear 1 -0 0-10cm 11-30cm 15 Note: the points value for melee weapons is: (Damage - To-Hit) x 5. For ranged weapons it is: ((Damage - To-Hit) x Long range) / 2. Minimum points cost is 5. Long range is three times Short range. OTHER This bit covers all the other equipment you can hang onto your "soldiers" and animals. OTHER ITEMS TABLE ITEM POINTS Arrow quiver 10 Horse cloth* 5 Saddle 5 Torch** 5 * = this is one of those cloths with heraldic devices all over it that you can hang over your horse. It provides the horse with 1 point of armor. ** = allows you to see where you're going at night. Also allows your enemy to see where you're going at night. It can be used as a club. CHAPTER 6: Animals ------------------ Or horses, mainly. A horse has the following stats: ARMOR COST DAMAGE MOVEMENT TO-HIT 7 25 0 25 9 Note: Basic points values for creatures are: 2 + (ARMOR + DAMAGE + MOVEMENT - TO-HIT) To ride a horse, you need a saddle. Without the saddle, you can only use a horse to pull a wagon. Horses don't attack by themselves, they only do so if someone is riding them. An attack on a horse without rider will make the horse flee away from the attacker on its next move. If someone is steering the horse (if it's pulling a cart, for instance, and someone is holding its reigns), the horse cannot attack, but also will not flee from an attacker. CHAPTER 7: Vehicles ------------------- There are not too many types of vehicles, but enough to warrant us paying some attention to them. All vehicles, in order to move, must be pulled or pushed by one or more soldiers or horses. Assume a vehicle needs one horse for every two wheels it's got. (A vehicle with two wheels needs one horse, four wheels means two horses, you get the picture.) Lacking horses, you can use men: four men are equal to one horse. (A vehicle with four wheels needs 16 men to pull/push it around.) If you have less than four men, tough luck but they're not strong enough to equal one horse. A vehicle moves at half the speed the pulling animals would. For every animal missing, quarter the speed. If there is nobody to pull it, the vehicle doesn't move (surprise!). If you mix horses and people, the whole assembly moves at the _lowest_ MOVEMENT rate -- usually that of the men. Example: a four-wheeled wagon is pulled by two horses. A horse has a MOVEMENT of 25, so the wagon moves 12.5cm per turn. If one of the horses gets killed (someone shoots it), the vehicle's speed is halved to about 4cm per turn. A bunch of soldiers now come along and push the wagon. There are four soldiers, who count as one horse. So the wagon can now move at a speed of 5cm per turn, because that's one-half the soldiers' MOVEMENT rating. If one of the men now gets shot, there are only three of them, which doesn't equal one horse. The wagon is now only pulled by the horse, so it's back to 4cm per turn. Attacks against vehicles are made as normal. Vehicles have an ARMOR rating like figures, but also have a STRUCTURE rating. For each attack that does damage, substract 1 from the vehicle's STRUCTURE. If it drops to 0, the vehicle is destroyed. A vehicle's points cost is based on a number of factors, as can be seen below. Any vehicle comes with an ARMOR rating of 10 and a STRUCTURE rating of 1, but additional ARMOR and STRUCTURE can be bought: Base cost: 75 For each figure that can sit in the vehicle: +5 For each wheel the vehicle has: +10 For every horse required to pull the vehicle: +10 For every ARMOR point over 10: +5 For every STRUCTURE point over 1: +25 This cost _does_not_ include soldiers, horses, weapons, etc. It's just the basic vehicle. Example: a vehicle with 4 wheels requires 2 horses to pull it. If you make the vehicle large enough that three men can sit inside it (or on the front bench or wherever, as long as it's not on top), the vehicle costs 75 +5x3 +10x4 +10x2 = 150 points. Note that boats aren't (yet) covered by these rules. Design your own rules for them if you want to (and mail me a copy if you do). CHAPTER 8: Buildings -------------------- Buildings are similar to vehicles, except that they can't move around. They have STRUCTURE ratings like vehicles do, but are difficult to damage due to their very high ARMOR rating. Even though a building may be made up out of multiple sections, the whole building is considered to have the same ARMOR and STRUCTURE ratings. Furthermore, buildings can consist of multiple levels: one level is some six blocks high (about 5.5 to 6 centimeters). Constructing buildings isn't difficult: just grab the parts you think you'll need from your LEGO collection and put something together. Points cost for buildings is based on the size of the baseplate onto which the building was made: take the number of dots on the baseplate and multiply it 5 and then by the number of levels the building has. Levels in this case means the highest number of levels the buildings reaches: a one-level building with just one tower of three levels high counts as being a three-level building. If you use multiple baseplates, each baseplate is treated as a separate building. Yes, this does mean you can construct the building cheaper if you use small baseplates with gaps inbetween. Any building has a base ARMOR of 15 and STRUCTURE of 20. To upgrade the building's ARMOR and STRUCTURE ratings you'll need to spend more points; other features also cost points, as can be seen on the next table. Any feature of a building adds either a set number of points or a number of percents of the base cost: Base cost: Base area x Levels x 5 For each additional door: +500 For each firing port: +50 For every ARMOR point over 10: +5% For every STRUCTURE point over 200: +1% Like with vehicles, this is the bare building without soldiers, weapons, or anything. A building is assumed to come with one door (of any type -- a drawbridge counts as a door). Example: if you take a 30x50 baseplate (I don't know if those exist, they're just handy figures :), and make a building of two levels high on it, the base cost will be 15000 points. If you want to give the building 10 firing ports, and an extra door, you'll spend 15000 +50x10 +500 = 16000. Upgrading armor to 20 adds 5x 5% of the _base_ cost, which is 5x 750 = 3750. The building would then cost 19750 points. Another example: if you want to construct this thing a bit cheaper, just use a number of small baseplates to get 30x50 outer edges. We'll assume all baseplates are identical, as are the things built onto them. If you use plates 4 dots wide, your surface area is 576 instead of 3000 dots, so the base cost would be 576 x5 x2 = 5760 instead of 15000. Adding the same features as above increases the building's points cost to 7200. ANTI-BUILDING WARFARE This is up to your imagination, but since most buildings will be castles, here are some guidelines and rules... To destroy a building, you'll need to attack it. This is done in the normal way, but will generally not be very effective: buildings have very good ARMOR and STRUCTURE ratings. If you do manage to reduce a building's STRUCTURE to 0, the building is destroyed. Either simply remove it from play, or break it up into large and small pieces and scatter those pieces in the area where the buildind stood. To destroy a building, you can use a battering ram. To get over a wall put a ladder against it. You can also use some sort of movable tower, which is bought as a vehicle: drive it up against the wall and step out onto the wall's top. Find the drawbridge or some other door and open it. Opening or closing any door means the figure in question can't make an attack in that turn; to open or close a drawbridge you need to find its winch mechanism and use at least one figure to operate it. OK, to lower the drawbridge you can also cut its wires -- you just can't close it anymore afterward. CHAPTER 9: Heavy Weapons ------------------------ These weapons are truly destructive if they hit, which they generally don't -- at least not when used against people. They use all normal stats for weapons, but cannot be carried by a single LEGO man. They are normally mounted on vehicles or buildings instead. HEAVY WEAPONS TABLE WEAPON DAMAGE TO-HIT SHORT LONG POINTS Ballista 8 +5 0-50cm 51-150cm 225 Battering ram 20 +8 -- -- 60 Catapult 15 +8 0-30 31-90cm 315