Age of Fantasy Skirmish: First Game

These rules are free!

I ask you, fellow bloggers, do I need another skirmish set of rules? The answer is...yes! If you're like me, you are looking for that one set of rules that rises above the rest, is simple to play, and provides just the right amount of challenge without taking hours to play.

So what's the next possible rules set? Enter Age of Fantasy: Skirmish. It's part of the One Page Rules family, which consists of five sets of rules for big battles and skirmish battles of both fantasy and sci-fi, all free. As you probably guessed by the name, all the core rules are printed on one three column sheet. Basic special ability rules are printed on a second page with army specific special abilities on each army sheet. There's also an AI system for playing solo/cooperatively and a campaign system. All of this for FREE!? Yep. I advise you to drop what you're doing and go check it out!...Well, after you read my play through post below.

So first we need two armies. I decided to go with the classic orcs and dwarfs match up. I will be using the AI rules.

"Rally ho!"

Dwarfs (played by me):
Engineer (1) equipped with a rifle
Marksmen (3)
Iron Warrior (1)
120 points

"Orc smash!"

Orcs (played by the AI):
Boss (1)
Orcs (3)
Orc Archers (3)
125 points

My first attempt at a "DIY Caulk Battle Mat"

I was recently looking into buying a battle mat. Something I could roll up as space gets more limited it seems. I also wanted something that wouldn't break the bank. With a baby on the way this fall, both of these things had to come into consideration!

 That's when I found this awesome tutorial on how to make battle mats using canvas, caulk, and paints! Seemed like a project I could tackle rather inexpensively. Here's a quick look at how mine turned out...Not too shabby for around $10 worth of materials! Not to mention, I've got plans to make a whole bunch of different ones, including some smaller ones for my 10 mm and 15 mm figures.

Randomly placed figures and terrain!

 Another key factor was the size of my playing area. I have a beloved card table that I use for almost everything, from crafting to playing games on. While the ideal size for most of my games is 3'x3', my table is only 33" x 33". With a custom mat, it was as simple as measuring and snipping out the right size. :)

Painted to match my basing style.

Incoming!

 So there you have it. Cheap, durable, able to be stored, and looks halfway decent. Thanks for reading!