Had two really good games last night, and we played with rosters. It worked sort of.
In my earlier post I mentioned Footsore were no longer printing the cards for Mortal Gods. This is a very real pain in the arse if you want to introduce the game to new players. Footsore are obviously thinking about covering this while they transition to Version 2 which I suspect will be card less, so they have posted up rosters that you can copy your unit stats onto and play that way.
Similarly they have produced a reasonably cheap pdfs of the various factions which includes the other elements that the cards cover: Wounds, Omens etc. It is possible to play without the cards - great!
Except the cards are cool and functional and the rosters as they stand are not very useful. Each roster sheet covers only three troop entries and that means a small Lochos (force) will need several A4 sized roster sheets. This is because the smallest Lochos will include two "Hero" types, and at least two Companion entries - a full strength and a single warrior version. Worse, the rosters can't be moved and must be on the table because this is where you put your damage die and activation stones. We tried to counter this by leaving activation stones and casualty dice with the models on table, and it was looking "rather cluttered". After trying it, I'm going to say in the current format, its a big NOPE from me.
How to fix it? Footsore need to think a bit more about the roster layout so they can get at least six units on a sheet just so there is only one on the table for each side because without it, practically and ergonomically the game isnt going to work on a 3ft playing area. Also rejig the currently available pdfs so they're all in one place, rules and card amendments.
There is another solution of course. The crazy thing is at the moment a single roster take up about the same space on table as a dozen cards. Let players print the cards themselves. Even better - print the recruitment cards two sided where there is a group and single model option. Similarly put the heavy Lochagos and Medium back to back on the same cards as you can't have both on table at the same time. I know this means work at Footsore that they have little or no capacity for because they are short on warm bodies and concentrating on new stuff, but at the moment the rosters are not really viable.
It's a bloody good game, but at the moment the practical barriers to entry are a problem that will put new casual players off.
Cheers
Thoughts in comments?
also trying out the auto link button so if the links work can you let me know or are they too generic??
