Last night, my son and I played an introductory game of Nordic Weasel Games' Elf, Knyghte, Pyke and Sworde (EKPS). I've been impressed by various other Nordic Weasel systems (Shoot People in Space, Squad Hammer, etc.) and liked the sound of a game that catered to a slightly smaller warband size than Dragon Rampant. I always struggle with getting enough cavalry painted, so the idea of having units of as few as three horsemen was appealing.
We played a fairly simple straight-fight scenario, with four dwarfs, three musket-toting ladies, three zebra riders and a couple of individuals facing off against six orc archers, six orc light infantry, three hobgoblin wolf riders and another brace of characters.
The game played out pretty fast. We got a few things wrong - chiefly with the morale rules, where we initially failed to realise that a passed bravery test exempts you from further tests that turn. But we know now.
One thing I'd wondered was whether the move rates (5" for most infantry, 4" for orcs and dwarfs) would be a bit sluggish in 28mm. But the game proceeded at a fair crack, and running helped (extending those moves to 7.5" and 6", respectively, at the price of fatigue for most troop types). We played on 3' x 3', but I think those move rates would work find on a 6' x 4' table: there'd probably be a lot of running and exhaustion initially, before troops rest and slow down before engagement.
I really liked the way in which the game uses groups: they aren't bound to keep together but are at greater morale risk if they don't. The targeting rules for shooting worked very nicely too - individual figures matter more than in Saga or the Rampant series, so that units aren't just 'blobs'.
The Power Source system was a lot of fun (we just had Might, Luck and Leadership and only used the first of these), with lots of potential for heroic feats without unbalancing things: the ticking clock as Might points were exhausted by heroes surrounded by foes was exciting.
The different troop types were nicely differentiated too. In EKPS, you have set profiles (like HOTT or Frostgrave: Polearm, Missile, Great Weapon, Skirmisher, Shield, Fantastic, etc), but these combine with profiles for various creatures, which are in turn divided into sub-types (Ranker, Veteran, Armoured and so on). So you can build lots of different profiles through the combinations.
As an example, there are no profiles for lizardmen. But you could easily start with an armoured orc, hobgoblin or beastman and work from there to get a suitably tough and scaly set of stats.
We'll certainly play again soon. The PDF is packed with all kinds of delights (scenario generators, RPG elements, a "combat RPG" approach with a games master and plenty more), so we've only skimmed the surface so far.
For me, the game's a great incentive to paint up all kinds of interesting old miniatures of which I have too many for a SOBH warband but not enough for a Dragon Rampant retinue (without fiddly dependence on reduced-model counts) or Saga army. I'm thinking of Citadel preslotta dark elves, dwarfs, lizardmen and troglodytes, hobgoblins and Slann - and as mounted troops can have their mounts shot from under them, there's plenty of potential to use all those Citadel foot-and-mounted personalities from the golden age ...
