Feudal Patrol
Skirmish miniature gaming in the ancient, medieval, and fantasy periods
By John R. ‘Buck’ Surdu
(Sally 4th Ltd, 2020)
£36.00 for two sets of cards
Card-driven system
Keen readers will recall our review of Combat Patrol way back in WS&S 85 and of Albedo Combat Patrol in WS&S 105. This is the next adaptation of the core G.A.M.E.R. system (which is an acronym for Guts, Accuracy, Melee, Endurance, Reaction).
The initiative sequence is clever: units have a random number allocated through a dice roll. Once done, they are activated in sequence by means of the drawing of activation cards. This over-simplifies it a bit, but the randomness works. It forces the players to consider their moves carefully.
A second deck of action cards is the core of the game mechanics, with cards being full of information – and I do mean full. These cards provide you with everything needed to resolve combat, and pretty much everything else – modifiers, cover, target locator for foot or mounted figures, morale checks, movement speeds, etc. – in fact it’s quite impressive the amount of detail contained in one card.
Weapons have a ‘range’ (and rate of fire) or a ‘reach’ depending on whether they are missile or close-combat weapons. I particularly liked the ’reach’ element as this reflects the weapon as well as how easy it is to use in close combat. There are some introductory scenarios to get the feel for the system.
There are optional rules
