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HAMMER OF THE SCOTS
Note - These are the changes from version 1.0 to version 1.2 of the rules:
Page 2, sidebar. English King moves "3"
Page 5, rule 5.5 (Regrouping). "When a battle ends, the Victor may REGROUP,
meaning he can, at the instant of Victory, move any/all blocks in the victory
area to any adjacent area that is FRIENDLY or NEUTRAL".
Page 6, rule 7.21 (Scottish Levy). "Instead of adding steps to existing blocks,
the Scottish player may draw (face down) ONE (1) new block per available step
from his Replacement Pool and deploy it in the same location."
Page 6, below left column, NOTE: if the NORSE block is drawn for an inland area
like Badenoch or Lanark, deploy it in any adjacent coastal area instead.
Page 6, rule 8.1 (Decisive Victory). "For the English player, Moray must
be dead. For the Scottish player, Moray may be alive or dead."
Page 7, rule 9.13 (Deployment). NOTE: Edward I is only in play when drawn from
the Replacement Pool. Historically he was in Flanders in 1297.
(2.26 and 4.6) Norse Block
Q. Please clarify the rules concerning the Norse Block.
The Norse block is part of the Scottish replacement pool at the start of the game
(either scenario). It enters play if drawn and placed in an area using the replacement
points in that area (ie. It can arrive at 1, 2, or 3 steps).
The Norse block requires a separate move from other Scottish units costing one
whole movement point to move the unit. The unit has a move of 2 areas. It can
be thought of as one move out onto the sea and a second move to any coastal area
(except England).
In combat, the Norse block can fight with other units in the same area (whether
attacking or defending). If the Norse block is eliminate in combat or due to excess
units when winter arrives, it is permanently removed from play.
The Norse block can retreat/regroup to any FRIENDLY coastal area that is not embattled
(again think of it as move 1 to sea and 1 to land). The Norse block cannot retreat/regroup
to a NEUTRAL area.
(3.1) Cards
Q. Are the two cards used to determine play order available again to play in each
movement phase?
A. Yes. Once a movement card is played, it governs (1) who goes first in that
particular round, and then (2) how many group moves you have when your turn comes
around. Once movement is over, players decide which card they’d like to play
next and those two cards, once revealed, will govern the next round.
Q. The rule says deal five cards and plan your strategy ... does this mean that
all five cards are placed in order and then you must play them as laid out or
can you select each one in turn that you want to play?
A. The latter. You decide the order as each card is played.
(3.2) Events
Q. Once you play an event, do you have to follow through? For instance, we had
mutual events played, Victuals by the English and Pillage by the Scots. We assumed
the English went first, building up three blocks, as they win ties. At that point
the Scot realized the year would end, and he wasn't prepared for it: the only
noble he could build up with his Pillage event would convert to English right
after beefing it up since his home was occupied by an English infantry unit he
had meant to drive out on the next turn …
A. Yes, you have to follow through with events once played.
(3.2) The Herald Card
Q. Can I ask for a noble by name, even if I have no idea where he is?
A. Yes.
Q. Can I point to a region and say, "the noble in that region," even
if I have no idea if there's even a Noble there, nor who he might be if he is
there?
A. No. If you can’t name him, you can’t roll for him.
Q. When Herald is successfully used to take a noble with other blocks in the same
area, does this create a battle that is resolved before any other movement is
made?
A. Yes.
(3.2) The Pillage Card
Q. If I pillage a region that has a single enemy block that has only one step,
do I gain only one step as it's removed from the board (or converted, if a noble),
or do I gain two steps?A. You only get one step in your example: you only gain
the strength points that you rob.Q. What happens when a noble loses its last step
to a Pillage card? I played that it switched sides like in a battle, but I wasn't
sure.
A. You played it correctly.
Q. Are you allowed to use this event even if you cannot add the strength points
to your blocks, i.e. they are all at maximum strength?
A. Yes. In this case you receive nothing but the other player still loses steps.
Q. I have the English nobles Athol (3) and Mar (1) in the Athol territory. The
Scottish noble Angus (2) is in Mar. The English play the Pillage card against
the noble in Mar. What happens to the Scottish Angus noble? Does he become an
English noble at strength 1 in Mar?
A. Yes.
(3.2) The Sea Movement Card
Q. Can the English use a sea move card to move blocks in England to northern Scotland
or do they have to cross the border first?
A. The English can use the sea movement card to move blocks in England directly
to northern Scotland.
(4.2) Group Movement
Q. The rules state that any/all blocks may move to areas within their range subject
to border limits. Does this mean I can move, say, 3 blocks from Buchan south,
dropping one off at Angus, then another continues to Fife, and the third to Mar
for one movement point because they started in the same group?
A. Yes.
(4.31) Anglo-Scottish Border
Q. Explain the Anglo-Scottish border rules.
A. Blocks drawn as the English Feudal Levy are placed in England. These blocks
require more movement to cross the border than normal. It may be helpful to think
of each block in England as its own distinct group requiring a movement point
to cross the border.
(4.5) Pinning
Q. I have an area with two blocks. My opponent moves two blocks into the area
pinning my two. I play a move of 2. I move two additional blocks into the area
where myself and my opponent are and using the remaining move I move the ORIGINAL
two blocks away leaving two pinned behind. Is this legal?
A. No. The original blocks that are pinned must stay pinned; they cannot "swap"
the pin with other friendly blocks in a subsequent movement phase.
(5.0) Nobles in Battle
Q. Under 1.4 NOBLE HOME AREAS it states that nobles have a defensive advantage
in their home areas. What is the advantage? I couldn't find any mention of it
in the combat section?
A. Nobles in their home areas fire at B3 rather than B2. That information is included
in the sidebar table on p. 2.
Q. If I attack an enemy noble in his home area and kill him during the course
of battle, does he fight for me (at 1 strength I presume) at B3 or B2 for the
rest of that battle?
A. You presume correctly. B2.
(5.22) Combat Reserves
Q. The rules state that the main attacker is designated as all blocks entering
through a particular border. Does this mean that with 2 movement points, if I
move 2 groups through the same (obeying border limits) border, would BOTH moving
groups be considered one attack?
A. Yes.
Q. Exactly when are reserves revealed?
A. At the very beginning of the second battle round.
Q. Can reserves retreat before they commit to battle?
A. Reserves are forced to retreat if all other blocks have been eliminated in
the first battle round. Or they can choose to retreat at the beginning of the
second battle round.
Q. England moves first and invades a Scottish region containing a unit. The Scots
react by sending in reinforcements through the same area and border which the
English came in. Is this possible?
A. Yes.
Q. And are the Scots in reserve or do they participate in the first combat round?
A. The reinforcing Scots are placed in the reserve in this example.
(5.4) Retreats
Q. There is a rather cheap tactic that has reared its ugly head in recent games
I've played. The situation is that a force moves in to engage another force during
the last turn of the year, with no intention of fighting, but rather to retreat
through the attacked force into neutral (unoccupied) spaces behind the line to
convert those Nobles without a fight. The same tactic could be used to 'retreat'
one weak unit through a battle to cut off the defenders retreat path. Is this
legal or is it a loophole in the rules?
A. It’s legal and an intentional feature of the game. There were no "fronts"
in medieval warfare and the practice of slipping by and enemy army happened all
the time.
Q. When blocks retreat, may they split up at will and retreat to different areas
as long as they obey the per turn border movement rules?
A. Yes.
Q. The rules say you can't regroup across the Anglo-Scottish border, but say nothing
about retreating. Is it legal to retreat across the border? This doesn't feel
right given you can't regroup across it.
A. Yes, you can retreat freely across the English border as if it were any other
border (the red or black line governs).
(5.5) Regrouping
Q. Lennox & Steward move into Carrick from Lennox & Lanark respectively
to attack Bruce. Bruce wins the fight eliminating both attackers and thus converting
them to the Scottish cause. As far as regrouping is concerned, can Scottish blocks
move into the vacant Lennox/Lanark areas or is this precluded as both areas are
considered neutral and not friendly?
A. In the new 1.1 version of the rules, blocks are now allowed to regroup into
neutral areas after successful combat. The old rules prohibited it. The new ones
allow it.
Q. Can you regroup to only one adjacent area or can units split from the victory
area and move to adjacent friendly areas?
A. Blocks can split up and regroup in any manner they like subject to border limits.
(5.6) Border Raids
Q. When the Scots invade England, the English player has to remove 1 block at
the end of each turn. Can he (by choice or lack of) eliminate a noble? If yes,
I suppose he turns blue (the noble), right?
A. No. The English player can only choose to remove English infantry, archer,
knight, or (gasp!) Edward (which would, of course, prove disastrous).
Q. The rule states "While a Scots force controls England, the English player
is required to eliminate one block at the end of every Game turn. A "Game
Turn" is not explicitly defined in the rules. For 5.7 to work, each "Year"
seems to have 5 "Game Turns" (a Game Turn being both players' play of
1 card). Correct?
A. Correct.
Q. Can the English player eliminate a Noble to satisfy the raid attrition?
A. No.
(5.7) Celtic Unity
Q. Do Irish and Welsh infantry have to roll for defection only when they "enter
a battle" (the wording within the rules) or do they also have to roll for
a defection if they are attacked?A. Whenever those blocks are involved in combat
– whether they are attacked or do the attacking – they have to roll
for defection.
(6.3) Crowning a Scottish King
Q. How many times can the Scots crown a king?
A. Once. If the Scottish king block is eliminated, it stays eliminated and cannot
be revived by another crowning.
Q. If Bruce is crowned king, what happens to the Lord of Moray? He’s a Comyn
noble, so he presumably defects to the English, but the rules state he can never
be controlled by the English.
A. The Lord of Moray can never be controlled by the English. So he does not defect
to the English in the event that Bruce is crowned king.
Q. If nobles switch sides through crowning a Scottish King and are put in a position
where both English and Scottish pieces are present in a space, is there an immediate
battle? If so, who’s the attacker?
A. Yes. The defecting nobles are now the attackers. Combat occurs immediately
(just as if those nobles had defected as per the Herald card), although blocks
are free to retreat during their combat rounds.
Q. OK then, if there is a battle and the Scots defeat the nobles that switched
to the English, do those nobles immediately defect back to the Scots (enter their
reserve)? If so, I can see that one could invent "cheesy" tactics to
keep both Scottish factions on the Scottish side! Is there historical precedent
for something like this?
A. Yes. But "cheesy" is in the eye of the beholder. One way to keep
a close eye on nobles you don't quite trust is to put them in the middle of your
army and never let them out of your sight! If the Scottish player can set this
up and then crown his boy, then my hat's off to him. If you're wondering about
whether this is realistic, keep in mind that nobles did change allegiances quite
frequently. Combat to force a lone noble to reconsider his allegiances somewhat
abstracts what was really going on. Often, no battle at all was required. Just
staring down at the business end of a battle axe often was sufficient. To make
things easy, however, we just decide to let you dice it out. It might reflect
combat; it might reflect intimidation. Lost strength points in the process can
just as easily represent disillusioned troops who would rather go home than join
the other side as it could represent actually dead bodies.
(7.0) Replacements
Q. Define the replacement pool.
For the English the replacement pool at the start of the game includes all red
blocks except the Nobles and the two Infantry units given on the map. The English
king is in the replacement pool (ie he does not come to Scotland every year).
A. For the Scots the replacement pool at the start of the game includes all Infantry/Cavalry
units not given in the starting forces and the Norse block. The French are not
part of the replacement pool until later. The Scottish King is never in the replacement
pool.(7.2) Wintering with the Lord of Moray
Q. The rules state that the Scottish noble Moray does not have to return to his
home territory to winter. Can he return if he wants to during the 7.1 phase?
A. Yes.
Q. Moray is in Mar with Mar. There is an English infantry in Moray. It is the
end of the year. Due to the castle limit, I should choose to put back Moray in
Moray, but there is some unwanted guest and Moray cannot switch allegiance. On
the other hand, Mar has a castle limit of 1 but the rules states that when wintering
I cannot eliminate a noble. So what happens here?
A. The Moray block does not have to return to Moray at the end of the year. Accordingly,
it cannot be eliminated simply because the English are sitting in Moray. The block
can only be killed in battle or because there’s nowhere for the block to
winter. In this example, Mar stays because he’s a conventional noble. Moray
dies in this example because he can’t go home (being that it’s occupied
by the English) and can’t stay.
(7.2) Wintering with William Wallace
Q. Same kind of situation with Wallace: if Wallace is in an area over the castle
limit along with a friendly noble and Selkirk is held by English troops, Wallace
is eliminated and therefore removed from the game? If he cannot winter the man
leaves the rebellion for good?
A. Yes.
Q. When Wallace winters in Selkirk forest and gets the two replacement steps we
played he could use them to build Scottish infantry. Is this correct?
A. No. The builds in Selkirk can only go toward building up the Wallace block.
(7.2) Occupying Enemy Noble Areas
Q. Because English nobles go home for winter first does that mean that they cannot
control an area for purposes of making Scotish nobles switch sides? In order for
Scottish nobles to switch sides their home castle must be occupied by English
infantry, knights or archers, correct?
A. Correct.
Q. This is not true for the Scots as their nobles can stop the English nobles
from getting back to their castles, right?
A. Correct.
(7.2) Blocks Lost to Winter Restrictions
Q. For blocks that are permanently removed if eliminated (like Wallace and the
Norse), this only applies if eliminated during battle, right? If eliminated because
of wintering they would just go in the Replacement Pool, right?
A. No. Once eliminated for any reason, those blocks are permanently removed from
the game. Other regular blocks like Infantry, Cavalry and Archers are returned
to the replacement pool when eliminated (any which way).
Q. Once Hobelars they are removed for wintering (and without Edward, they can't
winter), are they permanently out of the game? And similarly for the Irish &
Welsh infantry if they are removed due to wintering (though in their case, they
can winter if they are in the right spots); are they permanently removed as well?
A. No. If the Hobelar block or the Irish or Welsh blocks are removed from the
board due to wintering restrictions, they are placed face-down off to the side
with the rest of the blocks out of play. They may then be drawn again in some
subsequent feudal levy. If they are eliminated in combat, however, they are permanently
removed from the game.
(7.2) Winter Builds
Q. How do the Scots add steps to existing blocks? Is the formula "New steps
= Castle Rating + 1 if a cathedral is present"?
A. Yes. Over the winter, the Scottish player checks all the areas he occupies
for their castle ratings. In each and every area with such a rating (most have
them), it equals the number of strength points (or "steps" if you prefer)
that you can add to your army in that area. If there’s a cathedral symbol
present, that another point the Scots can add to their army in that area. You
can either use those points to strengthen existing blocks, to bring in new blocks
to the area (1 point can bring in 1 block at 1 strength point), or any combination
you prefer. Remember, however, that there are "stacking limits" in areas
equal to the castle rating (again, add 1 to the stacking limit if there is a castle
present) during the winter. Accordingly, if you have 2 full-strength blocks in
a area with a castle rating of 2, you can’t use the builds you get from the
area during the winter because there’s no place for them to go.
Q. What about the English?
A. Same thing for the English player except (1) he gets no bonus for occupying
areas with cathedrals, and (2) he can NEVER add new blocks to the board via builds
in the winter.
(7.2) Scottish Builds in Moray
Q. If Moray opts not to go home and there is enough castle resources to supply
him where he is and his home territory is unoccupied by anyone else, can the Scots
use the two castle points in Moray to add new units there?
A. No.
(7.2) Scottish Builds in Comyn or Bruce Areas
Q. If the Scots control either Bruce or Comyn and the second home area for these
units are vacant, can the Scots build in those vacant home areas?
A. No.
(7.2) French Knight & Norse Block Builds
Q. The Norse unit was drawn in Badenoch. The 1.2 version of the rules say to place
it in an adjacent coastal area. Can it exceed the castle/cathedral limit if this
happens? What happens if the same thing occurs with the French knight blocks?
A. The Norse and French blocks can be redeployed irrespective of the stacking
limits in the area in question.
(7.2) French Knights Block
Q. Suppose the Scots have 8 nobles in 1303 and so add the French knights to the
draw pool. The Scots don't draw the French Knights and in the following year (1304)
but are then dropped down to 6 nobles. Is the French Knight block removed from
the draw pool for the next year? If so, would it be added back in when the Scots
are again at 8+ nobles?
A. Yes and yes.
Q. But if they get the French Knights into play they wouldn't be removed from
the game if the nobles under Scottish control drops below 8, would they?
A. No. Once the French knights are on the board, they stay there until they die.
Now, they could die by combat, or they could die because they lack a "wintering"
spot come of the end of the year .... But remember, once dead, they can't come
back again.
(7.3) English Wintering
Q. The rules state that English blocks can't remain in Scotland except under special
circumstances but say nothing about English blocks in England. Do they stay on
the board at the end of the year?
A. No. Unless Edward I decides to winter in England, that is.
Q. When the English use Edward I to winter in Scotland, his army still has to
obey the Castle Limit, right?
A. No. The castle limits don’t apply to the English in an area where Edward
I is spending the winter.(7.4) Edward and the English Feudal Levy
Q. .I assume that Edward starts off as a block in the Feudal Levy because I can't
see any
starting position for him.
A. Correct. If you draw him, you get him. If you don’t, you don’t.
Q. I do not understand the wintering for Edward I. Is he removed to England (and
thus to the levy pool) each year, unless the English player opts to winter him
in Scotland?
A. If the English player decides not to leave Edward I on the board over the winter,
his block is removed from the board and placed face-down with the rest of the
English blocks temporarily out of play. He can be drawn again during a subsequent
English Feudal Levy.
(9.0) Initial Deployment of English Nobles
Q. I assume that the Scottish nobles under English control begin the game in their
home territory and not in England.
A. Correct.
(9.0) Scenario Replacement Pools
Q. What exactly are the initial Replacement Pools? For the Braveheart scenerio,
I assume the Scottish pool includes all non-noble units not initially deployed,
except for the King and the French. For the English, I assume it is all non-noble
units not initially deployed. Is this correct?
A. Correct on both counts.
(9.1) 1297 Feudal Levy
Q. In the Braveheart Scenario under "English Deployment," the rules
state that England begins with a feudal levy of four (4) blocks for the first
year (1297). I presume this means that 4 blocks start the game in England. But
does it also mean that the English levy at the end of the Winter of 1297 is also
only 4 blocks?
A. No. The English begin the game with 4 randomly chosen blocks in England but
during the Winter the feudal levy is normal (draw half the English blocks currently
out of play with fractions rounded up).
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