Bear Yourselves Valiantly – Look, Sarge, No Charts

This is the full cover (front and back) of BYV. Note how the art gracefully transitions from historical to fantasy as you wrap around the cover.

“If you bear yourselves valiantly you will obtain victory, honour and riches. If not, you will be ruthlessly butchered, or else led ignominiously captive into the hands of pitiless enemies.” -William the Conqueror, before the battle of Hastings, 1066

Bear Yourselves Valiantly is the fourth rule set to feature the Look, Sarge, No Charts!(TM) rule system. BYV features dynamic mechanics that allow the players to fight the battle, not the rules. In these rules “realism” is gained through simple mechanics that stress the players’ decision making. BYV provides period feel without pages of onerous charts or cumbersome rules.

… And best of all, there are NO CHART CARDS to detract from the fun, clutter the aesthetics of your table, or slow down the game.

Whether you are new to the Look, Sarge, No Charts!TM rule system or a fan, whether you are an aficionado of the period or a newcomer, when you play BYV, you will be challenged and excited.

Interesting features:

Features the Look, Sarge, No Charts Double Random TM activation mechanism to impose friction and drama in a seamless way.
Clever use of special six-sided dice to resolve rolls to close, rolls to stand, and melee in a way that facilitates play while adding the right touch of unpredictability.
Players command battle groups composed of multiple war bands. Typically a player will control 10 to 20 stands.
Good for head-to-head as well as multi-player gaming.
Equally suitable for historical, scenario-based games and fantasy games.
Includes a point system to make it easier to generate armies. This is not designed for tournament play, per se, but the point system does help game masters with scenario design.
Supported by the Look, Sarge, No Charts Yahoo group.
Designed with 10mm figures in mind for that massed battle aesthetic, but easily used for other scales of figures as well.

Purchase BYV at Wargames Vault.

Purchase a softcover version of BYV at On Military Matters.

Visit the Magister Militum Web page to see their new, exciting line of fantasy figures to accompany these rules!

Useful Downloads:

Some Pictures of BYV Games:

Below are some eye candy shots to BYV games in progress. Note that these pictures were not “prettied up” for the photos. This is what a BYV game looks like.

Some Pictures of Early Play Tests of the Rules:

Here you can see a big fight between a “brigade” of eagles and a “brigade” of skeleton lancers and chariots.	The high elf cavalry advances toward the bridge to fall on the rear of the forces of evil. This is a view from behind the evil lines. Note the Eureka Miniatures tree trolls at the right of the picture. These are really nice models.
This is a long shot of the entire battle. We were pretty happy with the overall look of the game. We developed a point system. This was not meant for tournament play as much as to help GM’s get a rough, first-order approximation when designing scenarios.	In the first play tests, we hadn’t decided on the values for all the stats or finalized the labels. That’s why you don’t see labels on the bases, yet. In these pictures, giants and humans are advancing toward dwarves.

Bear Yourselves Valiantly: Look, Sarge, No Charts: Fantasy, Ancients, and Mediaeval at Cold Wars 2013 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The scenario involved the forces of evil (skeletons, goblins, wargs, trolls, and other baddies) attempting to invade the elvish kingdom. Figures were a mix of repurposed Games Workshop Warmaster figures, Pendraken, and others. The players really enjoyed the rules and the game!


Also at Cold Wars 2013, James “Tank” Nickle ran a historical game using Bear Yourselves Valiantly. The game featured Romans vs. Carthaginians. All figures were Old Glory 10mm figures. The game was a narrow Carthaginian victory. Many of the players wanted to know when the rules would be available. Unfortunately, the rules won’t be available for at least a year.


Also at Historicon 2013, James “Tank” Nickle ran two historical game using Bear Yourselves Valiantly. The game featured Romans vs. Carthaginians. All figures were Old Glory 10mm figures. Tank even came up with a great way to handle rampage elephants.

Comment from one of the authors (Buck): We hope you enjoy the rules as much as we enjoyed developing them. I have always wanted to enjoy ancient gaming, but I never have. First, I don’t enjoy the the tournament mindset of evenly-pointed armies facing each other across a pool table. Second, the conventional wisdom is that ancient armies had little ability to maneuver once they were deployed. If that is true, then the game is really Yahtzi, and I’m known in many states for my poor die rolling. Some ancient rules allow modern-like maneuver. Others restrict you to moving straight ahead after the initial deployment. We have tried to strike a balance between these two camps. Enjoy!