Greathelm: Micro Skirmish Kickstarter

Ein ziemlich außergewöhnliches Regelsystem wird gerade sehr erfolgreich bei Kickstarter finanziert.

GREATHELM

A micro-skirmish miniatures game of chivalric fantasy, featuring 12 Knights fighting in a paper-sized play area.

Welcome dear reader to the Kickstarter for Greathelm, a minimalist miniatures game of knightly combat that focuses on accessibility and dynamic gameplay. It was born from the one box wargame challenge that I created in 2024. The aim of this challenge was to create an entire game that could be played with miniatures from exactly 1 box/package or set. Greathelm was created using the Wargames Atlantic Age of Chivalry Foot Knights.  This one box is effectively a 4-player starter set for the game!

The objective of this Kickstarter is to help your friend Malev fund the 1st edition print run for Greathelm! The book will be a perfect bound soft cover book, of around 130 pages. There are several stretch goals to be unlocked, but the scope of the entire project is deliberately limited. I just want to deliver to you a very fun and compelling game system.

If you back at the core pledge level, then what you will get will be a signed copy of a softcover physical Greathelm book. Each pledge will also get instant access to the digital playtest version of the game to get playing ASAP! If promise that you already have models, and terrain available for you to play Greathelm right now.

• Greathelm rulebook
• 110+ pages. Perfect bound. (soft cover)
• Core and advanced rules, 50+ weapons, armor and equipment, 12 scenarios, progression play.

Gameplay overview

Greathelm is a tabletop miniatures agnostic skirmish game played with dice and hand-painted miniatures. Each miniature represents a ‘knight’, a heroic and heavily armored warrior ready for combat. In every game, you and your opponent each control a team of six knights who face off in intense, close-quarters fights. Rather than depicting an entire battlefield in the conventional standards of tables sized 2″x2″ to 4″x6″, Greathelm focuses on a much smaller play area. This represents strategic slices of a much larger battlefield—think of it as the camera zooming in on key moments that decide the course of a battle happening off-screen. The gameplay reflects pivotal moments like breaking through enemy lines, toppling castle gates, or seizing control of a siege weapon. Games are fast-paced, easy to learn, and deeply tactical.

The Play Area

Games of Greathelm are designed to be played within small play areas. The standard size for games is that of the commonly found paper in your home printer, no matter where you are in the world. Common sizes are US letter 8.5″x 11″ or A4 8.3″x 11.“ If you favor a more traditional approach, an alternative standard for games is a 12″x 12″. Pick one of the sizes to be your standard for all of your games. Physically playing on a piece of paper is the easiest way to start, but soon you’ll want your knights to battle on beautifully modeled 3d play areas!

Scenes

The play area represents a zoomed in view of a battlefield, where the most important action is taking place. In game terms, the play area is referred to as a ’scene‘. Scenarios can feature several scenes. Victory in one scene will move play to a new scene, progressing the narrative to the next pivotal moment or the battles’ climactic end.

Game components

These are the things you need to play:

• Play Area: 8.5″x11″ battlefield.
• Dice: About 10 six-sided dice per player for gameplay, and a set of polyhedral dice for rolling on different charts.
• Miniatures: 6 knights per player.
• Tokens: Markers for momentum, damage and other effects.
• Measurements: Measuring gauges or measuring tape marked in inches.

What miniatures do you bring?

Greathelm is written with consideration of how miniatures are collected. No matter what your miniature knights are made of, or where they come from, you can bring them to the battlefield. There’s no need to stress over list building—each player only fields six knights! Creating your list is simple: grab 6 models and identify the weapons they are holding. This will dictate what they use in game.

Damage Limit

Valiant as they may be, each knight has their limit. Each time your knight suffers damage, place a damage marker on them. When a knight has accumulated 3 damage, they are removed from the play area.

What you see is what you get!

The details of this game are built on the classic foundation of “what you see is what you get.” The weapons represented on the actual miniatureare what the miniature will use in the game.

Arming your knights

There are no point values assigned to different weapons or items. This makes it easy to jump into the game—either by using miniatures you already own and matching them to in-game equipment, or by creating entirely new miniatures based on your own unique vision.

The Armory

Before deploying your knights, they visit the armory to equip themselves for battle. The armory contains all of the weapons, armor and items that knights may equip. The restrictions on what you may equip will be listed in the appropriate equipment list.

Knights may leave the armory equipped with:

• A set of Armor and…
• Any one handed weapon, a shield and an item.

or

• Any two handed weapon and an item.

Determine Initiative

The initiative roll establishes a strict flow of action for the upcoming round. The number of dice you roll is always 1 plus the number of knights currently under your control, to a minimum of 3 dice. After the dice are rolled, organize them into rows of matching numbers, ordering from highest to lowest. If you and your opponent both roll 6s, then the player with the most 6s decides who will activate a knight first in this turn. Otherwise, if only one player has 6’s, they must activate a knight first.

Initiative ties

If players are tied with 6’s, then the player with the most 5’s will decide who activates first. If there is still a tie, then the player with the most 4’s will decide, etc… Continue as necessary to find out which player decides who activates first for the round.

Battle Phase

After initiative phase is complete, play progresses into the battle phase, where you and your opponent alternate taking turns spending initiative dice on actions.

Initiative steps

Initiative dice are spent in a strict order. The highest value die in play is the current initiative step. When all dice of the current initiative step are spent, the next highest die value in play immediately becomes the new initiative step.

Spending dice to perform actions

The player going first begins the round by spending one die from the current initiative step and setting it aside. They then choose one of their knights to perform the action associated with that die. After completing the action, play passes to their opponent. Continue alternating actions until all dice have been spent. A knight may perform multiple actions in a round, or none at all—there is no limit on the number of actions a single knight can take.

Adjusting dice

On your turn, instead of taking an action, you may choose to reduce the value of one of your current initiative dice by 1. Since each action is linked to a specific initiative step, adjusting a die can be a key tactical move to create opportunities with future actions.

Movement

Movement in Greathelm is pretty standard if you’re familiar with most table top miniatures games. All measurements are in inches.

In Greathelm, models cannot move through other models, whether friend or foe. The positioning and control of the small space is really important.

What is momentum?

Momentum represents knights’ speed, aggression, angle of attack, and footing. It is an important resource that you gain and spend continuously throughout the battle to add bonuses to actions.

You gain momentum…

• When you perform an action that grants momentum.
• Every time you win a clash.

Spending momentum

Attacking knights can spend their momentum to gain bonuses during clash tests. When performing an action that requires a clash test, and before rolling any dice, you can choose to spend any available momentum. For each momentum you spend, add +1 to the result of the dice roll. Defending knights cannot spend momentum to gain bonuses during clash tests.

Performing Clash tests

Certain actions require a clash test to resolve. A clash test is a roll-off between you and your opponent to see which of your knights wins a fight. The knight performing the action is the attacker, and their target is the defender.

• The attacker wins the clash by rolling equal to or higher than the defender’s die roll. The attacker gains momentum and applies the effect of the action.
• The defender wins the clash by rolling higher than the attacker’s die roll. The defender gains momentum and applies the effect of the chosen clash defense.

Clash test bonuses

Knights can improve their clash test results by gaining bonuses from various factors. These bonuses are added to the number rolled on the die to determine the final the total of the clash test. The knight with the highest total wins the clash. The maximum bonus a knight can have during any clash test is +6.

Defending in clash tests

Knights are trained to react to incoming attacks. Defending knights must choose their defense from the list below, before dice are rolled. The equipment a knight brings to battle can change the defenses available to them.

Dealing damage

Attack actions deal damage to knights as an effect. When the attacker wins the clash using an action that deals damage, the defender rolls on the armor table to see if they suffer the damage, or if their armor saves them from damage.

Damage limit

To apply damage from an attack, place one damage marker next to the knight for each point of damage it suffers. Damaged knights continue to act normally and are not otherwise affected. Knights have a damage limit of 3. If a knight accumulates 3 or more damage markers, they are immediately removed from the play area—representing the knight being too injured, exhausted, or demoralized to continue fighting.

Courage Phase

After all dice have been spent on actions, play progresses to the courage phase. The player whose knights have the most total damage takes all of their courage tests first. Every damaged knight that is in base contact with an enemy must take a courage test. If two players are tied for the most damage, the player with fewest remaining knights tests first. If still tied, the player with the fewest momentum tests first.

Courage test difficulty

• +1 for each allied knight removed from play.
• +1 for each damage marker on the knight taking the test.
• +1 for each allied gruesome marker.

Taking courage tests

After finding the total difficulty, roll a d6. You must roll equal to or higher than the difficulty to pass the test.

• If the knight passes, they remain on the battlefield.
• If the knight rolls a 6, regardless of modifiers, they remain on the battlefield.
• If the knight fails the courage test, they immediately flee the battlefield and are removed from play.
• You may choose for a knight to fail a courage test.

That’s a turn

That is the overview of an entire turn and pretty much all of the core rules for the game! If you’re read through that, congrats! You totally know how to play Greathelm now.

Stretch Goals

I have a lot of cool ideas and even cooler friends to help me achieve some really incredible things. All of the stretch goals are aimed at adding new content to the book, to make it even better, and to adding entirely new supplements and expansions like the Realm-campaign and the Solo mode framework!

Community

Thanks to the open ended playtest approach with Greathelm, there have been many incredible hobbyist all around the world that have already begun collecting and building knights, crafting awesome boards for game play, and imagining all sorts of additional game aids and unique things you can make for the game.

Quelle: Greathelm