What this is

Aquila is a skirmish between two small companies who hit each other with metal. Nobody in it has hit points. Everything that happens to a man is worked out from what was done to him: how hard the blow was, what it was made of, what he was wearing, and what lies under the skin where it landed.

No hit points

A blow carries energy, measured in joules. It comes from the man who throws it (his muscle, his build and how well he knows the weapon) and from the weapon itself (its mass, its shape, its metal). Armour is met layer by layer, outermost first, and each layer is either cut through or holds; a layer that holds still passes the force on as a blunt blow. Whatever gets through cuts skin, fat and muscle, opens vessels, cuts nerves, breaks bone and reaches the organs underneath.

A man is never worn down to zero. He stops fighting for a reason, and the game tells you which:

• he has lost too much blood, counted in millilitres;
• the shock and pain of his wounds overcome his will, and he drops senseless;
• his legs will no longer bear him;
• a blow reaches something he cannot live without;
• his nerve breaks and he runs.

A battle

Two companies of up to 8 meet on a field of hexes, fourteen across and ten deep, with brush, trees, boulders and a couple of low hills. You command one company; the game commands the other, which may be men armed by lot, a warband you pick, a copy of your own company, or beasts.

You choose and arm your men at the muster, stand them on your own edge of the field, and then the battle goes turn by turn. Each man in turn, in an order his quickness decides, spends his action points on walking, striking, turning, wrestling or holding back. It goes on until one side has nobody left willing or able to fight: every man dead, down, fled, running, or on the ground for good.

What the game keeps track of

• Bodies. Every man has a height, a weight, and so much muscle and fat. His strength comes from his muscle, and a heavier man is harder to shove off his feet. Beasts are built from the same plan at their own size.
• Kit. Weapons and armour of copper, bronze, iron, steel and silver, oak, leather and linen, each with its own mass, thickness and price. See Arms and armour.
• Skill and form. How well a man knows each art of arms: where his blows go, and how much of him is behind them. See The muster.
• Breath and time. Action points for each turn, and wind that walking and striking spend. See A turn.
• Distance and facing. Each weapon fights at a distance of its own, and a man is turned one way. See Measure and Moving and facing.
• Wounds. Blood lost and bleeding each round, pain, shock, and which parts of him still work. See Wounds.
• Nerve. Whether he will stand. See Nerve.

An alpha

The game plays from start to finish, but it is still being built. Its numbers move between builds, and a company you saved may be replaced by the default one when a new build cannot read it. Each battle stands alone: there is no campaign, and nothing that happens in one battle carries into the next. The other side decides one act at a time; it does not plan a turn ahead.

If something goes wrong, say which build it happened in; see Running it.