Rally round the king playtest impressions

Kicked the tires of Rally Round the King, a Fantasy Miniature Massed Battle Wargame, this evening. I was already familiar with the reaction system so a I jumped in with both feet and started running a campaign. The major players are Elves, Undead, Human, and Orc empires. The summer season of the first year of the campaign saw the Elves declaring war and invading the peaceful orcs O_o !! (This result is a good thing, displaying the unexpected results that can be generated with the system)

On the tabletop, I really enjoyed the fact that you're in control of your forces until they get into charge/missile range. Then all H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks breaks loose. In the end, most units were routed (The superior discipline of the elves winning the day over the greenskin numbers). The Orc leader was killed in the battle.

It's an easy to learn system, and has I think the least amount of charts of all the THW games. The combat flowed smoothly and I was uncertain of the end-results of the battle even after quite a few turns of the center melee going on. This is a good thing, when you consider deployment and army lists will determine the winner of a WHFB game well before it is ended.

All in all, a very enthousiastic thumbs up on the system. Now if you'll excuse me, the Orc empire without a strong leader has fragmented into civil war, and I can't wait to see what happens next. :)