Today I will be reviewing the dark age skirmish rules Ravenfeast, put out by Little Wars TV. I will be using the B&B rule review format which rates rules in 5 categories: Cost, Ease of play, Essence, Fun factor, and Bonus. In each category rules can score 1-3 points. 1 point being ok, 2 being good, 3 being great. If there is one exceptionally good or bad category it can score either a -1 or a 4 but this can only be scored once per review. This means that a score of 10 is average.
Cost: How much is it to get a decent game on the table?
Ravenfeast is one of the cheapest games to get into. With each player needing about a dozen models, and no elaborate terrain needed, you can run a game for 4 players for 100$ US Dollars. To make the deal even sweeter, the rules are free!! You can download the pdf at http://www.ravenfeast.com.
Score: 4
Ease of Play: Is it easy to learn, teach and remember?
With the rules being only 6 pages and including lots of intuitive mechanics, ravenfeast is very easy to jump in with. With 6 simple steps to a turn the game flows very easily. As a person who has run, and played in many games of Ravenfeast, I can attest to how easy it is for players to learn the rules.
Score: 3
Essence: Do the rules capture the ‘feel’ of the period?
Ravenfeast does a good job creating a narrative of a clash of warbands. It works great with period specific scenarios, such as village raids. Its only failing is the fact that it is fairly generic. A fight between Byzantines and Saracens would feel extremely similar to Vikings ransacking a Saxon village. This was a tradeoff the authors made in favor of simplicity. Overall the rules still perform well for Dark Age skirmishes.
Score: 2
Fun Factor: Is the game fun?
These rules are built to facilitate a fun game, and they succeed. The turns are structured in such a way that all players are engaged, and the combat keeps all players on edge, as everything hangs in the balance. The problem Ravenfeast has in this category is that it is extremely dependent on a good scenario to have an interesting game. Frankly, the scenarios in the rulebook are not that great. Stay tuned, because there may be some Ravenfeast scenarios coming out on this blog soon. In spite of the scenario issue, I have had lots of incredibly fun games.
Score: 2
Bonus: Is it worth it?
Absolutely, it’s a great experience, and its free!! Go download Ravenfeast, you’ve got nothing to lose.
Score: 3
Conclusion
The final score is 14 out of 16!! B&B highly recommends Ravenfeast, especially for new gamers.
Get Ravenfeast at http://www.ravenfeast.com
Check out these links for some great videos about Ravenfeast
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Until next time- Joshua, The Napoleon of the West
